To-go cubby unit

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11445845-B2
Application number	US-202016776056-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jan 29, 2020
Priority date	Jan 30, 2019
Publication date	Sep 20, 2022
Grant date	Sep 20, 2022

Abstract

A cubby unit includes a plurality of cubbies and a thermal management system. Each of the plurality of cubbies includes a cubby housing defining an internal compartment. The thermal management system is configured to facilitate thermally regulating at least one of (i) a food product selectively received within the internal compartment of at least one of the plurality of cubbies or (ii) the internal compartment of the at least one of the plurality of cubbies.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A cubby unit comprising:
a unit housing having a customer side and an employee side;
a plurality of cubbies disposed within the unit housing, each of the plurality of cubbies including:
a cubby housing having a front side and a rear side, the cubby housing defining an internal compartment between the front side and the rear side;
a customer door pivotally coupled to the front side of the cubby housing, the customer door facilitates accessing the internal compartment of the cubby housing from the front side of the cubby housing; and
an employee door pivotally coupled to the rear side of the cubby housing, the employee door facilitates accessing the internal compartment of the cubby housing from the rear side of the cubby housing;

a thermal management system configured to facilitate thermally regulating at least one of (i) a food product selectively received within the internal compartment of at least one of the plurality of cubbies or (ii) the internal compartment of the at least one of the plurality of cubbies;
a customer human-machine-interface positioned along the customer side of the unit housing; and
an employee human-machine-interface positioned along the employee side of the unit housing;
wherein the employee human-machine-interface provides a cubby selection interface that (i) indicates (a) which of the plurality of cubbies are occupied cubbies, (b) to which food orders the occupied cubies are associated, and (c) for how long each of the occupied cubbies has been occupied, (ii) indicates which of the plurality of cubies are unoccupied cubbies, and (iii) facilitates manual assignment of a respective cubby of the unoccupied cubbies to a respective food order; and
wherein an access credential associated with the respective food order is transmitted to a customer device associated with the respective food order in response to the manual assignment of the respective cubby to the respective food order via the employee human-machine-interface.

2. The cubby unit of claim 1 , wherein the customer door and the employee door are at least partially transparent such that each of the plurality of cubbies is see-through.

3. The cubby unit of claim 1 , wherein at least one of the plurality of cubbies includes an electronic locking mechanism positioned to facilitate selectively locking the customer door, but not the employee door, to the cubby housing thereof.

4. The cubby unit of claim 1 , wherein each of the plurality of cubbies includes a connector that facilitates at least one of (i) selectively, mechanically coupling the plurality of cubbies to each other, (ii) selectively, electrically coupling the plurality of cubbies to each other, (iii) selectively coupling a thermal element of each of the plurality of cubbies to each other, or (iv) transmitting data between each of the plurality of cubbies.

5. The cubby unit of claim 1 , wherein each of the plurality of cubbies is selectively removable from the unit housing, and wherein the cubby unit remains operational when one or more of the plurality of cubbies is removed from the unit housing.

6. The cubby unit of claim 1 , wherein the thermal management system includes a plurality of thermal elements, each of the plurality of thermal elements associated with at least one of (i) a respective one of the plurality of cubbies or (ii) a respective subset of the plurality of cubbies.

7. The cubby unit of claim 6 , wherein at least one of the plurality of cubbies does not have a thermal element associated therewith such that the at least one of the plurality of cubbies functions as an ambient temperature cubby.

8. The cubby unit of claim 6 , wherein each of the plurality of thermal elements is separate and independently controllable.

9. The cubby unit of claim 6 , further comprising a central driver coupled to and configured to thermally drive each of the plurality of thermal elements.

10. The cubby unit of claim 6 , wherein at least one of the plurality of cubbies includes a divider wall that separates the internal compartment of the at least one of the plurality of cubbies into a first sub-compartment and a second sub-compartment.

11. The cubby unit of claim 10 , wherein the plurality of thermal elements includes a dual-function thermal element positioned within the divider wall, the dual-function thermal element configured to facilitate heating the first sub-compartment and cooling the second sub-compartment, simultaneously.

12. The cubby unit of claim 10 , wherein the plurality of thermal elements includes (i) a first thermal element positioned to facilitate thermally regulating at least one of (a) a first food product selectively received within the first sub-compartment or (b) the first sub-compartment and (ii) a second thermal element positioned to facilitate thermally regulating at least one of (a) a second food product selectively received within the second sub-compartment or (b) the second sub-compartment.

13. The cubby unit of claim 6 , wherein the respective subset of the plurality of cubbies includes (i) a first cubby having a first cubby housing defining a first internal compartment and (ii) a second cubby having a second cubby housing defining a second internal compartment, wherein the plurality of thermal elements includes a dual-functioning thermal element positioned outside of and between walls of the first cubby housing and the second cubby housing, the dual-functioning thermal element configured to facilitate heating the first internal compartment and cooling the second internal compartment, simultaneously.

14. The cubby unit of claim 6 , wherein the plurality of thermal elements include at least one of heating elements or cooling elements, wherein the heating elements include at least one of a heating coil, a strip heater, a Peltier device, a resistive heating element, a radiant heating element, a tubular element or conduit that receives a heated working fluid, a blanket heating element, a heating element and a fan or blower, or an induction heating element, and wherein the cooling elements include at least one of cooling coils that receive a cooled working fluid, a thermoelectric cooler, a Peltier device, a solid-state refrigeration system, or a cooling element and a fan or blower.

15. The cubby unit of claim 6 , wherein at least one of the plurality of cubbies includes a display configured to provide an indication regarding at least one of (i) contents within the internal compartment the at least one of the plurality of cubbies or (ii) a customer associated with the contents, and wherein the at least one of the plurality of cubbies defines a recess having a thermal element positioned around walls of the recess such that recess functions as a temperature regulated cup holder.

16. The cubby unit of claim 1 , wherein the thermal management system includes an induction heating system associated with at least one of the plurality of cubbies, wherein the induction heating system is configured to heat food products within the internal compartment of the at least one of the plurality of cubbies having a first type of packaging, and wherein food products within the internal compartment of the at least one of the plurality of cubbies having a second type of packaging are not thermally regulated by the induction heating system.

17. A cubby unit comprising:
a plurality of cubbies, each of the plurality of cubbies including:
a housing defining an internal compartment, a first opening that facilitates accessing the internal compartment from a first side of the housing, and a second opening that facilitates access

Assignees

• Hatco Corp

Inventors

• Jakubowski James
• Wenzel Gerhard
• Ross Michael
• Bley Taylor
• Virgin Jim
• Bassill Nicholas

Classifications

• G07C9/00174

  Electronically operated locks; Circuits therefor; Nonmechanical keys therefor, e.g. passive or active electrical keys or other data carriers without mechanical keys (mechanical locks with electric permutation E05B49/00; arrangements for sensing or reading record carriers G06K7/00; electronic switching H03K17/00) · CPC title

• G06Q50/12

  Hotels or restaurants · CPC title

• A47G2029/145

  the receptacle comprising means for identifying a deposit; Deposits carrying identification means, e.g. a bar code · CPC title

• A47F10/06

  for restaurant service systems (table equipment A47G {; dirty crockery transport in association with crockery washing machines A47L15/00}) · CPC title

• G07F17/0078

  Food articles which need to be processed for dispensing in a hot or cooked condition, e.g. popcorn, nuts · CPC title