Robotic grasping of items in inventory system
First Claim
1. An inventory management system comprising:
- a robotic manipulator configured for grasping inventory items at a station;
a sensor set configured to detect one or more attributes of inventory items at the station; and
a management module configured to;
receive an order corresponding to a particular product code;
instruct accessing, at the station, of a first inventory item matching the particular product code;
access a record associated with the first inventory item and including a set of stored characteristics;
receive, from the sensor set, information about a detected set of characteristics of the first inventory item;
determine that the first inventory item is damaged based at least in part on differences between the set of stored characteristics and the detected set of characteristics; and
select a grasping strategy for causing the robotic manipulator to grasp, at the station, a second inventory item also matching the particular product code for fulfilling the order instead of the first inventory item based at least in part on the determination that the first inventory item is damaged.
1 Assignment
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
Robotic arms or manipulators can be utilized to grasp inventory items within an inventory system. Information can be obtained about constraints relative to relevant elements of a process of transferring the item from place to place. Examples of such elements may include a grasping location from which an item is to be grasped, a receiving location in which a grasped item is to be placed, or a space between the grasping location and the receiving location. The information about the constraints can be used to select from multiple possible grasping options, such as by eliminating options that conflict with the constraints or preferring options that outperform others given the constraints.
-
Citations
20 Claims
-
1. An inventory management system comprising:
-
a robotic manipulator configured for grasping inventory items at a station; a sensor set configured to detect one or more attributes of inventory items at the station; and a management module configured to; receive an order corresponding to a particular product code; instruct accessing, at the station, of a first inventory item matching the particular product code; access a record associated with the first inventory item and including a set of stored characteristics; receive, from the sensor set, information about a detected set of characteristics of the first inventory item; determine that the first inventory item is damaged based at least in part on differences between the set of stored characteristics and the detected set of characteristics; and select a grasping strategy for causing the robotic manipulator to grasp, at the station, a second inventory item also matching the particular product code for fulfilling the order instead of the first inventory item based at least in part on the determination that the first inventory item is damaged. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5)
-
-
6. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having stored therein instructions that, when executed by one or more processors of a computer system, cause the computer system to:
-
access a set of stored characteristics associated with an inventory item; receive information from one or more sensors about a detected set of characteristics of the inventory item; perform a comparison between the set of stored characteristics and the detected set of characteristics; determine that the inventory item is damaged based at least in part on the comparison performed between the set of stored characteristics and the detected set of characteristics; and instruct a response based at least in part on the determining that the inventory item is damaged. - View Dependent Claims (7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13)
-
-
14. A method comprising, under the control of one or more computer systems configured with executable instructions:
-
accessing a first set of characteristics associated with an inventory item with respect to a first state of the inventory item, the first state preceding execution of a grasping strategy by a robotic manipulator for grasping the inventory item; receiving information from one or more sensors about a second set of characteristics detected about the inventory item with respect to a second state of the inventory item, the second state subsequent to execution of the grasping strategy by the robotic manipulator for grasping the inventory item; performing a comparison between the accessed first set of characteristics and the detected second set of characteristics; determining whether the inventory item was damaged due to the execution of the grasping strategy based at least in part on the comparison performed between the accessed first set of characteristics and the detected second set of characteristics; and updating a database entry associated with at least one of the inventory item or the grasping strategy according to whether the inventory item was determined to be damaged due to the execution of the grasping strategy. - View Dependent Claims (15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20)
-
Specification