Automated order fulfillment system and method

1. An automated order fulfillment system, comprising:

a donor-receptacle handling system having at least two donor buffers wherein said donor receptacle handling system comprises at least two donor conveying lines each having one of said at least two donor buffers;

a recipient-receptacle handling system having at least one recipient buffer;

an item-handling system comprising a vision system and an item manipulator;

said vision system having a field of view encompassing said at least two donor receptacle buffers;

a control causing said vision system to perform a process of scanning items in a donor receptacle at one of said at least two donor buffers to obtain a pick list of location data of items in the scanned donor receptacle that are to be picked based on the pick list;

said control causing said manipulator to perform another separate process of picking at least one item from another donor receptacle at the other of said at least two donor buffers under guidance of said vision system and place the picked item to a recipient receptacle at the at least one recipient buffer using the location data from the pick list of items in that donor receptacle; and

said control causing said vision system to perform the process of scanning items in the donor receptacle at said one of said at least two donor buffers overlapping in time with said control causing said manipulator perform the another separate process of picking at least one item from the another receptacle at the another of said at least two donor buffers under guidance of said vision system.

2. The automated order fulfillment system as claimed in claim 1 wherein the pick list includes the height of items that are visible to the vision system and the manipulator picks items from the pick list in sequence according to the height of the items.

3. The automated order fulfillment system as claimed in claim 1 wherein said vision system comprises at least one three-dimensional image capture device.

4. The automated order fulfillment system as claimed in claim 3 wherein said at least one three-dimensional image capture device comprises at least two three-dimensional image capture devices.

5. The automated order fulfillment system as claimed in claim 1 wherein said control causes said vision system to scan items of the another donor receptacle at the another of said at least two donor buffers from which the manipulator is picking items to provide a new pick list if there are items remaining in the donor receptacle after the original pick list is fully picked.

6. The automated order fulfillment system as claimed in claim 1 wherein said at least one recipient buffer is at a different elevation than said at least two donor buffers.

7. The automated order fulfillment system as claimed in claim 6 wherein said at least one recipient buffer is subjacent said at least two donor buffers.

8. The automated order fulfillment system as claimed in claim 6 wherein said at least two donor buffers are at different elevations from each other and said at least one recipient buffer is at an intermediate elevation between the elevations of said at least two donor buffers.

9. The automated order fulfillment system as claimed in claim 1 wherein said item manipulator comprises a robot arm with an end-of-arm item-grasping tool.

10. The automated order fulfillment system as claimed in claim 1 wherein said at least one recipient buffer comprises a plurality of generally parallel recipient buffers each connected with a non-completed recipient receptacle conveying line at one end thereof and a completed recipient receptacle conveying line at an opposite end thereof.

11. The automated order fulfillment system as claimed in claim 1 wherein said item manipulator is straddled by said at least two donor buffers.

12. The automated order fulfillment system as claimed in claim 1 wherein recipient-receptacle handling system comprises at least two recipient buffers and wherein said item manipulator is straddled by said at least two recipient buffers.

13. An automated order fulfillment system, comprising:

a donor-receptacle handling system having at least two donor buffers, wherein said donor receptacle handling system comprises at least two donor conveying lines each having one of said at least two donor buffers;

a recipient-receptacle handling system having at least one recipient buffer;

an item-handling system comprising a vision system and an item manipulator;

said vision system having a field of view encompassing said at least two donor receptacle buffers;

a control causing said vision system to perform a process of scanning items in a donor receptacle at one of said at least two donor buffers to obtain a pick list of location data of items in the scanned donor receptacle that are to be picked based on the pick list;

said control causing said manipulator to perform another process of picking at least one item from another donor receptacle at the other of said at least two donor buffers under guidance of said vision system and place the picked item to a recipient receptacle at the at least one recipient buffer using the location data on the pick list of items in that another donor receptacle;

said control causing said vision system during said another process to scan items of the another donor receptacle at the other of said at least two donor buffers from which the manipulator is picking items to provide a new pick list of location data of items in the scanned donor receptacle that are to be picked based on the pick list if there are items remaining in the another donor receptacle after the original pick list is fully picked; and

wherein said control causes said vision system to perform the process of scanning items in the donor receptacle at said one of said at least two donor buffers separate from said control causing said manipulator to perform the another process of picking said at least one item from the another donor receptacle at the other of said at least two donor buffers under guidance of said vision system.

14. The automated order fulfillment system as claimed in claim 13 wherein the pick list includes the height of items that are visible to the vision system and the control causes the manipulator to picks items from the pick list in sequence according to the height of the items.

15. The automated order fulfillment system as claimed in claim 13 wherein said vision system comprises at least one three-dimensional image capture device.

16. The automated order fulfillment system as claimed in claim 15 wherein said at least one three-dimensional image capture device comprises at least two three-dimensional image capture devices.

17. The automated order fulfillment system as claimed in claim 13 wherein said at least one recipient buffer is at a different elevation than said at least two donor buffers.

18. The automated order fulfillment system as claimed in claim 14 wherein said at least one recipient buffer is subjacent said at least two donor buffers.

19. The automated order fulfillment system as claimed in claim 14 wherein said at least two donor buffers are at different elevations from each other and said at least one recipient buffer is at an intermediate elevation between the elevations of said at least two donor buffers.

20. The automated order fulfillment system as claimed in claim 13 wherein said item manipulator comprises a robot arm with an end-of-arm item-grasping tool.

21. The automated order fulfillment system as claimed in claim 13 wherein said at least one recipient buffer comprises a plurality of generally parallel recipient buffers each connected with a non-completed recipient receptacle conveying line at one end thereof and a completed recipient receptacle conveying line at an opposite end thereof.

22. The automated order fulfillment system as claimed in claim 13 wherein said item manipulator is straddled by said at least two donor buffers.

23. The automated order fulfillment system as claimed in claim 13 wherein said recipient-receptacle handling system comprises at least two recipient buffers and wherein item manipulator is straddled by said at least two recipient buffers.

24. An automated method for fulfilling orders, comprising:

a donor-receptacle handling system having at least two donor buffers wherein said donor receptacle handling system comprises at least two donor conveying lines each having one of said at least two donor buffers;

a recipient-receptacle handling system having at least one recipient buffer;

an item-handling system comprising a vision system and an item manipulator;

said vision system having a field of view encompassing said at least two donor buffers;

performing a process of scanning items in a donor receptacle at one of said at least two donor buffers with said vision system to obtain a pick list of location data of items in the scanned donor receptacle that are to be picked based on the pick list;

performing another separate process of picking at least one item from a donor receptacle at the other of said at least two donor buffers with said manipulator under guidance of said vision system and placing the picked item to a recipient receptacle at the at least one recipient buffer of the recipient-handling system using the location data of items in the pick list of that donor receptacle; and

process of scanning items with said vision system in a receptacle at one of said at least two donor buffers overlapping in time with said another separate process of picking items from another receptacle at another said of said at least two donor buffers under guidance of said vision system.

25. An automated method for fulfilling orders, comprising:

a donor-receptacle handling system having at least two donor buffers wherein said donor receptacle handling system comprises at least two donor conveying lines each having one of said at least two donor buffers;

a recipient-receptacle handling system having at least one recipient buffer;

an item-handling system comprising a vision system and an item manipulator;

said vision system having a field of view encompassing said at least two donor receptacle buffers;

performing a process of scanning items in a donor receptacle at one of said at least two donor buffers with said vision system to obtain a pick list of location data of items in the scanned donor receptacle that are to be picked based on the pick list;

performing another process of picking at least one item from a donor receptacle at the other of said at least two donor buffers with said manipulator under guidance of said vision system and placing the at least one picked item to a recipient receptacle at the at least one recipient buffer of the recipient-handling system using the location data of items from the pick list in that donor receptacle;

said another process including scanning items with said vision system of the another donor receptacle at the other of said at least two donor buffers from which the manipulator is picking items to provide a new pick list of location data of items in the scanned donor receptacle that are to be picked based on the pick list if there are items remaining in the donor receptacle after the original pick list is fully picked; and

wherein said performing the process of scanning items in the donor receptacle at said one of said at least two donor buffers is carried out separately from said performing the another process of picking said at least one item from the other donor receptacle at the other of said at least two donor buffers.