US 10,239,203 B2Granted

Movable closed-chain linkage for robot arm of media element storage library

AssigneeOracle International Corporation

InventorTimothy Craig Ostwald

Life of this patent

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Abstract

Utilities (e.g., systems, apparatuses, methods) that reduce robotic assembly contention in media element storage libraries by rotating (e.g., flipping, swinging, etc.) a robot arm of a first robotic assembly mounted over a first of first and second spaced storage arrays in a storage library into a first position between the first storage array and a central reference plane disposed between and parallel to the first and second storage arrays to allow a robot arm of a second robotic assembly to slide or otherwise move past the robot arm of the first robotic assembly (e.g., in a direction along or parallel to an x-axis parallel to the first and second storage arrays), even when the robot arms of the first and second robotic assemblies are disposed at the same height (e.g., along a z-axis that is perpendicular to the x-axis) within the storage library.

Claims6

Dependent claims

A media element storage library, comprising:

a first storage array including a plurality of media element storage slots;
a second storage array including a plurality of media element storage slots;
an aisle between the first and second storage arrays, wherein the media element storage slots of the second storage array face the media element storage slots of the first storage array;
a first robotic assembly configured to translate over the first storage array parallel to an x-axis, wherein the first robotic assembly includes a robot arm that is positionable in a first position for manipulating media elements in the media element storage slots of the first storage array and in a second position for manipulating media elements in the media element storage slots of the second storage array;
and
a second robotic assembly configured to translate over the second storage array parallel to the x-axis, wherein the second robotic assembly includes a robot arm that is positionable in a first position for manipulating media elements in the media element storage slots of the second storage array and in a second position for manipulating media elements in the media element storage slots of the first storage array, wherein the robot arms of the first and second robotic assemblies are simultaneously positionable in their respective first positions at a common height along a z-axis and a common position along the x-axis, and wherein the z-axis is perpendicular to the x-axis.

3 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Facts

Application: 16/020,667Filed 27 Jun 2018 · division
Priority: 22 Dec 2014
Published: US 2018/0304459 A125 Oct 2018
Granted: 26 Mar 2019
Term ends: Not estimatedThe source records don’t support an estimate.

Classification11 codes

B25J 9/106
Characterised by positioning means for manipulator elements: with articulated links
B25J 9/023
Characterised by movement of the arms, e.g. cartesian coordinate type: cartesian coordinate type
G11B 15/6835
With fixed magazines having fixed cassette storage cells, e.g. in racks: the cassettes being transferred to a fixed recorder or player using a…
G11B 17/225
From random access magazine of disc records: wherein the disks are transferred from a fixed magazine to a fixed playing unit using a moving carriage

Family

Application14/578,675Parent of this division · filed 22 Dec 2014
US 2018/0304459 A1Pre-grant publication · published 25 Oct 2018
US 10,029,365 B2Parent of this division
US 2016/0180876 A1Published application
US 10,239,203 B2This patent

From the US filing history. Foreign family members aren’t listed.