Differential task allocation systems and methods for item handling facilities

A method, comprising:

• obtaining, from a location tracking subsystem disposed in a facility, the facility containing a plurality of support structures, each support structure supporting items, the items having respective item identifiers, respective locations for each of a plurality of transporters and each of a plurality of mobile computing devices, wherein (a) each of the plurality of mobile computing devices is associated with a respective user in the facility, and (b) each of the plurality of autonomous transporters is deployed in the facility to at least one of (i) transport an item transferred by the user from one of the plurality of support structures, or (ii) transport the item to one of the plurality of the support structures to be transferred by the user thereto;
• obtaining a task definition containing (i) a task location, and (ii) an item identifier corresponding to an item to be transferred to or from one of the plurality of support structures at the task location;
• select one of the plurality of transporters, according to the obtained transporter locations and the task location;
• selecting one of the mobile computing devices, according to the obtained mobile computing device locations, the task location, physical activity metrics for each of the users, and physical activity targets for each of the users, wherein the physical activity metrics and the physical activity targets are stored in a user profile repository;
• and
• allocating the task definition to the selected one of the transporters and the selected one of the mobile computing devices.

A task allocation system, comprising:

• a location tracking subsystem disposed in a facility, the facility containing a plurality of support structures, each support structure supporting items, the items having respective item identifiers;
• a mobile computing device associated with a user in the facility;
• an autonomous transporter deployed in the facility to at least one of (i) transport an item transferred by the user from one of the plurality of support structures, or (ii) transport the item to one of the plurality of the support structures to be transferred by the user thereto, the location tracking subsystem operable to obtain location data associated with the mobile computing device and the autonomous transporter;
• a user profile repository containing, for the user, a record defining (i) a physical activity metric, and (ii) a physical activity target;
• and
• a server configured to:
• obtain, from the location tracking subsystem, respective locations for the transporter and the mobile computing device;
• obtain a task definition containing (i) a task location, and (ii) an item identifier corresponding to an item to be transferred to or from one of the plurality of support structures at the task location;
• allocate the task definition to the transporter according to the obtained transporter location and the task location;
• and
• allocate the task definition to the mobile computing device, according to the obtained mobile computing device location, the task location, the physical activity metric, and the physical activity target.