METHOD OF REMOTELY CONTROLLING A MATERIALS HANDLING VEHICLE

• Main Authors: WELLMAN, Timothy A, JENSEN, Eric, POLLACK, Jay G, CRABILL, Monty, ZEILINGER, Todd A, KRAIMER, James V, DYKEMA, Kurt, DUCKWORTH, Paul
• Format: Patent
• Language: English; French; German
• Published: 12.07.2017
• Subjects: ARRANGEMENTS, SYSTEMS OR APPARATUS FOR CHECKING NOT PROVIDEDFOR ELSEWHERE; CHECKING-DEVICES; CONTROLLING; GENERATING RANDOM NUMBERS; HAULING; HOISTING; HOISTING, LIFTING, HAULING OR PUSHING, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDEDFOR, e.g. DEVICES WHICH APPLY A LIFTING OR PUSHING FORCEDIRECTLY TO THE SURFACE OF A LOAD; LIFTING; PERFORMING OPERATIONS; PHYSICS; REGISTERING OR INDICATING THE WORKING OF MACHINES; REGULATING; SIGNALLING; SYSTEMS FOR CONTROLLING OR REGULATING NON-ELECTRIC VARIABLES; TIME OR ATTENDANCE REGISTERS; TRANSMISSION SYSTEMS FOR MEASURED VALUES, CONTROL OR SIMILARSIGNALS; TRANSPORTING; VOTING OR LOTTERY APPARATUS

A method of synchronizing a transmitter and a receiver in a supplemental remote control system for materials handling vehicles comprises initiating a power on sequence to enable a materials handling vehicle for operation, the materials handling vehicle having a receiver for receiving wirelessly transmitted travel commands; entering a pairing mode to synchronize the receiver and a corresponding controller on the vehicle to a select one of a plurality of wireless remote control devices, wherein the select one of the wireless remote control devices is associated with an operator of the materials handling vehicle; receiving pairing mode confidence signals at the receiver of the vehicle, wherein each pairing mode confidence signal provides a transmitter identification that uniquely identifies a corresponding one of the plurality of wireless remote control devices within range of the receiver; displaying a list of all detected transmitter identification codes ordered by signal strength; matching a known transmitter identification code associated with the select one of the plurality of wireless remote control devices associated with the operator of the materials handling vehicle with a corresponding one of the pairing mode confidence signals received by the receiver; and synchronizing the select one of the plurality of wireless remote control devices associated with the operator to the receiver and the controller of the vehicle such that the materials handling vehicle acknowledges remote travel commands from the select one of the plurality of wireless remote control devices.