The present subject matter relates generally to delivery boxes, and more particularly, to methods for operating temperature-controlled delivery boxes.
Given the rise in food and grocery delivery services, temperature-controlled and access secure delivery appliances are desirable to permit deliveries when the consumer is not home. For example, delivery appliances are typically positioned outdoors of a residence and have a climate control system for regulating the temperature within a storage container positioned within a cabinet of the delivery appliance. In this manner, the consumer may receive delivery of food orders and maintain that food at the desired storage temperature, even while not at home. For example, the user or the delivery service may set a temperature of the delivery appliance at a desired temperature to avoid spoiling perishable food items or to otherwise prevent degradation of the quality of the food which might otherwise occur if the food were stored in an uncontrolled environment.
Notably, users may often receive multiple packages in a single day, deliveries from different delivery agents, etc. Moreover, each of these delivered packages may have a different size and shape. If the delivery appliance is not emptied at a suitable frequency, the storage container may be quickly filled and delivered items may not fit within the remaining space in the storage container, resulting in wasted delivery effort, incomplete deliveries, delivery rescheduling, or damaged items. Moreover, a user of the appliance may not be home when items are delivered and may forget to check the delivery appliance and retrieve items when they return. As a result, items that may require tending, removal, or cold storage may be spoiled.
Accordingly, a temperature-controlled delivery box and methods of controlling the same for improved operation would be desirable. More specifically, a method for minimizing the occurrence of space limitations of the delivery appliance while providing improved appliance operation and user interaction would be particularly beneficial.
Aspects and advantages of the invention will be set forth in part in the following description, or may be apparent from the description, or may be learned through practice of the invention.
In one exemplary embodiment, a temperature-controlled delivery appliance is provided including a storage container positioned within a cabinet for receiving items for storage, an object detection assembly positioned within the cabinet for detecting the items within the storage container, and a controller operably coupled to the object detection assembly. The controller is configured to receive a delivery notification of an item to be delivered, obtain a required storage capacity of the item being delivered, determine an available storage capacity within the storage container using the object detection assembly, determine that the required storage capacity is greater than the available storage capacity, and provide a capacity notification in response to determining that the required storage capacity is greater than the available storage capacity.
In another exemplary embodiment, a method of operating a temperature-controlled delivery appliance is provided. The temperature-controlled delivery appliance includes a storage container for receiving items for storage and an object detection assembly for detecting the items within the storage container. The method includes receiving a delivery notification of an item to be delivered, obtaining a required storage capacity of the item to be delivered, determining an available storage capacity within the storage container using the object detection assembly, determining that the required storage capacity is greater than the available storage capacity, and providing a capacity notification in response to determining that the required storage capacity is greater than the available storage capacity.
These and other features, aspects and advantages of the present invention will become better understood with reference to the following description and appended claims. The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated in and constitute a part of this specification, illustrate embodiments of the invention and, together with the description, serve to explain the principles of the invention.
A full and enabling disclosure of the present invention, including the best mode thereof, directed to one of ordinary skill in the art, is set forth in the specification, which makes reference to the appended figures.
Repeat use of reference characters in the present specification and drawings is intended to represent the same or analogous features or elements of the present invention.
Reference now will be made in detail to embodiments of the invention, one or more examples of which are illustrated in the drawings. Each example is provided by way of explanation of the invention, not limitation of the invention. In fact, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various modifications and variations can be made in the present invention without departing from the scope or spirit of the invention. For instance, features illustrated or described as part of one embodiment can be used with another embodiment to yield a still further embodiment. Thus, it is intended that the present invention covers such modifications and variations as come within the scope of the appended claims and their equivalents.
In the illustrated example embodiment shown in
As illustrated, delivery appliance 10 includes one or more storage containers 14 mounted within cabinet 12. Specifically, according to the illustrated embodiment, delivery appliance 10 includes three storage containers 14 mounted in or suspended from a top panel 16 of cabinet 12, e.g., using any suitable support brackets, mechanical fasteners, welding, snap-fit mechanisms, etc. In addition, it should be appreciated that an insulating material (not shown), such as foam panels, fiberglass, or spray-in foam insulation, may be positioned within cabinet 12 around storage containers 14 to provide thermal and/or sound insulation to delivery appliance 10.
As illustrated, each of the three storage containers 14 define an opening 18 at top panel 16 of cabinet 12. In this regard, food items 20 (
Although the figures illustrate delivery appliance 10 as including three storage containers 14 having substantially rectangular cross sections and being spaced apart along the lateral direction L, it should be appreciated that the illustrated embodiment is used only as an example. According to alternative embodiments, delivery appliance 10 may include any suitable number of storage containers 14 having any suitable shape, size, and configuration. In addition, aspects of the present subject matter may apply to conventional refrigerator appliance with doors pivotally mounted to a front of the appliance. Such embodiments are contemplated as within the scope of the present subject matter.
Delivery appliance 10 further includes a door 30 rotatably attached to cabinet 12 in order to permit selective access to storage containers 14. Specifically, as illustrated, door 30 is pivotally mounted to a back of cabinet 12 and is positioned over openings 18 in the closed position. A handle 32 is mounted to or defined in door 30 to assist a user with opening and closing door 30 and a latch assembly 34 is mounted to cabinet 12 and/or door 30 for selectively locking door 30 in the closed position. Latch assembly 34 may be desirable, for example, to ensure only secured access (e.g., via the consumer or delivery person) and to prevent tampering or theft after food items 20 are delivered.
Referring now generally to
Referring now specifically to
Referring now specifically to
According to exemplary embodiments, it may sometimes be desirable to raise the container temperature within one or more storage containers 14, e.g., when it is very cold outside or if hot food items 20 are being stored. In such cases, delivery appliance 10 may include a heating device 52 in thermal communication with one or more storage containers 14 for regulating the temperature of the storage containers 14. Thus, heating device 52 may be selectively activated and deactivated to control the container temperature. In general, heating device 52 may be any suitable type of heating element, such as an electric resistance heating element. In addition, heating device 52 may be used periodically to melt any frost build-up within storage containers 14.
In addition, it may frequently be desirable to lower the container temperature of one or more storage containers 14, e.g., when is it relatively warm outside or when chilled or perishable food items 20 are stored. In this regard, delivery appliance 10 may include features to operate delivery appliance as a refrigerator and/or freezer appliance. For example, delivery appliance 10 may include a sealed refrigeration system or sealed system 60, which is generally configured for executing a vapor compression cycle for cooling storage containers 14, as explained below.
In this regard, for example, sealed system 60 may include a compressor 64, a condenser 66, an expansion device 68, and one or more evaporators 70 connected in series by fluid conduit 72 that is charged with a refrigerant. As will be understood by those skilled in the art, sealed system 60 may include additional components, e.g., at least one additional evaporator, compressor, expansion device, and/or condenser. As an example, sealed system 60 may include three evaporators wrapped directly around storage containers 14.
Within sealed system 60, refrigerant flows into compressor 64, which operates to increase the pressure of the refrigerant. This compression of the refrigerant raises its temperature, which is lowered by passing the refrigerant through condenser 66. Within condenser 66, heat exchange with ambient air takes place so as to cool the refrigerant. A fan 74 may be used to pull air across condenser 66, as illustrated by arrows in
An expansion device 68 (e.g., an electronic expansion valve, capillary tube, or other restriction device) receives refrigerant from condenser 66. From expansion device 68, the refrigerant enters evaporator 70. Upon exiting expansion device 68 and entering evaporator 70, the refrigerant drops in pressure. Due to the pressure drop and/or phase change of the refrigerant, evaporator 70 is cool relative to storage containers 14 of delivery appliance 10. As such, by wrapping evaporators 70 around storage containers 14 or positioning evaporator 70 coils within the walls of the storage containers 14, the temperature within storage containers 14 may be lowered.
Notably, as illustrated in
The sealed system 60 depicted in
In some embodiments, delivery appliance 10 also includes one or more sensors that may be used to facilitate improved operation of delivery appliance 10, such as described below. For example, in order to obtain temperature or humidity data, delivery appliance 10 may include a plurality of temperature sensors and/or humidity sensors. Specifically, as shown in
As used herein, “temperature sensor” or the equivalent is intended to refer to any suitable type of temperature measuring system or device positioned at any suitable location for measuring the desired temperature. Thus, for example, temperature sensors 80, 82 may each be any suitable type of temperature sensor, such as a thermistor, a thermocouple, a resistance temperature detector, etc. In addition, temperature sensors 80, 82 may be positioned at any suitable location and may output a signal, such as a voltage, to a controller that is proportional to and/or indicative of the temperature within storage container 14 or the ambient environment, respectively. Although exemplary positioning of temperature sensors is described herein, it should be appreciated that delivery appliance 10 may include any other suitable number, type, and position of temperature, humidity, and/or other sensors according to alternative embodiments.
Referring again to
As used herein, the terms “processing device,” “computing device,” “controller,” or the like may generally refer to any suitable processing device, such as a general or special purpose microprocessor, a microcontroller, an integrated circuit, an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a digital signal processor (DSP), a field-programmable gate array (FPGA), a logic device, one or more central processing units (CPUs), a graphics processing units (GPUs) (e.g., dedicated to efficiently rendering images), processing units performing other specialized calculations, semiconductor devices, etc. In addition, these “controllers” are not necessarily restricted to a single element but may include any suitable number, type, and configuration of processing devices integrated in any suitable manner to facilitate appliance operation. Alternatively, controller 96 may be constructed without using a microprocessor, e.g., using a combination of discrete analog and/or digital logic circuitry (such as switches, amplifiers, integrators, comparators, flip-flops, AND gates, and the like) to perform control functionality instead of relying upon software.
Controller 96 may be operable to execute programming instructions or micro-control code associated with an appliance operating cycle. In this regard, the controller may include, or be associated with, one or more memory elements or non-transitory computer-readable storage medium(s), such as RAM, ROM, EEPROM, EPROM, flash memory devices, magnetic disks, etc., and/or combinations thereof. The memory may be a separate component from the processor or may be included onboard within the processor. For example, the instructions may be software or any set of instructions that when executed by the processing device, cause the processing device to perform operations. It should be noted that controller 96 as disclosed herein is capable of and may be operable to perform any methods or associated method steps as disclosed herein. For example, in some embodiments, methods disclosed herein may be embodied in programming instructions stored in the memory and executed by the controller 96.
Referring again to
As illustrated, external communication system 100 permits controller 96 of delivery appliance 10 to communicate with external devices either directly or through a network 102. For example, a consumer may use a consumer device 104 to communicate directly with delivery appliance 10. For example, consumer devices 104 may be in direct or indirect communication with delivery appliance 10, e.g., directly through a local area network (LAN), Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Zigbee, etc. or indirectly through network 102. In general, consumer device 104 may be any suitable device for providing and/or receiving communications or commands from a user. In this regard, consumer device 104 may include, for example, a personal phone, a tablet, a laptop computer, or another mobile device.
In addition, a remote server 106 may be in communication with delivery appliance 10 and/or consumer device 104 through network 102. In this regard, for example, remote server 106 may facilitate or operate a grocery delivery service or another package delivery service. In this regard, remote server 106 may be a cloud-based server 106, and is thus located at a distant location, such as in a separate state, country, etc. In general, communication between the remote server 106 and the client devices may be carried via a network interface using any type of wireless connection, using a variety of communication protocols (e.g. TCP/IP, HTTP, SMTP, FTP), encodings or formats (e.g. HTML, XML), and/or protection schemes (e.g. VPN, secure HTTP, SSL).
In general, network 102 can be any type of communication network. For example, network 102 can include one or more of a wireless network, a wired network, a personal area network, a local area network, a wide area network, the internet, a cellular network, etc. According to an exemplary embodiment, consumer device 104 may communicate with a remote server 106 over network 102, such as the internet, to place food orders, order items, process payments, etc. In addition, consumer device 104 and remote server 106 may communicate with delivery appliance 10 to coordinate the delivery and receipt of items 20, as described in detail below.
External communication system 100 is described herein according to an exemplary embodiment of the present subject matter. However, it should be appreciated that the exemplary functions and configurations of external communication system 100 provided herein are used only as examples to facilitate description of aspects of the present subject matter. System configurations may vary, other communication devices may be used to communicate directly or indirectly with one or more delivery appliances, other communication protocols and steps may be implemented, etc. These variations and modifications are contemplated as within the scope of the present subject matter.
Referring now specifically to
According to the illustrated embodiment, object detection assembly 110 includes one or more optical emitters 112 and one or more corresponding optical receivers 114. In this regard, optical emitter 112 may emit or direct an optical beam (e.g., as identified generally by reference numeral 116) and optical receiver 114 may detect optical beam 116. More specifically, as shown, object detection assembly 110 includes multiple pairs of emitters 112 and receivers 114 that are spaced apart on opposite sides of a storage container 14 to generally form a detection grid. Notably, when an object is present in storage container and is positioned between a particular optical emitter 112 and optical receiver 114, that object may block the transmission of optical beam 116 toward the respective optical receiver 114. As such, the detection grid may be used monitor the precise location, size, and orientation of objects within storage container 14. In this regard, object detection assembly 110 may detect a vertical position, a lateral position, and a transverse position of each item within storage container 14, along with its overall size and orientation, and may deduce the remaining storage capacity within storage container 14.
Although
Moreover, object detection assembly 110 may include any suitable imaging device, such as a camera intended to take one or more images of a storage container 14. According to exemplary embodiments, these images may be used along with an image processing algorithm to identify and quantify objects within storage container 14. In addition, or alternatively, controller 96 may analyze the images of storage container 14 using any suitable artificial intelligence or machine learning image recognition process. Other systems and methods for detecting objects within storage container 14 are possible and within the scope of the present subject matter.
Referring again to
Now that the construction and configuration of delivery appliance 10 and external communication system 100 have been presented according to an exemplary embodiment of the present subject matter, an exemplary method 200 for operating a delivery appliance using an external communication system is provided. Method 200 can be used to operate delivery appliance 10 using external communication system 100, or to operate any other suitable delivery appliance using any other suitable communication system. In this regard, for example, controller 96 may be configured for implementing method 200. However, it should be appreciated that the exemplary method 200 is discussed herein only to describe exemplary aspects of the present subject matter, and is not intended to be limiting.
As shown in
Method 200 may further include, at step 220, obtaining a required storage capacity of the item to be delivered. In this regard, it may be desirable that the delivery notification from the delivery agent includes certain information to facilitate improved appliance operation and preparedness for the anticipated delivery. Thus, according to exemplary embodiment, the delivery notification may be received from a delivery agent and may include information such as the anticipated delivery time, a desired storage temperature, a required space or storage capacity needed to store delivered items, etc. As used herein, the term “delivery agent” is generally intended to refer to any party that intends to deliver one or more items of any type for storage within delivery appliance 10. For example, the delivery agent may be a grocery store, a parcel delivery service, an online retailer, a postal service, or any other party wishing to deposit one or more items within delivery appliance 10.
It should be appreciated that communications between delivery appliance 10, a user of delivery appliance 10, and delivery agents may be facilitated in any suitable manner. For example, according to exemplary embodiments, these entities may interact via network 102, through controller 96, via remote consumer device 104, using remote server 106, or in any other suitable manner. In addition, delivery appliance 10 and/or consumer device 104 may be in communication with the Internet and the online retailer through which the item to be delivered was ordered, and may thereby receive useful information regarding delivery schedule, storage requirements, potential rescheduling times, or to communicate any other information related to the delivery of the item.
Step 230 may include determining an available storage capacity within a storage container of the temperature-controlled delivery appliance using an object detection assembly. In this regard, continuing the example from above, object detection assembly 110 may be used to analyze the space within one or more storage containers 14 to determine how much space is available to receive new items and whether the scheduled item to be delivered can be stored within storage containers 14.
For example, step 240 may include determining that the required storage capacity is greater than the available storage capacity. In other words, the item to be delivered may require more space than available in delivery appliance 10. In such an event, it may be desirable to adjust the delivery or otherwise address the space limitations within storage container 14 prior to the anticipated delivery time. As such, step 250 may include providing a capacity notification in response to determining that the required storage capacity is greater than the available storage capacity.
The capacity notification may be provided from any suitable source (e.g., such as controller 96) to any suitable entity in order to encourage corrective action to avoid delivery of an item that cannot be received within delivery appliance 10. In this regard, for example, the capacity notification may be provided to the delivery agent and may include instructions regarding an alternative delivery location or alternative delivery instructions. According to still other embodiments, the capacity notification may pause or cancel the delivery, may attempt to reschedule the delivery with the delivery agent, or may make any other suitable modification to the item delivery in order to mitigate the negative effects associated with the lack of capacity in delivery appliance 10.
In addition, or alternatively, the capacity notification may be provided to the user of delivery appliance 10 (e.g., via consumer device 104). In this regard, controller 96 may notify the user that an upcoming delivery is scheduled and that there is not sufficient capacity within delivery appliance 10 to accept the item. The user may respond directly on their consumer device 104 as to whether they intend to remove an item, reschedule delivery, or otherwise modify the item delivery. This intended responsive action from the user may be communicated to the delivery agent, e.g., to prevent cancellation of item delivery in the event corrective action has been taken, to propose another delivery time, etc.
Step 260 may include determining that a user is nearby the temperature-controlled delivery appliance using a user proximity detection device. As explained briefly above, user proximity detection device 120 may detect when a user has arrived home or at the location where delivery appliance 10 is located. At this time, the user may have forgotten that an item was delivered during the day or that the capacity within delivery appliance 10 is limited. As a result, it may be desirable to remind the user to empty storage containers 14 or otherwise retrieve one or more items. In this regard, step 270 may include providing a reminder to the user to retrieve the items in the storage container to make room for the item to be delivered. In this manner, the user may be reminded to remove the item to free up space to receive the item to be delivered without requiring rescheduling or other delivery manipulation.
According to exemplary embodiments, the delivery notification may further include an approximated delivery time delay (e.g., the time delay between receipt of the delivery notification and the delivery of food items 20), a target temperature for those food items 20, and any other suitable information. Method 200 may further include operating the climate control system to regulate the container temperature to the target temperature prior to item delivery. In this regard, for example, the container temperature may be measured using container temperature sensor 80 and may be fed back continuously to controller 96. Controller 96 may then operate climate control system 50 to regulate the container temperature. In addition, method 200 may include returning the storage container to an energy conserving temperature after delivered food items 20 are removed from the storage container, e.g., to conserve energy.
This written description uses examples to disclose the invention, including the best mode, and also to enable any person skilled in the art to practice the invention, including making and using any devices or systems and performing any incorporated methods. The patentable scope of the invention is defined by the claims, and may include other examples that occur to those skilled in the art. Such other examples are intended to be within the scope of the claims if they include structural elements that do not differ from the literal language of the claims, or if they include equivalent structural elements with insubstantial differences from the literal languages of the claims.