System and method for transporting inventory items

• US 7,912,574 B2
• Filed: 06/19/2006
• Issued: 03/22/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 06/19/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Kiva Systems, Inc (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Inventors: D'Andrea, Raffaello, Barbehenn, Michael T., Hoffman, Andrew E., Mountz, Michael C., Wurman, Peter R.
• Primary Examiner(s): Crawford; Gene
• Assistant Examiner(s): Prakasam; Ramya
• Application Number:
  US11/425,066
• Publication Number:
  US 20070293978A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,737 Days
• Field of Search: 700/214, 700/213, 700/215, 700/216, 340/572.1, 705/28
• US Class Current: 700/213
• CPC Class Codes: C07B 2200/13 Crystalline forms, e.g. polymorphs
• CPC Class Codes: C07C 253/34 Separation; Purification
• CPC Class Codes: C07C 255/43 the carbon skeleton being further substituted by singly-bound oxygen atoms
• 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 2219/31408 Cost calculation of use of certain machine types
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/32328 Dynamic scheduling, resource allocation, multi agent negotiation
• 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]

Abstract

A method for transporting inventory items includes moving a mobile drive unit to a first point within a workspace. The first point is a location of an inventory holder. The method further includes docking the mobile drive unit with the inventory holder and moving the mobile drive unit and the inventory holder to a second point within the workspace. The second point is associated with conveyance equipment. The method further includes moving the inventory holder to a third point within the workspace using the conveyance equipment.

Claims

1. A method for transporting inventory items, comprising:

calculating, for each of a plurality of cells in a workspace, a cost associated with a mobile drive unit moving through that cell;

calculating a cost associated with transporting a mobile drive unit between a first point and a second point using particular conveyance equipment;

calculating a first path cost associated with a first path between an initial location and a destination location based, at least in part, on a sum of the cost associated with each of the cells the first path traverses;

calculating a second path cost associated with a second path between the initial location and the destination location, the second path traversing the first point and the second point, based, at least in part, on a sum of the cost associated with each of the cells the second path traverses and the cost associated with transporting the mobile drive unit using the conveyance equipment;

selecting one of the first path and the second path based on the first path cost and the second path cost; and

transmitting information identifying the selected path to a mobile drive unit.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein calculating, for each of the plurality of cells in the workspace, the cost associated with a mobile drive unit moving through that cell comprises calculating, for each of the plurality of cells in the workspace, a cost based, at least in part, on an amount of time required for the mobile drive unit to move across the cell.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein calculating, for each of the plurality of cells in the workspace, the cost associated with a mobile drive unit moving through that cell comprises calculating, for each of the plurality of cells in the workspace, a cost based, at least in part, on a frequency with which mobile drive units move across the cell.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein calculating, for each of the plurality of cells in the workspace, the cost associated with a mobile drive unit moving through that cell comprises calculating, for each of the plurality of cells in the workspace, a cost based, at least in part, on a frequency with which a particular inventory holder associated with the cell is involved in inventory requests processed by the mobile drive units.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein calculating the cost associated with transporting the mobile drive unit between the first point and the second point using the conveyance equipment comprises calculating a cost based, at least in part, on a time required to transport the mobile drive unit between the first point and the second point using the conveyance equipment.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein calculating the cost associated with transporting the mobile drive unit between the first point and the second point using the conveyance equipment comprises calculating a cost based, at least in part, on a frequency with which mobile drive units utilize the conveyance equipment.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein calculating the cost associated with transporting the mobile drive unit between the first point and the second point using the conveyance equipment comprises calculating the cost based, at least in part, on whether a particular inventory item is held only by inventory holders currently stored in a portion of the workspace associated with the second point.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

moving the mobile drive unit along the selected path to an inventory holder;

docking the mobile drive unit with the inventory holder; and

moving the inventory holder.

9. A system for transporting inventory items, comprising:

a mobile drive unit;

a plurality of inventory holders;

a workspace comprising a plurality of workspace cells;

conveyance equipment operable to transport the mobile drive unit between a first point and a second point; and

a management module operable to;

calculate, for each of a plurality of cells in a workspace, a cost associated with a mobile drive unit moving through that cell;

calculate a cost associated with transporting a mobile drive unit between a first point and a second point using the conveyance equipment;

calculate a first path cost associated with a first path between an initial location and a destination location based, at least in part, on a sum of the cost associated with each of the cells the first path traverses;

calculate a second path cost associated with a second path between the initial location and the destination location, the second path traversing the first point and the second point, based, at least in part, on a sum of the cost associated with each of the cells the second path traverses and the cost associated with transporting the mobile drive unit using the conveyance equipment;

select one of the first path and the second path based on the first path cost and the second path cost; and

transmit information identifying the selected path to a mobile drive unit.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the management module is operable to calculate, for each of the plurality of cells in the workspace, the cost associated with the mobile drive unit moving through that cell by calculating, for each of the plurality of cells in the workspace, a cost based, at least in part, on an amount of time required for the mobile drive unit to move across the cell.

11. The system of claim 9, wherein the management module is operable to calculate, for each of the plurality of cells in the workspace, the cost associated with a mobile drive unit moving through that cell by calculating, for each of the plurality of cells in the workspace, a cost based, at least in part, on a frequency with which mobile drive units move across the cell.

12. The system of claim 9, wherein the management module is operable to calculate, for each of the plurality of cells in the workspace, the cost associated with a mobile drive unit moving through that cell by calculating, for each of the plurality of cells in the workspace, a cost based, at least in part, on a frequency with which a particular inventory holder associated with the cell is involved in inventory requests processed by the mobile drive units.

13. The system of claim 9, wherein the management module is operable to calculate the cost associated with transporting the mobile drive unit between the first point and the second point using the conveyance equipment comprises calculating a cost based, at least in part, on a time required to transport the mobile drive unit between the first point and the second point using the conveyance equipment.

14. The system of claim 9, wherein the management module is operable to calculate the cost associated with transporting the mobile drive unit between the first point and the second point using the conveyance equipment by calculating a cost based, at least in part, on a frequency with which mobile drive units utilize the conveyance equipment.

15. The system of claim 9, wherein the management module is operable to calculate the cost associated with transporting the mobile drive unit between the first point and the second point using the conveyance equipment by calculating the cost based, at least in part, on whether a particular inventory item is held only by inventory holders currently stored on in a portion of the workspace associated with the second point.

16. The system of claim 9, wherein the mobile drive unit is further operable to:

move the mobile drive unit along the selected path to one of the inventory holders;

dock with the inventory holder; and

move the inventory holder.

17. A management module for managing mobile drive units, the management module operable to:

calculate, for each of a plurality of cells in a workspace, a cost associated with a mobile drive unit moving through that cell;

calculate a cost associated with transporting a mobile drive unit between a first point and a second point using particular conveyance equipment;

calculate a first path cost associated with a first path between an initial location and a destination location based, at least in part, on a sum of the cost associated with each of the cells the first path traverses;

calculate a second path cost associated with a second path between the initial location and the destination location, the second path traversing the first point and the second point, based, at least in part, on a sum of the cost associated with each of the cells the second path traverses and the cost associated with transporting the mobile drive unit using the conveyance equipment;

select one of the first path and the second path based on the first path cost and the second path cost; and

transmit information identifying the selected path to a mobile drive unit.

18. A system for managing mobile drive units, comprising:

means for calculating, for each of a plurality of cells in a workspace, a cost associated with a mobile drive unit moving through that cell;

means for calculating a cost associated with transporting a mobile drive unit between a first point and a second point using particular conveyance equipment;

means for calculating a first path cost associated with a first path between an initial location and a destination location based, at least in part, on a sum of the cost associated with each of the cells the first path traverses;

means for calculating a second path cost associated with a second path between the initial location and the destination location, the second path traversing the first point and the second point, based, at least in part, on a sum of the cost associated with each of the cells the second path traverses and the cost associated with transporting the mobile drive unit using the conveyance equipment;

means for selecting one of the first path and the second path based on the first path cost and the second path cost; and

means for transmitting information identifying the selected path to a mobile drive unit.