Abstract
The following quote was obtained by the news editors from the background informa tion supplied by the inventors: “Modern inventory systems, such as those in mail order warehouses, supply chain distribution centers, airport luggage systems, a nd custom-order manufacturing facilities, face significant challenges in respond ing to requests for inventory items. As inventory systems grow, the challenges of simultaneously completing a large number of packing, storing, and other invent ory-related tasks become non-trivial. In inventory systems tasked with respondin g to large numbers of diverse inventory requests, inefficient utilization of sys tem resources, including space, equipment, and manpower, can result in lower thr oughput, unacceptably long response times, an ever-increasing backlog of unfinis hed tasks, and, in general, poor system performance. For example, sometimes exis ting systems may fail to properly detect a particular type of package, which may delay processing times for packages of the particular type. Also, updating these systems to detect new package types may also be time and/or resource intensive .”
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