A typing tunnel off-loading and sorting system includes an off-loading conveyor, cameras and photoelectric eye. The overhead cameras detect the item size and whether it is cubic in nature and type and size of its footprint. An in-line slide sorter having alternating conveyor rollers and pop-up belts pass through to, or divert articles from, a downstream conveyor. The vision based system may also be used to detect space between articles and insert articles in the unoccupied space.

A storage locker for drone delivery provides for weathertight doors that open automatically on sensing the approach of a drone and close to cover the package once deposited by the drone. The storage locker may be operated in conjunction with an elevator to allow elevated placement, removing drones from the vicinity of interfering structures, people, and pets.

An apparatus and a method convey and sort articles. The apparatus contains a link conveyor, having link elements, pushing-off elements, drive elements, and a control device. The link conveyor runs along a belt-movement line and has along the belt-movement line the link elements which are arranged to follow one after the other and form a conveying surface for the articles. In each case one pushing-off element can be arranged on one of the link elements, above the conveying surface, and therefore the pushing-off element runs along the belt-movement line together with the link element, and the pushing-off element can be moved, and stopped, along a pushing-off-line, which is arranged transversely to the belt-movement line. The drive elements each drive one or more pushing-off elements individually, and therefore the operations of moving and stopping these pushing-off elements, which are arranged to follow one after the other, are independent of one another.

A device for sorting objects includes an input conveyor device with a plurality of input storage devices, which are movable in an input conveying direction. A loading station loads each input storage device with one object. An output conveyor device has a plurality of output storage devices, which are movable in an output conveying direction. A sorting end point discharges the objects. A first transfer region, in which the input conveyor device and the output conveyor device are arranged, allows objects to be transferred from the input storage devices into the output storage devices. A second transfer region, separate from the first transfer region, in which the output conveyor device and the sorting end point are arranged transfers objects from the output storage devices to the sorting end point. An additional sorting end point in the second transfer region enables more flexibly operation of the sorting device.

A secure package delivery and pick-up system includes a security door having a frame, and one or more collapsible storage compartments affixed to the frame. The collapsible storage compartments are configured for accommodating packages. An electronic unit is mounted on the frame, and is configured for electronically controlling an operation for the collapsible storage compartments. A security device is connected to the security door and receives images of a physical object from a first camera, receives an indication from at least one security tether indicating movement of the at least one physical object, and provides an alert based on the indication of movement of the at least one physical object.

An article induction system for preparing a stream of articles, such as mail parcels, for processing employs a series of conveyors operating under control of a controller for feeding articles to an operator at a cull belt at an optimal paced rate. The article induction system includes a destacking section, a separation and alignment section, a buffer section and a culling section manned by an operator. A controller controls the speed of each component based on measurements provided by sensors so as to feed articles to the operator at a desired paced rate.

A system for removing unstable articles from an automated processing stream includes an automated processing stream with a plurality of processing units including a flow diverter and configured to carry a stream of articles, a vision system, and a control system interfacing with the automated processing stream and the vision system, wherein the vision system is configured to detect positions of an article and to transmit position data to the control system, and wherein the control system is configured, through operation of a processor, to determine an expected position of the article based on a first detected position, compare the expected position to a second detected position of the article, determine a deviation of the second detected position from the expected position, and control the flow diverter to divert the article based on the deviation.

The present invention relates to a reversible force pneumatic mail delivery system. The system includes a mailbox, a pneumatic tube, one or more courier canisters, a receiving slot, a tablet for monitoring the system and receiving notifications and a scanner positioned near a front door of the house. The mailbox and the receiving slot are connected through the pneumatic tube and the canister stores mail or other items for travel through the pneumatic tube. A compressor propels the canister from the mailbox to the receiving slot enabling a resident or user to receive incoming items and propels the canister from the receiving slot to the mailbox for sending an outgoing mail. The scanner is used for scanning a package and providing notifications of the scan are provided on the tablet.

A conveyor system includes: a pick conveyor defining a picking area for a bulk flow of parcels; a place conveyor positioned downstream of the picking area; a first robot singulator and a second robot singulator, which work in parallel to transfer parcels within a picking area of the pick conveyor to the place conveyor; and a vision and control subsystem that communicates instructions to control operation of some or all of the foregoing components. The vision and control subsystem includes a target camera for acquiring one or more images of the picking area, which are processed within the system to determine the location of parcels positioned within the picking area. The vision and control subsystem can execute one or more routines or subroutines to reduce system downtime associated with image acquisition and processing, parcel transfer to the place conveyor, and/or parcel delivery to the picking area.

Provided are a parcel sorting system and method. The parcel sorting system is arranged in layers and includes: a parcel sorting layer (10) located on an upper layer of the parcel sorting system, a moveable container carrying layer (11) located on a lower layer of the parcel sorting system, a parcel delivery robot (12) and a control device (13). The parcel sorting layer (10) includes a modular entity platform (101) is a physical platform formed by splicing multiple splicable units and used for sorting parcels. The modular entity platform (101) includes multiple delivery lattices (1011) arranged in an array and a traveling area constituted by gaps between the multiple delivery lattices (1011) and used for the parcel delivery robot (12) traveling. One delivery lattices (1011) corresponds to one or more delivery path directions. The moveable container carrying layer (11) includes multiple moveable containers (110), and a part of the movable containers are located below the multiple delivery lattices (1011) and receive the parcel from the parcel sorting layer (10).