Robotic Inventory Scanning with Dynamic Urgency Routing
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current stock keeping methods lack efficiency in deploying robotic systems to scan inventory within stores, as they do not effectively prioritize scan routes based on product type and urgency, leading to suboptimal scanning frequencies and routes.
Innovation Solution
A method that involves accessing a planogram to extract product type identifiers, retrieving recommended scan frequencies and types, aggregating locations, and calculating urgency scores to optimize scan routes for robotic systems, ensuring they prioritize high-urgency locations and adjust routes in real-time to maintain scanning efficiency.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If traditional inventory scanning methods are used, then all locations can be scanned uniformly, but scanning efficiency and time utilization are suboptimal
Solution Approach 1:
The system assigns different scan frequencies to different product types and locations based on their specific characteristics. High-urgency product types (e.g., perishable goods, high-demand items) are scanned more frequently, while low-urgency items are scanned less often. This localized differentiation optimizes scanning efficiency by focusing resources where they are most needed rather than applying uniform scanning across all inventory.
Solution Approach 2:
The scan frequency is made dynamic and adaptive rather than static. The system continuously updates urgency scores based on changing conditions such as product type, time of day, demand patterns, and current inventory levels. This dynamic adjustment allows the robotic system to adapt its scanning behavior in real-time, improving productivity while reducing unnecessary scanning of low-priority items.
2Reliability
If robotic systems scan all locations uniformly, then coverage is complete, but route optimization and resource allocation are suboptimal
Solution Approach 1:
The system pre-calculates urgency scores and prioritizes scan routes before the robotic system begins scanning. By determining which locations require scanning and in what order beforehand, the system ensures that high-urgency locations are scheduled for scanning while optimizing the route to minimize travel time. This preliminary planning maintains reliable scan frequency fulfillment without sacrificing route efficiency.
Solution Approach 2:
The system continuously monitors scanning progress and updates urgency scores in real-time based on feedback from the environment. If high-urgency locations are identified during scanning, the route can be dynamically adjusted to prioritize these locations. This feedback mechanism ensures that scan frequency requirements are met reliably while maintaining optimal route efficiency throughout the scanning process.
3Adaptability or versatility
If scan routes are fixed and predetermined, then planning is simple, but adaptability to changing store conditions is reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The scan route is made dynamic rather than fixed. The system continuously recalculates urgency scores based on changing store conditions such as new high-priority inventory items, time-dependent scanning requirements, or obstacles encountered during scanning. This dynamic approach allows the robotic system to adapt to changing conditions while the underlying algorithm maintains manageable complexity through systematic urgency scoring and route optimization.
Data Source
AI summary
One variation of a method for deploying a robotic system to scan inventory within a store includes: retrieving generic recommended baseline scan frequencies assigned to a set of product types stocked in the store; annotating a map of the store according to generic recommended baseline scan frequencies and locations of the set of product types in the store; overwriting baseline scan frequencies assigned to locations in the store based on inputs from the user; accessing elapsed times since capture of last images of slots in the store, assigned to these product types, by the robotic system; calculating urgency scores for imaging these slots proportional to differences between elapsed times and scan frequencies; and calculating a scan route traversable by the robotic system to preferentially locate, within the field of view of the robotic system, locations in the store associated with higher urgency scores over locations associated with lower urgency scores.