ALEXANDRIA, Va., Dec. 31 -- United States Patent no. 12,509,294, issued on Dec. 30, was assigned to Dematic GmbH (Heusenstamm, Germany).
"Method for operating a storage facility without lifts" was invented by Shin Yamashita (Oberursel, Germany).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A storage facility having storage racks and aisles, with storage and removal apparatuses for each aisle. Transportation units are placed into and removed from racks via the storage/removal apparatus and a direct horizontal exchange of units takes place between adjacent aisles via exchange locations within the racks, where the storage/removal apparatus itself actively horizontally moves the units in the exchange locations. ...