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.
Claims23
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 configured to support assembly of items thereon, and
- a plurality of wheels disposed at distal corners of a bottom side of the cabinet structure;
- 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 with hardware for assembly of a plurality of items suitable for assembly at the cabinet structure, each of the plurality of items being assembled from unassembled component parts to form an assembled item constituting a retail product;
- 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 to form an assembled item from its unassembled component parts,
- monitors progress of an assembly of the item using assembly data received from the at least one imaging device 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:
- providing a cabinet structure comprising an expandable work surface, a power supply, and a plurality of wheels;
- by a hardware dispenser coupled to the cabinet structure, storing a plurality of hardware containment pods with hardware for assembly of a plurality of items, each of the plurality of items being assembled from unassembled component parts to form an assembled item constituting a retail product;
- and
- by a computing device:
- 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 the plurality of items based on the scan data,
- receiving assembly instructions for the identified item to form an assembled item from its unassembled component parts,
- sending instructions to the at least one controller to adjust a position of the expandable work surface based on the identification of the item,
- monitoring progress of an assembly of the item using assembly data received from at least one imaging device 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 device, cause the computing device 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,
- receiving assembly instructions for the identified item to form an assembled item from its unassembled component parts at a cabinet structure comprising an expandable work surface, a power supply and a plurality of wheels,
- dispensing hardware, by a hardware dispenser configured to store a plurality of hardware containment pods with hardware for assembly of the plurality of items, each of the plurality of items being assembled from unassembled component parts to form an assembled item constituting a retail product,
- sending instructions to the at least one controller to adjust a position of the expandable work surface based on the identification of the item,
- monitoring progress of an assembly of the item using assembly data received from at least one imaging device 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.