Pneumatic transport delivery control

摘要

The presented inventions seek to create a verifiable and closed loop chain-of-custody for a specific transaction in a pneumatic tube transport system while allowing a sender and recipient to perform asynchronous activity. That is, one aspect the presented inventions allows a sender to securely send a carrier to a desired recipient while allowing the desired recipient to receive the secured carrier at a convenient time and/or location without tying up system resources. Another aspect improves the physical barriers between high value payloads and the unintended recipients. This is done in part by introducing randomness into the carrier delivery process such that no member of the general public or facility staff knows the location and/or delivery time of a secured carrier without having access to specific database records indicating the current location and/or delivery status of the secured carrier.

主权项

1. A method for use in a pneumatic carrier system that includes a plurality of user stations, pneumatic tubes and transfer devices, comprising:
receiving an input identifying a recipient of a carrier at located at an origination station within the pneumatic carrier system; sending a message to the recipient of the carrier, wherein said message indicates that the carrier is slated for delivery to the recipient; transporting the carrier to a destination station associated with a destination location of the recipient via the pneumatic tube system; receiving a response from the recipient in response to said message, said response including recipient identification credentials; upon confirming credentials from the recipient, generating an access code specific to the carrier on an output device for receipt by the recipient; and upon the access code being received via an input device at the destination station, providing access to the carrier.