Amazon Technologies, Inc.

Timothy Aaron Bragg

Matthew David Verminski

William James Watt

Peter R Wurman

Michael Cordell Mountz

Jeremiah David Brazeau

Michael T Barbehenn

Nicholas Cravalho

Oleksandr Glazkov

John W Cullen

Rob Stevens

Andrew Stubbs

John P Dugan

Robert Raymond Ambrogi

Joseph W Durham

John Joseph Enright

Eryk Brian Nice

Michael Harrison Decker

Curtis H Nauseda

Ibolya Horvath

Jonathan Harris Schechter

In an infrastructure that uses a mobile order fulfillment system, robotic drive units may be dispatched and instructed to bring inventory holders to a workstation where at least one of the inventory holders is packed and prepared for shipment. The robotic drive units are then instructed to move the prepared inventory holder to a transport vehicle such as a truck. Fiducial marks may be removably placed within the transport vehicle to aid navigation of the robotic drive units. At a destination facility, additional robotic drive units may be instructed to move the inventory holders from the truck and place the inventory holders at appropriate storage locations.

Inter-facility transport in inventory management and fulfillment systems

A method for managing an inventory system includes receiving an operation request that identifies an inventory item and selecting, from a plurality of workstations, a workstation at which to fulfill the operation request. The method also includes moving an inventory holder storing the identified inventory item to the selected workstation and moving a supply holder storing a supply item associated with the received operation request to the selected workstation. The method additionally includes fulfilling the operation request, at least in part, at the workstation.

System and method for configuring workstations

In an infrastructure that uses a mobile order fulfillment system, mobile drive units may be dispatched and instructed to bring inventory holders that include fabric pods to a workstation where at least one of the inventory holders may be operated upon. Such fabric pods may include one or more fabric bin arrays.

Fabric pods

A system for unloading inventory items includes an inventory holder, an unloading station, and a mobile drive unit. The inventory holder stores inventory items. The unloading station includes a barrier that is operable to prevent inventory items from moving past the barrier as the inventory holder moves past the barrier. The mobile drive unit is operable to move the inventory holder toward the unloading station and to move the inventory holder past the barrier.

System for unloading items

An inventory system can receive a receipt receptacle from a shipping vehicle. The receipt receptacle can be moved to a case shuttle without separating or sorting inventory items in the receipt receptacle. A mobile drive unit can move the case shuttle to a receiving station, where the receipt receptacle can be removed and where the inventory items can be stowed in a pickable inventory holder. A mobile drive unit can move the pickable inventory holder to an order-compiling station, where inventory items can be picked from the inventory holder into order receptacles. A mobile drive unit can move an order shuttle carrying order receptacles with completed orders to a shipping station, where the completed order receptacles can be transferred to a shipping vehicle.

Inventory system with efficient operator handling of inventory items

A method for unloading inventory items includes storing an inventory item on an inventory holder and moving the inventory holder toward an unloading station with a mobile drive unit. Additionally, the method includes moving the inventory holder past a barrier of the unloading station. The method further includes preventing the inventory item from moving past the barrier as the mobile drive unit moves the inventory holder past the barrier.

System and method for unloading items

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Woburn, MA, United States of America

Timothy Aaron Bragg