Provided herein are various apparatuses, systems, and methods for improving the efficiency of medication distribution within a healthcare facility. In particular, embodiments may provide for dispensing medications needed and medications anticipated to be needed to an authorized medical person for administration to a patient in a healthcare facility. Methods may include receiving an indication of one or more unit dose medications anticipated to be needed by a patient; retrieving the one or more unit dose medications from a unit storage device; loading the one or more unit dose medications onto a transport device; transporting the one or more unit dose medications from the unit storage device to a location proximate the patient; and transferring the one or more unit dose medications from the transport device to a staging area at the location proximate the patient.

This application relates to a technical field of cargo transportation and provides a method for controlling an intelligent pallet. The method includes: acquiring current shelf location information and performing movement according to the current shelf location information; acquiring cargo information and retrieving preset path information; acquiring weight information of current cargo and retrieving inclination angle threshold information; acquiring actual inclination angle information, and modifying the preset path information to generate updating path information by comparing the actual inclination angle information with the inclination angle threshold information; associating the updating path information with the cargo information and the cargo weight information and replacing the preset path information with the updating path information; and performing movement according to the updating path information. This application has an effect of improving the efficiency of cargo transportation.

An electric pallet conveyor includes a slide moveably supported on a guide-rail of a track. The electric pallet includes a motor for propelling the slide along the guide rail. A first gear pulley is attached to the slide and rotatable about a first gear pulley axis of rotation in response to a rotational torque output from the motor. A second gear pulley displaced from the first gear pulley is rotatable about a second gear pulley axis of rotation. A pulley belt connects the first gear pulley to the second gear pulley and is operable for transferring a rotational torque from the first gear pulley to the second gear pulley. A drive pulley fixedly attached to the second gear pulley engages a drive rail of the track to propel the slide along the guide-rail.

In an overhead conveyance vehicle that travels along a rail serving as a conveyance track mounted on a ceiling and conveys a target magazine along the rail, when an elevating unit holding the magazine is hoisted or lowered between a conveyance position and a transfer position, a controller for controlling the operation of the overhead conveyance vehicle determines, based on an image captured by a camera, the presence or absence of an obstacle in an imaging range captured by the camera.

A joint connector for track sections of a conveyor wherein the track sections comprise a feature that requires alignment, the joint connector including: a first segment for attachment to an attachment feature of a first track section of the conveyor; and a second segment for attachment to an attachment feature of a second track section of the conveyor, wherein the second segment is configured to be adaptive to non-alignment of the attachment features of the first and second track sections in order to maintain alignment of the feature after installation of the joint connector.

An automated machine for organizing and feeding cylindrical products includes a conveyor to space apart the cylindrical products. A pair of elongated rollers is disposed downstream from the conveyor to orient the cylindrical products in the same direction. A miter wheel disposed downstream of the pair of elongated rollers transfers the cylindrical products from the pair of rollers to a vertical accumulation chamber while changing the orientation of the cylindrical products from a vertical alignment to a horizontal alignment. The cylindrical products are discharged from the vertical accumulation chamber to a take away conveyance. Operation of the components of the automated machine can be controlled by a computer. Optical sensors can be employed to monitor flow of the cylindrical products through the automated machine during operation.

An article transport vehicle that travels along a traveling path is provided with an obstacle sensor that detects an obstacle that exists in a detection area, and a control unit that controls the traveling speed of the article transport vehicle based on detection information of the obstacle sensor. A non-detection area where detection of the obstacle by the obstacle sensor is not performed is set within the detectable area of the obstacle sensor, and a situation in which the non-detection area exists on a detection line that joins a part of the detection area and the obstacle sensor is defined as a specific situation. The control unit, in the specific situation, and a situation where an undetectable area in which it is not possible to detect the obstacle exists in the detection area because a shield exists in the non-detection area, reduces the speed of the article transport vehicle to a second traveling speed slower than the first traveling speed.

A transport system (10) for transporting workpieces (12) on a transport path between two production process stations, includes a set of drones (18, 20), each of which includes at least one gripper (26), which is designed to releasably couple to a surface (28) of a workpiece, and a control device for the simultaneous coordinated control of the drones (18, 20) of the set in such a way that the grippers (26) of the drones (18, 20) couple to different coupling positions on the surface (28) of the workpiece (12) and the orientation of the workpiece (12) can be changed on a transport path between the production process stations by changing the relative positions of the drones (18, 20) while maintaining the relative distances of the coupling positions from one another.

A transport system (10) for transporting workpieces (12) on a transport path between two production process stations, includes a set of drones (18, 20), each of which includes at least one gripper (26), which is designed to releasably couple to a surface (28) of a workpiece, and a control device for the simultaneous coordinated control of the drones (18, 20) of the set in such a way that the grippers (26) of the drones (18, 20) couple to different coupling positions on the surface (28) of the workpiece (12) and the orientation of the workpiece (12) can be changed on a transport path between the production process stations by changing the relative positions of the drones (18, 20) while maintaining the relative distances of the coupling positions from one another.

Heating systems utilizing radio frequency (RF) energy and methods for using the same to rapidly and uniformly heat packaged articles moving through the system on one or more convey lines. These systems may be useful for a variety of processes, including the pasteurization or sterilization of packaged foodstuffs.