Mobile assembly apparatus
AssigneeWalmart Apollo, LLC
InventorsJason Bellar, Jeremy L. Velten, Amy Savaiinaea
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A mobile assembly apparatus and a method of assembling a retail product utilizing a retail assembly are discussed. The mobile assembly apparatus may include a cabinet structure, an expandable work surface, a frame, wheels, an articulated arm, outrigger supports, a power supply, sensors, a hardware dispenser, and a computing device. The mobile assembly apparatus scans a machine readable identifier and retrieves assembly instructions for an item associated with the identifier. The computing device controls the outrigger supports and extendable surface based on the instructions. The computing device monitors the progress of the assembly of the time and validates the assembly based on assembly data from the sensors.
Claims19
A mobile assembly apparatus comprising:
- a cabinet structure including:
- a frame having an interior,
- an expandable work surface that is configured to extend and retract, and
- a plurality of wheels disposed at distal corners of a bottom side of the cabinet structure;
- an articulated arm coupled to the cabinet structure;
- a plurality of outrigger supports coupled to the frame disposed at distal corners of the frame, wherein the outrigger supports are configured to extend from the frame and retract to the frame, at least one controller controlling the positioning of the outrigger supports;
- a power supply coupled to the cabinet structure;
- a plurality of sensors including at least one imaging device and at least one scanning device;
- a hardware dispenser coupled to the cabinet structure and configured to store a plurality of hardware containment pods corresponding to a plurality of types of items;
- and
- a computing device equipped with a processor and communicatively coupled to the at least one controller and the plurality of sensors and configured to execute an assembly validation module that when executed;
- receives scan data from the scanning device from a scan of a machine-readable identifier associated with an item being assembled,
- identifies the item being assembled from among the plurality of items based on the scan data,
- receives assembly instructions for the identified item,
- sends instructions to the at least one controller to adjust a position of the outrigger supports based on the identification of the item;
- monitors progress of an assembly of the item using assembly data received from the plurality of sensors related to a step of assembly, and
- validates the assembly step based on the assembly data and the assembly instructions.
A method of assembling a retail product utilizing a mobile assembly apparatus comprising:
- receiving scan data from a scanning device of a scan of a machine-readable identifier associated with an item being assembled,
- identifying an item being assembled from a plurality of items based on the scan data,
- receiving assembly instructions for the identified item,
- sending instructions to at least one controller to adjust a position of a set of outrigger supports based on the identification of the item,
- sending instructions to the at least one controller to adjust a position of an expandable work surface based on the identification of the item,
- monitoring progress of an assembly of the item using assembly data received from the plurality of sensors related to a step of assembly, and
- validating the step of assembly based on the assembly data and the assembly instructions.
A non-transitory computer readable medium for assembling a retail product utilizing a retail assembly support device, having stored thereon, instructions that when executed in a computing system, cause the computing system to perform operations comprising:
- receiving scan data from a scanning device of a scan of a machine-readable identifier associated with an item being assembled,
- identifying an item being assembled from a plurality of items based on the scan data,
- receive assembly instructions for the identified item,
- sending instructions to at least one controller to adjust a position of a set of outrigger supports based on the identification of the item,
- sending instructions to the at least one controller to adjust a position of a set of an expandable work surface based on the identification of the item,
- monitoring progress of an assembly of the item using assembly data received from the plurality of sensors related to a step of assembly, and
- validating the step of assembly based on the assembly data and the assembly instructions.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.