Patent ID: 7151979

Claim:
A system for reading an RFIC associated with an item of inventory in a warehouse comprising: at least one material handling device having at least one member for use in transporting an item of inventory, said item of inventory having an RFIC associated therewith; at least one RFID reader coupled to the at least one material handling device for reading the RFIC associated with the item of inventory when the item of inventory is in proximity to the at least one material handling device; a computer processor in communication with the at least one RFID reader for receiving information from the RFID reader and transmitting information to the RFID reader; a position locating system for determining the position of the item of inventory in the warehouse, said position locating system for transmitting information to the at least one RFID reader and the computer processor, the position locating system comprising a plurality of RFID transmitters and at least one RFID receiver, the at least one RFID receiver is positioned on the at least one material handling device and the plurality of RFID transmitters are positioned at spaced locations throughout the warehouse, the computer processor includes programming for receiving and processing the signals transmitted by the plurality of RFID transmitters and received by the at least one RFID receiver and the programming is for calculating a position of the at least one RFID receiver on the at least one material handling device in the warehouse, the computer processor further includes a first computer processor positioned on the at least one material handling device and a second computer processor positioned in the warehouse, with the first computer processor including the programming for determining the position of the at least one RFID receiver on the at least one material handling device within the warehouse based upon the received and processed signals; and a location measurement device mounted on the at least one material handling device for determining the position of the at least one material handling device based upon the movement of the device, the first computer processor receives signals from the location measurement device, the position locating system, the at least one RFID reader, and the RFIC and the second computer processor includes programming for determining the position of the item of inventory and includes a database for storage of the position of the item of inventory, wherein the location measurement device determines the angle of the at least one RFID receiver relative to each of the plurality of RFID transmitters and the programming in the first computer processor is for calculating the position of the at least one RFID receiver and includes triangulation calculations that are in part dependent on the angle of the at least one RFID receiver relative to each of the plurality of RFID transmitters; and further comprising programming for correcting errors in the calculation.