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US 11,445,845 B2Granted
To-go cubby unit
AssigneeHatco Corporation
InventorsJames Jakubowski, Gerhard Wenzel, Michael Ross, Taylor Bley, Jim Virgin, Nicholas Bassill
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A cubby unit includes a plurality of cubbies and a thermal management system. Each of the plurality of cubbies includes a cubby housing defining an internal compartment. The thermal management system is configured to facilitate thermally regulating at least one of (i) a food product selectively received within the internal compartment of at least one of the plurality of cubbies or (ii) the internal compartment of the at least one of the plurality of cubbies.
Claims19
A cubby unit comprising:
- a unit housing having a customer side and an employee side;
- a plurality of cubbies disposed within the unit housing, each of the plurality of cubbies including:
- a cubby housing having a front side and a rear side, the cubby housing defining an internal compartment between the front side and the rear side;
- a customer door pivotally coupled to the front side of the cubby housing, the customer door facilitates accessing the internal compartment of the cubby housing from the front side of the cubby housing;
- and
- an employee door pivotally coupled to the rear side of the cubby housing, the employee door facilitates accessing the internal compartment of the cubby housing from the rear side of the cubby housing;
- a thermal management system configured to facilitate thermally regulating at least one of (i) a food product selectively received within the internal compartment of at least one of the plurality of cubbies or (ii) the internal compartment of the at least one of the plurality of cubbies;
- a customer human-machine-interface positioned along the customer side of the unit housing;
- and
- an employee human-machine-interface positioned along the employee side of the unit housing;
- wherein the employee human-machine-interface provides a cubby selection interface that (i) indicates (a) which of the plurality of cubbies are occupied cubbies, (b) to which food orders the occupied cubies are associated, and (c) for how long each of the occupied cubbies has been occupied, (ii) indicates which of the plurality of cubies are unoccupied cubbies, and (iii) facilitates manual assignment of a respective cubby of the unoccupied cubbies to a respective food order;
- and
- wherein an access credential associated with the respective food order is transmitted to a customer device associated with the respective food order in response to the manual assignment of the respective cubby to the respective food order via the employee human-machine-interface.
10 more elements
A cubby unit comprising:
- a plurality of cubbies, each of the plurality of cubbies including:
- a housing defining an internal compartment, a first opening that facilitates accessing the internal compartment from a first side of the housing, and a second opening that facilitates accessing the internal compartment from an opposing second side of the housing;
- a thermal element positioned to facilitate thermally regulating at least one of (i) a food product selectively received within the internal compartment or (ii) the internal compartment;
- a first door pivotally coupled to the first side of the housing and selectively enclosing the first opening;
- a locking mechanism positioned to facilitate selectively locking the first door to the housing;
- a second door pivotally coupled to the opposing second side of the housing and selectively enclosing the second opening;
- and
- a connector disposed along the housing, the connector configured to facilitate at least one of (i) selectively, mechanically coupling the plurality of cubbies to each other, (ii) selectively, electrically coupling the plurality of cubbies to each other, (iii) selectively coupling the thermal element of each of the plurality of cubbies to each other, or (iv) transmitting data between the plurality of cubbies;
- and
- a control system configured to:
- acquire an indication regarding a characteristic of the food product received by the internal compartment;
- control the thermal element to regulate a temperature of the food product based on the indication;
- and
- automatically turn off the thermal element following removal of the food product from the internal compartment
- wherein the connector facilitates detaching a respective one of the plurality of cubbies;
- and
- wherein the cubby unit remains operational without the respective one of the plurality of cubbies connected thereto.
14 more elements
A cubby unit comprising:
- a unit housing;
- a plurality of cubbies disposed within and selectively removable from the unit housing, each respective one of the plurality of cubbies including:
- a cubby housing defining an internal compartment and an opening that facilitates accessing the internal compartment;
- a thermal element positioned to facilitate thermally regulating at least one of (i) a food product selectively received within the internal compartment or (ii) the internal compartment;
- a door pivotally coupled to the cubby housing and selectively enclosing the internal compartment;
- and
- a door actuator positioned to pivot open and close the door;
- an interface positioned along the unit housing, wherein the interface facilitates manual assignment of a respective cubby to a respective food order by an operator;
- and
- a control system configured to:
- transmit an access credential associated with the respective food order to a customer device associated with the respective food order in response to the manual assignment of the respective cubby to the respective food order by the operator via the interface;
- and
- receive the access credential via at least one of the interface or the customer device;
- and
- control the door actuator to pivot the door of the respective cubby associated with the respective food order open for a period of time in response to receiving the access credential to facilitate accessing the respective food order.
12 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.