Abstract: Spatiotemporal robotic navigation may include providing a set of robots non-conflicting access to the same shared resources at different times so that the robots may operate without continually accounting for the locations of the other robots and workers operating in the particular site, without continually planning or updating paths after determining an initial path, and without continuously adjusting movements as the robots near one another. The spatiotemporal robotic navigation involves generating spatiotemporal plans. Each plan has a set of objectives that a robot is to execute by different time intervals. Each plan is generated so as to not conflict with the resources being accessed by other robots at time intervals set in the plans of other robots.

Abstract: Provided are robots that autonomously detect and correct individualized anomalies resulting from deviations in the sensors and/or actuators of individual robots, and environmental anomalies resulting from deviations in the environment elements that the robots rely on or use in the execution of different tasks. To do so, a robot may receive a task, may determine expected kinematics that include expected activations of a set of sensors and actuators by which the robot executes the task, may activate the set of sensors and actuators according to the expected kinematics, may track the actual kinematics resulting from activating the set of sensors and actuators according to the expected kinematics and continuing the activations until detecting one or more environment elements signaling completion of the task, and may adjust one or more sensors, actuators, or environment elements in response to the actual kinematics deviating from the expected kinematics.

Abstract: An automated robotic depalletizing system includes at least one robot for transferring inventory that arrives on a pallet to different storage locations within a warehouse. The robot may perform the automated depalletizing by moving to the pallet having a stacked arrangement of a plurality of objects, identifying, via a sensor, a topmost object of the plurality of objects, aligning a retriever with the topmost object, engaging the topmost object with the retriever, and transferring the topmost object from the pallet to the robot by actuating the retriever. The automated depalletizing may also be performed via coordinated operations of two or more robots. For instance, a first robot may retrieve objects from the pallet, and a second set of one or more robots may be used to transfer the retrieved objects into storage.

Abstract: Disclosed is a robot for performing three-dimensional (“3D”) or multi-plane sortation and/or order fulfillment. The robot may include a motorized base to move about a first plane, a lift that raises and lowers a dispensing receptacle atop the lift about a second plane, and one or more actuators that modify a position of the dispensing receptacle from an upright position to a first tilted position in which the dispensing receptacle is tilted towards a first side of the robot and to a second tilted position in which the dispensing receptacle is tilted towards an opposite second side of the robot. The robot may receive and carry items when the dispensing receptacle is in the upright position, and may dispense the items to a destination on either side of the robot by tilting the dispensing receptacle to the first tilted position or the second tilted position.

Abstract: Disclosed are systems and methods for computing an object's weight or the quantity of items within the object based on activations of different robot actuators used in retrieving the object from a storage location. Specifically, the robot may activate one or more actuators during retrieval of an object, may obtain a measurement in response to activating a particular actuator, and may derive a weight of the object based on the measurement by converting the measurement from a first range of values that are associated with activations of the particular actuator to a second range of values that are disassociated with activations of the particular actuator. The robot may then modify its operation in response to the weight that is derived for the object matching or being mismatched to an expected or last tracked weight.

Abstract: A container with an alignment correcting end is provided. The alignment correcting end has angled side walls that extend from parallel flat square or rectangular sides of the container. Each angled side wall extends at an angle between 5 and 70 from one of the parallel walls towards the center of the container. Nubs may be disposed about an exterior of the angled side walls. Also, a passive displacing robotic element for performing misaligned or off-axis placement of the container with the alignment correcting end is provided. The passive displacing robotic element provides displacement of the one or more robotic actuators that are used to engage and place the container into the slot in response to the alignment correcting end of the container contacting the slot edge, wall, or other barrier.

Abstract: Disclosed is a system and associated methods for optimizing order fulfillment. The system determines the containers in a site with items for a set of received orders, and reserves different slot types of an item cache for each container based on the properties of the contained items or container. The system transfers a set of containers to the item cache by placing each of the set of containers into a slot that is associated with a slot type that matches a slot type reserved for that container. The system replaces a first container from the set of containers upon delivering a second container to the item cache and other containers from the set of containers in the slot type reserved for the second container having items for unfulfilled orders and the first container not having items for unfulfilled orders once the second container is brought to the item cache.

Abstract: An order fulfillment system controller receives orders for different objects, generates a number of batched tasks that is less than the number of received orders, and determines a set of the orders with a total distance between them that is greater than a total distance between other sets of the orders. The controller allocates a different order from the set of order to a different batched task, and allocates each unallocated order to a selected batched task based on the distance between objects of the unallocated order and objects previously allocated to the selected batched task being less than the distance between objects of the unallocated order and objects previously allocated to other batched tasks. The controller controls different agents according to the allocation of different subsets of orders to different batched tasks.

Abstract: Robots and/or a robot coordinator are provided to execute an overall task by partitioning the task into subtasks and by coalescing results and/or output of the subtasks. The robot coordinator may coordinate, control, and/or program a set of robots to operate within different sections of a site and to execute subtasks associated with different tasks that fall within their respective sections in parallel. The robot coordinator may coordinate, control, and/or program the same or different set of robots to coalesce results and/or output for subtasks for a particular task from the different sections to complete the overall task. For instance, a first set of robots may retrieve objects that are stored at storage locations within the sections in which each robot operates, and a second set of robots may rotate moveable storage apparatus across the sections so that each storage apparatus stores all objects of a particular order.

Abstract: A virtual put wall system includes a storage apparatus with multiple containers, and different container identifiers attached to the containers. The system includes databases storing a first mapping that maps each customer order of a plurality of customer orders to a different container, a second mapping that maps each container to a different container identifier attached to that container, and a different visual identifier of each container. The system also includes a display device and a coordinating device that detects retrieval of an object, determines that the object belongs to a particular customer order, selects, based on the second mapping, a particular container that is used to store objects of the particular customer order, and directs the transfer of the object to the particular container by modifying the display device to present a particular visual identifier of the particular container.

Abstract: A robot may include a spatiotemporal controller for controlling the kinematics or movements of the robot via continuous and/or granular adjustments to the actuators that perform the physical operations of the robot. The spatiotemporal controller may continuously and/or granularly adjust the actuators to align completion or execution of different objectives or waypoints from a spatiotemporal plan within time intervals allotted for each objective by the spatiotemporal plan. The spatiotemporal controller may also continuously and/or granularly adjust the actuators to workaround unexpected conflicts that may arise during the execution of an objective and delays that result from a workaround while still completing the objective within the allotted time interval. By completing objectives within the allotted time intervals, the spatiotemporal controller may ensure that conflicts do not arise as the robots simultaneously operate in the site using some of the same shared resource.

Abstract: Provided are systems and methods for maximizing saturation of two different sets of actors performing different sets of dependent operations at different rates over different but overlapping periods of time in a non-conflicting manner. The systems and methods may include transferring a first set of ordered items from item storage to item cache locations at a first rate during a first period of time, and fulfilling orders at a faster second rate over a later second period of time by picking items from a first set of the item cache locations at the second rate, and by replacing items at a non-overlapping second set of the item cache locations at the first rate. The transferring is commenced before the picking to create a buffer that allows a first set of actors, operating at the first rate, to continually provide the dependencies needed for a second set of actors to operate at the faster second rate without conflict and with each set of actors operating at their respective maximum rates.

Abstract: Provided are systems and methods by which robots predictively detect objects that may obstruct robotic tasks prior to the robots performing those tasks. For instance, a robot may receive a task, and may obtain dimensions of a task object based on a first identifier obtained with the task or with a sensor of the robot. The robot may determine a first boundary for moving the task object based on the task object dimensions and an added buffer of space that accounts for imprecise robotic operation. The robot may detect a second identifier of a neighboring object, and may obtain dimensions of the neighboring object using the second identifier. The robot may compute a second boundary of the neighboring object based on the dimensions of the neighboring object and a position of the second identifier, and may detect an obstruction based on the second boundary crossing into the first boundary.

Abstract: Increased robotic sophistication and more efficient autonomous operation is implemented by providing separate physical autonomous robots shared and remote access to the sensory array and information from the sensory array of one another. Each robot can access a sensor of any other robot, or scans or other information obtained from the sensor of any other robot. The robots leverage the shared sensory access in order to perform batch order fulfillment, dynamic rearrangement of item or tote locations, and opportunistic charging. These coordinated robotic operations based on the shared sensory access increase the efficiency and productivity of the robots without adding resources or hardware to the robots, increasing the speed of the robots, or increasing the number of deployed robots.

Abstract: An order fulfillment system controller receives orders for different objects, generates a number of batched tasks that is less than the number of received orders, and determines a set of the orders with a total distance between them that is greater than a total distance between other sets of the orders. The controller allocates a different order from the set of order to a different batched task, and allocates each unallocated order to a selected batched task based on the distance between objects of the unallocated order and objects previously allocated to the selected batched task being less than the distance between objects of the unallocated order and objects previously allocated to other batched tasks. The controller controls different agents according to the allocation of different subsets of orders to different batched tasks.

Abstract: A container with an alignment correcting end is provided. The alignment correcting end has angled side walls that extend from parallel flat square or rectangular sides of the container. Each angled side wall extends at an angle between 5 and 70 from one of the parallel walls towards the center of the container. Nubs may be disposed about an exterior of the angled side walls. Also, a passive displacing robotic element for performing misaligned or off-axis placement of the container with the alignment correcting end is provided. The passive displacing robotic element provides displacement of the one or more robotic actuators that are used to engage and place the container into the slot in response to the alignment correcting end of the container contacting the slot edge, wall, or other barrier.

Abstract: A container with an alignment correcting end is provided. The alignment correcting end has angled side walls that extend from parallel flat square or rectangular sides of the container. Each angled side wall extends at an angle between 5 and 70 from one of the parallel walls towards the center of the container. Nubs may be disposed about an exterior of the angled side walls. Also, a passive displacing robotic element for performing misaligned or off-axis placement of the container with the alignment correcting end is provided. The passive displacing robotic element provides displacement of the one or more robotic actuators that are used to engage and place the container into the slot in response to the alignment correcting end of the container contacting the slot edge, wall, or other barrier.

Abstract: Provided are robots that autonomously detect and correct individualized anomalies resulting from deviations in the sensors and/or actuators of individual robots, and environmental anomalies resulting from deviations in the environment elements that the robots rely on or use in the execution of different tasks. To do so, a robot may receive a task, may determine expected kinematics that include expected activations of a set of sensors and actuators by which the robot executes the task, may activate the set of sensors and actuators according to the expected kinematics, may track the actual kinematics resulting from activating the set of sensors and actuators according to the expected kinematics and continuing the activations until detecting one or more environment elements signaling completion of the task, and may adjust one or more sensors, actuators, or environment elements in response to the actual kinematics deviating from the expected kinematics.

Abstract: An inventory verification device (“IVD”) provides automatic inventory verification and detection of inventory discrepancies. The IVD automatically verifies the quantity of items in a container based on weight and/or height measurements obtained for the items in the container using two or more sensors of the IVD. The IVD may also automatically updated tracked inventory of an item based on detected changes to the weight and/or height of the items in the container as a result of a worker adding items to the container or removing items from the container without the working providing confirmation for each addition and/or removal. The IVD autoatmically verifies whether correct items are stored in a container by performing feature matching of various characteristics for items imaged in the container against expected characteristics for items that should be stored in the container.

Abstract: Provided are systems and methods by which robots predictively detect objects that may obstruct robotic tasks prior to the robots performing those tasks. For instance, a robot may receive a task, and may obtain dimensions of a task object based on a first identifier obtained with the task or with a sensor of the robot. The robot may determine a first boundary for moving the task object based on the task object dimensions and an added buffer of space that accounts for imprecise robotic operation. The robot may detect a second identifier of a neighboring object, and may obtain dimensions of the neighboring object using the second identifier. The robot may compute a second boundary of the neighboring object based on the dimensions of the neighboring object and a position of the second identifier, and may detect an obstruction based on the second boundary crossing into the first boundary.