CN110803444B

CN110803444B - Stock tallying system and method

Info

Publication number: CN110803444B
Application number: CN201911199367.XA
Authority: CN
Inventors: 刘凯
Original assignee: Beijing Jizhijia Technology Co Ltd
Current assignee: Beijing Jizhijia Technology Co Ltd
Priority date: 2019-11-29
Filing date: 2019-11-29
Publication date: 2022-01-14
Anticipated expiration: 2039-11-29
Also published as: CN110803444A

Abstract

The embodiment of the invention discloses an inventory tally system and an inventory tally method. The system comprises: the control server is configured to determine an inventory container containing the target item and to serve as an off-shelf inventory container; determining a conveying device for conveying the lower rack inventory container, taking the conveying device as a lower rack conveying device, and sending a conveying instruction to the lower rack conveying device; the lower rack carrying equipment is configured to respond to a carrying instruction and carry the lower rack inventory container to the goods handling cache container; the control server is further configured to determine and serve as an on-shelf inventory container an inventory container that is to contain the target item; if the lower inventory container and the upper inventory container are different inventory containers, the tally cache container is configured to receive the target item taken out from the lower inventory container and temporarily cache the target item for realizing the shelving of the target item into the upper inventory container. By adopting the scheme, the tally efficiency of the inventory items can be improved, and the waste of tally resources of the inventory items can be reduced.

Description

Stock tallying system and method

Technical Field

The embodiment of the invention relates to the technical field of warehousing, in particular to a warehousing and tallying system and a warehousing and tallying method.

Background

With the rapid development of economy, warehousing technology has been applied to various industries in life. Because inventory items are not fixedly stored for various reasons, it becomes important how to efficiently inventory the inventory items.

At present, when inventory arrangement is carried out, workers are generally required to shuttle back and forth among a plurality of inventory positions in a warehouse and carry out manual inventory arrangement operation, so that huge waste is brought to manpower resources and equipment resources, and the inventory arrangement efficiency is seriously influenced.

Disclosure of Invention

The embodiment of the invention provides an inventory tallying system and method, which are used for improving the tallying efficiency of inventory items and avoiding the waste of tallying resources of the inventory items.

In a first aspect, an embodiment of the present invention provides an inventory tally system, including: the system comprises a control server, an inventory container, a handling device and a tally cache container; the inventory container is located in an inventory storage area; wherein,

the control server is configured to determine an inventory container containing a target item and to serve as an off-shelf inventory container; determining a carrying device for carrying the lower rack inventory container, taking the carrying device as the lower rack carrying device, and sending a carrying instruction to the lower rack carrying device; the target articles are inventory articles needing to be sorted and put off the shelves firstly and then put on the shelves;

the lower rack carrying equipment is configured to respond to the lower rack carrying instruction and carry the lower rack inventory container to the tally cache container;

the control server is further configured to determine and serve as an on-shelf inventory container an inventory container that is to contain the target item;

if the lower inventory container and the upper inventory container are different inventory containers, the tally cache container is configured to receive the target item taken out from the lower inventory container and temporarily cache the target item for realizing the shelving of the target item into the upper inventory container.

In a second aspect, an embodiment of the present invention further provides an inventory tally system, where the system includes: the system comprises a control server, inventory containers, carrying equipment and a tallying station; the inventory container is located in an inventory storage area, and the inventory container comprises a plurality of inventory storage positions; wherein,

the control server is configured to determine an inventory container containing the target item and to serve as an off-shelf inventory container; determining a conveying device for conveying the lower rack inventory container, taking the conveying device as a lower rack conveying device, and sending a conveying instruction to the lower rack conveying device; the target object is an inventory object which needs to be sorted and put down and then put on the shelf;

the lower rack carrying equipment is configured to respond to the carrying instruction and carry the lower rack inventory container to a goods handling station;

if the lower inventory container and the upper inventory container are the same inventory container, the upper inventory container is configured to receive and accommodate the target item taken out from the second inventory storage position of the same inventory container at the tally station through the first inventory storage position of the same inventory container.

In a third aspect, an embodiment of the present invention further provides an inventory tally method, where the method includes:

a control server which determines an inventory container containing a target item and takes the inventory container as a stock container for shelving; determining a conveying device for conveying the lower rack inventory container, taking the conveying device as a lower rack conveying device, and sending a conveying instruction to the lower rack conveying device; the target object is an inventory object which needs to be sorted and put down and then put on the shelf; the inventory receptacles are located in an inventory storage area;

the lower rack carrying equipment responds to the carrying instruction and carries the lower rack inventory container to a goods handling cache container;

a control server for determining an inventory container to accommodate the target item and using the inventory container as an overhead inventory container;

and if the lower inventory container and the upper inventory container are different inventory containers, the tallying cache container receives the target object taken out from the lower inventory container and temporarily caches the target object, so that the target object is placed in the upper inventory container.

In a fourth aspect, an embodiment of the present invention further provides an inventory tally method, where the method includes:

a control server which determines an inventory container containing a target item and takes the inventory container as a stock container for shelving; determining a conveying device for conveying the lower rack inventory container, taking the conveying device as a lower rack conveying device, and sending a conveying instruction to the lower rack conveying device; the target object is an inventory object which needs to be sorted and put down and then put on the shelf; the inventory container is located in an inventory storage area, and the inventory container comprises a plurality of inventory storage positions;

the lower rack carrying equipment responds to the carrying instruction and carries the lower rack inventory container to a goods handling station;

the control server also determines an inventory container which is to contain the target item and serves as an overhead inventory container;

and if the lower inventory container and the upper inventory container are the same inventory container, the upper inventory container receives and accommodates the target object taken out from the second inventory storage position of the same inventory container at the goods arranging station through the first inventory storage position of the same inventory container.

The embodiment of the invention provides an inventory tallying scheme, which comprises the following steps: the control server can determine the stock container containing the target article and serve as the off-shelf stock container; determining a conveying device for conveying the lower rack inventory container, taking the conveying device as a lower rack conveying device, and sending a conveying instruction to the lower rack conveying device; the lower rack carrying equipment can respond to a carrying instruction to carry the lower rack inventory container to a goods buffer storage container; meanwhile, the control server can also determine an inventory container which is to contain the target object and serve as an overhead inventory container; if the lower inventory container and the upper inventory container are different inventory containers, the tally cache container can receive the target item taken out from the lower inventory container and temporarily cache the target item for realizing the racking of the target item into the upper inventory container.

In the scheme of the embodiment of the invention, the lower rack inventory container which contains the goods needing to be sorted and put down and the upper rack inventory container which is to contain the goods are selected from a plurality of inventory containers according to the control of the control server, then the off-shelf conveying equipment is controlled to convey the off-shelf inventory container to a tally cache container, the tally cache container is used as a transfer station, the tally cache container is firstly used for temporarily storing the target object, then the target articles in the tally cache container are put on the shelf stock container, thus solving the problem that the articles in the lower shelf stock container need to be taken out in the process of stock keeping, and then the next tallying operation can be continued after the stock is put into the stock container on the shelf, so that the problems of low tallying efficiency and huge waste of manpower resources and equipment resources are caused, the tallying efficiency of stock articles is improved, and the waste of the tallying resources of the stock articles is reduced.

The above summary of the present invention is merely an overview of the technical solutions of the present invention, and the present invention can be implemented in accordance with the content of the description in order to make the technical means of the present invention more clearly understood, and the above and other objects, features, and advantages of the present invention will be more clearly understood.

Drawings

Other features, objects and advantages of the invention will become more apparent upon reading of the following detailed description of non-limiting embodiments thereof, made with reference to the accompanying drawings. The drawings are only for purposes of illustrating the preferred embodiments and are not to be construed as limiting the invention. Also, like reference numerals are used to refer to like parts throughout the drawings. In the drawings:

fig. 1 is a block diagram of an inventory tallying system provided in an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 2 is a block diagram of a carrying apparatus provided in the embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of another inventory tallying system provided in an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 4 is a schematic view of a tally workstation according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 5 is a schematic view of another tally station provided in an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 6 is a block diagram of a further inventory tallying system provided in an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 7 is a flow chart of an inventory tallying method provided in an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 8 is a flowchart of another inventory tallying method provided in an embodiment of the present invention.

Detailed Description

The present invention will be described in further detail with reference to the accompanying drawings and examples. It is to be understood that the specific embodiments described herein are merely illustrative of the invention and are not limiting of the invention. It should be further noted that, for the convenience of description, only some of the structures related to the present invention are shown in the drawings, not all of the structures.

In the following embodiments, each embodiment provides an optional technical feature and an example, and each technical feature described in each embodiment may be combined to form a plurality of alternatives, and each numbered embodiment should not be regarded as only one technical solution.

In order to better understand the technical solution of the embodiment of the present invention, an application scenario of the tally process related to the embodiment is briefly introduced below, which specifically includes: as order picking progresses, stock distribution of stock items becomes scattered, and if a plurality of items are selected, the items usually need to hit a plurality of shelves, which is not beneficial to improving the hit rate of the shelves; meanwhile, due to seasonal changes, the heat of the articles may also change, and the articles need to be concentrated according to the heat and matched with different heat areas of the physical location of the warehouse. In the above scenarios, but not limited to the above scenarios, inventory arrangement, i.e., tallying of inventory items, is required.

The inventory tallying system and method provided in the embodiments of the present invention are described in detail below with reference to various embodiments and alternatives thereof.

Fig. 1 is a block diagram of an inventory tallying system according to an embodiment of the present invention, which is applicable to a situation where inventory items stored in inventory containers in an inventory storage area are collated. The inventory tally system provided in the embodiment of the invention can realize the inventory tally method in any embodiment of the invention. As shown in fig. 1, the inventory tallying system 100 in the embodiment of the present invention specifically includes: a control server 110, an inventory receptacle 120, a handling device 130, and a tally cache receptacle 140; the inventory receptacles 120 are located in an inventory storage area. Wherein,

the control server 110 is configured to determine the inventory receptacle 120 containing the target item and to act as the off-shelf inventory receptacle 1201.

The control server 110 is further configured to determine and serve as the off-shelf conveying apparatus 1301 the conveying apparatus 130 for conveying the off-shelf inventory container 1201, and to transmit a conveying instruction to the off-shelf conveying apparatus 1301; the target items are inventory items that need to be put off shelves first and then put on shelves.

The off-shelf handling apparatus 1301 is configured to handle the off-shelf inventory receptacle 1201 to the order buffer receptacle 140 in response to a handling instruction.

The control server 110 is also configured to determine and serve as the on-shelf inventory container 1202 the inventory container 120 that will hold the target item.

If the off-shelf inventory container 1201 and the on-shelf inventory container 1202 are different inventory containers, the tally cache container 140 is configured to receive the target item retrieved from the off-shelf inventory container 1201 and temporarily cache the target item for racking the target item into the on-shelf inventory container 1202.

In this embodiment, the control server 110 refers to a software and/or hardware system having data information storage and data information processing capabilities, and may be in communication connection with a hardware device or a software system in the inventory tallying system in a wired or wireless manner. The control server 110 can be used to implement control and scheduling of the entire inventory tally system. Optionally, the control server 110 can receive instruction information sent by each hardware device or software application in the inventory tally system, and can also send control instructions to each hardware device or software application in the inventory tally system.

In the present embodiment, the area to which the inventory tally system is applied includes an inventory storage area in which a plurality of inventory receptacles 120 are deployed. The inventory receptacles 120 may be conventional shelves, overhead shelves, or other similar supports, on which items may be placed directly, or bins, trays, or other receptacles, in which items may be placed. Alternatively, taking inventory containers as shelves, for example, multiple shelves may be grouped into shelf groups (each shelf group may contain at least one row or column of shelves), and the shelf groups are arranged in an array in the shelf storage area. The transverse and longitudinal gaps between the respective groups of racks form a travel path for the handling device on the ground. The inventory receptacles 120 may also be bins, trays or other containers capable of holding items on a shelf or other similar support. Inventory receptacles 120 disposed in the inventory storage area are capable of holding various types of inventory items stored in the warehouse.

In this embodiment, the handling apparatus 130 is capable of moving between the inventory receptacles 120 and the tally buffer receptacles 140. The handling apparatus 130 is capable of handling eligible inventory receptacles 120 in the inventory storage area to the tally cache receptacle 140; and, the inventory receptacles 120 can be transported from the tally cache receptacles 140 to the inventory storage area, returning the inventory receptacles 120. Illustratively, the inventory receptacles 120 may be ordinary racks, high-level racks, or other similar racks, and fig. 2 is a block diagram of a handling apparatus provided in an embodiment of the present invention, wherein the handling apparatus 130 may handle such racks or racks.

In an alternative example, referring to fig. 2, the handling apparatus 130 includes a drive mechanism by which the handling apparatus 130 can move between the inventory storage area and the tally buffer container 140, the handling apparatus 130 may further include a lifting mechanism for handling such shelves or racks, and the handling apparatus 130 may move under such shelves or racks, lift such shelves or racks with the lifting mechanism and handle. Optionally, when the lifting mechanism is raised, the handling apparatus 130 can lift such a rack or rack from the ground, so that the handling apparatus 130 handles such a rack or rack; when the lifting mechanism is lowered, the handling device can place such racks or racks on the ground. The identification component on the handling device 130 can effectively identify such a shelf or rack when the handling device 130 lifts such a shelf or rack, so as to ensure that the handling device 130 runs right below such a shelf or rack.

In the present embodiment, the inventory items are stored in the inventory containers in the inventory storage area, and when the inventory items need to be shelved, that is, when the inventory items need to be tallied, the control server 110 can determine the inventory items that need to be tallied and shelved again, and use the inventory items as target items. Further, the control server 110 is able to determine which inventory receptacles in the inventory storage area contain the target item, and to treat one or more inventory receptacles 120 that are disposed in the inventory storage area and contain the target item as off-shelf inventory receptacles 1201. An off-shelf inventory container is an inventory container in an inventory storage area that contains a target item that needs to be off-shelved and then on-shelved.

In the present embodiment, one or more handling apparatuses 130 are disposed between the inventory container 120 and the tally buffer container 140, and the handling apparatuses 130 are in a standby state or an operating state. In this way, the control server 110 can select the off-shelf transport apparatus 1301 for transporting the off-shelf inventory container 1201 from the one or more transport apparatuses 130. In an alternative example, a plurality of handling apparatuses 130 are deployed between the inventory container 120 and the tally cache container 140, with each handling apparatus 130 deployed at a different location. The control server 110 can select the conveyance device 130 having the shortest conveyance path from among the plurality of conveyance devices 130 as the off-shelf conveyance device 1301 according to the distance between each conveyance device 130 and each off-shelf inventory container 1201 and the tally buffer container 140. After the lower conveyance device 1301 is determined, the control server 110 can also send a conveyance command to the lower conveyance device 1301. Further, the off-shelf transport facility 1301 can transport the off-shelf inventory container 1201 to the product buffer container 140 in accordance with the received off-shelf transport instruction.

In this embodiment, the control server 110 is further capable of determining which inventory receptacles in the inventory storage area and/or that have left the inventory storage area are capable of holding the target item and the one or more inventory receptacles 120 that are to hold the target item are designated as the on-shelf inventory receptacles 1202 in view of the need to restock the target item. An elevated inventory container refers to an inventory container that is to receive a restocking target item.

In the embodiment, in order to ensure the sorting continuity, namely, ensure that a worker or a robot at the sorting station can continuously perform sorting off and sorting on the shelves. In practical situations, although each inventory container may arrive at the tally station without interruption, there is no guarantee that the lower inventory container 1201 and the upper inventory container 1202 arrive at the tally station at the same time. When the lower inventory container 1201 and the upper inventory container 1202 are not the same inventory container, the target item needs to be picked out of the lower inventory container 1201 at the goods-arranging station and then the upper inventory container 1202 needs to be waited for being put on the shelf, so that the goods-arranging continuity at the goods-arranging station is interrupted, and the goods-arranging efficiency is seriously reduced. To this end, a tally buffer container 140 may be provided at the tally station as an intermediate buffer. Therefore, before the upper rack inventory container does not reach the tally cache container, the tally cache container can temporarily cache the target articles taken out from the lower rack inventory container, and after the upper rack inventory container reaches the tally cache container, the target articles cached in the tally cache container can be put on the upper rack inventory container.

By adopting the scheme, the inventory goods do not need to be shuttled back and forth between the inventory containers for arranging the inventory goods, the inventory goods can be arranged in the inventory containers only by waiting for the inventory goods to be arranged in the inventory containers and then arranged in the inventory containers, and meanwhile, the target goods taken out from the inventory containers arranged in the inventory containers can be cached in the inventory containers arranged in the inventory containers.

In this embodiment, a worker or robot is deployed at the tally cache container 140. When the off-shelf inventory container 1201 is transported to the order buffer container 140, a worker or a robot can take out the target item from the off-shelf inventory container 1201, that is, take out the inventory item that needs to be put off and put on the shelf first from the off-shelf inventory container 1201. In an alternative example, a robotic arm is deployed at a predetermined location of the tally cache container 140, and a mechanical gripper or suction cup is provided on the robotic arm, through which the target item can be gripped from the off-shelf inventory container 1201. Optionally, a tag reader is further disposed on the mechanical arm, and the tag reader can read tag information carried by the inventory item in the off-shelf inventory container 1201 to search for the target item from the off-shelf inventory container 1201.

In an alternative implementation of this embodiment, this implementation may be combined with the various alternatives of one or more of the embodiments described above. Fig. 3 is a block diagram of another inventory stocking system according to an embodiment of the present invention, and referring to fig. 3, a lower inventory container 1201 and an upper inventory container 1202 are different inventory containers, and a stocking buffer container 140 is disposed at the stocking station 150. On this basis, the control server 110 is also configured to determine a conveying apparatus for conveying the overhead inventory container 1202 as an overhead conveying apparatus 1302, and send a conveying instruction to the overhead conveying apparatus 1302; the racking handler 1302 is configured to handle the racking inventory receptacles 1202 to the tote 140 in response to a handling instruction.

In this embodiment, the manner of the upper rack carrying device 1302 is the same as the manner of selecting the lower rack carrying device 1301, and the description thereof is omitted. When the on-shelf conveying apparatus 1302 is determined, the control server 110 can also transmit a conveying instruction to the on-shelf conveying apparatus 1302. The racking transport equipment 1302 is capable of transporting the selected racking inventory container 1202 from the storage area to the tally cache container 140 according to the transport instructions. This ensures that the upper rack inventory container 1202 can be located at the tally cache container 140, facilitating the worker or robot at the tally cache container 140 to place the retrieved target item into the upper rack inventory container 1202.

In this embodiment, when a worker or a robot takes out a target item from the lower rack inventory container 1201 at the stock buffer container but the upper rack inventory container 1202 does not reach the stock buffer container at the present time, the target item taken out from the lower rack inventory container 1201 may be first put into the stock buffer container 140. The tally buffer container 140 receives the target item from the off-shelf inventory container and temporarily buffers the target item. After the on-shelf inventory container 1202 is handled by the on-shelf handling apparatus 1302 to the tally buffer container 140, the worker or robot disposed at the tally buffer container 140 can take out the temporarily stored target item from the tally buffer container 140 and store the taken out target item in the on-shelf inventory container 1202. The upper rack inventory container can receive and accommodate the temporarily cached target articles taken out of the tally cache container; the tally buffer container is arranged at the tally station.

By adopting the scheme of the embodiment, an algorithm or other means is not needed to ensure that the lower rack inventory container and the upper rack inventory container reach the tallying station at the same time, even if the lower rack inventory container and the upper rack inventory container do not reach the tallying station at the same time, the target object in the lower rack inventory container is cached in the goods cache container, and the upper rack inventory container is waited to be put on the shelf continuously, and before the upper rack inventory container does not reach the tallying station, a worker or a robot at the tallying station can still carry out the tallying off-shelf operation of other lower rack inventory containers or the tallying on-shelf operation of other upper rack inventory containers, so that the worker or the robot at the tallying station can indirectly ensure that the tallying off-shelf and the tallying on-shelf can be carried out uninterruptedly, and the tallying efficiency is improved.

In an alternative implementation of this embodiment, this implementation may be combined with the various alternatives of one or more of the embodiments described above. Fig. 4 is a schematic view of a tally workstation according to an embodiment of the present invention, and referring to fig. 4, in an optimized inventory tally system, a tally buffer container 140 is divided into a plurality of tally buffer locations, and the tally buffer container 140 is disposed at the tally workstation. Based on this, the tally cache container 140 is specifically configured to receive and temporarily cache the target item retrieved from the off-shelf inventory container 1201 via the tally cache bit associated with the target item.

In the present embodiment, when placing the target items in the stock, the target items placed in the stock buffer container are generally required to be placed in the stock buffer container, and when recommending the target items to be placed in the stock buffer container, the target items are searched for from the stock buffer container. However, the number of target items to be put off the shelves is large, and it is difficult for a worker or a robot to quickly find a desired target item from a tally buffer container containing a large number of target items. For this, it is necessary to divide the tally cache container 140 in advance, and to divide the tally cache container 140 into a plurality of tally cache bits.

In this embodiment, for each target item taken out from the off-shelf inventory container 1201, the tally cache bit associated with the target item may be used for temporary storage, and the corresponding target item may be quickly found by directly positioning the tally cache bit during subsequent taking out. Taking a target article as an example, when the target article needs to be temporarily stored in the goods-sorting buffer container, the staff or the robot at the goods-sorting buffer container can take out the target article from the off-shelf inventory container and put the target article into the goods-sorting buffer position associated with the target article. At this time, the tally cache container receives and temporarily caches the target item taken out of the off-shelf inventory container through the tally cache bit associated with the target item.

In this embodiment, referring to fig. 4, the tally cache container may include a plurality of vertically stacked compartments, each compartment having a plurality of area locations disposed thereon, and each area location may serve as a tally cache location. Each tally cache position can be directly used for placing target objects and can also be used for placing object containers for containing the target objects. Alternatively, the storage container may be suspended from a hook or a rod at the tally cache location of the tally cache container, or may be a bin for holding items. Optionally, a storage container is placed at each tally cache position of the tally cache containers.

In an alternative implementation of this embodiment, this implementation may be combined with the various alternatives of one or more of the embodiments described above. Fig. 5 is a schematic view of another sort of tally workstation provided in the embodiment of the present invention. Referring to fig. 3 and 5, one or more inventory storage locations are included in inventory receptacle 120, such that the racking inventory receptacle 1202 includes one or more inventory storage locations for racking items. On this basis, the racking inventory container 1202 is specifically configured to fetch and hold the temporarily cached target item from the cargo cache container 140 via the inventory storage location in the racking inventory container 1202 associated with the target item, such that the target item may be sequentially racked.

In an alternative implementation of this embodiment, this implementation may be combined with the various alternatives of one or more of the embodiments described above. Referring to fig. 3, in the optimized inventory tallying system, a plurality of target items are accommodated in a lower rack inventory container 1201; the control server 110 is further configured to cluster the target items contained in the off-shelf inventory container 1201 according to the association degree between the target items, so as to obtain one or more off-shelf sets of items, and determine a tally cache station or an inventory storage location associated with the target items.

In this embodiment, the control server 110 can cluster each target item included in the lower inventory container according to the degree of association between the target items in the lower inventory container, to obtain one or more item lower sets. For example, clustering target items of the same SKU in a plurality of off-shelf inventory containers to obtain a plurality of item off-shelf sets; or combining the target articles with the association degrees meeting the preset association degree condition in the multiple off-shelf inventory containers to obtain multiple article off-shelf sets. One off-shelf set is associated with one or more tally cache stations, and one off-shelf set includes one or more target items.

In the present embodiment, a tally cache slot associated with each item off-shelf set is determined from a plurality of tally cache slots for each item off-shelf set. Since each off-shelf set includes one or more target items, the tally cache slot associated with each target item may be determined. One set of off-item shelves is associated with one or more inventory storage locations in the on-shelf inventory container. For example, each of the off-item-shelf sets includes one or more target items, and the target items included in the off-item-shelf sets have the same SKU or the association between the target items satisfies a preset association condition.

In an alternative example, an item off-shelf set is taken as an example, so that one tally cache position can be determined from a plurality of tally cache positions, and the item off-shelf set is associated and bound with the determined tally cache position. And obtaining the tally cache bit associated with each target item in the set of the goods off-shelf through the associated information between the set of the goods off-shelf and the tally cache bit. Optionally, one set of items is placed on shelves as one tally order, each tally order being associated with one tally cache slot, such that the target item of each tally order can be stored in the tally cache slot associated with each tally order.

In an alternative implementation of this embodiment, this implementation may be combined with the various alternatives of one or more of the embodiments described above. Referring to fig. 4, in the optimized inventory tally system, an electronic display is arranged on a tally cache position of a tally cache container; the electronic display can indicate the location of the tally cache slot associated with each target item. Therefore, after the staff or the robot at the tally cache container takes out the target object from the off-shelf inventory container, the staff or the robot can indicate the tally cache position of the tally cache container to which the target object needs to be put according to the electronic display, so that the target object can be cached quickly, and the tally off-shelf speed is increased. Meanwhile, the electronic display can also display the number of the cached target items on the tally cache position so as to remind when the number of the cached target items is inconsistent with the number in the off-shelf set of the items.

In an alternative implementation of this embodiment, this implementation may be combined with the various alternatives of one or more of the embodiments described above. Referring to fig. 3, a plurality of inventory receptacles 120 are provided in the inventory storage area, and each inventory receptacle 120 is divided into a plurality of inventory storage locations. At this time, the control server 110 can determine at least one stock storage location in which the target item is stored from the stock containers in the stock storage area, and set the stock container 120 to which the at least one storage location belongs as the off-shelf stock container 1201.

In this embodiment, inventory items that need to be tallied off and restocked may be stored in at least some of the plurality of inventory receptacles. Meanwhile, each inventory container is divided into a plurality of inventory storage positions, and a plurality of target items stored on the same inventory container are distributed on different inventory storage positions. Therefore, when the control server 110 determines the off-shelf inventory container containing the target item, the control server 110 can determine the inventory storage location for the off-shelf item from the plurality of inventory storage locations according to a preset tallying algorithm, that is, determine which inventory storage locations contain inventory items that need to be tallied off and then on, and then hit the off-shelf inventory container according to the determined one or more inventory storage locations for the off-shelf item. Upon a hit on a down shelf inventory container, if the inventory storage location for the item down shelf is included in one inventory container, then that inventory container is the hit down shelf inventory container.

The inventory container includes one or more inventory storage locations, the system further comprising: a storage bit director; the storage position indicator is arranged at a preset position of the tally cache container and is configured to indicate the position of an inventory storage position containing a target item in the off-shelf inventory container.

In an alternative implementation of this embodiment, this implementation may be combined with the various alternatives of one or more of the embodiments described above. Referring to fig. 4, the inventory receptacle includes one or more inventory storage locations, and the optimized inventory tally system further includes: a storage bit director; the storage location indicator is arranged at a preset position of the tally cache container and is configured to indicate the position of an inventory storage location in the off-shelf inventory container for accommodating the target item.

In this embodiment, the storage bit indicator can indicate the position of the lower storage bit when a worker or a robot takes out a target object from the lower stock container, so that the worker or the robot at the goods buffer container can quickly find the stock storage bit for storing the target object according to the guide signal of the storage bit indicator, and further take out the target object from the storage bit. Optionally, the storage bit indicator is a laser pointer.

In an alternative implementation of this embodiment, this implementation may be combined with the various alternatives of one or more of the embodiments described above. In the optimized inventory tallying system, a waiting area is arranged at a preset position of a tallying cache container; the lower rack carrying equipment is configured to respond to a carrying instruction and carry the lower rack inventory container to a waiting area of the goods handling cache container for queuing waiting; the racking transportation equipment is configured to respond to a transportation instruction and transport the racking inventory containers to a waiting area of the goods handling cache container for queuing.

In this embodiment, considering that there may be a plurality of lower inventory containers and upper inventory containers in the stock buffer container, at this time, the lower inventory containers or the upper inventory containers may not be used immediately in the stock buffer container, and may need to be used immediately after the previous inventory container is completed, and the handling equipment may not be in a waiting state all the time, and may need to perform other handling tasks, so that the lower inventory containers may be handled to the waiting area of the stock buffer container for queuing and the upper inventory containers may be handled to the waiting area of the stock buffer container for queuing. Thus, the long time of the lower rack carrying equipment or the upper rack carrying equipment is not occupied.

In an alternative implementation of this embodiment, this implementation may be combined with the various alternatives of one or more of the embodiments described above. When the control server 110 determines the on-shelf inventory container that is to accommodate the target item, the control server 110 is specifically able to match the target item with the inventory items stored in the respective inventory containers in the inventory storage area. And if the inventory items stored in one or more inventory containers in the storage area are the same as the target items or the association degree of the inventory items meets a preset condition, taking the one or more inventory containers as the on-shelf inventory containers. Optionally, the inventory storage area comprises a plurality of inventory receptacles, each inventory receptacle comprising one or more storage locations. The control server can determine the storage location in the storage area, in which the inventory item with the same degree as the target item or the association degree meeting the preset condition is stored, and then take the inventory container where the storage location meeting the condition is located as the hit overhead inventory container.

Fig. 6 is a block diagram of a further inventory tally system provided in an embodiment of the present invention, which is applicable to a situation where inventory items stored in inventory containers in an inventory storage area are collated. The inventory tally system provided in the embodiment of the invention can realize the inventory tally method in any embodiment of the invention. As shown in fig. 6, the inventory tally system includes: a control server 110, inventory receptacles 120, handling equipment 130, and a tally station 150; the inventory container is positioned in the inventory storage area and comprises a plurality of inventory storage positions; wherein,

the control server 110 is configured to determine the inventory receptacle 120 containing the target item and to act as the off-shelf inventory receptacle 1201; and, determine and regard as the handling equipment of the lower shelf for carrying the lower shelf stock container 1201, and send the handling order to the lower shelf handling equipment 1301; the target articles are inventory articles needing to be sorted and put off the shelves firstly and then put on the shelves;

the off-shelf handling equipment 1301 is configured to respond to a handling instruction to handle the off-shelf inventory receptacle 1201 to the stock handling station 150;

the control server 110 is further configured to determine and serve as an on-shelf inventory container 120 that will hold the target item;

if the lower inventory container and the upper inventory container are the same inventory container, the upper inventory container is configured to receive and hold the target item at the order station taken from the second inventory location of the same inventory container through the first inventory location of the same inventory container.

Based on the above embodiment, optionally, the first inventory storage location is a first inventory storage location associated with the target item in the same inventory receptacle.

Based on the above embodiments, optionally, a second inventory storage location of the same inventory receptacle contains a plurality of target items; the control server 110 is further configured to cluster the target items contained in the second inventory storage locations of the same inventory container according to the degree of association between the target items, resulting in one or more off-shelf sets of items, to determine the inventory storage locations associated with the target items.

Based on the above embodiments, optionally, one set of off-item shelves is associated with one or more first inventory storage locations in the same inventory receptacle.

On the basis of the foregoing embodiment, optionally, the inventory tallying system of this embodiment further includes: a storage bit director; a storage location indicator is disposed at a preset location of the tally station, upon which the storage location indicator is configured to indicate a location of a second inventory storage location in the same inventory receptacle that holds the target item or a location of a first inventory storage location in the same inventory receptacle that will hold the target item.

According to the scheme of the embodiment of the invention, a lower rack inventory container containing an article needing to be sorted and an upper rack inventory container containing the article needing to be sorted and placed are selected from a plurality of inventory containers according to the control of a control server, then the lower rack carrying equipment is controlled to carry the lower rack inventory container to a sorting cache container, if the lower rack inventory container and the upper rack inventory container are the same inventory container, a worker or a robot at a goods arranging station can directly take out a target article from a second inventory storage position of the lower rack inventory container and place the target article on a first inventory storage position of the upper rack inventory container, and therefore, the rapid transfer from one inventory storage position to another inventory storage position in the same inventory container is realized. By using the tally cache container as a transfer station, the tally cache container is used for temporarily storing the target object, and then the target object in the tally cache container is put on the shelf in the stock container, so that the problem that the tally can be put off the shelf only by shuttling back and forth between the stock containers in the tally process is solved, and the rapid transfer from one stock storage position to another stock storage position in the same stock container is realized in the tally station only after the stock container put off the shelf arrives at the tally station, namely, the tally efficiency of the stock object is improved, and the waste of tally resources of the stock object is reduced.

Fig. 7 is a flowchart of an inventory tallying method according to an embodiment of the present invention, where the inventory tallying system according to an embodiment of the present invention is applicable to a situation where inventory items stored in inventory containers in an inventory storage area are tallied. The inventory tally method provided in the embodiments of the present invention can be implemented by the inventory tally system according to any embodiment of the present invention. As shown in fig. 7, the inventory tallying method in the embodiment of the present invention includes:

s710, the control server determines an inventory container containing the target object and takes the inventory container as a stock container for taking off shelves; determining a conveying device for conveying the lower rack inventory container, taking the conveying device as a lower rack conveying device, and sending a conveying instruction to the lower rack conveying device; the target object is an inventory object which needs to be sorted and put down and then put on the shelf; the inventory receptacles are located in an inventory storage area;

s720, the off-shelf carrying equipment responds to the carrying instruction and carries the off-shelf inventory container to a goods buffer storage container.

And S730, the control server determines an inventory container which is to contain the target object and takes the inventory container as an overhead inventory container.

On the basis of the foregoing embodiment, optionally, the inventory tallying method in the embodiment of the present invention further includes:

the control server determines conveying equipment for conveying the overhead stocked containers and serves as overhead conveying equipment, and sends conveying instructions to the overhead conveying equipment;

the racking transportation equipment responds to the transportation instruction and transports the racking inventory container to the tally cache container;

the upper rack inventory container is used for receiving and accommodating the temporarily cached target articles taken out of the tally cache container; the tally buffer container is arranged at the tally station.

On the basis of the foregoing embodiment, optionally, the above-mentioned overhead inventory container, which receives and accommodates the temporarily cached target item taken out of the tally cache container, includes:

and the upper rack inventory container is used for taking out and accommodating the temporarily cached target item from the goods cache container through the inventory storage position in the inventory container related to the target item.

On the basis of the foregoing embodiment, optionally, the method further includes:

the control server clusters the target articles contained in the off-shelf inventory container according to the relevance between the target articles to obtain one or more article off-shelf sets so as to determine a tally cache station or an inventory storage position associated with the target articles; the off-shelf inventory receptacles contain a plurality of target items therein.

Based on the above embodiments, optionally, one article off-shelf set is associated with one or more tally cache stations, and one article off-shelf set includes one or more target articles.

Based on the above embodiments, optionally, one set of off-item shelves is associated with one or more inventory storage locations in an on-shelf inventory container.

And S740, if the lower inventory container and the upper inventory container are different inventory containers, tallying and caching the containers, receiving the target articles taken out from the lower inventory container and temporarily caching the target articles, wherein the tallying and caching containers are used for achieving the purpose that the target articles are shelved into the upper inventory container.

On the basis of the foregoing embodiment, optionally, the tally buffer container, which receives the target item taken out from the lower rack inventory container and temporarily buffers the target item, includes:

the tallying cache container receives and temporarily caches the target item taken out of the off-shelf inventory container through the tallying cache bit associated with the target item; the tally cache container is divided into a plurality of tally cache bits.

On the basis of the above embodiment, optionally, an electronic display is arranged on the tally cache position of the tally cache container; the electronic display is capable of indicating the location of the tally cache slot associated with each target item.

Based on the above embodiment, optionally, the inventory receptacle includes one or more inventory storage locations, and the method further includes:

a storage location indicator to indicate a location of an inventory storage location in the off-shelf inventory receptacle that holds a target item; the storage bit indicator is arranged at a preset position of the tally cache container.

On the basis of the above embodiment, optionally, a waiting area is arranged at a preset position of the tally cache container; the lower rack carrying equipment responds to the carrying instruction and carries the lower rack inventory container to a goods handling cache container, and comprises: the lower rack carrying equipment responds to the carrying instruction and carries the lower rack inventory container to a waiting area of the tally cache container for queuing waiting;

the racking transportation equipment responds to the transportation instruction and transports the racking inventory container to the tally cache container, and comprises:

and the racking transportation equipment responds to the transportation instruction and transports the racking inventory container to the waiting area of the tally cache container for queuing.

The inventory tally method provided in the embodiment of the invention can be applied to the inventory tally system provided in any embodiment of the invention, has corresponding functional modules and beneficial effects of the inventory tally system, and the detailed process refers to the relevant operation of the inventory tally system in the previous embodiment.

Fig. 8 is a flowchart of another inventory tallying method provided in an embodiment of the present invention, where the inventory tallying system provided in an embodiment of the present invention is applicable to a situation where inventory items stored in inventory containers in an inventory storage area are tallied. As shown in fig. 8, the inventory tallying method in the embodiment of the present invention includes:

s810, the control server determines an inventory container containing the target object and takes the inventory container as a lower inventory container; determining a conveying device for conveying the lower rack inventory container, taking the conveying device as a lower rack conveying device, and sending a conveying instruction to the lower rack conveying device; the target object is an inventory object which needs to be sorted and put down and then put on the shelf; the inventory container is located in an inventory storage area, and the inventory container comprises a plurality of inventory storage positions;

s820, the lower rack carrying equipment responds to the carrying instruction and carries the lower rack inventory container to a goods handling station;

s830, the control server further determines an inventory container which is to contain the target item and serves as an overhead inventory container;

s840, if the lower inventory container and the upper inventory container are the same inventory container, the upper inventory container receives and accommodates the target object taken out from the second inventory storage position of the same inventory container at the tallying station through the first inventory storage position of the same inventory container.

On the basis of the above embodiment, optionally, the first inventory storage location is an inventory storage location associated with the target item in the same inventory container.

On the basis of the above embodiment, optionally, a second inventory storage location of the same inventory receptacle contains a plurality of target items therein; the method further comprises the following steps:

the control server clusters the target items contained in the second inventory storage position of the same inventory container according to the association degree of the target items to obtain one or more item off-shelf sets so as to determine the first inventory storage position associated with the target items.

Based on the above embodiments, optionally, one set of off-shelves of items is associated with one or more first inventory storage locations in the same inventory receptacle.

On the basis of the above embodiment, optionally, a storage location indicator is disposed at a preset position of the tally station, and the method further includes:

a storage location indicator to indicate a location of a second inventory storage location in the same inventory container that holds a target item or a location of a first inventory storage location in the same inventory container that will hold a target item.

From the above description of the embodiments, it is obvious for those skilled in the art that the embodiments of the present invention can be implemented by software and necessary general hardware, and certainly can be implemented by hardware, but the former is a better implementation in many cases. Based on such understanding, the technical solutions of the embodiments of the present invention may be embodied in the form of a software product, which may be stored in a computer-readable storage medium, such as a floppy disk, a Read-Only Memory (ROM), a Random Access Memory (RAM), a FLASH Memory (FLASH), a hard disk or an optical disk of a computer, and includes several instructions to make a computer device (which may be a personal computer, a server, or a network device) execute the methods according to the embodiments of the present invention.

It should be noted that, in the embodiment of the system, the included structures are merely divided according to the functional logic, but are not limited to the above division as long as the corresponding functions can be implemented; in addition, specific names of the functional structures are only used for distinguishing one from another, and are not used for limiting the protection scope of the invention.

It is to be noted that the foregoing is only illustrative of the preferred embodiments of the present invention and the technical principles employed. It will be understood by those skilled in the art that the present invention is not limited to the particular embodiments described herein, but is capable of various obvious changes, rearrangements and substitutions as will now become apparent to those skilled in the art without departing from the scope of the invention. Therefore, although the embodiments of the present invention have been described in more detail through the above embodiments, the embodiments of the present invention are not limited to the above embodiments, and many other equivalent embodiments may be included without departing from the spirit of the present invention, and the scope of the present invention is determined by the scope of the appended claims.

Claims

1. An inventory and inventory system, the system comprising: the system comprises a control server, an inventory container, a handling device and a tally cache container; the inventory receptacles are located in an inventory storage area; wherein,

the lower rack carrying equipment is configured to respond to the carrying instruction and carry the lower rack inventory container to a goods buffer storage container;

the tallying cache container is divided into a plurality of tallying cache positions, if the lower rack inventory container and the upper rack inventory container are different inventory containers, the tallying cache container is configured to receive a target article taken out from the lower rack inventory container and temporarily cache the target article through the tallying cache position associated with the target article before the upper rack inventory container reaches the tallying cache container, and after waiting for the upper rack inventory container to reach the tallying cache container, the tallying cache position is directly positioned to take out the target article to be put on the upper rack inventory container; the tally cache container is arranged at a tally station, and the tally cache positions associated with the target items are determined by clustering according to the association degree between the target items.

2. The system of claim 1,

the control server is further configured to determine and use the carrying equipment for carrying the overhead stocked containers as overhead carrying equipment, and send a carrying instruction to the overhead carrying equipment;

the racking transportation equipment is configured to respond to the transportation instruction and transport the racking inventory container to the tally cache container;

the upper rack inventory container is configured to receive and accommodate temporarily cached target items taken out of the tally cache container; the tally buffer container is arranged at the tally station.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the inventory receptacle includes one or more inventory storage locations therein,

the upper rack inventory container is specifically configured to take out and accommodate the temporarily cached target item from the tally cache container through the inventory storage location in the inventory container associated with the target item.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein the off-shelf inventory receptacles contain a plurality of target items therein;

the control server is further configured to cluster the target items contained in the off-shelf inventory containers according to the association degree between the target items to obtain one or more off-shelf sets of the items, so as to determine the tally cache stations or inventory storage positions associated with the target items.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein one set of off-item shelves is associated with one or more tally buffer stations, one set of off-item shelves comprising one or more target items.

6. The system of claim 4, wherein one set of off-item shelves is associated with one or more inventory storage locations in an on-shelf inventory container.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein an electronic display is disposed on the tally cache bits of the tally cache container; the electronic display is capable of indicating the location of the tally cache slot associated with each target item.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the inventory receptacle includes one or more inventory storage locations, the system further comprising: a storage bit director; the storage position indicator is arranged at a preset position of the tally cache container and is configured to indicate the position of an inventory storage position containing a target item in the off-shelf inventory container.

9. The system of claim 2, wherein a waiting area is provided at a preset position of the tally cache container;

the lower rack carrying equipment is specifically configured to respond to the carrying instruction and carry the lower rack inventory container to a waiting area of the tally cache container for queuing waiting;

the racking transportation equipment is specifically configured to respond to the transportation instruction and transport the racking inventory containers to the waiting area of the tally cache container for queuing.

10. An inventory and inventory system, the system comprising: the system comprises a control server, inventory containers, carrying equipment and a tallying station; the inventory container is located in an inventory storage area, and the inventory container comprises a plurality of inventory storage positions; wherein,

the inventory container comprises a plurality of inventory storage positions, if the lower inventory container and the upper inventory container are the same inventory container, the upper inventory container is configured to receive and accommodate a target object taken out of a second inventory storage position of the same inventory container at the tallying station through a first inventory storage position of the same inventory container, so that the rapid transfer from one inventory storage position to another inventory storage position in the same inventory container is realized; the first inventory storage position is a first inventory storage position which is associated with the target item in the same inventory container, and the first inventory storage position which is associated with the target item is determined by clustering according to the association degree between the target items.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein a second inventory storage location of the same inventory receptacle contains a plurality of target items therein;

the control server is further configured to cluster the target items contained in the second inventory storage location of the same inventory container according to the degree of association between the target items to obtain one or more off-shelf sets of the items, so as to determine the inventory storage location associated with the target items.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein one set of off-shelves of items is associated with one or more first inventory storage locations in the same inventory receptacle.

13. The system of claim 10, further comprising: a storage bit director; the storage location indicator is disposed at a preset position of the tally station, and the storage location indicator is configured to indicate a location of a second inventory storage location in the same inventory receptacle that holds a target item or a location of a first inventory storage location in the same inventory receptacle that will hold a target item.

14. An inventory tally method, the method comprising:

if the lower rack inventory container and the upper rack inventory container are different inventory containers, the tally cache container receives the target item taken out from the lower rack inventory container and temporarily caches the target item through a tally cache bit associated with the target item before the upper rack inventory container reaches the tally cache container, and after waiting for the upper rack inventory container to reach the tally cache container, the tally cache container is used for directly positioning the tally cache bit to take out the upper rack of the target item to the upper rack inventory container; the tally cache container is arranged at a tally station;

the tally cache container is divided into a plurality of tally cache positions, and the tally cache positions associated with the target articles are determined by clustering according to the association degree between the target articles.

15. The method of claim 14, further comprising:

16. The method of claim 14, wherein the elevated inventory container receiving and containing the temporarily cached target item retrieved from the tally cache container comprises:

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising:

18. The method of claim 17, wherein one set of off-item shelves is associated with one or more tally buffer stations, one set of off-item shelves comprising one or more target items.

19. The method of claim 17, wherein one set of off-item shelves is associated with one or more inventory storage locations in an on-shelf inventory container.

20. The method of claim 14, wherein an electronic display is disposed on the tally cache bits of the tally cache container; the electronic display is capable of indicating the location of the tally cache slot associated with each target item.

21. The method of claim 14, wherein the inventory receptacle includes one or more inventory storage locations, the method further comprising:

22. The method of claim 15, wherein a waiting area is provided at a preset position of the tally cache container; the lower rack carrying equipment responds to the carrying instruction and carries the lower rack inventory container to a goods handling cache container, and comprises: the lower rack carrying equipment responds to the carrying instruction and carries the lower rack inventory container to a waiting area of the tally cache container for queuing waiting;

23. An inventory tally method, the method comprising:

if the lower inventory container and the upper inventory container are the same inventory container, the upper inventory container receives and accommodates a target object taken out from a second inventory storage position of the same inventory container at the goods arranging station through a first inventory storage position of the same inventory container, and quick transfer from one inventory storage position to another inventory storage position in the same inventory container is realized; the inventory container comprises a plurality of inventory storage positions, the first inventory storage position is a first inventory storage position which is associated with the target item in the same inventory container, and the first inventory storage position associated with the target item is determined by clustering according to the association degree between the target items.

24. The method of claim 23, wherein a second inventory storage location of the same inventory receptacle contains a plurality of target items therein; the method further comprises the following steps:

25. The method of claim 24, wherein one set of off-shelves items is associated with one or more first inventory storage locations in the same inventory receptacle.

26. The method of claim 23, wherein a storage bit indicator is provided at a preset position of the tally station, the method further comprising: