The present invention relates to a method and to an arrangement for avoiding injury to persons and damage to vehicles in vehicle parking buildings and also for preventing theft from vehicles parked in a parking building, said parking building being of the kind in which a driverless vehicle is moved automatically from a vehicle deposit module to a vehicle storage space and from a vehicle storage space to a vehicle collect module, by automatically controlled vehicle trans- portation devices, said modules including a first door or port for access to the modules from outside and a second door or port through which the transportation devices enter the modules from inside the parking building.

The present method and arrangement are intended for application in vehicle parking buildings, in particu¬ lar car parks, in which driverless cars are transport¬ ed horizontally and vertically from a storage space or parking space in a building without the car rolling on its wheels. Such building structures are previously known, for instance from Swedish Patent Specification Nos. 8605279-2, 8703756-0 and 8801396-6, and include a number of floors or stories each having a plurality of mutually adjacent vehicle parking spaces.

This is particularly advantageous when such parking buildings are completely unmanned or essentially unmanned. For instance, a person is able to drive his/her car into a vehicle deposit module and procure from an automatic ticket dispenser a parking ticket which contains time-data and possibly also information relating to the anticipated parking position of the vehicle in the parking building. Sensors are mounted

in each parking space and a computer is able to deter¬ mine where a vehicle shall be placed in the parking building, in response to signals received from the sensors, and automatically controls the vehicle trans- portation devices so as to move the vehicle into this particular parking space. When collecting the vehicle, the ticket is inserted into a reader and the computer instigates collection of the vehicle by the transpor¬ tation devices on the basis of the information on the ticket, such as to move the vehicle to the vehicle collect module. Payment can either be made in advance when procuring the ticket, or may be paid when col¬ lecting the vehicle, wherewith the computer instigates vehicle collection upon payment of the fee.

One problem with unmanned parking buildings is that of avoiding injury to persons within the building by the vehicles being transported or by the actual transpor¬ tation arrangement or in some other way. Since the parking building is not adapted to the presence of people, such injuries can easily occur. A related problem is one of avoiding damage to vehicles parked in a parking building as they are transported in the building, while a further problem is one of preventing theft from vehicles parked in the building.

One object of the present invention is to solve all of these problems.

According to the invention, this object is achieved with a method for avoiding injury to persons and damage to vehicles and also for preventing theft from vehicles parked in a parking building in which a driverless vehicle is moved by means of automatically controlled transportation devices from a vehicle deposit module to a vehicle storage space and from a vehicle storage space to a vehicle collect module respectively, wherein the modules include a first door or port through which access to the modules is had

from outside the modules and a second door or port through which the transportation devices enter said modules from inside the parking building, the method being characterized in that the first door is held closed when the second door is open, and vice versa; and in that the module is scanned by scanning means to detect the possible presence of persons in the module, prior to opening the second door.

According to one advantageous embodiment of the inven¬ tion, the position and state of the vehicle is checked prior to opening the second door of the delivery module, this state check being effected by photogra¬ phy.

According to the invention, an arrangement for carry¬ ing out the aforesaid method is characterized by means for automatically opening and closing the first and second doors; means for preventing the second door from opening when the first door is open; and means for detecting the presence of persons therein.

In one advantageous embodiment of this arrangement, the means for detecting the presence of persons are comprised of movement detectors, and the vehicle deposit module includes means for determining the position of a vehicle that has been driven into the module, said means including at least one camera.

An exemplifying embodiment of the invention will now be described with reference to the accompanying draw¬ ings, in which

Figure 1 is a schematic front view of a parking build- ing equipped with one embodiment of an inventive arrangement;

Figure 2 is a schematic perspective view of the vehi¬ cle deposit module in the parking building shown in Figure 1; and

Figure 3 shows the vehicle deposit module of Figure 2 from above.

Figure 1 illustrates a multi-storage vehicle parking building, more specifically a four-storey parking building comprising a framework of vertical beams 1 and horizontal beams 2 which are joined together in a disconnectable manner so as to form rows of compart¬ ments 3 for parking of vehicles V with free transpor¬ tation paths between said rows, so as to enable vehi- cles to be transported between different stories and along the rows of compartments. The system of beams is shown in broken lines in Figure 1. Each parking space or compartment 3 also includes pairs of ramps 4 on which a parked vehicle rests in the compartment. Transportation of vehicles to and from respective compartments 3 is effected by means of computer-con¬ trolled transportation carriages which, in response to a command from a controlling computer, collect vehi¬ cles that have been driven into a vehicle deposit module and transport these vehicles to an empty com¬ partment 3, or collect a parked vehicle from a com¬ partment 3 and transport the vehicle to a vehicle collect module, from which respective vehicles are collected by their respective drivers. The reader is referred to the earlier mentioned Swedish patent specifications for a more detailed description of the construction of the beam system and of the transporta¬ tion devices.

Thus, in a parking building of this kind, a vehicle cannot be driven away nor stolen unless the person or thief obtains access to the computer program that controls the transportation devices and the opening and closing of the doors of the vehicle deposit and

vehicle collect modules. Since all transportation of vehicles is carried out automatically, without the involvement of people, the building is not adapted for the presence of people therein, which makes it diffi- cult for people to move about within the building and also renders it difficult to steal from parked vehi¬ cles. The parking building also has a compact and confined structure, and consequently there is a seri¬ ous risk of people present in the building being injured by the transportation devices or by the trans¬ ported vehicles. It is therefore highly essential from a safety aspect to ensure that people cannot enter the building.

The only entrance to the interior of the parking building is through the vehicle deposit or vehicle collect modules, and the inventive arrangement ensures that the module doors or ports to the interior of the building will not be opened whole a person is present in said module.

A preferred embodiment of a vehicle deposit module according to the invention will now be described with reference to Figures 1-3.

Entrance to the vehicle deposit module 5 and entrance from outside the building to the vehicle collect module 6 from the building is obtained through respec¬ tive doors 7 and 8, which in the illustrated case are comprised of folding ports or doors which comprise four sections or panels, while access to the interior of the parking building from the modules is obtained through roll-up doors, for instance textile-type doors, of which only the roll-up door 9 of the vehicle deposit module 5 is shown in the Figures.

The vehicle deposit module 5 also includes an instruc¬ tion board 10 which informs the driver of a vehicle how the vehicle should be driven into the vehicle

deposit module. This module may be of the same kind as that used in certain types of automatic car-washing systems which are provided with photocells 11 which indicate the position of the front wheels of the vehicle in the longitudinal direction of the module, supplemented with photocells 12 which indicate the lateral position of the vehicle. The vehicle deposit module is also equipped with cameras 13 which take video pictures of the vehicle from obliquely in front of the vehicle and obliquely from above and which are mounted on the wall that supports the roll-up door 9. Finally, the vehicle deposit module also includes an arrangement of movement detectors 14 , for instance infrared sensors of the kind used in burglar alarm systems.

The inventive method will now be described with refer¬ ence to the various procedural steps that are followed when parking a vehicle in a parking building construc- ted in accordance with Figures 1-3.

At the start of the parking procedure, all doors in the vehicle deposit and the vehicle collect modules are closed. When a vehicle approaches the vehicle deposit module, the approach of the vehicle is detect¬ ed by means of a ground-mounted inductive loop and the computer by means of which the parking building is controlled produces a signal which activates opening of the folding door 7. The door 7 is thus opened by the time the vehicle reaches the vehicle deposit module and the driver is able to drive the vehicle into the module. The instruction board 10 constantly informs the driver how the vehicle shall be steered as it is driven into the module, so that the vehicle will be positioned therein as intended, which is extremely important in order to prevent the vehicle being dam¬ aged during its subsequent transportation within the parking building. When the vehicle has been positioned correctly in the module, which is established by the

photocells 11 and 12, which give the correct position of the vehicle in its longitudinal and lateral direc¬ tions, as previously mentioned, and no further driving instructions are presented on the instruction board 10, the driver leaves the vehicle, exits from the vehicle deposit module 5 and walks to a ticket dis¬ penser 15 placed outside the vehicle deposit module 5. As the driver presses a ticket issue button on the ticket dispenser, the computer orders the folding door 7 to be closed. Subsequent to closing the door 7, the movement detectors 14 are activated and sweep over the module 5 in order to ascertain whether or not a person or persons remains/remain in the module. At the same time, the position detectors check that the vehicle is still correctly positioned and that the vehicle doors are closed. If the driver or a passenger has left a door open, this is detected by the photocells 12 and if a door has actually been left open, a message to this effect is displayed on the ticket dispenser and the folding door 7 is reopened so that the driver or passenger can reenter the module 5 and close the door, whereafter the door 7 is closed and a further scan and position check is made after having the ticket-receive button on the ticket dispenser has again been pressed. If the scan and the position check fail to disclose the presence of a person in the module and show that the vehicle is correctly positioned, the ticket dis¬ penser issues a ticket. This ticket will contain at least time information, but may also contain informa- tion as to where the vehicle will be parked in the parking building.

The cameras 13 operate constantly from the time of opening the folding door 7 and take still pictures in colour. This enables the physical state of the vehicle to be checked prior to transporting the vehicle within the parking building, so that the client cannot later maintain that earlier damage to the vehicle has been sustained during the automatic transportation of the

vehicle within the parking building. These still pictures include time notations, which enable a vehi¬ cle and its positioning in the module to be identified subsequently with the aid of this information, should be driver of the vehicle lose his/her ticket or find it necessary for some reason or other to know where a particular vehicle can be found in the parking build¬ ing.

The issue of a ticket thus confirms that the vehicle is correctly positioned in the vehicle deposit module and that no person remains in the module, wherewith the computer orders the roll-up door 9 of the vehicle deposit module to be opened. When the door 9 has been opened, the vehicle is collected by the vehicle trans¬ portation devices in the parking building and is moved by these devices to a suitable parking space. It should be emphasized that the computer is programmed to keep the folding door 7 closed when the roll-up door 9 is open, and vice versa. Thus, when one door is open, the other door cannot be opened.

When a person wishes to collect his vehicle, he in¬ serts his ticket into a pay machine 16. The computer calculates the relevant parking fee on the basis of the time information on the ticket and displays this fee on the machine display. Upon receipt of payment, the computer orders the parked vehicle to be collected from its parking space in the parking building, said vehicle being identified with the aid of the informa¬ tion on the ticket. At the same time, the computer orders the roll-up door 9 of the vehicle collect module 6 to be opened, this door leading to the inte¬ rior of the parking building. The folding door 8 is still held closed. Subsequent to the transportation devices having collected the vehicle, the vehicle is placed in the vehicle collect module and the trans¬ portation devices exit from the module and the roll-up door of said module is closed, whereupon the folding

door 8 of said module is opened. The driver can now collect his vehicle. When the driver has collected his vehicle and has driven the vehicle out of the vehicle collect module, which is indicated with the aid of a ground-mounted induction loop, the folding door 8 is then also closed.

Subsequent to closing the folding door 8 of the vehi¬ cle collect module, the module is scanned by means of movement detectors in order to ascertain whether or not a person or persons remains or remain therein. If the movement detectors indicate that a person is present in the module, the computer is able to order the folding door 8 to be reopened for a sufficient length of time for any person, or persons, unwittingly present in the module, to leave the module. Alterna¬ tively, a button may be provided inside the module for enabling the folding door to be opened from within the module. After re-closing the folding door 8 of the vehicle collect module, the module is again scanned to establish whether or not it is empty. If this second scan reveals that a person still remains in the mod¬ ule, the computer initiates an alarm so as to draw the attention of the operator superintending the building to the fact that an unauthorized person is present in the module. In order to ensure that no unauthorized person can enter the parking building through the roll-up door of the vehicle collect module, the com¬ puter is programmed so that this door cannot be opened when the scan fails to show that the module is empty.

The computer which controls and supervises the parking building is preferably programmed to initiate an alarm in all situations when operation of the system is disturbed, for instance when a driver repeatedly fails to position his vehicle correctly in the vehicle deposit module.

In one variant of the invention, in addition to docu¬ menting the state of the vehicle and the vehicle registration number, the cameras 13 are also used to establish that no unauthorized person is present in the modules, by delivering the camera output signals to a picture analysis program in the computer which controls and supervises the parking building, which naturally means that the vehicle collect module will also be equipped with video cameras. One advantage afforded by this variant is that the state of the collected vehicle is documented and any unauthorized person in the modules has been photographed. When using cameras, it must be ensured that the cameras will also take pictures through the vehicle windows, and this variant of the invention thus requires the use of several cameras. It is also conceivable to provide mirrors, preferably metal mirrors, to increase the action range of the cameras by means of mirror images. Naturally, movement detectors of a type other than the types described can be used within the scope of the invention.

It will be understood that the described and illus¬ trated embodiments can be modified in many ways within the scope of the invention. For instance, the inven¬ tion can be applied in large parking buildings equipped with more vehicle deposit and vehicle collect modules without limitation and without changes to the system structure, solely by the vehicle deposit module into which the vehicle has been driven being identi¬ fied on the ticket. Furthermore, the components of the parking building, such as doors and position indica¬ tors, can be replaced with equivalent components of another kind. For instance, the cameras may also be used as position indicators when the computer is programmed for picture analysis. The invention is therefore only limited by the content of the following Claims.