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AssigneeInTunes Products, LLC
InventorsMichael Marseglia, Michael Fisher, Scott Baube, Christopher Angevine, Greggory Bartoo, Dennis O'Neill, Austin Smith
Estimating the term…
A package sort cell includes a robot with an end of arm tool for transporting packages from an in-feed conveyor to a selected one of a plurality of out-feed conveyors or bins, the robot receiving instruction from the package reader as to which of the plurality of conveyors or bins to hand-off the package. An end of arm tool may be in the configuration of a conveyor which may be aligned with the out-feed conveyor on a bottom up movement. The end of arm tool may also be in the configuration of a hanging carriage frame suspending a conveyor in a top down movement. A worker platform may be provided which may be movable between in-use and out-of-use positions whereby upon robot downtime, the platform may move into the in-use position for a worker to temporarily takeover the transfer functions of the robot. A plurality of sort cells may be arranged in side by side relation adjacent a like plurality of package delivery points (e.g., truck bays) and include diverter conveyors to allow diversion of a selected quantity of packages from one cell to an adjacent cell when the adjacent cell has no associated package delivery occurring at that time.
A package sorting system, comprising:
A robotic end of arm tool comprising a robot arm and an end of arm conveyor mounted on said robot end of arm, said end of arm conveyor having opposite front and back ends with said end of arm conveyor having an upper package transport surface movable from said end of arm conveyor front end to said end of arm conveyor back end and operable to receive a package at said front end of said end of arm conveyor, and operable to hand off the package from said back end of said end of arm conveyor, and wherein said upper package transport surface is one or more of smooth, cleated and vacuum assisted.
A robotic end of arm tool comprising a carriage having a frame and an end of frame conveyor, said frame extending between and forming a space between said robot end of arm and said end of frame conveyor, said robot end of arm movable to a position suspending said carriage therefrom, said end of frame conveyor having opposite front and back ends and an upper package transport surface movable from said end of frame conveyor front end to said end of frame conveyor back end, and operable to receive a package at said front end of said end of frame conveyor and convey and hand off the package from said back end of said end of frame conveyor, and wherein said upper package transport surface is one or more of smooth, cleated and vacuum assisted.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.