US 11,905,125 B1
Parcel cart loading system
Brandon Wayne Coats, Jeffersonville, IN (US); Jon Todd Fuchs, Louisville, KY (US); Errin Whitney Gnadinger, Louisville, KY (US); Thomas Anthony Hillerich, Jr., Louisville, KY (US); Nicholas Anderson Moore, Liberty Township, OH (US); Madhav Devidas Patil, Louisville, KY (US); Jonathan Dean Terrell, Louisville, KY (US); and Joshua Alan Wiley, Georgetown, IN (US)
Assigned to Material Handling Systems, Inc., Mt. Washington, KY (US)
Filed by Material Handling Systems, Inc., Mt. Washington, KY (US)
Filed on Mar. 26, 2021, as Appl. No. 17/213,554.
Claims priority of provisional application 62/994,941, filed on Mar. 26, 2020.
Int. Cl. B65G 47/49 (2006.01); B65G 47/71 (2006.01); B65G 67/04 (2006.01)
CPC B65G 47/493 (2013.01) [B65G 47/71 (2013.01); B65G 67/04 (2013.01); B65G 2203/0216 (2013.01); B65G 2203/041 (2013.01)] 14 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A parcel cart loading system, comprising:
a conveyor for transporting parcels;
a plurality of parcel carts configured to receive parcels offloaded from the conveyor;
a loading station at which parcel carts of the plurality of parcel carts are positioned at predetermined locations to receive parcels offloaded from the conveyor; and
a vision and control subsystem operably connected to a plurality of mobile robots, the vision and control subsystem including
a camera for acquiring images of the parcel carts of the plurality of parcel carts positioned at the loading station, and
one or more processors configured to execute instructions stored in a memory component,
wherein at least one processor of the one or more processors is operably connected to the camera and is configured to execute instructions to process images received from the camera to determine if any parcel carts of the plurality of parcel carts positioned at the loading station has been loaded with one or more parcels in a manner that satisfies one or more predetermined conditions corresponding to a particular parcel cart being fully loaded, and
wherein at least one processor of the one or more processors is configured to execute instructions to (i) communicate instructions to a first mobile robot of the plurality of mobile robots to transport a parcel cart determined to be fully loaded from its predetermined location at the loading station to a predetermined destination and (ii) communicate instructions to a second mobile robot of the plurality of mobile robots to transport another parcel cart of the plurality of parcel carts to the predetermined location at which the parcel cart transported by the first mobile robot was previously positioned at the loading station.