Mobile robot group for moving an item

• US 10,317,893 B2
• Filed: 04/17/2017
• Issued: 06/11/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 08/02/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Inventors: Zou, Le
• Primary Examiner(s): Cumbess, Yolanda R
• Application Number:
  US15/489,439
• Publication Number:
  US 20180039258A1
• Time in Patent Office: 785 Days
• Field of Search: None
• CPC Class Codes: B65G 1/137 with arrangements or automatic control means for selecting which articles are to be removed
• CPC Class Codes: B65G 43/08 Control devices operated by article or material being fed, conveyed or discharged and controlling the discharging devices B65G47/42
• CPC Class Codes: B65G 43/10 Sequence control of conveyors operating in combination
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 15/02 electric
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 19/19 characterised by positioning or contouring control systems, e.g. to control position from one programmed point to another or to control movement along a programmed continuous path
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 19/4182 manipulators and conveyor only
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 19/41895 using automatic guided vehicles [AGV] control of position or course of AGV's G05D1/00
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/0295 by at least one leading vehicle of the fleet
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/0297 by controlling means in a control room
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/08 Logistics, e.g. warehousing, loading or distribution; Inventory or stock management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/08355 Routing methods
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 901/01 Mobile robot

Abstract

Techniques for improving the efficiency and flexibility of inventory systems are described. In an example, multiple robots may be operated to move an item. The robots may be allocated to a mobile robot group configured to move the item according to an arrangement of these robots. Tasks for incrementally moving the item and dependencies between the tasks may be generated. Instructions about a first task may be sent to one of the robots. Progress about performing the first task may be received back from the robot. Based on the progress and a dependency from the first task, instructions about a second dependent task may be sent to a second robot. When performed by the respective robots, the first task and the second task may cause an incremental movement of the item by the mobile robot group.

Claims

1. An inventory system, comprising:

one or more processors; and

one or more memories storing computer-readable instructions that, upon execution by the one or more processors, cause the inventory system to at least;

allocate, based at least in part on an inventory-related action to move an item, a second mobile robot to a mobile robot group that comprises a first mobile robot, the mobile robot group configured to move the item along a path from a first location to a second location of a storage facility based at least in part on an arrangement of mobile robots within the mobile robot group, the path being reserved to the mobile robot group based at least in part on the inventory-related action;

determine, based at least in part on the arrangement of the mobile robots within the mobile robot group, dependencies between tasks for incrementally moving the item by the mobile robot group along the path, the dependency being based at least in part on maintaining the arrangement of the mobile robots within the mobile robot group along the path;

receive, from the first mobile robot, data about an incremental movement of the item by the first mobile robot based at least in part on the arrangement of the mobile robots and on performance by the first mobile robot of a first task from the tasks; and

cause, the second mobile robot, to incrementally move the item based at least in part on the arrangement of the mobile robots and instructions to the second mobile robot about a second task from the tasks, the instructions being based at least in part on a dependency of the dependencies between the second task and the first task and on the data about the incremental movement of the item by the first mobile robot.

2. The inventory system of claim 1, wherein the one or more processors and the one or more memories are distributed between a first computer system and a second computer system at different hierarchies of a computer network.

3. The inventory system of claim 2, wherein the first computer system receives updates about movement progress of the item at a first frequency from the second computer system, wherein the second computer system receives updates about from the mobile robots about incrementally moving the item at a second frequency greater than the first frequency.

4. The inventory system of claim 1, wherein the first task initiates movement of the first mobile robot at a first acceleration, wherein the second task initiates movement of the second mobile robot at a second acceleration greater than the first acceleration, and wherein the computer-readable instructions further cause the inventory system to:

instruct, prior to a deceleration of the first mobile robot based at least in part on a dependency between the second task and a third task from the tasks, the first mobile robot to incrementally move the item based at least in part on the third task.

5. A computer-implemented method, comprising:

allocating, by one or more computing devices, a second mobile robot to a mobile robot group that comprises a first mobile robot, the mobile robot group configured to move an item along a path, the path being reserved to the mobile robot group based at least in part on an inventory-related action to move the item between locations of a storage facility;

determining, by at least one of the one or more computing devices and based at least in part on the path, a second task for the second mobile robot from tasks generated for the mobile robot group, the tasks defining an incremental movement of the item by the mobile robot group along the path based at least in part on an arrangement of the first mobile robot and the second mobile robot within the mobile robot group;

determining, by at least one of the one or more computing devices, a dependency between the second task and a first task for the first mobile robot from the tasks, the dependency being based at least in part on maintaining the arrangement of the first mobile robot and the second mobile robot within the mobile robot group along the path;

receiving, by at least one of the one or more computing devices from the first mobile robot, data indicating progress of a first incremental movement of the item by the first mobile robot based at least in part on performance by the first mobile robot of the first task; and

causing, by at least one of the one or more computing devices, the second mobile robot to move the item based at least in part on instructions corresponding to the second task, the instructions being based at least in part on the data indicating the progress of the first incremental movement and on the dependency between the second task and the first task.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 5, wherein the one more computing devices belong to a central computer system of a storage facility.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 5, wherein the dependency is based at least in part on a space tolerance that constrains relative movement of the first mobile robot and the second mobile robot within the arrangement, wherein the relative movement is based at least in part on the first task and the second task.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 5, wherein the dependency is based at least in part a time tolerance that constrains relative timing between instructing the first mobile robot to perform the first task and instructing the second mobile robot to perform the second task.

9. The computer-implemented method of claim 5, further comprising:

prior to movement of the item by the mobile robot group;

generating additional tasks for the second mobile robot to incrementally move the item, the additional tasks comprising the second task;

sending instructions about the additional tasks to the second mobile robot;

upon the movement of the item by the mobile robot group;

determining an update to one of the additional tasks based at least in part on the data indicating the progress of the first incremental movement by the first mobile robot; and

sending the update to the second mobile robot.

10. The computer-implemented method of claim 5, further comprising:

generating a third task for the first mobile robot to incrementally move the item; and

sending instructions about the third task to the first mobile robot based at least in part on movement of the second mobile robot according to the second task.

11. The computer-implemented method of claim 10, wherein the instructions about the third task are sent to the first mobile robot prior to a deceleration of the first mobile robot and a deceleration of the second mobile robot.

12. The computer-implemented method of claim 5, wherein the arrangement of the first mobile robot and the second mobile robot within the mobile robot group is based at least in part on a mapping of the arrangement to an identifier of the item and to an inventory action to move the item.

13. One or more non-transitory computer-readable storage media comprising computer-readable instructions that, upon execution by one or more processors of a mobile robot, cause the mobile robot to perform operations comprising:

receiving, from a computer system, instructions about performing a task to incrementally move an item by the mobile robot in an arrangement of mobile robots within a mobile robot group, wherein;

the mobile robot is allocated to the mobile robot group that comprises the mobile robots, the mobile robot group configured to move the item along a path based at least in part on the arrangement of the mobile robots, the path being reserved to the mobile robot group based at least in part on an inventory-related action to move the item between locations of a storage facility,

a dependency is defined between the task and a different task of a different mobile robot within the mobile robot group based at least in part on maintaining the arrangement of the mobile robots along the path, and

the instructions are based at least in part on the dependency between the task and the different task and on an incremental movement of the item by the different mobile robot according to the different task;

executing the instructions to perform the task and cause an incremental movement of the item by the mobile robot; and

sending, to the computer system, a status about the incremental movement of the item by the mobile robot.

14. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable storage media of claim 13, wherein the status is reported at a rate that exceeds a rate at which the mobile robot receives instructions about tasks associated with incrementally moving the item.

15. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable storage media of claim 13, wherein the operations further comprise:

receiving a corrective action from the computer system based at least in part on the status.

16. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable storage media of claim 15, wherein the corrective action comprises instructions to perform a new task that is based at least in part on the task.

17. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable storage media of claim 13, wherein the operations further comprise:

moving to a position within a staging area to form the arrangement within the mobile robot group, wherein the position corresponds to the arrangement within the mobile robot group and is based at least in part on a positioning resolution of the staging area.

18. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable storage media of claim 13, wherein the dependency constrains timing associated with the incremental movement by the mobile robot and the incremental movement by the different mobile robot to a time interval, and wherein the status is sent to the computer system at a periodic time interval smaller than the time interval.

19. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable storage media of claim 13, wherein the status indicates a failure of the incremental movement by the mobile robot, and wherein the operations further comprise:

initiating a first corrective action based at least in part on a corrective task for the mobile robot, wherein the corrective task is associated with an additional dependency to a different corrective task for the different mobile robot, wherein the first corrective action comprises at least one of;

moving the item to a ground position, or re-executing the instructions.

20. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable storage media of claim 19, wherein the operations further comprise:

initiating a second corrective action based at least in part on a number of the failure exceeding a threshold number, wherein the second corrective action comprises moving to a different position within the mobile robot group to form a different arrangement of the mobile robots.