Managing low-frequency inventory items in a fulfillment center
AssigneeAmazon Technologies, Inc.
InventorAayush Aggarwal
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
The disclosed inventory system and methods can be used to improve access time to less frequently accessed inventory items. Specifically, a mobile drive unit may be selected from a plurality of mobile drive units to retrieve or store an inventory item based on a density of the storage location of the inventory item and/or an estimated cost (e.g., estimated time) associated with the retrieval or storage of the inventory item. For instance, an overhead drive unit may be selected over a ground drive unit to retrieve inventory items from or store inventory items to densely-packed storage areas. As another example, an overhead drive unit may be selected over a ground drive unit when the cost of using the ground drive unit exceeds a threshold value.
Claims20
An inventory management system to manage a plurality of inventory items, comprising:
- a plurality of inventory holders, each of the plurality of inventory holders configured to receive a subset of the plurality of inventory items;
- a plurality of mobile drive units to move the inventory holders, the plurality of mobile drive units comprising a ground drive unit and an overhead drive unit;
- a management module, comprising:
- a memory that stores computer-executable instructions;
- and
- a processor configured to access the memory and execute the computer-executable instructions to at least:
- receive a retrieval request to retrieve an inventory item of the plurality of inventory items;
- access information about a storage location of an inventory holder containing the inventory item based at least in part on the retrieval request, the inventory holder comprising a top portion and a bottom portion, and the inventory item being located in the top portion;
- access a storage density indicator associated with the storage location, the storage density indicator including information about the density of inventory holders at the storage location;
- and
- instruct a mobile drive unit from the plurality of mobile drive units to retrieve at least the top portion of the inventory holder containing the inventory item based at least in part on the storage density indicator.
A computer-implemented method for retrieving an inventory item, comprising:
- receiving information identifying an inventory item to be retrieved;
- identifying an inventory holder containing the inventory item based at least in part on the information identifying the inventory item;
- selecting, via a computer system, a mobile drive unit from a plurality of mobile drive units to retrieve at least one portion of the inventory holder, the plurality of mobile drive units comprising ground drive units and overhead drive units, the one portion including the inventory item, wherein selecting the mobile drive unit comprises selecting an overhead drive unit or selecting a ground based drive unit based at least in part on an estimated cost of retrieving the inventory holder;
- and
- instructing the selected mobile drive unit to retrieve the at least one portion of the inventory holder.
An inventory holder configured to store one or more inventory items, comprising:
- a bottom portion configured to be releasably couplable to a ground drive unit for movement of the inventory holder by the ground drive unit;
- a top portion detachably coupled to the bottom portion;
- and
- a first coupling member configured to be releasably coupled to a corresponding second coupling member of an overhead drive unit so as to allow the overhead drive unit to lift the top portion of the inventory holder off of the bottom portion.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.