Crown Equipment argues for new automated goods-to-person robotic system
The automation of a warehouse is, at this point, nothing surprising. Companies from Amazon to Nike have started using goods-to-person picking solutions, where robots bring inventory to a human operator.
But many of these types of solutions don't take full advantage of the space in a warehouse, Crown Equipment Corporation argued in a patent application filed this week. Crown made the case for an automated environment that also takes advantage of a multilevel racking system.
The system relies on two vehicles working in tandem: one to pick (108 in the image above), and one to transport (106 in the image above).
"Rather than transporting mobile storage units ... exclusively to floor-level locations, a storage unit transporter can coordinate with a pick-place vehicle to provide automated or semi-automated access to storage bays not directly accessible to the storage unit transporter," the patent reads.
The system is designed to carry mobile storage units (104 in the image above) from the racking system to the human picker and is designed to store a variety of goods, according to Crown.
Because the transporter carries the storage unit from underneath, it won't need to rely on the picking vehicle for units on the ground level. This means a warehouse could put its faster-moving inventory on the bottom of the racking system to allow for faster access, according to the patent.
The storage unit transporter is autonomous, but the pick-place vehicle could be manually operated, or partially or fully autonomous, the patent explains, adding that it is "any type of conventional or yet-to-be-developed vehicle capable of placing mobile storage units in the multiple level racking system."
The warehouse management system would coordinate the movement of vehicles.
