Systems and methods for determining dynamic substitutions to minimize distance

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12547951-B2
Application number	US-202318241780-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 1, 2023
Priority date	Jan 25, 2021
Publication date	Feb 10, 2026
Grant date	Feb 10, 2026

Abstract

Disclosed are systems and methods for identifying an available product for an unavailable product to minimize a deviation or distance from an original planned pick path. A computer can transmit instructions corresponding to a path through a location where products are stored to collect a plurality of products stored at locations along the path. In response to receiving a notification for a particular product that the particular product is not at the location where it is stored, the computer can modify the path to include a location of a substitute product for the particular product. The computer can identify a substitute product for the particular product based on a distance from a location of the one more available products to a location along the path and determine a revised path with the substitute product. The path can be revised to include the location for the available product.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A computer-implemented method comprising:
transmitting, by a computer to an autonomous vehicle, instructions corresponding to a path for the autonomous vehicle to collect a plurality of products stored at a plurality of corresponding product storage locations along the path; in response to receiving a notification for a particular product of the plurality of products that the particular product is not at a corresponding first product storage location where the particular product is stored, modifying the path to include a corresponding second product storage location of a substitute product for the particular product, wherein the substitute product comprises a same product at the second product storage location separate from the first product storage location, the modifying including:
determining, using an acceptance algorithm, acceptance probability scores for a set of products in a product class of the particular product to identify one or more available products
identifying, by the computer, the substitute product for the particular product based on the product class of the particular product and a distance from each product storage location of the one more available products to an upcoming storage location along the path, wherein the computer identifies the substitute product by applying a weighted score to each available product of the one or more available products based on the acceptance probability score and the distance;
determining, by the computer, a revised path with the substitute product; and
transmitting, by the computer to the autonomous vehicle, instructions for the revised path to include the location for the available product.

2 . The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , further comprising:
generating, by the computer, the instructions for the path including a plurality of picking tasks, each of the picking tasks including the product identifier and a location for the product to be collected; and presenting, by the computer for display on an interface, one or more tasks of the plurality of tasks in sequential order based on the instructions for the path.

3 . The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , further comprising receiving, by the computer from a client application executing on the computer, the notification indicating a status of the product, a product identifier, and a location of the autonomous vehicle along the path.

4 . The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , further comprising:
receiving, by the computer from a third-party server, data indicative of an inventory; and determining, by the computer based on the data, the one or more available products based on the inventory.

5 . The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein dynamically determining the revised path further comprises selecting the available product that minimizes a length of the revised path.

6 . The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein dynamically determining the revised path further comprises adjusting, by the computer, the path to include the available product and the location as a task having a least distance from an unpicked product of the plurality of products along the path.

7 . A system comprising:
at least one processor configured to: transmit, to an autonomous vehicle, instructions corresponding to a path for the autonomous vehicle to collect a plurality of products stored at a plurality of corresponding product storage locations along the path; in response to receiving a notification for a particular product of the plurality of products that the particular product is not at a corresponding first product storage location where the particular product is stored, modify the path to include corresponding second product storage location of a substitute product for the particular product, wherein the substitute product comprises a same product at the second product storage location separate from the first product location, the modifying including:
determining, using an acceptance algorithm, acceptance probability scores for a set of products in a product class of the particular product to identify one or more available products:
identifying the substitute product for the particular product based on the product class of the particular product and a distance from each product storage location of the one more available products to an upcoming location along the path, wherein the computer identifies the substitute product by applying a weighted score to each available product of the one or more available products based on the acceptance probability score and the distance;
determining a revised path with the substitute product; and
transmitting, to the autonomous vehicle, instructions for the revised path to include the product storage location for the available product.

8 . The system of claim 7 , wherein the at least one processor is configured to:
generate the instructions for the path including a plurality of picking tasks, each of the picking tasks including a product identifier and the product storage location for the product to be collected; and present, for display on an interface, one or more tasks of the plurality of tasks in sequential order based on the instructions for the path.

9 . The system of claim 7 , wherein the at least one processor is configured to receive, from a client application executing on a computer, the notification indicating a status of the product, a product identifier, and a location of the autonomous vehicle along the path.

10 . The system of claim 7 , wherein the at least one processor is configured to determine, using an acceptance algorithm, acceptance probability scores for a set of products in a same product class to identify the one or more available products.

11 . The system of claim 7 , wherein the at least one processor is configured to select the available product that minimizes a length of the revised path.

12 . The system of claim 7 , wherein the at least one processor is configured to adjust the path to include the available product and the location as a task having a least distance from an unpicked product of the plurality of products along the path.

13 . A non-transitory computer readable medium storing instructions, which when executed by one or more processors cause the one or more processors to:
transmit, to an autonomous vehicle, instructions corresponding to a path for the autonomous vehicle to collect a plurality of products stored at a plurality of corresponding product storage locations along the path; in response to receiving a notification for a particular product of the plurality of products that the particular product is not at a corresponding product storage location where the particular product is stored, modify the path to include the product storage location of a substitute product for the particular product, wherein the substitute product comprises a same product at the second product storage location separate from the first product location, the modifying including:
determine, using an acceptance algorithm, acceptance probability scores for a set of products in a product class of the particular product to identify one or more available products;
identifying the substitute product for the particular product based on the product class of the particular product and a distance from each product storage location of the one more available products to an upcoming location along the path, wherein the computer identifies the substitute product by applying a weighted score to each available product of the one or more available products based on the acceptance probability score and the distance;
determining a rev

Assignees

• Ocado Innovation Ltd

Inventors

• Franey Catherine Jones
• Ivanov Nikita
• Deignan Timothy
• Choate Jeffrey

Classifications

• G06Q10/0875 Primary

  Itemisation or classification of parts, supplies or services, e.g. bill of materials · CPC title

• G06Q10/047 Primary

  Optimisation of routes or paths, e.g. travelling salesman problem · CPC title