Robotic inventory handling
AssigneeCommonsense Robotics Ltd.
InventorsElram Goren, Eyal Goren, Shay Cohen, Ori Avraham, Guy Blotnick, David Grosman
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An inventory handling system (20, 150) includes multiple shelving units (22) for mounting over a horizontal floor (24). Each shelving unit contains a vertical array of shelves (28) on which containers (30) are placed. One or more floor robots (36) travel among the shelving units along first paths on the floor. One or more lift robots (32, 80, 120, 152) move independently of the floor robots along second paths in a vertical plane over vertical faces of the shelving units, and transfer the containers between the shelves and the floor robots.
Claims26
An inventory handling system, comprising:
- multiple shelving units for mounting over a horizontal floor, each shelving unit containing a vertical array of shelves on which containers are placed;
- one or more floor robots, which are configured to travel among the shelving units along first paths on the horizontal floor;
- one or more lift robots, which are configured to move independently of the one or more floor robots along second paths in a vertical plane over vertical faces of the shelving units, wherein the vertical plane is orthogonal to the horizontal floor, and to transfer the containers between the shelves and the one or more floor robots, wherein the one or more lift robots are configured to release the containers prior to the one or more floor robots loading the containers;
- wherein the one or more lift robots are capable of moving horizontally while being suspended above the horizontal floor, said moving horizontally comprising moving along a horizontal path having a linear segment parallel to a linear segment of the first paths on the horizontal floor;
- wherein the one or more lift robots are capable of moving vertically while being suspended above the horizontal floor;
- and
- wherein the one or more one or more floor robots are structurally different than the one or more lift robots.
A method comprising:
- designating a container to be transferred from a current location on one of shelves in one of shelving units to a specified destination, wherein the shelving units are mounted over a horizontal floor, each shelving unit containing a vertical array of the shelves;
- operating a floor robot to travel in the horizontal floor among the shelving units to a rendezvous point;
- operating a lift robot to move, independently of the floor robot, and while being suspended above the ground, in a vertical plane over a vertical face of the one of the shelving units to the current location of the designated container, wherein the vertical face is a plane orthogonal to the horizontal floor, wherein the lift robot is capable of moving along a horizontal path having a linear segment parallel to a linear segment of at least one path on the horizontal floor along which the floor robot is capable of moving, wherein the floor robot is structurally different than the lift robot;
- operating the lift robot to transfer the designated container from the current location to the floor robot at the rendezvous point;
- and
- transporting the designated container, using the floor robot, to the specified destination, wherein the lift robot releases the container prior to said transporting.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.