KR20190048674A - Intelligent logistics robot - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to an intelligent unmanned automatic driving logistic robot, which supports that ordered products of multiple customers are divided and loaded. The intelligent unmanned automatic driving logistic robot sorts an order list capable of being autonomously handled one time by receiving the order list by each customer. The intelligent unmanned automatic driving logistic robot is also applied with a method in which a worker picks up only the order product displayed on a display unit and loads the order product in a divided area for each customer, by automatically moving the product to a loaded position after allocating each order list sorted in the area divided in a shelf of a cart. So, the intelligent unmanned automatic driving logistic robot can minimize waste of time and human resources consumed for picking up and sorting the order product for each client as being designed in order for the order product for each customer, ordered online or offline, to be divided and loaded during a product pickup process. Moreover, according to the present invention, the intelligent unmanned automatic driving logistic robot can automatically pick up the order product as the logistic robot automatically moves to a position in which the product ordered by the customer is positioned and the logistic robot moves to a packing place by picking up the all order products. Also, the intelligent unmanned automatic driving logistic robot can minimize intervention of a worker or an administrator by automatically calculating the number of order which can be handled one time in the customer order list transmitted.

Description

[0001] INTELLIGENT LOGISTICS ROBOT [0002]

The present invention relates to an intelligent unmanned autonomous traveling logistics robot, and more particularly, to an intelligent unmanned autonomous traveling logistics robot that supports order goods of various customers to be loaded and unloaded.

Due to various advantages such as commodity price, discount system, reward system, etc., the number of customers in large stores and warehouse stores is continuously increasing. Large-scale (discount) product purchase through the store is mainly through visits, but often due to distance or time constraints, such as online orders.

In order to process a large number of online orders, regardless of whether it is a large store, a retail transaction, or a wholesale trade, a pick-up of each customer's order item must be performed first. Should be. In this case, because it takes a lot of time and manpower to pick up each product for each customer and sort the products ordered by customers, technical measures are needed to minimize them.

Korean Patent Publication No. 10-2009-0016837

Accordingly, the present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned needs, and it is an object of the present invention to provide a system and method for an order-by- Which is capable of minimizing waste of manpower and time.

Still another object of the present invention is to provide an intelligent unmanned autonomous traveling logistics robot capable of automatically moving to a place where a product ordered by a customer is located,

It is still another object of the present invention to provide a method and an apparatus for calculating a number of orders that can be processed once in a received customer order list and quickly pick up and pack the order items included in each of the calculated orders, And to provide an intelligent unmanned autonomous traveling logistics robot that is designed to quickly process all of the lists.

According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided an intelligent unmanned autonomous mobile robot comprising: a battery; a communication unit for receiving a customer-specific order list from a warehouse management system; An intelligent unmanned autonomous traveling logistics robot having a shelf for dividing an order item for each customer into a plurality of shelves,

Display units for displaying order product information for each customer to be loaded in the partitioned area installed in each of the partition areas of the shelf,

A storing unit for storing location information of a product in a store, a packing field and a waiting place,

A robot moving path tracking unit for tracking the robot moving path,

Controlling a wheel drive unit to move the robot to a position where the goods are loaded, a packing position, and a waiting position according to the robot moving path, to select a customer order list that can be processed once from the customer-specific order list, Each of the lists is assigned to the display units provided in the partition area of the shelf, and the order product information constituting each customer order list displayed is compared with the product information read out by the goods information reader, and the display data is controlled And a control unit for controlling the display unit.

Furthermore, the intelligent unmanned autonomous mobile robot includes an obstacle sensing unit for sensing an obstacle around the robot moving path,

And a key input unit for inputting the completion of loading of the ordered product item for each customer, wherein the control unit is configured to input an order for completing the loading of the order item item for each customer or an order for ordering each customer order list displayed on the display units, And when the product information is all erased, movement to the packing field position is controlled.

In the intelligent unmanned autonomous mobile robot of the above-described configuration,

The total sum of the products ordered by each customer and the total weight of the products ordered by each customer are calculated by using the volume and weight information of each order product included in the order product information for each customer constituting the order list for each customer and the size of each divided area, A customer order list that can be processed once in the customer-specific order list is selected in such a manner that the number of the divided areas is allocated,

Further, the control unit checks the remaining battery level and controls the battery to move to the charging position if the battery remaining amount is less than the set value.

Also, the customer-specific order list received from the warehouse management system is classified into one or more pieces of order product information per customer, and the order product information for each customer includes at least position information, weight, volume, and quantity information of the order product .

According to the above-mentioned problem solving means, the intelligent unmanned autonomous mobile robot according to the embodiment of the present invention receives an order list for each customer and selects an order list that can be processed once by itself, The order item is automatically assigned to the position where the goods are loaded, and the operator picks up only the order item displayed on the display unit and loads it in the area partitioned by the customer. Thus, It is possible to minimize waste of manpower and time required for picking up and sorting customized products for each customer.

In addition, since the logistics robot itself automatically moves to the place where the goods ordered by the customer are located, all the goods to be ordered are picked up and moved to the packing field, so that the pickup of the goods ordered can be automatically performed. Since the number of orders that can be processed once is automatically calculated, there is an advantage that an artificial intelligent logistics robot capable of minimizing manager or operator intervention can be realized.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating an example of a peripheral configuration of an intelligent unmanned autonomous mobile robot according to an embodiment of the present invention; FIG.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Field of the Invention [0001] The present invention relates to an intelligent automatic unmanned traveling logistics robot.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention [0002] The present invention relates to an intelligent automatic unmanned traveling logistics robot,
4 is a diagram illustrating an operation flow of an intelligent unmanned autonomous mobile robot according to an embodiment of the present invention.
5 is a view showing an example of a moving robot of the intelligent unmanned autonomous mobile robot according to the embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating an example of an order list per customer according to an embodiment of the present invention; FIG.
7 is an illustration of display data displayed on a display unit according to an embodiment of the present invention.

It is to be understood that the specific structural or functional description of embodiments of the present invention disclosed herein is for illustrative purposes only and is not intended to limit the scope of the inventive concept But may be embodied in many different forms and is not limited to the embodiments set forth herein.

In addition, the embodiments according to the concept of the present invention can make various changes and have various forms, so that the embodiments are illustrated in the drawings and described in detail herein. It should be understood, however, that it is not intended to limit the embodiments according to the concepts of the present invention to the particular forms disclosed, but includes all modifications, equivalents, or alternatives falling within the spirit and scope of the invention.

In the following description of the present invention, a detailed description of known functions and configurations incorporated herein will be omitted when it may make the subject matter of the present invention rather unclear.

1 is a diagram illustrating a peripheral configuration of an intelligent unmanned autonomous mobile robot according to an embodiment of the present invention.

The intelligent unmanned autonomous traveling logistics robot according to the embodiment of the present invention is an autonomous traveling cart which can be operated indoors and outdoors such as a large (discounted) store, a warehouse type store, a warehouse storage warehouse, A plurality of customer-specific order lists are received from the order list 100, and the order items included in the customer-specific order list are moved to the position A where the goods are stacked so that the order items can be classified and loaded, Moves to the product packing field (B) or moves to the charging position (C) when the remaining capacity of the battery is insufficient.

For reference, the warehouse management system 100 receives an online product order from a customer and wirelessly transmits the order to the intelligent autonomous mobile robot 200 positioned at a waiting place. The indoor local area network can be used for wireless transmission. In some cases, for example, when a fault occurs, a plurality of customer-specific order lists ordered by online goods using the mobile communication network can be transmitted to the intelligent unmanned autonomous mobile robot.

When the order list for each customer is transmitted, the warehouse management system 100 transmits identification information of the intelligent unmanned autonomous traveling logistics robot, so that different order lists for each customer are transmitted to the intelligent unmanned autonomous traveling robots, The list may include a number of shelves that are partitioned so that the order items for each customer are divided or the same number of customer orders as the number of the areas being partitioned. This takes into account the maximum number of order lists that an intelligent unmanned autonomous traveling logistics robot can process once (ie, move the order item to the packing station).

2, the intelligent unmanned autonomous mobile robot according to an embodiment of the present invention includes a shelf (or a loading box) divided into a plurality of layers so that products ordered by customers can be preloaded in the pickup process, One shelf is divided into a plurality of areas. The construction of such an intelligent unmanned autonomous mobile robot will be described in more detail with reference to FIGS. 2 and 3. FIG.

2 is a block diagram of an intelligent unmanned autonomous mobile robot 200 according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 3 is a block diagram of an intelligent unmanned autonomous mobile robot 200 according to an embodiment of the present invention. .

As shown in FIG. 2, the intelligent unmanned autonomous mobile robot 200 according to the present invention includes a plurality of wheels 201 mounted on a lower portion of a body frame to move within a store, (Shelf) of one or more layers. In the embodiment of the present invention, as shown in FIG. 2, a cart having a two-layer shelf is exemplified, but the layer of the shelf can be varied depending on the use.

Also, the shelves for loading customized products can be divided into a plurality of areas according to the size of the cart. This is to divide the ordered goods of customers by division area. FIG. 2 illustrates that the lower shelf is divided into two areas, and the upper shelf has no area. In other words, the intelligent unmanned autonomous mobile robot 200 shown in FIG. 2 can divide the ordered products of the three largest customers into one, and assigns the entire divided lower shelf to one customer, You can also assign an entire product to one customer by assigning the entire three areas to a customer.

A method of allocating the number of customers who ordered goods to the one cart-like robot 200 will be described in detail with reference to FIG.

Referring again to FIG. 2, a display unit 260 for displaying an ordered list of customers allocated to each segment area of the intelligent unmanned autonomous mobile robot 200 according to the embodiment of the present invention is mounted. In the intelligent unmanned autonomous mobile robot 200 shown in FIG. 2, three display units 260 are mounted and operated. Of course, only one display unit 260 may be provided, and the display area may be divided according to the divided areas to display an order list of different customers.

In addition, a goods information reader 280 is coupled or attached to the body frame of the intelligent unmanned autonomous mobile robot 200 according to the embodiment of the present invention to read the goods information picked up by the operator. When the merchandise information is read through the merchandise information reader 280 capable of reading the merchandise information such as the bar code reader and the tag reader, the corresponding order merchandise information displayed on the display unit 260 is erased by the control unit, which will be described later, 260) can be picked up at the merchandise loading place and loaded on the partition area of the shelf.

Furthermore, a robot movement path tracking unit 270 for tracking the robot movement path is coupled or attached to the front or the lower side of the body frame of the intelligent unmanned autonomous mobile robot 200 according to the embodiment of the present invention. The robot moving path is a kind of guide route in which a cart must move to a position (A), a packing field (B), a charging position, and a waiting place where goods are loaded in a store or a warehouse. The robot movement path tracking unit 270 is a camera. When a metallic path is attached to a floor by using a moving path, the robot movement path tracking unit 270 detects the metallic It can be implemented as a proximity sensor capable of detecting a tape. Of course, the beacon signal generator may be provided on the ceiling to track the robot moving path by tracking the robot moving path, and a method of moving forward to the destination by photographing the forward image may be adopted. As described above, an appropriate robot moving path tracking unit 270 is adopted according to various methods, and is coupled to or attached to the body frame.

In addition, in the body frame of the intelligent unmanned autonomous mobile robot 200 according to the embodiment of the present invention, a structure necessary for moving the logistics robot, that is, a battery 210 for supplying power and a wheel drive unit 203 having a mechanical structure, A control unit 240 that can be mounted on the lower side or the side of the frame and controls the operation of the cart 200 to control the autonomous travel and load the ordered product, a communication unit 230, The main control box MC having the input unit 255 modularized is attached and operated.

Hereinafter, a block configuration of the intelligent unmanned autonomous mobile robot 200 having the mechanical characteristics will be described with reference to FIG. 3,

3, the intelligent unmanned autonomous mobile robot 200 according to the embodiment of the present invention includes a rechargeable battery (BAT) 210 as a power supply unit,

An electric wheel drive unit 220 for driving the wheels,

And a communication unit 230 for receiving a customer-specific order list from the warehouse management system 100. As described above, the intelligent unmanned autonomous mobile robot 200 according to an embodiment of the present invention includes one or more shelves on which goods to be ordered are loaded, and the shelves can be partitioned so that customized products can be separately loaded.

In addition to the above-described configuration, the intelligent unmanned autonomous mobile robot 200 according to the embodiment of the present invention includes display units 260 installed on each of the partition areas of the shelf and displaying order product information per customer to be loaded in the partitioned area Respectively. As shown in FIG. 6 (b), the order-by-customer product information includes at least an order name, location information of the order item, weight, volume, and quantity information. The position information of the order product is defined as the position where the order product is loaded.

Meanwhile, the intelligent unmanned autonomous mobile robot 200 according to the embodiment of the present invention includes a storage unit 250 storing at least location information of goods, packing fields, and waiting places in a store. In the storage unit 250, not only the control program data for controlling the overall operation of the logistics robot by the control unit 240 to be described later is stored, but also the robot movement tracking program data coded according to the robot movement tracking method is stored. In addition, the storage unit 250 stores information on the size of each shelf, the total weight of the storage robot (corresponding to the cart), and the size of each shelf partition area.

In addition, the intelligent unmanned autonomous mobile robot 200 according to the embodiment of the present invention includes a robot moving path tracking unit 270 for tracking a robot moving path,

Controls the wheel drive unit 220 to move and control the product to the position where the goods are loaded, the packing position, and the waiting position along the robot moving path, selects a customer order list that can be processed once from the customer-specific order list, Each of the order lists is assigned to and displayed on the display units 260 installed in the partition area of the shelf. The order product information constituting each displayed customer order list is compared with the product information read through the product information reader 280 and is deleted And a control unit 240 for controlling the display data in a method. The merchandise information reader 280 is for reading merchandise identification information attached to and printed on a merchandise, and may be implemented by a barcode reader, a tag reader, or the like.

For reference, the control unit 240 calculates the volume total of the products ordered by each customer using the volume, weight, quantity information, and the size of each division area included in the order product information for each customer constituting the order list for each customer And the total sum of the weights is calculated to allocate the number of the partition areas of the shelves, the customer order list which can be processed once in the customer specific order list is selected.

The control unit 240 also checks the remaining amount of the battery 210 and controls movement to the charging position C when the amount is less than the set value. The control unit 240 instructs completion of unloading of the loaded goods through the key input unit 255 And when the command is input, controls the movement to the charging position (C) or the waiting place according to the result of the battery remaining amount check. Herein, the waiting place is defined as a place where the intelligent unmanned autonomous mobile robot 200 should wait for receiving a customer-specific order list.

In the following description, " one-time processable order " refers to a process in which the logistics robot receives a customer-specific order list and selectively extracts a plurality of customer order lists that can be allocated to the areas partitioned on the shelves in the order list for each customer. And the completion of the sequential move to the goods loading position (A) and the goods packing field (B) to carry the goods constituting the ordered customer order list will be defined as one-time processing completion.

As an embodiment of the present invention, the intelligent unmanned autonomous mobile robot 200 according to an embodiment of the present invention includes an obstacle detection unit 290 for detecting an obstacle around a robot moving path, And may further include a key input unit 255 for the administrator to input. In this case, when the input for instructing the completion of loading of the order item item for each customer or the order item information constituting each customer order list displayed on the display units 260 are all erased, the control unit 240 moves the cart to the packing position And a control box.

Hereinafter, the operation of the intelligent unmanned autonomous mobile robot 200 having the above-described configuration will be described in more detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

4 is a flowchart illustrating an operation of the intelligent unmanned autonomous mobile robot 200 according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating an operation flow of the intelligent unmanned autonomous mobile robot 200 according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 6 illustrates an order list according to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 7 illustrates display data displayed on the display unit 260 according to an embodiment of the present invention.

4, the control unit 240 of the intelligent unmanned autonomous mobile robot 200 positioned at the waiting position receives the customer-specific order list from the warehouse management system 100 through the communication unit 230 (step S10) do. As shown in FIG. 6 (a), the order list for each customer includes order lists for each customer. Each order list for each customer includes at least the order name, the location information of the order item, , Weight, volume, and quantity information.

The control unit 240 of the intelligent unmanned autonomous mobile robot 200 receiving the order list for each customer selects the customer order list that can be processed once and proceeds to step S20 and allocates each selected customer order list to the shelf division area do.

For example, if the area partitioned by the shelves is three as shown in FIG. 2, a maximum of three customer order lists are selected, or two or one customer order lists are selected. The screening number is calculated by calculating the sum of the volume and the weight of the products ordered by each customer using the volume and weight of each order product included in the order product information for each customer constituting the customer order list and the size of each division area, (Or stack size) that the robot 200 can accept or accommodate.

If the customer order list that can be processed once is selected, the control unit 240 assigns the selected customer order list to the shelf partition area, and stores the customer order product information in the display unit 260 provided in the allocated shelf partition area And displays it as shown in FIG. 7 (step S30).

7 illustrates that a customer order list is displayed on the display unit 260 of the cart shelf 1 and that a customer order list is displayed on the display unit 260 of the cart shelf 2, It is possible to know that two customer order lists have been selectively allocated when the shelves 1 and 2 located at the top are allocated. However, the display of the customer order list on any display unit (display unit 1) provided on the lower shelf 1 may be interpreted as the simultaneous use of the two areas of the shelf located at the lower end.

When the shelf division area allocation and the customer order product information are displayed, the control unit 240 moves to the position where the goods are loaded (S30). Since the position information of the goods is stored in the storage unit 250 and the position information of each product is included in the received customer order list, the control unit 240 stores the position information of the goods in the customer order list displayed on the display unit 260 (Step S40). In this case, it is preferable to autonomously travel in such a manner that the shortest distance is firstly searched. As shown in FIG. 5, the control unit 240 controls the robot moving path through a signal received through the robot moving path tracking unit 270 It can move to the merchandise loading position while following. As described above, the metallic tape attached to the robot moving path can be detected while being detected by the proximity sensor, and the camera can follow the robot while recognizing the specific color attached to the robot moving path.

When the cart 200 is moved to the merchandise loading position, the operator located at the place where the merchandise is loaded confirms the order merchandise information displayed on the display unit 260 and picks up the merchandise, . If the read product information is displayed on the display unit 260, the control unit 240 deletes the read product information from the display unit 260 (S60), so that the operator can display only the displayed goods Pick it up and load it in the compartment area. When the same goods are displayed on the plurality of display portions, they can be erased one by one in accordance with the read result. In order to prevent worker confusion, the product information reader 280 may be provided as in the case where display portions are provided in the divided areas, respectively.

If it is determined that the loading of the order item item for each customer is completed through the repetition of steps S50 and S60 (in the case where all of the product information displayed on the display unit is erased and there is a separate key input by the manager), the control unit And moves the cart 200 to the packing field along the robot moving path (step S80).

When the worker arrives at the packing station, the worker is loaded on the logistics robot 200, takes a series of measures for packaging the carried goods, and issues an order to complete the unloading of the loaded goods. If the unloading completion command of the loaded goods is inputted through the key input unit 255 (S90), the control unit 240 moves to the standby place (S100) where the robot 250 first started along the robot moving path as shown in FIG. 5 By controlling the wheel drive unit 220, a one-time order processing procedure for picking up and packaging an order item is completed.

If an unloading completion command of the loaded goods is inputted, the control unit 240 checks whether there is a selected customer order list in the received order list of the customer, and also checks the remaining battery amount and moves to the charging position, Move to the waiting place to receive an individual order list, or move to the location where the goods are loaded to pick up and package the order item contained in the unselected customer order list. If the unselected customer order list remains, steps S20 through S90 will be repeated.

As described above, the intelligent unmanned autonomous mobile robot 200 according to the embodiment of the present invention receives an order list for each customer and selects an order list that can be processed once by itself, Each order list is allocated and the goods are automatically moved to the positions where the goods are loaded so that the operator picks up only the order products displayed on the display unit and loads them in the area partitioned for each customer. It is possible to minimize waste of manpower and time required for picking up and sorting customized products for each customer.

In addition, according to the present invention, since the cart automatically moves to the place where the goods ordered by the customer are located and picks up all the ordered goods and moves to the packing place, the picked up goods can be automatically picked up, Since the number of orders that can be processed is automatically calculated, it is advantageous to implement an artificial intelligent logistics robot (or smart cart) that minimizes manager or operator intervention.

While the invention has been shown and described with reference to certain embodiments thereof, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that various changes and modifications may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as defined by the appended claims. Accordingly, the true scope of the present invention should be determined only by the appended claims.

Claims (7)

A battery, and a warehouse management system, a product information reader for reading the product information picked up by the operator, and a shelf having one or more floors on which the product is placed, 1. An intelligent unmanned autonomous mobile robot having a shelf partitioned so that products are loaded thereon,
Display units for displaying order product information for each customer to be loaded in the partitioned area installed in each of the partition areas of the shelf,
A storing unit for storing location information of a product in a store, a packing field, and a waiting place;
A robot moving path tracking unit for tracking a robot moving path;
Controlling a wheel drive unit to move the robot to a position where the goods are loaded, a packing position, and a waiting position according to the robot moving path, to select a customer order list that can be processed once from the customer-specific order list, Each of the lists is assigned to the display units provided in the partition areas of the shelves, and the order product information constituting each customer order list displayed is compared with the product information read out by the goods information reader, and the display data is controlled And a control unit for controlling the operation of the robot. The robot control system according to claim 1, further comprising: an obstacle detection unit for detecting an obstacle around the robot moving path;
And a key input unit for inputting the completion of loading of the ordered product item for each customer, wherein the control unit is configured to input an order for completing the loading of the order item item for each customer or an order for ordering each customer order list displayed on the display units, And when the goods information is all erased, movement to the packing position is controlled. The apparatus of claim 1 or 2,
The total sum of the products ordered by each customer and the total weight of the products ordered by each customer are calculated by using the volume and weight information of each order product included in the order product information for each customer constituting the order list for each customer and the size of each divided area, And selecting a list of customer orders that can be processed once in the customer-specific order list by allocating the number of segment areas. The apparatus of claim 1 or 2,
Wherein the remaining capacity of the battery is checked and if it is less than the set value, movement to the charging position is controlled. The method of claim 1 or 2, wherein the customer-specific order list transmitted from the warehouse management system is classified into at least one customer-ordered product information, and the order product information for each customer includes at least a product name, Volume, and quantity information of the robot. The method as claimed in claim 2, wherein the control unit controls movement to a charging position or a waiting place according to a result of the battery remaining amount check when an instruction for completing unloading of goods loaded through the key input unit is inputted, Logistics robot. [3] The method of claim 2, wherein the controller is configured to check whether there is a selected customer order list in the received order list for each customer when a command for completing unloading of goods loaded through the input unit is input, And controlling movement of the robot to any one of a charging position, a waiting position, and a position where the goods are loaded.

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