| 摘要 |
Methods and apparatus for selecting and combining items in an outbound container through the use of autonomous vehicles, each of which includes means for automatically loading and unloading a payload, to perform both transfer and transport functions in moving containers of items within a workspace via a network of roadways. Under computer control, said autonomous vehicles transfer and transport case containers of item units between incoming receiving stations, intermediate storage locations, and outgoing order-assembly stations where entire containers or individual item units are combined in the outbound container. |
| 主权项 |
1. A method for combining a selection of different products in an outbound container, said method comprising:
providing a warehouse having stacked levels of storage locations, each of said storage locations being located immediately adjacent to a vehicle support roadway in a network of roadways with more than one roadway level so that each roadway level is at a different one of the stacked levels of storage locations, at least one roadway of said network including a branching location at which the at least one roadway divides into different branching roadways which lead to different ones of said storage locations, providing a source transfer station adjacent to one of said roadways in said network of roadways, providing a destination order assembly station adjacent to one of said roadways in said network of roadways, providing a plurality of wheeled transport vehicles, each given one of said vehicles being movable from its current location in said network of roadways to a specified target location in said network of roadways in response to a movement command by following a selected one of said branching roadways at each branching location that said given one said vehicles encounters as it moves through said network from said current location to said target location, unpalletizing shipping cases where each of said vehicles further including a transfer mechanism for transferring at least one unpalletized shipping case, forming a not palletized case payload, to and from said vehicle, providing a programmed processor for issuing movement commands to said vehicles, storing a multiplicity of different products in said warehouse by repeatedly:
issuing a movement command from said processor to a selected one of the vehicles to move said vehicle to said source transfer station,employing said transfer mechanism on said selected vehicle to individually transfer the not palletized case payload of the at least one unpalletized shipping case holding a plurality of individual packages where each of the packages, of each of the at least one shipping case, contains the same kind of product, the not palletized case payload being individually transferred to said selected vehicle at said source transfer station,issuing a movement command from said processor to said selected vehicle to move said selected vehicle along said network carrying said not palletized case payload from said source transfer station to a designated one of said storage locations, andemploying said transfer mechanism on said selected vehicle to transfer said not palletized case payload of the at least one unpalletized shipping case from said selected vehicle to said designated storage location, and retrieving and combining a selection of different products stored in said warehouse by repeatedly:
issuing a movement command from said processor to a specified one of the vehicles to move said specified vehicle to a specified one of the storage locations, where a given one of said different products is stored,employing said transfer mechanism on said specified vehicle to transfer an unpalletized shipping case stored at said specified storage location to said specified vehicle to form a not palletized case payload of at least one stored shipping case,issuing a movement command from said processor to said specified vehicle to move said specified vehicle along said network carrying said at least one stored shipping case from said specified storage location to said destination order assembly station, andat said destination order assembly station, transferring the at least one stored shipping case from said specified vehicle to said outbound container. |
