High speed picking system

• US 6,011,998 A
• Filed: 05/09/1997
• Issued: 01/04/2000
• Est. Priority Date: 05/09/1997
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Robert D. Lichti, Wayne Lichti
• Original Assignee: Robert D. Lichti, Wayne Lichti
• Inventors: Lichti, Wayne, Lichti, Robert D.
• Primary Examiner(s): Terrell, William E.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Park, Wonki K.
• Application Number:
  US08/853,986
• Time in Patent Office: 970 Days
• Field of Search: 700/230, 700/218, 700/225, 700/223, 700/214, 700/213, 700/224, 700/215, 700/217, 700/228, 700/226, 700/229, 198/349.6, 198/349.7, 414/273, 414/225, 414/226, 414/268, 414/283
• US Class Current: 700/230
• CPC Class Codes: B65G 1/1376 the orders being assembled on a commissioning conveyor

Abstract

An automated material handling picking system including a plurality of storage locations for objects which are to be picked, a moveable picking head for picking the objects from the storage locations, a moving conveyor including a plurality of receiving locations where the picked objects are to be consolidated into separate orders or sub-sets, and a bank of queue stations for temporarily holding the picked objects and selectively releasing them into the respective receiving locations where the sub-sets are to be consolidated. The picking head deposits a picked object into the nearest available queue station. The picking head is not involved in the consolidation of the objects into sub-sets because of the buffering effect of the queue stations. Preferably, only one object at a time is held in each queue. The release of the objects from the queue stations is coordinated so that all of the objects for a particular sub-set are released by the respective queue stations into one receiving location on the moving conveyor. The picking sequence is preferably based on the proximity of the object to the picking head, rather than on the object'"'"'s inclusion in any particular sub-set. The normally more efficient proximity based picking sequence is made possible by the buffering effect of the queue stations.

Claims

1. A high speed picking system including a plurality of storage locations adapted to contain objects to be picked, a plurality of queue stations, a plurality of receiving locations, and at least one moveably mounted picking member adapted to selectively pick individual ones of said objects from a predefined list of such objects, and to carry such individual ones of said objects to selected ones of said plurality of queue stations, said queue stations being adapted to receive such picked objects, to hold such picked objects temporarily, and to dispense such picked objects selectively to any one of said receiving locations, said plurality of queue stations being operative to selectively dispense between them a predefined sub-set of said predefined list of objects to a predetermined receiving location of said plurality of receivinq locations.

7. A high speed picking system of claim 1 wherein said predetermined receiving locations are moveably mounted relative to said plurality of queue stations.

2. A high speed picking system including providing a plurality of storage locations adapted to contain objects to be picked, providing a plurality of queue stations, providing a plurality of receiving locations, providing at least one moveably mounted picking member, actuating said moveably mounted picking member to selectively pick individual ones of said objects from a predefined list of such objects and to carry such individual ones of said objects to selected ones of said plurality of queue stations, said queue stations receiving such picked objects, said queue stations holding such picked objects temporarily, and said queue stations dispensing such picked objects selectively to any predetermined ones of said receiving locations, said plurality of queue stations selectively dispensing between them a predefined sub-set of said predefined list of objects to one such predetermined receiving location.

8. A high speed picking system according to claim 2 including actuating said moveably mounted picking member to selectively pick individual ones of said objects from a predefined list of such objects based on the proximity of said individual ones of said objects to the position of said moveably mounted picking member.

3. An automated picking station including at least one moveably mounted picking vehicle, a plurality of storage locations where objects to be picked are located, a plurality of queue stations positioned adjacent to a moveable conveyor, and a plurality of receiving locations carried by said moveable conveyor, said picking station comprising:

said moveably mounted picking vehicle including an object grasping member and being moveably mounted to traverse said grasping member across all of said storage locations and queue stations, said grasping member being adapted to grasp an object in one of said storage locations and carry such grasped object to substantially the closest available queue station, each said queue station being adapted to receive such grasped object from said grasping member and to then deliver such grasped object to a predetermined receiving location of any one of said plurality of receiving locations.

4. A high speed picking system including a plurality of storage locations holding objects which are to be picked, a plurality of queue stations, at least one moveable conveyor including a plurality of object consolidating locations thereon, and at least one moveable picking head, said picking head being in picking relationship to said storage locations and in depositing relationship to said queue stations, and said queue stations being in selective dispensing relationship to said object consolidating locations, said high speed system comprising:

establishing a work list of the objects to be picked from said storage locations to be deposited into a predetermined object consolidating location;

actuating said picking head to pick a first said object from a first said storage location based upon the occurrence of said first object on said work list and the proximity of said first storage location to the current location of said picking head; and

said picking head depositing said first object in a first queue stations;

repeating said actuating and depositing until all said objects of said work list have been deposited into respective said queue stations;

selectively dispensing said objects from said queue stations into said predetermined object consolidating location.

5. A high speed picking system including a plurality of storage locations holding objects which are to be picked, a plurality of queue stations, at least one moveable conveyor including a plurality of object consolidating locations, and at least one moveable picking head, said picking head being in picking relationship to said storage locations and in depositing relationship to said queue stations, and said queue stations being in dispensing relationship to each said object consolidating location, said high speed system comprising:

establishing a work list of the objects to be picked from said storage locations, said work list including a plurality of different sub-set lists, each said sub-set list to be associated with its own said consolidating location;

actuating said picking head to pick a first object from a first storage location based upon the occurrence of said first object on said work list and the proximity of said first storage location to the current location of said picking head;

said picking head depositing said first object in a first queue station, said first queue station being substantially the closest available queue station to said first storage location;

repeating said actuating and depositing for at least a second object from a second storage location to a second queue station, said second queue station being substantially the closest available queue station to said second storage location; and

,

for each said sub-set list, selectively dispensing such picked objects from said queue stations to said associated object consolidating location based upon the listing of such picked objects of said sub-set list.

6. A high speed picking system including a plurality of storage locations holding objects which are to be picked, a plurality of queue stations, at least one moveable conveyor including a plurality of object consolidating locations, and at least one moveable picking head, said picking head being in picking relationship to said storage locations and in depositing relationship to said queue stations, and said queue stations being in selective dispensing relationship to each said object consolidating location, said high speed system comprising:

establishing a work list of the objects to be picked from said storage locations;

actuating said picking head to pick a first said object from a first said storage location based upon the occurrence of said first object on said work list; and

selecting a first queue station based upon the proximity of said first storage location to said first queue station; and

said picking head depositing said first object in said first queue station.

9. A high speed picking system including a plurality of storage locations adapted to contain objects to be picked, a plurality of queue stations, a plurality of receiving stations, and at least one moveably mounted picking member, said moveably mounted picking member being in object picking relationship to said storage locations and in object dispensing relationship to said queue stations, said moveably mounted picking member being adapted to selectively pick individual ones of said objects from a predefined list of such objects, and to carry such individual ones of said objects to selected ones of said plurality of queue stations, said queue stations being in temporary holding and selective release relationship to said objects, said plurality of queue stations being adapted to selectively release between them a predefined sub-set of said predefined list of objects to one such receiving location.

10. A high speed picking system comprising:

at least one object picking head, a plurality of object storage locations, a plurality of object queue stations, and a plurality of object consolidation locations;

said picking head, said storage locations, and said queue stations being moveably mounted relative to one another;

said picking head including an object holding member, said object holding member being mounted in;

(a) a picking relationship to selected objects at said storage locations

(b) a holding relationship to such selected objects as said picking head, said storage locations, and queue stations are moved relative to one another, and

(c) a dispensing relationship to said queue stations, said queue stations being mounted to;

(a) receive such selected objects from said object holding member,

(b) to temporarily hold such selected objects, and

(c) to selectively discharge such selected objects to any selected ones of said object consolidation locations.

11. A high speed picking system of claim 10 wherein said object holding member is mounted to pick the closest selected object and to dispense to the closest available queue station.