Automated order fulfillment system and method

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9950863-B2
Application number	US-201615052080-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Feb 24, 2016
Priority date	Feb 25, 2015
Publication date	Apr 24, 2018
Grant date	Apr 24, 2018

Abstract

An automated order fulfillment system and automated method for fulfilling orders includes a donor-handling system having at least two donor buffers and a recipient-handling system having at least one recipient buffer. An item-handling system includes a vision system and an item manipulator. The vision system has a field of view encompassing the at least two donor receptacle buffers. A control causes the vision system to scan items in a donor receptacle at one of the donor buffers to obtain a pick list of location data of items in the scanned donor receptacle. The control causes the manipulator to pick an item from a donor receptacle at the other of the donor buffers under guidance of the vision system and place the picked item to a recipient receptacle at the at least one recipient buffer using the location data of items in that donor receptacle.

First claim

The embodiments of the invention in which an exclusive property or privilege is claimed are defined as follows:

1. An automated order fulfillment system, comprising:
a donor-receptacle handling system having at least two donor buffers wherein said donor receptacle handling system comprises at least two donor conveying lines each having one of said at least two donor buffers;
a recipient-receptacle handling system having at least one recipient buffer;
an item-handling system comprising a vision system and an item manipulator;
said vision system having a field of view encompassing said at least two donor receptacle buffers;
a control causing said vision system to perform a process of scanning items in a donor receptacle at one of said at least two donor buffers to obtain a pick list of location data of items in the scanned donor receptacle that are to be picked based on the pick list;
said control causing said manipulator to perform another separate process of picking at least one item from another donor receptacle at the other of said at least two donor buffers under guidance of said vision system and place the picked item to a recipient receptacle at the at least one recipient buffer using the location data from the pick list of items in that donor receptacle; and
said control causing said vision system to perform the process of scanning items in the donor receptacle at said one of said at least two donor buffers overlapping in time with said control causing said manipulator perform the another separate process of picking at least one item from the another receptacle at the another of said at least two donor buffers under guidance of said vision system.

2. The automated order fulfillment system as claimed in claim 1 wherein the pick list includes the height of items that are visible to the vision system and the manipulator picks items from the pick list in sequence according to the height of the items.

3. The automated order fulfillment system as claimed in claim 1 wherein said vision system comprises at least one three-dimensional image capture device.

4. The automated order fulfillment system as claimed in claim 3 wherein said at least one three-dimensional image capture device comprises at least two three-dimensional image capture devices.

5. The automated order fulfillment system as claimed in claim 1 wherein said control causes said vision system to scan items of the another donor receptacle at the another of said at least two donor buffers from which the manipulator is picking items to provide a new pick list if there are items remaining in the donor receptacle after the original pick list is fully picked.

6. The automated order fulfillment system as claimed in claim 1 wherein said at least one recipient buffer is at a different elevation than said at least two donor buffers.

7. The automated order fulfillment system as claimed in claim 6 wherein said at least one recipient buffer is subjacent said at least two donor buffers.

8. The automated order fulfillment system as claimed in claim 6 wherein said at least two donor buffers are at different elevations from each other and said at least one recipient buffer is at an intermediate elevation between the elevations of said at least two donor buffers.

9. The automated order fulfillment system as claimed in claim 1 wherein said item manipulator comprises a robot arm with an end-of-arm item-grasping tool.

10. The automated order fulfillment system as claimed in claim 1 wherein said at least one recipient buffer comprises a plurality of generally parallel recipient buffers each connected with a non-completed recipient receptacle conveying line at one end thereof and a completed recipient receptacle conveying line at an opposite end thereof.

11. The automated order fulfillment system as claimed in claim 1 wherein said item manipulator is straddled by said at least two donor buffers.

12. The automated order fulfillment system as claimed in claim 1 wherein recipient-receptacle handling system comprises at least two recipient buffers and wherein said item manipulator is straddled by said at least two recipient buffers.

13. An automated order fulfillment system, comprising:
a donor-receptacle handling system having at least two donor buffers, wherein said donor receptacle handling system comprises at least two donor conveying lines each having one of said at least two donor buffers;
a recipient-receptacle handling system having at least one recipient buffer;
an item-handling system comprising a vision system and an item manipulator;
said vision system having a field of view encompassing said at least two donor receptacle buffers;
a control causing said vision system to perform a process of scanning items in a donor receptacle at one of said at least two donor buffers to obtain a pick list of location data of items in the scanned donor receptacle that are to be picked based on the pick list;
said control causing said manipulator to perform another process of picking at least one item from another donor receptacle at the other of said at least two donor buffers under guidance of said vision system and place the picked item to a recipient receptacle at the at least one recipient buffer using the location data on the pick list of items in that another donor receptacle;
said control causing said vision system during said another process to scan items of the another donor receptacle at the other of said at least two donor buffers from which the manipulator is picking items to provide a new pick list of location data of items in the scanned donor receptacle that are to be picked based on the pick list if there are items remaining in the another donor receptacle after the original pick list is fully picked; and
wherein said control causes said vision system to perform the process of scanning items in the donor receptacle at said one of said at least two donor buffers separate from said control causing said manipulator to perform the another process of picking said at least one item from the another donor receptacle at the other of said at least two donor buffers under guidance of said vision system.

14. The automated order fulfillment system as claimed in claim 13 wherein the pick list includes the height of items that are visible to the vision system and the control causes the manipulator to picks items from the pick list in sequence according to the height of the items.

15. The automated order fulfillment system as claimed in claim 13 wherein said vision system comprises at least one three-dimensional image capture device.

16. The automated order fulfillment system as claimed in claim 15 wherein said at least one three-dimensional image capture device comprises at least two three-dimensional image capture devices.

17. The automated order fulfillment system as claimed in claim 13 wherein said at least one recipient buffer is at a different elevation than said at least two donor buffers.

18. The automated order fulfillment system as claimed in claim 14 wherein said at least one recipient buffer is subjacent said at least two donor buffers.

19. The automated order fulfillment system as claimed in claim 14 wherein said at least two donor buffers are at different elevations from each other and said at least one recipient buffer is at an intermediate elevation between the elevations of said at least two donor buffers.

20. The automated order fulfillment system as claimed in claim 13 wherein said item manipulator comprises a robot arm with an end-of-arm item-gras

Assignees

• Dematic Corp

Inventors

• O'Brien Mark D
• Berghorn David M

Classifications

• B65G1/1373 Primary

  for fulfilling orders in warehouses · CPC title

• G05B15/02

  electric · CPC title

• G06Q30/0635

  replenishment orders; recurring orders · CPC title

• G06Q10/087

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

• G06Q10/08741

  by picking of items from inventory for fulfillment · CPC title