Patent ID: 7870945

Claim:
In an environment comprising an object sortation system comprising a conveyor, a first object feeder for feeding objects onto the conveyor, a second object feeder for feeding objects onto the conveyor, a first output section arranged between the first object feeder and the second object feeder and having a first plurality of output bins, and a second output section positioned downstream from the second object feeder and having a second plurality of output bins, wherein the conveyor is configured to convey objects such that an object fed onto the conveyor by the first object feeder must first pass the first output section prior to passing the point at which the second object feeder feeds objects onto the conveyor, a method comprising the steps of: obtaining a plurality of objects comprising a first subset of objects and a second subset of objects, wherein each object within the first subset of objects has a first attribute and each object within the second subset of objects has a second attribute; assigning to the first output section all of the objects of said first subset of objects; assigning to the second output section all of the objects of said second subset of objects; positioning the objects having the first attribute at an input of the first object feeder; positioning the objects having the second attribute at an input of the second object feeder; using the first object feeder to feed onto the conveyor each of said objects having the first attribute; using the second object feeder to feed onto the conveyor each of said objects having the second attribute; using the conveyor to convey each of said objects having the first attribute to the first output section, wherein each of said objects having the first attribute reaches said first output section without having passed the point at which the second object feeder feeds objects onto the conveyor; using the conveyor to convey each of said objects having the second attribute to the second output section, wherein each of said objects having the second attribute reaches said second output section without having passed the point at which the first object feeder feeds objects onto the conveyor; when an object having the first attribute is adjacent an output bin of the first output section, removing the object from the conveyor and placing the object in the output bin of the first output section; and when an object having the second attribute is adjacent an output bin of the second output section, removing the object from the conveyor and placing the object in the output bin of the second output section.