US 2016/0062345 A1Published application

Safety Compliance for Mobile Drive Units

AssigneeAmazon Technologies, Inc.

InventorsAndrew Stubbs, Matthew David Verminski, Michael T. Barbehenn, Andrew Brenden Tinka, Peter K. Mansfield, Peter R. Wurman

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Abstract

Techniques for making a physical area safe for a human to enter when mobile drive units (e.g., robots) are operating in the physical area are described. A management device may send an activity message to the mobile drive units instructing the mobile drive units to perform a set of activities. If a human is detected in the physical area, the management device may stop sending the activity command. If the mobile drive units do not receive the activity command, the mobile drive units may stop performing the set of activities. After the management device determines that the human has left the physical area, the management device may resume sending the activity message.

Claims20

Dependent claims

A system comprising:

one or more processors;
one or more non-transitory computer-readable storage media storing instructions executable by the one or more processors to perform acts comprising:
determining one or more drive unit locations corresponding to one or more mobile drive units;
receiving a query message from individual mobile drive units of the one or more mobile drive units, the query message requesting permission to perform a set of activities;
transmitting an activity message to the one or more mobile drive units in response to the query message, the activity message instructing individual mobile drive units of the one or more mobile drive units to perform the set of activities within a physical area;
determining, via a locator device associated with a human, that a first location of the human is within the physical area;
determining that a first mobile drive unit of the one or more mobile drive units is within a first distance from the first location of the human;
and
ceasing transmission of the activity message to the first mobile drive unit, thereby causing the first mobile drive unit to stop performing the set of activities.

6 more elements

A system, comprising:

a mobile drive unit;
a locator device associated with a human;
and
a management device configured to perform acts comprising:
initiating transmission of an activity message instructing the mobile drive unit to perform a set of activities within a physical area;
determining a drive unit location of the mobile drive unit;
determining, via the locator device, a location of the human within the physical area;
and
in response to determining that the drive unit location is less than a predetermined distance from the location of the human, ceasing the transmission of the activity message instructing the mobile drive unit to perform the set of activities, thereby causing the mobile drive unit to stop performing the set of activities.

6 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.