Patent ID: 8561897

Claim:
A method for identifying and locating assets with one or more optical label readers, each label reader being mounted on a corresponding conveying vehicle at a known position and orientation relative to a center and a directional axis of the vehicle, each conveying vehicle having an optical image acquisition system mounted thereon for sensing position and rotational orientation within a facility having an array of position markers, each asset having a machine-readable encoded indicia of a predetermined size thereon, the method comprising the steps of: a) repeatedly determining the position of the center of the vehicle and the rotational orientation of the directional axis of the vehicle; b) acquiring images with the one or more label readers as each conveying vehicle moves about the facility; c) processing each image to determine if that image comprises a label having readable indicia; d) if the indicia is not readable, repeating steps b) and c); e) if the indicia is readable: 1) decoding the indicia to identify the asset; 2) determining a center of the indicia on the label; and 3) determining a location of the label center relative to the label reader based upon the position and the size of the indicia within the image; f) determining the position of the label within the facility using the location of the indicia relative to the label reader, the position and rotational orientation of the label reader relative to the center of the vehicle and the directional axis of the vehicle and the position of the center of the vehicle and directional axis of the vehicle within the facility; and g) storing the identity and the position of each readable label within the facility in a database, called a Label Map, in a memory in a computer.