Mobile robot manipulator

• US 9,688,472 B1
• Filed: 12/10/2015
• Issued: 06/27/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 12/10/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Inventors: Stubbs, Andrew, Grieselhuber Mills, Diane, Longtine, John Gregory, Wellman, Parris S., Verminski, Matthew David
• Primary Examiner(s): Randazzo, Thomas
• Application Number:
  US14/965,409
• Publication Number:
  US 20170166399A1
• Time in Patent Office: 565 Days
• CPC Class Codes: B25J 9/0096 co-operating with a working support, e.g. work-table
• 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: B65G 1/06 with means for presenting articles for removal at predetermined position or level B65G1/12 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: B65G 1/1373 for fulfilling orders in warehouses
• CPC Class Codes: B65G 1/1375 the orders being assembled on a commissioning stacker-crane or truck
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/39091 Avoid collision with moving obstacles
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/40298 Manipulator on vehicle, wheels, mobile
• 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

Abstract

Embodiments are described for implementing a mobile inventory transfer station within a workspace of an inventory management system. In embodiments, inventory transfer instructions for moving inventory stored within container holders in a workspace may be received. A portion of container holders within the workspace may be identified based on characteristics associated with the items of the inventory transfer instructions and first information identifying the items stored in the portion of container holders. A mobile container unit and a mobile manipulator unit may be selected based on distances between the units and the identified portion of container holders within the workspace. Instructions may be transmitted to the mobile container unit and mobile manipulator unit for navigating to the identified portion of container holders in the workspace and transferring inventory between a particular container holder and a container associated with the mobile container unit by the mobile manipulator unit.

Claims

1. An inventory management system, comprising:

a plurality of container holders arranged within a first area of a workspace, a container holder of the plurality of container holders comprising one or more containers for storage of inventory items;

a plurality of mobile drive units, each mobile drive unit configured to move container holders of the plurality of container holders, using an associated propulsion component, within the workspace according to first instructions received from an inventory management module;

a plurality of mobile manipulator units configured to move within the workspace according to second instructions received from the inventory management module, at least one of the plurality of mobile manipulator units comprising;

a robotic arm configured to transfer the inventory items between the one or more containers and a subset of containers for transferring inventory;

a plurality of mobile container units configured to move the subset of containers within the workspace according to third instructions received from the inventory management module; and

a processor coupled with memory, configured to implement the inventory management module to;

receive inventory transfer instructions for an item within the workspace;

generate a virtual mobile inventory transfer station in a second area within the workspace based at least in part on characteristics of the item in the inventory transfer instructions and first information indicating a location of a portion of the container holders associated with the item within the workspace, the virtual mobile inventory transfer station comprising the portion of the container holders, a particular mobile drive unit of the plurality of mobile drive units, a particular mobile container unit of the plurality of mobile container units, and a particular mobile manipulator unit of the plurality of mobile manipulator units, the virtual mobile inventory transfer station not previously associated with the second area;

transmit the first instructions to the propulsion component of the particular mobile drive unit, the propulsion component configured to move the portion of the container holders from the first area to the second area;

transmit the second instructions for moving the particular mobile manipulator unit from a third area of the workspace to the second area and transferring, utilizing the robotic arm, the item from a particular container of the subset of containers to at least one of the portion of the container holders; and

transmit the third instructions to the particular mobile container unit for moving from a fourth area of the workspace to the second area, the particular mobile container unit comprising the particular container containing the item for transfer to the at least one of the portion of the container holders.

2. The inventory management system of claim 1, wherein the characteristics of the item comprise at least one of metrics that identify a velocity of throughput for the item, historic order information associated with the item indicating one or more other items that are historically included in an order for the item, second information indicating a distance between where the item is stored within the workspace and a third area for inventory transfer processing, third information indicating a packing type associated with the item, or physical characteristic information associated with the item.

3. The inventory management system of claim 1, wherein the third instructions are based at least in part on the second area and the inventory transfer instructions.

4. The inventory management system of claim 3, wherein the inventory management module is further configured to transmit fourth instructions to the particular mobile container unit for moving to a fifth area within the workspace and for transferring another item within the workspace based on other inventory transfer instructions.

5. The inventory management system of claim 1, wherein each mobile container unit of the plurality of mobile container units is further configured to interact with and move the subset of containers within the workspace.

6. A computer-implemented method, comprising:

receiving, by a computer system comprising a processor and memory, inventory transfer instructions for moving an inventory item stored or to be stored within at least one container holder of a plurality of container holders within a workspace;

identifying, by the computer system, a portion of container holders of the plurality of container holders within the workspace based at least in part on characteristics associated with the inventory item identified by the inventory transfer instructions and further based at least in part on first information identifying inventory items associated with the portion of container holders;

generating, by the computer system, a virtual mobile inventory transfer station to associate in an area within the workspace based at least in part on identifying the portion of container holders, the identified area within the workspace comprising an approximate location of the portion of container holders, the virtual mobile inventory transfer station not previously associated with the area;

selecting, by the computer system, a mobile container unit and a mobile manipulator unit based at least in part on respective distances between each of the mobile container unit and the mobile manipulator unit within the workspace and the identified area within the workspace for the virtual mobile inventory transfer station, the mobile container unit configured to carry a mobile container using an associated propulsion component, and the mobile manipulator unit comprising a robotic arm configured to transfer inventory items between the mobile container of the mobile container unit and the at least one container holder of the portion of container holders;

transmitting, by the computer system, first instructions to the mobile manipulator unit for navigating to the identified area within the workspace for the virtual mobile inventory transfer station and transferring, by the robotic arm, the inventory item between the at least one container holder and the mobile container of the mobile container unit; and

transmitting, by the computer system, second instructions to the mobile container unit for navigating to the identified area within the workspace for the virtual mobile inventory transfer station with the mobile container, the propulsion component of the mobile container unit using the second instructions to navigate to the identified area.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 6, further comprising maintaining second information identifying a location of each container holder of the plurality of container holders within the workspace, wherein identifying the portion of container holders is further based at least in part on the second information.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 6, further comprising second information identifying respective default locations within the workspace for each of the mobile container unit and the mobile manipulator unit, wherein respective distances between the respective default locations of each of the mobile container unit and the mobile manipulator unit and the area within the workspace for the virtual mobile inventory transfer station is based at least in part on the second information.

9. The computer-implemented method of claim 6, wherein the first instructions for the mobile manipulator unit and the second instructions for the mobile container unit comprise respective optimized paths to the area within the workspace for the virtual mobile inventory transfer station, the respective optimized paths determined based at least in part on the inventory transfer instructions.

10. The computer-implemented method of claim 6, wherein the first instructions and the second instructions identify respective velocities for the mobile manipulator unit and the mobile container unit to maintain while navigating within the area within the workspace for the virtual mobile inventory transfer station.

11. The computer-implemented method of claim 6, further comprising transmitting third instructions to the mobile container unit for navigating to a shipping area of the workspace based at least in part on an indication from the mobile manipulator unit that the inventory item has been transferred to the mobile container.

12. The computer-implemented method of claim 6, further comprising selecting, by the computer system, a plurality of mobile manipulator units to transfer the inventory item based at least in part on respective locations of each mobile manipulator unit of the plurality of mobile manipulator units and respective distances to the area within the workspace for the virtual mobile inventory transfer station.

13. The computer-implemented method of claim 6, wherein the inventory transfer instructions comprise one or more customer orders for inventory items stored in the workspace, the first instructions to the mobile manipulator unit and the second instructions to the mobile container unit further identifying the inventory items required for fulfilling the one or more customer orders utilizing the identified portion of container holders within the workspace.

14. An inventory management system, comprising:

a plurality of container holders arranged within a first area of a workspace, a container holder of the plurality of container holders comprising one or more containers for storage of inventory items;

a plurality of mobile container units configured to move a subset of containers for transferring inventory within the workspace using an associated propulsion component according to first instructions;

a plurality of mobile manipulator units configured to move within the workspace according to second instructions, at least one of the plurality of mobile manipulator units comprising;

a robotic arm configured to transfer the inventory items between the one or more containers and a particular container of the subset of containers of at least one of the plurality of mobile container units;

a plurality of mobile drive units, each mobile drive unit configured to move container holders of the plurality of container holders within the workspace according to third instructions; and

a processor coupled with memory, configured to implement a management module to;

receive inventory transfer instructions for an inventory item within the workspace;

generate a virtual mobile inventory transfer station to associate in a particular area within the workspace based at least in part on characteristics of the inventory item, the particular area including at least one container holder of the plurality of container holders, the virtual mobile inventory transfer station not previously associated with the particular area;

select a particular mobile container unit of the plurality of mobile container units based at least in part on a distance between a second area of the workspace associated with the particular mobile container unit and the particular area within the workspace associated with the virtual mobile inventory transfer station;

select a particular mobile manipulator unit of the plurality of mobile manipulator units based at least in part on a distance between a third area of the workspace associated with the particular mobile manipulator unit and the particular area within the workspace associated with the virtual mobile inventory transfer station;

select a particular mobile drive unit of the plurality of mobile drive units based at least in part on a distance between a fourth area of the workspace associated with the particular mobile drive unit and the particular area within the workspace associated with the virtual mobile inventory transfer station;

transmit the first instructions to move the particular mobile container unit of the plurality of mobile container units using the associated propulsion component from the second area of the workspace to the particular area associated with the virtual mobile inventory transfer station;

transmit the second instructions to move the particular mobile manipulator unit from the third area of the workspace to the particular area associated with the virtual mobile inventory transfer station and to transfer the inventory item, utilizing the robotic arm, from the at least one container holders to the particular container of the particular mobile container unit;

transmit the third instructions to move the particular mobile drive unit from the fourth area of the workspace to the particular area associated with the virtual mobile inventory transfer station and to arrange the at least one container holder from a first configuration to a second configuration within the particular area based at least in part on the inventory transfer instructions.

15. The inventory management system of claim 14, wherein the particular mobile manipulator unit further comprises an image capture device.

16. The inventory management system of claim 15, wherein the image capture device is utilized to capture images of the inventory item as the inventory item is transferred to the particular container.

17. The inventory management system of claim 14, wherein the particular mobile manipulator unit further comprises a plurality of robotic arms configured to transfer inventory items within the workspace, each robotic arm of the plurality of robotic arms associated with a different end of arm tool with associated grasping capabilities.

18. The inventory management system of claim 14, wherein identifying the particular area within the workspace is based at least in part on a number of mobile manipulator units that are within a certain distance of the particular area and a policy for reducing resource usage by a potentially selected mobile manipulator unit while transferring inventory items within the workspace.

19. The inventory management system of claim 14, wherein selecting the particular mobile manipulator unit is further based at least in part on an amount of time calculated for the particular mobile manipulator unit to fulfill the inventory transfer instructions.

20. The inventory management system of claim 14, wherein selecting the particular mobile manipulator unit comprises selecting two or more mobile manipulator units based at least in part on a determined first amount of time utilizing the particular mobile manipulator unit to fulfill the inventory transfer instructions and a determined second amount of time utilizing the two or more mobile manipulator units to fulfill the inventory transfer instructions.