Patent ID: 8725286

Claim:
A system for inventory management, comprising: a two-dimensional grid of fiducial marks within a workspace; a plurality of inventory holders, each of the plurality of inventory holders associated with a fiducial mark in the two-dimensional grid of fiducial marks; a plurality of mobile drive units, each mobile drive unit operable to: move beneath an inventory holder at a first fiducial mark in the two-dimensional grid of fiducial marks, wherein the first fiducial mark identifies a first location of the inventory holder and facilitates navigation within the workspace from the first location to a second location in the two-dimensional grid by providing location information that is used by a management module to generate a path from the first fiducial mark to the second location; lift the inventory holder at the first location; move while the inventory holder is lifted from the first location to the second location in the two-dimensional grid by following the path generated by the management module; lower the inventory holder at the second location; and move away from the second location.