Method and system for transporting inventory items
AssigneeAmazon Technologies, Inc.
InventorsPeter R. Wurman, Raffaello D'Andrea, Michael T. Barbehenn, Andrew Edward Hoffman, Michael Cordell Mountz
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A method for transporting inventory items includes moving a mobile drive unit to a first point within a workspace. The first point is a location of an inventory holder. The method further includes docking the mobile drive unit with the inventory holder and moving the mobile drive unit and the inventory holder to a second point within the workspace. The second point is associated with conveyance equipment. The method further includes moving the inventory holder to a third point within the workspace using the conveyance equipment.
Claims13
A system for navigation, comprising:
- a plurality of fiducial marks arranged in a two-dimensional grid on a floor of a workspace;
- a horizontal conveyor of inventory items within the workspace, the horizontal conveyor operable to convey inventory items towards an exit cell associated with the horizontal conveyor, the exit cell comprising a first fiducial mark within the two-dimensional grid;
- a mobile drive unit comprising:
- a position sensor operable to detect first information associated with the first fiducial mark of the exit cell;
- an inventory holder configured to receive one or more of the inventory items from the horizontal conveyor at the exit cell;
- a control module operable to utilize the first information to facilitate navigation within the workspace from the first fiducial mark to a second fiducial mark within the two-dimensional grid of the plurality of fiducial marks.
An apparatus comprising:
- a device housing for a drive module, a position sensor, and a control module;
- and wherein:
- the drive module comprises at least two wheels and an actuator to drive the at least two wheels;
- the position sensor is operable to detect a plurality of fiducial marks arranged in a two-dimensional grid in a workspace, wherein each of the plurality of fiducial marks comprises an identifier associated with a location in the workspace, wherein the identifier is configured to facilitate navigation within the workspace;
- and
- the control module is configured to control the drive module to cause the device housing to traverse a segment of a path between a first fiducial mark and a second fiducial mark in the two-dimensional grid using location information derived from detections of the first fiducial mark and the second fiducial mark by the position sensor, wherein the second fiducial mark comprises a destination associated with a task selected by a remote management system responsible for coordinating task assignments among a plurality of robotic transport units.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.