Abstract: An industrial truck, in particular a counterbalanced front-forklift truck, is provided which can be operated both manually and automatically and has a fork to handle pallets and loads located thereon. The forklift truck is equipped for automatic operation with a control system which can be brought into active connection with the vehicle drive system, the vehicle steering system, the vehicle braking system or the movement control system for the fork.

Abstract: A navigation system for an autonomous mobile robot within an environment which comprises coded signs at predetermined points comprising means for storing data regarding said environment, including data regarding the positions of said coded signs relative to the environment, passive vision systems for the image acquisition and automatic recognition of said coded signs, a computer for estimating its own position and orientation relative to one of said coded signs and to the environment, means for acquiring the location of target positions, means for planning a path to be covered within said environment to reach target positions, and means for controlling the robot motion based on the stored path data.

Abstract: An forklift system which provides for autonomous pallet loading through the use of a telecamera rigidly connected to a pair of fork prongs located on the forklift, wherein the telecamera is connected to an image acquisition and processing apparatus and a computer which controls and moves the pair of fork prongs. The movement of the fork prongs is based upon the input received into the computer in the form of a processed image from the image processing apparatus. The image processing apparatus creates a digital image which enables the computer to estimate the position and orientation of the framed pallet relative to the telecamera.