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AmazonGranted patentRobots & automationInterest 4/10

Amazon patents camera-guided belt system to space out packages

Patent drawing
Patent drawing from the official filing.

Amazon describes a warehouse system that uses a camera to watch items moving across a grid of small conveyor belts. The system adjusts the speed of specific belts to push some packages forward and hold others back, creating a consistent gap between them for easier handling downstream.

Why it mattersThis improves the efficiency of automated sorting centers by ensuring packages are evenly spaced without manual intervention.

In the filing’s own words

Disclosed are various embodiments for singulation of items in a conveyor system. As items flow though conveyors and the like in a facility, such items may be directed onto a singulator that comprises a matrix of singulation conveyors. A camera is provided that has a field of view directed to the matrix of singulation conveyors. A singulation controller detects, in an image from the camera, a first one of the items and a second one of the items positioned on the matrix of singulation conveyors that require singulation in a direction of a flow of the items. The speed of at least one of the singulation conveyors is controlled to generate a relative movement between the first one of the items and the second one of the items positioned on the singulator to create a predefined gap therebetween on a downstream conveyor positioned downstream from the singulator.

What exactly they claim (claim 1)

1. A non-transitory computer-readable medium embodying instructions executable in at least one computing device, the instructions causing the at least one computing device to: identify, in an image from a camera directed toward a singulator comprising a matrix of singulation conveyors, a plurality of items on the matrix of singulation conveyors that require singulation in a direction of a flow of items; creating a bounding box around individual ones of the items identified in the image; assigning numbers to the items in an order starting from an upstream side to a downstream side of the image; determining whether singulation is required for a plurality of numerically consecutive pairs of the items starting from the highest and second highest ones of the numbers assigned to the items and proceeding to the lowest and second lowest ones of the numbers assigned to the items; for at least one of the consecutive pairs, generating a relative movement between the items in the at least one of the consecutive pairs to create a predefined gap between the items in the at least one of the consecutive pairs by: increasing a speed at which a first one of the items is moved across the singulator by increasing a speed of at least one first one of the singulation conveyors; and decreasing a speed at which a second one of the items is moved across the singulator or stopping a movement of the second one of the items by decreasing a speed of or stopping at least one second one of the singulation conveyors.

Facts

Company
Amazon (Amazon Technologies, Inc.)
Official title
System and method for singulation in a conveyor system
Patent number
US12753017B1
Application number
18669438
Filed
May 20, 2024
Granted
Oct 6, 2026
Inventors
4
Claims
19

Classified under

B65G 43/08 Operations & transportB65G 47/31 Operations & transportB65G 2203/0233 Operations & transportB65G 2203/0291 Operations & transportB65G 2203/041 Operations & transport
Read the full filing (official PDF) ↗ Open in the Patent Tracker

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Summaries are simplified from the filing’s own abstract and first claim. A patent filing is not a product announcement.
Patent data and drawings: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). Nebula is not affiliated with or endorsed by the USPTO.