Systems, methods, and software are provided for automated item restocking using gantry robots and establishing safety barriers for retail work operation spaces in retail store environments. Robot controllers in communication with the gantry robots and barrier robots direct the autonomous movements thereof for transferring items between customer-accessible point of sale locations and customer-inaccessible storage, and for alternately restricting and enabling access to work operation spaces, respectively.

Methods and apparatus for the positioning of a feature of a tray such that a robot may place a component in the feature are disclosed.

An autonomous storage and retrieval tower with dynamic resizing of available space is discussed.

A mobile robot is provided having a support surface for supporting a plurality of articles and securing material secured to and positioned for operable communication with the robot for securing the plurality of articles on the support surface. A robotic arm member also is provided that is secured to the robot and configured to autonomously gather the articles from a location remote from the mobile robot, place the articles in desired positions on the support surface and autonomously secure, via the securing material, the plurality of articles on the support surface to substantially restrict movement of the articles on the support surface and without requiring any outside intervention or human input to secure the articles.

A processing system is disclosed for processing objects. The processing system includes a perception system for providing perception data regarding an object, and a primary transport system for providing transport of the object along a primary direction toward a processing location that is identified based on the perception data.

An automated shuttle sorter is disclosed that includes a carriage that is movable from a load position at which the carriage may be loaded, and at least two destination locations into which any contents of the carriage may be provided from the carriage.

This transportation operation control device includes: an acquisition unit that acquires presence status information of an article; an influence degree calculation unit that calculates, by employing a calculation criterion, the magnitude of the degree of influence on a transportation source site by a pre-process site that influences the transportation source site based on the presence status information related to the transportation source site and the pre-process site; an importance degree calculation unit that calculates the importance degree of a transportation operation from the transportation source site to a transportation destination site based on a transportation cost required for the transportation operation, the presence status information, and the magnitude of the degree of influence; and an updating unit that updates the calculation criterion based on the presence status information after the execution of the transportation operation selected based on the importance degree.

A working system includes at least one movable apparatus movable and at least one stationary apparatus. The movable apparatus includes a working unit performing a predetermined work. The stationary apparatus includes a control unit performing drive control of the working unit. A control method of the system includes: instructing, when the movable apparatus has reached a working position, the control unit of the stationary apparatus to establish communication with the working unit of the movable apparatus; updating status information indicating a communication establishment status, after the communication instruction; instructing the control unit to transmit an operation signal to the working unit in the working position; instructing the control unit to disconnect the communication, after the signal transmission instruction step; and updating the status information after the disconnection instruction.

The invention relates to a method for operating a facility for producing containers from blanks made of a plastic material, the facility having one or more units for thermally conditioning blanks; one or more units for forming containers from the thermally conditioned blanks; one or more units for transferring containers to a labelling or filling unit; and a control unit that controls at least the thermal conditioning unit(s), the forming unit(s), and the transfer unit(s) by imposing a set speed on each unit, proportionate to a production rate for the containers. The method includes detecting an incident, determining a reduction of the production rate generated by the incident, and applying the reduction to the set speed.

A setup support device that improves the efficiency of setup of a component mounter by guiding supplying of feeders to a component supply device as preparation for setting of the feeders. The support setup device includes: a preparation cart on which are loaded multiple of the feeders used to perform multiple production jobs; and a feeder identifying section configured to identify multiple of the feeders to be set on a component supply device among the multiple feeders loaded on the preparation cart. The preparation cart includes a guidance section configured to issue guidance all at once for the identified multiple feeders to an operator performing the setup so as to supply the identified multiple feeders to the component supply device as preparation for setting the identified multiple feeders on the component supply device.