Patent ID: 9611102
Date: 2017-04-04
CPC Classifications: B25J,B65G

Claim:
1. A system for creating streams of articles on a laning conveyor having differentiated lanes from groups of articles on a feed, the lanes of the laning conveyor movable in a linear flow direction, the groups each including articles arranged in a grid including at least two rows, the system comprising: a robot arm having an end effector; and the end effector including individually actuatable row portions corresponding to the locations of the articles in the groups, the end effector being configured to simultaneously lift all of the articles in all of the rows of one of the groups from the feed, the end effector configured to sequentially place each row of the lifted articles one at a time onto the laning conveyor in a given lane thereof, the end effector being movable by the robot arm when the grid of articles in one of the groups in the feed is lifted, the end effector being movable linearly along the laning conveyor parallel to the flow direction when each row of lifted articles is moved downwardly and placed one at a time onto the laning conveyor.