Entity monitoring for kiva robotic floors

• US 9,607,285 B1
• Filed: 03/17/2015
• Issued: 03/28/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 03/17/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Inventors: Wellman, Parris S.
• Primary Examiner(s): Goyea, Olusegun
• Application Number:
  US14/660,247
• Time in Patent Office: 742 Days
• Field of Search: 700213-255, 701/2, 701/23, 701/26, 701/301, 701/25, 324/202, 324/325, 324/463, 324/346, 235/385
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 19/18 Numerical control [NC], i.e. automatically operating machines, in particular machine tools, e.g. in a manufacturing environment, so as to execute positioning, movement or co-ordinated operations by means of programme data in numerical form G05B19/418 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 19/4189 characterised by the transport system
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 19/41895 using automatic guided vehicles [AGV] control of position or course of AGV's G05D1/00
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/31003 Supervise route, reserve route and allocate route to vehicle, avoid collision
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/31006 Monitoring of vehicle
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/32392 Warehouse and loading, unloading station and shop and machining centers and in out buffer
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/50393 Floor conveyor, AGV automatic guided vehicle
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/0027 involving a plurality of vehicles, e.g. fleet or convoy travelling fleet control of land vehicles from a control room G05D1/0297; traffic control systems for road vehicles G08G1/00; for marine craft G08G3/00; for aircraft G08G5/00
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/0088 characterized by the autonomous decision making process, e.g. artificial intelligence, predefined behaviours using knowledge based models G06N5/00
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/0291 Fleet control monitoring fleets in traffic control systems for road vehicles G08G1/127, G08G1/127
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/0297 by controlling means in a control room
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 2201/0216 Vehicle for transporting goods in a warehouse, factory or similar
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/00 Administration; Management
• 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: Y02P 90/02 Total factory control, e.g. smart factories, flexible manufacturing systems [FMS] or integrated manufacturing systems [IMS]
• CPC Class Codes: Y02P 90/60 Electric or hybrid propulsion means for production processes

Abstract

Techniques for providing an entity monitoring safety feature in an inventory management system may be described. For example, information that indicates respective locations for a plurality of mobile drive units within an inventory management system may be received. Tracking information may be received from a mobile location unit that is moving within a bounded area around a signal transmitter that is coupled to an entity. The tracking information may include an approximate location of the signal transmitter relative to the mobile location unit. Pathway information may be generated that indicates to the plurality of mobile drive units within the inventory management system to stay outside of a radius distance of the mobile location unit based on the received tracking information. The generated pathway information may be provided to the plurality of mobile drive units to enable safe passage for the entity within the inventory management system.

Claims

1. An inventory management system, comprising:

a plurality of access points situated in a materials handling facility;

a plurality of mobile drive units configured to move within the materials handling facility according to generated paths and configured to communicate respective location data of the plurality of mobile drive units within the materials handling facility via at least one of the plurality of access points;

a mobile location unit configured to communicate tracking data of a working entity within the materials handling facility via at least one of the plurality of access points, the tracking data including an approximate location of the working entity within the materials handling facility relative to the mobile location unit; and

a computing device configured to;

receive the location data for the plurality of mobile drive units;

receive a request from the working entity to access the materials handling facility;

assign the mobile location unit to follow the working entity within the materials handling facility as the working entity moves within the materials handling facility based at least in part on the request;

receive the tracking data from the mobile location unit assigned to the working entity;

generate a bounded area around the working entity based at least in part on the tracking data;

generate a new path for at least one of the plurality of mobile drive units within the materials handling facility, the new path instructing the at least one of the plurality of mobile drive units to avoid the bounded area;

provide, via at least one of the plurality of access points, the new path to the at least one of the plurality of mobile drive units; and

instruct an associated propulsion component of the at least one mobile drive unit to alter a current path within the materials handling facility based at least in part on the new path.

2. The inventory management system of claim 1, wherein the mobile location unit comprises a signal receiver, and the working entity comprises a signal transmitter, the signal receiver receiving the tracking data from the signal transmitter as the mobile location unit and the working entity move within the materials handling facility.

3. The inventory management system of claim 2, wherein the signal receiver and the signal transmitter comprise a configuration including at least one of:

an ultra-wide band radio configuration, an infrared light configuration, a laser configuration, a radio frequency link configuration, an invisible light configuration, a video tracking configuration, or an ultrasonic configuration.

4. The inventory management system of claim 1, wherein the mobile location unit is configured to follow the working entity within the bounded area around the working entity.

5. The inventory management system of claim 1, wherein the computing device is further configured to provide instructions, via at least one of the plurality of access points, to the plurality of mobile drive units to stop movement within the materials handling facility in response to the computing device failing to receive the tracking data from the mobile location unit for a predetermined time period.

6. A computer-implemented method, comprising:

receiving, by a computer system, location information that indicates respective locations of a plurality of mobile drive units in an inventory management system;

receiving, from a mobile location unit that is moving within a bounded area around a signal transmitter associated with an entity, tracking information that includes an approximate location of the signal transmitter relative to the mobile location unit, the mobile location unit configured to follow the entity as the entity moves within the inventory management system;

generating, by the computer system and based at least in part on the tracking information, pathway information that instructs at least one of the plurality of mobile drive units within the inventory management system to avoid the bounded area around the signal transmitter;

providing the pathway information to the plurality of mobile drive units; and

instructing an associated propulsion component of the at least one mobile drive unit to alter a current path within the materials handling facility based at least in part on the pathway information.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 6, further comprising generating, by the computer system, instructions to be provided to the plurality of mobile drive units to decrease speed of movement when traveling within the bounded area around the signal transmitter associated with the entity based at least in part on the location information and the tracking information.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 6, further comprising

generating, by the computer system, a series of pathway instructions to be provided to one or more additional mobile location units that are moving within the bounded area around the signal transmitter associated with the entity based at least in part on the location information and the tracking information, the series of pathway instructions creating a particular path for the entity to move within the inventory management system that avoids the plurality of mobile drive units;

and

providing the series of pathway instructions to the one or more additional mobile location units.

9. The computer-implemented method of claim 6, further comprising determining an available mobile location unit to assign to the entity seeking access to the inventory management system based at least in part on the location information and the tracking information, wherein the location information includes a first number of moving mobile drive units of the plurality of mobile drive units and the tracking information includes a second number of entities already accessing the inventory management system.

10. The computer-implemented method of claim 6, wherein the bounded area around the signal transmitter that is associated with the entity is specified by an administrator associated with the inventory management system.

11. The computer-implemented method of claim 6, wherein the bounded area around the signal transmitter that is associated with the entity is determined based at least in part on the location information and the tracking information, wherein the tracking information includes at least one of a speed or a direction of the entity.

12. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing computer-executable instructions that, when executed with a computer system, cause the computer system to perform operations comprising:

maintaining zone information that identifies a plurality of zones of an inventory management system;

receiving location information that includes respective locations of a plurality of mobile drive units in the inventory management system, the mobile drive units configured to communicate the zone information while moving within the inventory management system according to generated paths;

receiving, from a first mobile location unit that is moving within a bounded area around a working entity and following the working entity as the working entity moves within the inventory management system, tracking information that includes an approximate location of the working entity relative to the first mobile location unit and the zone information, the zone information indicating a particular zone of the plurality of zones of the inventory management system in which the working entity is moving, the tracking information utilized to generate paths instructing the plurality of mobile drive units to avoid the bounded area;

determining that the working entity is moving from the particular zone to another zone of the plurality of zones of the inventory management system based at least in part on the tracking information and the zone information;

providing first instructions to the first mobile location unit to remain within the particular zone of the plurality of zones of the inventory management system by instructing an associated propulsion component of the first mobile location unit to decelerate; and

providing second instructions to assign a second mobile location unit to move within the bounded area around the working entity based at least in part on the determination that the working entity is moving from the particular zone to the another zone of the plurality of zones of the inventory management system.

13. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 12, wherein providing second instructions to assign the second mobile location unit to move within the bounded area around the working entity is based at least in part on status information received from the first mobile location unit.

14. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 13, wherein the status information includes at least one of proximity information indicating proximity of the first mobile location unit to the working entity, battery state information of the first mobile location unit, information indicating a speed of the first mobile location unit, or an indication that the first mobile location unit has failed to capture the tracking information over a predetermined time period.

15. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 12, wherein the operations further comprise providing a user interface that displays a representation of the inventory management system, the respective locations of the plurality of mobile drive units, a representation of the working entity, the first mobile location unit, the second mobile location unit, and current paths being utilized by the plurality of mobile drive units.

16. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein the user interface is further configured to receive input from a user indicating a request to access the inventory management system.

17. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein the user interface is further configured to receive input from a user for manually overriding current instructions for the plurality of mobile drive units and stopping movement of the plurality of mobile drive units in the inventory management system.

18. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 12, wherein the operations further comprise:

receiving an indication that at least one mobile drive unit of the plurality of mobile drive units has entered the bounded area around the working entity; and

providing third instructions to the at least one mobile drive unit to stop movement based at least in part on the indication.

19. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 18, wherein the operations further comprise providing fourth instructions to one or more mobile drive units of the plurality of mobile drive units to move to an intersection between the at least one mobile drive unit and the first mobile location unit or the second mobile location unit within the bounded area in response to receiving the indication, the intersection determined based at least in part on the indication and the location information.

20. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 12, wherein the first mobile location unit and the second mobile location unit are configured to utilize a signal receiver that corresponds to a signal transmitter associated with the working entity to generate the tracking information.