Disclosure of Invention
The present invention is directed to a cargo picking apparatus and method, an unmanned delivery vehicle, and a fixed express cabinet that, at least to some extent, overcome one or more of the problems due to the limitations and disadvantages of the related art.
Other features and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the following detailed description, or may be learned by the practice of the invention.
According to one aspect of the present invention, a cargo retrieval device is provided. The goods throwing device comprises: the system comprises a main body, a cargo box frame, a box door, a plurality of cargo boxes and a control system. Wherein, the box door is positioned on the surface of the main box body; the cargo box frame is positioned in the main box body; the containers are positioned in the cargo box frame and are directly or indirectly communicated with the box door through the cargo box frame, and the box door and the containers are arranged on the main box body according to a matrix structure; the control system is used to control movement of one or more containers in the carrier to transfer a given container to a door position and to open the door.
In an exemplary embodiment of the invention, the control system includes: information processing unit, drive unit, electromechanical unit. The information processing unit is used for receiving the throwing information and generating a control signal after the throwing information is verified; the driving unit is connected with the information processing unit and is used for receiving the control signal and generating a driving signal according to the control signal; the electromechanical unit is connected with the driving unit and is used for receiving the driving signal and driving the container to move according to the driving signal.
In an exemplary embodiment of the invention, the door is located in the center of the matrix structure.
In an exemplary embodiment of the invention, the electromechanical unit includes: a plurality of conveyor belts, a motor and a plurality of electromagnetic switches. The conveyor belts are positioned right below the container and distributed according to the rows and columns of the matrix structure; the motor is used for driving the conveyor belt to move; the electromagnetic switches are located on the conveyor belt and are opposite to the containers one by one, and the electromagnetic switches comprise lock bolts matched with grooves at the bottom of the containers, and the lock bolts are used for connecting the conveyor belt with the containers.
In an exemplary embodiment of the present invention, two grooves are respectively disposed at the bottom of the container in the row-column direction of the matrix structure, and the distance between the two grooves in the same direction is greater than the width of the conveyor belt.
In an exemplary embodiment of the invention, the control system further includes:
and the box door control unit is used for automatically closing the box door after the box door is opened for a preset time.
In an exemplary embodiment of the present invention, the information includes: one or more of voice signal, two-dimension code information and telephone number information.
According to one aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method of picking up goods, using the goods picking up device of any one of claims 1 to 7, the method comprising:
receiving the access information and generating a control signal;
generating a driving signal according to the control signal;
driving the container to move according to the driving signal;
by moving one or more of the containers, a given container is moved to the box door position and the box door is opened.
According to one aspect of the present invention, there is provided an unmanned delivery vehicle comprising the cargo picking apparatus of any one of claims 1 to 7.
According to one aspect of the present invention, there is provided a stationary express delivery cabinet comprising a goods picking-up device according to any one of claims 1-7.
The invention provides a goods picking device and method, an unmanned delivery vehicle and a fixed express cabinet. In one aspect, the cargo retrieval device may quickly and easily access the contents of a given container through a door. On the other hand, the goods picking device can quickly and conveniently deliver goods into a designated container through one box door.
It is to be understood that both the foregoing general description and the following detailed description are exemplary and explanatory only and are not restrictive of the invention as claimed.
Detailed Description
Exemplary embodiments will now be described more fully with reference to the accompanying drawings. However, the exemplary embodiments may be embodied in many forms and should not be construed as limited to the examples set forth herein; rather, these embodiments are provided so that this disclosure will be thorough and complete, and will fully convey the concept of the exemplary embodiments to those skilled in the art. The same reference numerals in the drawings denote the same or similar structures, and thus detailed descriptions thereof will be omitted.
Although relative terms such as "upper" and "lower" are used in this specification to describe the relative relationship of one component of an icon to another component, these terms are used in this specification for convenience only, such as in terms of the orientation of the examples described in the figures. It will be appreciated that if the device of the icon is flipped upside down, the recited "up" component will become the "down" component. Other relative terms such as "high," "low," "top," "bottom," "left," "right," and the like are also intended to have similar meanings. When a structure is "on" another structure, it may mean that the structure is integrally formed with the other structure, or that the structure is "directly" disposed on the other structure, or that the structure is "indirectly" disposed on the other structure through another structure.
The terms "a," "an," "the" are used to indicate the presence of one or more elements/components/etc.; the terms "comprising" and "having" are intended to be inclusive and mean that there may be additional elements/components/etc. in addition to the listed elements/components/etc.
The present exemplary embodiment first proposes a cargo retrieval apparatus including: the system comprises a main body, a cargo box frame, a box door, a plurality of cargo boxes and a control system. Wherein, the box door is positioned on the surface of the main box body; the cargo box frame is positioned in the main box body; the containers are positioned in the cargo box frame and are directly or indirectly communicated with the box door through the cargo box frame, and the box door and the containers are arranged on the main box body according to a matrix structure; the control system is used to control movement of one or more containers in the carrier to transfer a given container to a door position and to open the door.
The invention provides goods picking equipment, an unmanned delivery vehicle and a fixed express cabinet. In one aspect, the cargo retrieval device may quickly and easily access the contents of a given container through a door. On the other hand, the goods picking device can quickly and conveniently deliver goods into a designated container through one box door.
As shown in fig. 2, a schematic structural diagram of the control system in the present exemplary embodiment is shown. The control system may include: an information processing unit 1, a driving unit 2, and an electromechanical unit 3. The information processing unit 1 is used for receiving the information and generating a control signal after the information is verified; the driving unit 2 is connected with the information processing unit and is used for receiving the control signal and generating a driving signal according to the control signal; the electromechanical unit 3 is connected with the driving unit 2 and is used for receiving the driving signal and driving the container to move according to the driving signal.
In the present exemplary embodiment, the information processing unit 1 prestores the number information and the corresponding position information of each packing box. When the information processing unit 1 receives the access information, the information processing unit 1 verifies the access information and judges whether the access information is legal or not. If the information is legal, the number information of the appointed container is obtained according to the cast information. The information processing unit 1 obtains an optimal path for moving the designated packing box to the position of the box door based on the pre-stored number information and corresponding position information of each packing box, and generates a control signal based on the optimal path. The driving unit 2 receives the control signal generated by the information processing unit 1 and generates a driving signal according to the control signal. The electromechanical unit 3 receives the drive signal generated by the drive unit 2 and drives the cargo box to move along the optimal path described above. Meanwhile, the driving unit 2 feeds back movement information of the cargo box to the information processing unit 1 so that the information processing unit 1 updates the position information of the cargo box. Wherein, the information may include: one or more of voice signal, two-dimension code information and telephone number information.
In the present exemplary embodiment, the distribution form of the cargo box exists in a plurality of forms. For example, the containers may be distributed in three dimensions or in two dimensions. The present exemplary embodiment will be described taking the case where the containers are located on the same horizontal plane as an example. The box door and the containers are arranged on the main box body in a matrix structure.
As shown in fig. 3, a design diagram of the cargo picking device in the present exemplary embodiment is shown. In the present exemplary embodiment, eight cargo boxes A-H and one box door 4 may be included. Eight containers and one box door are distributed on the matrix nodes in a three by three matrix configuration. In this exemplary embodiment, in order to avoid that the path from one container to the box door is too long, the box door position may be arranged in the center of the matrix structure. So that the path lengths from containers to the doors in different orientations in the matrix structure are similar. It should be noted that the door position may be set at a different position according to the requirement, for example, the door is set at the edge of the matrix structure for convenient picking, which should be within the protection scope of the present invention.
The present exemplary embodiment will explain a scheme of moving cargo boxes taking cargo boxes a and D as an example. When the goods in the container D are required to be thrown, the container D is only required to be moved rightwards, so that the container D is located at the position of the box door, and the goods in the container D can be thrown by opening the box door. When the goods in the container A need to be thrown, the container D can be moved rightwards, then the container A is moved downwards, then the container B is moved leftwards, then the container D is moved upwards, finally the container A is moved rightwards to the position of the container door, and the goods in the container A can be thrown by opening the container door.
It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that there may be more containers in the form of a box door and a plurality of said containers arranged in a matrix configuration on said main body. To reduce the length of the path of travel of the containers, the containers may not be provided at the nodes of the matrix structure. Such variations are to be understood as falling within the scope of the present invention.
In the present exemplary embodiment, the electromechanical unit is used to drive the container to move in a predetermined path. As shown in fig. 4, a schematic diagram of the structure of the cargo picking device in the present exemplary embodiment is shown. One option for the electromechanical unit may be: the electromechanical unit includes: a plurality of conveyor belts 5, a motor 6 and a plurality of electromagnetic switches 7. The conveyor belts are positioned right below the container and distributed according to the rows and columns of the matrix structure; the motor is used for driving the conveyor belt to move; the electromagnetic switches are located on the conveyor belt and are opposite to the containers one by one, and the electromagnetic switches comprise lock bolts matched with grooves at the bottom of the containers, and the lock bolts are used for connecting the conveyor belt with the containers.
In this exemplary embodiment, an electromagnetic switch is fixed on the conveyor belt, and the electromagnetic switch can control the retraction and the bouncing of the lock tongue. When the electromagnetic switch is turned on, the lock tongue is sprung, and the sprung lock tongue can be clamped with the groove at the bottom of the container, so that the conveyor belt drives the container to move. When the electromagnetic switch is closed, the lock tongue is retracted, and the transmission belt moves by itself.
The plurality of conveyor belts 5 are located directly below the container and are distributed in rows and columns of the matrix structure, and there is necessarily a crossing portion 8 between the conveyor belts. The two conveyor belts at the crossing position are distributed up and down, and when the lock tongue on the lower conveyor belt is positioned at the crossing position, the lock tongue can be blocked by the upper conveyor belt and cannot be continuously transmitted. Therefore, two grooves can be respectively arranged at the bottom of the container in the row-column direction of the matrix structure, and the distance between the two grooves in the same direction is larger than the width of the conveying belt. When the tongue with the container clamped thereto moves to the crossing position, the other recess in the direction of movement of the container is already on the other side of the conveyor that blocks the tongue. At the moment, the electromagnetic switch is closed to enable the locking tongue to be retracted, the lower layer conveying belt continues to convey, when the locking tongue is located right below the other groove of the container, the electromagnetic switch is turned on, and the locking tongue is sprung and clamped with the other groove to drive the container to continue to move. The groove at the bottom of the container has a certain length in the direction perpendicular to the moving direction of the container, so that the lock tongue is clamped with the groove.
In other exemplary embodiments, the mechatronic unit may be implemented in a variety of ways, for example, the mechatronic unit may magnetically drive the cargo box, and such variations are understood to be within the scope of the present invention.
When the delivery person and the user pick up goods, the box door is not closed because of forgetting or inconvenient, so that the container is exposed outside. In this exemplary embodiment, the control system may further include: and the box door control unit is used for automatically closing the box door after the box door is opened for a preset time. The preset time can be set according to the time of the normal pickup of the delivery person or the user, and is slightly longer than the time of the normal pickup of the delivery person or the user.
The present exemplary embodiment also provides a method for picking up goods, and the application of the above-mentioned device for picking up goods, as shown in fig. 5, is a flowchart of an exemplary embodiment of the method for picking up goods according to the present invention. The method comprises the following steps:
step S1: receiving the access information and generating a control signal;
step S2: generating a driving signal according to the control signal;
step S3: driving the container to move according to the driving signal;
by moving one or more of the containers, a given container is moved to the box door position and the box door is opened.
The technical features and working principles of the goods picking method are specifically the same as those of the goods picking device, and the above descriptions have been made in detail, and are not repeated here.
The present exemplary embodiment also provides an unmanned delivery vehicle including the above-described cargo picking apparatus. The structural principle of the goods picking device is described in detail in the above, and will not be described here again.
The embodiment also provides a fixed express cabinet, which comprises the goods picking-up device. The structural principle of the goods picking device is described in detail in the above, and will not be described here again.
Other embodiments of the invention will be apparent to those skilled in the art from consideration of the specification and practice of the invention. This application is intended to cover any variations, uses, or adaptations of the invention following, in general, the principles of the invention and including such departures from the present disclosure as come within known or customary practice within the art to which the invention pertains. It is intended that the specification and examples be considered as exemplary only, with a true scope and spirit of the invention being indicated by the following claims.
The above described features, structures or characteristics may be combined in any suitable manner in one or more embodiments, such as the possible, interchangeable features as discussed in connection with the various embodiments. In the above description, numerous specific details are provided to give a thorough understanding of embodiments of the invention. One skilled in the relevant art will recognize, however, that the invention can be practiced without one or more of the specific details, or with other methods, components, materials, and so forth. In other instances, well-known structures, materials, or operations are not shown or described in detail to avoid obscuring aspects of the invention.