Driven mechanism for a three dimensional vehicle parking system

A three dimensional parking system including a plurality of parking stations arranged in a vertical direction for receiving vehicles to be parked, the system comprising:

• a pair of lifts for supporting the vehicle, each of the lifts having a plurality of lift fork beams formed in a comb-like arrangement;
• a lift compartment disposed adjacent to the parking stations for enabling said lifts to vertically move among the parking stations;
• the parking stations including a plurality of energy charging devices and a plurality of platforms for carrying the vehicles, said platforms being horizontally movable between the parking stations and said lift compartment;
• each of said platforms including a plurality of drive wheels for allowing the platform to laterally move, a motor for driving said drive wheels, a controller for controlling said motor, an energy storage device, and a connector for connecting said energy storage device to said energy charging device when the platform is located in the parking station;
• each of said platforms further including a plurality of platform fork beams formed to pass between said lift fork beams of the pair of lifts, whereby a vehicle is transferred between the pair of lifts and a selected platform located in a predetermined stop position within the lift compartment, by the cooperation of said lift fork beams and platform fork beams;
• and
• detection means for determining whether said selected platform is exactly located in said predetermined stop position within the lift compartment, said detection means including front detector pair comprising a first detector disposed in a front end of each platform and a first counter element arranged in said lift compartment for facing said first detector of the platform located in said predetermined stop position, and rear detector pair comprising a second detector disposed in a rear end of each platform and a second counter element arranged in said lift compartment for facing said second detector of the platform located in said predetermined stop positions, whereby said controller controls said motor in response to signals transmitted from said first and second detectors.