PATENT CLAIM ANALYSIS

Application Number: 15883248
Application Type: Utility
Filing Date: 2018-01
Publication Date: 2018-08
Patent Classification: ["700", "230000"]

Abstract:
In some embodiments, apparatuses and methods are provided herein useful to automatically balance and buffer the return of empty containers or other totes to a plurality of areas. In some embodiments, a control circuit employs a logic system in which empty totes are directed along primary, secondary, or tertiary paths depending on information gathered from sensors regarding the availability of space for empty totes at a plurality of potential destinations. In this way, the return of empty totes to one or more points of origin may be buffered to balance the number of empty totes in one or more areas.

Claim (Index 16):
A method for distributing empty totes from a first area, the method comprising:\n moving empty totes along a first conveyor line connecting a first consolidation area to a first picking area, the first conveyor line comprising a first plurality of sensors configured to detect partial and full capacity near the first picking area; moving empty totes along a second conveyor line coupled to the buffer component, the second conveyor line connecting a second consolidation area to a second picking area, the second conveyor line coupled to a second plurality of sensors configured to detect partial and full capacity near the second picking area; receiving signals from the first plurality of sensors and second plurality of sensors at a control circuit; and generating by the control circuit a control signal to activate at least one transfer device to direct totes from at least one of the first conveyor line or second conveyor line to a buffer component based on signals received from the plurality of sensors of the other conveyor line; and receiving the control signal at a transfer device located along one of the first conveyor line and the second conveyor line.

Metadata:
- Claim Count in Document: 17.0
- Percentile: 86.0
- Lexical Diversity: 1.71429
- Patent Class: 700.0
- Transitional Phrase Type: open
- Component Type: 1
- Foreign Priority: False
- Related Applications: ['14435562', '11265747', '13591950', '14966774', '14808235']

Analysis Scores:
- 35 USC 101 Eligibility (BERT): 0.4029644250467641
- 35 USC 102 Novelty (BERT): 0.4929442204913383
- Combined Prediction Score: 0.4119624045912216
- Mean Citation Score: 193.13478
- Max Citation Score: 244.6572
- Similarity Product: 169.57160769281387

Labels:
- Claim Label 101: 1
- Claim Label 102: 0
- Claim Label 103: 1
- Claim Label 112: 1
- Combined Label: 0
- Label 101 Adjusted: 1

Dataset: test