CN109214751B

CN109214751B - Intelligent inventory management system based on inventory position change

Info

Publication number: CN109214751B
Application number: CN201810967161.6A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 贺桂和
Original assignee: Hunan University of Humanities Science and Technology
Current assignee: Hunan University of Humanities Science and Technology
Priority date: 2018-02-01
Filing date: 2018-08-23
Publication date: 2022-04-01
Anticipated expiration: 2038-08-23
Also published as: CN109214751A; CN114548882A; CN111626681B; CN109146380A; CN108846621B; CN109146380B; CN111626681A; CN109089082B; CN109089082A; CN111950967A; CN108846621A; CN114819797A

Abstract

The invention relates to an intelligent inventory management system based on inventory location change, which at least comprises: the access mechanism is used for storing and/or taking out commodities; the information acquisition system is used for acquiring the action information and/or the position information of the access mechanism; a computing system for analyzing the motion information and/or the location information; the computing system is connected with the information acquisition system through a communication system; the information acquisition system can acquire the action information and/or the position information of the access mechanism when the access mechanism triggers the action of storing and/or taking out the commodities; the computing system determines a state of the product held by the access mechanism based on the motion information, identifies position information of the access mechanism in response to the state of the product held by the access mechanism, and thereby determines a correspondence between the product and the change in the stock position, thereby generating stock information of the product.

Description

Intelligent inventory management system based on inventory position change

Technical Field

The invention relates to the technical field of inventory management, in particular to an intelligent inventory management system based on inventory position change for a man-machine hybrid warehouse or supermarket.

Background

When electronic commerce is gradually started, how to synchronously and accurately update the inventory becomes a hot problem. Especially for unattended warehouses, manual inventory is almost an unfeasible task. At present, most enterprises still adopt a traditional manual + bar code mode due to low informatization level in the aspect of inventory management, and the mode has the defects of low working efficiency, unsmooth information transfer with manpower cost, poor information timeliness and the like. In fact, inventory is dynamic in real time, i.e., changes from time to time and place, and therefore, inventory management should also be dynamic in real time. Thus, inventory management requires a dynamic and real-time management system to monitor inventory.

The utility model discloses a stock management and real-time display system that publication number is 107180325A, including the warehouse module that is used for saving the product, product distribution center module, data cloud end module and mobile device APP module, the information that the data cloud end module is used for storing the consumer behavior and the consumption data of user at the warehouse module, the warehouse module information of data cloud end module storage shows at mobile device APP module, the warehouse module has different types of product stock in different time quantums and different place positions, the product stock of warehouse module passes through mobile device APP module display, and carry out stock preparation prediction through product distribution center module. The system tracks the product information of the warehouse module at any moment according to the data displayed on the APP module of the mobile device, and can carry out expected stock preparation on the warehouse module, thereby effectively preventing the phenomena of shortage, shortage or the like. According to the technical scheme, only in the transaction process, the inventory is updated, the timeliness is insufficient, in the shopping process, the commodities can leave the shelf area but are not transacted, and the monitoring of the commodities cannot be monitored.

The method for real-time inventory management and the inventory system disclosed in CN108154322A can reduce the economic loss caused by system failure to the e-commerce website. The method for real-time inventory management comprises the following steps: a platform inventory system (GAIA) receives an order message sent by an inventory information service system (CIS), wherein the order message at least comprises: commodity code and commodity quantity information; temporarily locking commodities with the quantity corresponding to the order message in the inventory managed by the platform inventory system; and detecting whether the payment is finished or not according to the received payment message associated with the order message, and if so, converting the temporary locking of the commodities with the quantity corresponding to the order message into formal locking. The invention is suitable for inventory management. This technical solution has the same technical problem as that of publication No. 107180325a, that is, it cannot monitor the commodity which is not in stock but has changed stock location.

CN107077659A provides an intelligent inventory management system, server, method, terminal and program product for reducing the complexity of inventory management; it includes: the intelligent machine terminal shoots commodities and sends shot images to the intelligent inventory management server; the intelligent inventory management server identifies and determines commodities and inventory in the image according to the image shot by the intelligent machine terminal; and warehousing the commodities and stock information identified by the object identification module. Although the object recognition technology is utilized, the workload of manual input is reduced, the accuracy of commodity information warehousing is improved, and the complexity of inventory management is reduced; but cannot accurately assess inventory changes in real time. Unless there is manual intervention to count and inventory, the inventory count remains confusing.

CN104361039A provides an auxiliary method for embedded intelligent refrigerator based on Qt development, which comprises the following steps: step 1, displaying overdue reminding preview and message information; step 2, managing food stock, namely checking detailed information of all food materials in the current stock on the basis of data and user operation, and performing unified management of editing and deleting the food material information; classifying and managing all food materials, and sequencing according to the production date, the remaining quality guarantee period and the expiration date so as to check the information of each food material; step 3, expiration reminding, namely counting the remaining quality guarantee period of the food material information in the stock, providing visual information preview for the food materials with the remaining quality guarantee period less than 5 days, specifically displaying the expiration date and the remaining quality guarantee period of the food materials, and displaying and updating the expiration date and the remaining quality guarantee period in real time; step 4, inquiring and recommending recipes, providing massive recipe data, providing various delicious dishes making methods, and searching according to the existing food materials or custom food materials to obtain a specific recipe; recommending recipes with different tastes and efficacies according to the inventory food materials or current season and health nutrition information; step 5, shopping lists are obtained, existing food materials or custom food material information are added to the shopping lists, statistics and management are conducted on the food materials in the shopping lists, a shortage reminding list is provided on the basis of data mining, and shopping selection is provided; and 6, identifying and storing the food materials, namely identifying and storing the food materials. According to the technical scheme, the inventory consumption can not be counted in real time, and the effect of effectively managing the inventory can not be achieved in a kitchen and a kitchen storehouse which frequently take food.

In addition, in order to accurately manage kitchen inventory, large hotels and restaurants typically have a dedicated person to manage inventory (i.e., an inventory manager) that provides relevant food items to the relevant persons according to orders (eating information) only when the restaurant provides the orders (corresponding to the eating information described below in the present disclosure). Thereafter, the correspondence between the order and the food is checked manually by the inventory manager. This approach is not only inefficient, but also often results in a large number of losses due to the extremely numerous and varied types of food.

Chinese patent publication No. CN105531715A discloses an inventory updating method based on image detection, in which an update of inventory and a shopping list are determined by comparing images before and after taking an article. The problem with this approach is that shopping list and inventory updates are inaccurate once the user has removed the merchandise but returned it to an improper location. In addition, when the user repeatedly compares the types of the products in the areas with similar types and similar placement positions, the shooting and calculation are challenged, and if the user takes the products with both hands and puts back one product to the wrong position, errors often occur in updating the shopping list and the inventory. It omits the settlement link, but other problems arise as a result. Therefore, there is room for improvement in such an automatic shopping manner.

Chinese patent document with publication number CN104637198A discloses an intelligent settlement shopping cart system with autonomous tracking function, which is composed of an MCU microcontroller, a controllable dc motor, a pressure weighing sensor, an RFID reader, a camera, a wireless transceiver, a touch display screen, a bar code scanner and a unionpay card reader, and is characterized in that: the MCU microcontroller 1 controls the driving force of the controllable direct current motor through the weight of the shopping cart body sensed by the pressure weighing sensor, and moves the shopping cart at a proper speed; the bar code scanner automatically scans commodities, the touch display screen displays commodity information and the total price of the current purchased commodities in real time, the wireless transceiver realizes real-time interaction of the MCU and a supermarket background server about the commodity information, and a consumer automatically swipes a card through the Unionpay card reader for settlement. In the system, an RFID radio frequency card is used as a signal source for tracking a shopping cart and establishes point-to-point single-line contact with the shopping cart; the camera shoots the surrounding environment of the shopping cart at any time, and the obstacle is automatically avoided through a path recognition algorithm, and a tracking path is selected; the driving wheel driven by the driving motor can deflect left and right, and the steering of the driving wheel is controlled by the MCU according to the path information provided by the path recognition algorithm. The technical scheme can only solve the technical problem of commodity settlement.

Chinese patent document with publication number CN202904765U provides a self-service intelligent shopping cart for shopping malls, which comprises a cart frame, wheels mounted below the cart frame, a cart basket and a push rod mounted above the cart frame, wherein the lower end of the push rod is connected with the outer side surface of the bottom of the cart basket, the included angle between the push rod and the outer side surface is 40-60 degrees, a touch display screen is mounted between the upper end of the cart basket and the push rod, a scanner is mounted on the left side of the touch display screen, a brush slot is mounted on the right side of the touch display screen, and an automatic opening and closing induction door is mounted on the upper end of the cart basket. The automatic opening and closing induction door has the advantages that the automatic opening and closing induction door is installed at the upper end of the bicycle basket, the induction instrument is installed on the automatic opening and closing induction door and can sense the placed commodities, and the trouble of buying in error or buying more in the shopping process is avoided. The technical scheme still monitors the settlement problem of the commodities in the shopping process.

Through the research of the technical scheme, even if the technical scheme is combined, a person skilled in the art cannot obtain an inventory management system capable of dynamically and real-timely monitoring commodities with inventory passing in an inventory area.

Disclosure of Invention

In view of the above-mentioned problems inherent in the conventional large warehouse supermarket and other problems of the unmanned supermarket, the present invention is directed to provide an inventory management system and method, which can be used in an inventory unmanned supermarket. The use of RFID tags is not absolutely avoided in the present invention, but the present invention takes more general image recognition measures in consideration of the cost of RFID tags. However, the present invention does not exclude RFID, and RFID and two-dimensional graphic codes are preferred modes for identification of access devices for access mechanisms represented by intelligent handling devices. This is also because most of the warehouse supermarkets are equipped with video monitoring management systems, and the accuracy of the monitoring systems is better and better, and can reach the image accuracy of millimeter level, and the low-cost image recognition solution is still developing at a high speed.

The invention discloses an intelligent inventory management system based on inventory position change, which at least comprises: the access mechanism is used for storing and/or taking out commodities; the information acquisition system is used for acquiring the action information and/or the position information of the access mechanism; a computing system for analyzing the motion information and/or the location information; the computing system is connected with the information acquisition system through a communication system; the information acquisition system can acquire the action information and/or the position information of the access mechanism when the access mechanism triggers the action of storing and/or taking out the commodities; the computing system determines a state of the product held by the access mechanism based on the motion information and/or the position information, identifies position information of the access mechanism in response to the state of the product held by the access mechanism, and thereby determines a correspondence between the product and a change in the stock position, thereby generating stock information of the product.

According to a preferred embodiment, the information acquisition system is capable of acquiring first action information and/or first position information of the access mechanism when the access mechanism triggers a first action of storing and/or taking out the commodity, and transmitting the first action information and/or the first position information to the computing system through the communication unit; the computing system forms the first action information and/or the first position information into first information of the commodity in a correlated mode; the information acquisition system can acquire second action information and/or second position information of the access mechanism when the access mechanism triggers a second action which is closest to the first action and used for storing and/or taking out commodities, and the second action information and/or the second position information are transmitted to the computing system through the communication unit; the computing system forms the second action information and/or the second position information into second information of the commodity in a correlated mode; the computing system determines a state of a product held by the corresponding access mechanism based on the first information and the second information, and thereby determines a correspondence between the product and the change in the stock position, thereby generating stock information of the product.

According to a preferred embodiment, the first action information and/or the second action information is acquired by at least one image acquisition device in the information acquisition system; the first position information and/or the second position information is acquired by at least one position acquisition device in the information acquisition system.

According to a preferred embodiment, the at least one image acquisition device is configured to: the monitor for monitoring the commodities acquires the first action information and/or the second action information when finding that the access mechanism triggers to store and/or take out the commodities; the at least one position acquisition device is configured to: and when the monitor for monitoring the commodities monitors that the commodities are stored and/or taken out by the access mechanism, the first position information and/or the second position information are/is acquired.

According to a preferred embodiment, the first movement information comprises a first image and a second image, wherein the second image is captured by at least one image capture device before the access means enters at least one storage position of the shelf; the third image is taken by the at least one image capture device after the access mechanism is removed from the at least one inventory location of the shelf; the computing system determines a state where the access mechanism holds the article based on the first image and the second image, identifies position information of the access mechanism in response to the state where the access mechanism holds the article, and thereby determines a correspondence between the article and a change in the stock position, thereby generating stock information of the article.

According to a preferred embodiment, the system comprises an information modification module configured to: modifying the motion information and/or the position information based on a displacement curve and time information, wherein the displacement curve is acquired by at least one of the position acquisition devices in a mode of tracking the access mechanism; the time information is acquired by at least one time acquisition device in the information acquisition system when the access mechanism triggers to store and/or take out the commodities;

according to a preferred embodiment, the system further comprises at least one image acquisition device and at least one position acquisition device arranged in the temporary storage unit for detecting the movement of the commodity entering the temporary storage unit and generating third movement information and third position information, wherein the computing system confirms the corresponding relationship between the commodity entering the temporary storage unit and the change of the stock position based on the third movement information and the third position information of the commodity entering the temporary storage unit; the third action information is obtained before the first action information and the second action information; the third location information is obtained before the first and second location information.

According to a preferred embodiment, the system further comprises at least one image acquisition device disposed in the access passage of the access mechanism, and the at least one image acquisition device is used for acquiring identification marks for payment and/or registration and generating original information of the commodity, wherein the acquisition of the original information is obtained before the action information and the position information.

According to a preferred embodiment, starting from the initial time point of determining the absolute position based on the first image, the goods temporary storage unit sets an introduction timing period in response to the state of the goods held by the access mechanism, and after the specific introduction timing period, if at least one of the image capturing devices fails to capture the action of the goods entering the goods temporary storage unit, a prompt about the goods attribute is sent to the access mechanism holding the goods through the goods temporary storage unit, wherein the prompt may be in the form of an electronic signal, voice, image or video.

According to a preferred embodiment, at least one of the image acquisition means is adapted to display the indicator mark only if it is within the visual range of the access mechanism that picked up the current product, when the system indicates the return of the current product to the correct position on the shelf by means of the indicator mark on the shelf.

In the present invention, the absolute position refers to a position in a coordinate system established for a supermarket or a warehouse to which the inventory management system is applied, and the origin of coordinates of the absolute position may be, for example, a corner of the supermarket or the warehouse occupying the ground, such as the southeast corner, or a position where a certain settlement counter is located. The relative position refers to the relative position between the shelves in the supermarket, and can also be the relative position between the storage mechanism or the personnel and the shelves.

Consider that in most cases a person or access agency can only operate their accessible nearby shelves (typically in the range of about 2 meters). In the invention, the relative position and the absolute position are adopted to classify and analyze the inventory position change and the personnel/access mechanisms simultaneously, so that the supermarket dynamically divides areas needing analysis and calculation according to the change place anytime and anywhere, the shelf and the personnel or the access mechanisms interacting with the shelf at present can be accurately associated with each other, and the difficulty in simultaneously shopping or arranging the inventory by a large number of dynamic personnel and the dynamic access mechanisms is solved. In other words, the stock change is firstly corresponding to the personnel or the access mechanism according to the position, which has a decisive effect on the real-time property of the stock management of the supermarket. For supermarkets with thousands of stock positions, the stock change is firstly associated with the absolute position and the relative position, so that the calculation amount of image recognition is greatly reduced, and the real-time stock analysis can be completed without adding a large number of computing systems. Chaotic disorder of the inventory data is thereby largely avoided.

By the method, the increase and decrease conditions of the commodities at the stock position can be analyzed, and whether the corresponding commodities are placed back to the correct stock position on the shelf or not can be analyzed. Here, the access mechanism may be a human or a machine. For a person, the object of image recognition is the person's arm; for a machine device, the object of image recognition is a robot arm or the like; therefore, the invention can flexibly deal with the supermarket environment with the coexistence of the robot and the human.

The invention provides a stock management system and a method in a warehouse type supermarket aiming at coexistence of personnel and intelligent carrying equipment, which at least have the following advantages:

(1) the invention can not only analyze the increase and decrease conditions of the commodities at the stock position, but also analyze whether the corresponding commodities are put back to the correct stock position on the shelf or not;

(2) according to the invention, after the goods are put into the temporary storage unit, the corresponding relation between the goods entering the temporary storage unit and the change of the stock position can be confirmed, so that the statistics of the change of the stock position is more accurate, and the practicability of the system is improved;

(3) the invention can analyze the change of the stock position possibly caused by the process again when the goods are moved out of the temporary storage unit of the goods, so that the stock position can be updated more comprehensively and accurately.

Drawings

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of one logic module of the system of the present invention; and

FIG. 2 is a block schematic diagram of a preferred embodiment of the system of the present invention.

List of reference numerals

10: the image acquisition device 17: seventh image capturing device

11: the first image capturing device 18: eighth image acquisition device

12: second image capturing device 20: position acquisition device

13: the third image capturing device 21: accurate identification

14: the fourth image capturing device 22: position error marker

15: the fifth image capturing device 30: computing system

16: sixth image capturing device 40: temporary storage unit for goods

Detailed Description

The following detailed description is made with reference to the accompanying drawings.

To facilitate understanding, identical reference numerals have been used, where possible, to designate similar elements that are common to the figures.

Example 1

The invention discloses an inventory management system, and the preferable implementation modes of other embodiments can be used as a supplement of the embodiment under the condition of not causing conflict or contradiction.

The system includes an access mechanism 10 for storing and/or retrieving merchandise. And the information acquisition system 20 is used for acquiring the action information and/or the position information of the access mechanism. A computing system 30 for analyzing the motion information and/or the location information. The computing system is connected with the information acquisition system through a communication system. The information collection system 20 is capable of acquiring the motion information and/or the position information of the access mechanism 10 when the access mechanism 10 triggers the motion of storing and/or taking out the merchandise. The computing system 30 determines the state of the commodity held by the accessor mechanism 10 based on the motion information and/or the position information, identifies the position information of the accessor mechanism in response to the state of the commodity held by the accessor mechanism 10, and thereby determines the correspondence between the commodity and the change in the stock position, thereby generating stock information of the commodity. The invention can not only analyze the increase and decrease conditions of the commodities at the stock position, but also can correlate and analyze whether the corresponding commodities are placed back to the correct stock position on the shelf or the specific position change after the commodities are moved out, thereby facilitating the stock management.

For example, the motion information may be video information of the accessor mechanism 10 over a period of time (e.g., 3 seconds) when storage and/or removal of the article is triggered and/or image information of the moment when storage and/or removal of the article is triggered. The location information is the location coordinates of the accessor mechanism 10 when triggered to store and/or remove merchandise. The location coordinates may be global absolute coordinates (the origin of coordinates is located at a point of the entire warehouse, such as the location of a management system terminal, with respect to the origin of coordinates), local absolute coordinates (the origin of coordinates is a point of a warehouse unit, such as the first warehouse location of the first shelf, with respect to the origin of coordinates), or relative coordinates between two warehouse locations. Preferably, the position coordinates are three-dimensional coordinates, i.e. length, width and height are measured.

Preferably, the information collecting system 20 is capable of collecting and acquiring the first action information and/or the first position information of the access mechanism 10 when the access mechanism 10 triggers the first action of storing and/or taking out the goods, and transmitting the first action information and/or the first position information to the computing system 30 through the communication unit. The computing system 30 forms the first motion information and/or the first location information into first information for the item in a correlated form. The information collecting system 20 is capable of collecting the second motion information and/or the second position information of the access mechanism 10 when the access mechanism 10 triggers the second motion closest to the first motion to store and/or retrieve the merchandise, and transmitting the second motion information and/or the second position information to the computing system 30 through the communication unit. The computing system 30 forms the second motion information and/or the second location information into second information of the article in a correlated form. The computing system 30 will determine the status of the product held by the respective accessor mechanism based on the first information and the second information and thereby determine the correspondence between the product and the change in inventory position, thereby generating inventory information for the product. The information acquisition system 20 acquires the action information when the access mechanism 10 triggers the storage and/or the taking out of the goods, which is beneficial to acquiring the action information for analyzing the inventory information without monitoring the access mechanism in real time, so that the arrangement amount of the information acquisition system 20 is reduced, the resources are reasonably utilized, and the cost is reduced.

Preferably, the first motion information and/or the second motion information is acquired by at least one image acquisition device in the information acquisition system 20. The first location information and/or the second location information is acquired by at least one location acquisition device in the information acquisition system 20.

Preferably, the at least one image acquisition device is configured to: the monitor monitoring the merchandise obtains the first action information and/or the second action information when the access mechanism 10 is triggered to store and/or retrieve the merchandise. At least one position acquisition device is configured to: monitor for merchandise the monitor for merchandise obtains the first location information and/or the second location information when the accessor 10 detects that the accessor is triggering the storage and/or retrieval of the merchandise. For example, the monitor may be an infrared grating and a light-sensitive sensor. The access mechanism 10 is triggered to store and/or take out commodities and is monitored by the arranged infrared grating and the arranged photosensitive sensor, so that the influence on the accuracy of inventory information caused by repeated shooting and mistaken shooting is avoided.

Preferably, the first motion information includes a first image and a second image, wherein the first image is captured by the at least one image capture device prior to the access mechanism 10 entering the at least one inventory location of the shelf. The second image is taken by at least one image capture device after the access mechanism 10 is removed from the at least one inventory location of the shelf. The computing system 30 determines the state of the commodity held by the accessor mechanism based on the first image and the second image, identifies the position information of the accessor mechanism in response to the state of the commodity held by the accessor mechanism 10, and thereby determines the correspondence between the commodity and the change in the stock position, thereby generating stock information of the commodity.

Preferably, the system comprises an information modification module configured to: and modifying the motion information and/or the position information based on the displacement curve and the time information, wherein the displacement curve is acquired by at least one of the position acquisition devices in the form of a tracking access mechanism. The time information is acquired by at least one time acquisition unit in the information acquisition system when the access mechanism triggers the storage and/or retrieval of the merchandise. The displacement curve records the motion trail of the access mechanism, matches the information acquired by the time acquisition device and the image acquisition device, and can further correct the inventory information to eliminate some interference inventory information. For example, the access mechanism may be empty and perform the wrong operation to store and/or retrieve merchandise.

Preferably, the system further includes at least one image capturing device and at least one position capturing device disposed on the temporary storage unit 40 for detecting the movement of the goods entering the temporary storage unit 40 and generating third movement information and third position information. Preferably, the item identifier representing the item is added to a pick list associated with the at least one access mechanism if and only if after the confirming step. By adding the commodity identifier to the pick-up list, the pick-up list is checked in real time according to the commodities put into the temporary storage unit 40 during the process that a user visits a supermarket, and finally, the payment can be directly settled according to the pick-up list, so that the problem of long time consumption caused by the fact that the commodities are sequentially moved out of the scanning bar codes again for settlement is solved. Preferably, the cargo staging unit 40 is at least one of an accessor-specific storage frame, a shopping cart, a shopping basket, and a shopping bag, for example. The computing system 30 determines the corresponding relationship between the goods entering the temporary storage unit 40 and the change of the stock position based on the third information action and the third position information of the goods entering the temporary storage unit 40. The third motion information is obtained before the first motion information and the second motion information. The third location information is obtained before the first location information and the second location information. For example, the location information may be acquired by a location sensor.

Preferably, the system further comprises at least one image acquisition device arranged in the access passage of the access mechanism, and the image acquisition device is used for acquiring identification marks for payment and/or registration and generating original information of the commodity, and the acquisition of the original information is obtained before the action information and the position information. For example, the original information includes the variety, number, identification code, and storage location of the article. For example, the product is a fan with brand XX, number 5, identification code 000000, and is stored in the third row of the second product area in the home appliance area. This is advantageous for recording the original information, and is also advantageous for the information acquisition system 20 to count the goods with the original information, and is advantageous for updating the stock information, in addition to the maintenance of the daily goods.

Preferably, the goods registering unit 40 sets an introduction timing period in response to the state of the storage mechanism holding the goods from the initial time point of determining the absolute position based on the first image, and after the specific introduction timing period elapses, if the at least one image capturing device fails to capture the motion of the goods entering the goods registering unit 40, a prompt about the property of the goods is issued to the storage mechanism holding the goods through the goods registering unit 40, wherein the prompt may be in the form of an electronic signal, voice, image or video. When the temporary storage unit determines that the owner is a person rather than an access mechanism in the form of a transportation device, the temporary storage unit 40 can prompt the access mechanism to sell goods that are taken off the shelf but not loaded into the temporary storage unit 40 at a price of 20 yuan, which is ten months after the expiration time of the shelf life. Preferably, the temporary storage unit 40 further sets a reminding timing period (for example, 30 seconds) in response to the setting of the introduction timing period, and after the reminding timing period elapses, if the fourth image capturing device 14 fails to capture an action of entering the temporary storage unit 40, a prompt prompting that the current product is correctly loaded into the temporary storage unit 40 is sent to the access mechanism holding the product through the temporary storage unit 40, wherein the prompt may be in a graphical manner of an arrow pointing to the receiving opening.

Preferably, at least one of the image capturing devices is adapted to display the indicator 21 only if the indicator 21 is within the visual range of the access mechanism that picked up the current item when the system indicates that the current item is being placed back on the shelf in the correct position by the indicator 21 on the shelf. When the goods need to be moved, the indication mark 21 on the shelf indicates that the current goods are put back to the correct position on the shelf, which is beneficial to the correctness of the inventory information after the moving management of the goods.

Preferably, after the reminding timing period, in case that the fourth image capturing device 14 fails to capture the action of the article entering the temporary storage unit 40, the system further indicates to put the current article back to the correct position on the shelf through the indication mark 21. The indication mark 21 may be a graphic form of an arrow pointing to an area where the same type of product as the current product is located. More specifically, for example, the indicator 21 is a green fluorescent arrow and can blink at a preset frequency. When the temporary storage unit of goods judges that the holding party is a storage mechanism in the form of a carrying device rather than a person as a natural person, the temporary storage unit of goods 40 transmits the related goods introduction information to the storage mechanism in an electronic signal mode, and the storage mechanism sends a prompt to a remote user so as to finish the purchasing decision as soon as possible.

Example 2

According to a preferred embodiment, referring to fig. 2, the system may comprise: a first image acquisition device 11 for acquiring a first image and determining by the system, based on said first image, the absolute position of the at least one access mechanism within the area of the shelf and the relative position of the access mechanism with respect to the at least one shelf carrying the at least one item. Preferably, corresponding reference points and/or reference lines for identification may be provided on the ground to assist the system in determining the absolute and relative positions.

According to a preferred embodiment, the system may further comprise: a second image acquisition device 12 for detecting a second image of the hand of the at least one access mechanism, the second image being taken before the hand of the access mechanism enters the at least one inventory location of the rack. Preferably, for a shelf, it may have at least one inventory location. A shelf may be divided into multiple levels. Each level may be an inventory location. Alternatively, a floor may be divided horizontally into a plurality of zones, each of which may be an inventory location. It should be noted that the separation lines between these regions may be image-recognizable separations and/or non-image-recognizable virtual separation lines. The separating device is, for example, a partition wall and/or a reference line for spraying. The virtual dividing line that is not capable of image recognition may be that after the shelf, the second image capturing device 12 and/or the third image capturing device 13 corresponding to the shelf are fixed, the corresponding goods are placed, and then the system collects the image information of the shelf to divide the shelf, so as to obtain at least one stock location at least containing one type of goods.

According to a preferred embodiment, the system may further comprise: a third image acquisition device 13 for detecting a third image of the hand of the at least one access mechanism, said third image being taken after the hand of the access mechanism has been removed from the at least one inventory location of the shelf.

According to a preferred embodiment, the system may determine the status of the article held by the respective access mechanism based on a comparison of the second image and the third image, identify a change in at least one stock position of the shelf in a predetermined relative position around an absolute position of the access mechanism in response to the status of the article held by the access mechanism, and thereby determine a correspondence between the article and the change in the stock position. And then, the relative position and the absolute position are adopted to carry out classification analysis on the inventory position change and the personnel/access mechanisms, and the shelf and the personnel or access mechanisms which are currently interacted with the shelf are accurately related to each other, so that the area needing to be analyzed and calculated can be dynamically divided according to the change of the commodities and the inventory position at any time and any place. Because the 'inventory change' is associated with the 'absolute position' and the 'relative position' in advance, the operation amount of image recognition is greatly reduced, and real-time inventory analysis can be completed without adding a large number of computing systems.

For example, there are a plurality of shelves around the absolute position, but the actual changed stock position cannot be accurately determined by the absolute position, while the relative position may relate to the distance between the two, and only when the corresponding access mechanism is at a distance less than or equal to the preset distance from one shelf, it is possible that the access mechanism and the shelf at the relative position have a product transfer relationship. When the access mechanism is close to the corresponding stock location for storing the product and the access mechanism returns the product to the corresponding stock location, the change of the stock location only includes the increase of the quantity, but not the increase of the product. In the case where the access mechanism is far from the corresponding stock position where the article is stored, the access mechanism may not return the article to the corresponding stock position of the article due to its own operation error. Thus, in the case where the goods are placed back on the shelves and not on their corresponding inventory locations, then the change in at least one inventory location of a shelf in the predetermined relative position may include: the inventory location increases the number of items and the number of items stored. Preferably, the state of holding the goods may include the kind and/or number of the goods. Preferably, the identity of the items removed from and/or placed in the inventory locations of the shelves may be identified based on data received from various input devices prior to determining the correspondence between the items and the change in inventory locations. For example, a sequence of images of the hand of the respective access mechanism before the hand enters the storage position through the plane and also a sequence of images of the hand after the hand leaves the storage position may be acquired by the image acquisition device. Based on the comparison of the images, it may be determined whether the respective access mechanism removed or placed an object from or in the inventory location. For example, based on the analysis of the images, it may be determined that the respective access mechanism did not hold the object when the hand entered the inventory location, but did hold the object when the hand moved out of the inventory location (the respective access mechanism removed the object from the inventory location). Likewise, image analysis may be used to identify whether the respective access mechanism holds an object on their hand before the hand enters the inventory location but does not hold the object when the hand is removed from the inventory location (the respective access mechanism places the object in the inventory location). That is, the second image and the third image used for comparison according to the present invention may not only include a single image, but also may be a series of combined comparisons of the second image and the third image.

Preferably, the management system of the present invention further discloses a fourth image capturing device 14 disposed on the temporary storage unit 40 for detecting the movement of the goods entering the temporary storage unit 40, wherein the corresponding relationship between the goods entering the temporary storage unit 40 and the change of the stock position is confirmed in response to the movement of the goods entering the temporary storage unit 40. Preferably, if and only after the confirming step, an item identifier representative of the item is added to a pick list, the pick list being associated with at least one access mechanism. By adding the commodity identifier to the pick-up list, the pick-up list is checked in real time according to the commodities put into the temporary storage unit 40 during the process that a user visits a supermarket, and finally, the payment can be directly settled according to the pick-up list, so that the problem of long time consumption caused by the fact that the commodities are sequentially moved out of the scanning bar codes again for settlement is solved. Preferably, the cargo staging unit 40 is at least one of an accessor-specific storage frame, a shopping cart, a shopping basket, and a shopping bag, for example.

Preferably, the fourth image capturing device 14 may be further configured to: a fourth image and a fifth image of the hand are captured in response to the action of the hand of the accessor mechanism entering the product escrow unit 40, wherein the fourth image is captured before the hand of the accessor mechanism enters the product escrow unit 40, the fifth image is captured after the hand of the accessor mechanism is removed from the product escrow unit 40, wherein the state where the corresponding accessor mechanism has removed the product is determined based on the comparison of the fourth image and the fifth image, the change in at least one stock position of the shelf at a predetermined relative position around the absolute position of the accessor mechanism is recognized in response to the state where the accessor mechanism has held the product, and the correspondence between the removal of the product and the change in the stock position is thereby determined. Here, the return of a product from the product buffer unit to the stock position is determined by both the removal of the product and the change of the stock position. The changed stock position can thus be first confirmed on the basis of the absolute and relative position determined by the first image, while the returned goods are analytically determined on the basis of the second, third, fourth and fifth images. The stock location can be updated accordingly or a stock clearing procedure can be initiated, for example, to invoke manual intervention to clear non-shelf-conforming items or to feed the wrong items to the recycling channel in an automatic feed manner. For example, the goods which do not conform to the goods on the shelves or the wrong goods are returned to the arrangement or put into the recycling passage by installing a movable mechanical arm on the ceiling or an automatic cleaning vehicle with the mechanical arm. Preferably, after determining the returned item based on the second, third, fourth and fifth images, the item identifier representing the item is removed from the pick-up list, the pick-up list being associated with the at least one access mechanism. Preferably, the fourth image is taken by the hand of the accessor mechanism before the hand enters the product escrow unit 40 without holding a product. The fifth image is taken after the hand of the accessor mechanism removes the product from the product escrow unit 40.

According to a preferred embodiment, the fourth image capturing device 14 may be further configured to: in response to the access mechanism arriving at the settlement area, the system collects the space occupied by the goods in the goods temporary storage unit 40, and provides bags with matching size for the access mechanism according to the providing equipment of the space indication settlement area. By the mode, bags with proper sizes can be provided for the access mechanism, excessive time waste caused by judging the sizes of the required bags in a settlement area is avoided, and settlement efficiency is improved.

According to a preferred embodiment, the invention also discloses a fifth image acquisition device 15, which is arranged in the accessor access passage and is used for acquiring the identification mark for payment and/or registration. Preferably, the identification mark may be at least one of RFID, two-dimensional code, fingerprint, human body contour, human face contour, iris image and typical thermal characteristic image. For example, after an accessor mechanism detects the presence of a unit of merchandise 40, the system associates the unit of merchandise 40 with the accessor mechanism. At the time of settlement of the fee, in the case where the accessor is an unregistered user, the owner of the accessor may be alerted to register or to complete payment directly in a remote manner at the time of settlement or before. When registering an owner of an access agency or a user as a natural person, the owner or the user may be required to select an identification as a certificate for later settlement of fees, and the user may be required to enter corresponding information according to the identification selected by the user. Assuming that the user selects to pay through the iris image, the graphic two-dimensional code or the RFID, the accessor mechanism directs the graphic two-dimensional code (posted in the accessor mechanism) or the corresponding eye to the acquisition area of the fifth image acquisition device 15 during the fee settlement, and completes the fee settlement by using the bound payment account number after the verification of the system; or to have the accessor's RFID or its graphical two-dimensional code entry system used to settle.

According to a preferred embodiment, the fifth image acquisition means 15 are activated only in response to an event in which the fourth image acquisition means 14 provide an image. Preferably, the fifth image capturing device 15 adjusts its optical capturing direction and focal length in response to the event that the fourth image capturing device 14 provides an image and in accordance with the position of the cargo staging unit 40 equipped with the fourth image capturing device 14 relative to the entryway.

According to a preferred embodiment, the first image is captured by the first image capturing device 11 after the second image capturing device 12 captures a second image of the hand of the access mechanism, wherein the second image is captured before the hand of the access mechanism enters at least one inventory location of the shelf. Therefore, the unmanned supermarket can simultaneously deal with scenes of multi-person shop entering and purchasing, and only when the access mechanism with the first image stores and withdraws or puts back the commodities again, the system can start a series of responsible image analysis operations. In other words, the tracking of the accessor mechanism by the system begins when it attempts to reach the product on the shelves.

Preferably, the cargo hold unit 40 sets an introduction timing period (e.g., 5 seconds) in response to the state of the accessor holding a product from the initial time point of determining the absolute position based on the first image, and after the specific timing period elapses, if the fourth image capturing device 14 fails to capture the motion of the product entering the cargo hold unit 40, a prompt about the property of the product is issued to the accessor holding the product through the cargo hold unit 40, wherein the prompt may be in the form of an electronic signal, voice, image or video. When the temporary storage unit determines that the owner is a person rather than an access mechanism in the form of a transportation device, the temporary storage unit 40 can prompt the access mechanism to sell goods that are taken off the shelf but not loaded into the temporary storage unit 40 at a price of 20 yuan, which is ten months after the expiration time of the shelf life. Preferably, the temporary storage unit 40 further sets a reminding timing period (for example, 30 seconds) in response to the setting of the introduction timing period, and after the reminding timing period elapses, if the fourth image capturing device 14 fails to capture an action of entering the temporary storage unit 40, a prompt prompting that the current product is correctly loaded into the temporary storage unit 40 is sent to the access mechanism holding the product through the temporary storage unit 40, wherein the prompt may be in a graphical manner of an arrow pointing to the receiving opening. Preferably, after the reminding timing period, if the fourth image capturing device 14 fails to capture the action of the article entering the temporary storage unit 40, the system further indicates the current article to be placed back to the correct position on the shelf through the indication mark 21. The indication mark 21 may be a graphic form of an arrow pointing to an area where the same type of product as the current product is located. More specifically, for example, the indicator 21 is a green fluorescent arrow and can blink at a preset frequency. When the temporary storage unit of goods judges that the holding party is a storage mechanism in the form of a carrying device rather than a person as a natural person, the temporary storage unit of goods 40 transmits the related goods introduction information to the storage mechanism in an electronic signal mode, and the storage mechanism sends a prompt to a remote user so as to finish the purchasing decision as soon as possible.

Preferably, the system further includes a sixth image capturing device 16, the sixth image capturing device 16 is activated after the reminding timing period elapses and in case that the fourth image capturing device 14 fails to capture the action of entering the goods temporary storage unit 40, and is used for capturing a sixth image of the shelf and a seventh image of the shelf associated with the goods, wherein the sixth image is captured before the hand holding the goods at the access mechanism enters the shelf, the seventh image is captured after the hand holding the goods at the access mechanism is removed from the shelf, and the correspondence relationship between the goods and the change of the stock position is determined twice based on the comparison between the sixth image and the seventh image. The sixth image capturing device 16 is only started after the reminding timing period has elapsed, and in case that the fourth image capturing device 14 fails to capture the action of the commodity entering the temporary storage unit 40, the environmental information required for the commodity to be put back on the shelf is more and the analysis difficulty is greater than that for the commodity to be taken out from the shelf. Preferably, when the first determination is performed through the second and third images, the second determination is performed through the sixth and seventh images, and the obtained correspondence between the product and the change in the stock position is more accurate and reliable. Preferably, when the results of the two judgments are inconsistent, manual checking or field checking by the intelligent robot can be arranged. Preferably, the sixth image and the seventh image are mainly different from the second image and the third image in that the object of the sixth image and the seventh image is a shelf. And the object of the second image and the third image is a hand. The sixth image capture device 16 is provided in order to recognize that the corresponding storage and retrieval mechanism can also track the goods when the goods are taken out of the shelf and then placed on another shelf. For example, after an access mechanism takes a corresponding item at one inventory location, another item of the same type is seen at another inventory location, which is more attractive, and then the user wishes to remove the corresponding item and replace the other item, but at this time, the access mechanism is probably not near the corresponding shelf where the corresponding item is taken, which results in low willingness to return the item to the corresponding inventory location, and the corresponding item may be directly placed on the shelf at the current location, which results in the corresponding item possibly being placed at a non-corresponding inventory location on the non-corresponding shelf. Thus, preferably, the system audibly plays an advisory reminder to an accessor mechanism holding an article when the accessor mechanism does not return the article to the correct position on the shelf in accordance with the indicator 21. For example, a respectful customer who does not return a certain product to its correct position, to maintain a good shopping environment and avoid misleading others, asks to return a certain product to the correct position according to the indication mark 21, and thanks for your cooperation. Preferably, after the advisory reminder is played and the corresponding item has not yet been placed back in the correct position, a positional error marker 22 is displayed at the wrong position of the item, wherein the positional error marker 22 may take the form of at least one of an exclamation point, a cross, or text. Preferably, after an article that has not been put back to the correct position is removed from the shelf on which the wrong-position mark 22 is displayed, the correct position and/or the correct selling price of the article is indicated by voice and/or graphically. For example, by flashing the indicator 21 and by speech: for respecting customers, you are good, you have the goods in their hands placed in the wrong position, the correct position is the position of the blinking indication mark 21, please refer to the corresponding price tag in the correct position for purchase, thank you! Through this mode, can let the staff find the commodity of misplacing fast to and put it back to the correct position fast, improve work efficiency. Meanwhile, wrong shopping guide caused by the fact that the price tags do not correspond to the actual commodities to the shoppers can be avoided, and user experience is improved. Moreover, by this means, since the correct position of the article can be quickly known, in the case where the user does not have a long distance to move to the correct position by walking, even if the user chooses not to purchase the article after seeing the actual price tag and/or the correct selling price, some users can assist in returning the article to their correct position, reducing the workload of the staff. Preferably, the system may further comprise an indication display, which may be used to play the correct selling price for the accessor mechanism picking up the misplaced goods through the indication display when the correct position of the misplaced goods is not on its misplaced shelf.

According to a preferred embodiment, the position error marking 22 can distinguish the degree of deviation of the error in a hierarchical display by means of at least two different visual states. The degree of deviation is, for example, at least one of a distance deviation, a price deviation, and a utility deviation. Thereby intuitively prompting the staff or the shopper. For example, when the position error marks 22 can distinguish the distance deviation by a gradation display manner, the degree of deviation of the distance deviation is distinguished in three steps by a first color, a second color different from the first color, and a third color different from the first and second colors. The position error marker 22 is configured to a first color when a required distance for placing the commodity from the current wrong position back to the correct position thereof is equal to or less than a first distance threshold, the position error marker 22 is configured to a second color when the required distance for placing the commodity from the current wrong position back to the correct position thereof is greater than the first distance threshold and equal to or less than a second distance threshold, and the position error marker 22 is configured to a third color when the required distance for placing the commodity from the current wrong position back to the correct position thereof is greater than a third distance threshold. Preferably, the first, second and third colors may be blue, yellow and red, respectively. The first trip threshold is for example 5 meters. The second path threshold is, for example, 20 meters. The third path threshold is, for example, 40 meters. Preferably, the deviation in efficacy is, for example, a deviation of weight gain versus weight loss, bowel movement versus diarrhea. It should be noted that the invention can also be implemented in other ways or in a combination of ways to achieve different visual states, not just in different colors. For example, the present invention may also be implemented by a combination of numbers and colors. Specifically, here, also taking the distance deviation as an example, when the required distance for placing the product from the current wrong position back to its correct position is equal to or less than the first distance threshold, the position error mark 22 is configured in the first color and displays the first number, when the required distance for placing the product from the current wrong position back to its correct position is equal to or more than the first distance threshold and equal to or less than the second distance threshold, the position error mark 22 is configured in the second color and displays the second number, and when the required distance for placing the product from the current wrong position back to its correct position is greater than the third distance threshold, the position error mark 22 is configured in the third color and displays the third number. The first number is for example 1, the second number is for example 2 and the third number is for example 3.

According to a preferred embodiment, the system further comprises a seventh image capturing device 17, the seventh image capturing device 17 is used for capturing an eighth image before the system indicates the correct position for placing the current product on the shelf by means of the indicating mark 21 on the shelf, the system analyzes the visual condition of the indicating mark 21 corresponding to the correct position according to the eighth image, and the indicating mark 21 is only displayed if the indicating mark 21 is within the visual range of the access mechanism for picking up the current product. Preferably, in the case where the indication mark 21 is not located within the visible range of the access mechanism that picks up the current article, or in the case where there is a fixed obstacle obstructing the view between the access mechanism that picks up the current article and the corresponding indication mark 21, the correct position and/or the correct selling price of the article is indicated by voice. By the mode, no misguidance is caused to others under the condition that the correct position of the commodity is not in the visible range. Preferably, the system also analyzes the identity of the accessor mechanism picking up the current article from the eighth image, and displays the indicator 21 only if the indicator 21 is within the viewing range of the accessor mechanism picking up the current article and the identity of the accessor mechanism is a clean-up accessor mechanism. For example, the identity of the analyst may be at least one of identified by human face, wearing a particular suit, and carrying an electronic tag.

According to a preferred embodiment, before displaying the indicator 21, the system also analyzes a first number of indicators 21 to be displayed simultaneously in the visual range of the access mechanism picking up the current article according to the eighth image, and when the first number of displays is equal to or greater than two, associates the corresponding position error markers 22 with the indicator 21 in groups, and sets the position error markers 22 and the indicator 21 in the same group in a visually associated manner and in a visually distinguished manner between different groups. For example, the position error mark 22 in the same group emits at least partially the same color mark as the indication mark 21, and the color mark is different between different groups. For another example, the position error mark 22 and the indication mark 21 in the same group show the same numerical mark, and the numerical marks are different between the groups. As another example, the position error mark 22 and the indication mark 21 in the same group show the same graphic mark, and the graphic marks are different between the groups. The graphical markers are, for example, circles, triangles or quadrilaterals.

According to a preferred embodiment, the system may further comprise: and an eighth image capturing device 18 for capturing a ninth image of at least a partial area of the shelf where the position error mark 22 is provided, and analyzing, by the system, a matching condition between the display of the actual position error mark 22 and the setting of the position error mark 22 in the system based on the ninth image, wherein when the display and the setting of the position error mark 22 do not match, the shelf where the unmatched position error mark 22 is located and a maintenance person is notified. In this way, the shelf with the position error mark 22 failed can be quickly identified and positioned, and the maintenance can be quickly carried out, so that the conditions of label missing or label error are reduced.

Preferably, the second image acquisition means 12, upon detection of a second image of the hand of an access mechanism, also analyze both: the system grants the accessor access to an article in at least one storage position of a shelf in a predetermined relative position located in the vicinity of the accessor absolute position when the analysis result indicates that the accessor does not hold an article or holds only one article, based on the "condition that the accessor holds an article" determined based on the comparison of the second image with the third image "and" the action that the fourth image capturing device 14 of the article storage unit 40 carried by the accessor enters the article storage unit 40 ".

According to a preferred embodiment, any type of camera and other alternative imaging devices may be used for each of the image capturing devices mentioned in the present invention. For example, one or more of the cameras may be an RGB camera. One or more of the cameras may be a depth sensing camera.

Preferably, in order to acquire a desired image, each image acquisition device may be one or more, and when a certain image acquisition device is plural, it may be dispersedly disposed in plural positions. For example, some image capture devices may be located overhead, such as on a ceiling, to capture images of corresponding locations within the accessorial mechanism and/or premises. As another example, some image capture devices may be located on or within an inventory location. For example, may be located on an exterior portion of the inventory location and positioned to capture images of the locations around the access mechanism and/or the inventory location. For another example, some image capture devices may be located in the area of the price tag facing the opposite shelf to capture image information on the opposite shelf.

According to a preferred embodiment, the system of the present invention further includes a computing system 30. Computing system 30 may be local, remote, or any combination thereof. Likewise, the computing system 30 may be configured to communicate with the input components, the output components, and/or directly with at least one of the first, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth image capture devices and the cargo staging unit 40 over a network. It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that communication may be by wired and/or wireless means. Preferably, the computing system 30 is, for example, one or more servers. The server may include a processor and a memory. The system may include or provide image processing (e.g., for user identification, expression identification, and/or merchandise identification), inventory tracking, and/or location determination.

Example 3

This embodiment is a further improvement of embodiment 1, and repeated contents are not described again. Preferred implementations of other embodiments may be used in addition to the present embodiment without causing conflicts or inconsistencies.

The invention also discloses an inventory management method which can be realized by the system and other alternatives. For example, the method of the present invention may be implemented using various components of the system.

According to a preferred embodiment, the method may comprise: using at least one first image acquisition device 11 for acquiring a first image and determining, by the management system, based on said first image, the absolute position of at least one access mechanism within the area of the rack and the relative position of the access mechanism with respect to at least one rack carrying at least one item; using at least one second image acquisition device 12 for detecting a second image of the hand of at least one access mechanism, said second image being taken before the hand of the access mechanism enters at least one inventory position of the rack; using at least one third image acquisition device 13 for detecting a third image of the hand of at least one access mechanism, said third image being taken after the hand of the access mechanism has been removed from the at least one inventory location of the rack; wherein the state of the article held by the corresponding access mechanism is determined based on the comparison of the second image and the third image, the change in at least one stock position of the shelf at a predetermined relative position around the absolute position of the access mechanism is identified in response to the state of the article held by the access mechanism, and the correspondence between the article and the change in the stock position is thereby determined.

According to a preferred embodiment, the method may further comprise: at least one fourth image capturing device 14 is used, which is arranged at the product buffer unit 40 and is used for detecting the movement of the product entering the product buffer unit 40, wherein, in response to the movement of the product entering the product buffer unit 40, the corresponding relationship between the product entering the product buffer unit 40 and the change of the stock position is confirmed.

Example 4

This embodiment is a further improvement on embodiments 1, 2, and 3 or a combination thereof, and repeated details are not repeated. Preferred implementations of other embodiments may be used in addition to the present embodiment without causing conflicts or inconsistencies.

According to a preferred embodiment, a shielding door is installed in front of the bar code scanner, the shielding door takes various personal payable two-dimensional codes used by personnel as switches, only one person enters the shielding door at one time, and the shielding door is closed immediately after the codes are scanned. The person moves the shopping cart at a proper speed, the bar code scanner automatically scans the commodities, the touch display screen displays the information of the commodities to be paid and the total price of the current purchased commodities, and after the person confirms that no mistake is found, the system automatically settles the account on the previously scanned two-dimensional code account. After confirming that the settlement is correct, the shielding door behind the bar code scanner is opened, and meanwhile, the shielding door in front of the bar code scanner starts to scan the two-dimensional code of the next person. By the mode, the problem that people steal commodities or settle accounts wrongly is avoided, and the loss of the supermarket can be reduced.

Example 5

This embodiment is a further improvement on embodiments 1, 2, 3, and 4 or a combination thereof, and repeated details are not repeated. Preferred implementations of other embodiments may be used in addition to the present embodiment without causing conflicts or inconsistencies.

According to a preferred embodiment, at least one weight acquisition device is provided on the shelf for acquiring a difference in weight between the hand of the respective person before entering the at least one inventory position of the shelf and the hand after being removed from the at least one inventory position of the shelf, and after the system determines the status of the respective person holding the item based on the comparison of the second image and the third image, the status of the item is checked by the determined weight of the item and the difference in weight recorded in the system.

In addition, the weight acquisition device can be directly arranged on the goods shelf, and the state of the goods can be preliminarily judged through the weight difference acquired by the acquisition device. It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that in such a case, the weight of the plurality of items on a shelf should be differentiated for the purpose of identifying the status of the items.

Example 6

This embodiment may be a further improvement and/or a supplement to embodiments 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 or a combination thereof, and repeated details are not repeated. The preferred embodiments of the present invention are described in whole and/or in part in the context of other embodiments, which can supplement the present embodiment, without resulting in conflict or inconsistency.

The embodiment also discloses an unmanned supermarket system, and the technical characteristics of the system are the same as those of an inventory management system or part of the inventory management system, so that the corresponding technical effect is achieved.

The embodiment also discloses an inventory management system of the unmanned supermarket, and the technical characteristics of the system are completely or partially the same as those of the inventory management system so as to achieve the corresponding technical effect.

The embodiment also discloses an inventory management method of the unmanned supermarket, and the technical characteristics of the method are completely or partially the same as that of the inventory management method so as to achieve the corresponding technical effect.

Although the present invention has been described in detail, modifications within the spirit and scope of the invention will be apparent to those skilled in the art. Such modifications are also considered to be part of this disclosure. In view of the foregoing discussion, relevant knowledge in the art, and references or information discussed above in connection with the background, all of which are incorporated herein by reference, further description is deemed unnecessary. Further, it should be understood that aspects of the invention and portions of the various embodiments may be combined or interchanged both in whole or in part. Furthermore, those of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that the foregoing description and accompanying drawings are by way of example only, and are not intended to limit the present invention.

The foregoing discussion of the disclosure has been presented for purposes of illustration and description. It is not intended to be limited to the form disclosed herein. In the foregoing detailed description, for example, various features of the disclosure are grouped together in one or more embodiments, configurations, or aspects for the purpose of streamlining the disclosure. Features of the embodiments, configurations or aspects may be combined in alternative embodiments, configurations or aspects to those discussed above. This method of disclosure is not to be interpreted as reflecting an intention that the disclosure requires more features than are expressly recited in each claim. Rather, as the following claims reflect, inventive aspects lie in less than all features of a single foregoing disclosed embodiment, configuration, or aspect. Thus the following claims are hereby incorporated into the detailed description, with each claim standing on its own as a separate embodiment of the disclosure.

Claims

1. An intelligent inventory management system based on changes in inventory location, comprising at least:

an access mechanism (10) for storing and/or retrieving merchandise;

an information acquisition system (20) for acquiring first action information and/or first position information of the access mechanism (10);

a computing system (30) for analyzing the motion information and/or the location information; the computing system (30) is connected with the information acquisition system (20) through a communication system;

the system is characterized in that the information acquisition system (20) can acquire the action information and/or the position information of the access mechanism (10) when the access mechanism (10) triggers the action of storing and/or taking out commodities;

the computing system (30) determines a state in which the access mechanism (10) holds a commodity based on the action information, identifies position information of the access mechanism (10) in response to the state in which the access mechanism (10) holds the commodity, and thereby determines a correspondence between the commodity and the change in the stock position, thereby generating stock information of the commodity;

the system further comprises: a first image acquisition device (11) for acquiring a first image and determining, by the system and on the basis of said first image, the absolute position of at least one access mechanism within the area of the shelf and the relative position of the access mechanism with respect to at least one shelf carrying at least one product;

a second image acquisition device (12) for detecting a second image of the hand of at least one access mechanism, said second image being taken before the hand of the access mechanism enters at least one inventory position of the rack; and

a third image acquisition device (13) for detecting a third image of the hand of at least one access mechanism, said third image being taken after the hand of the access mechanism has been removed from the at least one inventory location of the shelf;

the intelligent inventory management system determines a status of the respective accessor mechanism holding an article based on a comparison of the second image and the third image, identifies a change in at least one inventory position of a shelf in a predetermined relative position around an absolute position of the accessor mechanism in response to the status of the accessor mechanism holding the article, and thereby determines a correspondence between the article and the change in inventory position;

and then, the relative position and the absolute position are adopted to carry out classification analysis on the inventory position change and the personnel/access mechanisms, and the shelf and the personnel or access mechanisms which are currently interacted with the shelf are accurately related to each other, so that the area needing to be analyzed and calculated can be dynamically divided according to the change of the commodities and the inventory position at any time and any place.

2. The system according to claim 1, characterized in that the information acquisition system (20) is capable of acquiring first action information and/or first position information of the access mechanism (10) and transmitting it by a communication unit to the computing system (30) when the access mechanism (10) triggers a first action of depositing and/or removing the goods; the computing system (30) forms the first action information and/or the first position information into first information of the commodity in a correlated manner;

the information acquisition system (20) can acquire second action information and/or second position information of the access mechanism (10) when the access mechanism (10) triggers a second action, closest to the first action, of storing and/or taking out the commodity, and the second action information and/or the second position information are transmitted to the computing system (30) through the communication unit; the computing system (30) forms the second action information and/or the second position information into second information of the commodity in a correlated manner;

the computing system (30) will determine the status of the item held by the respective access mechanism (10) based on the first and second information and thereby determine the correspondence between the item and the change in the inventory location, thereby generating inventory information for the item.

3. The system according to claim 2, characterized in that the first action information and/or the second action information is acquired by at least one image acquisition device in the information acquisition system (20);

the first and/or second position information is acquired by at least one position acquisition device in the information acquisition system (20).

4. The system of claim 3, wherein the at least one image acquisition device is configured to: the monitor for monitoring the commodities acquires the first action information and/or the second action information when finding that the access mechanism (10) triggers to store and/or take out the commodities;

the at least one position acquisition device is configured to: the monitor for monitoring the goods acquires the first position information and/or the second position information when the monitor for monitoring the goods finds that the access mechanism (10) triggers the storage and/or the taking out of the goods.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein the system comprises an information revision module configured to: modifying the motion information and/or the position information based on a displacement curve and time information, wherein,

the displacement curve is acquired by at least one of the position acquisition devices in the form of tracking the access mechanism (10);

the time information is acquired by at least one time acquisition device in the information acquisition system (20) when the access mechanism (10) triggers the storage and/or removal of the goods.

6. The system as claimed in claim 5, further comprising at least one image acquisition device and at least one position acquisition device provided to the cargo staging unit (40) for detecting the movement of the item into the cargo staging unit (40) and generating third movement information and third position information,

the computing system (30) confirms the corresponding relation between the commodities entering the temporary goods storage unit (40) and the change of the stock position based on the third information action and the third position information of the commodities entering the temporary goods storage unit (40);

the third action information is obtained before the first action information and the second action information; the third location information is obtained before the first and second location information.

7. System according to claim 6, characterized in that it further comprises at least one image acquisition device arranged in the access passage of the accessor mechanism (10) for acquiring identification marks for payment and/or registration, generating original information of the goods,

the acquisition of the raw information is obtained before the motion information and the position information.

8. The system as claimed in claim 7, wherein, starting from an initial time point at which an absolute position is determined based on the first image, the goods registering unit (40) sets an introduction timing period in response to a state that the depositing and taking mechanism (10) holds the goods, and after the introduction timing period, if at least one of the image capturing devices fails to capture an action of the goods entering the goods registering unit (40), a prompt about a property of the goods is issued to the depositing and taking mechanism (10) holding the goods through the goods registering unit (40), wherein the prompt may be in the form of an electronic signal, voice, image or video.

9. The system according to claim 8, characterized in that at least one of the image acquisition means is adapted to display an indicator mark (21) on the shelf only if the system indicates the return of the current product to the correct position on the shelf by means of the indicator mark (21), the indicator mark (21) being located within the visual range of the access mechanism (10) taking up the current product.