Autonomously operated systems and methods of packing unbound folded laundry articles are described. A system of stacking a plurality of folded laundry articles onto a receiving surface includes two or more side-by-side parallel extendable surfaces configured to extend at least one of independently and simultaneously, at least one sensor configured to detect a presence of one or more folded laundry articles on at least one of the surfaces, and a controller in operative communication with at least one drive of the two or more surfaces and the at least one sensor. The controller is configured to extend a loading end of at least one of the surfaces out upon receiving a signal from the at least one sensor, and retract the loading end to deposit the one or more folded laundry articles atop at least one of the receiving surface and one or more previously deposited folded laundry articles.

The robot controller includes an operation command part configured to output an operation command so as to perform a first operation of conveying a workpiece from an initial position to a first position adjacent to the machine tool, a time prediction part configured to predict processing completion time of the workpiece based on a processing start signal output from a machine tool controller, a time length prediction part configured to predict time length necessary for the first operation, and a time determination part configured to determine start time of the first operation so that the first operation is completed at the processing completion time on the basis of the predicted processing completion time and time length necessary for the first operation.

A system for queuing a plurality of folded laundry articles for loading into a shipping container includes at least two vertically stacked platforms configured to receive thereon the folded laundry articles, a cantilevered conveyor configured to deposit the folded laundry articles on the at least two vertically stacked platforms and redistribute the folded laundry articles between the at least two vertically stacked platforms for ordered packing, one or more sensors disposed adjacent the at least two vertically stacked platforms, and at least one controller in operable communication with a drive of the cantilevered conveyor, the one or more sensors, and a memory. The controller is configured to instruct the cantilevered conveyor to transit along lengths of the at least two vertically stacked platforms, and store in the memory at least one of the area footprint, height, and article types of the deposited folded laundry articles.

A device and method are provided, the method including providing a device capable of at least semi-autonomous operation and enabling the device to autonomously gather at least one item and secure that item against unauthorized access while providing selective authorized access to the item while the item is in possession of the device.

Devices, systems, and methods for autonomously queueing a plurality of folded laundry articles in a packing queue are described. A packing system includes a packing queue platform configured to receive a folded laundry article into one of a plurality of packing queue locations disposed along a length of the platform, a double ended conveyor, one or more sensors configured to detect a packing queue location, and a controller. The double ended conveyor includes a retrieving end and a depositing end. The conveyor is configured to be mounted to a one or more fixed rails for traveling along the length of the queue platform and cantilevering the depositing end over the packing queue platform for depositing the folded laundry article onto either a surface of the packing queue platform or another previously deposited folded laundry article of the plurality of folded laundry articles.

Provided is a cell controller for controlling an operation of a machining cell including two or more machines and one or more robots as work resources, the cell controller being configured to control the operation of the machining cell based on a production program recorded with one or more processes to be executed at the time of producing only one article of a corresponding item in the machining cell among production programs prepared corresponding to one or more items produced in the machining cell.

A method of processing objects using a programmable motion device is disclosed. The method includes the steps of providing an input conveyance system by which input bins of objects may be provided to a processing station that includes the programmable motion device that includes an end effector, perceiving at the processing station identifying indicia representative of an identity of a plurality of objects at an input area of the input conveyance system, grasping the an acquired object using the end effector, moving the acquired object toward an identified processing container using the programmable motion device, the identified processing container being associated with the identifying indicia and said identified processing container being provided as one of a plurality of processing containers at the processing station, and providing an output conveyance system in communication with the processing station, by which processing containers that contain processed objects may be provided.

A device and method are provided, the method including providing a device capable of at least semi-autonomous operation and enabling the device to autonomously gather at least one item and secure that item against unauthorized access while providing selective authorized access to the item while the item is in possession of the device.

A box handling system is disclosed for use in an object processing system. The box handling system includes a box tray including a recessed area for receiving a box, and the recessed area includes a plurality of floor and edge portions for receiving the box that contains objects to be processed.

A method of processing objects using a programmable motion device is disclosed. The method includes the steps of providing an input conveyance system by which input bins of objects may be provided to a processing station that includes the programmable motion device that includes an end effector, perceiving at the processing station identifying indicia representative of an identity of a plurality of objects at an input area of the input conveyance system, grasping the an acquired object using the end effector, moving the acquired object toward an identified processing container using the programmable motion device, the identified processing container being associated with the identifying indicia and said identified processing container being provided as one of a plurality of processing containers at the processing station, and providing an output conveyance system in communication with the processing station, by which processing containers that contain processed objects may be provided.