Control apparatus and method for motor vehicle parking system

A control apparatus for a motor vehicle parking system having a plurality of laterally moving pallets located on a ground-level floor, a plurality of lifting pallets located on an upper level column and whose number is at least one more than the number of the laterally moving pallets, and a driving unit installed on each of the pallets for supplying a driving force to shift move pallets, the control apparatus comprising:

• a manipulation unit having a pallet number selection unit selecting the number of the lifting pallet to be called for storage or retrieval, and outputting a corresponding pallet number signal when the pallet number is selected by the pallet number selection unit;
• operation status detecting unit installed on the lifting pallets and on the laterally moving pallets detecting the operation status of the pallets to output a detected operation status signal;
• a control unit storing pallet number data defined by the pallet number signal inputted from the manipulation unit and storing pallet operation status data defined by the pallet operation status signal inputted from the operation status detecting unit, the control unit outputting both a first drive signal driving the lifting pallet corresponding to the pallet number signal to move the lifting pallets up or down and a second drive signal driving the laterally moving pallets to provide a space for the lifting pallet to move down without a collision with the laterally moving pallets to the driving unit of the lifting pallet assigned by the pallet number signal and to the driving unit of the laterally moving pallets;
• respectively, said control unit controlling automatic resumption of a parking operation after recovering from a power failure;
• a direct current power supply unit supplying to the control unit a direct current power source;
• and
• a backup battery unit connected to the normal alternating current power source recharging with the direct current power source converted from the alternating current power source during normal operation and supplying a backup power source to the control means when the power failure occurs.

An automatic motor vehicle parking system, comprising:

• a plurality of laterally moving pallets;
• a plurality of vertically moving pallets;
• and
• a control unit controlling a parking operation including controlling said pluralities of laterally and vertically moving pallets, said control unit storing a parking state including a pallet identifier and an operation state of a pallet as operations are carried out, said control unit automatically resuming said parking operation, when power is restored after a failure, if said control unit determines that said parking operation can be resumed by comparing a current parking state of the parking system to said stored parking state of said parking operation.

A method to control motor vehicle parking system, comprising:

• storing a parking state of a parking operation of said parking system as said parking operation is being carried out;
• comparing a current parking state of said parking system with said stored parking state of said parking operation when power is restored after a failure;
• and
• automatically resuming said parking operation, after recovery from said power failure, if the comparing step determines that said parking operation can be resumed.