Package delivery to homes or after-hours business delivery exposes a package to theft, weather damage, and extreme temperatures. To receive and protect delivered packages, a package receiving station is configured to receive package from delivery vehicles. The station includes walls that extend upward to create an interior space of the station and a roof or other movable portion that is moveable between a first position covering the interior space and a second position allowing access to the interior space. A motor causes movement of the moveable roof or movable portion and an access portal in the wall allows access into the interior space to retrieve the package. A receiver receives a signal from or detects the arrival of the delivery vehicle and generates a control signal. A controller, responsive to the control signal, sends an activation signal to the motor to move the moveable roof or movable portion.

A method includes: for each of a delivery source and each of plural delivery destinations to which goods are delivered, receiving distance information indicating a distance between points, delivery amount information indicating a total delivery amount of the goods to each of the plural delivery destinations, and maximum delivery amount information indicating a maximum delivery amount per delivery; calculating a first cost to deliver the goods for the total delivery amount from the delivery source to each of the plural delivery destinations while setting the maximum delivery amount indicated by the maximum delivery amount information; calculating a second cost to deliver the goods for the total delivery amount from the delivery source to each of the delivery destinations; executing selection processing for selecting a delivery destination by using the first cost and the second cost; and creating a delivery plan by using a result of the selection processing.

A system for managing a transaction of an item between first and second users includes a first lock attached to the item, a storage unit having a second lock attached thereto and physically storing the item, and a processor that manages a first privilege to open the first lock and a second privilege to open the second lock. The processor performs management so that a holder of the first and second privileges is the first user. Upon receiving, from the storage unit, information indicating the second lock being opened, the processor performs management so that a first transaction is concluded in which the first user tentatively receives the item from the second user. Upon receiving, from the first lock, information indicating the first lock being opened, the processor performs management so that a second transaction is concluded in which the first user inspects the item and finally receives the item.

The disclosure relates to technology for determining locations of approaching recipients of online pre-requested or pre-ordered goods/services. Physical waiting queues and/or wait-lists are managed so that the goods/services will be provided without excessive wait times or unacceptably long wait lines or inferior quality in the provided goods/services. Resolution of location determination becomes finer and finer in one embodiment as the recipients get closer to the provisioning spot. If there is a change of plans, the recipients are notified ahead of time so as to avoid last minute surprises or disappointments.

A system for parcel transport and tracking that operates responsive to data bearing records includes a plurality of geographically spaced repositories. The exemplary repositories include one or more enclosed compartments. Access to each of the enclosed compartments is controlled by a respective door which is in operative connection with a respective lock. Central system circuitry is in operative connection with the repositories and is operative to control access to the compartments and to cause compartments to be selectively accessible so that selected parcels may be placed therein or removed therefrom by persons authorized to access such parcels. In exemplary arrangements the central system circuitry is operative to determine bundles of parcels to be transported between respective repositories to facilitate the delivery of parcels at the respective delivery locations.

A self-locking assembly includes one or more shelves. Each of the shelves has dividers, which define storage bays that are adjacent to each other in a lateral direction and adjacent storage bays being spaced apart from each other by one of the dividers positioned therebetween, and a lock contained within each storage bay. The self-locking assembly also includes one or more storage units having a width that is a same as, or smaller than, a width of at least one of the storage bays. Each of the storage units has an upper surface, which transports item(s) supported thereon, and an interlocking feature that engages with the lock of one of the storage bays to resist removal of each storage unit from a corresponding one of the storage bays. Each storage unit can be inserted into and removed from a corresponding one of the storage bays in a longitudinal direction.

A system and method for order fulfillment is provided. A pickup timeslot in which a customer order is scheduled for pickup from a retail store is received along with order servicing constraints of human workers of the retail store. The customer order is divided into a set of suborders and one or more timeslots in which the set of suborders is to be serviced are determined based on the pickup timeslot and the order servicing constraints. A set of human workers available to work at the retail store within the one or more timeslots is identified and an optimization problem is solved to determine an assignment to service the set of suborders. The assignment maps the set of suborders to the set of human workers and is such that utilization of total hours available with the set of human workers to service the set of suborders is above a threshold.

Managing the capacity of delivery lockers are disclosed herein. For example, by utilizing machine learning techniques, the capacity management system described herein may determine portions of a delivery locker to reserve for packages delivered at one or more delivery speeds. For example, the system may train one or more machine learning models to determine factors associated with a delivery demand, dwell time probability, and optimized capacity reservation of the delivery locker. Utilizing these factors, the system may determine a portion of the delivery locker to reserve for packages delivered at each available delivery speed.

A kiosk for use an unmanned aerial system (UAS) delivery system is disclosed. In one embodiment, the kiosk includes an enclosure comprising at least one vertical wall having a secured entrance therethrough to prevent unauthorized persons from entering the enclosure, wherein an external appearance of the enclosure corresponds to a location of the kiosk; a landing zone for an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) of the UAS located within the enclosure, the landing zone comprising infrastructure from which the UAV can take off and on which the UAV can land; sensors for detecting an environment of at least one of the kiosk and the enclosure; and a guidance system for providing signals to the UAV to guide the UAV into the enclosure and onto the landing zone.

A processing system including at least one processor may identify a demand for a plurality of types of items in an area that is assigned to a delivery vehicle, determine a first route to traverse the area to maximize a fulfillment of the demand, identify items from the plurality of types of items to load onto the delivery vehicle, and dispatch the delivery vehicle on a first trip over the first route, the delivery vehicle carrying the items that are identified.