ALEXANDRIA, Va., March 17 -- United States Patent no. 12,577,046, issued on March 17, was assigned to Ocado Innovation Ltd. (Hatfield, Great Britain).
"Load handling device" was invented by Damian Flynn (Hatfield, Great Britain) and Marek Havel (Hatfield, Great Britain).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A load handling device is disclosed for lifting and moving containers stacked in a storage system having a grid structure. The load handling device includes a container receiving space; a lifting mechanism arranged to lift a container; a vehicle body; a wheel assembly arranged to support the vehicle body, the wheel assembly having a first set of wheels and a second set of wheels; and a drive mecha...