Warehouse automation systems and methods
Assignee6 River Systems, LLC
InventorsRylan Hamilton, Jerome Dubois, Christopher Cacioppo, Timothy Higgins, Josh Chaitin-Pollak
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Abstract
A warehouse automation system adapted to improve warehouse operating productivity includes a plurality of carts for transporting products within a warehouse and a controller. The controller is adapted to associate a first one of the plurality of carts with a first person and to control the first cart to lead the first person around the warehouse. According to one advantage, the time the first person spends restocking, picking, counting, sorting, moving, and packing product into customer orders and shipments, for example, is reduced.
Claims27
A warehouse automation system for picking products within a warehouse, the system comprising:
- a plurality of carts for transporting products within a warehouse, each cart comprising a plurality of storage receptacles for storing the products;
- and
- a controller adapted to (i) associate a first one of the plurality of carts with a first person, (ii) dedicate each storage receptacle of the first cart to a discrete task selected from the group consisting of storing product picked for a single order, storing product picked for multiple orders, storing multiple types of picked products, storing multiple quantities of a single picked product, and storing product picked for a time sensitive order, (iii) control the first cart to lead the first person around the warehouse, (iv) instruct the first person to pick product for at least two storage receptacles of the first cart that are dedicated to different discrete tasks, and (v) move the first cart at at least one of a speed equal to a normal pace of the first person and a speed faster than a normal pace of the first person.
A computer-controlled automated method of picking products within a warehouse, the method comprising the steps of:
- associating a first person with a first one of a plurality of carts for transporting products within a warehouse, the first cart comprising a plurality of storage receptacles for storing the products, each storage receptacle being dedicated to a discrete task selected from the group consisting of storing product picked for a single order, storing product picked for multiple orders, storing multiple types of picked products, storing multiple quantities of a single picked product, and storing product picked for a time sensitive order;
- controlling the first cart to lead the first person around the warehouse;
- and
- instructing the first person to pick product for at least two storage receptacles dedicated to different discrete tasks,
- wherein the controlling step comprises moving the first cart at at least one of a speed equal to a normal pace of the first person and a speed faster than a normal pace of the first person.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.