Authors:
Hye Suk Makley, Rodney Barr, Vinessia Hankins, Jared Schott, Lynn Tew
Abstract:
This disclosure proposes a Smart Rotating Bagging Station. The bagging area has 'smarts' built-in, where when items from front bag rack is removed, the system will know which bag rack has items bagged and will automatically rotate to bring that bag rack to front (if it’s not already in front) for easy removal of the filled bags.
Background:
In SCO lanes with multiple bag racks, the orientation of the set up makes it difficult to remove filled bags when they are located in the back or front bag racks, leading to ripped plastic bags as they get snagged or caught on other bag rack arms.
This disclosure eliminates this struggle with Smart Rotating Bagging Station idea.
The bagging area has 'smarts' built-in, where when items from front bag rack are removed or filled, the system will know which bag rack has items bagged and will automatically rotate to bring that bag rack to front (if it’s not already in front) 1) for easy removal of the filled bags or 2) allows items to be placed in an empty bag.
Description:
System can determine during checkout, which bag rack has items in the bag.
1) Once transaction has been complete, and customer starts to remove bags to put in the cart, the system tracks the bag area as items are removed and rotates automatically to bring bag racks that are located in the back to front location, for easy removal of filled bags, eliminating any snagging or ripping of plastic bags while trying to remove and load the cart.
2) Also, when bags become filled, the system will be able to detect which bagging area is still empty and rotate that bag rack to the front
(if it’s not already in front) for easy bagging of items.
See attached image for high level view of the concept.
TGCS Reference 1627
