Autonomous Robots Performing Concerted Operation Based on Shared Sensory Access and Holistic Flow of Information

• US 20190310655A1
• Filed: 04/04/2018
• Published: 10/10/2019
• 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
• Granted Patent: US 10,678,228 B2
• Time in Patent Office: 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;

identifying a first common item ordered as part of at least two orders of the set of orders;

retrieving a first object containing a quantity of the first common item with a particular autonomous robot of a set of autonomous robots in response to said identifying; and

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

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

3. The method of claim 2 further comprising fulfilling in part each order of the at least two orders of the set of orders in response to said delivering the first object with the particular autonomous robot.

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

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the particular autonomous robot comprises a motorized base and a mechanical retriever for said objects, wherein said retrieving comprises moving the motorized base from a first location to a second location at which the first object is stored, and extracting the first object from the second location with the mechanical retriever.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the particular autonomous robot comprises at least one scanner, and wherein said delivering comprises scanning an identifier identifying the first object with the at least one scanner in response to the particular 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 particular autonomous robot with a different robot or worker at the order fulfillment station.

7. 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 common item for the at least two orders at the order fulfillment station.

8. A method comprising:

retrieving by a first set of autonomous robots, a first set of objects from a first set of storage locations in a warehouse;

scanning with a scanner of each autonomous robot of the first set of autonomous robots while at the first set of storage locations, an identifier identifying a storage location of the first set of storage locations opening as a result of said retrieving;

providing a second set of autonomous robots shared access to the scanner or scanned identifiers from the scanner of each autonomous robot of the first set of autonomous robots;

identifying a particular object to return back into storage, wherein the particular object is from a second set of objects retrieved prior to said retrieving of the first set of objects;

selecting a particular storage location from the first set of storage locations based in part on said shared access from said providing; and

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

9. The method of claim 8, wherein said selecting is further based in part on demand for the particular storage location.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein said selecting comprises selecting a first location from the first set of storage locations closest to a location from which the particular autonomous robot returns the particular object in response to said demand exceeding a first amount, and selecting a second location from the first set of storage locations that is furthest from the location from which the particular autonomous robot returns the particular object in response to said demand falling below a second amount.

11. The method of claim 10 further comprising deriving said demand in response to said shared access and based on a number of times the first and second sets of autonomous robots scan an identifier of the particular object when retrieving the particular object over a period of time.

12. The method of claim 8 further comprising scanning with a scanner of the particular autonomous robot, a first identifier identifying the particular storage location and a second identifier identifying the particular object in response to said returning.

13. The method of claim 12 further comprising sharing access to the scanner of the particular autonomous robot, wherein said sharing access to the scanner of the particular autonomous robot comprises providing results of said scanning of the first identifier and the second identifier to the first and second sets of autonomous robots.

14. The method of claim 13 further comprising updating at the first and second sets of autonomous robots, unavailability of the particular storage location in response to said providing results of said scanning of the first identifier and the second identifier.

15. The method of claim 8, wherein said selecting is further based in part on an order pattern linking the particular object with a secondary object, and wherein said selecting comprising selecting a location from the first set of storage locations that is closest to a storage location of the secondary object.

16. A method comprising:

providing a 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 for order fulfillment at a common site;

detecting a first autonomous robot of the set of autonomous robots with 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;

detecting arrival of a second autonomous robot from the set of autonomous robots at the common site with a first object of the set of objects in response to a scan of an identifier identifying the common site with the at least one sensor of the second robot being shared with at least the first robot;

diverting the first autonomous robot from the common site to a charging station in response to the said detecting the first autonomous robot with the least amount of remaining charge and said detecting arrival of the second autonomous robot at the common site; and

moving the first autonomous robot from the charging station to the common site in response to a scan shared from the at least one sensor of the second robot indicating departure of the second autonomous robot from the common site.

17. The method of claim 16 further comprising scanning an identifier at the charging station with the at least one sensor of the first autonomous robot in response to said diverting.

18. The method of claim 17 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.

19. The method of claim 16 further comprising moving a third autonomous robot from a different charging station to the common site in response to said shared remote access to a sensor at the common site scanning an identifier indicating completed extraction of items from a second object of the set of objects.

20. The method of claim 19 further comprising returning the second object from the common site to one of the set of storage locations with the third autonomous robot in response to said moving the third autonomous robot to the common site.