Robotic sortation system

摘要

A material handling system comprises a main conveyor, a branch conveyor, and a robotic line sorter. The robotic line sorter comprises a robotic arm and an end effector operable to engage an article. The robotic line sorter is operable to perform one or a combination of the functions of orienting, aligning, gapping, and/or moving an article from the main conveyor to the branch conveyor. The material handling system may further comprise a scanner configured to read and communicate information from an article to the robotic line sorter. The robotic line sorter may be configured to deliver an article to the branch conveyor in a predetermined order, until a predetermined condition is met, or based upon a predetermined characteristic.

主权项

1. A material handling system comprising:
a main conveyor; at least one branch conveyor comprising one or more accumulation conveyors that intersect with the main conveyor; a single staging conveyor that receives articles from the at least one branch conveyor; a sortation conveyor that receives the articles from the single staging conveyor and that sorts the articles to more than one divert location a robot, wherein the robot comprises: (i) a robotic arm, and (ii) an end effector, coupled to the robotic arm, wherein the robot is configured to move an article from the main conveyor to the at least one branch conveyor; and a controller in communication with the robot, wherein the controller comprises at least one processor that executes instructions to cause the robot to perform operations comprising:
moving an article from the main conveyor to the at least one branch conveyor to accumulate articles; andadjusting the article to provide a selected one or more of a headroom gap with another article, a longitudinal alignment with a longitudinal axis of the branch conveyor, and lateral position on the branch conveyor to prepare the article for merging and sortation with accumulated articles on the at least one branch conveyor.