Systems and methods for a check / exception station

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9639668-B2
Application number	US-201514803009-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jul 17, 2015
Priority date	Jul 23, 2014
Publication date	May 2, 2017
Grant date	May 2, 2017

Abstract

A system comprising a holding area, a manual section, a distribution section, and at least one conveyor. The manual section may include a handling area enabled for pill counting, pharmacist verification, exception handling, or combinations thereof. The distribution section may be disposed proximate the handling area and the manual section, and may include a robot and a scanner. The at least one conveyor may enable transportation of a container between said distribution section and said manual section. The robot may be adapted to pick a container from the holding area and move the container to the scanner for scanning. The robot may also be further adapted to place the container onto the conveyor to direct the container to a handling area which is enabled for an action based on the scan.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A system comprising:
a holding area;
a manual section, wherein the manual section includes a plurality of handling areas each enabled for pill counting, pharmacist verification, exception handling, or combinations thereof;
a distribution section disposed proximate the manual section, the distribution section including a robot and a scanner, wherein the robot is adapted to pick a container from the holding area and to move the container to the scanner for scanning; and
at least one conveyor to enable transportation of a container between the distribution section and the manual section;
wherein the robot is further adapted to place the container onto the at least one conveyor to direct the container to a first handling area of the plurality of handling areas,
wherein at least one handling area of the plurality of handling areas includes an evaluation device, and
wherein the evaluation device configured to:
determine a second handling area being enabled for the determined action with respect to the container,
determine workloads of the first handling area and the second handling area; and
select a handling area from the first handling are and the second handling area with a lower workload to receive the container.

2. The system of claim 1 , further comprising:
a guiderail positioned so as to define a lane on the at least one conveyor,
wherein the lane leads to one of the plurality of handling areas.

3. The system of claim 1 , further comprising:
an additional conveyor to enable transportation of at least one container between the distribution section and the manual section;
wherein:
the at least one conveyor extends between the first handling area and the distribution section; and
the additional conveyor extends between the second handling area and the distribution section.

4. The system of claim 1 , further comprising:
a feed conveyor to feed containers to the plurality of holding areas, wherein the feed conveyor is reachable by the robot.

5. The system of claim 1 , wherein the evaluation device is configured to allow a pharmacist to enable the handling area for pill counting, pharmacist verification, exception handling, or combinations thereof.

6. The system of claim 1 , wherein at least one of the plurality of handling areas includes a pill counter.

7. The system of claim 1 , further comprising:
the distribution section is further configured to determine whether the scanned container requires exception handling and to generate a third command to send the scanned container to a third holding area of the plurality of holding areas associated with exception handling based on the determination,
wherein the robot is further adapted to place the container onto the at least one conveyor to direct the container to the third handling area based on receiving the third command from the distribution section.

8. The system of claim 1 , further comprising a processor configured to:
determine whether the scanned container requires pharmacist verification,
determine whether the scanned container requires pill counting,
generate a first command to send the scanned container to the first handling area of the plurality of handling areas associated with pharmacist verification based on the determination that the scanned container requires pharmacist verification, and
generate a second command to send the scanned container to the second handling area of the plurality of handling areas associated with pill counting based on the determination that the scanned container requires pill counting.

9. The system of claim 1 , wherein the evaluation device is configured to provide a pharmacist operating one of the plurality of handling areas with information relating to the container during evaluation.

10. The system of claim 9 wherein the distribution section is further configured to cause the evaluation device to provide the pharmacist with the information relating to the container being evaluated.

11. A method comprising:
enabling a plurality of handling areas for a plurality of available actions via an evaluation device, wherein the available action includes pill counting, pharmacist verification, and exception handling;
selecting a container from a holding area;
scanning the container via a scanner;
determining an action among the available actions to be taken with respect to the container by the evaluation device, wherein determining an action among the available actions includes determining whether the scanned container requires pharmacist verification, or the scanned container requires pill counting and generates a command based on the determination;
determining that a first handling area of the plurality of handling areas is enabled for the determined action with respect to the container by the evaluation device;
placing the container on a conveyor leading to the one of the plurality of handling areas;
determining by the evaluation device that a second handling area is enabled for the determined action with respect to the container;
determining workloads of the first handling area and the second handling area by the evaluation device; and
selecting the handling area with a lower workload to receive the container by the evaluation device.

12. The method of claim 11 , wherein when scanning of the container results in an unreadable label, further comprising:
flagging the container for an exception handling action based on the unreadable label.

13. The method of claim 11 , wherein determining the action among the available actions includes determining whether the scanned container require exception handling.

14. The method of claim 11 , further comprising:
performing the determined action to the container at the first handling area; and
transporting the container from the first handling area to the holding area once the determined action has been completed.

15. The method of claim 14 , further comprising:
providing information relating to the container to an evaluation device of the first handling area.

16. The method of claim 11 , further comprising:
picking a container from a holding area, via a robot, for scanning, wherein the robot places the container on the conveyor leading to the first handling area.

17. The method of claim 16 , further comprising:
performing the determined action to the container at the first handling area;
transporting the container from the first handling area to the robot once the determined action has been completed;
picking the container;
re-scanning the container;
determining whether any additional actions are to be taken with respect to the container;
when no additional actions are to be taken, placing the container on an outbound conveyor; and
where an additional action is to be taken, determining that one of the plurality of handling areas is enabled for the additional action with respect to the container and placing the container on a conveyor leading to the one of the plurality of handling areas.

Assignees

• Express Scripts Inc

Inventors

• Joplin Jonathan W

Classifications

• G06F19/3456 Primary

  Physics · mapped topic

• B25J9/0093

  co-operating with conveyor means · CPC title

• G05B15/02

  electric · CPC title

• G06F19/3475

  Physics · mapped topic

• G16Z99/00

  Subject matter not provided for in other main groups of this subclass · CPC title