Automated system for management of receptacles
AssigneeUnited States Postal Service
InventorsMarc D. McCrery, Donald Eugene Irwin
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A management system for managing the utilization of item receptacles in a distribution network. Items can be transferred to recipients at a limited number of item receptacles in unit delivery facilities of the distribution network. Item retrieval behavior is tracked to determine a recipient score for known recipients. Based on the recipient scores, subsequent items to be transferred can be placed in a receptacle or a storage area based on the associated recipient score. Placement in receptacles can be prioritized to recipients with low scores indicating that the item will likely be retrieved quickly, while items addressed to recipients with high scores may not be placed into a receptacle if receptacles are scarce.
Claims20
A system for delivery of items comprising:
- a plurality of receptacles for receiving items;
- a memory storing a plurality of recipient scores, each recipient score associated with a recipient of a plurality of recipients, and receptacle information;
- and
- a destination device in communication with the memory, the destination device comprising a scanning device and a processor, the processor configured to:
- obtain, from the scanning device, an image of an item to be delivered;
- determine an intended recipient of the item based on the obtained image;
- retrieve, from the database, the recipient score corresponding to the determined intended recipient;
- and
- assign the item for delivery to one of the receptacles based on the recipient score, a predetermined score threshold, and the receptacle information.
A method for distributing items to recipients, the method comprising:
- receiving receptacle availability information including a number of available receptacles at a unit delivery facility containing a plurality of receptacles;
- receiving item quantity information including a number of items to be distributed to recipients at the unit delivery facility;
- receiving a plurality of recipient scores corresponding to intended recipients associated with the items to be distributed;
- determining a score threshold based on the receptacle availability information, the item quantity information, and the recipient scores;
- scanning individual items to obtain images of the individual items;
- determining intended recipients of the individual items based on the images;
- determining the recipient scores corresponding to the intended recipients of the items;
- identifying items with intended recipients having recipient scores that satisfy the score threshold;
- and
- placing the identified items into receptacles of the plurality of receptacles.
A system for managing a plurality of receptacles for distributing items to recipients, the system comprising:
- means for maintaining receptacle availability information indicative of a number of unoccupied receptacles in a unit delivery facility;
- means for maintaining item information indicative of a number of items to be distributed to recipients via the unit delivery facility;
- means for maintaining recipient score information corresponding to a plurality of intended recipients associated with the unit delivery facility;
- means for determining a score threshold for allocation of the items to unoccupied receptacles, based on the receptacle availability information, the item information, and the recipient score information;
- and
- means for assigning individual items to unoccupied receptacles based on the recipient score information and the score threshold.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.