To load and unload a trailer, an autonomous mobile robot determines its location and the location of objects within the trailer relative to the trailer itself, rather than relative to a warehouse. The autonomous mobile robot determines its location the location of objects within the trailer relative to the trailer. The autonomous mobile robot navigates within the trailer and manipulates objects within the trailer from the trailer's reference frame. Additionally, the autonomous mobile robot uses a centerline heuristic to compute a path for itself within the trailer. A centerline heuristic evaluates nodes within the trailer based on how far away those nodes are from the centerline. If the nodes are further away from the centerline, they are assigned a higher cost. Thus, when the autonomous mobile robot computes a path, the path is more likely to stay near the centerline of the trailer rather than get closer to the sides.

An automated storage and retrieval system includes a grid-based rail structure and a plurality of remotely operated vehicles arranged to operate on the grid-based rail structure. The automated storage and retrieval system includes a locking device arranged in a zone of the grid-based rail structure where a human and/or a robotic operator is permitted to interact with the remotely operated vehicle or contents of a storage container that the remotely operated vehicle is carrying. The locking device is arranged to lock the remotely operated vehicle against accidental displacement prior to interaction with the human and/or robotic operator, and wherein the locking device being arranged to unlock the remotely operated vehicle once interaction with the human and/or robotic operator is no longer required.

Dynamic allocation and coordination of auto-navigating vehicles uses robotic vehicles and centrally dispatched roaming order selectors to create a significantly more efficient, yet flexible, approach to picking goods within a warehouse. Robotic vehicles are configured to be loaded with goods from pick faces to fill orders. Each robotic vehicle follows a route that includes appropriate pick face locations. The robotic vehicles navigate from pick face to pick face where particular goods are located. Order selectors are dynamically and independently dispatched to meet the robotic vehicles at their pick face locations to load goods. Movement of the order selectors is orchestrated to increase efficiency in the order filling process within the warehouse.

A vehicle transfer robot (10) of the present invention, disposed vertically on the ground, is formed to have four vertical frames (110) disposed at a predetermined distance apart from each other and formed to have a quadrangular frame, and a quadrangle by connecting the upper end parts of the four vertical frames (110), respectively, wherein the vehicle transfer robot (10) includes: a frame part (100) including an upper frame (120); a driving part (200) installed at each of the lower end parts of the vertical frames (110) for moving the frame part (100); and a carriage (300) installed in the frame part (100) for loading a vehicle.

A cargo handling control unit of a forklift includes a traveling device including a traveling drive unit, forks loading cargos, and a cargo handling device having a lift cylinder. The cargo handling control unit includes at least a pair of one-dimensional laser distance sensors, each of which is configured to emit a one-dimensional laser beam and receives the laser beam reflected from an object, thereby detecting a distance between the object and the one-dimensional laser distance sensor, a picking start position determination unit determining a picking start position of the forks for the cargos, and a picking control unit being configured to control the traveling drive unit and the lift cylinder so as to load the cargos on the forks.

A forklift truck includes a main controller, a driving motor, a drive controller, and an object detector. The drive controller controls the driving motor. The object detector detects the position of an object being present in the backward direction of the forklift truck. The main controller derives an expected trajectory of the forklift truck. The main controller imposes a speed limit on the forklift truck by setting a vehicle speed upper limit when the object detected by the object detector is located within the expected trajectory and the forklift truck is traveling in the direction of approaching the object. The main controller gives commands to the drive controller to prevent the vehicle speed of the forklift truck from exceeding the vehicle speed upper limit.

A vertical support for a transport robot includes a column assembly and a driving assembly. The vertical support includes a fixed column frame and a movable column frame movably arranged on the fixed column frame. The driving assembly includes a traction assembly and a retractable assembly connected to the traction assembly. The traction assembly is connected to the carrying device and configured to drive a carrying device of the transport robot to move relative to the movable column frame. The traction assembly includes two sets of traction assemblies located at two opposed sides of the carrying device respectively, the retractable assembly is configured to drive the two sets of the traction assemblies to synchronously drive the carrying device to ascend or descend.

An embodiment mobile object includes a frame part having an internal space, a wheel part coupled to a first side of the frame part and comprising a wheel, movable modules coupled to a second side of the frame part and configured to be movable in a vertical direction relative to the frame part, and a door module coupled to a first side of the movable modules, the door part being rotatable relative to the movable modules in a direction toward the internal space or a direction away from the internal space.

An installation for sorting postal parcels or packets, has a carousel sorting conveyor having transport bins that are moved around a closed loop over a plurality of sorting outlets formed by respective storage receptacles, a feed magazine in which bulk stored parcels are put into series and then injected into the transport bins of the conveyor while it is moving, and a monitoring and control unit that acts on the bins of the sorting conveyor so as to open each of them over a receptacle that corresponds to a delivery address of the article following a sorting plan, includes a first sorting pass to sort parcels into first receptacles that are of high bulk storage capacity, and a subsequent sorting pass where the parcels are sorted into second receptacles that are smaller than the first receptacles.

The present disclosure provides an end-to-end cargo handling system. The end-to-end cargo handling system comprises a transportation unit comprising a first sensing agent, a lift unit comprising a second sensing agent, and a control module in communication with the transportation unit and the lift unit via a network, wherein the transportation unit and the lift unit are configured to move a cargo unit from a first location to a second location autonomously.