System and method for processing waste material

• US 9,493,303 B2
• Filed: 06/18/2014
• Issued: 11/15/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 12/23/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Inventors: Wurman, Peter R., Barbehenn, Michael, Insinga, Aron Klair, Arthen, Eric Leventhal, Chaitin-Pollak, Joshua B.
• Primary Examiner(s): CUMBESS, YOLANDA RENEE
• Application Number:
  US14/308,433
• Publication Number:
  US 20140303773A1
• Time in Patent Office: 881 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: B65F 1/1452 Lifting, hoisting, elevating mechanisms or the like for refuse receptacles lifting in general B66
• CPC Class Codes: B65F 1/1473 Receptacles having wheels
• CPC Class Codes: B65F 3/00 Vehicles particularly adapted for collecting refuse vehicles in general B60; driving vehicle equipment or auxiliaries B60K; discharging contents by tilting entire vehicles B65G; wheeled apparatus for emptying sewers or cesspools E03F7/10

Abstract

A method for processing waste in a material handling system includes detecting an occurrence of a trigger event associated with a waste holder located at a first location and, in response to detecting the trigger event, moving a mobile drive unit to the first location. The method also includes loading waste material onto the mobile drive unit at the first location and transporting the waste material to a waste station using the mobile drive unit.

Claims

1. A material handling system, comprising:

a plurality of waste holders operable to store waste material;

a plurality of mobile drive units operable to transport waste material stored by the waste holders; and

a management module operable to;

determine a rate at which waste accumulates in a waste holder, wherein the waste holder is located at a first location adjacent to a workstation;

determine, based upon the rate, a first time associated with the waste holder, the first time representing an estimated time at which a waste accumulation in the waste holder is expected to reach a threshold;

instruct, at the first time, a selected one of the plurality of mobile drive units to move to the waste holder at the first location;

receive a collection request from a user associated with the waste holder;

determine historical information associated with the user; and

adjust the first time based at least upon the historical information.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein:

the historical information indicates that the waste holder was not completely filled with waste material upon receiving a previous collection request from the user; and

adjust the first time comprises adding a delay to the first time.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein determining the rate at which waste accumulates in the waste holder comprises determining an amount of work done at the workstation.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the management module is further operable to:

instruct the selected mobile drive unit to load waste material onto the mobile drive at the first location; and

instruct the selected mobile drive unit to transport waste material from the first location to a waste station.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the management module is further operable to:

determine that the selected mobile drive unit has arrived at a second location associated with unloading of waste material; and

in response to determining that the selected mobile drive unit has arrived at the second location, instruct a waste station to perform a waste processing task, wherein performing the waste processing task comprises unloading the waste material from the mobile drive unit.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein determining the rate at which waste accumulates in the waste holder comprises measuring an amount of waste stored in the waste holder at each of a plurality of times.

7. A material handling system, comprising:

a plurality of waste holders operable to store waste material;

a plurality of mobile drive units operable to transport waste material stored by the waste holders; and

a management module operable to;

instruct a selected one of the plurality of mobile drive units to perform a first task;

detect an occurrence of a trigger event associated with a waste holder located at a first location adjacent to a workstation;

determine that a second task associated with the trigger event has a higher priority than the first task;

assign the second task to the mobile drive unit, wherein the mobile drive unit discontinues the first task to perform the second task;

receive a collection request from a user associated with the waste holder;

determine historical information associated with the user; and

adjust the first time based at least upon the historical information.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein determining that the second task associated with the trigger event has a higher priority than the first task comprises determining that a second user associated with the second task has a higher priority than a first user associated with the first task.

9. The system of claim 7, wherein determining that the second task associated with the trigger event has a higher priority than the first task comprises determining that a first type of work performed at the workstation has a higher priority than a second type of work associated with the first task.

10. The system of claim 7, wherein determining that a second task associated with the trigger event has a higher priority than the first task comprises determining that a distance between the workstation and a waste station is shorter than a distance associated with the first task.

11. The system of claim 7, wherein the management module is further operable to transmit, to the mobile drive unit, information describing at least a portion of a path between the first location and a waste station.

12. The system of claim 7, wherein management module is further operable to instruct the selected mobile drive unit to transport waste material from the first location to a waste station.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein transporting waste material from the first location to the waste station comprises:

coupling the selected mobile drive unit with the waste holder at the first location; and

moving the selected mobile drive unit and the waste holder to the waste station.

14. A method for material handling, comprising:

detecting a first trigger event associated with a first waste holder, wherein the first waste holder is located at a first location adjacent to a first workstation;

after detecting the first trigger event, detecting a second trigger event associated with a second waste holder, wherein the second waste holder is located at a second location adjacent to a second workstation;

selecting a mobile drive unit from a plurality of mobile drive units;

instructing the selected mobile drive unit to move to one of the first location or the second location based on relative priority between the first and second trigger events;

instructing the selected mobile drive unit to load waste material onto the mobile drive unit at the one of the first location or the second location; and

instructing the selected mobile drive unit to transport waste material from the one of the first location or the second location to a waste station, wherein the waste station is operable to perform a waste processing task.

15. The method of claim 14, further comprising:

determining that the second trigger event has a higher relative priority than the first trigger event based on a determination that a second type of waste material associated with the second trigger event has a higher priority than a first type of waste material associated with the first trigger event; and

instructing the selected mobile drive unit to move to the second location.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the second type of waste material associated with the second trigger event comprises hazardous waste material.

17. The method of claim 14, further comprising:

determining that the second trigger event has a higher relative priority than the first trigger event based on a determination that a second type of work performed at the second workstation has a higher priority than a first type of work performed at the first workstation; and

instructing the selected mobile drive unit to move to the second location.

18. The method of claim 14, further comprising:

determining that the second trigger event has a higher relative priority than the first trigger event based on a determination that the second workstation is closer in distance to the waste station than the first workstation; and

instructing the selected mobile drive unit to move to the second location.

19. The method of claim 14, further comprising:

after the selected mobile drive unit transports the waste material to the waste station, instructing the selected mobile drive unit to move to a third location associated with an inventory holder;

instructing the selected mobile drive unit to dock with the inventory holder at the third location; and

instructing the selected mobile drive unit to move the inventory holder to a fourth location.