ALEXANDRIA, Va., Dec. 23 -- United States Patent no. 12,503,306, issued on Dec. 23, was assigned to Symbotic LLC (Wilmington, Mass.).
"Bot position sensing" was invented by Robert Sullivan (Wilmington, Mass.), Michael Cyrulik (Hollis, N.H.) and Stephen C. Toebes (Chelmsford, Mass.).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A storage and retrieval system including a storage structure having storage shelves, each storage shelf having slats for supporting stored items where the slats are spaced apart from each other by a predetermined distance, an autonomous transport vehicle including at least one sensor configured to sense each of the slats and output a signal indicating when a slat is sensed, and a contr...