ALEXANDRIA, Va., Nov. 11 -- United States Patent no. 12,466,646, issued on Nov. 11, was assigned to Daifuku Co. Ltd. (Osaka, Japan).
"Article storage facility" was invented by Takanori Nakamura (Hinocho, Japan) and Kazuharu Yoshinaga (Hinocho, Japan).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A holding device with a holder holding an operation vehicle is transported by a transporter from a loader and is placed on a mount located along a travel path. The state of the holder in the holding device placed on the mount is changed to a non-holding state and an elevator lowers the operation vehicle to place the operation vehicle on the travel path."
The patent was filed on June 22, 2023, under Application No. 1...