IES86447B2 - Pallet-less automatic multilevel circular car parking system - Google Patents

Abstract

According to an embodiment of the present invention, the pallet-less automatic multilevel circular car parking system includes an integrated central car handling unit and a microcontroller unit, wherein said integrated central car handling unit comprises a collection-delivery rack to carry the car; an up-down platform to move the car vertically; and at least two circular platforms to rotate the car on its axis. Further, collection-delivery rack of the integrated central car handling unit can rotate simultaneously with vertical movement. The collection-delivery rack is attached to the up-down platform, wherein said up-down platform is guided on four guiding pillars to move up and down vertically. The top and bottom side of the four guiding pillars of up-down platform is fixed to the circular platforms to rotate it circularly. <Figure 2>

Description

Pallet-less Automatic Multilevel Circular Car Parking System Field of invention The present invention generally relates to an automatic multilevel circular car parking system, 5 more particularly an automatic multiprocessing unit for storing and retrieving the car in the multilevel circular car park system.

Conventionally, a multilevel car parking system is one of tire options to decongest muds and solve parking problems associated with the above and to maximize the car parking capacity by utilizing vertical space, rather than expand horizontally. According to this method, driving ramps are provided to drive the vehicle to each level of parking, it is found that the ramp eat up much parking area that no increase in parking capacity is possible. Further, this system requires lot of space for maneuvering of cars while parking and retrieving. Moreover, the car has to move slowly due to sloppy ramps and to search for vacant parking bay, thereby resulting in burning lots of fuel and polluting the ail . In addition, lots of time to be spend to find a vacant space and to park the car in available space. The car in the driving path should stop when somebody wants to take a car out from parked slot. In this scenario^ height of each level should be much higher than the car height to accommodate the movement of passenger and driver. This system has an associated amount of overhead that must be accommodated such as pathways, lighting and air ventilaLion system for passengers and drivers, and security personnel to avoid theft.

Background to the invention Recently, automatic multilevel parking systems arc developed and adopted to overcome the problem associated with conventional multilevel parking systems. In general, tills system consists of pallets in which the cars are parked at entry point. The pallet along with car is then placed on a slider powered by electrical motor and moves horizontally to nearest lift mechanism. Then the slider transfers the pallet with car to the lift and the lift moves vertically to take the pallet to the desired level. Further tlic pallet is again transfeired to another slider which takes the pallet to a designated spot and transfers the car to a desired slot, Tt has been observed that such systems not only require long time to park tlie car, but also huge space needed for parking. And such system requires motor powered sliders and guiding rails in each level for sliders moving horizontally. This complicated pallet handling system needs much man power for maintenance and initial cost will be high.

There is therefore a need for an automatic multilevel vehicle parking system that not only reduces the space to park a vehicle but also to have low maintenance and cost effective system. Such system should also be less cumbersome. economical, and be convenient to operate, Statement of invention The present invention is a pallet-less automatic multilevel circular car parking system includes an integrated central ear handling unit and a microcontroller unit, wherein said integrated central car handling unit comprises a collection-delivery rack to carry the car; an up-down platform to move the car vertically; and at least two circular pbtfoims to rotate the car on its axis. Further, collection-delivery rack of tlie integrated central car handling unit can rotate simultaneously with vertical movement. The collection-delivery rack is attached to the up-down platform, wherein said up-down platform is guided on four guiding pillars to move up and down vertically. The top and bottom side of the four guiding pillars of up-down platform is fixed to the circular platforms to rotate it circularly.

In an embodiment of the present invention, a method for storing and retrieving a cat1 using an integrated central car handling unit comprising of a collection-dclivciy rack, an up-down platform and at least two circular platforms, wherein said method comprising the steps for parking a car at wheel holding mechanism provided at parking bay of entry point, inserting the collection-delivery rack in the parking bay to lift the car from said parking bay, collecting said car with the lateral movement of said collection-delivery rack to said up-down platform, moving vertically and circularly said car to a vacant parking bay at multilevel car park structure with the vertical movement of said up-down platform and with the circular1 movement of said up-down platform and said circular platforms, delivering said car to a vacant parking bay with the lateral movement of said collection-delivery rack; and parking said car at said vacant parking bay. In an embodiment, a method to retrieve a ear from the parking bay, all the above steps is performed in reverse order.

The advantage of this method is that this system does not use pallets to handle the cars, So the process of returning and storing empty pallets is not presents in our system. This saves a lot of time and also avoids the need of annual maintenance of pallets. Another advantage of this system is that there is no moving parts needed in the parking structure as all the moving parts are limited to the central handling unit. This will make the maintenance easy.

Brief description of the drawings The invention will be mere clearly understood from tire following description of a prefer led 5 embodiment thereof which is given by way of example only with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which: Fig. 1 is a general view of multilevel circular parking system according the present invention, Fig. 2 shows the top-view of the multilevel circular parking system along with an integrated central car handling unit provided with one collection-delivery rack, Fig. 3 is a general mechanism of an integrated central car handling unit, Fig. 4 is a mechanism devised for wheeled circular platform, Fig, 5 is a yet another mechanism devised for wheeled circular platform, Fig. 6 is a mechanism devised for lifting the car, Fig. 7 is a mechanism devised for lowering the car.

Fig, 8 is a side view of the integrated central car handling unit showing tlie mechanism for lifting the car upwards, Fig 9 is a lateral movement of the car, Fig 10 is a lowering movement of the car, Fig 11 is a lateral movement of collection-delivery rack, Fig. 12 is a top-view of the collection-delivery rack over the up-down platform, Fig. 13 is a top view of the collection-delivery rack over the up-down platform when moving laterally, Fig. 14 is a top view of tlie collection-delivery rack with wheel airesting mechanism engaged to 5 the wheel holding mechanism of a vacant parking bay, Fig. 15 shows front views of up-down platform and mechanism devised for vertical movement, Fig. 16 shows front views of up-down platform and another mechanism devised for vertical movement, and Fig. 17 shows the side view of up-down platform with collection-delivery rack and wheel arresting mechanism.

Detailed description Referring to the drawings there is illustrated multilevel circular parking system 100 according to invention, wherein Fig. 1 illustrates a general view 100 of multilevel circular parking system with a car shown; one at entry/exit point and die other cars at various parking levels of ear parking building, according to an embodiment. The car parking facilities in the parking system can be either above or below the ground level. In an embodiment, the ear entry and exit point can be at same place. In another embodiment, the car entry and exit point can be at different, place. The car entry/exit point has sufficient height to allow the people to access, whereas the entire ear parking bays has just sufficient height to accommodate the vehicle. The car is placed at the entry/exit point to park the car at the desired parking bay. At the cntry/cxit point, a parking token wending machine [not shown] is provided to collect parking token, and a P1R sensor [not shown] is provided to identify the presence of a person inside the parking bay.

Fig. 2 illustrates the top-view of the multilevel circular parking system along with an integrated central car handling unit 300 provided with one collection-delivery rack 202, according to an embodiment. The collection-delivery rack 202 can move simultaneously in circular and vertical direction, with the help of vertical movement of up-down platform 501 and circular movement of wheeled circular platforms 107[not shown]. The ear placed on the collection-delivery rack 202 can move simultaneously in circular direction and vertical direction from the entry point to reach to desired parking bay 301 and vice versa, according to an embodiment. After reaching to desired position, the col lection-delivery rack 202 is configured to move laterally in order to move the car from the central car handling unit 300 to the parking bay 301 and vice versa, as shown in Fig. 2.

Fig. 3 illustrates a general mechanism of an integrated central car handling unit 300, according to an embodiment. The up-down platform 501 includes a collection-delivery rack 202, a set of four sleeves 503, and four guiding pillars 106, wherein the up-down platform 501 is fitted with the four sleeves 503 on its side, which slides on the guiding pillars 106. The collection-delivery to rack 202 is attached to the up-down platform 501, and the up-down platform 501 is connected to the wheeled circular platforms 107 through the top and bottom end of guiding pillars 106 of the up-down platform 501.

In accordance with one embodiment, the central cat handling unit 300 comprises at least one collection-delivery rack 202, an up-down platform 501, and two wheeled circular platforms 107, The up-down platform 501 moves up and down vertically with the help of four guiding pillars 106 and rack & pinion mechanism [not shown] to carry the collection-delivery rack 202 along with the car, and the wheeled circular platforms 107 moves circularly on wheels 111 with the help ef a motor 110 which can control the circular movement of the wheeled circular platform 107. Guiding pillars 106 of up-down platfomi 501 is fixed on this circular moving wheeled circular platform 107, The collection-delivery rack 202 slides laterally, with the help of rope & pulley mechanism [not shown], in order to dclivcr/ccllcct the car. Accordingly, the collection-deli very rack 202 moves in vertically, circularly and laterally to dcliver/collcct the car at appropriate positions.

According to an embodiment, as ill us tinted in Fig. 6, the collection-delivery rack 202 equipped with a wheel arresting mechanism 203, a threaded rod 204, at least two jaekey means 205, and one reversible electric motor 206, wherein the collection-delivery rack 202 slides on sliding slot 403b (shown in Fig. 12) provided in the up-down platform 501 and to engage with sliding slot 403a (shewn in Fig, 12) provided in the parking bay 301, Accordingly, the car placed over the collection-delivery rack 202 can move laterally from the up-down platform 501 to the parking bay and vice versa. All the mechanism provided at tire parking bay area is same as that of provided at the parking hay of entry/exit point.

Different mechanisms of wheeled platform 400 can be used to facilitate the circular movement of the up-down platform 501, Fig. 4 and Fig, 5 illustrate the various embodiments of circular wheeled platforms that can be employed in this embodiment.

According to one embodiment, as shown hi Fig. 4, a circular base platform 102 is mounted with top platform 101 having wheels 104 on each side. To hold these two platforms together, a bearing shaft 103 is placed at the center. The movement of the wheels 104 is controlled by an electrical motor 105, Accordingly, wheels 104 rotation enables to rotate the top platform 101 in circular with respect to the base platform 102, and the base platform 102 remains in stationary. The four guiding pillars 106 of the up-town platform 50) arc placed on this wheeled circular platform 101.

According to another embodiment, as shown in Fig 5, a fixed base 109 and a wheeled circular platform 107 are connected by a bearing shaft 103. Wheels Hl are placed beneath the circular platform 107. A reversible electrical motor 110 with fitted brakes is attached to the fixed base 109 which controls the circular movement of the platform 107 with help of a gear 108. The four guiding pillars 106 are placed on the wheeled circular platfoim 107. Further, one wheeled circular platform 107 is connected at the top of the four guiding pillars 106 and another wheeled circular platform 107 is connected at the bottom of the four guiding pillars 106. in a preferred embodiment, the car placed on the collection-delivery rack 202 moves simultaneously in circular and vertical direction to reach to the desired/a vailable parking position according to instruction provided frum the micro controller unit. In another embodiment, tire car placed on the collection-delivery rack 202 moves in circular and vertical direction independently, thereby enabling the car to move from the entry point to parking bay position and vice versa without removing the ear from the collection-delivery rack 202. In yet another embodiment, die eat placed on the collection-deli very rack 202 moves in circular direction first to the position parallel to the parking bay and further moves in vertical direction to .30 the parking bay position and vice versa without removing the car from the collection-delivery rack 202. In yet another embodiment, the car placed on the collection-delivery rack 202 moves in vertical direction first to the position parallel to the parking bay position and further moves in circular direction to die parking bay position and vice versa without removing the car from the col lection-del iveiy rack 202.

Fig. 6 and Fig 7 illustrate the mechanism by which the car is lifted up and down on the wheel 5 arresting mechanism 203. according to an embodiment, hi tlie up-down platform 501, two reversible electric motors 70S are provided and attached with rope & policy mechanism 207, wherein the rope & pulley mechanism is connected with the collection-delivery rack 202.

Accordingly die collection-delivery rack 202 can move laterally when the electric motors 208 are operated to move the collection-delivery rack 202 from the up-down platform to the parking io bay. Aset of jackey s 205 together witli a threaded rod 204 and reversible electric motor 206, life the wheel arresting mechanism 203, on which the car is rested. The reversible electric motor 206 is operated in both directions cither to lift or lower the jakeys 205 depending upon the requirement of lifting or parking the car at parking bay 301.

Fig. 8, 9, 10 and 11 further illustrates the step by step procedure of the integrated central car1 handling unit 300 on how the car is lifted up, moved laterally and parked at the parking bay 301. As aforementioned, the collection-deli very rack 202 can move simultaneously in circular and vertical direction, with the help of vertical movement of up-down platform 501 and circular movement of wheeled circular platforms 107. The car 201 placed on the collection-delivery rack 202 can move simultaneously in circular direction and vertical direction from the entry point to reach to desired parking position and vice versa, according to an embodiment. After reaching to desired position, the collection-delivery rack 202 is configured to move laterally in order to move the car1 from die central car handling unit 300 to the parking bay 301 and vice versa. Now referring to Fig. 8 tlie side view 600 of the integrated central car handling unit 300 is shown and the mechanism for lifting the car along with wheel arresting mechanism 203 in collectiondelivery rack 202 is illustrated, according to an embodiment. Fig. 8 shows the first step of lifting the wheel arresting mechanism 203 along with the car 201 from the collection-delivery .rack 202 with the help of the set ofjaekeys that operates with a reversible electric motor. Fig 9 illustrates the lateral movement of the ear 201. The two reversible electric motors 208 slide the collection30 delivery rack 202 into tlie parking bay 301 with rope and pulley medianism 207, When the car 201 is positioned at the parking bay 301, the wheel arresting mechanism 203 is lowered to the collection-delivery rack 202 by lowering the jacks 205 which operate with the help of reversible electric motor 206, as illustrated in Fig, 10, As illustrated in Fig. 11, after the car 201 is parked. the wheel arresting mechanism 203 moves along with the collection-delivery rack 202 to slide laterally over the up-down platform 501. Reversible electric motors 208 placed on the up-down platform 501 are used to employ the rope and pulley mechanism 207 to move the collectiondelivery rack 202 towards the up-down platform 501, Now referring to Fig. 12, Fig. 13 and Fig. 14, it illustrates top view of wheel arresting mechanism 203 and various position of collection-delivery rack 202, according to an embodiment. The collection-delivery rack 202 slides on the sliding slots 403a and 403b provided on tiie parking bay 301 and up-down platform 501. Accordingly the collection-delivery rack 202 moves lrom tlie up-down platform 501 to the parking bay 301 and vice versa based on the need of parking or retrieving the car at parking bay 301, The Jackey means attached with die threaded red [not shown] is connected to the wheel arresting mechanism 203 provided in the collectiondelivery rack 202, wherein tire jackey means expands or contracts to push up or pull down the wheel arresting mechanism 203 when the threaded rod rotates in clockwise or anti-clockwise respectively. The rotation of the threaded rod is achieved with the help of a reversible electrical motor [with fitted brake] provided in the collection-delivery rack 202. Fig. 12 illustrates position of the collection-delivery rack 202 over the up-down platform 501, jackey means in contracted position and the wheel arresting mechanism 203 in lowered position. Fig. 13 illustrates position of the collection-delivery rack 202 over the up-down platform moving towards the parking bay 301. Fig. 14 illustrates top view of collection-delivery rack 202 with its wheel arresting mechanism 203 engaged to the wheel holding mechanism 302 of the parking bay 301.

The various mechanisms devised for vertical movement of the car 201 by which it can be raised to the desired parking bay 301 is illustrated in Fig. 15 and 16. The figures illustrate front views of up-down platform 501 with collection-delivery racks 202 carrying the car 201 with diem, according to an embodiment. The mechanism illustrated in Fig. 15, uses die screw-thread-rod mechanism 504 on either side of the up-down platform 501. Two reversible electrical motors 507 [with fitted brakes] and gear 505 are used to facilitate the vertical movement of the mechanism. The up-down platform 501, illustrated in Fig. 16, further includes a rack & pinion mechanism 601, 602, 603 and a reversible electrical motor [with fitted brakes], wherein said rack & pinion mechanism 601, 602, 603 enables the up-down platform 501 to move up and down, with the help of reversible electrical motor.

Fig. 17 further illustrates the side view of up-down platform 501 with collection-delivery rack 202 and wheel arresting mechanism 203, wherein the screw-tliread mechanism 504 is used and the car can be moved up or down on the sleeves 503 depending on the rotation of the screwthread-rod mechanism 504 which is operated with die help of reversible electric motor 507.

Operations of die system In an embodiment, a car driver parks his ear 201 and the parking brakes ale engaged at tlie parking bay provided at the entry point. The wheel of car is positioned over the wheel holding mechanism 302 of the parking bay 301, After parking the car 201, the car driver can collect his parking token from the token wending machine provided at the entry point. A microchip provided inside tlie token enables to store the details of the car and parking time, so that tlie same information can be retrieved at tlie time of collecting his car, and to identify the car and money required to deposit tor the car parking. A PIR sensor in the entry point is provided to identify tlie presence of a person, thereby enables to makes sure, no person in the parking bay before closes the shutter of parking bay.

The central car handling unit 300 aligns the collection-delivery rack 202 with parking bay 301 as illustrated in Fig. 12. Now referring to Fig. 12, the electrical motor attached to up-down platform 501 activates the rope & pulley mechanism 207 to push the col lection-deli very rack 202 to engage with sliding slot 403a in parking bay 301 and align with the car 201 at entry point. An electrical motor [with fitted brake] 206 rotates the threaded rod 204 of jackey means 205, thereby enabling to expand the jackey means and to lift the wheel arresting mechanism 203, which lifts up the wheel of parked car 201, re J easing the car from floor of parking bay and arrested on the wheel arresting mechanism 203 of collection-delivery rack 202. The electrical motor 208 attached to the up-down platform activates rope & pulley mechanism 207 and the whole collection-delivery rack 202 returns to tlie up-down platform 501.

The micro controller unit decides proper position of storagc/vacant parking bay with help of plurality of optical/lasei· sensors provided at various position of car parking building. Based on the identified storage / vacant parking bay, the micro controller unit controls the central handling unit 300 through the electrical motors 110 [with fitted brakes] and gear 108 on wheeled circular platform 107 for circular movement and alignment to the vacant parking bay 301 and through the electrical motors 507 [with fitted brakes] and gear 505 on up-down platform 501 for vertical alignment with respect to the identified position of storage/vacant parking bay 301. Accordingly, the car 201 placed on the collection-delivery rack 202 moves simultaneously in circular and vertical direction to reach io the identified storage/vacant parking bay, thereby enabling to reach io tlie identified storagc/vacant parking bay in a shortest distance and in shortest time.

After the col lection-deli very rack 202 perfectly aligns with vacant parking bay 301, the electrical motor 208 attached to up-down platform 501 activates rope & pulley mechanism 207 and pushes colleetion-dcliveiy rack 202 with car 201 on wheel arresting mechanism 203 towards the vacant parking bay 301. The set of jackeys 205 on die collection-delivery rack move downwards with the help of electrical motor 206[with fitted brake], thereby enabling to lower wheel arresting mechanism 203, so that the wheel of tlie parked car rested in the wheel holding mechanism 302 of the parking bays 301 as illustrated from Fig 6 to Fig 11. Wow the car is released Lo the floor of parking bay 301, The electrical motor 208 attached to up-down platform 501 with rope & pulley mechanism 207 pulls back the collection-delivery rack 202 to the updown platform 501, When the driver deposit the token in the token machine at exit point and pays tire money, the micro control tea* identifies the car and do the above procedure in reverse sequence to deliver the specific car to delivery bay at exit point. The gate of the cxiL point gets open when the central handling unit finishes the process and driver can collect the car.

Claims (5)

1. L A pallet-less automatic multiprocessing car storing and retrieving system for multilevel car park comprises an integrated central car handling unit 300 and a microcontroller unit, wherein said integrated central car handling unit 300 comprising: 5 at least one collection-delivery rack 202 to cany a car; at least one up-down platform 50) to move the car vertically; and at least two wheeled circular platforms 107 to move tlie car in a circular direction, thereby allows the car to move simultaneously in circular and vertical direction, wherein said collection-del iveiy rack 202 is configured to attach to said up-down 10 platform 501, wherein top and bottom end of the guiding pillars of 106 said up-down platform 501 is configured to attach to said wheeled circular platforms 107,

2. The automatic multiprocessing car storing and retrieving system of claim 1, wherein said collection-delivery rack 202 comprises of a wheel arresting mechanism 203, a threaded rod 204, at least two jackey means 205, and one reversible electrical motor with fitted 15 brake 206 for moving the said jackey 205, wherein said wheeled circular platform 107 comprises of one platform and one fixed base 109; plurality of wheels 111; and a reversible electrical motor with fitted brakes 110

3. The automatic multiprocessing car storing and retrieving system of claim 1, wherein said up-down platform 501 comprises of a set of four sleeves 503, two reversible electric 20 motors 208, a rope & pulley mechanism 207. wherein said reversible electrical motors 208 are configured to attach to said rope & pulley mechanism 207 and to engage said rope & pulley mechanism 207 to move said collection-delivery rack 202 laterally, a pair of screw-thread-rods 504 and two reversible electric motors 507 with fitted brakes wherein the said electrical motor 507 is configured to attach to said screw-thread-rods 25 504 and to engage the screw-mechanism 502 to move said up-down platform 501 vertically.

4. The automatic multiprocessing ear storing and retrieving system of claim 2, wherein said reversible electric motor 206 is configured to expand and contract the two said jackcys 205, wherein said movable jackeys move to HfVlower said wheel arresting mechanism 30 203 and to lifUpark the car 201 at a parking bay 301, wherein said wheels 111 arc configured to connect to both said fixed base 109 and the said circular platform 107, wherein said reversible electrical motor 110 is configured to engage said circular platform 107 to move said circular platform 107 in a circular direction.

5. A method for storing and retrieving a car 201 using an integrated centra! car handling unit 300 at multilevel car park structure, wherein said method comprising: parking a car 201 with brake engaged at whee! holding mechanism 302 provided at parking bay 301 of entry point; 5 inserting a collection-delivery rack 202 of said central car handling unit 300 in the parking bay 301 to lift the car 201 from said parking bay 301; collecting said cat' 201 with said collection-delivery rack 202 at up-down platform 501 of said central car handling unit 300; moving said car 201 to a vacant parking bay 301 at multilevel car park structure, wherein 10 said movement of car 201 is achieved by simultaneous circular and vertical movement of said collection-delivery rack 202; delivering said car 201 to said vacant parking bay 301 with the lateral movement of said collection-delivery rack 202; and parking said cat 201 at said vacant parking bay 301.