Patent ID: 11878862
Assignee: WALMART APOLLO, LLC
Field: Chemical engineering (Chemistry)
Classification: CPC B  G | IPC B  G

Claim 18:
19. A system for receiving and sorting merchandise items shipped to a shopping facility, the system comprising:
a shopping facility containing a plurality of merchandise items;
a delivery of merchandise items received at the shopping facility;
a delivery location at the shopping facility configured to receive the delivery of merchandise items; and
a conveyor assembly at the delivery location, the conveyor assembly comprising:
a scanner configured to receive identifying information about merchandise items to be sorted by the conveyor assembly;
a plurality of sorters for moving and sorting the merchandise items, each sorter comprising:
a sorting portion with a set of rollers configured to divert merchandise items to a first sortation destination or to a second sortation destination;
a controller operatively coupled to the set of rollers and configured to divert merchandise items to the first and second sortation destinations, the controller configured to receive an Internet Protocol (IP) address corresponding to the sorter;

a first, disassembled state of the plurality of sorters in which at least one of the plurality of sorters is not linked to another sorter;
a second, assembled state of the plurality of sorters in which the sorters are coupled to one another to define a chain of sorters;
a merchandise database with a record corresponding to merchandise items to be sorted;
a control circuit communicatively coupled to the scanner, the controller of each sorter, and the merchandise database, the control circuit configured to:
receive identifying information about an unsorted merchandise item to be sorted by the conveyor assembly from the scanner;
assign a unique IP address to each sorter, each IP address corresponding to a position of each sorter in the chain of sorters when in the second, assembled state;
determine a sortation destination for the unsorted merchandise item to be sorted by the conveyor assembly based on the merchandise database;
determine the sorter corresponding to the determined sortation destination; and
instruct the controller of the sorter corresponding to the determined sortation destination to energize the set of rollers to divert the unsorted merchandise item to the determined sortation destination.