Patent ID: 11890649
Assignee: UNITED STATES POSTAL SERVICES
Field: Chemical engineering (Chemistry)
Classification: CPC B | IPC B

Claim 10:
11. A system for sorting and sequencing items comprising:
a sorting apparatus having a plurality of sort destinations;
a staging farm; and
one or more processors configured to:
create a sort plan for sorting a plurality of items for delivery to a plurality of delivery end points;
assign a plurality of delivery end points to a plurality of stop groups based on the sort plan;
cause the sorting apparatus to sort, in a first pass, the plurality of items according to the assigned stop groups into a plurality of trays;
cause movement of the plurality of trays containing the sorted items to the staging farm;
store, in a memory, an association between the sorted items, an individual tray of the plurality of trays in which the sorted items are stored, and a location within the staging farm where the individual tray is stored;
identify, based on the sort plan, a subset of the plurality of trays for sorting in the sorting apparatus;
cause retrieval of the subset of the plurality of trays from their locations in the staging farm;
cause movement of the subset of the plurality of trays to the sorting apparatus; and
cause the sorting apparatus to sort, in a second pass, the items of the subset of the plurality of trays on the sorting apparatus into individual sort destinations of the plurality of sort destinations.