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US 2020/0317446 A1Published application
Expandable autonomous storage and retrieval tower
AssigneeWalmart Apollo, LLC
InventorsDavid G. Tovey, Bruce W. Wilkinson, Paul Edward Durkee, Kurt William Robert Bessel
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Abstract
An autonomous storage and retrieval tower with dynamic resizing of available space is discussed.
Claims20
An autonomous storage and retrieval tower with dynamic resizing of available space, comprising:
- a housing;
- a plurality of trays within the housing;
- at least one computing device in communication with one or more databases that are configured to store at least one item file associated with the at least one physical item and rules for organizing the plurality of trays;
- an assignment module executable by the computing device, the assignment module when executed:
- receives an identifier associated with an inbound physical item to be stored in the tower;
- retrieves, from the one or more databases, a first item file associated with the identifier, wherein the first item file has a first item dimension attribute associated with the inbound physical item;
- retrieves a plurality of item files associated with a plurality of physical items stored in the tower, wherein the plurality of item files include item dimension attributes associated with the plurality of physical items stored in the tower;
- analyzes an amount of available space in the tower on the plurality of trays based on the first item dimension attribute and the item dimension attributes associated with the plurality of physical items stored in the tower;
- identifies a lack of available space in the tower to store the inbound physical item based on the analyzing;
- and
- performs at least one action based on the analysis and the rules to store the in-bound physical item.
8 more elements
A method for dynamic resizing of available space in an autonomous storage and retrieval tower, comprising:
- receiving, via an assignment module, an identifier associated with an inbound physical item to be stored in the tower;
- retrieving, via the assignment module from a storage device configured to store at least one item file associated with the at least one physical item and rules for organizing a plurality of trays, a first item file associated with the identifier, wherein the first item file has a first item dimension attribute associated with the inbound physical item;
- retrieving a plurality of item files associated with a plurality of physical items stored in the tower, wherein the plurality of item files includes item dimension attributes associated with the plurality of physical items stored in the tower;
- analyzing an amount of available space in the tower on a plurality of trays within the tower based on the first item dimension attribute and the item dimension attributes associated with the plurality of physical items stored in the tower;
- identifying a lack of available space in the tower to store the inbound physical item based on the analyzing;
- and
- performing at least one action based on the analysis and the rules to store the inbound physical item.
4 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.