ALEXANDRIA, Va., June 9 -- United States Patent no. 12,286,298, issued on April 29, was assigned to Murata Machinery Ltd. (Kyoto, Japan).
"Automated storage and retrieval system" was invented by Masakazu Minematsu (Inuyama, Japan) and Michinobu Wakizaka (Inuyama, Japan).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "An automated storage and retrieval system includes: an automated storage including racks each of which includes shelf units in tiers in a vertical direction, where each shelf unit can store loads, and transport vehicles each of which moves along the corresponding ones of shelf units and includes a first transfer device that transfers a load to and from each rack; relay devices each of which transp...