US 10,294,025 B2Granted

Robot for transporting storage bins

AssigneeAutostore Technology AS

InventorsIngvar Hognaland, Ivar Fjeldheim, Trond Austrheim, Børge Bekken

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Abstract

A remotely-operated vehicle assembly for picking up storage bins from a storage system and a method for changing vehicle direction includes a body displaying a cavity, a lifting device connected to the body for lifting the bin into the cavity, a displacement arrangement including a displacement motor which provides power to displace one or both of first and second sets of vehicle wheels between a displaced state where the relevant vehicle wheels are displaced away from the underlying system during use, and a non-displaced state where the relevant vehicle wheels are in contact with the underlying system during use, and driving wheels coupled to the displacement arrangement. The driving wheels include the first and second sets of vehicle wheels connected to the body allowing movement of the vehicle along first and second directions, respectively, within the system. The first and second directions are perpendicular.

Claims21

Dependent claims

A remotely operated vehicle assembly for picking up storage bins from an underlying storage system, comprising:

a vehicle body displaying a cavity for receiving a storage bin within the storage system
a vehicle lifting device connected to the vehicle body for lifting the storage bin into the cavity,
driving means comprising:
a first set of vehicle wheels connected to the vehicle body allowing movement of the vehicle along a first direction within the storage system during use, and
a second set of vehicle wheels connected to the vehicle body allowing movement of the vehicle along a second direction in the storage system during use, the second direction being perpendicular to the first direction,
a displacement arrangement coupled to the driving means comprising
a displacement motor configured to provide power to displace at least one of the first set of vehicle wheels and
the second set of vehicle wheels means
between
a displaced state where the first or second set of vehicle wheels is displaced away from the underlying storage system during use, and
a non-displaced state where the first or second set of vehicle wheels is in contact with the underlying storage system during use,
wherein the displacement motor is situated in a lateral plane above the cavity, and further configured to generate a power that is converted to a vertically directed pressure force acting on the first or second set of vehicle wheels.

9 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.