Patent ID: 8734078

Claim:
A vehicle parking system for automatically parking vehicles and accounting for vehicles within the system, the system comprising a garage structure having a receiving area and a vehicle parking area, the vehicle receiving area including at least one loading area wherein a vehicle is driven onto one of a plurality of automatically guided vehicles that are movable both horizontally and vertically to transport vehicles within the garage structure, the vehicle parking area including a plurality of columns of vertically spaced parking cubicles that are aligned in opposing rows and which are spaced by open spaced aisles, each of the parking cubicles being of at least a first height to receive a tray having a vehicle carried thereon, each automatically guided vehicle having first drive means for driving along horizontal surfaces and second drive means for driving vertically between the opposing rows within the vehicle parking area, each automatically guided vehicle having opposite sides and opposite ends, a plurality of transferable vehicle support trays for being carried on the automatically guided vehicles, each support tray having an upper platform of a size to support a vehicle thereon, transfer means carried by each automatically guided vehicle for selectively transferring a support tray having a vehicle supported thereon from either the opposite sides or opposite ends thereof into or from a parking cubicle, each column of the vertically spaced parking cubicles including a plurality of support tray storage spaces positioned vertically between the parking cubicles, each storage space being of a height which is smaller than the first height so as to cooperatively receive and store a single support tray therein, and wherein a depth of the parking cubicles from front to rear thereof is substantially equal to a width of an aisle between opposing rows of parking cubicles and either a length or width of the at least one automatically guided vehicle.