CN110597208A

CN110597208A - Method for loading cargoes by intelligently driving trailer, vehicle-mounted equipment and storage medium

Info

Publication number: CN110597208A
Application number: CN201910888307.2A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 张玉新; 何文钦
Original assignee: Uisee Technologies Beijing Co Ltd
Current assignee: Uisee Technologies Beijing Co Ltd
Priority date: 2019-09-19
Filing date: 2019-09-19
Publication date: 2019-12-20
Anticipated expiration: 2039-09-19
Also published as: CN110597208B

Abstract

The embodiment of the disclosure relates to a method for loading goods by an intelligent driving trailer, vehicle-mounted equipment and a storage medium. The method comprises the following steps: receiving cargo loading request information; controlling the intelligent driving trailer to drive to the delivery position in response to the cargo loading request information; adjusting the butt joint of the conveyor belt and the delivery position; the conveyor belt is started. It can be seen that, intelligence driving trailer is owing to not set up the driver's cabin, and the conveyer belt can be followed the goods and transported to the other end from one end unhindered ground along trailer longitudinal direction, also be convenient for with the conveyer belt of other trailers in coordination transport goods. In addition, the intelligent driving trailer is convenient for butt joint of the conveying belt and the delivery position by arranging the adjustable conveying belt, so that automatic and stable loading and unloading of goods are realized.

Description

Method for loading cargoes by intelligently driving trailer, vehicle-mounted equipment and storage medium

Technical Field

The embodiment of the disclosure relates to the technical field of intelligent transportation, in particular to a method for loading cargoes by intelligently driving a trailer, vehicle-mounted equipment and a storage medium.

Background

Existing carrier vehicles (such as trucks and engineering vehicles) are designed for manned driving modes, and even an automatic driving trailer is usually designed with a cab, wherein the cab occupies a large space of the carrier vehicle, so that the space of the carrier vehicle for actually loading goods is affected, and air resistance is large, so that energy consumption is high, for example, more fuel resources or electric energy resources are consumed.

In addition, the existing automatic driving trailer usually pulls a plurality of trailers to form a queue for transporting goods, so that at least the following problems exist: 1. the goods can not be transported with other trailers; 2. the cargo needs to be loaded manually, the efficiency is low, and the action of throwing the luggage cannot be avoided; 3. the trailer bucket does not have driving power, and must run by depending on the traction of the trailer, so that the trailer bucket is not flexible enough; 4. the trailer can not turn, and the turning is difficult when the queue is long; 5. the trailer can not brake, the queue braking efficiency is poor, and potential safety hazards exist; 6. when a certain trailer in the queue reaches a transportation destination, the whole queue is required to stop running so as to be separated from the queue; 7. when the automatic driving trailer breaks down in the driving process, the transportation operation of the whole queue stops, and no better solution is provided at present.

The above description of the discovery process of the problems is only for the purpose of aiding understanding of the technical solutions of the present disclosure, and does not represent an admission that the above is prior art.

Disclosure of Invention

To solve at least one problem of the prior art, at least one embodiment of the present disclosure provides a method of loading cargo by an intelligent driving trailer, an on-board device, and a storage medium.

In a first aspect, an embodiment of the present disclosure provides a method for loading goods by an intelligent-drive trailer, which is not provided with a cab and is provided with an adjustable conveyor belt, and the conveyor belt can convey goods in cooperation with a conveyor belt of at least one intelligent-drive trailer, and the method includes:

receiving cargo loading request information;

controlling the intelligent driving trailer to drive to the delivery position in response to the cargo loading request information;

adjusting the butt joint of the conveyor belt and the delivery position;

the conveyor belt is started.

In a second aspect, an embodiment of the present disclosure further provides an on-board device, including: a processor and a memory; the processor is adapted to perform the steps of the method according to the first aspect by calling a program or instructions stored in the memory.

In a third aspect, the disclosed embodiments also propose a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium for storing a program or instructions for causing a computer to perform the steps of the method according to the first aspect.

It can be seen that in at least one embodiment of the present disclosure, since the intelligent driving trailer is not provided with a cab, the conveyor belt can convey goods from one end to the other end along the longitudinal direction of the trailer (i.e. the driving direction of the trailer) without blocking, and is also convenient for conveying goods in cooperation with the conveyor belts of other trailers. In addition, the intelligent driving trailer is convenient for butt joint of the conveying belt and the delivery position by arranging the adjustable conveying belt, so that automatic and stable loading and unloading of goods are realized.

Drawings

To more clearly illustrate the technical solutions of the embodiments of the present disclosure, the drawings used in the description of the embodiments or the prior art will be briefly described below, and it is obvious that the drawings in the following description are only some embodiments of the present disclosure, and other drawings can be obtained by those skilled in the art according to the drawings.

Fig. 1 is a schematic view of an application scenario of an intelligent driving trailer according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 2 is an overall architecture diagram of an intelligent driving trailer provided by the disclosed embodiment;

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of an intelligent driving system provided by an embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of a load control module provided by embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 5 is a block diagram of an in-vehicle device provided by an embodiment of the present disclosure;

fig. 6 is a flowchart of a method for loading cargo by an intelligent driving trailer according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 7 is a schematic diagram of a dock shipment location for a smart-driven trailer provided by an embodiment of the present disclosure;

fig. 8 is a schematic view of a trailer queue docking shipment location provided by an embodiment of the present disclosure.

Detailed Description

In order that the above objects, features and advantages of the present disclosure can be more clearly understood, the present disclosure will be described in further detail with reference to the accompanying drawings and examples. It is to be understood that the embodiments described are only a few embodiments of the present disclosure, and not all embodiments. The specific embodiments described herein are merely illustrative of the disclosure and are not intended to be limiting. All other embodiments derived by one of ordinary skill in the art from the described embodiments of the disclosure are intended to be within the scope of the disclosure.

It is noted that, in this document, relational terms such as "first" and "second," and the like, may be used solely to distinguish one entity or action from another entity or action without necessarily requiring or implying any actual such relationship or order between such entities or actions.

To at least one problem that prior art exists, this disclosed embodiment provides a scheme that intelligence driving trailer loaded goods, because intelligence driving trailer does not set up the driver's cabin, consequently can reduce the air resistance that traveles, reduces the energy consumption. In addition, because the intelligent driving trailer is not provided with a cab, the conveyor belt arranged on the intelligent driving trailer can convey goods from one end to the other end along the longitudinal direction of the trailer (namely the driving direction of the trailer) without blocking. In addition, the intelligent driving trailer is not provided with a cab, so that the conveyor belt of the vehicle and the conveyor belts of other trailers can convey goods in a coordinated mode. In addition, the intelligent driving trailer is convenient for the butt joint of the conveying belt and the delivery position by arranging the adjustable conveying belt, so that the automatic and stable loading and unloading of goods are realized, and the problem that the goods are thrown at will when the goods are loaded manually is avoided.

The scheme for loading cargoes by the intelligent driving trailer provided by the embodiment of the disclosure can be applied to various scenes. Fig. 1 is a schematic view of an application scenario of an intelligent driving trailer according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. As shown in fig. 1, the scene includes: at least one smart-driven trailer 101, a cloud server 102, and a shipment control system 103. In some embodiments, the scenario may include only at least one smart-driven trailer 101 and cloud server 102. In other embodiments, the scenario may include only at least one smart-driven trailer 101 and shipment control system 103. In some embodiments, other devices for transporting goods and other devices associated with transporting goods may also be included in the scenario, such as shelves, warehouses, and the like.

In some embodiments, at least one smart-driven trailer 101 is used to transport cargo and may interact with cloud server 102 and also interact with shipment control system 103. In some embodiments, vehicle-to-vehicle communication interaction data may be conducted between different smart-driven trailers 101. In some embodiments, cloud server 102 may also interact with shipment control system 103.

In some embodiments, the smart-driven trailer 101 is configured to sense based on the surrounding environment, thereby planning a travel path and controlling vehicle travel. In some embodiments, the smart-driven trailer 101 is configured to receive the cargo-loading request information and to control the smart-driven trailer to travel to the shipment location in response to the cargo-loading request information. In some embodiments, after the intelligent driving trailer 101 travels to the shipment position, the conveyor belt is adjusted to be in butt joint with the shipment position, and then the conveyor belt is started, so that automatic and stable loading of goods is realized.

In some embodiments, the cloud server 102 is configured to send cargo loading request information and other information related to cargo transportation to the smart-driven trailer 101. In some embodiments, the cloud server 102 is further configured to receive response information of the cargo loading request information sent by the smart-driven trailer 101 and other information related to cargo transportation. In some embodiments, the cloud server 102 is further configured to receive information related to the transportation of the cargo sent by the shipment control system 103.

In some embodiments, the cloud server 102 and the smart-driven trailer 101 communicate wirelessly via a wireless communication network (e.g., a wireless communication network including, but not limited to, a GPRS network, a Zigbee network, a Wifi network, a 3G network, a 4G network, a 5G network, etc.).

In some embodiments, the cloud server 102 is configured to orchestrate and manage the smart-driven trailer 101. In some embodiments, the cloud server 102 may be configured to interact with one or more smart-driven trailers 102, orchestrate and coordinate the scheduling of multiple smart-driven trailers 102, and the like.

In some embodiments, the cloud server 102 is a cloud server established by a vehicle service provider, providing cloud storage and cloud computing functions. In some embodiments, the cloud server 102 builds a vehicle-side profile. In some embodiments, the vehicle-side profile stores various information uploaded by the smart-drive trailer 101. In some embodiments, the cloud server 102 may synchronize the driving data generated at the vehicle end in real time.

In some embodiments, the cloud server 102 may be a server or a server group. The server group may be centralized or distributed. The distributed servers are beneficial to the distribution and optimization of tasks in a plurality of distributed servers, and the defects of resource shortage and response bottleneck of the traditional centralized server are overcome. In some embodiments, the cloud server 102 may be local or remote.

In some embodiments, shipment control system 103 is configured to broadcast cargo loading request information and other information related to the shipment of cargo. In some embodiments, the shipment control system 103 is further configured to receive response information of the cargo loading request information sent by the smart-driven trailer 101 and other information related to cargo transportation.

The scheme that intelligence driving trailer loaded goods that this disclosed embodiment provided can be applied to intelligence driving trailer. In some embodiments, a smart-driven trailer includes: the vehicle includes a chassis, a support mechanism, a sensor group, an intelligent driving system and other components which can be used to drive the vehicle and control the operation of the vehicle. Fig. 2 is an overall architecture diagram of an intelligent driving trailer 200 provided in the embodiment of the present disclosure. In some embodiments, the smart-driven trailer 200 may be implemented as the smart-driven trailer 101 of fig. 1 or as part of the smart-driven trailer 101.

As shown in fig. 2, the smart driving trailer 200 includes: chassis 201, support mechanism 202, adjustable conveyor belts (not shown in fig. 2), sensor groups (not shown in fig. 2), smart driving system (not shown in fig. 2), lifting mechanism 203 (four lifting mechanisms are shown in fig. 2), clamping devices 204 (four clamping devices are shown in fig. 2), pressure sensors 205 (four pressure sensors are shown in fig. 2), barrier 206, and other components that may be used to drive and control the operation of the vehicle.

The chassis 201 is used to complete the travel of the trailer. In some embodiments, the chassis 201 may include, but is not limited to: power transmission system, traveling system, steering system and braking system. The power transmission system is used for driving the trailer to run. In some embodiments, the drivetrain may use a wheel-side or hub electric motor, and may also use an internal combustion engine, hybrid, centralized drive motor, or the like. The steering system is used for realizing steering of the trailer. In some embodiments, the steering system can realize trailer steering by a two-side motor drive-by-wire differential speed, and can also be a traditional mechanical steering structure, an electric steering structure or a hydraulic steering structure. The driving system and the braking system can be the driving system or the braking system of a traditional fuel automobile or an electric automobile.

In some embodiments, the smart-drive trailer 200 may also include a vehicle CAN bus, not shown in fig. 2, that connects to the chassis 201. The intelligent driving system and each system of the chassis 201 perform information interaction through a vehicle CAN bus.

The support mechanism 202 is used to carry cargo. In some embodiments, the supporting mechanism 202 is a carrying plate, and the upper surface of the carrying plate is a carrying surface capable of carrying cargo.

An adjustable conveyor belt may be provided to the support mechanism 202. In some embodiments, the support mechanism 202 may also be a conveyor belt mechanism.

The sensor group is arranged in a sensor carrier 207. In some embodiments, the sensor carrier 207 is a telescoping mechanism, and the smart driving system may control the sensor carrier 207 to retract to reduce air resistance when the sensor set is not in use.

And the sensor group is used for acquiring data of the external environment of the vehicle and detecting position data of the vehicle. The sensor group includes, for example, but not limited to, at least one of a camera, a laser radar, a millimeter wave radar, a GPS (Global Positioning System), and an IMU (Inertial Measurement Unit).

In some embodiments, the sensor group is further used for collecting dynamic data of the vehicle, and the sensor group further includes, for example and without limitation, at least one of a wheel speed sensor, a speed sensor, an acceleration sensor, and a front wheel steering angle sensor.

The intelligent driving system is used for driving and controlling the intelligent driving trailer 200. In some embodiments, the smart driving system is configured to acquire data from a sensor group, wherein all sensors in the sensor group transmit data at a relatively high frequency during operation. The intelligent driving system is also used for carrying out environment perception and vehicle positioning based on the data of the sensor group, carrying out path planning and decision making based on the environment perception information and the vehicle positioning information, and generating a vehicle control instruction based on the planned path, so that the vehicle is controlled to run according to the planned path.

In some embodiments, the intelligent driving system is further configured to receive the cargo loading request information, and to control the intelligent driving trailer to drive to the shipment location in response to the cargo loading request information. In some embodiments, after the intelligent driving trailer 101 travels to the shipment position, the intelligent driving system adjusts the conveyor belt to be in butt joint with the shipment position, and then starts the conveyor belt, so that the automatic and stable loading of the goods is realized. In some embodiments, the intelligent driving system enables the conveyor belt to interface with the shipping location by adjusting the lifting mechanism 203.

In some embodiments, the smart driving system may be a software system, a hardware system, or a combination of software and hardware. For example, the smart driving system is a software system running on an operating system, and the on-board hardware system is a hardware system supporting the operating system.

The lifting mechanism 203 is used to drive the lifting and lowering of the support mechanism 202. In some embodiments, the lifting mechanism 203 is a hydraulic cylinder, and may also be a combination of a hydraulic cylinder and a mechanical structure. In some embodiments, four lifting mechanisms 203 may be disposed at the four corners of the chassis 201, respectively. In some embodiments, the support mechanism 202 can be parallel to the upper surface of the chassis when the lifting heights of the four lifting mechanisms 203 are uniform. When the four elevating mechanisms 203 are elevated at different heights, the support mechanism 202 can be tilted. The elevation heights of the four elevating mechanisms 203 can be set by the intelligent driving system. In some embodiments, the smart-driven trailer 200 may also be provided without the lifting mechanism 203. In some embodiments, the lifting mechanism 203 can only change the height of the support mechanism 202 relative to the chassis 201, and cannot change the angle of the support mechanism 202 relative to the chassis 201.

The clamping device 204 is used for clamping the goods carried by the supporting mechanism 202 after the conveyer belt conveys the goods to the supporting mechanism 202, and applying a lateral force and/or a downward force to the goods to keep the goods stable relative to the supporting mechanism 202. In some embodiments, four clamping devices 204 are disposed at four corners of the support mechanism 202. In some embodiments, the clamping device 204 may be a pneumatic, hydraulic, or electromechanical structure. In some embodiments, the gripping device 204 can be retracted below the load surface of the support mechanism 202 or disposed on both sides of the support mechanism 202 so as not to interfere with the movement of the cargo on the support mechanism 202. In some embodiments, the clamping device 204 may also use screw clamping, wedge clamping, lever clamping, or the like to achieve clamping.

The pressure sensor 205 is used to detect the pressure of the cargo against the load surface. In some embodiments, the pressure sensor 205 is embedded within a bearing surface of the support mechanism 202. In some embodiments, the pressure data obtained by the pressure sensors 205 can be used by the intelligent driving system to analyze the pressure distribution on the bearing surface, and the pressure data can be used as a basis for determining whether the center of gravity of the cargo load is reasonable.

The baffle 206 is used to prevent the goods from falling off. In some embodiments, the baffle 206 is disposed at an edge of the support mechanism 202. In some embodiments, the flap 206 is hingedly attached to the edge of the support mechanism 202 and can be flipped, either actively or passively, to transition between erect and flat positions. In some embodiments, the surface of the baffle 206 is flush with the surface of the support mechanism 202 or below the bearing surface of the support mechanism 202 when in the flat position without interfering with cargo handling.

Fig. 3 is a block diagram of an intelligent driving system 300 according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. In some embodiments, the intelligent driving system 300 may be implemented as or as part of the intelligent driving system mentioned in the related embodiment of fig. 2, for controlling the vehicle to travel.

As shown in fig. 3, the smart driving system 300 may be divided into a plurality of modules, for example, may include: sensing module 301, planning module 302, control module 303, loading control module 304, and other modules that may be used for intelligent driving.

The sensing module 301 is used for sensing and positioning the environment. In some embodiments, the sensing module 301 is used for acquired sensor data, V2X (Vehicle to X) data, high precision maps, and the like. In some embodiments, the sensing module 301 is configured to sense and locate the environment based on at least one of acquired sensor data, V2X (Vehicle to X) data, high-precision maps, and the like.

In some embodiments, the sensing module 301 is configured to generate sensing and positioning information, so as to sense an obstacle, identify a travelable area of a camera image, position a vehicle, and the like.

Environmental awareness (Environmental awareness) may be understood as a semantic classification of data with respect to the context of the scene understanding capabilities of the environment, such as the location of obstacles, the detection of road signs/markers, the detection of pedestrians/vehicles, etc. In some embodiments, the environmental sensing may be performed by fusing data of various sensors such as a camera, a laser radar, and a millimeter wave radar.

Localization (Localization) is part of the perception, and is the ability to determine the position of an intelligently driven trailer relative to the environment. The positioning can be as follows: GPS positioning, wherein the positioning accuracy of the GPS is in the order of tens of meters to centimeters, and the positioning accuracy is high; the positioning method combining the GPS and the Inertial Navigation System (Inertial Navigation System) can also be used for positioning. The positioning may also be performed by using a SLAM (Simultaneous Localization And Mapping), where the target of the SLAM is to construct a map And to perform positioning using the map, And the SLAM determines the position of the current vehicle And the position of the current observed feature by using the environmental features that have been observed.

The V2X is a key technology of the intelligent transportation system, so that the vehicles, the vehicles and the base stations can communicate with each other, a series of traffic information such as real-time road conditions, road information and pedestrian information can be obtained, the intelligent driving safety is improved, the congestion is reduced, the traffic efficiency is improved, and vehicle-mounted entertainment information is provided.

The high accuracy map is the geographical map that uses in the intelligent driving field, compares with traditional map, and the difference lies in: 1) high-precision maps comprise a large amount of driving assistance information, for example by means of an accurate three-dimensional representation of the road network: including intersection places, landmark positions, and the like; 2) high-precision maps also include a large amount of semantic information, such as reporting the meaning of different colors on traffic lights, in turn, for example, indicating the speed limit of roads, and the location where left-turn lanes begin; 3) the high-precision map can reach centimeter-level precision, and safe driving of the intelligent driving trailer is ensured.

The planning module 302 is configured to perform path planning and decision making based on the perceptual positioning information generated by the perceptual positioning module.

In some embodiments, planning module 302 is configured to perform path planning and decision-making based on the perceptual-positioning information generated by the perceptual-positioning module in combination with at least one of V2X data, high-precision maps, and the like.

In some embodiments, the planning module 302 is used to plan a path, deciding: the planning decision information is generated based on the behavior (e.g., including but not limited to following, passing, parking, detouring, etc.), vehicle heading, vehicle speed, desired acceleration of the vehicle, etc.

The control module 303 is configured to perform path tracking and trajectory tracking based on the planning decision information generated by the planning module 302.

In some embodiments, the control module 303 is configured to generate control commands for the chassis systems and issue the control commands, so that the chassis systems control the vehicle to travel according to a desired path.

In some embodiments, the control module 303 is further configured to calculate a front wheel steering angle based on a path tracking algorithm.

In some embodiments, the expected path curve in the path tracking process is independent of time parameters, and during tracking control, the intelligent driving trailer can be assumed to advance at a constant speed at the current speed, so that the driving path approaches to the expected path according to a certain cost rule; during track tracking, the expected path curve is related to time and space, and the intelligent driving trailer is required to reach a certain preset reference path point within a specified time.

Path tracking differs from trajectory tracking in that it is not subject to time constraints and only requires the desired path to be tracked within a certain error range.

The loading control module 304 is configured to receive the cargo loading request message, and then control the intelligent driving trailer to drive to the shipment location in response to the cargo loading request message. In some embodiments, after the intelligent driving trailer drives to the shipment position, the loading control module 304 adjusts the conveyor belt to be in butt joint with the shipment position, and then starts the conveyor belt, so as to realize automatic and stable loading of the goods. In some embodiments, the load control module 304 interfaces the conveyor belt with the shipping location by adjusting the lift mechanism.

In some embodiments, the functions of the loading control module 304 may be integrated into the sensing module 301, the planning module 302, or the control module 303, or may be configured as a module separate from the intelligent driving system 300, and the loading control module 304 may be a software module, a hardware module, or a module combining software and hardware. For example, the load control module 304 is a software module running on an operating system, and the in-vehicle hardware system is a hardware system supporting the operating system.

Fig. 4 is a block diagram of a loading control module 400 according to an embodiment of the disclosure. In some embodiments, the load control module 400 may be implemented as the load control module 304 of FIG. 3 or as a portion of the load control module 304.

As shown in fig. 4, the transport control module 400 may include, but is not limited to, the following units: a receiving unit 401, a control unit 402, a matching unit 403 and a joining unit 404.

The receiving unit 401 is configured to receive the cargo loading request information. In some embodiments, various information may be carried in the cargo loading request message, which facilitates the trailer to clarify cargo information and loading and unloading information, and provides a basis for subsequent response to the cargo loading request and forwarding to load and unload cargo. In some embodiments, the cargo loading request information includes, but is not limited to, at least one of: shipment location, discharge location, cargo weight, cargo size.

In some embodiments, the receiving unit 401 may receive the cargo loading request information in various ways, so as to improve the timeliness and effectiveness of cargo loading. For example: the receiving unit 401 may receive cargo loading request information sent by the cloud server; cargo loading request information broadcasted by the shipment control system can be received; and cargo loading request information sent by other intelligent driving trailers can be received. In some embodiments, the intelligent-driven trailer does not directly send the cargo loading request information, and the cargo loading request information can be forwarded to request other intelligent-driven trailers to complete cargo loading instead of the host vehicle unless the host vehicle fails.

The control unit 402 is used for controlling the intelligent driving trailer to drive to the delivery position in response to the cargo loading request information. In some embodiments, the control unit 402 may notify the sender of the request in response to the cargo loading request message, on one hand, and may plan a route based on the loading and unloading information carried in the cargo loading request message, on the other hand, control the trailer to go to the shipment location to load the cargo. In some embodiments, the control unit 402 may feed back response information after responding to the cargo loading request information to inform the sender of the request that the host vehicle will load cargo. In some embodiments, after the receiving unit 401 receives the cargo loading request information, the control unit 402 does not directly respond to the cargo loading request information, but first determines whether to respond to the cargo loading request information, and if so, responds to the cargo loading request information to control the intelligent driving trailer to drive; otherwise, the cargo loading request information is not responded. In some embodiments, when the control unit 402 determines whether to respond to the cargo loading request information, it may determine whether to respond based on the state of the host vehicle and the cargo information. For example, the control unit 402 determines whether the vehicle has a fault, whether the vehicle can bear the weight and size of the cargo, and the like, and responds to the request after determining that the vehicle can load the cargo and has no fault, thereby improving the reliability of loading and transporting the cargo.

In some embodiments, if the receiving unit 401 receives the cargo loading request message and the control unit 402 responds to the cargo loading request message while the smart-driven trailer is in a trailer queue, the control unit 402 controls the smart-driven trailer to be out of the queue and driven to the shipment location. In some embodiments, when the control unit 402 controls the intelligent driving trailer to be separated from the queue, the separation can be completed in the driving process by sending an acceleration instruction to the front vehicle and sending a deceleration instruction to the rear vehicle, and the separation from the trailer queue is not required to be stopped, so that the transportation efficiency is improved. In some embodiments, the control unit 402 controls the host vehicle to leave the trailer queue, and then the host vehicle newly applies for joining the trailer queue.

In some embodiments, when the control unit 402 controls the intelligent driving trailer to travel in response to the cargo loading request information, firstly, the shipment position is determined, and secondly, the travel path is planned based on the shipment position; and finally, controlling the intelligent driving trailer to drive to the delivery position based on the driving path.

In some embodiments, the shipment location may be understood as the location where the host vehicle needs to travel to load the cargo. To facilitate the trailer's knowledge of the shipment location, the shipment location may be carried in the cargo loading request; the shipment location may also be preset to a fixed location to which the trailer will load the cargo whenever it receives the cargo loading request message. In some embodiments, the shipping location may be understood as the location of the shipping platform. In some embodiments, the fixed location may be a location in a high-precision map.

In some embodiments, after determining that the host vehicle is the first vehicle in the trailer train and traveling to the shipment location, the control unit 402 sends a queue command to each of the intelligent-driven trailers in the trailer train to queue the trailer train. In this embodiment, a plurality of trailers can form a trailer queue, and the head vehicle of the trailer queue can control the trailer queue to be arranged in a row, so that the goods can be stably conveyed in a straight line. In some embodiments, after the control unit 402 determines that the host vehicle is the first vehicle in the trailer train, the number of intelligently driven trailers in the trailer train is determined based on the number of goods. The cargo quantity may be included in the cargo loading request information, and the control unit 402 may determine the cargo quantity from the cargo loading request information. In some embodiments, the preset loading capacity of the intelligent driving trailer for different types of cargoes can be predetermined, that is, the cargo type and the preset loading capacity have a corresponding relationship. Further, after the control unit 402 determines the number of the cargos and specifies the cargo type, the number of the intelligent driving trailers required by the trailer queue may be determined based on the corresponding relationship between the cargo type and the preset loading amount.

In some embodiments, the control unit 402 determines that the host vehicle is the first vehicle of the trailer train, and after controlling the trailer train to be aligned in a row, may determine the attitude of the conveyor belts of other trailers in the trailer train, such as the height and angle of the conveyor belts, based on the height of the shipment location; and then the control unit 402 can send the adjustment instruction to each intelligent driving trailer in the trailer queue respectively, realizes the butt joint of trailer queue and shipment position. Wherein, including height and angle in the adjustment command, and the height can be different in the adjustment command of every intelligent driving trailer, and the angle can be different.

In some embodiments, after determining that the vehicle is not the first vehicle of the trailer train, that is, after determining that the vehicle is not the first vehicle of the trailer train, the control unit 402 receives the alignment command sent by the first vehicle and adjusts the position to align with the front vehicle. Therefore, for the non-first vehicles in the trailer queue, the position of the vehicle is adjusted by receiving the arrangement instruction of the first vehicle, so that the trailer queue is arranged in a row.

In some embodiments, after determining that the vehicle is not the first vehicle in the trailer train, that is, after determining that the vehicle is not the first vehicle in the trailer train, the control unit 402 receives an adjustment instruction sent by the first vehicle, where the adjustment instruction includes a height and an angle. It can be seen that the adjustment instruction of the first vehicle can be received for the non-first vehicle in the trailer queue, so that the adjustment unit 403 adjusts the height and the angle of the conveyor belt based on the height and the angle in the adjustment instruction, so as to adjust the posture of the conveyor belt, and enable the trailer queue to be in butt joint with the shipment position.

In some embodiments, the control unit 402 transmits, broadcasts, or both transmits and broadcasts the first scheduling request if the maximum docking height of the conveyor belt is smaller than the height of the shipment position in order to smoothly load the cargo after the adjustment unit 403 adjusts the attitude of the conveyor belt. The first dispatch request is for requesting other free trailers to dock to the shipment location. In some embodiments, the cloud server dispatches the idle trailer after receiving the first dispatch request. In some embodiments, trailers that are idle around the host vehicle may respond to the first dispatch request. In some embodiments, the control unit 402 may also directly dispatch the idle trailer after determining that the maximum docking height of the vehicle conveyor belt is smaller than the height of the shipment location without sending the first dispatch request.

In some embodiments, the control unit 402 determines that the host vehicle is malfunctioning, and transmits, broadcasts, or both transmits and broadcasts the second scheduling request for reliable transport of the cargo. The second dispatch request is for requesting other free trailers to dock the host vehicle. In some embodiments, the cloud server dispatches the idle trailer after receiving the second dispatch request. In some embodiments, after receiving the second scheduling request, the cloud server locates the location of the failed vehicle, searches for free trailers around the failed vehicle, and schedules the free trailers. In some embodiments, trailers that are idle around the host vehicle may, in response to the second dispatch request, travel to the location of the failed vehicle and dock with the failed vehicle to receive cargo. In some embodiments, a variety of information may be carried in the second scheduling request, including, but not limited to, at least one of: the position, failure information, load capacity, destination of the vehicle.

In some embodiments, the control unit 402 controls the deployment of the barrier to prevent cargo from sliding off the side of the trailer after the adjustment unit 403 adjusts the conveyor belt to dock with the shipping location.

The adjustment unit 403 is used to adjust the conveyor belt to interface with the shipping location. In some embodiments, considering that the shipping location may have a certain height, the adjusting unit 403 adjusts the height, angle, or both of the conveyor belt based on the height of the shipping location, so that one end of the conveyor belt can be docked with the shipping location for smooth loading of the goods.

In some embodiments, the height of the shipment location may be determined in a variety of ways, for example, the height may be determined by context awareness for a smart drive trailer; the height of the shipment location may also be a preset height. In some embodiments, the preset height may be a height in a high-precision map. In some embodiments, the shipping locations may be pre-numbered, and the numbers for different shipping locations may be the same or different, e.g., the numbers may be the same for different shipping locations for the same type of goods and the numbers may be different for shipping locations for different types of goods. For different numbers (i.e. the shipment position numbers), the preset heights are different, that is, the preset heights corresponding to the different shipment position numbers are different.

The starting unit 404 is used for starting the conveyor belt to realize automatic and smooth loading of goods. In some embodiments, the starting unit 404 is used for starting the conveyor belt after the adjusting unit 403 adjusts the conveyor belt to be docked with the shipment location.

Fig. 7 is a schematic view of a docking shipment location of an intelligent driving trailer according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. In fig. 7, 201 is a chassis, 203 is a lifting mechanism, 207 is a sensor carrier, and 700 is a conveyor belt, as shown in fig. 7, after the intelligent driving trailer reaches the delivery position, the lifting mechanism 203 lifts the conveyor belt 700 to the height of the delivery position, the goods 701 are delivered from the delivery platform, and after the conveyor belt 700 is started, the goods 701 can be smoothly conveyed by the conveyor belt 700.

Fig. 8 is a schematic diagram of a docking and discharging position of a trailer queue according to an embodiment of the present disclosure, and it can be seen that after the cargo 701 is discharged from the discharging platform, the cargo 701 can be smoothly transported on a transport path formed by the conveyor belts of the trailer queue. Reference numerals have been omitted for the sake of simplicity of the drawings.

In some embodiments, the division of each unit in the loading control module 400 is only one logical function division, and there may be another division manner in actual implementation, for example, the receiving unit 401, the control unit 402, the adjusting unit 403, and the starting unit 404 may be implemented as one unit; the receiving unit 401, the control unit 402, the adjusting unit 403 or the starting unit 404 may also be divided into a plurality of sub-units. It will be understood that the various units or sub-units may be implemented in electronic hardware, or a combination of computer software and electronic hardware. Whether such functionality is implemented as hardware or software depends upon the particular application and design constraints imposed on the implementation. Skilled artisans may implement the described functionality in varying ways for each particular application.

Fig. 5 is a schematic structural diagram of an in-vehicle device provided in an embodiment of the present disclosure. The vehicle-mounted equipment can support the operation of the intelligent driving system.

As shown in fig. 5, the vehicle-mounted apparatus includes: at least one processor 501, at least one memory 502, and at least one communication interface 503. The various components in the in-vehicle device are coupled together by a bus system 504. A communication interface 503 for information transmission with an external device. It is understood that the bus system 504 is used to enable communications among the components. The bus system 504 includes a power bus, a control bus, and a status signal bus in addition to a data bus. For clarity of illustration, the various buses are labeled as bus system 504 in fig. 5.

It will be appreciated that the memory 502 in this embodiment can be either volatile memory or nonvolatile memory, or can include both volatile and nonvolatile memory.

In some embodiments, memory 502 stores elements, executable units or data structures, or a subset thereof, or an expanded set thereof as follows: an operating system and an application program.

The operating system includes various system programs, such as a framework layer, a core library layer, a driver layer, and the like, and is used for implementing various basic services and processing hardware-based tasks. The application programs include various application programs. The program for implementing the method for loading the goods by the intelligent driving trailer provided by the embodiment of the disclosure can be contained in the application program.

In the embodiment of the present disclosure, the processor 501 is configured to execute the steps of the method for loading cargoes by intelligently driving the trailer according to the embodiment of the present disclosure by calling the program or the instruction stored in the memory 502, specifically, the program or the instruction stored in the application program.

The method for loading goods by the intelligent driving trailer provided by the embodiment of the disclosure can be applied to the processor 501, or implemented by the processor 501. The processor 501 may be an integrated circuit chip having signal processing capabilities. In implementation, the steps of the above method may be performed by integrated logic circuits of hardware or instructions in the form of software in the processor 501. The processor 501 may be a general-purpose processor, a Digital Signal Processor (DSP), an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), an off-the-shelf Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) or other Programmable logic device, discrete Gate or transistor logic device, or discrete hardware components. A general purpose processor may be a microprocessor or the processor may be any conventional processor or the like.

The steps of the method for loading cargoes by an intelligent driving trailer provided by the embodiment of the disclosure can be directly implemented by a hardware decoding processor, or implemented by a combination of hardware and software units in the decoding processor. The software elements may be located in ram, flash, rom, prom, or eprom, registers, among other storage media that are well known in the art. The storage medium is located in the memory 502, and the processor 501 reads the information in the memory 502 and performs the steps of the method in combination with its hardware.

Fig. 6 is a flowchart of a method for loading goods by an intelligent driving trailer according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. The intelligent driving trailer is not provided with a cab, the execution subject of the method is the vehicle-mounted equipment of the intelligent driving trailer, and in some embodiments, the execution subject of the method is an intelligent driving system supported by the vehicle-mounted equipment.

As shown in fig. 6, the method for loading cargo by the intelligent driving trailer may include the following steps 601 to 604:

601. cargo loading request information is received. In some embodiments, various information may be carried in the cargo loading request message, which facilitates the trailer to clarify cargo information and loading and unloading information, and provides a basis for subsequent response to the cargo loading request and forwarding to load and unload cargo. In some embodiments, the cargo loading request information includes, but is not limited to, at least one of: shipment location, discharge location, cargo weight, cargo size.

In some embodiments, the cargo loading request information can be received in a plurality of ways, so that the timeliness and effectiveness of cargo loading are improved. For example: cargo loading request information sent by a cloud server can be received; cargo loading request information broadcasted by the shipment control system can be received; and cargo loading request information sent by other intelligent driving trailers can be received. In some embodiments, the intelligent-driven trailer does not directly send the cargo loading request information, and the cargo loading request information can be forwarded to request other intelligent-driven trailers to complete cargo loading instead of the host vehicle unless the host vehicle fails.

602. And controlling the intelligent driving trailer to drive to the delivery position in response to the cargo loading request information. In some embodiments, the cargo loading request message may inform the sender of the request that the host vehicle can load the cargo, and may control the trailer to go to the shipment location to load the cargo based on the planning path of the loading and unloading information carried in the cargo loading request message. In some embodiments, after responding to the cargo loading request message, a response message is fed back to inform the sender of the request that the vehicle will load the cargo. In some embodiments, after receiving the cargo loading request information, the intelligent driving trailer does not directly respond to the cargo loading request information, but judges whether to respond to the cargo loading request information or not, and if so, responds to the cargo loading request information to control the intelligent driving trailer to drive; otherwise, the cargo loading request information is not responded. In some embodiments, when determining whether to respond to the cargo loading request information, it may be determined whether to respond based on the state of the host vehicle and the cargo information. For example, whether the vehicle has a fault or not and whether the vehicle can bear the weight and the size of the goods or not are judged, and after the vehicle can be loaded and has no fault, the request is responded, so that the reliability of loading and transporting the goods is improved.

In some embodiments, the intelligent driving trailer is controlled to be out of the queue and driven to the delivery position if the intelligent driving trailer receives the cargo loading request information when the intelligent driving trailer is in a trailer queue and responds to the cargo loading request information. In some embodiments, when the intelligent driving trailer is controlled to be separated from the queue, the intelligent driving trailer can be separated in the driving process by sending an acceleration instruction to the front vehicle and sending a deceleration instruction to the rear vehicle, and the intelligent driving trailer is separated from the queue without stopping, so that the transportation efficiency is improved. In some embodiments, after the vehicle is controlled to leave the trailer queue, the rear vehicle applies for joining the trailer queue again.

In some embodiments, when controlling the intelligent driving trailer to drive in response to the cargo loading request information, firstly determining the shipment position and secondly planning the driving path based on the shipment position; and finally, controlling the intelligent driving trailer to drive to the delivery position based on the driving path.

In some embodiments, after determining that the host vehicle is the first vehicle in the trailer train and traveling to the shipment location, a queue command is sent to each of the intelligently driven trailers in the trailer train to queue the trailer train. In this embodiment, a plurality of trailers can form a trailer queue, and the head vehicle of the trailer queue can control the trailer queue to be arranged in a row, so that the goods can be stably conveyed in a straight line. In some embodiments, after determining that the host vehicle is the first vehicle of the trailer train, the number of intelligently driven trailers in the trailer train is determined based on the quantity of cargo. The cargo quantity may be included in the cargo loading request information, and thus the cargo quantity may be determined from the cargo loading request information. In some embodiments, the preset loading capacity of the intelligent driving trailer for different types of cargoes can be predetermined, that is, the cargo type and the preset loading capacity have a corresponding relationship. And then after the number of the cargos is determined and the types of the cargos are determined, the number of the intelligent driving trailers required by the trailer queue can be determined based on the corresponding relation between the types of the cargos and the preset loading capacity.

In some embodiments, after determining that the host vehicle is the first vehicle of the trailer train and controlling the trailer train to be aligned in a row, the attitude of the conveyor belts of other trailers in the trailer train, such as the height and angle of the conveyor belts, may be determined based on the height of the shipment location; and then can drive the trailer to each intelligence in the trailer queue and send the regulation instruction respectively, realize the butt joint of trailer queue and shipment position. Wherein, including height and angle in the adjustment command, and the height can be different in the adjustment command of every intelligent driving trailer, and the angle can be different.

In some embodiments, after determining the head vehicle of the non-towed vehicle queue of the vehicle, the position is adjusted to align with the front vehicle after receiving the alignment command sent by the head vehicle. Therefore, for the non-first vehicles in the trailer queue, the position of the vehicle is adjusted by receiving the arrangement instruction of the first vehicle, so that the trailer queue is arranged in a row.

In some embodiments, after determining a head vehicle of the non-towing vehicle queue of the vehicle, an adjustment instruction sent by the head vehicle is received, where the adjustment instruction includes a height and an angle. Therefore, the non-first vehicle in the trailer queue can receive the adjusting instruction of the first vehicle, so that the height and the angle of the conveyor belt are adjusted based on the height and the angle in the adjusting instruction, the posture of the conveyor belt is adjusted, and the trailer queue is in butt joint with the delivery position.

In some embodiments, after adjusting the pose of the conveyor belt, in order to smoothly load the cargo, the first scheduling request is transmitted, broadcasted, or both transmitted and broadcasted if the maximum docking height of the conveyor belt is less than the height of the shipment location. The first dispatch request is for requesting other free trailers to dock to the shipment location. In some embodiments, the cloud server dispatches the idle trailer after receiving the first dispatch request. In some embodiments, trailers that are idle around the host vehicle may respond to the first dispatch request. In some embodiments, the cloud server may also directly schedule the idle trailer after determining that the maximum docking height of the vehicle conveyor is smaller than the height of the delivery position without sending the first scheduling request.

In some embodiments, a failure of the host vehicle is determined, and a second scheduling request is transmitted, broadcast, or both transmitted and broadcast for reliable transport of cargo. The second dispatch request is for requesting other free trailers to dock the host vehicle. In some embodiments, the cloud server dispatches the idle trailer after receiving the second dispatch request. In some embodiments, after receiving the second scheduling request, the cloud server locates the location of the failed vehicle, searches for free trailers around the failed vehicle, and schedules the free trailers. In some embodiments, trailers that are idle around the host vehicle may, in response to the second dispatch request, travel to the location of the failed vehicle and dock with the failed vehicle to receive cargo. In some embodiments, a variety of information may be carried in the second scheduling request, including, but not limited to, at least one of: the position, failure information, load capacity, destination of the vehicle.

In some embodiments, after the adjustment conveyor is docked to the delivery location, the deployment of the control flaps prevents cargo from sliding off the sides of the trailer.

603. And adjusting the butt joint of the conveyor belt and the delivery position. In some embodiments, the height, angle, or both of the conveyor belt are adjusted based on the height of the shipping location, allowing for a shipping location that may have a height such that one end of the conveyor belt may interface with the shipping location for smooth loading of the cargo.

604. The conveyer belt is started to realize automatic and stable loading of goods. In some embodiments, the conveyor belt is activated after the conveyor belt is adjusted to interface with the shipping location.

It should be noted that, for the sake of simplicity, the foregoing method embodiments are all described as a series of action combinations, but those skilled in the art will understand that the embodiments of the present disclosure are not limited by the described action sequences, because some steps may be performed in other sequences or simultaneously according to the embodiments of the present disclosure (for example, "send acceleration command to front vehicle" and "send deceleration command to rear vehicle" may be performed simultaneously, or "send acceleration command to front vehicle" and then "send deceleration command to rear vehicle" may be performed at the same time). In addition, those skilled in the art can appreciate that the embodiments described in the specification all belong to alternative embodiments.

Embodiments of the present disclosure also provide a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing a program or instructions, where the program or instructions cause a computer to perform steps of various embodiments of a method for loading cargo in an intelligent driving trailer, and in order to avoid repeated descriptions, the steps are not repeated herein.

It should be noted that, in this document, the terms "comprises," "comprising," or any other variation thereof, are intended to cover a non-exclusive inclusion, such that a process, method, article, or apparatus that comprises a list of elements does not include only those elements but may include other elements not expressly listed or inherent to such process, method, article, or apparatus. Without further limitation, an element defined by the phrase "comprising an … …" does not exclude the presence of other like elements in a process, method, article, or apparatus that comprises the element.

Those skilled in the art will appreciate that while some embodiments described herein include some features included in other embodiments, rather than others, combinations of features of different embodiments are meant to be within the scope of the disclosure and form different embodiments.

Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the description of each embodiment has a respective emphasis, and reference may be made to the related description of other embodiments for those parts of an embodiment that are not described in detail.

Although the embodiments of the present disclosure have been described in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, those skilled in the art may make various modifications and variations without departing from the spirit and scope of the present disclosure, and such modifications and variations fall within the scope defined by the appended claims.

Claims

1. A method of loading cargo on an intelligent-drive trailer, wherein the intelligent-drive trailer is not provided with a cab and is provided with an adjustable conveyor belt that can cooperate with the conveyor belt of at least one intelligent-drive trailer to convey cargo, the method comprising:

receiving cargo loading request information;

controlling the intelligent driving trailer to drive to a delivery position in response to the cargo loading request information;

adjusting the conveyor belt to be in butt joint with the delivery position;

the conveyor belt is started.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the cargo loading request information comprises at least one of: shipment location, discharge location, cargo weight, cargo size.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving the cargo loading request information comprises:

receiving cargo loading request information sent by a cloud server, or receiving cargo loading request information broadcasted by a shipment control system, or receiving cargo loading request information sent by an intelligent driving trailer.

4. The method of any of claims 1 to 3, wherein controlling the smart-driven trailer to travel to a shipment location in response to the cargo-loading request message comprises:

determining a shipment position;

planning a driving path based on the shipment position;

and controlling the intelligent driving trailer to drive to the shipment position based on the driving path.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the determining the shipment location comprises:

and extracting the shipment position carried in the cargo loading request, or determining that the cargo position is a preset fixed position.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein adjusting the conveyor belt to interface with the shipment location comprises:

adjusting a height and/or angle of the conveyor belt based on the height of the shipment location.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the height of the shipping location is a height obtained based on environmental perception, or a preset height and the preset heights corresponding to different shipping location numbers are different.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein upon determining that the intelligent-drive trailer is the first vehicle of a trailer train and traveling to a shipping location, sending a queuing command to each intelligent-drive trailer in the trailer train to queue the trailer train; and the first vehicle determines the number of intelligently driven trailers in the trailer queue based on the quantity of the goods.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

after the trailer queue is arranged in a row, determining the height and the angle of a conveyor belt of each intelligent driving trailer in the trailer queue based on the height of the shipment position;

adjusting the conveyor belt to dock with the shipment location, including:

and sending an adjusting instruction to each intelligent driving trailer in the trailer queue, wherein the adjusting instruction comprises height and angle.

10. The method of claim 1,

after the intelligent driving trailer is determined to be a non-first vehicle of the trailer queue, the position is adjusted after an arrangement instruction sent by the first vehicle is received, so that the intelligent driving trailer and a front vehicle are arranged in a line;

receiving an adjusting instruction sent by a first vehicle, wherein the adjusting instruction comprises a height and an angle;

and adjusting the height and the angle of the conveyor belt based on the height and the angle in the adjusting instruction.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein after adjusting the conveyor belt to interface with the shipping location, the method further comprises:

and after determining that the maximum butt joint height of the conveyor belt is less than the height of the delivery position, sending and/or broadcasting a first scheduling request.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

and after the intelligent driving trailer is determined to be in fault, sending and/or broadcasting a second scheduling request.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein foldable flaps are further provided on both sides of the smart-drive trailer; after the conveyor belt is adjusted to be in butt joint with the delivery position, the method further comprises the following steps:

and controlling the baffle to be unfolded.

14. An in-vehicle apparatus, characterized by comprising: a processor and a memory;

the processor is adapted to perform the steps of the method of any one of claims 1 to 13 by calling a program or instructions stored in the memory.

15. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing a program or instructions for causing a computer to perform the steps of the method according to any one of claims 1 to 13.