Robotic Tossing Strategy for Inventory Throughput
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Solution Overview
Problem
Modern inventory systems face inefficiencies in resource utilization, leading to lower throughput, long response times, and increased costs due to the challenges of accommodating fluctuations in system throughput, particularly in large and diverse inventory environments.
Innovation Solution
The implementation of a robotic arm system that uses sensors and databases to determine optimal tossing strategies for inventory items, allowing them to be moved along specific trajectories to designated receiving locations, thereby improving throughput and reducing manual handling time.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If manual handling methods are used in inventory systems, then operational flexibility is maintained, but productivity is low and handling time is excessive
Solution Approach 1:
The robotic arm system autonomously performs inventory item handling operations including grasping, tossing, and placing items without continuous human intervention. The system self-manages the workflow by receiving item identifiers, determining trajectories, and executing tosses to designated locations, thereby eliminating manual handling time and significantly improving productivity.
2Productivity
If system capacity is expanded to handle fluctuations in throughput, then productivity increases, but device complexity and infrastructure costs increase significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The robotic arm system provides dynamic scalability to inventory operations. The single robotic arm can adapt its operational intensity and speed to match fluctuating throughput demands without requiring proportional increases in physical infrastructure. The system dynamically adjusts its handling capacity based on real-time workflow requirements, maintaining productivity flexibility while avoiding the complexity of expanded infrastructure.
Data Source
AI summary
Robotic arms or manipulators can be used to toss inventory items within an inventory system. Tossing strategies for the robotic arms may include information about how a grasped item is to be moved and released by a robotic arm to achieve a trajectory for moving the item to a receiving location. A tossing strategy may also use a trajectory that avoids time and/or space reserved for a trajectory of another tossed item. The receiving location can include surfaces and/or other features that can be manipulated for receiving the item based on one or more characteristics of the tossed item and/or a trajectory of the tossed item.