US 12,373,770 B2
Radio frequency identification (RFID) driven stocking priority determination
Jeffrey S. Cruz, Bentonville, AR (US); Sara Vaught, Centerton, AR (US); and Ryan Sands Magnusson, Rogers, AR (US)
Assigned to Walmart Apollo, LLC, Bentonville, AR (US)
Filed by Walmart Apollo, LLC, Bentonville, AR (US)
Filed on Mar. 30, 2022, as Appl. No. 17/708,334.
Claims priority of provisional application 63/168,651, filed on Mar. 31, 2021.
Prior Publication US 2022/0318733 A1, Oct. 6, 2022
Int. Cl. G06Q 10/087 (2023.01); G06K 7/10 (2006.01)
CPC G06Q 10/087 (2013.01) [G06K 7/10366 (2013.01)] 20 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A computer-implemented method comprising:
displaying, via a user interface of a radio frequency identification (RFID) scanning device, a map of display containers on a sales floor of a retail facility that need to be scanned for inventory tracking and restocking, the RFID scanning device being a component of an RFID driven inventory restocking system,
scanning, by the RFID scanning device, RFID tags on the display containers to obtain item display area data indicating quantities of apparel items stocked in the display containers, wherein restocking the apparel items in the display containers includes transporting storage containers from a storage location of the retail facility to the sales floor and transferring the apparel items from the storage containers to the display containers;
determining, by the user interface of the RFID scanning device, that a scan of an individual one of the display containers is complete based on a percentage of data collected by the RFID scanning device at the individual display container exceeding a threshold;
responsive to determining that the scan of the individual display container is complete, displaying or emitting, by the user interface of the RFID scanning device, a visual or audio cue to indicate that the scan of the individual display container is complete and updating the map of the display containers to reflect that the individual display container has been scanned for inventory tracking and restocking;
scanning, via the RFID scanning device, RFID tags on the storage containers and ArUco markers on the storage containers to obtain storage location data, each of the RFID tags on the storage containers identifying which specific apparel items are carried by a corresponding one of the storage containers, each of the ArUco markers on the storage containers identifying one or more of the display containers associated with the specific apparel items carried by the corresponding storage container, wherein each of the ArUco markers is a synthetic marker that includes a matrix that is scanned to determine an identifier of the corresponding ArUco marker;
assigning, by the RFID driven inventory restocking system, priorities to the storage containers based on the item display area data and the storage location data, the priorities assigned to the storage containers identifying an order in which to transport the storage containers from the storage location to the sales floor for purposes of restocking the display containers;
displaying, via the user interface of the RFID scanning device, a list of the storage containers in order of restocking priority based on the priorities assigned to the storage containers, wherein a highest priority storage container is positioned at the beginning of the list of storage containers;
receiving, via the user interface of the RFID scanning device, a user input confirming that inventory items carried by the highest priority storage container have been replenished on the sales floor; and
updating, via the user interface of the RFID scanning device, the list of the storage containers in response to the user input, wherein a next-highest priority storage container is positioned at the beginning of the updated list of the storage containers.