ALEXANDRIA, Va., Aug. 12 -- United States Patent no. 12,703,614, issued on Aug. 11, was assigned to WALMART APOLLO LLC (Bentonville, Ark.).

"Systems, devices and methods for determining item availability in a shopping space" was invented by Donald R. High (Noel, Mo.), Michael D. Atchley (Eureka Springs, Ark.) and David C. Winkle (Leesburg, Fla.).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "Systems, apparatuses, and methods for determining item availability are provided. A computer implemented method for determining item availability in a shopping space comprising: receiving a request for an item for purchase, instructing a motorized transport unit to travel to a display space in the shopping space correspon...