GB2588108A

GB2588108A - Receiving and sorting system

Info

Publication number: GB2588108A
Application number: GB1914445.0A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Lorke Alexander
Original assignee: Royal Mail Group Ltd
Current assignee: Royal Mail Group Ltd
Priority date: 2019-10-07
Filing date: 2019-10-07
Publication date: 2021-04-21
Anticipated expiration: 2039-10-07
Also published as: GB201914445D0; GB2588108B

Abstract

A system 100 for receiving and sorting items to be delivered comprises at least three item handling stations 101-110, and an internal transport infrastructure 120 for transporting items from one handling station to another. Each item handling station comprises one or more loading and/or unloading bays for either receiving items to be dispatched via another item handling station in the system, or for dispatching items for delivery, and a conveyor system for transporting items between the one or more loading and/or unloading bays and the internal transport infrastructure. A control system 130 is configured to control each of the item handling stations to operate either as a receiving station or a dispatching station. The item handling stations may comprise dedicated loading/unloading bays, or it may comprise a bay configurable for loading/unloading. The internal transport may comprise a plurality of vehicles, multiple modes of transport, unmanned vehicles, aerial and ground vehicles, where the control system may allocate routes for vehicles. The conveyor system may comprise a conveyor to load or unload items, with splitter/merger or multiple bays. A method of operating a receiving and sorting station is also disclosed.

Description

RECEIVING AND SORTING SYSTEM

[0001] The present invention relates to a system for receiving and sorting items for delivery. The invention is particularly but not exclusively suitable for receiving and sorting parcels and mail but is applicable to any kind of items. Such items may be received from one or more source locations outside the location of the system and sorted for delivery to different destinations outside the location of the system. Source locations for some items may also be destinations for other items and vice versa.

Background

[0002] A known type of mail sorting system receives mail from vehicles arriving from various source locations and dispatches mail to vehicles bound for various destinations. Traffic routes may be organised as a series of "spokes" that connect the source locations and destinations to a central "hub". Thus a mail receiving and sorting system is sometimes known as a "sortation hub". The known hub and spoke architecture has a physical limitation that is set by the number of loading and unloading bays that are available at the sorting system site and the time required to load or unload a lorry with items for delivery. As a result, the number of spokes that can be served is directly linked to the number and turn-over of loading bays available on a site.

[0003] Some embodiments of this invention mitigate this or other problems that exist in current receiving and sorting systems.

[0004] Each "spoke" of a known type of mail sorting system is dedicated either to receiving items into the system to be sorted or to dispatching items from the system to be delivered to their final destination. Thus each spoke may be considered to be a "station" of the system, for example a receiving station or a dispatching station.

[0005] It should be noted here that a receiving and sorting system is different from a warehouse in that items are not intended to be stored at the system. Usually their destination outside the receiving and sorting system is predetermined before they arrive, in contrast to a warehouse where items are stored until they are required at a previously unknown destination.

Summary

[0006] This summary is provided to introduce a selection of concepts in a simplified form that are further described below in the detailed description. This summary is not intended to identify key features or essential features of the claimed subject matter, nor is it intended to be used to determine the scope of the claimed subject matter.

[0007] According to some embodiments of the invention, a receiving and sorting system comprises three or more item handling stations and an internal transport infrastructure for transporting items from one item handling station to another. The term "item handling station" is used herein as a generic term encompassing item receiving stations, item dispatching stations, and any other station at which items are handled, either manually or by machinery, in any way including but not limited to receiving, dispatching and storing.

[0008] In one aspect of the invention, each item handing station is operable either as a receiving station or a dispatching station. The stations may be controlled to operate either as one or the other, depending on any one or more of a variety of variables and/or criteria applicable to the system.

[0009] In another aspect of the invention, the internal infrastructure may comprise a plurality of vehicles which are free to take any route between one station and another. In this way there is no need for any of the stations to be connected to each other and a scalable system is provided to which item handling stations can be added or removed as required. With such a scalable system, each station may have a predetermined function or may be operable to perform alternative functions. Any aspects of the invention may be combined in one embodiment.

[0010] Thus, in one aspect, there is provided herein a system for receiving and sorting items to be delivered comprising at least three item handling stations, and an internal transport infrastructure for transporting items from one handling station to another within the system. Each item handling station may comprise one or more unloading and/or loading bays for either receiving items to be dispatched via another item handling station in the system, or for dispatching items for delivery, and a conveyor system for transporting items between the one or more loading and/or unloading bays and the internal transport infrastructure. The internal transport infrastructure may comprise any suitable means for transporting items from one station to another, for example one at a time or in small numbers. The system may be housed in a building although this is not essential, and the internal transport infrastructure may comprise vehicles, manned or unmanned, aerial or ground, or any other suitable means. A control system may be provided, operable for controlling the item handling stations to operate either as a receiving station or as a dispatching station. One or more item handling stations may alternatively be controlled by the control system to operate as a temporary storage station.

[0011] In another aspect there is provided a system for receiving and sorting items to be delivered comprising: at least three item handling stations including at least one receiving station for receiving items to be dispatched and at least one dispatching station for dispatching items for delivery, an internal transport infrastructure for transporting items from a receiving station of the at least three item handling stations to a dispatching station of the at least three item handling stations, and a control system, wherein: each item handling station comprises one or more loading and/or unloading bays, for either receiving items to be dispatched via another item handling station in the system, or for dispatching items for delivery, and a conveyor system for transporting items between the one or more loading and/or unloading bays and the internal transport infrastructure;the internal transport infrastructure comprises a plurality of vehicles which are free to take any route between the item handling stations; and the control system is operable to configure the system by any one or more of: bringing an item handling station into operation, taking an item handling station out of operation, changing the configuration of an item handling station from receiving to dispatching or vice versa, andconfiguring an item handling station as a store for items.

[0012] An item handling station may comprise at least one bay configured for unloading and at least one bay configured for loading so that the station may be able to operate either as a receiving station using the at least one unloading bay, or as a dispatching station using the at least one loading bay.

Alternatively this may be achieved by providing a bay that may be configurable, for example under the control of the control system, for loading or unloading.

[0013] A system according to some embodiments of the invention may be reconfigured from time to time by changing the configuration of an item handling station from receiving to dispatching or vice versa. The reconfiguration may be in response to current operating conditions of the system such as but not limited to volume of items to be delivered, relative proportions of items for different destinations or destination regions and flow rate at different stations. Additionally or alternatively, the system may be reconfigured based on known trends in item handling. For example, the volume of gifts to be dispatched overseas may peak at certain periods such as religious holidays and a system may be reconfigured to better serve this change in demand.

[0014] The internal transport infrastructure may comprise vehicles, which may advantageously be free to take any route between stations. This leads to a particularly flexible and scalable system. In particular, item handling stations may be added to or removed from a system very simply without the need for changes to the intemal transport infrastructure. The system may be configured such that each vehicle transports one item at a time from a receiving station to a dispatching station.

[0015] Such a system provides flexibility in handling differing volumes of items since, for example, the proportion of receiving and dispatching stations may be controlled rather than being fixed. The proportion of receiving and dispatching stations, e.g. the configuration of each station, may be configurable on initial set-up, for example based on expected or forecast operating conditions or demands on the system.

[0016] The term "internal" is used to differentiate transportation of items from one station to another within a receiving and sorting system from transportation of items to and from the receiving and sorting system. These will usually but not necessarily use different modes of transport, for example different kinds of delivery vehicle, since the latter will usually but not necessarily comprise longer distance transportation.

[0017] A variety of different operating conditions may be monitored to determine whether a change of a station from receiving or dispatching or vice versa would be desirable, described further herein.

[0018] There is also provided a method of operating a receiving and sorting system, wherein the receiving and sorting system comprises at least three item handling stations and an internal transport infrastructure for transporting items from one handling station to another, and the method comprises: receiving one or both of information from the item handling stations relating to their current operating conditions and information relating to forecast operating conditions of the system; and controlling the item handling stations according to the current and/ore forecast operating conditions including any one or more of: bringing an item handling station into operation, taking an item handling station out of operation, changing the configuration of an item handling station from receiving to dispatching or vice versa, and configuring an item handling station as a store for items.

[0019] There is also provided a computer readable medium which, when implemented in a computing system configured to control a receiving and sorting system, cause the system to perform any of the methods described herein.

[0020] In addition to being scalable as mentioned above, systems and methods according to some embodiments of the invention have other advantages discussed further in the following including but not limited to resilience against failure, for example: one station may fail and its functions may be allocated to another station, "on the fly" e.g. in real time, in embodiments where the stations are not physically connected to each other; the stations are not fixed to a specific place/location in the system and can be re-arranged / moved to achieve different physical lay-outs of the system; systems may be more energy efficient and there may be less has less wear and tear on components, since stations that are not required (e.g. during periods of low demand) can be turned off / put into stand-by mode.

[0021] Features of different aspects and embodiments of the invention may be combined as appropriate, as would be apparent to a skilled person, and may be combined with any of the aspects of the invention.

[0022] Some embodiments of the invention will now be described by way of example only and with reference to the accompanying drawings in which: [0023] Figure 1 is a schematic diagram of a receiving and sorting system according to some embodiments of the invention; [0024] Figure 2 is an enlarged view of an item handling station according to some embodiments of the invention; [0025] Figure 3 shows an example of item flow management in a receiving and sorting system where the transport infrastructure comprises multiple modes of transport, according to some embodiments of the invention; [0026] Figures 4 (a) and (b) show an example of how a bay may be configured for loading or unloading in the case where the items arrive in a wheeled container, according to some embodiments of the invention; [0027] Figure 5 shows an example of how a bay may be configured for loading or unloading in the case where the items arrive in a wheeled container or no container, according to some embodiments of the invention; [0028] Figure 6 is a schematic diagram showing components of a receiving and sorting system communicating via a network, according to some embodiments of the invention; [0029] Figure 7 is a schematic diagram of a system including multiple stations each comprising multiple bays according to some embodiments of the invention; [0030] Figure 8 is a flowchart illustrating a method of operating a receiving and sorting system according to some embodiments of the invention; [0031] Figures 9(a) to 9(d) are flowcharts illustrating operations that may be performed at receive and dispatch stations according to some embodiments of the invention; [0032] Figure 10 is a schematic diagram illustrating additional optional features of a system according to some embodiments of the invention.

[0033] Embodiments of the present invention are described below by way of example only. These examples represent the best ways of putting the invention into practice that are currently known to the applicant although they are not the only ways in which this could be achieved.

[0034] Figure 1 shows a receiving and sorting system 100 comprising item handling stations 101110, and an internal transport infrastructure 120 for transporting items from one of the stations 101- 110 to another. A system according to embodiments of the invention may include three or more item handling stations and is not limited to the numbers of stations shown in the figures. In the illustrated embodiments of the invention the item handling stations are disconnected, in other words there is no physical connection between the item handling stations, they are movable with respect to each other, and therefore they may be freely positioned within the space provided for them, e.g. a building, without any requirement for them to be linked to each other.

[0035] According to some embodiments of the invention, each handling station may have a predetermined function such as but not limited to receiving, dispatching or temporarily storing items. According to other embodiments of the invention, at least some of the handling stations can be controlled or configured to perform one of a plurality of functions as required. For example handling stations 101-110 of figure 1 may be configured or controlled to operate as a receiving station or as a dispatching station or as a temporary storage station. Thus each station may comprise specific apparatus for receiving items to be sorted and conveyed to the internal infrastructure and specific apparatus for receiving items from the internal infrastructure for dispatching, e.g. loading into an external delivery vehicle or container. Alternatively in some embodiments such specific apparatus may not be required. For example in some embodiments a station may be reconfigured by reversing the direction of a conveyor system comprised in the station.

[0036] The internal infrastructure 120 may take any suitable form. In figure 1 it is shown for example to comprise a plurality of vehicles, for example unmanned vehicles, described further with reference to figure 2, including but not limited to unmanned aerial vehicles "UAVs" and unmanned ground vehicles "UGVs". In the illustrated embodiments, the receiving and sorting system is configured such that the vehicles transport the items one at a time from one station to another. In some embodiments the vehicles may transport small numbers of items, e.g. up to 5 items destined for the same dispatching station. According to some embodiments of the invention, the vehicles of the internal transport infrastructure are free to take any route between one station and another and do not require a fixed track. They may include aerial and ground vehicles. A control system 130 shown schematically in figure 1 is provided for performing various control functions including controlling each of the item handling stations. Where the stations 101-110 are configurable to operate in different ways, for example as a receiving station or as a dispatching station or as temporary storage station, this may be controlled by the control system as will be discussed further herein. The decision as to how a station should operate may depend on monitored or forecast operating conditions, described further below. The vehicles may be electrically operated and figure 1 also shows a charging station 140 for charging the vehicles.

[0037] In some of the figures, items to be received and sorted are shown the same shape and/or size for simplicity, but the systems described here are intended and suitable for receiving and sorting items of various sizes, shapes and weights.

[0038] The control system 130 may receive data from stations 101-110 or from components located at the stations, as described further with reference to figure 6. The term "data" is used herein to refer to information, which may for example be conveyed in electronic form.

[0039] The control system 130 shown in figure 1 may be housed in a building although this is not essential. It will be appreciated that the internal transport infrastructure is designed to transport items over relatively short distances compared to the distances over which they may have been brought to the receiving and sorting system from one or more source locations, or to the distances over which they will be transported to their destinations, typically tens of kilometres. The distances between stations in a system 100 may be no more than 1000m, for example between 10m and 1000m, more usually no more than 500m. They are only restricted by the capability of the internal infrastructure, e.g. the vehicles used to transport items from one station to another.

[0040] Referring now to figure 2 an item handling station will now be described in more detail. In the system of figures 1 and 2, each item handling 101-110 station comprises one or more loading and/or unloading bays, indicated in figure 2 as 201, 202, 203. Only one loading and/or unloading bay is shown in figure 1 for the sake of clarity but a station may have two bays, three bays as shown in figure 2, or more. In general a loading and/or unloading bay may be configured for loading only 202, or unloading only 203, in which case in order to function as both receiving and dispatching station an unloading only or loading only bay will also be provided. Alternatively a bay may be configurable as a loading bay for use when the station operates as a dispatching station or as an unloading bay for use when the station operates as a receiving station 201 (dual function), and an example of how this may be achieved is described elsewhere. Provided that a station can operate as a receiving station and a dispatching station, it may have any combination of loading only, unloading only and dual function bays.

[0041] The station shown in figure 2 may receive items from or load items to a road transport vehicle 250. The invention is not limited in this respect and a station may be designed to receive items from or load items to any kind of vehicle. The station further comprises a conveyor system 240 for transporting items between one or more loading and/or unloading bays 201, 202, 203 and the internal transport infrastructure 120, not shown in figure 2. The station further comprises at least one interface with the internal transport infrastructure 120. The station shown in figure 2 comprises three interfaces 204, 205, 206.

[0042] An interface may comprise an endpoint of a part of the conveyor system from where an item is transferred to the internal transport infrastructure. An interface according to some embodiments of the invention may comprise structure connected to or cooperating with an endpoint of the conveyor system. For example where the internal transport infrastructure comprises unmanned vehicles, the interfaces may comprise docking stations for the unmanned vehicles.

[0043] The conveyor system 240 may take any suitable form as is known in the art, and may comprise for example belts, rollers, vehicles or any other suitable means for conveying items from a bay 201, 202, 203 to an interface 204, 205, 206. Where the station comprises multiple bays and/or multiple interfaces to the internal transport infrastructure, the conveyor system 240 may comprise a common section 241 serving all bays and interfaces, branching at one or both ends to serve individual bays and interfaces. Thus figure 2 shows a splitter/merger 210 at each end of the common section 241. In general a splitter/merger may comprise two or more branches.

[0044] The splitter/merger 210 may be configured to split a stream of items or to merge a stream of items depending on whether the station in which it is comprised is configured as a receiving station or a dispatching station. Referring to figure 2, it will be seen that a station may comprise two splitter/mergers where multiple bays and multiple interfaces to the internal transport infrastructure are provided, each performing one of the functions of splitting and merging and being configurable to perform the other function if the configuration of the station is changed from receiving to dispatching or vice versa. One splitter/merger 210 comprises a number of branches corresponding to the number of bays. The other comprises a number of branches corresponding to the number of interfaces.

[0045] According to some embodiments of the invention, each station may comprise additional apparatus that is dedicated to its function as a receiving station or a dispatching station. In other words, each station may comprise both receiving-specific and dispatch-specific apparatus in order that it may be controlled to operate as either a receiving station or a dispatch station, for example without the need for additional hardware to be installed. According to other embodiments of the invention such receiving-specific and/or dispatch-specific apparatus may not be required.

[0046] In order for a station to function as a receiving station, it may be provided with apparatus such as one or more sensors for determining which other station in the system 100 a received item should be directed to and/or which mode of transport of the internal transport infrastructure should be used. For this purpose the system of figure 2 is shown to include apparatus generally termed item examination apparatus 260. For example, an item may be labelled or otherwise marked to indicate its destination and the station may comprise a label or marking reader. In figure 2 this is indicated schematically as an image capturing device 280, e.g. a camera, that may for example read a bar code label on an item, or an optical character reader for reading text, in a manner well known in the art of parcel sorting.

[0047] The item examination apparatus may further comprise a weighing scale indicated at 270 for determining the weight of an item. It will be appreciated that a weighing scale may be integrated into the conveyor system 240 or may be provided as a separate item. A station may further comprise volume scanning apparatus 275, for determining the volume of an item, such as is well known in the art of parcel sorting, which may also comprise an optical device. Alternatively the same image capturing device may be used for reading a label or marker and determining item volume. Additionally or alternatively, any one or more of the weight, volume and dimensions of an item may be included in a label, e.g. bar code, applied to the item. Additionally or alternatively, each item may have a unique identification number or code allocated to it, for example prior to arrival at the station or by apparatus forming part of the item examination apparatus 260.

[0048] Data relating to the weight and/or volume of items may be used to control the loading of items into vehicles at a dispatch station to ensure that the vehicles are not overloaded. According to some embodiments of the invention, the internal transport infrastructure 120 comprises two or more different modes of transport between stations. The different modes may differ in various ways including but not limited to load capacity (by weight or volume) and/or transport medium (e.g. air or ground). Thus, the term "mode" as used here may for example differentiate different kinds of UGV and UAV as well as differentiating UAVs from UGVs. Data relating to the weight and/or volume of items may be used to determine the mode of transport for the items.

[0049] To aid its function as a dispatching station, each station may comprise equipment for ensuring that each delivery container or vehicle is correctly loaded and/or acquiring data relating to items loaded into a delivery container or vehicle. According to some embodiments of the invention, some or all of the item examination apparatus 260 may be used for this purpose. For example, any of the weight, volume and number of items may be monitored as a vehicle or container is loaded to ensure that the capacity of the vehicle or container is not exceeded. According to some embodiments of the invention a container of vehicle may have a unique identity whereby a record may be stored as to which container or vehicle a particular item was loaded into. According to some embodiments of the invention, items may be examined as they leave a receiving and sorting system to verify data relating to them that was acquired at a receiving station.

[0050] The station shown in figure 2 may alternatively be configured for temporarily storing items, for example after they have been sorted. This may be achieved in various ways. In one example items may be temporarily stored at one or all of the bays, and any part of the conveyor system may be extendable for this purpose. Items may be removed from a station serving for temporary storage, either via the internal transport infrastructure or via the bays.

[0051] Figure 3 is a partial diagram of an item handling station as shown in figures 1 and 2 configured as a receiving station, showing an example of item flow management in a system where the transport infrastructure 120 comprises multiple modes of transport. In general, the internal transport infrastructure may comprise at least two different kinds of unmanned vehicle. In the example of figure 3, the transport infrastructure comprises UAVs and UGVs, specifically two kinds of UAV 310 and 311 having different weight capability and a UGV 312.

[0052] In the example of figure 3, a separate interface 204, 205, 206 is provided for transferring items to each mode of transport, and the interfaces may differ from each other depending on the transport modes. Each interface corresponds to a different branch of a splitter/merger 210. Additionally or altemafively, for example where it is not necessary for the interfaces to differ from each other, any of the interfaces may serve more than one mode of transport. For example, the same interface may be used for loading UAVs with different weight capabilities or the same interface may be used for loading UAVs and UGVs. In this way an arriving UAV or UGV at an item handling station may be directed to any available interface and there is greater scope to maximise use of the interfaces and allocate interfaces "on the fly". The separate interfaces 204, 205, 206 may be used in an analogous way to receive items when the station of figure 3 is configured as a dispatching station.

[0053] Each interface 204, 205, 206 may have a unique location which may for example be communicated to a vehicle of the internal transport infrastructure and/or apparatus for guiding the vehicle to the interface. The guiding apparatus may comprise any one or more of a camera or other image capturing device, for example feeding back precise directions to the vehicle, triangulation and/or global positioning sensor to determine the exact location of the interface (since the interface and the station in which it is comprised may be movable within the receiving and sorting system), and a beacon or other transmitter for broadcasting its location to a vehicle.

[0054] The item flow shown in figure 3 may generally be considered to be through consecutive zones, which may be part of the common section 241 of figure 2. Figure 3 shows three zones, namely a buffer zone 330, a presentation zone 340 and a routing zone 350.

[0055] At the buffer zone 330, mail received via one or more loading bays will flow towards an operator, for example on one or more automated belts. A flow restrictor 331, for example retractable, may be positioned a the end of the buffer zone 330 to prevent the onward travel of items in the conveyor system, for example so that with the flow restrictor in operation items they may only be removed from the buffer zone by an operator. According to some embodiments of the invention, the rate of flow of items into and/or out of the buffer zone may be controlled. This may be automated or the control may be operated by a human operator. The control may be based on various criteria, including but not limited to the individual work rate of the operator. Thus for example the rate of unloading items at the unloading bays 201, 202, 203 may be controlled in order to avoid excessive build up of items in the buffer zone 330. The rate control may comprise on/off switching. For example the buffer zone 330 may comprise a belt section that is switched on or off during unloading to allow items to accumulate.

[0056] In the presentation zone, items may be presented in a suitable orientation and/or spacing for subsequent processing, for example examination by the item examination apparatus 260, for example to ensure readability of a barcode and/or to ensure a minimum gap between items, and onward conveyance. This presentation may be performed by an operator such as a human operator 341 and/or a mechanical operator such as a robot 342. Depending on the degree of automation at the presentation and buffer zones, one or both of the flow rate control and the operation of the robot 342 may be controlled by the control system 130.

[0057] The control system 130 may comprise a computing system as known in the art, receiving input information from various sources and using this to control the operation of the system, as described in more detail with reference to figure 6. The control system 130 may comprise a single central controller or may be implemented as a distributed computing system, for example with some processing and control being performed at individual receiving/dispatching stations.

[0058] Once presented, the items may be routed automatically under the control of the control system 130. For example, following any one or more of scanning, weighing and sizing steps, the central controller may make a number of routing decisions including but not limited to the mode of transport from receiving station to dispatching station (e.g. UAV or UGV) and/or target dispatching station. The controller may then schedule the collection of the item, e.g. summon an appropriate mode of transport from one of stations 101 -1 09 to another, and command its destination station, and direct the item to the appropriate interface 204, 205, 206 for collection.

[0059] The use of vehicles, for example unmanned, also known as autonomous, vehicles as part of the internal transport infrastructure, e.g. from station to station, adds greatly to the flexibility of the system achieved through the provision of item handling stations that can function as receiving stations or dispatching stations. UAVs and UGVs (drones and bots) can replicate the flow of existing belt based architecture without a requirement for expensive & inflexible machine infrastructure. The use of aerial in addition to ground vehicles, e.g. UAVs in addition to UGVs, enables additional routes to be taken from one station to another. For example by using UAVs as well as UGVs the floor space can be reserved for heavy items, whilst the airspace can be used for light weight items. The vehicles could follow a basic pre-determined route flow, for example similar to a known belt based architecture, or greater flexibility could be achieved through the use of full autonomous logic to find a direct route from one station to another. Those skilled in the art of UAV and UGV operation will be familiar with controlling multiple vehicles to ensure that they reach their destinations as efficiently as possible whilst avoiding collisions.

[0060] As noted elsewhere, an item handling station according to some embodiments of the invention may comprise separate bays for loading and unloading so that it can function as a receiving station or as a dispatching station, and optionally also to provide temporary storage. Altematively one or more bays may be provided that are configurable for loading or unloading. This may have the advantage of saving space for example.

[0061] Figures 4 (a) and (b) show an example of how a bay may be configured for loading or unloading in the case where the items arrive in a wheeled container. It is well known for parcels to be transported in lorries in wheeled containers, such as the well known "York" roll containers. Such containers may also be used for storing items. In figures 4(a) and 4(b) the conveyor system 240 (see figure 2) comprises a series of conveyor sections for transporting items to and receiving items from a container. These comprise a fixed, e.g. horizontal, conveyor section 401, which may for example lead to or comprise part of the buffer zone 330, to receive items tipped out of the container, and a section 402 which is tiltable to enable items to be tipped into the open top of the container.

[0062] Figure 4(a) shows the bay configured for unloading, with the tiltable section 402 generally in line with the fixed section 401. In this configuration items, one of which is indicated by reference 450, may be dropped onto the tiltable section 402. Figure 4(b) shows the bay configured for loading, with the tiltable section tilted with respect to the fixed section 402 so that the end opposite the fixed section 402 is raised, from where an item 450 can be dropped into the wheeled container 420.

[0063] Automated systems for loading and unloading wheeled containers are known in the art. Figures 4(a) and (b) show schematically a system that may be used for both loading and unloading. Figure 4(b) shows a wheeled container 420 received in an open topped, open sided receptacle 430, where it may be locked in place to receive items 450. The receptacle 430 containing the wheeled container 420 may be tipped to empty the container 420. This may be achieved in any suitable manner. Figure 4(a) shows an abutment 440, for example in the form of a wall, of lower height than the receptacle. As shown in figure 4(a), the receptacle 430 has been pivoted over the abutment 440 to tip the contents of the container 420 onto a conveyor section, in this case a tiltable conveyor section 402. The abutment 440, or other mechanism for tilting the receptacle 430, may remain in position when the tiltable conveyor section 402 is configured for loading a container, or it may be movable, as indicated in figure 4(b).

[0064] It will be appreciated from figures 4(a) and 4(b) that the same conveyor may be arranged to be used for loading or unloading a container of items. Depending on the nature of the container, the conveyor may be configurable for loading or unloading, for example by having a section 402 that may be elevated or tilted with respect to the remainder of the conveyor system 240.

[0065] The bay shown in figures 4(a) and (b) may altemafively be configured for storage, for example with the tiltable section 402 flat as shown in figure 4(a) and the conveyor system being driven in the direction shown in figure 4(b) until the conveyor sections 402 and optionally 401 are full of items.

[0066] As is well known in the art, a wheeled container may contain items of various weights and sizes and is not limited to items of the same weight and/or volume.

[0067] Figures 4(a) and 4(b) show how a station may be configured for receiving or dispatching items received in containers. Figure 2 also shows a loading and/or unloading bay 201 that may be used to handle individual items, also referred to as a "loose" load, now described in more detail with reference to figure 5.

[0068] Figure 5 shows an example of how a bay may be configured for loading or unloading in the case where the items arrive in a wheeled container or no container. In this example the conveyor system 240, or a branch of the conveyor system 240, includes a section 501 that may extend into the container of a transport vehicle, such as road transport vehicle 250. An operator, such as a human operator 341, or possibly a robot 342 as shown in figure 3, may be positioned in the vehicle 250 to remove items from the vehicle and place them on the conveyor section 501.

[0069] It will be appreciated that the loading and/or unloading bay illustrated in figures 2 and 5 is equally suitable for loads transported in containers and loose loads. Therefore a simplified system100 according to some embodiments of the invention may comprise bays of the kind shown in figure 5, indicated as 201 in figure 2, for both loose and containerised loads of items. The conveyor section 501 may be provided as an optional accessory for an item handling station according to some embodiments of the invention. It may be in the form of an extensible section or "boom" which may be used as an extension of or replacement for a tiltable section or boom 402. Thus some embodiments of the invention provide an item handling station that may be configured in various ways to suit various requirements.

[0070] It will be appreciated that according to some embodiments of the invention, an item handling station may comprise any number and combination of loading and/or unloading bays, not limited to the examples of bays described here. Similarly, an item handling station may comprise any number and combination of interfaces to the internal transport infrastructure, including interfaces dedicated to a particular transport mode and interfaces that are configurable for different transport modes, not limited to the examples of interfaces described here.

[0071] In systems according to some embodiments of the invention, each item handling station includes as part of the conveyor system a fixed section between the one or more bays and the interface to the internal transport infrastructure 120. By contrast, the possible routes for items between handling stations is limited only by the number of handling stations and can be varied according to demand. This variation may be achieved in various ways. For example, data may be exchanged between item handling stations and component parts of the item handing stations for use in determining their usage and configuration, using a communication network. This will be described further with reference to figure 6.

[0072] Figure 6 is a schematic diagram showing components of a receiving and sorting system, described with reference to figures 1-5, communicating via a network 600 with a central controller 601. As noted in connection with figure 1, instead of a single central system a distributed computing system may be provided. For example some processing and/or control may be performed at individual receiving/dispatching stations and/or components. Additionally or altemafively, some data processing operations and/or control operations may be performed remotely. Some components may be individually controlled and report back to a central controller, for example in a server/client type configuration. Figure 6 shows a single central controller 601 for the sake of simplicity. Where a central controller is referred to anywhere in this document, it may be replaced by an element of a central control system.

[0073] The central controller 601 or control system 130 may comprise one or more computing systems as known in the art, for example including one or more processors configured to implement any of the methods described here. As noted elsewhere some embodiments of the invention enable the provision of a scalable, or modular, receiving and sorting system. The number of any of the components of the system, for example but not limited to item handling stations, vehicles in the internal transport infrastructure, bays and interfaces, may be increased or decreased. Therefore the central control system may include a register of components and may be configured to register new components added to the system or components removed from the system. This register may also contain details of features of a delivery system, outside the receiving and sorting system 100, including but not limited to road or other external transport vehicles, and other receiving and sorting systems to enable loads to be shared between difference receiving and sorting systems.

[0074] The network 600 may be an internal network dedicated to the receiving and sorting system 100. The network may be physically located with the system 100 or may include remote communication links, for example to access remote sources of data or to enable some operations to be performed remotely. The network 600 may use any suitable communication medium or combination of media including but not limited to wired and wireless technology, short and long range communications, as will be familiar to those skilled in the art.

[0075] The central controller 601 may be configured to receive and process data from some or all of the other components in the system 100, or sensors associated with those components. The data may include position, status and progress updates and other information. The central controller may output instructions to some or all of the other components including but not limited to journey schedules (ground or air) for the UAVs and UGVs, flow and task management information for item handling stations and/or loading and/or unloading bays and other instructions and/or data described further below. The central controller 601 may also be used for system administration and set up, for example via a user interface, not shown. Thus the central controller 601 may direct the flow of work for components of the system 100. Any of the communication links shown in figure 6 may support two way communications, so that any of the components shown in figure may communicate with any of the other components. Alternatively, the components shown in figure 6 other than the central controller 601 may communicate with a controller dedicated to an individual station. Each dedicated station controller may report to the central controller 601.

[0076] Figure 6 shows components that may be present at one item handling station, communicating with a central controller 601. In a practical situation, the same components as shown in figure 6 for each of the item handling stations may communicate with the central controller 601. In other words, in reality, the components communicating with the central controller 601 may comprise any one or more of the components shown in figure 6, multiplied by the number of item handling stations. The components and their data inputs and outputs will now be described. The described data inputs and outputs are merely examples of how the components of a system according to embodiments of the invention may operate, none of them are essential unless stated and in other embodiments of the invention different data may be communicated between components.

[0077] Some of the components shown in figure 6 may be controlled by the central controller 601. Others may additionally or alternatively be controlled locally, for example in response to an event at the item handling station to which they belong.

[0078] Some of the components shown in figure 6, such as a bar code reader or charging station, may be in the form of electronic devices configured to communicate with the central controller 601 to receive data, e.g. instructions or other information, and to output data such as status, configuration and other information. Other components shown in figure 6 such as conveyor sections, loading and/or unloading stations, may be provided with one or more communication devices such as transmitters and/or receivers, and in some cases one or more sensors, for example to determine and transmit status, configuration or other information.

[0079] A vehicle, such as road transport vehicle 250 may communicate with the central controller 601, for example wirelessly, to communicate information such as current location and estimated time of arrival, for example using an onboard navigation system or other device located on the vehicle as is known in the art. The central controller 601 may respond with instructions to the vehicle, including for example which of the stations 101-110 the vehicle should arrive at, either to the vehicle itself or in the form of a display to the vehicle at the system 100 location when it arrives.

[0080] A container for items, such as wheeled container 420, may include one or more sensors for communicating wirelessly with the central controller 601 load information such as number/weight/volume of items in the container, position (e.g. using a tracking device for a container as is known in the art), including updates to any of this information.

[0081] It should be noted here that according to some embodiments of the invention, each vehicle 250 and/or each container 420 may have a unique identity and therefore it is possible to record and/or store information relating to the load of each vehicle or container, for example at a central control system. For a vehicle or container approaching a system for unloading, this information may be communicated to the receiving and sorting system 100, optionally with estimated time of arrival, and used to plan the configuration of the system prior to its arrival, for example in conjunction with similar information relating to other vehicles and/or containers arriving to be loaded or unloaded.

[0082] Any of the conveyor sections or other configurable components of an item handling station may receive an instruction as to the direction and/or duration of travel, for example as part of the control system controlling the stations to operate as a receiving station, storing station or dispatching station, and may be configured in response to such instructions for example using one or more motors comprised in the component or item.

[0083] Any one or more of the conveyor sections described herein may be configured, for example with the provision of suitable sensors, to report the passing of items and/or the rate of flow of items along that section in terms of volume and/or weight. Where individual sections report this information, it may be used to detect a "bottleneck" in the system.

[0084] A conveyor section, such as vehicle loading/unloading section 501, may communicate to the central controller its current status, e.g. stationary or moving, direction (loading or unloading) and optionally distance travelled, and information relating to items carried by the conveyor section such as but not limited to any one or more of number, weight and volume. This may be achieved for example through the use of one or more sensors at the conveyor section. Information communicated to the controller at this stage of an item handling process may relate to items held back due to insufficient conveyor capacity, described further with reference to figure 9(a).

[0085] Different information may be communicated to the central controller 601 from a configurable bay depending on whether it is configured for loading or unloading a delivery vehicle or container, and some information may be communicated which is common to receiving stations and dispatching stations. It is useful for a central controller to receive information as to whether an external delivery vehicle is present at a station. This may be communicated in various ways, for example from the station to the central controller, and/or from a vehicle. Then, if a vehicle has just left a station, the station may be available to be reconfigured according to the current requirements of the system.

[0086] Figure 6 shows a bay 400(a) configured for unloading and a bay 400(b) configured for loading. A bay may also be configured for storage of items.The configuration of a bay, which may be determined from the direction of travel of items or the conveyor system, if moving, may be communicated to the central controller 601. In unloading configuration, tipping equipment, for example including abutment 440 and associated tipping machinery, may receive an unload instruction from a controller, for example in response to the detection of a container 420 in a receptacle 430, possibly delayed if necessary due to particular loading conditions on the system 100. In response to an unload instruction items may be unloaded, for example by controlling the movement of the container 420. Information reported from the bay 400(a) to the central controller may include number of items unloaded and any other available information related to the items. Similarly, a loading bay 400(b) may receive an instruction from a controller to unload items into a vehicle or container, for example in response to the detection of items arriving at conveyor section 402. Sensors may be provided for use in unloading configuration to e.g. monitor the loading of a container or vehicle, for example but not limited to any one or more of number of items, weight and volume, any of which may be reported to the central controller 601.

[0087] The buffer zone 330 may function, when a station is configured as a receiving station, to buffer items to enable an operator to present items to the item examination apparatus 260, as described further with reference to figures 9(a) to 9(d). The buffer zone 330 may comprise a belt or other type of conveyor and be connected to another similar conveyor to receive items. Information conveyed from the buffer zone to the central controller may include a "capacity not available" warning, for example, which may be used to control other components in the system to avoid an item pile up and possible damage to items. This is described further with reference to figure 9(b). When a station is configured as a dispatching station the buffering function of the buffer zone may not be required.

[0088] According to some embodiments of the invention the central controller 601 or another component of a control system may control a robot 342 to present items to the item examination apparatus 260, and the robot may report back information relating to items handled.

[0089] The central controller 601 may control the direction of travel of items at the routing zone 350 and operation of equipment at the routing zone 350, for example it may switch on equipment in response to arrival of one or more items at a pad of the conveyor system leading to the routing zone.

Data relating to items may be reported from the routing zone to the central controller 601, such as any one or more of destination, weight, volume and dimensions. According to some embodiments of the invention, equipment at the routing zone may operate only when the station in which it is comprised is configured as a receiving station. Additionally or alternatively the equipment at the routing zone may be useful for loading a vehicle or container when the station in which it is comprised is configured as a despatching station or for storing items.

[0090] The central controller 601 may use information from the routing zone 350 and other routing zones to determine the proportion of items bound for different destinations and use this information to reconfigure one or more stations to perform a different function. For example a station may be reconfigured from receiving or dispatching or vice versa in order to balance loading on the stations.

More generally a station may be reconfigured from any of receiving, dispatching and storing to a different one of receiving, dispatching and storing. In particular, according to some embodiments of the invention, a central controller may receive information relating to the destinations of items and the rates of flow items at different item handling stations and use this information to determine which of the item handling stations should operate as receiving stations and which should operate as dispatching stations and optionally which, if any, should operate as storage stations. Thus a system according to some embodiments of the invention may be reconfigured from time to time by any one or more of bringing an item handling station into operation, taking an item handling station out of operation, changing the configuration of an item handling station from receiving to dispatching or vice versa, and configuring an item handling station as a store for items. The system may be reconfigured periodically, for example several times per day, and/or in response to a particular event such as a sudden increase in the rate of arrival of items to be sorted. The reconfiguration may be performed according to current operating conditions of the system, for example based on data relating to or received from components in the system. Additionally or alternatively, the system may be reconfigured based on forecast information such as known trends in item handling.

[0091] As with other parts of the conveyor system, the common section 241 may receive a start/stop instruction and an instruction as to its direction of travel and may report back information as to its status, similar to the conveyor section 501.

[0092] A splitter/merger 210 may receive instructions from the central controller 601 as to its direction of travel which will indicate whether it is to function as a splitter or a merger of item streams.

It may also receive information relating to items being handled by the handling station. For example, when functioning as a splitter in a receiving station, the splitter may use information relating to any one or more of the item weight, volume, dimensions or other information to determine the mode of transport through the internal transport infrastructure 120 and to direct the item to a branch dedicated to that mode of transport. Alternatively, for example where a branch may interface with more than one mode of transport, the splitter 210 may not require specific information relating to an item and may be instructed to direct an item to an available branch at which the appropriate mode of transport is provided or has been directed. In both cases, information may be provided to the splitter 210 on an item by item basis to instruct the splitter to direct the item to a particular branch of the splitter. The splitter/merger 210 may report back to the central controller 601 various information such as status confirmation (e.g. merger or splitter) and confirmation as to which items have been directed to which branch. A splitter/merger may be used in a storage station to store items, optionally sorted for example by mode of transport within the internal transport infrastructure or destination.

[0093] An interface 204 or any other interface described herein may present or receive items for collection or drop off, for example by a vehicle in the internal transport infrastructure. The interface may receive information from and send information to the central controller 601. Information received may include direction of travel, e.g. when the interface comprises an end point of a part of the conveyor system 240, which may determine whether the interface serves to transfer items to the internal transport infrastructure 120 or receive items from the internal transport infrastructure 120. An interface may also receive information relating to the mode of transport it is to serve, for example identity of a vehicle such as a UGV or UAV which may be used for example to confirm that the correct vehicle has arrived at the interface 204. The interface 204 may respond to instructions received and may report back to the central controller 602 status information such as "available", "unavailable" "item ready", number and or other details of items handled including pick up and/or drop off times.

[0094] A vehicle comprised in the internal transport infrastructure 120, such as a UAV 310 or a UGV 312 indicated in figure 6 may receive a journey schedule, e.g. flight schedule, from the central controller 601. This may include the identity of a dispatching station, determined for example from information provided with an item e.g. on a barcode, and the current configuration of the system 100, and the identity of an interface at the dispatching station in the case where the dispatching station has more than one interface. The central controller may determine the route to be taken by the vehicle from one station to another, which may for example be determined to avoid collision with other vehicles in the internal transport infrastructure. Information received by a vehicle from a central controller may include collision warning or emergency stop instruction. Additionally or alternatively the vehicle, or driver in the case of a human operated vehicle, may be able to determine some or all of this information. For example a vehicle may have autonomous collision avoidance capability. As noted elsewhere, the internal transport infrastructure may replicate known conveyor systems used in existing receiving and sorting stations. According to other embodiments of the invention the vehicles may be free to take any route from one station to another and may include aerial as well as ground vehicles. In other words, the vehicles may be unconstrained as to their route from one station to another. A vehicle in the internal transport infrastructure 120 may report to the central controller 601 its position, status (e.g. direction of travel), information relating to an item being transported and collision warning.

[0095] A system according to some embodiments of the invention may include a charging station 140 for electric vehicles comprised in the internal transport infrastructure. Multi-vehicle charging stations are known in the art and will not be described in detail here. The charging station 140 may be controlled to some extent by the central controller 601. Information received from the central controller may include details of arriving vehicles and information reported back may include status, e.g. available charging points, details of vehicles charged, amount of electricity used.

[0096] Any of the components shown in figure 6 may report to the controller 601 maintenance or health information, and the controller 601 may manage the maintenance of the components. For example, a vehicle 250 might, through the use of appropriate sensors as is known in the art, report a fault or the need for a regular service. The controller 601 may then take this into account when instructing the vehicle, for example by not allocating a load to the vehicle until it has been repaired or serviced. The same applies to any of the media of the internal transport infrastructure, to stations or to individual bays. Similarly an individual sensor at any of the components may be reported to be faulty or in need of maintenance and the controller may allocate tasks to the stations or bays accordingly.

[0097] Figure 7 is a schematic diagram of a system including multiple stations each comprising multiple bays and multiple interfaces according to some embodiments of the invention. In figure 7, four stations are configured as receiving stations and include a buffer zone operated by a human operator or a robot. Four stations are configured as dispatching stations. Any of the stations may alternatively be configured as storage stations. The same components may be present at all stations so that any of them may at any time be configured as a receiving station or as a dispatching station or as a storage station according to the current requirements of the receiving and sorting system. In systems according to some embodiments of the invention, for example where the internal infrastructure 120 comprises vehicles that are free to take any route, no physical connection is required between one station and another and therefore a system may be established with as few as three stations, to be expanded by adding further stations according to current need. Additional stations may be preconfigured as receiving, dispatching, storing or other item handling stations.

Alternatively they may be configurable, for example by a central control system. Therefore some embodiments of the invention provide a single station that is configurable to operate as required, for example as a receiving station or a dispatching station or as a storage station, which may be added to a receiving and sorting station 100.

[0098] The system components shown in any of figures 1 to 7 may be comprised in one storey of a multi storey system in which each storey comprises multiple item handling stations of the kind described here. In this way a system according to some embodiments of the invention may require less ground area than a currently available system to receive and sort a similar load of items. Items may be transported from a station at one storey to a station at another storey, for example by UAVs.

[0099] An item handling station may be allocated to a single source location (for example when configured as a receiving station) or a single destination location (for example when configured as a dispatching station). Additionally or alternatively, source locations may be grouped into regions, for example with items from different source locations in a region being collected at a collection centre for delivery to a receiving and sorting system 100. Similarly, destination locations may be grouped into regions, with items bound for different destination locations in a region being delivered from a receiving and sorting system 100 to a distribution centre or sorting office for delivery to destination locations. Therefore an item handling station may be allocated to a region rather than a single location.

[00100] According to some embodiments of the invention, items may be stored at a dispatching station, for example pending arrival of a delivery vehicle. Also systems according to some embodiments of the invention may provide for temporary storage of items bound for a particular destination/region, for example in an outgoing storage zone, for example to allow a dispatching station allocated to that region to temporarily operate as a receiving station, when there is a drop in incoming items for that destination/region. Temporary storage of items, for example after passing through a receiving station, may be achieved in various ways. According to some embodiments of the invention, an item handling station that is not currently configured for receiving or dispatching may be used to store items, for example bound for a particular destination or region that is not currently allocated to a dispatching station. Such temporary storage may also be referred to as buffering, but is to be distinguished from the short term buffering at the buffer zone 330 described with reference to figure 3.

[00101] Referring to figure 1, item handling station 106 is not shown to be loading a delivery vehicle and might be available for storing items e.g. for which no delivery vehicle is available. An item handling station may be provided with additional capacity for use when it is configured for storing items, such as an extension or "boom" of a conveyor that may be stowed when not required. Temporary storage may also be achieved by loading items into containers, optionally as shown in figure 4(b), for example at an item handling station, to be stored in the containers pending dispatch. The containers may be moved to a suitable area of the system, e.g. a holding area or "pen". The containers may then be loaded directly into a delivery vehicle, or if the items are to be transported loose the containers may be unloaded for loading into a delivery vehicle. It will be appreciated that after passing through a receiving station, items may be temporarily stored according to destination or destination region so that they may be later directed to a dispatching station serving that destination or region, or so that a station operating as a storage station may later serve as a dispatching station for that destination or region. The advantage of temporarily storing items in this way, for example using a holding pen, is to enable vehicles to unload items without incurring delays, e.g. due to downstream bottle necks, and for items still to be sorted into the destination regions that have capacity for which a dispatching station is available. Thus only some items are held, or buffered, rather than for example everything upstream of a bottleneck.

[00102] As noted elsewhere herein, the control system may be configured to control the item handling stations to operate in one of a number of ways including but not limited to as a receiving station or as a dispatching station or as a storage station, for example by sending a configuration instruction such as the direction of travel to the station or to components at the station which are then configured in response to the instruction. The determination how a station is to operate, for example whether a station is to operate as a receiving station or as a dispatching station, may depend on one or more variables including but not limited to on one or both of a number of items to be sorted at the system and a number of items to be delivered to a particular destination or group of destinations.

[00103] It will be appreciated that the control system may be configured through the use of one or more algorithms to operate a receiving and sorting system in any of the ways described herein. For example, a control system according to some embodiments of the invention may comprise a computing system comprising one or more inputs and one or more outputs as explained with reference to figure 6, one or more processors for processing input information to derive output information, memory storing one or more algorithms to be implemented by the one or more processors, data storage, and in some cases a user interface. In the case of a distributed computing system any of the components of the system at different locations may comprise a computing system as described here.

[00104] Figure 8 is a flowchart illustrating some methods of operating a receiving and sorting system according to some embodiments of the invention, such as may be implemented in a computing system, e.g. central controller 601. The method may begin at operation 800 with receiving initial system configuration information, for example input by a human operator or received from an external source. Some configuration information may comprise input data received from components in the system. The configuration information may include an initial estimate or forecast of the proportion of items bound for different destinations or destination groups. Alternatively the configuration information may comprise initial default configuration instructions pending reconfiguration in use according to demand.

[00105] Operations that may be performed by a computing system such as the central controller, some of which are described elsewhere herein, may include but are not limited to any one or more of: * Registration of all components available to the controller for use, including new registrations after an initial set-up and de-registration when no longer available * Creation of an activation schedule based on expected traffic flow for components such as stations, vehicles of the internal infrastructure and other components * Updating availability based on component maintenance status (e.g. drone battery empty, station is in maintenance mode) * Set-up of operating plans (e.g. all possible permutations! combinations of flows of traffic and movement of components) * Recording of historical operating patterns * Scenario planning of predicted traffic flows! workloads * Requesting additional components (e.g. drones or stations, for example due to seasonal or systematic traffic variations).

[00106] At operation 801 configuration instructions are issued to the item handling stations, whereby the control system may control some or all of the stations in the system to operate either as a receiving station or as a dispatching station or as a storage station. In response, each station may be configured according to the instruction. This may comprise configuring a conveyor system 240 to operate in one direction or another. At this stage one or more stations may not be brought into operation. For example in a system comprising more than three item handling stations, one or more may be inactive on initial configuration of a system and later be brought into operation in response to increased demand. Similarly one or more item handling stations may later be rendered inactive in response to reduced demand. Other operations may form part of issuing initial configuration instructions, for example issuing route schedules to the vehicles of the internal transport infrastructure.

[00107] After initial configuration, the central controller 601 receives current information from item handling stations relating to their current operating conditions and may use this to reconfigure a system, for example according to current demands on the system. Additionally or alternatively the central controller may reconfigure a system according to forecast demands on the system, in other words forecast operating conditions. For example as shown in figure 8, at operation 803 the central controller may receive information relating to the destinations of items and the numbers and/or rates of flow, for example from stations configured as item handling stations. This information may be used in various ways to reconfigure a system. Some non limiting examples are described here.

[00108] The ability of an item handling station to either receive or dispatch may be used to reduce congestion of external delivery vehicles. For example according to some embodiments of the invention an external vehicle may use any idle station and this may avoid the need for it to drive around a building containing the system 100 or queue for loading or unloading. If a vehicle has just left a dispatching station for a location and there are no more items for that location, the station is then available to be configured as a receiving station. An example of how this may be implemented is shown in figure 8.

[00109] The numbers and/or rates of flow of items may be continuously monitored and at operation 805 a decision may be made as to whether the number or rate of flow of items for a particular destination or region has fallen below a threshold value, which may indicate for example that a station serving that region may be temporarily reconfigured. In the affirmative, and if a delivery vehicle is awaiting unloading as indicated at decision 807, a reconfiguration instruction may be issued at operation 809 to the station serving that destination or region to change from dispatching to receiving to allow the vehicle to be unloaded.

[00110] Another set of operating conditions that might lead to a station being reconfigured is also shown in figure 8. At decision 811 it is determined whether the current or predicted number of items for a destination or destination region exceeds a predetermined threshold, indicating that it would be useful to operate an additional dispatching station to serve that destination or region. At decision 812 it is determined whether the receiving stations have spare capacity, for example from the number or flow rate of incoming items being below a predetermined threshold. If so a reconfiguration instruction may be issued to a receiving station to be reconfigured as a dispatching station at operation 809.

[00111] More generally it will be appreciated that configuration or reconfiguration of a system at operations 801 or 809 may comprise, but is not limited to, any one or more of the following: * Activating each component required to enact an operating plan * Adjusting operating plans based on real-time feedback from each component and or vehicle 250 arrival schedules * Allocating loading and un-loading instructions to vehicle bays and updating a yard management system to direct vehicles to correct bays.

[00112] Any of the foregoing may be done so as to optimise energy consumption.

[00113] Figure 8 shows examples of rules that may be implemented at the central control system for reconfiguring a receiving and sorting system 100 by one or more item handling stations changing from receiving to dispatching or vice versa. These rules may indicate that that the system may be reconfigured according to current operating conditions. For example if certain operating conditions exist, or combinations of operating conditions, the function of an item handling station may be changed. Some rules may operate in parallel as indicated in figure 8.

[00114] Rules for operating systems according to some embodiments of the invention may be designed according to different criteria. For example a system designed for maximum use of the stations, using as few stations as possible to minimise investment in stations. Another system according to the invention may be designed for maximum responsiveness and have a plurality of redundant stations to be brought into and out of operation as required. Another may be designed to balance competing criteria.

[00115] It will be appreciated from the foregoing that a system configuration and/or component operating instructions may be updated based on real time feedback including information such as but not limited to any of: * vehicle arrival schedules adjusted based on real-time traffic updates * drone availability based on battery status * station availability due to traffic flow 8, rate of processing * component unavailability due e.g. to fault! scheduled maintenance [00116] The result may be to do any one or more of: * Optimisation of energy consumption across the entire system * React to traffic volume and maximum variations from forecast * Notification of upstream systems / actors (e.g. mail centres, vans, lorries) to slow down / accelerate flow or divert traffic to another processing centre.

[00117] Some of the operating conditions are mentioned elsewhere and may be reported to the central control system or determined by the central control system based on information reported to it from the individual stations or components at those stations. The operating conditions may include but are not limited to: proportions of items bound for different destinations quantities of items, for example by weight, number, volume or other criterion rate of flow of items in a system station or component, operating / maintenance status of any system station or component, battery status and self-diagnostic information, for any component, e.g. vehicle of the internal transport infrastructure, station, component or drone availability.

[00118] Figures 9(a) to 9(d) illustrate a series of operations that may be implemented in a system according to some embodiments of the invention. Wireless symbols are included in these figures to indicate information that may be reported to the central control system, as discussed in connection with figure 6. After an initial configuration stage 900, at stage 901 a vehicle, such as a road transport vehicle, arrives at a station configured as a receiving station. A decision is then made at stage 903 whether the vehicle load is containerised, e.g. in York containers, or loose. Depending on the bays available at the station, the vehicle may be directed to an appropriate bay, e.g. bay 201 for a loose load, or a bay may be configured for unloading the items according to whether or not they are in a container by implementing a tipper at stage 905 as shown in figures 4(a) and 4(b) or a conveyor system extension at stage 907 as shown in figures 2 and 5. Items are then unloaded at stage 909.

[00119] At stage 911 a decision is made as to whether each item meets certain size and/or weight specifications enabling it to be transported via the internal transport infrastructure. This decision may be by an operator such as a human or robot and may be additional to handling by an operator at the presentation zone 340 and examination of an item at the routing zone 350. Some items which do not comply with the specifications may require separate transportation and may be processed manually as indicated at stage 913. At stage 915 a determination is made as to whether there is capacity at the conveyor system, for example at the buffer region and a conveyor leading to the buffer region, for the item. If not it may be held on the vehicle or in the container until capacity is available at stage 917. If there is no capacity the corresponding part of the conveyor system, e.g. merger/splitter branch, may be switched off as explained with reference to figure 9(b). This may be reported to the central controller 601. Frequent absence of capacity at one or more stations may be a criterion for bringing an additional station into operation, or reconfiguring a dispatching station that is currently under utilised to operate as a receiving station.

[00120] When conveyor system capacity becomes available, at stage 919 items are loaded onto a section of the conveyor system and the process continues to the stages shown in figure 9(b).

[00121] Referring now to figure 9(b), at stage 921 items are conveyed to the buffer zone 330. At stage 927 items may be removed from the buffer zone 330 and presented to the routing zone 350. As noted in connection with figure 3 an operator such as a human or robot may perform this step and it may comprise for example positioning the item in a suitable orientation for item examination apparatus 260. At operation 929 items are conveyed to the routing zone 350. Here, at operation 931, they may be examined by the item examination apparatus 260. This may include scanning an item, e.g. for a destination address, and tagging an item as is known in the art with weight, volume and barcode scan data. If this was not possible, for example if a barcode on the item was not readable as indicated by decision 933, no destination can be allocated to the item and it may be marked "barcode rejected" at stage 935. The flow continues to the stages shown in figure 9(c).

[00122] At stage 941 an interface at the receiving station is assigned to an item, for example depending on its weight or other dimensions in the case where different interfaces are provided for different modes of transport within the internal transport infrastructure 120. At stage 943 a check is made as to whether the interface is available and if not the item is held at stage 945. If the interface is available a check is made at stage 947 as to whether a dispatching station, previously allocated to the item, is available, e.g. has an available interface to the internal transport infrastructure. The dispatching station may be allocated to the item at stage 941, according to which dispatching station has been allocated to serve its destination or destination group. If interfaces are available at both the receiving station and the dispatching station, a transport vehicle may then be requested at the receiving station interface at stage 949. The vehicle may have been previously reserved pending availability of the interfaces. The vehicle path may then be scheduled and reserved and an interface at the dispatching station may be reserved at stage 951. The transport of the item may then commence at stage 953 and the flow may continue to the stages shown in figure 9(d).

L00123] At stage 961 an item is delivered via the internal transport infrastructure, implementing suitable collision avoidance as necessary. The item may be unloaded at the dispatching station interface to enter the dispatching station conveyor system, and the vehicle which transported the item is released at stage 963. The item may then be conveyed to a loading bay at stage 965. Either before or after stage 965 decision may be made at stage 967 as to whether the item is to be conveyed loosely or in a container and either the item is directed to an appropriate bay or a bay is configured for loose or container loading. For container loading, an item is loaded into a container at stage 969 and when the container is full at stage 971 the container is loaded into a delivery vehicle. Alternatively the item is delivered directly into the vehicle at stage 975. The flow for that particular item ends at stage 979.

[00124]A particular advantage of systems according to some embodiments of the invention is in providing a scalable and flexible configuration. As noted elsewhere, due to the loosely coupled architecture of the system, the design is particularly suitable to be extended or reduced by the addition or removal of handling stations which may then be used at different sortation hubs. Item handling stations may be provided in kit form to be assembled or dismantled according to requirements. Item handling stations may be designed to be movable, e.g. intact, for example an item handling station may be provided with wheels to enable it to be moved from one location to another.

Additionally or alternatively, parts of the internal transport infrastructure may be moved between one sortation hub 100 and another, for example according to current demand such as seasonal or regional capacity demands. This is illustrated in figure 10 which shows schematically UAVs being taken via road transport from one sortation hub to another. Additionally or alternatively internal transport vehicles that are not currently required may be kept in a separate storage facility for additional security. Thus figure 10 also shows UAVs flying from a sortation hub to a storage facility 150. Sortation hubs could be extended to interact with a storage facility to deliver keep-safe, nominate day delivery capabilities or flatten capacity spikes in the network for deferred traffic.

[00125] Another advantage of systems according to some embodiments of the invention may be improved resilience in the event of failure of any part of the system, such as a mechanical failure, again due to the loosely coupled architecture. If one station is not operable for any reason the system may be reconfigured to compensate for this. The same applies if one vehicle of the internal transport infrastructure is out of action. Thus the vulnerability of the system to failure is on a sliding scale rather than binary as is the case with the known hub and spoke architectures.

[00126] A system according to some embodiments of the invention, or it is components, may have a longer lifespan that prior systems, for example as a result of its flexibility and configurability. In comparison to a hub and spoke system it does not require the whole of the internal transport infrastructure or the individual stations to be operational at all times and therefore some can be idle an hence not being degraded by use.

[00127] In the foregoing various embodiments of the invention are described with various optional features. Any of the features may be used in any combination unless otherwise stated. Thus any feature described in connection with one embodiment may be implemented in any other embodiment.

[00128] Some operations of the methods described herein may be performed by software in machine readable form e.g. in the form of a computer program comprising computer program code. Thus some aspects of the invention provide a computer readable medium which when implemented in a computing system cause the system to perform some or all of the operations of any of the methods described herein. The computer readable medium may be in transitory or tangible (or non-transitory) form such as storage media include disks, thumb drives, memory cards etc. The software can be suitable for execution on a parallel processor or a serial processor such that the method steps may be carried out in any suitable order, or simultaneously.

[00129] This application acknowledges that firmware and software can be valuable, separately tradable commodities. It is intended to encompass software, which runs on or controls "dumb" or standard hardware, to carry out the desired functions. It is also intended to encompass software which "describes" or defines the configuration of hardware, such as HDL (hardware description language) software, as is used for designing silicon chips, or for configuring universal programmable chips, to carry out desired functions.

[00130] The embodiments described above are largely automated. In some examples a user or operator of the system may manually instruct some steps of the method to be carried out.

[00131] In the described embodiments of the invention the system may be implemented as any form of a computing and/or electronic system as noted elsewhere herein. Such a device may comprise one or more processors which may be microprocessors, controllers or any other suitable type of processors for processing computer executable instructions to control the operation of the device in order to gather and record routing information. In some examples, for example where a system on a chip architecture is used, the processors may include one or more fixed function blocks (also referred to as accelerators) which implement a part of the method in hardware (rather than software or firmware). Platform software comprising an operating system or any other suitable platform software may be provided at the computing-based device to enable application software to be executed on the device.

[00132] The term "computing system" is used herein to refer to any device with processing capability such that it can execute instructions. Those skilled in the art will realise that such processing capabilities may be incorporated into many different devices and therefore the term "computing system" includes PCs, servers, smart mobile telephones, personal digital assistants and many other devices.

[00133] It will be understood that the benefits and advantages described above may relate to one embodiment or may relate to several embodiments. The embodiments are not limited to those that solve any or all of the stated problems or those that have any or all of the stated benefits and advantages.

[00134] Any reference to "an" item or "piece" refers to one or more of those items unless otherwise stated. The term "comprising" is used herein to mean including the method steps or elements identified, but that such steps or elements do not comprise an exclusive list and a method or apparatus may contain additional steps or elements.

[00135] Further, to the extent that the term "includes" is used in either the detailed description or the claims, such term is intended to be inclusive in a manner similar to the term "comprising" as "comprising" is interpreted when employed as a transitional word in a claim.

[00136] The figures illustrate exemplary methods. While the methods are shown and described as being a series of acts that are performed in a particular sequence, it is to be understood and appreciated that the methods are not limited by the order of the sequence. For example, some acts can occur in a different order than what is described herein. In addition, an act can occur concurrently with another act. Further, in some instances, not all acts may be required to implement a method described herein.

[00137] The order of the steps of the methods described herein is exemplary, but the steps may be carried out in any suitable order, or simultaneously where appropriate. Additionally, steps may be added or substituted in, or individual steps may be deleted from any of the methods without departing from the scope of the subject matter described herein. Aspects of any of the examples described above may be combined with aspects of any of the other examples described to form further examples.

[00138] It will be understood that the above description of a preferred embodiment is given by way of example only and that various modifications may be made by those skilled in the art. What has been described above includes examples of one or more embodiments. It is, of course, not possible to describe every conceivable modification and alteration of the above devices or methods for purposes of describing the aforementioned aspects, but one of ordinary skill in the art can recognize that many further modifications and permutations of various aspects are possible. Accordingly, the described aspects are intended to embrace all such alterations, modifications, and variations that fall within the scope of the appended claims.

Claims

Claims: 1. A system for receiving and sorting items to be delivered comprising: at least three item handling stations, an internal transport infrastructure for transporting items from one handling station to another, and a control system, wherein: each item handling station comprises one or more unloading and/or loading bays for either receiving items to be dispatched via another item handling station in the system, or for dispatching items for delivery, and a conveyor system for transporting items between the one or more loading and/or unloading bays and the internal transport infrastructure; and the control system is operable to control each of the item handling stations to operate either as a receiving station or a dispatching station.
2. The system of claim 1 wherein the control system is configured to receive information relating to the current operating conditions of the system and to reconfigure one or more operating stations to change from receiving to dispatching of from dispatching or receiving depending on the current operating conditions.
3. The system of any preceding claim wherein at least one of the item handling stations comprises a dedicated loading bay for use when the station operates as a dispatching station and a dedicated unloading bay for use when the station operates as a receiving station.
4. The system of any preceding claim wherein at least one of the item handling stations comprises a bay that is configurable as a loading bay for use when the station operates as a dispatching station or as an unloading bay for use when the station operates as a receiving station.
5. The system according to any preceding claim including an outgoing buffer zone for items bound for a destination or group of destinations to allow a dispatching station allocated to that region to temporarily operate as a receiving station, when there is a drop in incoming items for that destination/region.
6. The system of any preceding claim wherein the intemal transport infrastructure comprises a plurality of vehicles.
7. A system for receiving and sorting items to be delivered comprising: at least three item handling stations including at least one receiving station for receiving items to be dispatched and at least one dispatching station for dispatching items for delivery, an internal transport infrastructure for transporting items from a receiving station of the at least three item handling stations to a dispatching station of the at least three item handling stations, and a control system, wherein: each item handling station comprises one or more loading and/or unloading bays, for either receiving items to be dispatched via another item handling station in the system, or for dispatching items for delivery, and a conveyor system for transporting items between the one or more loading and/or unloading bays and the internal transport infrastructure; the internal transport infrastructure comprises a plurality of vehicles which are free to take any route between the item handling stations; and the control system is operable to configure the system by any one or more of: bringing an item handling station into operation, taking an item handling station out of operation, changing the configuration of an item handling station from receiving to dispatching or vice versa, and configuring an item handling station as a store for items.
8. The system of any preceding claim wherein the internal transport infrastructure comprises multiple modes of transport.
9. The system of claim 6, 7 or 8 wherein the control system is configured to allocate routes to the vehicles.
10. The system of any of claims 6 to 9 wherein the vehicles comprise unmanned vehicles.
11. The system of any of claims 6 to 10 wherein the vehicles comprise aerial vehicles and ground vehicles.
12. The system of 11 wherein at least one of the item handling stations comprises a weighing scale arranged for weighing received items and wherein the control system is configured to control the conveyor to convey to UAVs only items that do not exceed a threshold weight.
13. The system of claim 11 or 12 wherein the conveyor system of at least one of the item handling stations comprises separate interfaces for UAVs and UGVs respectively.
14. The system of any preceding claim wherein the conveyor system comprises at least one conveyor arranged to be used for loading or unloading a container of items.
15. The system of claim 14 wherein the at least one conveyor comprises a section that may be elevated or tilted with respect to the remainder of the conveyor system.
16. The system of any preceding claim wherein the conveyor system comprises a fixed section between the loading and/or unloading bays and an interface to the internal transport infrastructure.
17. The system of any preceding claim wherein the conveyor system comprises a splitter/merger configurable to split a stream of items or to merge a stream of items depending on whether the station in which it is comprised is operating as a receiving station or a dispatching station.
18. The system of claim 17 wherein at least one station comprises multiple bays and multiple interfaces to the internal transport infrastructure and two splitter/mergers, wherein the splitter/mergers are configured in use to perform one the functions of splitting and merging respectively.
19. The system of any preceding claim comprising multiple storeys wherein each storey comprises two or more item handling stations.
20. The system according to any preceding claim wherein the conveyor system of at least one station comprises a section that may be switched off to enable buffering of items at that station.
21. The system of any preceding claim wherein each of the item handling stations comprises one or more sensors for determining which other station in the system a received item should be directed to and/or a mode of transport of the internal transport infrastructure to be used to transport the item.
22. An item handling station comprising one or more loading and/or unloading bays for either receiving items to be dispatched via another item handling station in the system, or for dispatching items for delivery, and a conveyor system for transporting items between the one or more loading and/or unloading bays and the internal transport infrastructure, configured to be controllable to operate as a receiving station or as a dispatching station in a receiving and sorting system.
23. A method of operating a receiving and sorting station, wherein the receiving and sorting station comprises at least three item handling stations and an internal transport infrastructure for transporting items from one handling station to another, and the method comprises: receiving one or both of information from the item handling stations relating to their current operating conditions and information relating to forecast operating conditions of the system; and controlling the item handling stations according to the current and/ore forecast operating conditions including any one or more of: bringing an item handling station into operation, taking an item handling station out of operation, changing the configuration of an item handling station from receiving to dispatching or vice versa, and configuring an item handling station as a store for items.
24. A method according to claim 23 comprising determining that the number and/or flow rate of items for a destination or region is below a predetermined threshold, and in response to the determination reconfiguring a dispatching station serving that destination or region as a receiving station.
25. A method according to claim 23 or claim 24 comprising determining that the number and/or flow rate for a destination or destination region is above a predetermined threshold and that the incoming number or flow rate of items is below a predetermined threshold, and in response reconfiguring a receiving station as a dispatching station for the destination or region.
26. A computer readable medium comprising instructions which, when implemented in a computing system in a receiving and sorting system, cause the system to implement the method of any of claims 23 to 25.