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.

A sortation system uses short conveyors or transporter units on a lift to move products or packages to totes in a storage rack. The lift may be a carousel. Automated components remove the totes from the rack and place them on outfeed conveyors. The system to remove the totes can include a transfer vehicle. The sortation system may be modular.

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.

Systems, methods, and computer-readable media are disclosed for removable conveyor cartridge assemblies for mobile carrier units. In one embodiment, an example removable assembly for a mobile carrier unit of a sortation system may include a frame, a conveyor belt disposed about the frame, a first sheet metal component coupled to a first side of the frame, the first sheet metal component including a first set of tabs extending from the first sheet metal component, and a tensioning device configured to tension the conveyor belt, the tensioning device having a first screw that engages a first tab of the first set of tabs.

Provided are a three-dimensional unloading system capable of unloading goods into a container and a control method of the three-dimensional unloading system. The system comprises: soring platforms; self-navigation carts; parcel identification devices; and positioning devices. The three-dimensional unloading system further comprises more than one shelf, the shelf consisting of a plurality of containers, each container being capable of storing good, and the shelf being mounted at a position close to an unloading outlet; a conveying device, on which a conveying frame is fixed; an unloading device, fixed on the conveying frame, the unloading device being capable of moving to the unloading outlet under the driving of the conveying device so as to receive the goods unloaded from the self-navigation cart, then moving to close to a predetermined container, and unloading the goods in the container; and a server, being wirelessly connected to a controller of the self-navigation cart.

A method and apparatus are provided for sorting items to a plurality of sort destinations. The items are fed into the apparatus at an input station having a scanning station. The scanning station evaluates one or more characteristics of each item. The items are then loaded onto one of a plurality of independently controlled delivery vehicles. The delivery vehicles are individually driven to sort destinations. Once at the appropriate sort destination, the delivery vehicle ejects the item to the sort destination and returns to receive another item to be delivered. A re-induction conveyor may be provided for receiving select items from the vehicles and conveying the items back to the input station for re-processing. Additionally, a controller is provided to control the movement of the vehicles based on a characteristic each item being delivered by each vehicle. The system may also include vehicles having edge-detection assemblies for detecting items being loaded onto or discharged from the vehicles.

The invention provides an end effector, comprising a mounting portion and an execution portion, and the execution portion including at least a package placement platform configured to movably coupled to the mounting portion. With the help of the package placement platform, the end effector of the invention can receive the packages of different types or different sizes or different material so as to sort and transport all kinds of packages.

A sorting facility for sorting an article by a belt conveyor provided on a traveling carriage traveling along a conveyance path. A plurality of traveling carriages travel on the conveyance path. Each of the plurality of traveling carriages is provided with a power generation motor generating electric power by traveling of the traveling carriage. The belt conveyor provided on each of the plurality of traveling carriages is driven in a predetermined position on the conveyance path by the electric power generated by the power generation motor. The power generation motor provided in each of the plurality of traveling carriages starts generation of the electric power necessary to drive the belt conveyor in order from the power generation motor provided in the traveling carriage scheduled to pass the predetermined position on the conveyance path first, after the traveling carriages are actuated and traveling speeds become a constant speed.

A sorting facility for sorting articles by a plurality of connected conveyance carriages. The sorting facility includes a supervisory controller managing a position of each of the conveyance carriages, a trigger sensor detecting each of the conveyance carriages, and a belt conveyor provided on each of the conveyance carriages. The supervisory controller identifies each of the conveyance carriages that should deliver the articles to the chute based on the managed position of each of the conveyance carriages. The supervisory controller instructs the belt conveyor provided in each of the conveyance carriages identified to start a delivery operation of each of the articles at timing when each of the conveyance carriages identified is detected by the trigger sensor.

A sorting system for sorting parcels (2) comprises a first parcel conveyor (3) suitable for conveying the parcels in series in a certain conveying direction (D1), a second parcel conveyor (4) extending above a plurality of sorting outlets that is suitable for conveying the parcels in series. The first and second conveyors have respective contiguous conveying portions (PC) via which the first conveyor feeds the second conveyor with parcels via an injection device (6). The second conveyor is a tray conveyor having trays distributed in series and at constant pitch, each of said trays being mounted to pivot between a tilted position in which it is tilted down along the conveying direction, and a level position in which it is flush with the first conveyor. The system comprises first and second mechanical members that are designed to move the trays between their tilted positions and their level positions.