Abstract
There is provided a method for an autonomous vehicle to scan a load (105) at a location comprising receiving a lifting task including the location of the load (105) on a racking system, scanning a predefined space at the location with a light based scanning device mounted on the autonomous vehicle, processing data acquired from the scan to determine a distance between each end of the load (105), perpendicular to the autonomous vehicle, and a neighbouring load (502) in the racking system, and terminating the lifting task if it is determined that the distance is less than a predetermined distance.