US Patent 11279556 Robot and method for retrieval of a target article

A method and an associated robot for retrieval of a target article from an article stack are disclosed. The article stack comprising the target article and a first non-target article being positioned on top of the target article, the target article being arranged in the article stack with a lower target article face being at a first vertical stack position. The method comprises: identifying the target article; positioning a platform having a platform surface in a first vertical platform position wherein the platform surface is at the first vertical stack position or below the first vertical stack position; repositioning the target article and the first non-target article in a first horizontal direction onto the platform; and repositioning the first non-target article opposite the first horizontal direction off the platform.