Logistics installation having shuttle carts for transporting parcels, and handheld units for identifying the parcels

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9486838-B2
Application number	US-201514896695-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 15, 2015
Priority date	Oct 13, 2014
Publication date	Nov 8, 2016
Grant date	Nov 8, 2016

Abstract

An installation for handling parcels, with independently self-propelled motor-driven shuttle carts, and a monitoring and control central unit that is suitable for individually and remotely controlling the shuttle carts to travel in freely guided manner on the basis of data indicating the instantaneous three-dimensional position of each shuttle cart, further includes at least one handheld electronic unit suitable for inputting information marked on a parcel and for transmitting said information to the central unit. The central unit is arranged to read the three-dimensional positions of the handheld unit and of the shuttle carts so as to associate said information with a certain shuttle cart, in a memory.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An installation for handling parcels, said installation comprising:
independently self-propelled motor-driven shuttle carts, each of which is adapted to transport a parcel,
a monitoring and control central unit that is suitable for individually and remotely controlling said shuttle carts to travel in freely guided manner on the basis of data indicating the instantaneous three-dimensional position of each shuttle cart, and
at least one handheld electronic unit suitable for inputting information marked on a parcel when it is in the vicinity of the parcel and for transmitting said information to said central unit,
wherein said central unit is configured to read an instantaneous three-dimensional position of said handheld unit in response to said information being input by said handheld unit, and in that said central unit is further configured so that, on the basis of said data indicating the instantaneous there-dimensional positions of the shuttle carts and on the basis of said instantaneous three-dimensional position of the handheld unit, said central unit detects a match between the instantaneous three-dimensional position of a certain shuttle cart and the instantaneous three-dimensional position of the handheld unit, and, in response to such a match being detected, puts said information associated with said parcel into correspondence with data associated with said certain shuttle cart.

2. An installation according to claim 1 , wherein said handheld unit is a bar code reader.

3. An installation according to claim 1 , wherein said handheld unit is a camera configured to form a digital image of the parcel that includes said information.

4. An installation according to claim 1 , wherein the parcels are postal parcels.

5. An installation according to claim 1 , wherein each parcel is placed on a trolley coupled to a shuttle cart.

6. An installation according to claim 1 , wherein said information is unique identification information that uniquely identifies a parcel.

7. An installation according to claim 1 , wherein said handheld unit is equipped with a three-dimensional positioning geotag.

8. An installation according to claim 4 , wherein the installation is configured to perform outward/inward sorting on postal parcels.

Assignees

• Solystic

Inventors

• Miette Emmanuel
• Chriol Luc

Classifications

• G06Q10/087

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

• B07C3/02 Primary

  Apparatus characterised by the means used for distribution · CPC title