Autonomous robots performing concerted operation based on shared sensory access and holistic flow of information

• US 10,678,228 B2
• Filed: 04/04/2018
• Issued: 06/09/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 04/04/2018
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: InVia Robotics Inc.
• Original Assignee: InVia Robotics Inc.
• Inventors: Voorhies, Randolph Charles, Elazary, Lior, Parks, II, Daniel Frank, Pandya, Sagar, Grant, William Shane Simpson
• Primary Examiner(s): Randazzo, Thomas
• Application Number:
  US15/945,480
• Publication Number:
  US 20190310655A1
• Time in Patent Office: 797 Days
• CPC Class Codes: B25J 9/0084 comprising a plurality of manipulators
• CPC Class Codes: B25J 9/162 Mobile manipulator, movable base with manipulator arm mounted on it
• CPC Class Codes: B25J 9/1664 characterised by motion, path, trajectory planning
• CPC Class Codes: B25J 9/1697 Vision controlled systems
• CPC Class Codes: B65G 1/1373 for fulfilling orders in warehouses
• CPC Class Codes: B65G 2203/044 Optical
• CPC Class Codes: B65G 2209/04 Indication location means
• CPC Class Codes: B66F 9/063 Automatically guided
• 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 1/0276 using signals provided by a source external to the vehicle involving a plurality of vehicles G05D1/0287; automatically controlling vehicle speed responsive to externally generated signals B60K31/0058
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/0287 involving a plurality of land vehicles, e.g. fleet or convoy travelling traffic control systems for road vehicles G08G1/00, particularly anticollision systems G08G1/16
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/0297 by controlling means in a control room
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 19/06037 multi-dimensional coding
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/08 Logistics, e.g. warehousing, loading or distribution; Inventory or stock management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/087 Inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling, procurement or balancing against orders
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 901/01 Mobile robot
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 901/08 Robot

Abstract

Increased robotic sophistication and more efficient autonomous operation is implemented by providing separate physical autonomous robots shared and remote access to the sensory array and information from the sensory array of one another. Each robot can access a sensor of any other robot, or scans or other information obtained from the sensor of any other robot. The robots leverage the shared sensory access in order to perform batch order fulfillment, dynamic rearrangement of item or tote locations, and opportunistic charging. These coordinated robotic operations based on the shared sensory access increase the efficiency and productivity of the robots without adding resources or hardware to the robots, increasing the speed of the robots, or increasing the number of deployed robots.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving a set of orders;

retrieving a first object, that contains a quantity of an item for one or more of the set of orders, with a first autonomous robot of a set of autonomous robots, wherein said retrieving comprises scanning, by the first autonomous robot while at a storage location of the first object, an identifier identifying the storage location opening as a result of said retrieving, and an identifier identifying the first object being retrieved;

delivering the first object with the first autonomous robot to at least one order fulfillment station after said retrieving, wherein each order of the one or more orders is fulfilled in part with one or more units of the item from the first object delivered by the first autonomous robot;

deriving demand of a second object, that is pending a return into storage, based on a number of times the set of autonomous robots scan the identifier identifying the first object and an identifier identifying the second object over a period of time;

selecting the storage location of the first object for the second object based on the scanning of the identifier identifying the storage location opening and said demand; and

returning the second object to the storage location with a second autonomous robot from the set of autonomous robots.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein said retrieving further comprises fulfilling the set of orders out of sequence based on retrieving the first object with the item for at least two orders of the set of orders that are different than two consecutive orders received in the set of orders.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the first autonomous robot comprises a motorized base and a mechanical retriever, wherein said retrieving comprises moving the motorized base from a first location to a second location corresponding to the storage location of the first object, and extracting the first object from the second location with the mechanical retriever.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the first autonomous robot comprises at least one scanner, and wherein said delivering comprises scanning the identifier identifying the first object with the at least one scanner in response to the first autonomous robot arriving at the at least one order fulfillment station, and sharing access to or output from said at least one scanner of the first autonomous robot with a different robot or worker at the order fulfillment station.

5. The method of claim 1 further comprising returning the first object with a robot from the set of autonomous robots in response to fulfilling the item for the at least two orders at the order fulfillment station.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein said selecting comprises selecting the storage location when the storage location is a first open location that is closest to the order fulfillment station and when said demand exceeds a first amount, and selecting the storage location when the storage location is a different second open location that is farther from the order fulfillment station than another open location when said demand is below the first amount.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein said delivering comprises moving the first autonomous robot with the first object to the at least one order fulfillment station.

8. The method of claim 7 further comprising fulfilling, in part, each order of at least two orders of the set of orders in response to said delivering the first object with the first autonomous robot.

9. The method of claim 1 further comprising

providing at least the second robot of the set of autonomous robots shared access to results of said scanning and the identifier identifying the storage location opening.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein said selecting is further based in part on an order pattern linking the second object to a third object that is stored adjacent to the storage location selected for the second object.

11. The method of claim 9 further comprising scanning, by the second autonomous robot while at the storage location, the identifier identifying the storage location and the identifier identifying the second object being returned to the storage location.

12. The method of claim 11 further comprising sharing access to the scanner of the second autonomous robot, wherein said sharing access to the scanner of the second autonomous robot comprises providing results of said scanning of the identifier identifying the storage location and the identifier identifying the second object to at least the first autonomous robot.

13. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

providing the set of autonomous robots shared remote access to at least one sensor on each robot of the set of autonomous robots;

retrieving by the set of autonomous robots, a set of objects from a set of storage locations to the order fulfillment station;

detecting that the second autonomous robot has a least amount of remaining charge based on a reading from the at least one sensor of each robot of the set of autonomous robots, wherein said reading is obtained from said shared remote access to the at least one sensor of the set of autonomous robots;

diverting the second autonomous robot to a charging station in response to said detecting the second autonomous robot with the least amount of remaining charge.

14. The method of claim 13 further comprising scanning an identifier at the charging station with the at least one sensor of the second autonomous robot.

15. The method of claim 14 further comprising sharing said scanning of the identifier at the charging station with the set of autonomous robots based on said shared remote access, wherein said sharing signals unavailability of the charging station to the set of autonomous robots.

16. A method comprising:

receiving a set of orders;

retrieving a first object containing a quantity of an item for one or more of the set of orders with a first autonomous robot of a set of autonomous robots, wherein said retrieving comprises scanning, by the first autonomous robot while at a storage location of the first object, an identifier identifying the storage location opening as a result of said retrieving;

delivering the first object with the first autonomous robot to at least one order fulfillment station after said retrieving, wherein each order of the one or more orders is fulfilled in part with one or more items from the first object delivered by the first autonomous robot;

deriving demand of a second object that is pending a return into storage;

selecting the storage location of the first object for the second object based on the scanning of the identifier identifying the storage location opening and in response to one of;

the storage location being a first open location closest to the order fulfillment station when said demand is greater a threshold, and

the storage location being a different second open location that is farther from the order fulfillment station than the first open location when said demand is less that the threshold; and

returning the second object to the storage location with a second autonomous robot from the set of autonomous robots.

17. A method comprising:

receiving a set of orders;

retrieving a first object containing a quantity of an item for one or more of the set of orders with a first autonomous robot of a set of autonomous robots, wherein said retrieving comprises scanning, by the first autonomous robot while at a first storage location of the first object, an identifier identifying the first storage location opening as a result of said retrieving;

delivering the first object with the first autonomous robot to at least one order fulfillment station after said retrieving, wherein each order of the one or more orders is fulfilled in part with one or more items from the first object delivered by the first autonomous robot;

identifying a second object at the order fulfillment station pending a return into storage;

determining a third object that is commonly ordered with the second object based on an order pattern identified in part from the set of orders;

selecting the first storage location of the first object for the second object based in part on the first storage location being proximate to a second storage location of the third object;

returning the second object to the second storage location with a second autonomous robot from the set of autonomous robots.