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US 12,049,364 B2Granted
Routing of totes and bottles within a pharmacy conveyor system
AssigneeInnovation Associates, Inc.
InventorsFletcher A. Chapin, Jr., Todd Bower
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A system, method, and apparatus for the routing of totes and bottles within a pharmacy fulfillment center are disclosed. The system, method, and apparatus are configured to transmit routing tables from an application server to station controllers (e.g., PLCs) to enable each station to locally make a routing decision. Since the routing logic is locally stored at each station, the controllers do not need to transmit request messages to the server every time a tote or bottle is scanned. The system, method, and apparatus increase conveyor throughput by enabling each station to make a routing decision without having to wait for a response from a server.
Claims20
A pharmacy conveyor system comprising:
- a memory device configured to store a data structure of at least one tote lookup table and at least one bottle lookup table,
- each tote lookup table including a tag name corresponding to a respective tote identifier of a tote and a route code indicative of a current location or an assigned destination of the corresponding tote, and
- each bottle lookup table including a bottle identifier and an assigned destination of the bottle;
- a pharmacy conveyor belt including a plurality of stations, the conveyor belt for each station including:
- a reader configured to read a barcode on a tote or a bottle,
- a pusher configured push the tote from the conveyor belt to a medication fulfillment area or a router configured to divert the bottle from the conveyor belt to a medication fulfillment area, and
- a controller configured to receive at least one of the tote lookup tables or one of the bottle lookup tables and determine whether the pusher or the router is to be activated based on the read barcode matching a tote identifier in the tote lookup table or a bottle identifier in the bottle lookup table;
- and
- an application server communicatively coupled to the memory device, the application server configured to:
- receive prescriptions for filling through a pharmacy workflow,
- assign each of the prescriptions to at least one of a tote or a bottle,
- determine routing information for each of the totes and bottles,
- for the routing information associated with totes, for each tote select a corresponding tote element in one of the tote lookup tables in the memory device and update the route code with a destination identifier specified in the respective routing information,
- for the routing information associated with bottles, for each bottle create a bottle element within one of the bottle lookup tables in the memory device using an assigned bottle identifier and write a route code with a destination identifier specified in the respective routing information,
- transmit the tote lookup tables to the controllers associated with totes before the respective totes are received on the conveyor belt, and
- transmit the bottle lookup tables to the controllers associated with bottles before the respective bottles are received on the conveyor belt.
13 more elements
A pharmacy conveyor method comprising:
- receiving, in an application server, prescriptions for filling through a pharmacy workflow;
- assigning, via the application server, each of the prescriptions to at least one of a tote or a bottle;
- determining, via the application server, routing information for each of the totes and bottles;
- for the routing information associated with totes, for each tote selecting, via the application server, a corresponding tote element in a tote lookup table in a memory device and updating a route code with a destination identifier specified in the respective routing information;
- for the routing information associated with bottles, for each bottle creating, via the application server, a bottle element within a bottle lookup table in the memory device using an assigned bottle identifier and writing a route code with a destination identifier specified in the respective routing information;
- transmitting, from the application server to controllers associated with totes, the tote lookup table before the respective totes are received on a conveyor belt;
- and
- transmitting, from the application server to controllers associated with bottles, the bottle lookup table before the respective bottles are received on the conveyor belt.
5 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.