Pick and place robot with inventory drop guard
AssigneeNimble Robotics, Inc.
InventorsMatthew Shekels, Simon Kalouche
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A mobile robot provided with a drop guard. The robot includes a body coupled to a wheel assembly having a plurality of wheels and a drive mechanism arranged to move the body about a top of a storage frame along a first set of parallel rails extending in a first direction and a second set of parallel rails extending in a second direction perpendicular to the first direction. The robot includes a picking arm equipped with an end effector for picking items from a storage container and a drop guard secured to the body. The guard is movable from a stowed condition to an expanded condition to prevent items from falling within the storage frame.
Claims20
A robot, comprising:
- a body coupled to a wheel assembly, the wheel assembly including a plurality of wheels arranged to move the body along a first set of parallel rails extending in a first direction and a second set of parallel rails extending in a second direction perpendicular to the first direction;
- a picking arm having an end effector for picking items from a storage container;
- and
- at least one drop guard, wherein at least a portion of the at least one drop guard is laterally movable from a stowed condition to an expanded condition.
A system, comprising:
- a storage frame including pillars defining shafts, the pillars supporting a first set of a parallel rails extending in a first direction and a second set of parallel rails extending in a second direction perpendicular to the first direction, the first and second sets of parallel rails collectively defining a plurality of grid spaces;
- containers stacked upon one another to form a plurality of vertical stacks, each vertical stack being arranged within a footprint of a respective one of the plurality of grid spaces;
- and
- a robot comprising:
- a body coupled to a wheel assembly, the wheel assembly including a plurality of wheels arranged to move the body along the first set of parallel rails and the second set of parallel rails;
- a picking arm equipped with an end effector for picking items from one of the containers;
- and
- a drop guard movable between a stowed condition and an expanded condition.
A system, comprising:
- a storage frame including pillars defining shafts, the pillars supporting a first set of a parallel rails extending in a first direction and a second set of parallel rails extending in a second direction perpendicular to the first direction, the first and second sets of parallel rails collectively defining a grid having a plurality of grid spaces, the grid being configured to support a mobile manipulator robot;
- containers stacked upon one another to form a plurality of vertical stacks, each vertical stack being arranged within a footprint of a respective one of the plurality of grid spaces such that a gap exists between a respective vertical stack and the pillars defining the respective one of the plurality of grid spaces;
- and
- a drop guard coupled to the storage frame, the drop guard being transitionable between a collapsed condition in which the gap is exposed and an expanded condition in which the gap is covered from above.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.