Adaptive autonomous mobile robot tasking

A method of task allocation for a material handling system having a plurality of autonomous mobile robots (AMR) for retrieving, transporting, and delivering items to and from locations within a material handling facility, said method comprising:

• maintaining a pending workflow list comprising a plurality of tasks to be performed within the material handling facility using a computer based warehouse execution system (WES) that is programed with WES computer code;
• selecting a task queue comprising at least one task from the pending workflow list of the WES and assigning the selected task queue to an AMR when that AMR is in need of a task to perform;
• and
• performing the tasks on the selected task queue with the AMR.

A method of task allocation for a material handling system having a plurality of autonomous mobile robots (AMR) for retrieving, transporting, and delivering items to and from locations within a material handling facility, said method comprising:

• maintaining a pending workflow list comprising a plurality of tasks to be performed within the material handling facility using a computer based warehouse execution system (WES) that is programed with WES computer code;
• selecting a task queue comprising at least one task from the pending workflow list of the WES and assigning the selected task queue to an AMR when that AMR is in need of a task to perform;
• performing the tasks on the selected task queue with the AMR;
• and
• further comprising the AMR selecting, with an onboard computer programmed with computer code, a task to perform from the task queue, and upon completion of the selected task with the AMR, the AMR onboard computer selecting another task from the task queue, wherein said selecting another task from the task queue comprises;
• determining whether the AMR has capacity to pick the material required for at least one of the remaining tasks of the task queue;
• wherein if the AMR lacks capacity, returning to determining whether the AMR has capacity to pick the material required for a different one of the remaining tasks on the task queue;
• wherein if the AMR has capacity, the onboard computer selecting one of the tasks from the pending workflow list for which it has capacity;
• wherein after the onboard computer selecting a task, determining whether the AMR is in sufficiently close proximity to the selected task;
• wherein if the AMR is not within sufficiently close proximity of the selected task, returning to determining whether the AMR has capacity to pick the material required for a different one of the tasks on the task queue;
• and
• wherein if the AMR is within sufficiently close proximity of the selected task, the onboard computer controlling the AMR to perform the selected task;
• and
• wherein upon completion of the selected task, the onboard computer of the AMR selecting another one of the remaining tasks on the task queue, and determining whether the AMR has capacity to pick the material required for at that task.