Abstract:
A method for queuing robots destined for a target location in an environment, includes determining if a first robot occupies the target location and if it is determined that the first robot occupies the target location, determining if a second robot destined for the target location has entered a predefined target zone proximate the target location. If the second robot has entered the predefined target zone, the method further includes navigating the second robot to a first queue location and causing the second robot to wait at the first queue location until the first robot no longer occupies the target location. The method also includes navigating the second robot to the target location after the first robot leaves the target location.

Description:
CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION 
       [0001]    This application claims the benefit of the priority date of U.S. application Ser. No. 14/815,246, filed on Jul. 31, 2015, the contents of which are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety. 
     
    
     FIELD OF INVENTION 
       [0002]    This invention relates to robot-assisted product order-fulfillment systems and methods and more particularly to queueing of robots destined for a common location. 
       BACKGROUND 
       [0003]    Ordering products over the internet for home delivery is an extremely popular way of shopping. Fulfilling such orders in a timely, accurate and efficient manner is logistically challenging to say the least. Clicking the “check out” button in a virtual shopping cart creates an “order.” The order includes a listing of items that are to be shipped to a particular address. The process of “fulfillment” involves physically taking or “picking” these items from a large warehouse, packing them, and shipping them to the designated address. An important goal of the order-fulfillment process is thus to ship as many items in as short a time as possible. 
         [0004]    The order-fulfillment process typically takes place in a large warehouse that contains many products, including those listed in the order. Among the tasks of order fulfillment is therefore that of traversing the warehouse to find and collect the various items listed in an order. In addition, the products that will ultimately be shipped first need to be received in the warehouse and stored or “placed” in storage bins in an orderly fashion throughout the warehouse so they can be readily retrieved for shipping. 
         [0005]    In a large warehouse, the goods that are being delivered and ordered can be stored in the warehouse very far apart from each other and dispersed among a great number of other goods. With an order-fulfillment process using only human operators to place and pick the goods requires the operators to do a great deal of walking and can be inefficient and time consuming. Since the efficiency of the fulfillment process is a function of the number of items shipped per unit time, increasing time reduces efficiency. 
         [0006]    In order to increase efficiency, robots may be used to perform functions of humans or they may be used to supplement the humans&#39; activities. For example, robots may be assigned to “place” a number of items in various locations dispersed throughout the warehouse or to “pick” items from various locations for packing and shipping. The picking and placing may be done by the robot alone or with the assistance of human operators. For example, in the case of a pick operation, the human operator would pick items from shelves and place them on the robots or, in the case of a place operation, the human operator would pick items from the robot and place them on the shelves. 
         [0007]    With numerous robots navigating a space it is very possible and even likely that robots will attempt to navigate to a position that is occupied by another robot, resulting in a race condition. Race conditions are when two robots are attempting to get to the same place and become processor bound as they attempt to reconcile the changing external environment. Race conditions are very undesirable and can result the robots being unable to perform further operations until the condition is resolved. 
       SUMMARY 
       [0008]    In one aspect the invention features a method for queuing robots destined for a target location in an environment. The method includes determining if a first robot occupies the target location and if it is determined that the first robot occupies the target location, determining if a second robot destined for the target location has entered a predefined target zone proximate the target location. If it is determined that the second robot has entered the predefined target zone, the method includes navigating the second robot to a first queue location and causing the second robot to wait at the first queue location until the first robot no longer occupies the target location. The method also includes navigating the second robot to the target location after the first robot leaves the target location. 
         [0009]    In other aspects of the invention, one or more of the following features may be included. The environment may be a warehouse space containing items for customer order fulfillment. The first queue location may be offset from the target location by a predetermined distance. The target location may be defined by a target pose and the first queue location may be defined by a first queue pose. 
         [0010]    The second robot may navigate to the first queue location by navigating to the first queue pose. The method may further include determining if a third robot destined for the target location has entered the predefined target zone when the first robot occupies the target location and the second robot occupies the first queue location. If it is determined that the third robot has entered the predefined target zone while the first robot occupies the target location and the second robot occupies the first queue location, the method may include navigating the third robot to a second queue location and causing the third robot to wait at the second queue location until the first robot no longer occupies the target location. 
         [0011]    In further aspects of the invention, the second queue location may be offset from the first queue location by a predetermined distance. The second queue location may be defined by a second queue pose and the second robot may navigate to the second queue location by navigating to the second queue pose. The method may further include determining if the first robot continues to occupy the target location and if it does not, navigating the second robot to the target location, navigating the third robot to the first queue location, and causing the third robot to wait at the first queue location until the second robot no longer occupies the target location. Navigating the second robot to the target location may include navigating the second robot to the target pose and navigating the third robot to the first queue location may include navigating the second robot to the first queue pose. 
         [0012]    Another aspect the invention features a system for queuing robots destined for a target location. There is a management system and at least first and second robots destined for a target location. The management system is configured to communicate with the at least first and second robots and to determine if the first robot occupies the target location. If it is determined that the first robot occupies the target location, then it is determined if a second robot has entered a predefined target zone proximate the target location. If it is determined that the second robot has entered the predefined target zone, the management system navigates the second robot to a queue location and causes the second robot to wait at the predefined queue location until the first robot no longer occupies the target location. The management system then navigates the second robot to the target location after the first robot leaves the target location. 
         [0013]    In other aspects of the invention, one or more of the following features may be included. The environment may be a warehouse space containing items for customer order fulfillment. The first queue location may be offset from the target location by a predetermined distance and the target location may be defined by a target pose. The first queue location may be defined by a first queue pose; and the second robot may navigate to the first queue location by navigating to the first queue pose. If a third robot destined for the target location, the management system may be configured to determine if the third robot has entered the predefined target zone when the first robot occupies the target location and the second robot occupies the first queue location. If it is determined that the third robot has entered the predefined target zone while the first robot occupies the target location and the second robot occupies the first queue location, the system may direct the third robot to navigate to a second queue location and causes the third robot to wait at the second queue location until the first robot no longer occupies the target location. 
         [0014]    In further aspects of the invention, the second queue location may be offset from the first queue location by a predetermined distance and the second queue location may be defined by a second queue pose. The second robot may navigate to the second queue location by navigating to the second queue pose. The management system may be further configured to determine if the first robot continues to occupy the target location and if it does not, the system may direct the second robot to navigate to the target location. The system may also direct the third robot to navigate to the first queue location and causes the third robot to wait at the first queue location until the second robot no longer occupies the target location. The management system may further configured to direct the second robot to the target location by navigating it to the target pose and it may direct the third robot to the first queue location by navigating it to the first queue pose. 
         [0015]    A further aspect of the invention features a robot capable of navigating to predefined locations in an environment containing at least one additional robot. The robot and the at least one additional robot are capable of interacting with a management system. The robot includes a mobile base, a communication device enabling communication between the robot and the management system, and a processor, responsive to communications with the management system. The processor is configured to navigate the robot to a target location in the environment and determine if the at least one additional robot occupies the target location. If it is determined that the at least one additional robot occupies the target location, determine if the robot has entered a predefined target zone proximate the target location. If it is determined that the robot has entered the predefined target zone, the processor is configured to navigate the robot to a queue location and cause the robot to wait at the predefined queue location until the at least one additional robot no longer occupies the target location. The processor is configured to then navigate the robot to the target location after the at least one additional robot leaves the target location. 
         [0016]    These and other features of the invention will be apparent from the following detailed description and the accompanying figures, in which: 
     
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES 
         [0017]      FIG. 1  is a top plan view of an order-fulfillment warehouse; 
           [0018]      FIG. 2  is a perspective view of a base of one of the robots used in the warehouse shown in  FIG. 1 ; 
           [0019]      FIG. 3  is a perspective view of the robot in  FIG. 2  outfitted with an armature and parked in front of a shelf shown in  FIG. 1 ; 
           [0020]      FIG. 4  is a partial map of the warehouse of  FIG. 1  created using laser radar on the robot; 
           [0021]      FIG. 5  is a flow chart depicting the process for locating fiducial markers dispersed throughout the warehouse and storing fiducial marker poses; 
           [0022]      FIG. 6  is a table of the fiducial identification to pose mapping; 
           [0023]      FIG. 7  is a table of the bin location to fiducial identification mapping; 
           [0024]      FIG. 8  is a flow chart depicting product SKU to pose mapping process; 
           [0025]      FIG. 9  is schematic view of the target and queue locations used in the queuing process according to this invention; and 
           [0026]      FIG. 10  is a flow chart depicting the robot queuing process according to this invention. 
       
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
       [0027]    Referring to  FIG. 1 , a typical order-fulfillment warehouse  10  includes shelves  12  filled with the various items that could be included in an order  16 . In operation, the order  16  from warehouse management server  15  arrives at an order-server  14 . The order-server  14  communicates the order  16  to a robot  18  selected from a plurality of robots that roam the warehouse  10 . 
         [0028]    In a preferred embodiment, a robot  18 , shown in  FIG. 2 , includes an autonomous wheeled base  20  having a laser-radar  22 . The base  20  also features a transceiver  24  that enables the robot  18  to receive instructions from the order-server  14 , and a camera  26 . The base  20  also features a processor  32  that receives data from the laser-radar  22  and the camera  26  to capture information representative of the robot&#39;s environment and a memory  34  that cooperate to carry out various tasks associated with navigation within the warehouse  10 , as well as to navigate to fiducial marker  30  placed on shelves  12 , as shown in  FIG. 3 . Fiducial marker  30  (e.g. a two-dimensional bar code) corresponds to bin/location of an item ordered. The navigation approach of this invention is described in detail below with respect to  FIGS. 4-8 . 
         [0029]    While the initial description provided herein is focused on picking items from bin locations in the warehouse to fulfill an order for shipment to a customer, the system is equally applicable to the storage or placing of items received into the warehouse in bin locations throughout the warehouse for later retrieval and shipment to a customer. The invention is also applicable to inventory control tasks associated with such a warehouse system, such as, consolidation, counting, verification, inspection and clean-up of products. 
         [0030]    As described in more detail below, robots  18  can be utilized to perform multiple tasks of different task types in an interleaved fashion. This means that robot  18 , while executing a single order traveling throughout the warehouse  10 , may be picking items, placing items, and performing inventory control tasks. This kind of interleaved task approach can significantly improve efficiency and performance. 
         [0031]    Referring again to FIG. 2 , An upper surface  36  of the base  20  features a coupling  38  that engages any one of a plurality of interchangeable armatures  40 , one of which is shown in  FIG. 3 . The particular armature  40  in  FIG. 3  features a tote-holder  42  for carrying a tote  44  that receives items, and a tablet holder  46  for supporting a tablet  48 . In some embodiments, the armature  40  supports one or more totes for carrying items. In other embodiments, the base  20  supports one or more totes for carrying received items. As used herein, the term “tote” includes, without limitation, cargo holders, bins, cages, shelves, rods from which items can be hung, caddies, crates, racks, stands, trestle, containers, boxes, canisters, vessels, and repositories. 
         [0032]    Although a robot  18  excels at moving around the warehouse  10 , with current robot technology, it is not very good at quickly and efficiently picking items from a shelf and placing them on the tote  44  due to the technical difficulties associated with robotic manipulation of objects. A more efficient way of picking items is to use a local operator  50 , which is typically human, to carry out the task of physically removing an ordered item from a shelf  12  and placing it on robot  18 , for example, in tote  44 . The robot  18  communicates the order to the local operator  50  via the tablet  48 , which the local operator  50  can read, or by transmitting the order to a handheld device used by the local operator  50 . 
         [0033]    Upon receiving an order  16  from the order server  14 , the robot  18  proceeds to a first warehouse location, e.g. shown in  FIG. 3 . It does so based on navigation software stored in the memory  34  and carried out by the processor  32 . The navigation software relies on data concerning the environment, as collected by the laser-radar  22 , an internal table in memory  34  that identifies the fiducial identification (“ID”) of fiducial marker  30  that corresponds to a location in the warehouse  10  where a particular item can be found, and the camera  26  to navigate. 
         [0034]    Upon reaching the correct location, the robot  18  parks itself in front of a shelf  12  on which the item is stored and waits for a local operator  50  to retrieve the item from the shelf  12  and place it in tote  44 . If robot  18  has other items to retrieve it proceeds to those locations. The item(s) retrieved by robot  18  are then delivered to a packing station  100 ,  FIG. 1 , where they are packed and shipped. 
         [0035]    It will be understood by those skilled in the art that each robot may be fulfilling one or more orders and each order may consist of one or more items. Typically, some form of route optimization software would be included to increase efficiency, but this is beyond the scope of this invention and is therefore not described herein. 
         [0036]    In order to simplify the description of the invention, a single robot  18  and operator  50  are described. However, as is evident from  FIG. 1 , a typical fulfillment operation includes many robots and operators working among each other in the warehouse to fill a continuous stream of orders. 
         [0037]    The navigation approach of this invention, as well as the semantic mapping of a SKU of an item to be retrieved to a fiducial ID/pose associated with a fiducial marker in the warehouse where the item is located, is described in detail below with respect to  FIGS. 4-8 . 
         [0038]    Using one or more robots  18 , a map of the warehouse  10  must be created and the location of various fiducial markers dispersed throughout the warehouse must be determined. To do this, one of the robots  18  navigates the warehouse and builds a map  10 a,  FIG. 4 , utilizing its laser-radar  22  and simultaneous :localization and mapping (SLAM), which is a computational problem of constructing or updating a map of an unknown environment. Popular SLAM approximate solution methods include the particle filter and extended Kalman filter. The SLAM GMapping approach is the preferred approach, but any suitable SLAM approach can be used. 
         [0039]    Robot  18  utilizes its laser-radar  22  to create map l 0 a of warehouse  10  as robot  18  travels throughout the space identifying, open space  112 , walls  114 , objects  116 , and other static obstacles, such as shelf  12 , in the space, based on the reflections it receives as the laser-radar scans the environment. 
         [0040]    While constructing the map l 0 a or thereafter, one or more robots  18  navigates through warehouse  10  using camera  26  to scan the environment to locate fiducial markers (two-dimensional bar codes) dispersed throughout the warehouse on shelves proximate bins, such as  32  and  34 ,  FIG. 3 , in which items are stored. Robots  18  use a known starting point or origin for reference, such as origin  110 . When a fiducial marker, such as fiducial marker  30 ,  FIGS. 3 and 4 , is located by robot  18  using its camera  26 , the location in the warehouse relative to origin  110  is determined. 
         [0041]    By the use of wheel encoders and heading sensors, vector  120 , and the robot&#39;s position in the warehouse  10  can be determined. Using the captured image of a fiducial marker/two-dimensional barcode and its known size, robot  18  can determine the orientation with respect to and distance from the robot of the fiducial marker/two-dimensional barcode, vector  130 . With vectors  120  and  130  known, vector  140 , between origin  110  and fiducial marker  30 , can be determined. From vector  140  and the determined orientation of the fiducial marker/two-dimensional barcode relative to robot  18 , the pose (position and orientation) defined by a quaternion (x, y, z, w) for fiducial marker  30  can be determined. 
         [0042]    Flow chart  200 ,  FIG. 5 , describing the fiducial marker location process is described. This is performed in an initial mapping mode and as robot  18  encounters new fiducial markers in the warehouse while performing picking, placing and/or other tasks. In step  202 , robot  18  using camera  26  captures an image and in step  204  searches for fiducial markers within the captured images. In step  206 , if a fiducial marker is found in the image (step  204 ) it is determined if the fiducial marker is already stored in fiducial table  300 ,  FIG. 6 , which is located in memory  34  of robot  18 . If the fiducial information is stored in memory already, the flow chart returns to step  202  to capture another image. If it is not in memory, the pose is determined according to the process described above and in step  208 , it is added to fiducial to pose lookup table  300 . 
         [0043]    In look-up table  300 , which may be stored in the memory of each robot, there are included for each fiducial marker a fiducial identification, 1, 2, 3, etc, and a pose for the fiducial marker/bar code associated with each fiducial identification. The pose consists of the x,y,z coordinates in the warehouse along with the orientation or the quaternion (x,y,z, w). 
         [0044]    In another look-up Table  400 ,  FIG. 7 , which may also be stored in the memory of each robot, is a listing of bin locations (e.g.  402   a - f ) within warehouse  10 , which are correlated to particular fiducial ID&#39;s  404 , e.g. number “ 11 ”. The bin locations, in this example, consist of seven alpha-numeric characters. The first six characters (e.g. L01001) pertain to the shelf location within the warehouse and the last character (e.g. A-F) identifies the particular bin at the shelf location. In this example, there are six different bin locations associated with fiducial ID “ 11 ”. There may be one or more bins associated with each fiducial ID/marker. 
         [0045]    The alpha-numeric bin locations are understandable to humans, e.g. operator  50 ,  FIG. 3 , as corresponding to a physical location in the warehouse  10  where items are stored. However, they do not have meaning to robot  18 . By mapping the locations to fiducial ID&#39;s, Robot  18  can determine the pose of the fiducial ID using the information in table  300 ,  FIG. 6 , and then navigate to the pose as described herein. 
         [0046]    The order fulfillment process according to this invention is depicted in flow chart  500 ,  FIG. 8 . In step  502 , warehouse management system  15 ,  FIG. 1 , obtains an order, which may consist of one or more items to be retrieved. In step  504  the SKU number(s) of the items is/are determined by the warehouse management system  15 , and from the SKU number(s), the bin location(s) is/are determined in step  506 . A list of bin locations for the order is then transmitted to robot  18 . In step  508 , robot  18  correlates the bin locations to fiducial ID&#39;s and from the fiducial ID&#39;s, the pose of each fiducial ID is obtained in step  510 . In step  512  the robot  18  navigates to the pose as shown in  FIG. 3 , where an operator can pick the item to be retrieved from the appropriate bin and place it on the robot. 
         [0047]    Item specific information, such as SKU number and bin location, obtained by the warehouse management system  15 , can be transmitted to tablet  48  on robot  18  so that the operator  50  can be informed of the particular items to be retrieved when the robot arrives at each fiducial marker location. 
         [0048]    With the SLAM map and the pose of the fiducial ID&#39;s known, robot  18  can readily navigate to any one of the fiducial ID&#39;s using various robot navigation techniques. The preferred approach involves setting an initial route to the fiducial marker pose given the knowledge of the open space  112  in the warehouse  10  and the walls  114 , shelves (such as shelf  12 ) and other obstacles  116 . As the robot begins to traverse the warehouse using its laser radar  26 , it determines if there are any obstacles in its path, either fixed or dynamic, such as other robots  18  and/or operators  50 , and iteratively updates its path to the pose of the fiducial marker. The robot re-plans its route about once every 50 milliseconds, constantly searching for the most efficient and effective path while avoiding obstacles. 
         [0049]    With the product SKU/fiducial ID to fiducial pose mapping technique combined with the SLAM navigation technique both described herein, robots  18  are able to very efficiently and effectively navigate the warehouse space without having to use more complex navigation approaches typically used which involve grid lines and intermediate fiducial markers to determine location within the warehouse. 
         [0050]    As described above, a problem that can arise with multiple robots navigating a space is called a “race condition”, which can occur if one or more robots attempt to navigate to a space occupied by another robot. With this invention, alternative destinations for the robots are created to place them in a queue and avoid race conditions from occuring. The process is depicted in  FIG. 9 , where robot  600  is shown positioned at a target location/pose  602 . Pose  602  could correspond to any location in a warehouse space, for example, a packing or loading station or a position near a particular bin. When other robots try to navigate to pose  602 , such as robots  604 ,  606 , and  608  (as indicated by the dotted lines from the robots and terminating at pose  602 ) they are redirected to temporary holding locations, such as locations or queue slots  610 ,  612 , and  614 . 
         [0051]    Queue slots  610 ,  612 , and  614  are offset from pose  612 . In this example queue slot  610  is offset from pose  602  by a distance x, which could be, for example, one ( 1 ) meter. Queue slot  612  is offset from queue slot  610  by an additional distance x and queue slot  614  is offset another distance x from queue slot  612 . While, in this example, the distances are uniformly spaced along a straight line emanating from pose  602 , this is not a requirement of the invention. The locations of the queue slots may be non-uniforn and variable given the dynamic environment of the warehouse. The queue slots maybe offset according to an queuing algorithm that observes the underlying global map and the existing obstacles and constraints of the local map. The queuing algorithm may also consider the practical limits of queuing in the space proximate the target location/pose to avoid blocking traffic, interfering with other locations, and creating new obstacles. 
         [0052]    In addition, the proper queue slotting of robots into the queue must be managed. In the example shown in  FIG. 9 , the robot with the first priority to occupy the pose  602  is queued in the first queue slot  610 , while the other robots are queued in the other queue slots based on their respective priorities. Priorities are determined by the order of the robots&#39; entry into a zone  618  proximate pose  602 . In this case, zone  618  is defined by a radius, R, about pose  602 , which in this case is approximately three (3) meters (or 3×). The first robot to enter the zone, in this case  604 , has the highest priority and is assigned the first queue slot, queue slot  610 . When robot  606 , which is closer to zone  618  than robot  608 , enters zone  618 , assuming that robot  600  is still at pose  602  and robot  604  is located at queue slot  610 , it has the next highest priority and it is therefore assigned queue slot  612 . When robot  608  then enters zone  618 , assuming that robot  600  is still at pose  602  and robots  604  and  606  are still located at queue slots  610  and  612 , respectively, it is assigned to queue slot  614 . 
         [0053]    When robot  600  moves from pose  602 , robot  604  moves from queue slot  610  to pose  602 . Robots  606  and  608  move to queue slot positions  610  and  612 , respectively. The next robot to enter zone  618  would be positioned in queue slot position  614 . Of course, additional number of queue slot positions could be included to accommodate expected traffic flows. 
         [0054]    The manner in which the robots are navigated to the queue slots and ultimately the target location is accomplished by temporarily redirecting them from the pose of the target location to the pose(s) of the queue slot(s). In other words, when it is determined that a robot must be placed in a queue slot, its target pose is temporarily adjusted to a pose corresponding to the location of the queue slot to which it is assigned. As it moves up in position in the queue, the pose is again adjusted temporarily to the pose of the queue slot with the next highest priority until it is able to reach its original target location at which time the pose is reset to the original target pose. 
         [0055]    Flow chart  700 ,  FIG. 10 , depicts the robot queuing process implemented by WMS  15  for a particular pose (target pose) within the warehouse. At step  702 , it is determined if the target pose is occupied by a robot. If it is not, the process returns to step  702  until there is a robot occupying the target pose. When a robot is occupying the target pose, the process determines at step  704  if there is another robot in the target zone or if there is a robot in one or more of the queue slots. If it is determined that there is no robot in the target zone or in one or more queue slots, the process returns to step  702 . If it is determined that there is a robot occupying the target pose or if the queue slot(s) is/are occupied, then at step  706  the robots are assigned to the appropriate queue slots. 
         [0056]    If there is a robot in the target zone but no robot in the queue slots, then the robot in the target zone is directed to occupy the first queue slot, i.e. queue slot  610 ,  FIG. 9 . If there is a robot in the target zone and a robot (or multiple robots in the queue slots) then the robot in the target zone is slotted into the next available queue slot, as described above. If there is no robot in the target zone but there is/are robot(s) in the queue slot(s), then the slotted robots remain in the same positions. At step  708 , if it is determined that the target pose is not occupied, then the robots in the queue slots are moved up a position, i.e. queue slot  610  to the target pose, queue slot  612  to queue slot  610  and so forth. If the target pose is still occupied, the process returns to step  704 . 
         [0057]    Having described the invention, and a preferred embodiment thereof, what is claimed as new and secured by letters patent is: