Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
The following is a quotation of the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless –
(a)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 1-10 and 12-14 rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Gallagher et al (US Pub App 2018/0370728).
Regarding claim 1, Gallagher discloses an automated material handling system having a plurality of autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) for retrieving, transporting, and delivering items to and from locations within a material handling facility, said material handling system comprising:
a plurality of picking stations (12), each configured for picking operations as part of order fulfillment activities in the material handling facility (Para.40); and
a common waiting area associated with at least a subset of said plurality of picking workstations, wherein said common waiting area is configured to provide temporary holding spaces for each associated picking workstation, wherein said common waiting area is configured to provide a temporary holding space for a first AMR of said plurality of AMRs when transporting items for order fulfillment activities at a first picking station that is not ready to receive the first AMR and its items(Para.39);
wherein the first picking station is operable to send a prompt to the first AMR when ready for the first AMR and its items (Para.15); and
wherein the first AMR is configured to leave said common waiting area and proceed to the first picking station when prompted by the first picking station (Para. 40, 70, 78).
Regarding claim 2, Gallagher further discloses each picking station of said plurality of picking stations comprises a respective buffer queue, each configured to provide a queue space for a selected quantity of AMRs of said plurality of AMRs with items for their respective picking stations of said plurality of picking stations (Para. 40, 68, 70, 78).
Regarding claim 3, Gallagher further discloses each said buffer queue is configured to arrange up to a selected quantity of AMRs of said plurality of AMRs into a first-in, first-out queue, such that a first AMR of said plurality of AMRs to enter a buffer queue will be the first to leave the buffer queue (Para. 40, 67-68, 70, 78).
Regarding claim 4, Gallagher further discloses said common waiting area comprises a plurality of temporary holding spaces for AMRs of said plurality of AMRs up to a selected quantity of the AMRs (Para. 40, 68, 70, 78).
Regarding claim 5, Gallagher further discloses each temporary holding space of said plurality of temporary holding spaces is configured to provide a location for an AMR of said plurality of AMRs to wait until its destination is ready to receive it (Para. 15, 40, 68, 70, 78).
Regarding claim 6, Gallagher further discloses a storage area configured to store items in donor totes for order fulfillment, wherein said plurality of AMRs comprises a first subset of AMRs comprising a plurality of deposit/retrieval AMRs each configured to deposit or retrieve donor totes with items to or from the storage area, wherein said plurality of AMRs comprises a second subset of AMRs comprising a plurality of transport AMRs each configured to transport items from location to location, and wherein each of said plurality of deposit/retrieval AMRs is configured to receive or deliver items to or from each of said plurality of transport AMRs (Para.42, Fig.3) (Para. 15, 40, 68, 70, 78).
Regarding claim 7, Gallagher further discloses a warehouse control system configured to direct ones of said plurality of AMRs into said common waiting area, and further configured to release ones of said plurality of AMRs waiting in said common waiting area to continue on to their respective destinations (Para.40, 68, 70, 78).
Regarding claim 8, Gallagher discloses a method of task allocation for a material handling system having a plurality of autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) for retrieving, transporting, and delivering items to and from locations within a material handling facility, said method comprising:
retrieving, with an AMR of the plurality of AMRs, a first donor tote specific to an order (Para. 15, 40, 42, 51, 68, 70, 78);
delivering, with the AMR, the first donor tote to a waiting area when the order is not active at a picking station (Para. 15, 40, 42, 51, 68, 70, 78);
delivering, with the AMR, the first donor tote to a first picking station when the order is active at the first picking station (Para. 40, 42, 51, 68, 70, 78).
Regarding claim 9, Gallagher further discloses the waiting area is a common waiting area and provides AMR waiting spaces for each of a plurality of associated picking stations (Para. 40, 68, 70, 78).
Regarding claim 10, Gallagher further discloses removing, with the AMR, the first donor tote from the first picking station when picking from the first donor tote is complete; and delivering, with the AMR, the first donor tote to a second picking station when the order is active at the second picking station (Para. 40, 42, 51, 68, 70, 78).
Regarding claim 12, Gallagher further discloses delivering, with the AMR, the first donor tote to a storage area when there is a storage location for the first donor tote, and alternatively delivering, with the AMR, the first donor tote to the waiting area when there is not an available storage location in the storage area for the first donor tote (Para. 40, 42, 51, 68, 70, 78).
Regarding claim 13, Gallagher further discloses the AMR with the first donor tote, when in the storage area, remains at the storage area until either there is an available storage location in the storage area or the order is active at another picking station (Para. 40, 42, 51, 68, 70, 78).
Regarding claim 14, Gallagher further discloses each AMR of at least a subset of AMRs of said plurality of AMRs comprises an onboard computer programmed with computer code for performing order fulfillment operations (Para. 44).
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 103 which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action:
A patent for a claimed invention may not be obtained, notwithstanding that the claimed invention is not identically disclosed as set forth in section 102 of this title, if the differences between the claimed invention and the prior art are such that the claimed invention as a whole would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which the claimed invention pertains. Patentability shall not be negated by the manner in which the invention was made.
Claims 11, 15-20 rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Gallagher et al (US Pub App 2018/0370728) in view of Franey (US Pub App 2022/0371626).
Regarding claim 11, Gallagher further discloses delivering, with the AMR, the first donor tote to the waiting area when the order is not active at the second picking station (Para. 40, 42, 51, 68, 70, 78), wherein the AMR with the first donor tote remains at the waiting area until the order is active at the second picking station (Para. 40, 42, 51, 68, 70, 78).
Gallagher does not further specifically disclose being active within a threshold period of time.
Franey teaches systems and methods for dynamically limiting alternate pick location attempts before shorting wherein the analytics server may determine a priority of an order based on the urgency of the order (Para.86).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the application was filed to have modified Gallagher in view of Franey to be active within a threshold period of time in order to allow the system to determine the next task to perform.
Regarding claim 15, Gallagher discloses a method of task allocation for a material handling system having a plurality of autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) for retrieving, transporting, and delivering items to and from locations within a material handling facility, said method comprising: accessing, with an AMR, a list of available tasks, wherein the list of available tasks are accessed via a network (Para.65, Fig.10); selecting, with the AMR, a next task for the AMR from the list of available tasks (Para.65); wherein said selecting a next task comprises selecting a task with either the lowest travel time or results in maximized order fulfillment throughput (Para.66).
Gallagher does not further specifically disclose wherein said accessing a list of available tasks is performed while a current task is finishing within a threshold period of time.
Franey teaches systems and methods for dynamically limiting alternate pick location attempts before shorting wherein the analytics server may determine a priority of an order based on the urgency of the order (Para.86).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the application was filed to have modified Gallagher in view of Franey to be active within a threshold period of time in order to allow the system to determine the next task to perform.
Regarding claim 16, Gallagher further discloses selecting a new task comprises selecting a task based upon at least one of a pool of available tasks, an urgency of the task, an origin of the task, and/or destination locations of the available tasks, the AMR’s current location, and any customer requirements or the material handling facility’s requirements (Para 65, 81).
Regarding claim 17, Gallagher further discloses selecting a new task is also based upon the material handling capability of the AMR (Para 65, 81, 91).
Regarding claim 18, Gallagher further discloses traveling, with the AMR, to the next task location, and while traveling, reviewing the list of available tasks to determine if there is an alternative task in the list of available tasks that is either a higher priority or requires less travel time than the next task (Para 65, 76, 78, 81, 91).
Regarding claim 19, Gallagher further discloses switching to the alternative task when the alternative task has a higher priority or requires less travel time than the next task, and returning the next task to the list of available tasks (Para 65, 76, 78, 81, 91).
Regarding claim 20, Gallagher further discloses the AMR selecting the next task comprises an onboard computer with computer code for a workflow for selecting the next task from the list of available tasks (Para.40).
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. Gupta, Galluzzo, Theobald and Raizer further disclose elements of an automated material handling system having a plurality of autonomous mobile robots.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ASHLEY K ROMANO whose telephone number is (571)272-9318. The examiner can normally be reached Monday - Friday.
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/SAUL RODRIGUEZ/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 3652
/ASHLEY K ROMANO/Examiner, Art Unit 3652
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