WO2021136407A1

WO2021136407A1 - Cargo handling system and cargo handling method

Info

Publication number: WO2021136407A1
Application number: PCT/CN2020/141505
Authority: WO
Inventors: 兰邱丰; 梁东; 王梦迪
Original assignee: 北京极智嘉科技股份有限公司
Priority date: 2019-12-30
Filing date: 2020-12-30
Publication date: 2021-07-08

Abstract

A cargo handling system and a cargo handling method. During a sorting process, a piece of cargo required by each order can be selected, according to order information of each order, from various pieces of cargo placed at a sorting workstation (40), and can then be placed on a self-driven mobile device (10) to be borne thereon. Cargo labels do not need to be assigned for each piece of cargo in advance and a binding relationship between the pieces of cargo and orders does not need to be established in advance, and therefore, the cost of inventory management can be effectively reduced in comparison with the prior art, thereby improving the overall sorting efficiency of cargo.

Description

Goods processing system and goods processing method

This application is required to be submitted to the Chinese Patent Office on December 30, 2019, the application number is 201911393552.2, the title of the invention is "A cargo handling system and a method for handling goods", and the Chinese Patent Office on May 29, 2020, the application number is 202010479482.9. The priority of the Chinese patent application with the title of "An article storage system and article storage method", the entire content of which is incorporated into this application by reference.

Technical field

This application relates to the field of robotics technology, in particular to a cargo handling system and a cargo handling method.

Background technique

At present, self-driving mobile devices such as Automated Guided Vehicles (AGV) have been widely used in warehousing, logistics and other fields to realize automated transportation of goods.

In the process of order processing in the warehouse, goods sorting are usually involved. The sorting link mainly refers to sorting out the goods required by each order according to the goods involved in each order, and transporting them to the order container corresponding to each order. Later, the goods in the order container corresponding to each order can be packaged separately, and the delivery task of the package of each order can be performed.

In the prior art, each item in the inventory needs to be allocated to each order in advance, that is to say, for the same type of item, the item in the inventory needs to be labeled with a uniquely identified item, and then, For each order that requires this kind of goods, it is necessary to select the goods label from the goods stored in the inventory and assign it to the order. In this way, the goods corresponding to the goods label assigned to the order are the same as the order. Bind. Correspondingly, in the process of sorting goods, you need to find out the goods labels that match the order according to the order information of the order, and then sort the goods corresponding to the goods labels that match the order. In the self-driving mobile device, the self-driving mobile device transports the carried goods to the order container corresponding to the order.

Since it is necessary to assign goods labels to all the goods in the inventory in advance, and bind the goods to the order, this will greatly increase the cost of inventory management. It takes too much time to assign goods labels to each goods before the goods are sorted. Thereby greatly reducing the efficiency of sorting goods as a whole.

In addition, the process of returning items to the warehouse usually involves two links: sorting and picking. Among them, the sorting link usually manually picks each item carried in the AGV into the container corresponding to each order. The picking process mostly uses manual transportation to transport the goods sorted to each container to the warehouse, and this process is also inseparable from manual operation. It can be seen that the existing methods of returning items to the warehouse rely heavily on manual operations, and during the sorting process, sufficient space is required for placing containers and providing a path for manual handling. It can be seen that the existing process of returning items to the warehouse has an impact on the site. The requirements are also higher. Taking the items returned to the warehouse as an example, since the items come from different orders of different users and there are many types of items, the sorting and picking operations of the items returned to the warehouse require more containers, which further increases the requirements on the venue. In addition, since the return of goods is not a long-term and continuous operation, when there is no need to return the goods, the venue for return sorting and picking will be idle.

Therefore, how to improve the sorting and picking efficiency, reduce the dependence on manual operation, and avoid the occupation and waste of the site, has become an urgent problem to be solved.

Summary of the invention

The embodiments of this specification provide a goods processing system and a method for processing goods, which are used to solve the problems of high inventory management cost and low sorting efficiency in the prior art.

The embodiments of this specification adopt the following technical solutions:

A cargo handling system and a cargo handling system provided in this specification are characterized in that the cargo handling system comprises: a controller and at least one self-driving mobile device that communicates wirelessly with the controller, and the self-driving At least one bearing component is provided on the mobile device;

The controller is configured to obtain each order information, and for each type of goods placed in the sorting workstation, according to the obtained order information, determine the order to which the goods belong, as one or more target orders, as the The target order is allocated to the self-driving mobile device, and when it is determined that the goods have been placed in the carrier component of the self-driving mobile device, the navigation path is sent to the self-driving mobile device, and the navigation path is The container position of the order container allocated by the target order and the path from the position of the sorting station to the position of the container determined by the position of the sorting station;

The self-driving mobile device is configured to receive the navigation path sent by the controller, and according to the navigation path, move from the position of the sorting workstation to the position of the container, and deliver the carried goods To the order container.

A method of cargo handling provided in this manual includes:

Get information about each order;

For each kind of goods placed in the sorting workstation, according to the acquired order information, determine the order to which the goods belong, as the target order, and determine the self-driving mobile device corresponding to the target order, and when it is determined that the goods have been When placed in the carrier component of the self-driving mobile device, the navigation path is sent to the self-driving mobile device, so that the self-driving mobile device moves from the sorting station to the sorting station according to the navigation path. Moves to the container position, and delivers the goods carried to the order container. The navigation path is based on the container position of the order container allocated for the target order and the location of the sorting station The location determines the path from the location of the sorting station to the location of the container.

The article storage system provided in this specification includes: a feeding device, a first tag reading device, a controller, at least one first self-driving mobile device and at least one second self-driving mobile device; wherein:

The infeed equipment is configured to transport the items to be sorted to a preset line area;

The first tag reading device is configured to, for each item to be sorted in the drop line area, obtain the SKU information of the item to be sorted according to a label set on the item to be sorted;

The controller is configured to determine the target container corresponding to the SKU information of the item to be sorted among the preset storage containers according to the SKU information of the item to be sorted and a preset corresponding relationship, and According to the target container, a sorting instruction for the item to be sorted is generated; and, for each storage container, when the sorted items in the storage container meet the preset handling conditions, the storage container is determined To transport the container, generate a handling instruction for the transport container; wherein each storage container corresponds to at least one SKU information, and the storage container is located in a preset sorting area;

The first self-driving mobile device is configured to, in response to a sorting instruction for the item to be sorted, sort the item to be sorted to the target container of the item to be sorted;

The second self-driving mobile device is configured to, in response to a transport instruction for the transport container, transport the transport container to a preset designated position; the designated position includes a preset shelf operation area, and the shelf operation The area is configured to at least provide space for placing the sorted items in the handling container on the preset shelf.

This specification provides a method for storing items in a library, the method includes:

Transport the items to be sorted to the preset line area;

For each item to be sorted in the cast line area, obtain the SKU information of the item to be sorted;

According to the SKU information of the item to be sorted, in each preset storage container, the storage container corresponding to the SKU information of the item to be sorted is determined as the target container of the item to be sorted; Each storage container corresponds to at least one SKU information, and the storage container is located in the preset sorting area;

According to the target container, a sorting instruction for the item to be sorted is generated;

According to the sorting instruction, sort the item to be sorted to the target container of the item to be sorted;

For each storage container, monitor the sorted items in the storage container. When the sorted items in the storage container meet the preset transportation conditions, determine the storage container as the transportation container, and generate Handling instructions for handling containers;

According to the transport instruction, transport the transport container to a preset designated position, the designated position including a preset shelf operation area;

Place the sorted items in the handling container in the shelf operation area on a preset shelf.

Because of the goods processing system provided in this manual, the goods required for each order can be selected from the various goods placed at the sorting workstation according to the order information of each order during the sorting process, and placed in the self-driving mobile Carry on the equipment. Since there is no need to distribute the goods labels for each goods in advance, and to establish the binding relationship between the goods and the order, compared with the existing technology, the inventory management cost can be effectively reduced, thereby improving the overall goods Sorting efficiency.

In addition, the article storage system and article storage method provided in this manual, when sorting the items to be sorted, reuse the storage containers that contain the sorted items, that is, there can be one in the sorting process. Or multiple storage containers contain items corresponding to multiple SKU information, so as to reduce the number of storage containers required in the sorting process. On the basis of reducing the number of required storage containers, at least the space occupied by the storage containers can be effectively reduced. In addition, this manual implements the sorting operation through the first self-driving mobile device and the second self-driving mobile device to implement the sorting operation, effectively reducing the dependence on labor in the process of returning items to the warehouse.

Description of the drawings

The drawings described here are used to provide a further understanding of the application and constitute a part of the application. The exemplary embodiments and descriptions of the application are used to explain the application, and do not constitute an improper limitation of the application. In the attached picture:

Figure 1 is a schematic diagram of the working principle of an embodiment of an automatic goods sorting system in a storage environment;

Figure 2 is a schematic diagram of a self-driving mobile device provided in this specification;

Figure 3 is a schematic diagram of a cargo handling process provided in this manual;

Figure 4 is a schematic diagram of allocating self-driving mobile devices for each target order provided in this manual;

Figure 5 is a schematic diagram of an item storage system provided in this manual;

Figure 6 is a schematic diagram of an application scenario of an item storage system provided in this specification;

Figure 7a is a schematic diagram of a site planned by using an item storage system provided in this manual;

Figure 7b is a schematic diagram of a site planned by using another item storage system provided in this manual;

Figure 7c is a schematic diagram of a site planned by using another item storage system provided in this manual;

Figure 8 is a partial structure of the controller of an item storage system provided in this specification;

Figure 9a is a second self-driven mobile device of an item storage system provided in this specification and a storage container involved in this specification;

Figure 9b is another storage container involved in this specification;

Figure 10 is the shelf equipment of an item storage system provided in this specification and a kind of shelf involved in this specification;

Figure 11 is the first self-driving mobile device of an item storage system provided in this specification.

among them:

10a- items to be sorted, 10b- items that have been sorted;

11- shooting area, 11a- first shooting area, 11b- second shooting area;

12-sorting area, 12a-first sorting area, 12b-second sorting area;

13- Shelf operation area;

14-Inventory area;

2-feeder equipment, 2a-first feeder equipment, 2b-second feeder equipment;

3a-first tag reading device, 3b-second tag reading device;

411a-first sorting planning module, 411b-second sorting planning module, 412a-first monitoring module, 412b-second monitoring module, 413-label generation module, 414-handling instruction generation module, 415-shelf return module , 416a-storage container first return module, 416b-storage container second return module;

5-first self-driving mobile device, 51-carrying group of the first self-driving mobile device, 52-driving mechanism of the first self-driving mobile device;

6-Second self-driving mobile device;

7-storage container, 7a-storage container (rack type), 7b-storage container (box type), 7'-transport container, 71-storage container for the first sorting operation, 72-use The storage container used in the second sorting operation;

8- Shelf equipment;

9-shelves, 91-shelves compartments.

Detailed ways

In order to make the purpose, technical solution and advantages of this specification clearer, the technical solution of this application will be clearly and completely described below in conjunction with specific embodiments of this specification and the corresponding drawings. Obviously, the described embodiments are only a part of the embodiments of the present application, rather than all the embodiments. Based on the embodiments in the specification, all other embodiments obtained by a person of ordinary skill in the art without creative work shall fall within the protection scope of this application.

Refer to Figure 1, which is a schematic diagram of the working principle of an embodiment of an automatic goods sorting system in a storage environment. The automatic cargo sorting system includes: a self-driving mobile device 10, a remote controller 20, an infeed table 30, a sorting workstation 40, and a cargo collection area 50. The cargo collection area 50 contains a plurality of order containers 60, each One order container 60 can be bound to one order. The order containers 60 are distributed in the cargo collection area 50 in a certain layout. For example, a plurality of order containers 60 form a group, and different groups are arranged in an array. The order container 60 may be a common container for storing goods to be delivered, such as a common cage truck. Each piece of goods is fed by the feeding table 30. The controller 20 distributes the self-driving mobile device 10 for the goods. The sorting station 40 is arranged next to the feeding table 30. At the sorting station 40, the goods are delivered manually or automatically. It is placed on the carrier assembly of the self-propelled mobile device 10 assigned to the cargo.

The controller 20 can allocate an order container 60 for the order according to the order to which the goods carried on the self-driving mobile device belongs, and plan a navigation path for the self-driving mobile device 10 according to the position of the order container 60 allocated for the order. The self-driving mobile device 10 carries the goods in the empty space (part of the passageway of the self-driving mobile device 10) in the order container array to the corresponding order container 60, and delivers the carried goods to the order container 60 .

The self-driving mobile device 10 can be driven on an overhead platform (such as a steel platform) or a track, and the order container 60 for connecting goods is located under the platform or the track; the self-driving mobile device 10 can also be driven on the ground to connect the goods. The order container 60 is also located on the ground, and the height of the carrying component on the self-driving mobile device 10 is slightly higher than the height of the order container 60 so that the carrying component can put the goods into the order container 60.

Referring to FIG. 2, taking a self-driving mobile device running on the ground as an example, the self-driving mobile device may include a driving mechanism 201. Through the driving mechanism 201, the self-driving mobile device can move in the working space, and the self-driving mobile device may also include The carrier component 202 used to carry and deliver goods, the self-driving mobile device can use the carrier component 202 to carry the goods, and when moving to the order container 60, the carrier component 202 can also be used to put the goods into the order container 60. Wherein, the carrying component 202 may be any braking mechanism capable of carrying and delivering goods, for example, including but not limited to: a roller mechanism, a belt mechanism, a flap mechanism, and the like. A load-bearing component can be set on the self-driving mobile device to carry one cargo or multiple cargoes.

In addition, if it is based on visual marker navigation, the self-driving mobile device 10 also includes a navigation recognition component (not shown in FIG. 2) for recognizing markers (such as a two-dimensional code) laid on the ground. In addition to visual marker navigation, the self-driving mobile device 10 can also use other navigation methods, such as inertial navigation, SLAM navigation, etc., and can also combine two or more navigation methods, such as QR code navigation and inertial navigation, at the same time. SLAM navigation and QR code navigation, etc. Of course, the self-driving mobile device 10 also includes a control module (not shown in FIG. 2) that controls the entire self-driving mobile device to implement functions such as movement and navigation.

In the above-mentioned traditional operation process, each of the goods in the inventory needs to be affixed with a goods label for unique identification in advance, and for each order, it is necessary to assign the goods label of the required goods to the order in advance. In this way, the goods corresponding to the goods label assigned to the order are bound to the order. Correspondingly, in the process of sorting goods, it is necessary to find out the goods label that matches the order according to the order information of the order, and then sort the goods corresponding to the inquired goods label as the self-allocation of the order. Drive the mobile device so that the self-driving mobile device transports the carried goods to the order container corresponding to the order. This method will greatly increase the cost of inventory management, thereby greatly reducing the efficiency of sorting goods as a whole. And if there is no need to assign goods labels to each goods in the inventory in advance, and you can also allocate the required goods to the order, you can effectively reduce the inventory management cost, thereby improving the overall sorting efficiency.

The following describes in detail the technical solutions provided by the embodiments of the present application with reference to the accompanying drawings.

Figure 3 is a schematic diagram of a cargo handling process provided in this manual, which specifically includes the following steps:

S301: Obtain each order information.

In this specification, the cargo handling system includes a controller and at least one self-driving mobile device that communicates wirelessly with the controller. Among them, in the sorting process, the controller can obtain the order information of each order. Each order mentioned here refers to an order that has not been processed yet, that is, an order that has not yet sorted the required goods to the corresponding order container .

S302: For each type of goods placed in the sorting workstation, determine at least one candidate order that requires the goods according to the acquired order information.

S303: Determine the order to which the goods belong from the at least one candidate order as a target order, and determine an order sorting task corresponding to the target order.

In the embodiment of the present application, the target order may be one or multiple.

Each target order corresponds to an order sorting task.

After obtaining the order information of each order, the controller can further determine which order each type of goods placed in the sorting workstation belongs to. Specifically, in this manual, some goods are placed at the sorting workstation, and these goods can be transported from the warehouse to the sorting workstation. Among them, the specific methods used to transport these goods to the sorting station can be various, for example, it can be manually transported from the warehouse to the sorting station, or it can be stored in the warehouse. The goods are transported to the sorting station by the self-driving mobile equipment to the sorting station, or are transported to the sorting station through the goods conveyor belt erected between the warehouse and the sorting station. Of course, the goods in the warehouse can also be transported to the sorting workstation in other ways, which will not be described in detail here.

For these goods placed at the sorting workstation, because different orders require different goods, the controller needs to further determine which order these goods belong to. Among them, for the same kind of goods, because the quantity of goods placed at the sorting station may be large, this kind of goods can be attributed to multiple orders at the same time, that is, multiple orders are required This kind of goods.

Based on this, in this specification, the controller can obtain the goods information of the goods, and then query at least one candidate order that requires the goods based on the obtained order information of each order and the goods information of the goods, and then from these candidates The order further determines the target order to which the goods belong.

The goods information of the goods mentioned here may refer to the Stock Keeping Unit (SKU), that is, each kind of goods corresponds to a unique SKU. There can be many specific ways for the controller to obtain the cargo information of the cargo. For example, the staff at the sorting workstation can manually input the cargo information of the cargo into the designated device, and send the cargo information to the controller through the designated device, so that the controller can obtain the cargo information of the cargo. For another example, a scanning device is provided at the sorting workstation, and the scanning device can scan the cargo information of the cargo and send the scanned cargo information to the controller so that the controller can obtain the cargo information of the cargo. Other methods will not be illustrated in detail here.

For each order, the order information of the order records the various goods required for the order, so by obtaining the SKU of various goods, it is possible to determine which goods are placed in the sorting workstation Required by the order.

The aforementioned scanning device may refer to a terminal device such as a personal digital assistant (PDA) scanner. There can be many specific methods for scanning various goods through the scanning device. For example, the staff at the sorting station can hold the scanning device to scan various goods placed in the sorting station, so that the controller can obtain the identification information of the various goods; for another example, the scanning device can be set in the sorting station. The designated position of the sorting station, various goods delivered to the sorting station can pass through the designated position in turn through a conveying device such as a conveyor belt, so that the scanning equipment set at the designated position can scan these goods in turn, and The obtained identification information is sent to the controller.

Of course, the scanning device mentioned above can be set at other locations besides the sorting workstation. For example, the scanning device can be set between the warehouse and the sorting workstation, so that various goods can be removed from the warehouse. In the process of transporting to the sorting station, the identification information of various goods can be scanned by the scanning device and sent to the controller, and then the scanned various goods will continue to be transported to the sorting station.

In practical applications, there may be multiple orders that require the same kind of goods. For example, among the many orders received, some orders may require the same brand of Coke. In this case, after the controller obtains the cargo information of a cargo through the above-mentioned scanning device, it can select an order from candidate orders that require the cargo as the target order for the cargo.

In practical applications, multiple orders can also be selected from candidate orders that require the goods as the target orders for the goods.

Among them, there can be many ways to select the target order. For example, the controller can randomly select an order from among the candidate orders that require the goods as the target order for the goods; for another example, the controller can also set the order based on the order time of each candidate order recorded in the order information as the target order. Goods distribution target order. Specifically, in this specification, the controller can determine the order time of each candidate order according to the acquired order information, and then, according to the order time of each candidate order, take the candidate order with the earliest order time as The target order to which the goods belong.

Or, multiple orders whose order time is earlier than the preset time point or the preset number of orders with the earliest time are regarded as the target order. The preset time point or the preset number can be set according to actual conditions, for example, within 1 am of a certain day, or the earliest 100 orders, etc. This application does not limit this.

Among them, the candidate order mentioned here refers to the order that has not been allocated the goods. For example, suppose order A needs the goods, but the controller has not allocated the goods to the order A, then the order A is called a candidate order, and once the controller allocates the goods to the order A, the order A will not It belongs to the candidate order again.

As can be seen from the above example, the candidate order mentioned above is actually for a kind of goods, that is to say, for each order that requires a kind of goods, whether the order is a candidate order, it is necessary to determine whether The goods have been allocated to the order. From this, it can be seen that for an order, because the order often requires multiple goods, the order is a candidate order for some goods, and is not a candidate order for some goods.

For example, suppose that an order requires Goods A and Goods B, where the controller has assigned Goods A to the order, then for Goods A, the order is not a candidate order. However, the controller does not assign Goods B to the order, and for Goods B, the order is a candidate order.

From the above order distribution process, it can be seen that the controller actually takes the candidate order with the earliest order time as the target order to which the goods belong according to the order of the order placement time of each candidate order, that is, the candidate order at this time The order has obtained the required goods, and once the candidate order is regarded as the target order to which the goods belong, it will not belong to the candidate order. In this way, when the controller continues to allocate the order for this kind of goods, it can determine the candidate order with the earliest order time from the remaining candidate orders, and assign the candidate order as the next batch of goods that need to be allocated. Target order.

In addition to the method for determining the target order described above, the controller may also determine the target order to which the goods belong through other methods. For example, for each candidate order that requires the goods, the controller determines the position from the sorting station to the position of the sorting station according to the container position of the order container allocated for the candidate order and the position of the sorting station. The path of the container location is used as the navigation path corresponding to the candidate order. Then, the controller can use the candidate order corresponding to the navigation path with the shortest path as the target order to which the goods belong according to the determined navigation path corresponding to each candidate order.

In other words, the controller can select the candidate order with the best current path from the candidate orders based on the principle of path optimization, as the target order to which the goods belong.

Or, multiple candidate orders whose path length is less than a preset range are selected from each candidate order as multiple target orders to which the goods belong.

For each candidate order, the controller can also determine the order priority corresponding to the candidate order according to the order attributes contained in the order information of the candidate order. The order attributes mentioned here can refer to the order amount, the order included Information such as the quantity of goods. Then, the controller may determine the candidate order with the highest order priority as the target order to which the goods belong according to the determined order priority corresponding to each candidate order.

Or take multiple orders whose order priority is within a predetermined range as the target order to which the goods belong.

For example, suppose the order attribute mentioned above refers to the order amount. When determining the target order to which the goods belong, the controller may use the candidate order with the highest order amount among the candidate orders that require the goods as the target order to which the goods belong. In other words, the higher the order amount, the higher the order priority of the candidate order.

For another example, suppose that the order attribute mentioned above refers to the quantity of goods contained in the order. The quantity of goods included in the order mentioned here can refer to the quantity of the goods or the quantity of all goods included in the order. When determining the target order to which the goods belong, the controller may use the candidate order with the largest quantity of goods contained in each candidate order requiring the goods as the target order to which the goods belong. In other words, the more goods contained in the order, the higher the order priority of the candidate order.

The above are several ways for the controller to determine the target order. Of course, in actual applications, the controller can also determine the target order in other ways, which will not be described in detail here. In addition to using the above-mentioned methods alone to determine the target order to which the goods belong, the controller can also use these methods in a comprehensive manner to determine the target order to which the goods belong. For example, the controller can set different weights for the order time, navigation path, and order priority distribution of the candidate order, and then determine a comprehensive score for the candidate order. The controller may regard the candidate order with the highest comprehensive score as the target order to which the goods belong.

Alternatively, the controller may also regard several candidate orders with a comprehensive score greater than a certain threshold as multiple target orders to which the goods belong.

In practical applications, an order may require multiple goods of the same kind. Based on this, when the controller is in the process of order allocation, when the controller determines a kind of goods required by the target order, it also needs to determine the quantity of goods required for the goods at the same time, and then determine the quantity of goods according to the determined quantity of goods The order sorting task corresponding to the target order.

For example, suppose the controller determines that the target order requires 3 goods C, and then needs to determine the order sorting task corresponding to the target order according to the determined quantity of goods that require the goods C. The controller can use the order sorting task to allocate a self-driving mobile device that executes the order sorting task to the target order in the subsequent process. In addition, the controller can send a message to the staff located in the sorting station according to the order sorting task, so that the staff can pick 3 goods from the various goods placed in the sorting station according to the message. Goods C.

S304: According to the order sorting task, assign a self-driving mobile device to the target order, and when it is determined that the goods have been placed in the carrier component of the self-driving mobile device, send the navigation path to the A self-driving mobile device, so that the self-driving mobile device moves from the position of the sorting station to the position of the container according to the navigation path, and delivers the carried goods to the order container.

In the case of multiple target orders, a self-driving mobile device can be assigned to each of the multiple target orders, and when it is determined that the goods have been placed in the carrier component of the self-driving mobile device, the navigation The path is sent to the self-driving mobile device, so that the self-driving mobile device moves from the position of the sorting station to the position of the container according to the navigation path, and delivers the carried goods to the location of the container. In the order container.

After determining the order sorting task, the controller can allocate an order container to the target order. Among them, the order container mentioned here is used to hold various goods required by the target order. In this manual, there are multiple order containers at the downstream workstations, and each order container can correspond to an order. Based on this, the controller needs to select an order container from each unused order container placed at the downstream workstation as the order container corresponding to the target order. Various goods required for the subsequent target order need to be delivered to the order container.

In addition, the controller needs to further determine the navigation path from the position of the sorting station to the container position of the order container, and then in the subsequent process, the navigation path is sent to carry the target order Self-driving mobile equipment for the required goods. Wherein, to determine the navigation path, an existing path planning method can be used, and no specific limitation is made here.

It should be noted that there can be multiple specific timings for the controller to allocate the order container to the target order. For example, if the controller determines the target order by placing the order time, it can assign an order container to the target order after determining the order sorting task corresponding to the target order; for another example, if the controller determines the target order through the optimal path For the target order, in the process of determining the target order, an order container has been allocated to the target order; for another example, if the controller determines the target order in a non-path optimal way, it can determine that the goods have been placed in After the self-driven mobile device is allocated to the target order, an order container is allocated to the target order. Other timings will not be illustrated in detail here.

In this specification, the controller can allocate a self-driving mobile device to the above-mentioned target order, wherein the self-driving mobile device mentioned here is provided with a carrying component, and the carrying component can be used to carry goods that need to be carried. There may be many specific forms of the load-bearing component. For example, the load-bearing component may be a loading platform, a container that can hold goods, or a drawer that can hold goods. This specification does not limit the specific form of the load-bearing component.

The controller can allocate self-driving mobile devices to the target order in many ways. For example, the controller can drive mobile devices that are idle at the sorting station (the idle self-driving mobile devices refer to the self-driving mobile devices that do not perform order sorting tasks. Select a self-driving mobile device in the drive mobile device); for another example, if the self-driving mobile devices are arranged at the sorting station in a sequence, the self-driving mobile device that is ranked first can be assigned to the target order. Other methods will not be illustrated in detail here.

When the controller determines that the goods have been placed on the carrier component of the self-driving mobile device allocated for the target order, it needs to send the determined navigation path to the self-driving mobile device, so that the self-driving mobile device is The navigation path moves from the position of the sorting station to the container position of the order container corresponding to the target order, and delivers the carried goods to the order container.

Wherein, determining that the goods have been placed on the carrying component of the self-driving mobile device mentioned here means that all the goods of the quantity of goods required by the target order have been placed on the carrying component of the self-driving mobile device. There can be many specific ways to determine. For example, after assigning a self-driving mobile device to the target order, the staff at the sorting station can place the quantity of the goods required by the target order on the self-driving mobile device and send a confirmation message to the controller. After receiving the confirmation message, the controller can determine that all the goods in the quantity of goods required by the target order have been placed on the carrier component of the self-driving mobile device.

For another example, after allocating a self-driving mobile device to the target order, the image information of the goods carried by the self-driving mobile device can be acquired through a preset image acquisition device, and image analysis is performed on the image information to determine The actual quantity of the goods carried by the self-driving mobile device. If it is determined that the actual quantity is consistent with the quantity of goods required by the target order, it is determined that the goods of the quantity of goods have been placed on the carrying component of the self-driving mobile device on.

For another example, after allocating a self-driving mobile device to the target order, the controller may send information to the self-driving mobile device, so that the self-driving mobile device can determine the goods required for the target order through the received information The number of goods. Then, the self-driving mobile device can determine the actual quantity of goods placed on the carrier component through a sensor set on the carrier component for determining the quantity of goods to be carried, and when determining the actual quantity and the target order requirement When the quantity of the goods matches, a message indicating that the goods have been received is sent to the controller, so that the controller can use the message to determine that the goods of the quantity of goods have been placed on the carrying component of the self-driving mobile device. Other methods will not be illustrated in detail here.

It should be pointed out that, for the load-bearing component provided on the self-driving mobile device, the load-bearing component can only carry goods of one order, and further, the load-bearing component can only carry one type of goods of one order.

It can be seen from the above method that in the sorting process, the controller can select the goods required by each order from the various goods placed at the sorting workstation according to the order information of each order, and place them in the self-driven mobile Carry on the equipment. Since there is no need to distribute the goods labels for each goods in advance, and to establish the binding relationship between the goods and the order, compared with the existing technology, the inventory management cost can be effectively reduced, thereby improving the overall goods Sorting efficiency.

Not only that, in the prior art, since the specific goods have been allocated to each order in advance, the staff at the sorting station needs to sort each order according to the corresponding order when sorting the goods. Goods label, select the corresponding goods from a large number of goods, which will greatly increase the labor cost and reduce the efficiency of sorting.

With the goods handling method provided in this manual, if the goods are sorted by manual sorting, the staff at the sorting station only needs to select each kind of goods required by the order, without requiring specific To the selection of a cargo. That is to say, for a kind of goods required by an order, there may be multiple pieces of this kind of goods temporarily stored at the sorting station, and the staff only needs to select the number of pieces required by the order from the multiple pieces of goods. This kind of goods is sufficient, which will greatly reduce labor costs, thereby effectively improving the efficiency of goods sorting.

In addition, in this manual, the controller allocates order containers to each order can be implemented in the form of dynamic allocation, that is, the controller will not allocate a fixed order container to each order in advance, which will greatly Increase the flexibility of order container distribution, and can effectively improve the use efficiency of each order container, thereby providing effective protection for the sorting of goods.

It should be noted that the controller may update the inventory information of the goods when it determines that the quantity of the goods carried by the driving mobile device has been delivered to the order container corresponding to the target order. This can effectively ensure the accuracy of inventory information.

Wherein, after the self-driving mobile device delivers the carried goods to the order container, it can send a message indicating that the goods have been delivered to the controller. After the controller receives the message, it can determine that the self-driving mobile device has delivered the quantity of the goods carried to the order container, and then updates the inventory information of the goods, that is, due to the quantity of the goods The goods have been delivered to the order container, and the goods relative to the quantity of the goods have been out of the warehouse, you need to subtract the quantity of the goods from the total inventory of the goods to update the latest inventory quantity of the goods.

For any self-driving mobile device, if the controller determines that the quantity of goods required by the target order has been placed on the carrier component of the self-driving mobile device, the self-driving mobile device can be assigned to the target order And send the determined navigation path to the self-driving mobile device, as shown in Figure 4.

Figure 4 is a schematic diagram of allocating self-driving mobile devices for each target order provided in this specification.

In Fig. 4, various goods can be conveyed to the respective driving mobile devices through a conveyor belt, wherein a carrying area for distinguishing different orders is provided on the conveyor belt, such as the area between the two dashed lines in Fig. 4. The staff can place a kind of goods with the quantity of goods required by a target order in the carrying area of a conveyor belt. Correspondingly, there are a plurality of self-driving mobile devices waiting in line at the other end of the conveyor belt. When the self-driving mobile devices carry goods in a carrying area, the carried goods can be transported to a designated location.

There is a preset scanning device at the designated location. The scanning device not only needs to determine what kind of goods and the quantity of goods are carried on the self-driving mobile device, but also needs to collect the identity of the self-driving mobile device. Information and send this information to the controller. After receiving the information, the controller can determine the matching target order, and then send the navigation path determined for the target order to the self-driving mobile device, so that the self-driving mobile device will The carried goods are delivered to the order container corresponding to the target order.

As can be seen from the above example, since each carrying area in the conveyor belt can carry multiple pieces of goods, that is to say, through the above method, multiple pieces of goods can be allocated to the same order at a time. Compared with the traditional way that the cross-belt sorter can only allocate one piece of goods to one order at a time, it greatly increases the efficiency of goods sorting.

In practical applications, the capacity of the load-bearing component provided on the self-driving mobile device is limited. Therefore, for an order requiring a large amount of goods, it may not be possible to place all the required goods in the load-bearing component at one time. This requires the controller to allocate multiple self-driven mobile devices that perform order sorting tasks for the order. Specifically, for a target order, if the quantity of the goods required by the target order is too large, the controller determines a self-driving mobile device (a self-driving mobile device used to perform the order sorting task of the target order) After the actual quantity of the goods carried by the mobile device), it is necessary to determine the remaining quantity of the goods required for the target order, and according to the remaining quantity, assign the target order to the order sorting task for the target order. Self-driving mobile devices.

In other words, the controller can allocate multiple self-driving mobile devices for the execution of the order sorting task of the target order, and determine the actual quantity of the goods carried by each self-driving mobile device to ensure the final delivery to the The final actual quantity of the goods in the order container corresponding to the target order matches the quantity of the goods required by the target order.

It should also be noted that in this manual, the controller can perform batch processing for each acquired order. Specifically, the controller may select at least part of the orders from the orders corresponding to the order information according to the acquired order information, and determine at least one candidate order that requires the goods from the selected at least part of the orders. In other words, after the controller obtains each order, it can process these orders in batches, such as the first batch, the second batch, and so on. Then, when determining the target order to which the goods belong, the controller may select the target order to which the goods belong from a batch of orders in the currently processed batch. For example, assuming that the currently processed batch is the third batch of orders, the controller may determine the target order to which the goods belong from the third batch of orders.

An embodiment of the present specification also provides an item storage system. Referring to Figures 5 and 6, the system includes: a controller, and at least one feeding device 2 and at least one first tag communicatively connected with the controller The reading device 3 a, at least one first self-driving mobile device 5 and at least one second self-driving mobile device 6.

The controller is used to undertake at least part of the control functions in the item retrieving process in this specification, so that the controller can coordinate and manage the devices included in the item retrieving system in real time according to the progress of the item retrieving operation.

In an optional embodiment of this specification, the venue for sorting and sorting returned items is shown in Figure 7a. The site includes: the line-in area 11, the sorting area 12, the shelf operation area 13, and the inventory area 14.

The aforementioned feeding device 2 and the first tag reading device 3a are arranged in the line-feeding area 11, and the function objects of both are the items to be sorted 10a. The item to be sorted 10a can be an item returned by the user after purchase, and the user returns the item to the warehouse; the item to be sorted 10a can also be an item that is returned by the logistics service provider or the warehouse when the user cancels the order during the item's delivery process. Other parts return the items in the warehouse; in addition, the items to be sorted 10a may also be items from other sources that need to be placed on the shelves.

Optionally, the first tag reading device 3a may be at least one of a code scanning device and a near field communication device.

The storage container 7 is arranged in the sorting area 12 and is used to hold the sorted items. In an ideal state, in order to facilitate placing the sorted items on the corresponding shelves 9, it should be ensured that each storage container 7 corresponds to one SKU information. For example, in the case where the item to be sorted 10a is an item returned to the warehouse by the user, there are many types of items to be sorted 10a (that is, there are items to be sorted 10a corresponding to different SKU information), and the required storage is sorted The phenomenon that the number of containers 7 is large. However, in actual scenes, it is inevitable that there will be limited site conditions (including but not limited to a small site area, many immovable obstacles in the site, and irregular site shapes). Because there are no more storage containers 7 in the site, This causes serious sorting difficulties and a backlog of items 10a to be sorted.

The item storage system in this specification is applicable to the scenario where the venue is limited, and each storage container 7 described corresponds to at least one SKU information. In the process of returning items to the warehouse, the items to be sorted 10a corresponding to two or more SKU information can be placed in the same storage container 7, so as to reduce the usage amount of the storage container 7, and then Reduce the negative impact of site restrictions on the storage of items.

Optionally, a plurality of shelves 9 are placed in the inventory area 14 in this specification. Each shelf 9 can be used to place items corresponding to a certain SKU information; or a designated storage position on a certain shelf 9 can be used to place items corresponding to a certain SKU information, then the shelf 9 can be placed Put more than two items corresponding to SKU information.

The SKU information in this specification may be a collection of attribute information preset for the item 10a by the manufacturer that produces the item 10a to be sorted. The attribute information includes, but is not limited to, at least one of the unit, weight, color, size, and product number (ie, product ID) of the inventory entry and exit measurement of the item.

Optionally, the SKU information in this specification may be information used to determine the correspondence between the item and the shelf, and/or the information used to determine the placement position of the item on the shelf.

The number of the first self-driving mobile device 5 and the second self-driving mobile device 6 are both multiple, and each first self-driving mobile device 5 can move at least in the line-arranging area 11 and the sorting area 12 to be placed thereon. The above items to be sorted 10a are transported from the line area 11 to the corresponding position of the sorting area 12, and thereafter, return to the line area 11 to wait for the next item to be sorted 10a to be transported.

Each second self-driving mobile device 6 can move at least in the line-arranging area 11, the sorting area 12, and the shelf operation area 13, so as to place the sorted items 10b placed thereon (the sorted items 10b can hold In the storage container 7) transport to the corresponding location, and then return to the preset location, waiting for the next transport. The preset position may be located in any one of the line-arranging area 11, the sorting area 12, the shelf operation area 13, and the inventory area 14. It can be seen that the article storage system in this specification only needs to leave a path for the movement of the first self-driving mobile device 5 and the second self-driving mobile device 6 in the field, and there is no need to leave space for manual transportation. The paths used by the first self-driving mobile device 5 and the second self-driving mobile device 6 can be reused, which is beneficial to reducing the requirements for the storage of items on the site.

Furthermore, the system in this specification uses the first self-driving mobile device 5 and the second self-driving mobile device 6 to perform sorting and sorting operations, which greatly reduces the dependence on manual operations and is beneficial to reducing costs.

When the item returning system in this manual starts the item returning operation, the feeding device 2 first transports the items to be sorted 10a to the preset line area 11. The feeding device 2 may be a conveyor belt, or when the site conditions of the wire-casting area 11 are limited, at least part of the second self-driving mobile devices 6 may be used as the feeding device 2. Optionally, the second self-driving mobile device 6 as the feeding device 2 and the second self-driving mobile device 6 for transporting articles in each zone can be reused.

Optionally, the feeding device 2 is in communication connection with a controller, and the controller controls the speed and quantity of the feeding device 2 conveying the items to be sorted 10a.

After the to-be-feeding device 2 transports the to-be-sorted items 10a to the on-line area 11, the first tag reading device 3a identifies the tags of the to-be-sorted items 10a in the on-line area 11 one by one to obtain the to-be-sorted items 10a. Pick the SKU information of the item 10a. The tag of the item to be sorted 10a is used to record at least the SKU information of the item to be sorted 10a.

The first tag reading device 3a is in communication connection with the controller. The first tag reading device 3a sends the SKU information of the item to be sorted 10a to the controller.

The controller is in communication connection with the first self-driving mobile device 5. After the controller receives the SKU information of the item to be sorted 10a, according to the SKU information of the item to be sorted 10a and the preset corresponding relationship, in each storage container 7, it finds the item 10a that corresponds to the item to be sorted 10a. According to the target container corresponding to the SKU information, a sorting instruction for the item to be sorted 10a is generated according to the target container, and the sorting instruction is sent to the first in the line area 11 waiting to transport the item to be sorted 10a Self-driving mobile device 5.

After that, the first self-driving mobile device 5 that has received the sorting instruction detects whether the item to be sorted 10a is placed thereon, and if so, the first self-driving mobile device 5 responds to the item to be sorted 10a According to the sorting instruction, transport the to-be-sorted item 10a to the target container of the to-be-sorted item 10a, and place the to-be-sorted item 10a in the target container. So far, the sorting of the item to be sorted 10a is completed. The items sorted into the storage container 7 will be treated as sorted items 10b thereafter, waiting for the next step.

In addition, the controller also detects in real time or periodically the sorted items 10b in each storage container 7 located in the sorting area 12. When the sorted items 10b in the storage container 7 meet the preset handling conditions , The storage container 7 is determined as the transport container 7', a transport instruction for the transport container 7'is generated, and the transport instruction is sent to the second self-propelled mobile device 6 waiting for the transport operation. This enables the second self-driving mobile device 6 to respond to the transport instruction for the transport container 7'to transport the transport container 7'to a preset designated position. The designated position can be the shelf operation area 13, which can at least be used to provide space for placing the sorted items 10b in the handling container 7'on the preset shelf 9.

In this manual, each "container" can be used to hold items. Among them, the storage container 7 can be used to store items (for example, sorted items 10b), but since the items therein do not meet the preset transportation conditions, it is not suitable for transportation at this time. The carrying container 7'can be used not only for storing articles, but also for carrying.

It can be seen from the foregoing that, since the first self-driving mobile device 5 and the second self-driving mobile device 6 only need the allowed path to realize the sorting and picking of items, in the actual scene, it can be based on the situation of the site. The arrangement relationship among the line-arranging area 11, the sorting area 12, the shelf operation area 13 and the inventory area 14, as well as the size and contour of each area are flexibly adjusted. Moreover, the placement position of the devices set in each zone can also be flexibly designed. For example, in the scene shown in Figure 7a, since there are many unremovable obstacles in the sorting area 12, the storage devices in the sorting area 12 can be placed in a centralized or dispersed manner. The placement does not need to be strict. The regularity. Of course, when the site conditions permit, the storage containers 7 can also be placed in an array in the sorting area.

Optionally, the hardware facilities involved in the system in this specification can be placed on the ground, and after the item storage operation is completed, the hardware facilities can be removed from the site. Then the site of the removed item return system can be used for other operations.

In an optional embodiment of this specification, the system further includes: an information acquisition device. The information acquisition device is used to obtain SKU information of all items to be sorted 10a, information of the site, information of the shelf 9 in the preset inventory area 14, and candidate containers before planning the site for the item return operation. At least one of the information.

For example, when the item return system in this manual is used to process the goods returned by the user to the warehouse, the SKU information of all the items to be sorted 10a can be obtained according to the user's return information.

Because this manual does not have high requirements for the venue, the information of the venue can be flexibly set according to the actual scene. For example, the venue information collection device (can be an image collection device, radar, etc.) can be set on a mobile device (which can be in this manual) The first self-driving mobile device 5, the second self-driving mobile device 6, etc.), the mobile device receives the image acquisition instruction sent by the controller, moves in the field according to the image acquisition instruction, and collects Information about the venue. The information of the venue may include at least one of contour information of the venue, size information, and information of an immovable obstacle in the venue (for example, the position of the obstacle in the venue).

The information of the shelf 9 can be at least the position information of the shelf 9 in the inventory area 14, the information of the items placed on the goods (for example, the SKU information of the items placed on the shelf 9), and the remaining storage space information of the shelf 9 One kind.

In an optional embodiment of this specification, the controller further includes: a site planning module. The site planning module can be used to plan the line area 11 in the site according to at least one of preset site information, preset candidate container information, and information about all items to be sorted 10a. , At least one of the sorting area 12 and the shelf operation area 13.

The planning of each area by the site planning module may be the location of each area in the site, the outline of each area, the size of each area, and so on. Optionally, there may be a certain degree of overlap between the zones obtained through the system planning in this manual, or a certain buffer zone may be reserved in the site, so that in the item storage operation, according to the current situation, At least one of the position, contour, and size of at least part of the area is adjusted. Among them, the information of all the items to be sorted 10a includes the SKU information of the items not limited to them.

The number of the line-dropping area 11, the sorting area 12, and the shelf operation area 13 obtained through the system planning in this manual can all be multiple. There is no need for centralized settings for the same two zones.

Optionally, the site planning module can also be used to set information on each candidate container according to at least one of preset site information, preset information about each candidate container, and information about all items to be sorted 10a. , The storage container for storing the sorted items 10b is determined; and for each storage container, the placement position of the storage container in the venue is determined.

The system in this manual is designed to be flexibly applied to a limited space. Before the sorting operation, multiple candidate containers can be preset, and the shapes, sizes, specifications, etc. of at least two candidate containers among the multiple candidate containers can be preset Can be different. Then, according to the needs of the site and the needs of the items to be sorted 10a, the storage container 7 for sorting is determined from the candidate containers.

The two storage containers 7 exemplified in this specification are shown in Figure 7a, Figure 9a and Figure 9b. The two kinds of storage containers can be used in the same site, that is, the storage container 7 used in the item storage system in this specification may include a storage container 7a and a storage container 7b.

The storage container 7a shown in FIG. 9a has a shelf structure, which is composed of a frame provided at the top and a foot provided at the bottom. The dimension of the foot in the height direction is larger than the dimension of the second self-driving mobile device 6 in this direction. Then, a handling space can be reserved for the second self-driving mobile device 6 between the frame and the ground.

The storage container 7b shown in FIG. 9b has a box structure, and a roller is provided at the position where the foot of the storage container 7b is in contact with the ground.

If there is only one item to be sorted 10a corresponding to a certain SKU information known in advance, a candidate container with a smaller size can be selected as the storage container 7 corresponding to the SKU information. For another example, if the size of a site is relatively narrow, a candidate container with a smaller size is selected as the storage container 7 that can be used in the site.

As shown in FIG. 8, in an optional embodiment of this specification, the controller includes: a first sorting planning module 811a. The first sorting planning module 811a is based on the predetermined SKU information of all the items to be sorted 10a and the sorting area before the infeed device 2 transports the items to be sorted 10a to the drop line area 11. According to the information of the storage container 7 in 12, for each storage container 7, at least one SKU information corresponding to the storage container 7 is determined; and based on each storage container 7 and the corresponding SKU information of each storage container 7 to determine The corresponding relationship between the storage container 7 and the SKU information serves as the preset corresponding relationship. Then, in the process of returning items to the warehouse, the target container of each item to be sorted 10a can be determined according to the preset correspondence relationship, and the process of determining the target container can be similar to the process of searching.

Since the item storage system in this specification can greatly improve the utilization rate of the storage container 7, more than two SKU information corresponding to the storage container 7 can be determined for at least part of the storage container 7.

For example, if the predetermined number of SKU information of all items to be sorted 10a is 100, the 100 SKU information belongs to 20 categories, and the current sorting area 12 can accommodate 18 storage containers 7, then you can It is assumed that the SKU information of the three categories corresponds to the same storage container 7 in the corresponding relationship.

Correspondingly, as shown in Fig. 7b, the wire-casting area 11 may include a first wire-casting area 11a and a second wire-casting area 11b. The sorting area 12 may include a first sorting area 12a and a second sorting area 12b.

When planning the site through the site planning module, it is possible to plan the corresponding first line area 11a and first sorting area for the first sorting operation for the items to be sorted transported by the infeed equipment 12a; For the second sorting operation for the items to be sorted in the handling container 7'transported by the second self-driving mobile device 6, the corresponding second line area 11b and second sorting area are planned 12b.

In addition, the feeding device 2 may include a first feeding device 2a and a second feeding device 2b. The storage container may include a storage container 71 for the first sorting operation and a storage container 72 for the second sorting operation.

A number of first feeding devices 2a for the first sorting operation are arranged in the first line-in area 11a, and a number of storage containers 71 for the first sorting operation are arranged in the first sorting area 12a; A number of second feeding devices 2b for the second sorting operation are arranged in the second line-in area 11b, and a number of storage containers 72 for the second sorting operation are arranged in the second sorting area 12b.

The first sorting operation and the second sorting operation can share at least one of the shelf operation area 13 and the inventory area 14.

Specifically, after a certain storage container 7 is determined as a transport container 7', it can be determined whether there are sorted items corresponding to different SKU information in the transport container 7', and if so, transport the transport container 7' Go to the second line area for further sorting of the sorted items in the handling container 7'.

Or, as shown in FIG. 7c, the first sorting operation and the second sorting operation may share the line-arranging area 11, the sorting area 12, the shelf operation area 13, and the inventory area 14. The equipment used for the first sorting operation and the second sorting operation can be mixed.

Optionally, the determination of the storage container 7 from the candidate containers and the determination of the corresponding storage container 7 for the SKU information of the item 10a to be sorted may be performed at the same time. For example, after knowing the SKU information and site information of the item to be sorted 10a and the preset information of each candidate container, first according to the site information (if the site planning is completed at this time, the sorting area can be obtained according to the plan 12), select at least one candidate container suitable for the venue from each candidate container, so that the candidate container can be placed in the venue, and ensure that at least one side of the candidate container is not blocked by other objects. Then, for each SKU information of each item to be sorted 10a, according to the size of the item to be sorted 10a corresponding to the SKU information, and the number of all items to be sorted 10a corresponding to the SKU information, the candidate containers are determined The candidate container with the smallest total size difference of all the items to be sorted 10a corresponding to the SKU information is used as the storage container 7 corresponding to the SKU information, and the corresponding relationship is recorded in the preset corresponding relationship.

Optionally, the site planning module is in communication connection with the information acquisition device.

In an optional embodiment of this specification, the controller further includes: a path planning module. The path planning module is configured to, according to at least one of the information of the line-dropping area 11, the sorting area 12, and the shelf operation area 13, set the line in the line-dropping area 11, the sorting area 12, and the shelf In the operation area 13, a path for the first self-driving mobile device 5 and the second self-driving mobile device 6 to travel is determined.

Specifically, the path planning module focuses on the respective paths between the line-delivery area 11, the sorting area 12 and the line-delivery area 11, between the sorting area 12 and the shelf operation area 13, and between the shelf operation area 13 and the inventory area 14. planning.

Take the path planning module for path planning of the sorting area 12 as an example. The path planning module plans the infeed equipment 2 and each first device for each infeed device 2 located in the cast line area 11 according to the acquired information. The first sub-path between the label reading devices 3a; for each first label reading device 3a located in the cast line area 11, the first subpath between the first label reading device 3a and each storage container 7 is planned Two sub-paths. After the first self-driving mobile device 5 obtains the items to be sorted 10a from the feeding device 2, the controller determines the first self-driving mobile device 5 from each first sub-path for the first self-driving mobile device 5 The first sub-path; then according to the determined first sub-path, the second sub-path of the first self-driving mobile device 5 is determined, so that the end point of the first sub-path of the first self-driving mobile device 5 is the same as the The start points of the second sub-path of the first self-driving mobile device 5 coincide, and the end point of the second sub-path of the first self-driving mobile device 5 is the position where the target container of the item 10a to be sorted is located.

Optionally, the process of determining the path can be performed at the same time as the aforementioned determining the placement position of the storage container 7 in the field. Then, the information of the storage container 7 can be integrated, and a walkable path can be set for the first self-driving mobile device 5 and the second self-driving mobile device 6 between at least part of the storage containers 7. Especially when the system in this manual is applied to a relatively irregular site, as shown in Figure 7a, there are immovable obstacles in the site. In order to ensure the smooth progress of sorting and picking operations, it should be placed in at least part of the storage container Set up a path between 7 to reduce the restriction of the site conditions on the goods returning to the warehouse and increase the utilization rate of the site.

As shown in Fig. 8 and Fig. 9b, the controller in this specification may further include: a first monitoring module 812a. The first monitoring module 812a can be used to monitor the placement height of the sorted items 10b in the storage container, and according to the monitoring results, determine whether the placement height of the sorted items 10b in the storage container reaches a preset threshold, and if so, It is determined that the sorted items 10b in the storage container 7 meet the preset transport conditions. If not, continue to monitor the sorted items 10b in the storage container until the result of the judgment is yes.

The preset threshold can be determined according to the shape and size of the storage container. For example, for each storage container, it may be determined that the preset threshold of the storage container is 90% of the height of the internal cavity of the storage container, and the first monitoring module 812a detects that the storage container meets the transportation conditions, the storage container has not yet When it is full, the second self-driving mobile device 6 can prevent the sorted items 10b from falling off when it is transported.

Optionally, the first monitoring module 812a may be an infrared mutual radiation device provided at the opening of the storage container 7; or a detection device provided on, for example, the first self-driving mobile device and the second self-driving mobile device.

In addition, the monitoring of the storage container 7 can be real-time monitoring, or every time an item is placed in the storage container 7 (the first self-driving mobile device 5 places the item in the storage container 7 ) Follow-up monitoring. Alternatively, each time the controller determines the target container corresponding to the SKU information of the item 10a to be sorted, it may be determined whether the storage container 7 meets the transport condition. At this time, the item to be sorted has not been placed in the storage container 7. If the storage container 7 currently satisfies the preset transport condition, the target container for the item to be sorted 10a is determined again.

Further, the controller in this specification may further include: a second monitoring module 812b. Under the condition that the system currently knows the total quantity of items corresponding to each SKU information in the items to be sorted 10a, the second monitoring module 412b obtains the SKU information of all items to be sorted 10a according to the information acquisition device and The SKU information of each item to be sorted 10a acquired by the first tag reading device 3a, for each storage container 7, it is determined whether the storage container exists in the SKU information of each item to be sorted 10a that has not been sorted 7 Corresponding SKU information. If not, it is determined that the sorted items 10b in the storage container 7 meet the preset transport conditions.

Specifically, the second monitoring module 812b has at least a counting function. For each SKU information, the system records the number of items corresponding to the SKU information in the sorted items 10b in real time. If the number of records reaches the total number of items corresponding to the SKU information in the items to be sorted 10a, it is determined The SKU information corresponding to the item to be sorted 10a has been fully sorted. At this time, even if the storage container 7 corresponding to the SKU information is not full, it is determined that the sorted item 10b in the storage container 7 meets the preset transportation conditions .

As shown in FIG. 8, the controller further includes: a handling instruction generation module 814. The aforementioned designated position also includes: the line casting area 11.

The handling instruction generating module 814 may be used to find the SKU information corresponding to the handling container 7'in the preset correspondence relationship after determining a certain storage container 7 as the handling container 7', and determine the handling container 7'Is the corresponding SKU information unique? If yes, it indicates that the items in the transport container 7'have been sorted, and the next step of the picking process can be entered to generate the first transport instruction pointing to the shelf operation area 13, and send the first transport instruction to the second self-driving The mobile device 6 enables the second self-driving mobile device 6 to transport the handling container 7'to the shelf operation area 13 in response to the first handling instruction; if not, it indicates the contents of the handling container 7' Further sorting is required, generating a second handling instruction directed to the line-casting area 11, and sending the second handling instruction to the second self-driving mobile device 6, so that the second self-driving mobile device 6 responds to the first The second conveying instruction is to convey the conveying container 7'to the line-feeding area 11.

Optionally, when the system is planning the site in this manual, separate waiting areas are planned for both the first self-driving mobile device 5 and the second self-driving mobile device 6 (the waiting area can be set in the line area, sorting area, etc.). The reserved sub-areas in any one or several of the storage area, the shelf operation area, and the inventory area). After the first self-driving mobile device 5 places the items to be sorted 10a carried on it in the storage container 7, the first self-driving mobile device 5 returns to the waiting area planned for the first self-driving mobile device 5. If the corresponding instruction is sent from the device, the first self-driving mobile device 5 will go to the threading area 11 to obtain the items to be sorted 10a, and continue the sorting.

Similarly, the second self-driving mobile device 6 returns to the waiting area planned for the second self-driving mobile device 6 after placing the carrying container 7'carried on it at the designated position. If the controller sends a corresponding instruction, Then the second self-driving mobile device 6 goes to the position corresponding to the instruction to continue the selection. In addition, a common waiting area can also be planned for the first self-driving mobile device 5 and the second self-driving mobile device 6.

For the handling container 7'that contains the sorted items 10b and is transported to the drop-in area 11, since the sorted items 10b in it correspond to more than two SKU information, it should be targeted to the handling container 7' The items are further sorted.

Therefore, the controller in this specification may further include: a second sorting planning module 811b. The second sorting planning module 811b is used to determine whether there are more than two storage containers 7 in the sorting area 12 whose corresponding relationship is not determined. If so, it indicates that there are storage containers in the sorting area 12 at this time. 7 is in an idle state, and items can be sorted into the storage container 7. Then it can be determined whether there is a carrying container 7'in the line-dropping area 11, and the transporting container 7'in the line-dropping area 11 corresponds to at least two SKU information. At this time, it can be based on the idle storage containers in the sorting area 12 7. Sort the items in the transport container 7'.

If there is a carrying container 7'in the line-in area 11, for each SKU information corresponding to the carrying container 7', in each of the storage containers 7 with an undetermined correspondence relationship, the storage corresponding to the SKU information is determined Container 7 and update the corresponding relationship. The sorted item 10b in the transport container 7'is re-determined as the item to be sorted 10a, and then the re-determined item 10a is sorted.

Optionally, if there is no transport container 7'in the line-dropping area 11, continue to monitor whether there is a transport container 7'in the line-dropping area 11.

After the re-sorting of the re-determined items to be sorted 10a is completed, the handling container 7'located in the line-feeding area 11 is already in an idle state. At this time, there may be other cases in which the items to be sorted 10a have not been sorted, and the transport container 7'that is currently idle in the line area 11 can be reused.

Therefore, the controller in this specification may further include: a second return module 816b. The second return module 816b is used for the item to be sorted 10a to be sorted in the carrying container 7'in the line-feeding area 11, and the carrying container 7'in the idle state in the line-feeding area 11 is used as The storage container 7 generates a transport instruction for the storage container 7. Then, the transportation instruction for the storage container 7 is sent to the second self-driving mobile device 6, so that the second self-driving mobile device 6 responds to the transportation instruction of the storage container 7 to the storage container 7 Transport back to the sorting area 12. The storage container 7 transported back to the sorting area 12 can continue to use the preset corresponding relationship used in the previous round of sorting, or the controller can re-transport the storage container 7 back to the sorting area 12 Re-determine the corresponding relationship.

In another optional embodiment of this specification, after the sorted items 10b in the handling container 7'located in the line-feeding area 11 are sorted again, the handling container 7'located in the line-feeding area 11 can be returned to The preset container placement area is waiting for the next operation. For example, the controller monitors in real time whether there is an empty storage container 7 placement position in the sorting area 12 (the original storage container 7 at this position is determined to be a transport container 7'and is transported to a designated location), if so, Then, the storage container 7 in the container placement area is transported to the idle placement position by the second self-driving mobile device 6.

It can be seen from the foregoing that when the system in this manual is used for the inventory operation, the item corresponding to a certain SKU information may be sorted twice. In addition, there may also be items corresponding to a certain SKU information that may be sorted. Pick the situation more than twice.

For the handling container 7'that contains the sorted items 10b and is transported to the shelf operation area 13, since the sorted items 10b in it already have the shelf conditions, the handling container can be implemented in the shelf operation area 13 Shelf operation of items within 7'.

The transport container 7'in this description may be provided with a container identification. Optionally, the container identifier is detachably connected to the handling container 7'. The container identifier may also be a unique code of the container to be transported, and the container identifier may be an RFID electronic identifier or a face sheet with the container identifier recorded. In the process of sorting the items to be sorted, the controller records the container identification of the target container of the sorted item for each sorted item, and stores the recorded result. In the recording process, the information of each sorted item in the target container is used as the label of the target container. So that each container identifier corresponds to at least one label that characterizes the information of each sorted item in it.

The sorting system in this specification may also include: a second tag reading device 3b. The second tag reading device 3b is in communication connection with the controller.

The second label reading device 3b is used to scan the container identification on the transport container 7'. Then, according to the information in the container identification obtained by scanning, a shelf request for the conveying container 7'is generated. Sending the shelf request to the controller will cause the controller to respond to the shelf request to generate a shelf instruction for the handling container 7'. The controller sends the shelf instruction (the shelf instruction contains at least the position information of the shelf 9 used to characterize the SKU information corresponding to the label) to the second self-driving mobile device 6, so that the second self-driving mobile device 6 In response to the shelf instruction, the mobile device 6 determines in each shelf 9 the shelf 9 corresponding to the sorted item 10b in the transport container 7', and transports the shelf 9 corresponding to the sorted item 10b to the Mentioned on the shelf operation area 13.

Specifically, after the second label reading device reads the container identifier of the conveying container 7', it searches in the recorded result according to the container identifier to obtain the label of the conveying container 7', and generates the label according to the label. Shelf request for this container.

Optionally, the second tag reading device 3b may be at least one of a code scanning device and a near field communication device.

In addition, the controller in this specification may further include: a label generating module 813. If the container identifier on the transport container 7'is an electronic identifier (for example, a display device that can display information such as bar codes), the label generating module 813 is communicatively connected with the container identifier. The label generation module 813 is used to generate a label for each transport container 7'that has been transported to the shelf operation area 13 according to the sorted items 10b in the transport container 7', and then The label is sent to the container identification of the handling container 7'.

Wherein, the label generated by the label generating module 813 may be a collection of a number of information. The collection of information includes the SKU information of the sorted items 10b in the transport container 7', the quantity information, the identification information of the transport container 7', At least one of the shelves 9 corresponding to the SKU information of the sorted item 10b. The information contained in the label can be characterized by barcode, two-dimensional code, digital sequence, etc.

Since the items in each transport container 7'located in the shelf operation area 13 have the conditions for shelf placement, the shelf 9 corresponding to the sorted item 10b in the transport container 7'can be determined according to the label, so that the transport container The sorted items 10b in 7'are put on the shelf.

Optionally, the racking operation area 13 may include at least one racking station, and the second self-driving mobile device 6 can transport the rack 9 to the station where the transport container 7'to which the label belongs is located.

So far, the preparation work for carrying out the shelf operation for the articles in the transport container 7'has been basically completed.

In order to efficiently and accurately complete the shelf work, the sorting system in this manual can also include: shelf equipment 8. After the system controller generates the shelf instruction, it sends the shelf instruction (the shelf instruction may include the information used to characterize the position where the items in the handling container 7'should be placed in the shelf 9) to the shelf 9 Equipment 8. This makes it possible for the loading device 8 to place the sorted items 10b in the handling container 7'on the shelf 9 in response to the loading instruction.

In an optional embodiment of this specification, the shelf device 8 may be as shown in FIG. 10. Alternatively, the device may be a robotic hand.

After the sorted items 10b in the carrying container 7'corresponding to the shelf instruction are placed on the shelf 9, the carrying container 7'corresponding to the shelf instruction can be returned to the sorting area 12 for sorting.

The controller further includes: a shelf returning module 815. The shelf return module 815 is used to monitor whether the sorted items 10b in the handling container 7'corresponding to the shelf instruction are all placed on the shelf 9, and if so, generate a shelf 9 return instruction (the shelf return instruction contains at least It is used to characterize the position information of the shelf 9 corresponding to the SKU information of the label), and sent to the second self-driving mobile device 6, so that the second self-driving mobile device 6 responds to the shelf 9 return instruction, The shelf 9 corresponding to the sorted item 10b is transported to the preset storage area 14.

So far, the sorting, picking, and shelf loading operations for the items in the handling container 7'are completed, and the items are now in the warehouse state.

After the item is returned to the warehouse, there may be other items to be sorted 10a that have not been sorted, and the transport container 7'that is currently in an idle state can be reused.

Specifically, the controller in this specification may further include: a first return module 816a of the storage container. The first return module 816a of the storage container is used for placing the sorted items 10b in the carrying container 7'on the shelf 9, and then placing the carrying container 7'in the idle state in the shelf operation area 13 As the storage container 7, a transport instruction for the storage container 7 is generated. Then, the transportation instruction for the storage container 7 is sent to the second self-driving mobile device 6, so that the second self-driving mobile device 6 responds to the transportation instruction of the storage container 7 to the storage container 7 Transport back to the sorting area 12. The storage container 7 transported back to the sorting area 12 can continue to use the preset corresponding relationship used in the previous round of sorting, or the controller can re-transport the storage container 7 back to the sorting area 12 Re-determine the corresponding relationship.

In another optional embodiment of this specification, after the sorted items 10b in the carrying container 7'corresponding to the shelf instruction are placed on the shelf 9, the carrying container 7'corresponding to the shelf instruction can be returned to the preset Container placement area, waiting for the next job. For example, the controller monitors in real time whether there is an empty storage container 7 placement position in the sorting area 12 (the original storage container 7 at this position is determined to be a transport container 7'and is transported to a designated location), if so, Then, the storage container 7 in the container placement area is transported to the idle placement position by the second self-driving mobile device 6.

Optionally, the shelf 9 in this specification may have a support structure, as shown in FIG. 10. The shelf 9 may include compartments 91 that divide the space defined by the shelf 9 into several layers, and the compartments 91 can be arranged in a vertical direction. Articles (for example, canned cola) can be placed on the compartment 91, or a storage container (for example, a tray) can be placed on the compartment 91, and the storage container is used to hold a whole tray of goods (for example, a box of coke). Then, when placing items on the shelf 9, the items can be placed directly on the compartment 91, or the tray and the items on it can be placed on the compartment 91. In addition, in certain embodiments, items can also be hung from hooks or rods in or on the shelf 9. The goods on the shelf 9 can be placed on the inner or outer surface of the shelf 9 in any suitable manner.

Of course, the shelf 9 can also be loaded with other suitable loading methods for loading bins, pallets or other types of storage containers, which are all within the protection scope of the present application.

In addition, a number of shelves 9 can be grouped in the storage area 14, and different groups are arranged in an array.

As shown in FIG. 9a, the second self-driving mobile device 6 in this specification may include a driving mechanism (not shown in the figure), by which the second self-driving mobile device 6 can move in various areas. The driving mechanism may include wheels to enable the second self-propelled mobile device 6 to move on the ground.

The second self-driving mobile device 6 may also include a lifting mechanism (not shown in the figure) for carrying the shelf 9. The second self-driving mobile device 6 can move to the bottom of the shelf 9 and use the lifting mechanism to lift the shelf 9 , And moved to the corresponding location. Wherein, when the lifting mechanism is raised, the entire shelf 9 is lifted from the ground, so that the second self-driving mobile device 6 carries the shelf 9; when the lifting mechanism is lowered, the shelf 9 is placed on the ground.

Further, the second self-driving mobile device 6 is provided with a target recognition component (for example, a camera), and when the second self-driving mobile device 6 lifts the rack 9, the rack 9 can be effectively identified.

Optionally, the item storage system in this specification also includes a navigation module. The navigation module is configured to monitor the position of the first self-driving mobile device 5 and/or the second self-driving mobile device 6, according to the result of the monitoring and pre-moving the first self-driving mobile device 5 and/or the second self-driving mobile device 5 The path planned by the device 6 is to navigate the first self-driving mobile device 5 and/or the second self-driving mobile device 6, so that the first self-driving mobile device 5 and/or the second self-driving mobile device 6 can be navigated according to As a result, it reaches its destination.

Optionally, the navigation module may divide the path into several sub-regions (ie, cells), so that the first self-driving mobile device 5 and/or the second self-driving mobile device 6 move sub-regions one by one to form a motion track .

In addition, in a scene based on visual marker navigation, the first self-driving mobile device 5 and/or the second self-driving mobile device 6 further include a navigation recognition component. Markers for navigation (such as QR codes) can be preset in each venue. In addition to visual marker navigation, the first self-driving mobile device 5 and/or the second self-driving mobile device 6 can also use other navigation methods, such as inertial navigation, SLAM navigation, etc., and can also combine two or more than two at the same time Navigation methods, such as QR code navigation and inertial navigation, SLAM navigation and QR code navigation, etc.

In an optional embodiment of this specification, the first self-driving mobile device 5 at least includes a downward camera, which can capture the information of the QR code mark (or other ground marks) according to the downward camera and send it to Drive forward. The second self-driving mobile device 6 includes at least two upward and downward cameras, which can capture the information of the QR code mark (or other ground marks) according to the downward camera and drive forward, and can be controlled according to the control The navigation route determined by the controller travels to the bottom of the shelf 9 prompted by the controller.

Furthermore, the bottom of the shelf 9 is provided with a two-dimensional code mark. Optionally, the two-dimensional code mark is set in the center under the shelf 9 to ensure that the second self-driving mobile device 6 is located directly under the shelf 9, so as to ensure that the second self-driving mobile device 6 can be lifted steadily And handling rack 9.

In an optional embodiment of this specification, the items to be sorted 10a transported by the feeding device 2 can be placed on the first self-driving mobile device with the label provided on the side facing upwards. On the bearing assembly 51 of 5, the first self-driving mobile device 5 may have a structure as shown in FIG. 11. The first self-driving mobile device 5 carries the article through the first label reading device 3a located in the threading area 11, so that the first label reading device 3a can read the label on the article to be sorted 10a. After that, the first self-driving mobile device 5 carries the items to be sorted 10 a through the carrier assembly 51 to move to the storage container 7, and through the carrier assembly 51, places the items to be sorted 10 a in the storage container 7.

Wherein, the carrying component 51 can be any braking mechanism capable of carrying and delivering articles. The braking mechanism includes but is not limited to: roller mechanism, belt mechanism, flap mechanism and so on. The first self-driving mobile device 5 can be provided with one carrier component 51 or multiple carrier components 51. The multiple carrier components 51 can be placed on the items to be sorted 10a with the same SKU information, or they can be placed with different SKU information. For the same item, the first self-driving mobile device 5 can obtain multiple items to be sorted 10a corresponding to different storage containers 7 at one time, and complete the sorting of each item to be sorted 10a in turn, thereby improving the sorting Picking efficiency.

Optionally, a plurality of bearing components 51 may be vertically distributed among each other.

In this specification, the first self-driving mobile device 5 can be driven on an overhead platform (such as a steel platform) or a track, and the storage container 7 can be located under the platform or the track; the first self-driving mobile device 5 can also be driven On the ground, the storage container 7 is also located on the ground. The height of the carrying component 51 on the first self-driving mobile device 5 may be slightly higher than the height of the opening of the storage container 7, so that the carrying component 51 can sort the to-be-sorted The article 10a is put into the storage container 7.

Taking the first self-driving mobile device 5 running on the ground as an example, the first self-driving mobile device 5 may include a driving mechanism 52. Through the driving mechanism 52, the first self-driving mobile device 5 can move in the sorting area 12.

The traditional work process of returning items to the warehouse is long and not streamlined enough. The item storage system in this manual can directly place the items to be sorted on the first self-driving mobile device 5 after obtaining the items to be sorted from the infeed device during the sorting process, saving intermediate handover Link, that is, to combine the feeding actions in picking and sorting into one, which can greatly shorten the operation process and improve efficiency.

In the 1990s, the improvement of a technology can be clearly distinguished between hardware improvements (for example, improvements in circuit structures such as diodes, transistors, switches, etc.) or software improvements (improvements in method flow). However, with the development of technology, the improvement of many methods and processes of today can be regarded as a direct improvement of the hardware circuit structure. Designers almost always get the corresponding hardware circuit structure by programming the improved method flow into the hardware circuit. Therefore, it cannot be said that the improvement of a method flow cannot be realized by the hardware entity module. For example, a programmable logic device (Programmable Logic Device, PLD) (for example, a Field Programmable Gate Array (Field Programmable Gate Array, FPGA)) is such an integrated circuit whose logic function is determined by the user's programming of the device. It is programmed by the designer to "integrate" a digital system on a piece of PLD, without requiring chip manufacturers to design and manufacture dedicated integrated circuit chips. Moreover, nowadays, instead of manually making integrated circuit chips, this kind of programming is mostly realized with "logic compiler" software, which is similar to the software compiler used in program development and writing, but before compilation The original code must also be written in a specific programming language, which is called Hardware Description Language (HDL), and there is not only one type of HDL, but many types, such as ABEL (Advanced Boolean Expression Language) , AHDL (Altera Hardware Description Language), Confluence, CUPL (Cornell University Programming Language), HDCal, JHDL (Java Hardware Description Language), Lava, Lola, MyHDL, PALASM, RHDL (Ruby Hardware Description, currently the most commonly used language) It is VHDL (Very-High-Speed Integrated Circuit Hardware Description Language) and Verilog. It should also be clear to those skilled in the art that just a little bit of logic programming of the method flow in the above-mentioned hardware description languages and programming into an integrated circuit can easily obtain the hardware circuit that implements the logic method flow.

The controller can be implemented in any suitable manner. For example, the controller can take the form of, for example, a microprocessor or a processor and a computer-readable medium storing computer-readable program codes (such as software or firmware) executable by the (micro)processor. , Logic gates, switches, application specific integrated circuits (ASICs), programmable logic controllers and embedded microcontrollers. Examples of controllers include but are not limited to the following microcontrollers: ARC625D, Atmel AT91SAM, Microchip PIC18F26K20 and Silicon Labs C8051F320, the memory controller can also be implemented as part of the memory control logic. Those skilled in the art also know that, in addition to implementing the controller in a purely computer-readable program code manner, it is entirely possible to program the method steps to make the controller use logic gates, switches, application specific integrated circuits, programmable logic controllers and embedded The same function can be realized in the form of a microcontroller, etc. Therefore, such a controller can be regarded as a hardware component, and the devices included in it for realizing various functions can also be regarded as a structure within the hardware component. Or even, the device for realizing various functions can be regarded as both a software module for realizing the method and a structure within a hardware component.

The systems, devices, modules, or units illustrated in the above embodiments may be specifically implemented by computer chips or entities, or implemented by products with certain functions. A typical implementation device is a computer. Specifically, the computer may be, for example, a personal computer, a laptop computer, a cell phone, a camera phone, a smart phone, a personal digital assistant, a media player, a navigation device, an email device, a game console, a tablet computer, a wearable device, or Any combination of these devices.

For the convenience of description, when describing the above device, the functions are divided into various units and described separately. Of course, when implementing this application, the functions of each unit can be implemented in the same one or more software and/or hardware.

Those skilled in the art should understand that the embodiments of the present application can be provided as methods, systems, or computer program products. Therefore, this application may adopt the form of a complete hardware embodiment, a complete software embodiment, or an embodiment combining software and hardware. Moreover, this application may adopt the form of a computer program product implemented on one or more computer-usable storage media (including but not limited to disk storage, CD-ROM, optical storage, etc.) containing computer-usable program codes.

This application is described with reference to flowcharts and/or block diagrams of methods, devices (systems), and computer program products according to embodiments of this application. It should be understood that each process and/or block in the flowchart and/or block diagram, and the combination of processes and/or blocks in the flowchart and/or block diagram can be realized by computer program instructions. These computer program instructions can be provided to the processor of a general-purpose computer, a special-purpose computer, an embedded processor, or other programmable data processing equipment to generate a machine, so that the instructions executed by the processor of the computer or other programmable data processing equipment are generated It is a device that realizes the functions specified in one process or multiple processes in the flowchart and/or one block or multiple blocks in the block diagram.

These computer program instructions can also be stored in a computer-readable memory that can guide a computer or other programmable data processing equipment to work in a specific manner, so that the instructions stored in the computer-readable memory produce an article of manufacture including the instruction device. The device implements the functions specified in one process or multiple processes in the flowchart and/or one block or multiple blocks in the block diagram.

These computer program instructions can also be loaded on a computer or other programmable data processing equipment, so that a series of operation steps are executed on the computer or other programmable equipment to produce computer-implemented processing, so as to execute on the computer or other programmable equipment. The instructions provide steps for implementing the functions specified in one process or multiple processes in the flowchart and/or one block or multiple blocks in the block diagram.

In a typical configuration, the computing device includes one or more processors (CPUs), input/output interfaces, network interfaces, and memory.

The memory may include non-permanent memory in a computer readable medium, random access memory (RAM) and/or non-volatile memory, such as read-only memory (ROM) or flash memory (flash RAM). Memory is an example of computer readable media.

Computer-readable media include permanent and non-permanent, removable and non-removable media, and information storage can be realized by any method or technology. The information can be computer-readable instructions, data structures, program modules, or other data. Examples of computer storage media include, but are not limited to, phase change memory (PRAM), static random access memory (SRAM), dynamic random access memory (DRAM), other types of random access memory (RAM), read-only memory (ROM), electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), flash memory or other memory technology, CD-ROM, digital versatile disc (DVD) or other optical storage, Magnetic cassettes, magnetic tape magnetic disk storage or other magnetic storage devices or any other non-transmission media can be used to store information that can be accessed by computing devices. According to the definition in this article, computer-readable media does not include transitory media, such as modulated data signals and carrier waves.

It should also be noted that the terms "include", "include" or any other variants thereof are intended to cover non-exclusive inclusion, so that a process, method, commodity or equipment including a series of elements not only includes those elements, but also includes Other elements that are not explicitly listed, or also include elements inherent to such processes, methods, commodities, or equipment. If there are no more restrictions, the element defined by the sentence "including a..." does not exclude the existence of other identical elements in the process, method, commodity, or equipment that includes the element.

Those skilled in the art should understand that the embodiments of the present application can be provided as a method, a system, or a computer program product. Therefore, this application may adopt the form of a complete hardware embodiment, a complete software embodiment, or an embodiment combining software and hardware. Moreover, this application may adopt the form of a computer program product implemented on one or more computer-usable storage media (including but not limited to disk storage, CD-ROM, optical storage, etc.) containing computer-usable program codes.

This application may be described in the general context of computer-executable instructions executed by a computer, such as a program module. Generally, program modules include routines, programs, objects, components, data structures, etc. that perform specific tasks or implement specific abstract data types. This application can also be practiced in distributed computing environments. In these distributed computing environments, tasks are performed by remote processing devices connected through a communication network. In a distributed computing environment, program modules can be located in local and remote computer storage media including storage devices.

The various embodiments in this specification are described in a progressive manner, and the same or similar parts between the various embodiments can be referred to each other, and each embodiment focuses on the difference from other embodiments. In particular, as for the system embodiment, since it is basically similar to the method embodiment, the description is relatively simple, and for related parts, please refer to the part of the description of the method embodiment.

The above descriptions are only examples of the present application, and are not used to limit the present application. For those skilled in the art, this application can have various modifications and changes. Any modification, equivalent replacement, improvement, etc. made within the spirit and principle of this application shall be included in the scope of the claims of this application.

Claims

A cargo handling system, characterized in that the cargo handling system comprises: a controller and at least one self-driving mobile device that performs wireless communication with the controller, and at least one bearing component is provided on the self-driving mobile device;

The controller is configured to obtain each order information, and for each type of goods placed in the sorting workstation, according to the obtained order information, determine the order to which the goods belong, as one or more target orders, as the The target order is allocated to the self-driving mobile device, and when it is determined that the goods have been placed in the carrier component of the self-driving mobile device, the navigation path is sent to the self-driving mobile device, and the navigation path is The container position of the order container allocated by the target order and the path from the position of the sorting station to the position of the container determined by the position of the sorting station;

The self-driving mobile device is configured to receive the navigation path sent by the controller, and according to the navigation path, move from the position of the sorting workstation to the position of the container, and deliver the carried goods To the order container.
The cargo processing system according to claim 1, wherein the controller is configured to obtain cargo information of each cargo placed in the sorting workstation, and the cargo information includes: cargo According to the acquired order information and the goods information of the goods, query the order to which the goods belong.
The goods processing system according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the controller is configured to determine at least one candidate order that requires the goods according to the acquired order information, and determine the at least one candidate order The order time of each candidate order in the at least one candidate order, and the candidate order with the earliest order time among the at least one candidate order is taken as the target order to which the goods belong.
The goods processing system according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the controller is configured to determine at least one candidate order that requires the goods according to the acquired order information, and for the at least one candidate order For each candidate order in, determine the path from the position of the sorting station to the position of the container according to the position of the container of the order container allocated for the candidate order and the position of the sorting station As the navigation path corresponding to the candidate order, according to the determined navigation path corresponding to each candidate order, the candidate order corresponding to the navigation path with the shortest path is taken as the target order to which the goods belong.
The goods processing system according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the controller is configured to determine at least one candidate order that requires the goods according to the acquired order information, and for the at least one candidate order For each candidate order in, determine the order priority corresponding to the candidate order according to the order attribute contained in the order information of the candidate order, where the order attribute includes at least one of the order amount and the quantity of goods contained in the order, According to the determined order priority corresponding to each candidate order, the candidate order with the highest order priority is regarded as the target order to which the goods belong.
The goods processing system according to claim 1, wherein the controller is configured to determine the self-driving mobile device corresponding to the target order according to the quantity of the goods required by the target order;

The controller is configured to determine that the goods of the quantity of the goods have been placed on the carrier assembly of the self-driving mobile device.
The cargo processing system according to claim 6, wherein the controller is configured to obtain the image information of the cargo carried by the self-driving mobile device through a preset image acquisition device, and to obtain the image information of the cargo carried by the self-driving mobile device through the The information is image-analyzed to determine the actual quantity of the goods carried on the load-bearing component of the self-driving mobile device. If the actual quantity matches the quantity of the goods, it is determined that the quantity of the goods is placed on the self-driving mobile device. The carrier component of the mobile device.
The cargo processing system according to claim 1, wherein the controller is further configured to, when it is determined that the self-driving mobile device has delivered the quantity of the cargo carried by the cargo to the order container When, update the inventory information of the goods.
The cargo processing system according to claim 1, wherein the controller is configured to select at least part of the orders from the orders corresponding to the order information according to the acquired order information, and select In the at least part of the orders, the order to which the goods belong is determined.
A method of cargo handling, characterized in that it comprises:

Get information about each order;

For each kind of goods placed in the sorting workstation, according to the acquired order information, determine the order to which the goods belong, as the target order, and determine the self-driving mobile device corresponding to the target order, and when it is determined that the goods have been When placed in the carrier component of the self-driving mobile device, the navigation path is sent to the self-driving mobile device, so that the self-driving mobile device moves from the sorting station to the sorting station according to the navigation path. Moves to the container position, and delivers the goods carried to the order container. The navigation path is based on the container position of the order container allocated for the target order and the location of the sorting station The location determines the path from the location of the sorting station to the location of the container.
The method for processing goods according to claim 10, characterized in that, for each type of goods placed in the sorting workstation, determining the order to which the goods belong according to the acquired order information, specifically comprising:

For each kind of goods placed in the sorting workstation, obtain the goods information of the goods, and the goods information includes: the inventory storage unit SKU of the goods;

According to the obtained order information and the goods information of the goods, query the order to which the goods belong.
The method for processing goods according to claim 10 or 11, characterized in that, according to the acquired order information, determining the order to which the goods belong, as the target order, specifically includes:

According to the acquired order information, determine at least one candidate order that requires the goods, determine the order time of each candidate order in the at least one candidate order, and determine the candidate order with the earliest order time among the at least one candidate order , As the target order to which the goods belong.
The method for processing goods according to claim 10 or 11, characterized in that, according to the acquired order information, determining the order to which the goods belong, as the target order, specifically includes:

According to the acquired order information, determine at least one candidate order that requires the goods, and for each candidate order in the at least one candidate order, according to the container position of the order container allocated to the candidate order and the distribution The location of the sorting station is determined, and the path from the location of the sorting station to the position of the container is determined as the navigation path corresponding to the candidate order;

According to the determined navigation path corresponding to each candidate order, the candidate order corresponding to the navigation path with the shortest path is taken as the target order to which the goods belong.
The method for processing goods according to claim 10 or 11, characterized in that, according to the acquired order information, determining the order to which the goods belong, as the target order, specifically includes:

According to the acquired order information, determine at least one candidate order that requires the goods, and for each candidate order in the at least one candidate order, determine the candidate order according to the order attribute contained in the order information of the candidate order Corresponding order priority, the order attribute includes at least one of the order amount and the quantity of goods included in the order;

According to the determined order priority corresponding to each candidate order, the candidate order with the highest order priority is regarded as the target order to which the goods belong.
The method for processing goods according to claim 10, wherein determining the self-driving mobile device corresponding to the target order specifically comprises:

Determine the self-driving mobile device corresponding to the target order according to the quantity of the goods required by the target order;

It is determined that the cargo has been placed on the load bearing component of the self-driving mobile device, which specifically includes:

The cargo for which the quantity of the cargo is determined has been placed on the carrier assembly of the self-driving mobile device.
The method for processing goods according to claim 15, wherein the determination of the quantity of the goods that has been placed on the load-bearing component of the self-driving mobile device specifically comprises:

Obtain the image information of the goods carried by the self-driving mobile device through a preset image acquisition device;

By performing image analysis on the image information, determine the actual quantity of the goods carried on the carrying component of the self-driving mobile device;

If the actual quantity is consistent with the quantity of the goods, the goods for which the quantity of the goods are determined are placed on the carrying assembly of the self-driving mobile device.
The method of cargo processing according to claim 10, wherein the method further comprises:

When it is determined that the self-driving mobile device has delivered the quantity of the carried goods to the order container, the inventory information of the goods is updated.
The method for processing goods according to claim 10, characterized in that, for each type of goods placed in the sorting workstation, determining the order to which the goods belong according to the acquired order information, specifically comprising:

According to the acquired order information, at least part of the order is selected from the orders corresponding to the order information, and from the selected at least part of the orders, the order to which the goods belong is determined.
An item storage system, which is characterized by comprising: a feeding device, a first tag reading device, a controller, at least one first self-driving mobile device and at least one second self-driving mobile device; wherein:

The infeed equipment is configured to transport the items to be sorted to a preset line area;

The first tag reading device is configured to, for each item to be sorted in the drop line area, obtain the SKU information of the item to be sorted according to a label set on the item to be sorted;

The controller is configured to determine the target container corresponding to the SKU information of the item to be sorted among the preset storage containers according to the SKU information of the item to be sorted and a preset corresponding relationship, and According to the target container, a sorting instruction for the item to be sorted is generated; and, for each storage container, when the sorted items in the storage container meet the preset handling conditions, the storage container is determined To transport the container, generate a handling instruction for the transport container; wherein each storage container corresponds to at least one SKU information, and the storage container is located in a preset sorting area;

The first self-driving mobile device is configured to, in response to a sorting instruction for the item to be sorted, sort the item to be sorted to the target container of the item to be sorted;

The second self-driving mobile device is configured to, in response to a transport instruction for the transport container, transport the transport container to a preset designated position; the designated position includes a preset shelf operation area, and the shelf operation The area is configured to at least provide space for placing the sorted items in the handling container on the preset shelf.
The system according to claim 19, wherein there are multiple items to be sorted, and at least two items to be sorted have different SKU information.
The system according to claim 19, wherein the controller comprises: a first sorting planning module;

The first sorting planning module is configured to, before the infeed device transports the items to be sorted to the drop line area, according to the predetermined SKU information of all items to be sorted and the sorting area For the information of the storage container, for each storage container, at least one SKU information corresponding to the storage container is determined; and according to each storage container and the corresponding SKU information of each storage container, the relationship between the storage container and the SKU information is determined The corresponding relationship serves as the preset corresponding relationship.
The system according to claim 19, wherein the controller further comprises: a first monitoring module;

The first monitoring module is configured to monitor whether the placement height of the sorted items in the storage container reaches a preset threshold, and if so, determine that the sorted items in the storage container meet the preset handling conditions.
The system according to any one of claims 19 to 22, wherein the controller further comprises: a handling instruction generation module; the designated position further comprises: the line throwing area;

The handling instruction generation module is configured to determine whether the SKU information corresponding to the handling container is unique according to the preset correspondence relationship;

If yes, generate a first transport instruction, so that the second self-driving mobile device transports the transport container to the shelf operation area in response to the first transport instruction;

If not, a second transport instruction is generated, so that the second self-driving mobile device transports the transport container to the line-feeding area in response to the second transport instruction.
The system according to claim 23, wherein the controller further comprises: a second sorting planning module;

The second sorting planning module is configured to determine whether there are more than two storage containers for which the corresponding relationship is not determined in the sorting area, and if so, determine whether there are handling containers in the line-dropping area;

If there is a transport container in the line-dropping area, for each SKU information corresponding to the transport container, in each of the storage containers with an undetermined correspondence relationship, determine the storage container corresponding to the SKU information, and update the Correspondence;

Re-determine the sorted items in the transport container as the items to be sorted.
The system according to any one of claims 19-22, wherein the controller further comprises: a label generation module;

The label generating module is configured to generate a label of the conveying container according to the sorted items in the conveying container for each conveying container that has been conveyed to the shelf operation area, and send the label to the conveying container. container.
The system according to claim 25, wherein the sorting system further comprises: a second tag reading device;

The second label reading device is configured to generate a shelf request for the carrying container according to the label of the carrying container that has been carried to the shelf operation area, so that the controller generates a shelf request for the carrying container in response to the shelf request. The shelf instruction of the transport container is sent to the second self-driving mobile device, so that the second self-driving mobile device responds to the shelf instruction to determine that the transport container has been allocated in each shelf. A shelf corresponding to the picked item, and the shelf corresponding to the sorted item is transported to the shelf operation area.
The system according to claim 26, wherein the controller further comprises: a shelf return module;

The shelf return module is configured to generate a shelf return instruction after the sorted items in the handling container corresponding to the shelf instruction are placed on the shelf, and send the shelf return instruction to the second self-driving mobile device, so that the In response to the shelf return instruction, the second self-driving mobile device transports the shelf corresponding to the sorted item to a preset storage area.
The system according to claim 26, wherein the sorting system further comprises: shelf equipment;

The controller is further configured to send the shelf instruction to the shelf device; the shelf device is configured to, in response to the shelf instruction, place the sorted items in the handling container on the shelf on.
The system according to any one of claims 19-22, wherein the controller further comprises: a first return module of the storage container;

The storage container return module is configured to, after the sorted items in the transport container are placed on the shelf, use the transport container as a storage container to generate a report for the storage container located in the shelf operation area The transport instruction enables the second self-driving mobile device to transport the storage container to the sorting area in response to the transport instruction of the storage container.
The system according to claim 24, wherein the controller further comprises: a second return module of the storage container;

The second return module of the storage container is configured to, after sorting the items to be sorted in the handling container located in the drop-in area, use the handling container as the storage container to generate an object specific to the drop-in area. The transport instruction of the storage container enables the second self-driving mobile device to transport the storage container to the sorting area in response to the transport instruction of the storage container.
The system according to any one of claims 19-22, wherein the controller further comprises: a second monitoring module;

The second monitoring module is configured to, according to the acquired SKU information of all the items to be sorted and the SKU information of each item to be sorted acquired by the first tag reading device, determine that it has not been sorted for each storage container. In the SKU information of each item to be sorted, whether there is SKU information corresponding to the storage container;

If not, it is determined that the sorted items in the storage container meet the preset handling conditions.
An article inventory method, characterized in that the method includes:

Transport the items to be sorted to the preset line area;

For each item to be sorted in the cast line area, obtain the SKU information of the item to be sorted;

According to the SKU information of the item to be sorted, in each preset storage container, the storage container corresponding to the SKU information of the item to be sorted is determined as the target container of the item to be sorted; Each storage container corresponds to at least one SKU information, and the storage container is located in the preset sorting area;

According to the target container, a sorting instruction for the item to be sorted is generated;

According to the sorting instruction, sort the item to be sorted to the target container of the item to be sorted;

For each storage container, monitor the sorted items in the storage container. When the sorted items in the storage container meet the preset transportation conditions, determine the storage container as the transportation container, and generate Handling instructions for handling containers;

According to the transport instruction, transport the transport container to a preset designated position, the designated position including a preset shelf operation area;

Place the sorted items in the handling container in the shelf operation area on a preset shelf.
The item storage method according to claim 32, characterized in that, before transporting the items to be sorted to a preset line area, the method further comprises:

According to the predetermined SKU information of all items to be sorted and the information of the storage container in the sorting area, for each storage container, at least one SKU information corresponding to the storage container is determined;

According to each storage container and the SKU information corresponding to each storage container, the corresponding relationship between the storage container and the SKU information is determined as the preset corresponding relationship.
The item storage method according to claim 32, wherein the sorted items in the storage container are monitored, and when the sorted items in the storage container meet the preset transportation conditions, the storage is The container is determined to be a handling container, which specifically includes:

Monitor the sorted items in the storage container;

According to the monitoring result, determine whether the placement height of the sorted items in the storage container reaches a preset threshold;

If so, it is determined that the sorted items in the storage container meet the preset transport conditions, and the storage container is determined as the transport container.
The item storage method according to any one of claims 32 to 34, wherein the designated location comprises: the line casting area;

Generate a handling instruction for the handling container, which specifically includes:

According to the preset correspondence relationship, determine whether the SKU information corresponding to the handling container is unique;

If yes, generate a first handling instruction pointing to the shelf operation area;

If not, generate a second handling instruction pointing to the sorting area;

According to the transportation instruction, the transportation of the transportation container to a preset designated location specifically includes:

According to the first transport instruction, the transport container is transported to the racking operation area, or, according to the second transport instruction, the transport container is transported to the line throwing area.
The item storage method according to claim 33, wherein after determining the corresponding relationship between the storage container and the SKU information as the preset corresponding relationship, the method further comprises:

Determine whether there are more than two storage containers whose corresponding relationship is not determined in the sorting area, and if so, determine whether there are any handling containers in the line-dropping area;

If there is a transport container in the line-up area, for each SKU information corresponding to the transport container, among the storage containers for which the corresponding relationship is not determined, the storage container corresponding to the SKU information is determined, and all the SKU information is updated. The corresponding relationship;

Re-determine the sorted items in the transport container as the items to be sorted.
The item storage method according to any one of claims 32 to 34, characterized in that placing the sorted items in the handling container located in the shelf operation area on a preset shelf specifically includes:

For each transport container that has been transported to the shelf operation area, generate a label for the transport container according to the sorted items in the transport container, and send the label to the transport container;

According to the label of the transport container, the sorted items in the transport container are placed on the shelves corresponding to the sorted items.
37. The item storage method according to claim 37, wherein, according to the label of the transport container, placing the sorted items in the transport container on the shelf corresponding to the sorted item specifically includes:

According to the label of the transport container that has been transported to the shelf operation area, generate a shelf request for the transport container;

According to the shelf request, a shelf instruction for the transport container is generated;

According to the shelf instruction, in each shelf, the shelf corresponding to the sorted item in the transport container is determined, and the shelf corresponding to the sorted item is transported to the shelf operation area;

Place the sorted items in the transport container on the shelf corresponding to the sorted items.
The item storage method according to claim 38, wherein after placing the sorted items in the transport container on a shelf corresponding to the sorted items, the method further comprises:

Generate a shelf return instruction for the shelf corresponding to the sorted item;

According to the shelf return instruction, the shelf corresponding to the sorted item is transported to a preset inventory area.
The item storage method according to claim 38, wherein placing the sorted items in the transport container on a shelf corresponding to the sorted items specifically includes:

According to the shelf instruction, the sorted items in the transport container are placed on the shelf.
The item storage method according to any one of claims 32 to 34, characterized in that, after the sorted items in the handling container located in the shelf operation area are placed on a preset shelf, the method returns include:

Use the handling container as a storage container;

Generate a handling instruction for the storage container;

According to the transportation instruction for the storage container, the storage container is transported to the sorting area.
The item storage method according to claim 36, wherein after re-determining the sorted items in the transport container as the items to be sorted, the method further comprises:

After the items to be sorted in the handling container located in the line drop zone are sorted, the handling container is used as a storage container;

Generate a handling instruction for the storage container;

According to the transportation instruction for the storage container, the storage container is transported to the sorting area.
The item storage method according to claim 34, wherein the sorted items in the storage container are monitored, and when the sorted items in the storage container meet preset transportation conditions, the storage is The container is determined to be a handling container, which specifically includes:

According to the SKU information of all items to be sorted obtained before planning the site, and the SKU information of each item to be sorted obtained in the line area, for each storage container, determine the unsorted items In the SKU information of each item to be sorted, whether there is SKU information corresponding to the storage container;

If not, it is determined that the sorted items in the storage container meet the preset handling conditions.