Patent ID: 6868983
Filing Date: 2005-03-22
Classification: G07F

Abstract:
1. An article retrieving apparatus, comprising: a storage volume for storing articles along a plurality of longitudinal axes; an article extracting device having a free end for selectively extracting an article from the article storage volume; a positioning mechanism coupled to the article extracting device and responsive to control signals for moving the free end of the article extracting device to be in alignment with a selected one of the longitudinal axes; a drive mechanism coupled to the article extracting device for moving the free end of the article extracting device in a direction aligned with the longitudinal axes in the article storage volume; and control apparatus coupled to the positioning mechanism and the drive mechanism for causing controlled movement of the article extracting device so that a selected article is extracted from the article storage volume and moved to a predetermined area of the retrieving apparatus, wherein; said article extracting device is formed of a continuous flexible member which has a substantially fixed length from its free end to a point inside a supply volume where additional length of said flexible member is stored; and movement of the positioning mechanism causes movement of the flexible member to be substantially within the same plane as movement of the positioning mechanism.