Patent ID: 8452464

Claim:
A method of automatically applying a steer correction maneuver to a materials handling vehicle comprising: receiving first sensor data from at least one remote sensing device, by a controller on a materials handling vehicle, where the first received sensor data defines a first steer bumper zone that is proximate to the materials handling vehicle; receiving second sensor data from at least one remote sensing device, by the controller on the materials handling vehicle, where the second received sensor data defines a second steer bumper zone that is proximate to the materials handling vehicle; detecting by the controller whether an object is in at least one of the first and second steer bumper zones based upon the received sensor data; and performing a steer correction maneuver if the controller detects an object in one of the first or second steer bumper zones by: determining by the controller, whether a steer correction maneuver should be to the right or to the left of the traveling direction of the materials handling vehicle based upon the received sensor data defining the first and second steer bumper zones; performing a first steer correction maneuver if the controller determines that the object is to the left of the materials handling vehicle by: automatically steer correcting the vehicle to the right by a determined correction amount; accumulating the distance traveled by the materials handling vehicle while automatically steer correcting the vehicle to the right; and automatically counter steering the materials handling vehicle to the left by a determined counter steer amount for a percentage of the accumulated steer distance traveled; performing a second steer correction maneuver if the controller determines that the object is to the right of the materials handling vehicle by: automatically steer correcting the vehicle to the left by the determined amount; accumulating the distance traveled by the materials handling vehicle while automatically steer correcting the vehicle to the left; and automatically counter steering the materials handling vehicle to the right by the determined counter steer amount for a percentage of the accumulated steer distance traveled.