Item management, systems and methods
AssigneePolytex Technologies Ltd.
InventorsTomer Poliner, Etgar Marcus
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Provided herein are automated article dispensing systems having inventory management capabilities, and methods for managing inventory of articles in automated dispensing systems. In particular, the systems and methods disclosed herein utilize an inventory management assembly which includes one or more sensors configured to detect directly or indirectly one or more parameters related to quality and/or quantity the articles and an inventory management processing module configured to compute inventory related data based at least on the one or more parameters.
Claims19
An automated article dispensing system of textile items, having inventory management capabilities, the system comprising:
- a plurality of storage compartments configured for storing and dispensing of textile items, said storage compartments arranged in a plurality of columns and a plurality of tiers;
- a gripper assembly comprising at least one motor, at least one controller, at least one gripper unit, at least one arms, or any combinations thereof, wherein the at least one gripper is movable between said storage compartments, said at least one gripper is configured to reach a storage compartment, to retrieve a textile item therefrom and to deliver said textile item to a dispensing outlet;
- and
- an inventory management assembly comprising:
- one or more sensors selected from a spatial sensor, a temporal sensor, a visual sensor, a weight sensor and an RFID sensor, said sensors are associated with the gripper assembly and/or with one or more of said storage compartments, and configured to directly or indirectly detect one or more parameters related to quality and/or quantity of said textile items in said one or more storage compartments;
- and
- an inventory management processing module configured to compute inventory related data based at least on said one or more parameters and, based on said inventory related data, to provide instructions to said gripper assembly to reach a selected compartment, retrieve the textile item therefrom and deliver said textile item to the dispensing outlet.
A method for managing inventory of textile items in an automated dispensing system, the method comprising:
- detecting by one or more sensors of an inventory management assembly of said dispensing system, one or more parameters related to quality and quantity of textile items stored in and/or dispensed from one or more storage compartments, said sensors are selected from a spatial sensor, a temporal sensor, a visual sensor, a weight sensor and an RFID sensor, said sensors are associated with a gripper assembly and/or with one or more of said storage compartments;
- computing, by an inventory management processing module, inventory related data based at least on said one or more parameters;
- and
- providing instructions to the gripper assembly comprising at least one motor, at least one controller, at least one gripper unit, at least one arms, or any combinations thereof, wherein the at least one gripper is movable between said one or more storage compartments, said instructions to said gripper assembly for reaching a selected compartment, retrieving a textile item therefrom and delivering said textile item to a dispensing outlet, based on said computed inventory related data.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.