Automated guided vehicle control and organizing inventory items using stock keeping unit clusters

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11681982-B2
Application number	US-202117357996-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 25, 2021
Priority date	Jun 30, 2018
Publication date	Jun 20, 2023
Grant date	Jun 20, 2023

Abstract

A method determines a processing cluster including one or more stock keeping units (SKUs); divides the processing cluster into a first cluster and a second cluster based on SKU affinities between the one or more SKUs in the processing cluster; determines a first SKU of the first cluster to be replicated to the second cluster based on a demand correlation between the first SKU of the first cluster and a second SKU of the second cluster; replicates the first SKU of the first cluster to the second cluster; responsive to replicating the first SKU of the first cluster to the second cluster, determines whether the first cluster and the second cluster satisfy a defined constraint; and responsive to determining that the first cluster and the second cluster satisfy the defined constraint, assigns the first cluster to a first physical location and assigning the second cluster to a second physical location.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method comprising:
initializing a stock keeping unit (“SKU”) storing model of a storage facility, the SKU storing model including a first pick-cell station and a second pick-cell station at which one or more customer orders are fulfilled, the SKU storing model including one or more storage aisles;
determining, from SKUs associated with the storage facility, a first set of SKUs based on order volumes of one or more SKUs in the first set of SKUs;
dividing the first set of SKUs into a first cluster and a second cluster based on SKU affinities between the one or more SKUs in the first set of SKUs;
replicating a first SKU of the first cluster to the second cluster based on a demand correlation between the first SKU of the first cluster and a second SKU of the second cluster;
responsive to replicating the first SKU of the first cluster to the second cluster, determining the first cluster to be a first pick-cell cluster and determining the second cluster to be a second pick-cell cluster;
assigning the first pick-cell cluster to the first pick-cell station and assigning the second pick-cell cluster to the second pick-cell station in the SKU storing model;
clustering the SKUs associated with the storage facility into one or more aisle clusters;
assigning an aisle cluster to a corresponding storage aisle in the SKU storing model based on the aisle cluster, the first pick-cell cluster, and the second pick-cell cluster; and
instructing an automated guided vehicle to perform a task using the assignment of one or more of the aisle cluster, the first cluster, and the second cluster.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
receiving a customer order;
determining a first matching score between the customer order and the first pick-cell cluster of the first pick-cell station;
determining a second matching score between the customer order and the second pick-cell cluster of the second pick-cell station;
selecting, from the first pick-cell station and the second pick-cell station, a target pick-cell station based on the first matching score and the second matching score; and
assigning the customer order to the target pick-cell station to fulfill the customer order.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein assigning the aisle cluster to the corresponding storage aisle in the SKU storing model includes:
determining a matching score between the aisle cluster and the first pick-cell cluster;
determining that the matching score between the aisle cluster and the first pick-cell cluster satisfies a defined threshold matching score;
responsive to determining that the matching score between the aisle cluster and the first pick-cell cluster satisfies the defined threshold matching score, determining the corresponding storage aisle from the one or more storage aisles based on a relative distance between the corresponding storage aisle and the first pick-cell station; and
assigning the aisle cluster to the corresponding storage aisle in the SKU storing model.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the corresponding storage aisle includes one or more rack units, and the method includes:
clustering SKUs of the aisle cluster into one or more rack clusters; and
assigning a rack cluster to a corresponding rack unit of the corresponding storage aisle in the SKU storing model.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein assigning the rack cluster to the corresponding rack unit of the corresponding storage aisle in the SKU storing model includes:
determining a demand score for each rack cluster based on SKU velocities of SKUs in the rack cluster;
ranking the one or more rack clusters based on the demand scores of the one or more rack clusters; and
assigning the one or more rack clusters to the one or more rack units of the corresponding storage aisle based on ranking orders of the one or more rack clusters.

6. The method of claim 4 , wherein the corresponding rack unit of the corresponding storage aisle includes one or more mini-pallets, and the method includes:
clustering SKUs of the rack cluster into one or more mini-pallet clusters; and
assigning a mini-pallet cluster to a corresponding mini-pallet of the corresponding rack unit in the SKU storing model.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the SKU storing model includes a first storage aisle associated with a first aisle cluster and a second storage aisle associated with a second aisle cluster, and the method includes:
assigning a first customer order to the first pick-cell station, the first customer order including one or more first ordered SKUs;
assigning a second customer order to the first pick-cell station, the second customer order including one or more second ordered SKUs;
generating a SKU fulfillment set for the first pick-cell station, the SKU fulfillment set including the one or more first ordered SKUs of the first customer order and the one or more second ordered SKUs of the second customer order;
determining a first matching score between the SKU fulfillment set and the first aisle cluster of the first storage aisle;
determining a second matching score between the SKU fulfillment set and the second aisle cluster of the second storage aisle;
selecting, from the first storage aisle and the second storage aisle, a target storage aisle based on the first matching score and the second matching score;
generating a picking task associated with the target storage aisle, the picking task specifying the target storage aisle, the first pick-cell station, and a SKU picking list; and
instructing a picking-automated guided vehicle (picking-AGV) to perform the picking task.

8. The method of claim 7 , wherein the method further comprises:
determining a first picking workload of the first storage aisle; and
determining a second picking workload of the second storage aisle; and
selecting the target storage aisle includes selecting, from the first storage aisle and the second storage aisle, the target storage aisle based on the first picking workload of the first storage aisle and the second picking workload of the second storage aisle.

9. The method of claim 7 , further comprising:
determining one or more matching SKUs between the SKU picking list and a first rack cluster of a first rack unit in the target storage aisle;
determining one or more target mini-pallets in the first rack unit, the one or more target mini-pallets storing the one or more matching SKUs;
instructing the picking-AGV to stop at a stop position associated with the first rack unit; and
instructing the picking-AGV to retrieve the one or more target mini-pallets storing the one or more matching SKUs from the first rack unit during a stop at the stop position.

10. A system comprising:
one or more processors; and
a memory storing instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the system to:
initialize a stock keeping unit (“SKU”) storing model of a storage facility, the SKU storing model including a first pick-cell station and a second pick-cell station at which one or more customer orders are fulfilled, the SKU storing model including one or more storage aisles;
determine, from SKUs associated with the storage facility, a first set of SKUs based on order volumes of one or more SKUs in the first set of SKUs;
divide the first set of SKUs into a first cluster and a second cluster based on SKU affinities between the one or more SKUs in the first set of SKUs;
replicate a first SKU of the first cluster to the second cluster based on a demand correlation between the first SKU of the first cluster and a second SKU of the second cluster;
responsive to replicating the first SKU of the first cluster to the second cluster, determine the first cluster to

Assignees

• Staples Inc

Inventors

• Sikka Sandeep
• Verma Nitin
• Bhaskaran Michael

Classifications

• G06Q10/087 Primary

  Inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling, procurement or balancing against orders · CPC title

• G06Q10/08726

  for replenishment processing, procedures, or recommendations using forecasting or optimisation · CPC title

• G06Q10/08741

  by picking of items from inventory for fulfillment · CPC title

• G06Q10/08744 Primary

  by distributed inventory management · CPC title