Automated Container Storage for High-Density Article Picking
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional stores are limited in the number of displayable products per footprint due to the need for wide aisles and shelves that can be reached by humans, restricting article density.
Innovation Solution
An automated storage and retrieval system that stores containers with articles and a control apparatus to manage picking, allowing automated retrieval and delivery of articles to a pick-up area, eliminating the need for manual handling.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If wide aisles and reachable shelves are provided for manual customer access, then ease of operation is improved, but article number density per footprint is limited
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces the manual mechanical system of customers physically accessing shelves with an automated robotic system. Robots navigate through narrow aisles, locate products using sensors and vision systems, and retrieve items automatically. This substitution eliminates the need for wide aisles and human-reachable shelf heights, allowing dense vertical stacking and maximizing article density per footprint while maintaining operational convenience through automated access.
2Quantity of substance
If automated storage and retrieval system is implemented, then article number density per footprint is increased, but device complexity is increased
Solution Approach 1:
The robotic system is designed with multi-functionality to handle various tasks within a single platform. The robots can navigate different aisle configurations, identify multiple product types using integrated sensors, manipulate diverse container formats, and communicate with the central management system. This universal design consolidates what would otherwise require multiple specialized systems, managing complexity while enabling high article density through automated storage and retrieval operations.
Data Source
AI summary
An article management system includes an automated storage and retrieval system configured to store a plurality of containers, each container containing one or more articles, and take out, to a picking area adjacent to a pick-up area, a container containing at least one article to be picked up at the pick-up area, among the plurality of containers, and a control apparatus configured to control or support picking, at the picking area, the at least one article out of the container taken out by the automated storage and retrieval system.