Remote viewing apparatus for fork lift trucks

A fork lift truck including

• a mast assembly,
• a carriage assembly mounted for vertical movement in said mast assembly,
• a fork carriage mounted on said carriage assembly and including a pair of forks for supporting a load,
• means for raising and lowering said carriage assembly,
• camera means mounted near the plane of said forks for viewing the scene immediately in front of the forks at first and second predetermined locations relative to said forks, and
• a display terminal for presenting to an operator the image of the scene viewed by said camera means.

In a fork lift truck including

• a mast assembly,
• a carriage assembly mounted for vertical movement in said mast assembly,
• a pair of forks extending from said carriage assembly for supporting a load,
• means for raising and lowering said carriage assembly, and
• means for extending said forks in a horizontal direction away from said carriage assembly, the improvement comprising
• a camera mounted near the plane of said forks, said camera viewing the scene immediately in front of the forks,
• a display terminal for presenting to an operator the image of the scene viewed by the camera,
• first means for placing said camera at a first predetermined location below said forks when the forks are in a raised position and for raising the camera to a protected position when said forks are in their lowermost position, and
• second means for placing said camera at a second predetermined location relative to said forks when said forks are extended horizontally.

A fork lift truck including

• a mast assembly,
• a carriage assembly mounted for vertical movement in said mast assembly,
• a pair of forks extending from said carriage assembly for supporting a load,
• means for raising and lowering said carriage assembly,
• camera means mounted on said carriage assembly for viewing a scene immediately in front of said camera means, said camera means being aligned to define a horizontal plane through its center of view,
• means for locating said horizontal plane of said camera means a first predetermined distance below said forks when the forks are in a raised position,
• a video display for presenting to an operator the image of the scene viewed by the camera means along with said horizontal plane, and
• means for generating a reticle, including a visual representation of said horizontal plane, on said video display to assist the operator in vertically positioning said carriage assembly.