CN112139039A

CN112139039A - Method and apparatus for sorting articles, machine readable medium and system

Info

Publication number: CN112139039A
Application number: CN201910578790.4A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 刘哲; 王悦翔; 尹慧昕; 曹抒阳
Original assignee: Zhuineng Robot Shanghai Co ltd
Current assignee: Zhuineng Robot Shanghai Co ltd
Priority date: 2019-06-28
Filing date: 2019-06-28
Publication date: 2020-12-29

Abstract

An article sorting method, apparatus, machine-readable medium, and system are disclosed. The article sorting method of the present application includes: the automatic transportation equipment acquires a transportation path of the automatic transportation equipment; and the automatic transport equipment respectively transports the carried at least two articles to article receiving places corresponding to the destination information of the articles based on the obtained transport paths, and delivers the articles to the article receiving equipment at the article receiving places at corresponding delivery heights. The technical scheme of this application can a plurality of article of single transport to can automatically regulated deliver the height, with article with receive the relevant highly delivery of equipment of article, reduce the harm of delivering and causing article when improving article handling efficiency.

Description

Method and apparatus for sorting articles, machine readable medium and system

Technical Field

The present application relates to the field of robots, and more particularly, to a method and apparatus for sorting articles, a machine-readable medium, and a system.

Background

With the rapid development of the logistics industry, the article sorting system is in operation. In order to reduce labor cost and improve article sorting efficiency and accuracy, most of the existing logistics sorting systems employ a transfer robot (AGV) to transfer articles, that is, the transfer robot transfers the articles carried by the AGV to a corresponding destination, for example, to a corresponding container. However, most of the existing transfer robots transfer articles in a "one-to-one, point-to-point" mode, that is, during a single transfer, the path, the article and the destination are single, and therefore, the transfer efficiency is low.

Disclosure of Invention

The object of the application is to provide an article sorting method, an apparatus, a machine readable medium and a system thereof, which can convey a plurality of articles at a time, and can automatically adjust the delivery height, deliver the articles at a height relative to the apparatus for receiving the articles, and reduce the damage to the articles caused by delivery while improving the article conveying efficiency.

In order to solve the above technical problem, an aspect of the present application discloses an article sorting method, including:

the method comprises the steps that the automatic transportation equipment acquires a transportation path of the automatic transportation equipment, wherein the transportation path is determined based on destination related information of at least two articles carried by the automatic transportation equipment;

the automatic transportation equipment respectively transports the carried at least two articles to article receiving places corresponding to the destination related information of the articles based on the acquired transportation path, and delivers the articles to the article receiving equipment of the article receiving places at the corresponding article receiving places at corresponding delivery heights, wherein the delivery heights are related to the article receiving equipment.

Another aspect of the present application also discloses an article sorting method, including:

the server acquires destination related information of at least two articles carried by the automatic transportation equipment;

the server determines a transportation path of the automatic transportation equipment based on the acquired destination related information, so as to: the automatic transportation equipment respectively transports the at least two loaded articles to article receiving places corresponding to the information related to the destination of each article, and delivers the articles to the article receiving equipment at the corresponding article receiving places at corresponding delivery heights, wherein the delivery heights are related to the article receiving equipment.

Another aspect of the present application also discloses an automatic transport apparatus, which includes:

the system comprises a first acquisition module, a second acquisition module and a third acquisition module, wherein the first acquisition module is used for acquiring a transportation path of the automatic transportation equipment, and the transportation path is determined based on destination related information of at least two articles carried by the automatic transportation equipment;

and the conveying module is used for controlling the automatic conveying equipment to convey the at least two loaded articles to article receiving places corresponding to the destination related information of the articles respectively based on the acquired conveying paths, and delivering the articles to the article receiving equipment at the article receiving places at corresponding delivery heights, wherein the delivery heights are related to the article receiving equipment.

Another aspect of the present application also discloses a server, including:

the second acquisition module is used for acquiring destination related information of at least two articles carried by the automatic transportation equipment;

the determining module is used for determining a transportation path of the automatic transportation device based on the acquired destination related information, so that the automatic transportation device respectively transports the at least two loaded articles to an article receiving place corresponding to the destination related information of each article based on the transportation path, and delivers the articles to the article receiving device of the article receiving place at the corresponding article receiving place at a corresponding delivery height, wherein the delivery height is related to the article receiving device.

Another aspect of the application also discloses a machine-readable medium having instructions stored thereon, which when executed on a machine, cause the machine to perform:

acquiring a transportation path of automatic transportation equipment, wherein the transportation path is determined based on destination related information of at least two articles carried by the automatic transportation equipment;

and controlling the automatic transport equipment to respectively transport the at least two loaded articles to article receiving places corresponding to the destination related information of the articles based on the acquired transport paths, and delivering the articles to the article receiving equipment at the corresponding article receiving places at corresponding delivery heights, wherein the delivery heights are related to the article receiving equipment.

obtaining destination related information of at least two articles carried by automatic transportation equipment;

and determining a transportation path of the automatic transportation equipment based on the acquired destination related information, so as to control the automatic transportation equipment to respectively transport the at least two loaded articles to article receiving places corresponding to the destination related information of the articles, and delivering the articles to the article receiving equipment at the article receiving places at corresponding delivery heights, wherein the delivery heights are related to the article receiving equipment.

Another aspect of the present application also discloses a system comprising:

a memory for storing instructions for execution by one or more processors of the system, an

A processor, being one of the processors of the system, for performing:

Another aspect of the present application also discloses a system, comprising:

A processor, being one of the processors of the system, for performing:

determining a transport path of the automatic transport device based on the obtained destination-related information for: the automatic transportation equipment respectively transports the at least two loaded articles to an article receiving place corresponding to the destination related information of each article, moves the articles to the height corresponding to the height information, and delivers the articles to the article receiving equipment of the article receiving place at the corresponding delivery height, wherein the delivery height is related to the article receiving equipment.

Drawings

Fig. 1 illustrates a schematic layout of a logistics warehouse suitable for use in the method of article sorting of the present application, in accordance with some embodiments of the present application;

FIG. 2 illustrates a schematic diagram of an article sorting system using the article sorting method disclosed in embodiments of the present application, in accordance with some embodiments of the present application;

FIG. 3 illustrates a flow diagram of a method of sorting articles, according to some embodiments of the present application;

FIG. 4 illustrates a schematic structural view of an automated transport apparatus, according to some embodiments of the present application;

FIG. 5 illustrates a schematic diagram of a server, according to some embodiments of the present application;

FIG. 6 illustrates a perspective view of an automated transport apparatus, according to some embodiments of the present application;

FIG. 7 illustrates a front view of an automated transport apparatus, according to some embodiments of the present application;

FIG. 8 illustrates a side view of an automated transport apparatus, according to some embodiments of the present application;

FIG. 9 illustrates a perspective view of an article transport assembly of an automated transport equipment, according to some embodiments of the present application;

FIG. 10 illustrates a front view of an article transport assembly of an automated transport device, according to some embodiments of the present application;

FIG. 11 illustrates a side view of an article transport assembly of an automated transport device, according to some embodiments of the present application;

FIG. 12 illustrates a block diagram of a system, according to some embodiments of the present application;

fig. 13 illustrates a block diagram of a system on a chip (SoC), according to some embodiments of the present application.

Detailed Description

Illustrative embodiments of the present application include, but are not limited to, methods of sorting articles and apparatus, machine-readable media and systems thereof.

Various aspects of the illustrative embodiments will be described using terms commonly employed by those skilled in the art to convey the substance of their work to others skilled in the art. It will be apparent, however, to one skilled in the art that some alternative embodiments may be practiced using portions of the described aspects. For purposes of explanation, specific numbers, materials and configurations are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the illustrative embodiments. It will be apparent, however, to one skilled in the art that alternative embodiments may be practiced without the specific details. In other instances, well-known features are omitted or simplified in order not to obscure the illustrative embodiments.

To make the objects, technical solutions and advantages of the present application more clear, embodiments of the present application will be described in further detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

Fig. 1 shows the layout of a logistics warehouse. Fig. 2 illustrates an article sorting system that may use the article sorting method disclosed in embodiments of the present application. For convenience of illustration, it is assumed that the article sorting system is applied to the logistics warehouse shown in fig. 1, and it is understood that the article sorting method disclosed in the present application is also applicable to other scenarios, and is not limited herein.

Specifically, as shown in fig. 1 and 2, the logistics warehouse has five article supply devices T1-T5, which may be shelves, conveyor belts, etc., therein, and has 8 article receiving places C1-C8 for receiving articles, at which there are article receiving devices. For example, the article receiving device may be a container, an article conveyor, a cage cart, or the like. The item sorting system includes a server 201, an automated transport apparatus 202, and an automated consignment apparatus 203. The server 201 is communicatively coupled to the automated transport equipment 202 and the automated shipping equipment 203 to enable control and scheduling of the overall item sortation system. The automated transport equipment 202 may be a transport robot having a plurality of carriers capable of carrying a plurality of articles and capable of automatically adjusting the height of one or more carriers, such as a stocker robot 200 having an article transport assembly 100 as shown in fig. 6, wherein at least two articles can be placed on the article transport assembly 100 and the height of the carriers on which the articles are placed can be automatically adjusted according to the height of the article receiving equipment. In addition to the article transport assembly 100 shown in fig. 6, the automated transport equipment 202 may also be an up-and-down moving article transport assembly, or an article transport assembly with a partially loaded article having a fixed height, a partially loaded article having an adjustable height, or other types of article transport assemblies, such as those equipped with a robotic arm or similar mechanical assembly. The automatic consignment equipment can be an unmanned transport vehicle or any robot capable of dragging the article receiving equipment, and the automatic consignment equipment does not require an article placing mechanism capable of placing articles.

During the operation of the whole article sorting system, the sorting method of the articles is as shown in fig. 3:

1) the automated transporter 202 receives at least two articles (301) from one or more of the article supply facilities T1-T5, such as a supply table or supply conveyor.

For example, in one example, the supply devices T1-T5 may have multiple levels of shelves (assuming two levels) or belts of different heights, and the automated transport device 202 may set the heights of the two shelves to be the same as the heights of the two shelves (or belts) of the supply devices to receive items from both shelves or belts simultaneously. The three or more layers are supported in the same manner as the two layers, and will not be described herein.

As another example, in another example, where the supplies T1-T5 are at different heights, the automated transport equipment 202 receives items from the supplies at different heights by sequentially moving the carriers to different heights, respectively, e.g., the carrier height is h1 when receiving items from supply T1 at height h1 and the carrier height is h2 when receiving items from supply T2 at height h 2.

For another example, in yet another example, the automated transport equipment 202 receives items from the same supply equipment or from different supply equipment of the same height by successively setting the height of the two carriers to the same height, respectively. The three or more object carrying objects are supported in the same manner as the two object carrying objects, and will not be described herein.

The automatic transport equipment can adapt to various logistics warehouses with different supply equipment arrangements by adjusting the height of the object carrying piece. In addition, the carrying efficiency can be improved by simultaneously receiving a plurality of articles.

2) After receiving the item, the automated transportation device 202 acquires destination-related information of the received plurality of items (302).

It is understood that the destination-related information is information that can indicate where the article is received, and may be, for example, an actual mailing address on the package, address information where an article receiving device to which the article is actually shipped is located, or the like. In another embodiment, the destination related information may also be identification code information for uniquely identifying the article, or other information for the server 201 to obtain the corresponding destination information. The destination related information may be in the form of a graphic code, such as a two-dimensional code, a bar code, etc., or in other forms that can be read by a machine.

Further, the automatic transportation device 202 may acquire the destination-related information when the item is placed on the automatic transportation device 202, or may acquire the destination-related information when the item is moved to a specific location after being placed on the automatic transportation device 202. For example, the destination related information may be obtained by scanning a graphic code on the article through a camera, or may be read through other information acquisition devices. The automated transportation device 202 automatically acquires the destination-related information after the article is placed on the automated transportation device 202, which can improve the transportation efficiency. In other embodiments, the destination-related information may also be directly input via an input device of the automated transportation device 202, for example via an operation screen of the automated transportation device 202.

Further, in other embodiments, the destination-related information of the item may be obtained by an information acquisition device at the supply device by reading a graphic code on the item or manual input by a human before the item is placed on the automatic transport device 202, and transmitting the obtained destination-related information to the server 201 or the automatic transport device 202.

3) The automatic transport apparatus 202 transmits the acquired destination-related information to the server 201, so that the server 201 generates a transport route from the destination-related information (303).

The server 201, after receiving the destination-related information, may determine a location of an item reception site to which each item carried by the automatic transport device 202 is to be delivered, and then generate a transport route according to the determined location of the item reception site.

Further, it is understood that in other embodiments, the transport path may also be generated by the automated transport device 202. And are not intended to be limiting herein.

4) The automatic transporting apparatus 202 receives the transport path generated by the server 201, and transports the loaded items to corresponding item receiving places according to the transport path, respectively (C1-C8), and delivers to item receiving apparatuses at the item receiving places (304).

It is noted that when delivering an item to an item receiving device, the item carried on the automated transport device 202 may be moved to a delivery elevation associated with the item receiving device for delivery, e.g., the item receiving device is a conveyor belt having a height h3, and the automated transport device 202 may move the carrier to a delivery elevation at a small distance from h3 onto the conveyor belt. The height of the item receiving device may be obtained from a server, pre-stored in the automated transport device 202, or detected by a detector. The above-described manner of receiving articles is also applicable to delivery articles, where appropriate. As another example, the article receiving device is a container, the automatic transport device 202 may employ a mechanical arm or similar mechanical assembly to move the article to a delivery height that is a small distance away from the height of the article stacked in the container or the height of the bottom of the container (when the article is less or empty) and then deliver the article to the container, and the automatic transport device may detect the height of the stacked article in the container through a detector or receive the detected height of the stacked article from the detector of the container when approaching the container. In other embodiments, delivery may be at a fixed height, or manually accessed into an article receiving device, or the like.

When the item receiving device receives an item, if the item receiving device is of a container type, for example, a container, the container sends information indicating that it is full to the server 201 after determining (e.g., via a sensor) that it is full of the item, and the server 201, upon receiving the information, sends an instruction to at least one of the automated shipping devices 203 to cause one of the automated shipping devices 203 to drag the full container away, and then the empty container is placed by the same automated shipping device 203 or another automated shipping device 203 at the item receiving site before the dragged container. It will be appreciated that in other embodiments, the container may be manually pulled away or replaced after it is filled.

In some embodiments, multiple containers may be provided at the item receiving site, and the empty containers may then be used after the full containers are pulled away. In certain embodiments, multiple article receiving devices may be provided at different heights at the same article receiving location, floor space may be saved, and the height of the container-type article receiving device may be designed appropriately to reduce damage to the article from delivery. Accordingly, the automated transport device delivers the items into the item receiving devices of the corresponding height. In embodiments where multiple containers are located at different heights, the automated consignment device may drag multiple containers simultaneously or may take a full container away and place an empty container on, for example, a robotic arm or similar mechanical assembly. In embodiments where multiple conveyor belts are provided at different heights, conveyor belts at different heights may be used in turn to receive articles to improve handling efficiency.

Like this, the automatic transportation equipment can a plurality of article of single transport to can automatically regulated deliver the height, deliver the article with the height that is relevant with the equipment that receives the article, reduce the damage that delivers and cause article (like fragile article) when improving article handling efficiency.

Furthermore, it is understood that, while determining the transportation path for the automatic transportation device 202, the server 201 may also perform statistics on the received destination related information, and adjust the receiving location of the article corresponding to the destination related information according to the statistical result, and if more articles having destination related information are received within a predetermined time period, the receiving location of the article corresponding to the destination related information may be set closer to the supplying device of the article than the receiving location of the less destination related information. Therefore, the distance between the destination related information and the supply equipment of the articles is dynamically adjusted, so that the article receiving position which frequently receives the articles is closer to the supply equipment of the articles, and the sorting efficiency of the articles is improved.

Fig. 4 and 5 are schematic diagrams illustrating a structure of the automatic transportation device 202 and the server 201.

As shown in fig. 4, the automatic transport apparatus 202 includes:

a first obtaining module 401, configured to obtain a transportation path of the automatic transportation device, where the transportation path is determined based on destination-related information of at least two articles carried by the automatic transportation device;

and a conveying module 402, configured to control the automatic conveying device to convey the at least two loaded articles to article receiving places corresponding to the destination related information of the articles respectively based on the obtained conveying paths, and deliver the articles at the corresponding article receiving places to the article receiving devices at the article receiving places at corresponding delivery heights, where the delivery heights are related to the article receiving devices.

As shown in fig. 5, the server 201 includes:

a second obtaining module 501, configured to obtain destination-related information of at least two articles carried by the automatic transportation device;

a determining module 502, configured to determine a transportation path of the automatic transportation device based on the obtained destination-related information, so that the automatic transportation device transports the at least two loaded articles to an article receiving location corresponding to the destination-related information of each article, respectively, based on the transportation path, and delivers the articles to the article receiving device at the article receiving location at a corresponding delivery height, where the delivery height is related to the article receiving device.

Fig. 6-8 illustrate schematic structural views of an automated transport device 202 according to some embodiments of the present application, and fig. 9-11 illustrate schematic structural views of an article transport assembly of the automated transport device 202. Specifically, as shown in fig. 6 to 11, the automated transportation apparatus 200 generally includes an article-conveying assembly 100 and an automated guided vehicle 40, the article-conveying assembly 100 being fixed on top of the automated guided vehicle 40 so that the automated guided vehicle 40 can convey the article-conveying assembly 100 to a designated position.

As shown in fig. 9 to 11, the article transport assembly 100 includes a frame 10, two transport members 11 arranged substantially parallel to each other and mounted on the frame 10, and a plurality of carrier members 12 connected to the two transport members 11 arranged substantially parallel to each other. The conveyor 11 is connected to a driving device (such as a motor) and drives the carrier 12 to move under the driving of the driving device. Eight carrier members 12 are shown by way of example, but it will be appreciated that fewer than eight or more than eight carrier members 12 may be provided as desired by those skilled in the art.

In the figure, the conveying element 11 is a chain, however, it will be appreciated by a person skilled in the art that the conveying element may also be a rack and/or a belt or the like.

With continued reference to fig. 9-11, the article 20 is placed on the article carrier 12, the article carrier 12 is driven by the driving mechanism to move by the conveying member 11, the article 20 is kept flat on the article carrier 12 all the time during the operation of the conveying member 11, and the article 20 is kept parallel to the ground all the time because the article carrier 12 is kept parallel to the ground 5 all the time during the operation, so that the whole conveying process is very stable. In some embodiments, the carrier member 12 may be hinged to two conveyor members 11 that are substantially parallel to each other. In another embodiment, the carrier element 12 may also be fixed to the conveyor element 11 in other known ways. In some embodiments, the two substantially mutually parallel conveying members 11 may be arranged offset, i.e. the projections of the two substantially mutually parallel conveying members onto the plane of movement of the conveying members do not coincide but are offset by a distance from each other. So configured, it is ensured that the carrier member 12 remains at a predetermined angle, e.g., parallel, to the ground throughout the cyclic movement, regardless of the position of the carrier member 12 in motion, e.g., the carrier member 12 is above, below, and at various corners. In another embodiment, two conveyors 11, which are substantially parallel to each other, may also be arranged without a displacement.

With continued reference to fig. 9, the carrier 12 may be a flat plate tray having 15 front and rear attachment pins 121 and 122, respectively, at each end. The front connecting pin 122 at the right end of the tray is connected to the conveyor 11 on the right side (shown in fig. 9) of the frame 10, and the rear connecting pin 121 at the left end of the tray is connected to the conveyor 11 on the left side of the frame. In another embodiment, the carrier members 12 may be in the form of baskets or other forms that can carry items. When carrying thing piece 12 for closed or semi-enclosed structure, in whole cyclic motion in-process, carry thing piece 12 and also can not keep presetting the angle with ground, and rock to some extent, can set up some limit structure and restrict its degree of rocking, as long as ensure that the article that bear do not fall out can. When the carrier member 12 is a totally enclosed structure, it may not even be limited as long as it is fixed to the conveyor during transportation.

In another embodiment, the connection end of carrier member 12 to frame 10 may take other known forms and is not limited to the connecting pin described above.

In some embodiments, the front and rear connecting pins at the same end of the carrier 12 may be disposed at any position between one-quarter to one-third and two-thirds to three-quarters of the width of the tray, respectively, with the front connecting pins at both ends of the tray being in the same line and the rear connecting pins at both ends of the tray being in the same line. The front-back distance between two staggered conveying pieces which are parallel to each other is equal to the distance between the front connecting pin and the rear connecting pin at the two ends of the tray. The arrangement is such that the carrier member 12 runs smoothly while meeting the requirement that the front and rear sides of the carrier member 12 are perpendicular to the left and right side panels of the frame.

In some other embodiments, carrier member 12 may be provided with more connecting pins to accommodate conveyors of different offset distances. In one embodiment, the plurality of carrier members 12 are arranged uniformly and each carrier member 12 is hinged to a conveyor arranged parallel on either side of the frame. In another embodiment, multiple carrier members 12 may be arranged at different intervals depending on the height of the article.

It will be appreciated that the carrier members may be of other shapes, for example, they may be boxed, in which case the carrier members need not be held parallel to the ground but are delivered using a robotic arm or the like.

In this embodiment, the conveying member 11 is a chain, and the article conveying assembly 100 may further include a driving sprocket 13, a driven sprocket 14, and a motor (not shown), wherein the chain 11 is mounted on the driving sprocket 13 and the driven sprocket 14, and the motor is connected to the driving sprocket 13 and drives the driving sprocket 13 to rotate. It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that the sprocket 13 at the bottom of the frame may be provided as a driven sprocket and the sprocket 14 at the top of the frame may be provided as a driving sprocket. In some other embodiments, where the conveying member 11 is a rack or a belt, the article conveying assembly 100 may further include a rack or belt mating device, which will not be described herein since the rack or belt mating device is well known to those skilled in the art.

In some embodiments, the article conveying assembly 100 may further include a pulley assembly 15, a sliding rail 16, and a mounting plate 17, the mounting plate 17 is mounted on both sides of the frame 10, the sliding rail 16 is mounted on the mounting plate 17, and the pulley assembly 15 is mounted on the sliding rail 16 and connected to the two chains 11, so as to reduce the chain stress, improve the stability of the whole article conveying assembly, and prolong the service life of the whole article conveying assembly. In certain other embodiments, the pulley assembly, pulleys, and mounting plate may not be used.

With continued reference to fig. 9, article transfer assembly 100 may further include a discharge assembly 30, discharge assembly 30 engaging carrier member 12 to push out articles 20 on carrier member 12 when desired, thereby allowing cargo 20 to drop to a designated location. In some embodiments, the discharge assembly 30 may be installed at a particular height for discharge as desired. In some embodiments, the article transfer assembly 100 may include multiple discharge assemblies 30, with multiple discharge assemblies 30 being mounted at different heights to accommodate discharge.

In another embodiment, the article transport assembly 100 may not include a discharge assembly 30, which is removed by a robotic arm when the carrier article 12 is moved to the appropriate height.

In one embodiment, the unloading assembly 30 may be in the form of a push rod mechanism, the push rod mechanism includes a motor 31, a lead screw 32, a lead screw nut (not shown), a shear fork mechanism 33, a push plate 34 and a support plate 35, the lead screw nut (not shown) is hinged to the shear fork mechanism 33, and the motor 31 drives the lead screw 32 to rotate so as to make the nut perform linear motion and drive the shear fork mechanism 33 to perform linear motion, thereby pushing out the article on the article carrier.

Although the above embodiments describe such pusher mechanisms, it will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that other forms of discharge assemblies may be used, as long as they are capable of removing an article from a carrier member during its transport to a desired location.

In one embodiment, the article transfer assembly 100 may not include a discharge assembly. But the object carrying piece can be turned over when moving to the appointed position, so that the object on the object carrying piece falls to the appointed position.

At this moment, in order to ensure the stability of the object carrying piece, for example, a locking device can be added between the object carrying piece and the conveying piece, so that the object carrying piece and the conveying piece are locked with each other when the object carrying piece does not need to be turned over, the object carrying piece can stably convey the object, and when the object carrying piece needs to be turned over, the locking device is automatically or manually unlocked, and the function of turning over and dumping the object is realized. In some embodiments, the carrier may be held parallel to the ground by various known locking devices.

Referring to fig. 11, the article transport assembly 100 may further include a camera assembly 36, and the camera assembly 36 is mounted on a lower surface of the support plate 35 of the discharge assembly 30 to confirm destination information of the article by reading a two-dimensional code posted on the loading member 12 such as a pallet. In other embodiments, article transport assembly 100 may not include camera assembly 36 and may be manually or robotically moved for scanning.

As shown in fig. 6 to 8, the automated guided vehicle 40 includes a vehicle body 41, universal wheels 42, driving wheels 43, an obstacle avoidance module 44, a second camera assembly 45, a rotation mechanism 46, and a second tray 47. The universal wheels 42 are attached to the periphery of the bottom of the vehicle body 41, and serve to bear weight and keep the robot balanced. The second tray 47 is installed on the top of the vehicle body 41, the obstacle avoidance module 44 is installed on the head of the vehicle body 41, and the laser radar and the ultrasonic radar are contained, so that emergency parking is achieved when obstacles appear on the front side. The second camera assembly 45 is installed at a central position of the vehicle body and includes a camera 451 and a mounting bracket 452, and the camera 451 enables self-positioning and free movement of the automated guided vehicle by reading an identification code (e.g., a two-dimensional code or other customized identification code) laid on the ground.

Referring to fig. 6-8, the article transfer assembly 100 may be fixedly mounted to the second tray 47, such as by screws, such that the rotational movement of the automated guided vehicle and the cyclic movement of the article transfer mechanism are independent of each other, thereby maintaining the article transfer assembly 100 stationary relative to the ground during the rotation of the automated guided vehicle or rotating the article transfer assembly 100 while the automated guided vehicle is stationary in place, simplifying the motion of the automated guided vehicle and improving the efficiency and reliability of the transfer. And the automatic circulation conveying function of various articles can be realized through the article conveying assembly 100, and the article identification function is realized through the camera assembly 36 to finish the sorting function.

With continued reference to fig. 6, the automated guided vehicle 40 further includes a power supply device 48, and the power supply device 48 is mounted at the rear of the vehicle body and provided with an automatic charging module, so that the automated guided vehicle can be operated fully automatically.

In other certain embodiments, the automated guided vehicle 40 may employ more components or fewer components so long as the article transport assembly 100 can be transported to a designated location.

In addition, it is understood that the automatic transportation device of the embodiment of the present application may also adopt other structures, which are not limited herein. For example, an automated guided vehicle may releasably connect an article transport assembly to draw the article transport assembly into motion. At least two wheels are also provided below the article transport assembly when the automated guided vehicle is towing the article transport assembly. For another example, the article transport assembly may be partially article-carrying members of fixed height and partially article-carrying members of adjustable height, such that fragile articles are placed on the fixed-height article-carrying members, and the remaining articles are placed on the adjustable-height article-carrying members for transport, etc.

FIG. 12 is a block diagram of a system according to an embodiment of the present application. The system includes, but is not limited to, laptop devices, desktop machines, handheld PCs, personal digital assistants, engineering workstations, servers, network appliances, network hubs, switches, embedded processors, Digital Signal Processors (DSPs), graphics devices, video game devices, set-top boxes, microcontrollers, cellular telephones, portable media players, handheld devices, and other systems of various other electronic devices. In general, a number of systems and electronic devices capable of containing the processors and/or other execution logic disclosed in this application are generally suitable.

Referring now to FIG. 12, shown is a block diagram of a system 1200 in accordance with one embodiment of the present application. The system 1200 may include one or more processors 1201 coupled to a controller hub 1203. In one embodiment, controller hub 1203 includes, but is not limited to, a Graphics Memory Controller Hub (GMCH) (not shown) and an input/output hub (IOH) (which may be on separate chips) (not shown), where the GMCH includes a memory and a graphics controller and is coupled with the IOH. The system 1200 may also include a coprocessor 1202 and a memory 1204 coupled to the controller hub 1203. Alternatively, one or both of the memory and GMCH may be integrated within the processor (as described herein), with the memory 1204 and coprocessor 1202 being directly coupled to the processor 1201 and to the controller hub 1203, with the controller hub 1203 and IOH being in a single chip. The optional nature of coprocessor 1202 is represented in FIG. 12 by dashed lines. The system 1200 exchanges data with external devices through the I/O interface 1205.

The memory 1204 may be, for example, Dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM), Phase Change Memory (PCM), or a combination of the two. For at least one embodiment, controller hub 1203 communicates with processor 1201 via a multi-drop bus such as a front-side bus (FSB), a point-to-point interface such as a quick channel interconnect (QPI), or similar connection 1206.

In one embodiment, coprocessor 1202 is a special-purpose processor, such as, for example, a high-throughput MIC processor, a network or communication processor, compression engine, graphics processor, GPGPU, embedded processor, or the like. In one embodiment, the controller hub 1203 may include an integrated graphics accelerator.

In one embodiment, the processor 1201 executes instructions that control data processing operations of a general type. Coprocessor instructions may be embedded in these instructions. The processor 1201 recognizes these coprocessor instructions as being of a type that should be executed by the attached coprocessor 1202. Thus, the processor 1201 issues these coprocessor instructions (or control signals representing coprocessor instructions) on a coprocessor bus or other interconnect to coprocessor 1202. Coprocessor 1202 accepts and executes the received coprocessor instructions.

Referring now to fig. 13, shown is a block diagram of a SoC (System on Chip) 1300 in accordance with an embodiment of the present application. In fig. 13, like parts have the same reference numerals. In addition, the dashed box is an optional feature of more advanced socs. In FIG. 13, an interconnect unit 1350 is coupled to the application processor 1310, the SOC 1300 including, but not limited to, a set of one or more CPU cores and shared cache units and registers; a system agent unit 1380; a bus controller unit 1390; an integrated memory controller unit 1340; a set or one or more coprocessors 1320 which may include integrated graphics logic, an image processor, an audio processor, and a video processor; a Static Random Access Memory (SRAM) unit 1330; a Direct Memory Access (DMA) unit 1360. In one embodiment, the coprocessor 1320 includes a special-purpose processor, such as, for example, a network or communication processor, compression engine, GPGPU, a high-throughput MIC processor, embedded processor, or the like.

Embodiments of the mechanisms disclosed herein may be implemented in hardware, software, firmware, or a combination of these implementations. Embodiments of the application may be implemented as computer programs or program code executing on programmable systems comprising at least one processor, a storage system (including volatile and non-volatile memory and/or storage elements), at least one input device, and at least one output device.

Program code may be applied to input instructions to perform the functions described herein and generate output information. The output information may be applied to one or more output devices in a known manner. For purposes of this application, a processing system includes any system having a processor such as, for example, a Digital Signal Processor (DSP), a microcontroller, an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), or a microprocessor.

The program code may be implemented in a high level procedural or object oriented programming language to communicate with a processing system. The program code can also be implemented in assembly or machine language, if desired. Indeed, the mechanisms described in this application are not limited in scope to any particular programming language. In any case, the language may be a compiled or interpreted language.

As used herein, the term module or unit may refer to or include an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), an electronic circuit, a processor (shared, dedicated, or group) and/or memory (shared, dedicated, or group) that execute one or more software or firmware programs, a combinational logic circuit, and/or other suitable components that provide the described functionality, or may be part of an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), an electronic circuit, a processor (shared, dedicated, or group) and/or memory (shared, dedicated, or group) that execute one or more software or firmware programs, a combinational logic circuit, and/or other suitable components that provide the described functionality.

In some cases, the disclosed embodiments may be implemented in hardware, firmware, software, or any combination thereof. The disclosed embodiments may also be implemented as instructions carried by or stored on one or more transitory or non-transitory machine-readable (e.g., computer-readable) storage media, which may be read and executed by one or more processors. For example, the instructions may be distributed via a network or via other computer readable media. Thus, a machine-readable medium may include any mechanism for storing or transmitting information in a form readable by a machine (e.g., a computer), including, but not limited to, floppy diskettes, optical disks, read-only memories (CD-ROMs), magneto-optical disks, read-only memories (ROMs), Random Access Memories (RAMs), erasable programmable read-only memories (EPROMs), electrically erasable programmable read-only memories (EEPROMs), magnetic or optical cards, flash memory, or a tangible machine-readable memory for transmitting information (e.g., carrier waves, infrared digital signals, etc.) using the internet in an electrical, optical, acoustical or other form of propagated signal. Thus, a machine-readable medium includes any type of machine-readable medium suitable for storing or transmitting electronic instructions or information in a form readable by a machine (e.g., a computer).

In the drawings, some features of the structures or methods may be shown in a particular arrangement and/or order. However, it is to be understood that such specific arrangement and/or ordering may not be required. Rather, in some embodiments, the features may be arranged in a manner and/or order different from that shown in the illustrative figures. In addition, the inclusion of a structural or methodical feature in a particular figure is not meant to imply that such feature is required in all embodiments, and in some embodiments, may not be included or may be combined with other features.

It should be noted that, in the embodiments of the apparatuses in the present application, each unit/module is a logical unit/module, and physically, one logical unit/module may be one physical unit/module, or may be a part of one physical unit/module, and may also be implemented by a combination of multiple physical units/modules, where the physical implementation manner of the logical unit/module itself is not the most important, and the combination of the functions implemented by the logical unit/module is the key to solve the technical problem provided by the present application. Furthermore, in order to highlight the innovative part of the present application, the above-mentioned device embodiments of the present application do not introduce units/modules which are not so closely related to solve the technical problems presented in the present application, which does not indicate that no other units/modules exist in the above-mentioned device embodiments.

It is noted that, in the examples and descriptions of this patent, relational terms such as first and second, and the like are 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. Also, 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, the use of the verb "comprise a" to define an element does not exclude the presence of another, same element in a process, method, article, or apparatus that comprises the element.

Reference throughout this specification to "one embodiment" or "an embodiment" means that a particular feature, structure, or characteristic described in connection with the embodiment is included in at least one embodiment. Thus, the appearances of the phrases "in one embodiment" or "in an embodiment" in various places throughout this specification are not necessarily all referring to the same embodiment. Furthermore, the particular features, structures, or characteristics may be combined in any suitable manner in one or more embodiments.

Further technical solutions of the present application are summarized in the following examples:

embodiment 1 may include a method of sorting articles, the method comprising:

the method comprises the steps that the automatic transportation equipment acquires a transportation path of the automatic transportation equipment, wherein the transportation path is determined based on destination information of at least two articles carried by the automatic transportation equipment;

the automatic transportation equipment respectively transports the carried at least two items to an item receiving place corresponding to the destination information of each item based on the acquired transportation path, and delivers the items to the item receiving equipment at the corresponding item receiving place at a corresponding delivery height, wherein the delivery height is related to the item receiving equipment.

Embodiment 2 may include the article sorting method of embodiment 1, wherein before the automatic transport apparatus acquires the transport path of the automatic transport apparatus, further comprising:

the automatic transportation equipment acquires the destination related information of the article from the carried article and sends the acquired destination information to a server so that the server can determine the transportation path based on the received destination information.

Embodiment 3 may include the method of sorting items of embodiments 1 or 2, wherein the automated transport equipment includes an item transport assembly and an automated guided vehicle;

the article conveying assembly comprises a frame, two conveying pieces which are arranged on the frame and are parallel to each other, and a plurality of article carrying pieces which are connected with the two conveying pieces which are parallel to each other, wherein the conveying pieces are connected with a driving device and drive the article carrying pieces to circularly move under the driving of the driving device so as to rotate the articles on the article carrying pieces to the delivery height;

the article transport assembly is mounted on the automated guided vehicle or the automated guided vehicle is releasably coupled to the article transport assembly to cause the article transport assembly to move.

Embodiment 4 may include the method of embodiment 3, wherein the article transfer assembly further comprises a discharge portion that cooperates with the carrier article to move the article on the carrier away from the carrier article at a desired height when desired.

Embodiment 5 may include the article sorting method of any one of embodiments 1 to 4, wherein before the automatic transport apparatus acquires the transport path of the automatic transport apparatus, further comprising:

at least two carrier objects in the plurality of carrier objects of the automatic transportation equipment, which are at different heights, receive at least two articles simultaneously from delivery places with different heights; or

At least two of the plurality of articles of the automatic transport device receive the articles at different heights from the delivery locations with different heights in sequence.

Embodiment 6 may include the method of sorting articles of embodiment 1, wherein the article receiving locations have a plurality of article receiving devices at different heights.

Embodiment 7 may include a method of sorting articles, comprising:

the server acquires destination information of at least two articles carried by the automatic transportation equipment;

the server determines a transportation path of the automatic transportation equipment based on the acquired destination information, so as to: the automatic transportation equipment respectively transports the at least two loaded articles to article receiving places corresponding to destination information of the articles, and delivers the articles to the article receiving equipment of the article receiving places at corresponding delivery heights at the corresponding article receiving places, wherein the delivery heights are related to the article receiving equipment.

Embodiment 8 may include the method of sorting articles of embodiment 7, further comprising:

and if the indication information of the full article of the article receiving equipment at the article receiving place is received, sending shipping information to the automatic shipping equipment, so that the automatic shipping equipment drags the article receiving equipment full of articles away, and ships another article receiving equipment to the article receiving place.

Embodiment 9 may include the item sorting method of embodiment 7 or 8, wherein destination information of the item has a correspondence with the item receiving place; and is

The method further comprises the following steps:

the server counts the destination information of the articles uploaded by at least one article receiving device received in a preset time period, and adjusts the article receiving position corresponding to the destination information according to the counting result, so that the article receiving position corresponding to the destination information with more occurrence times in the preset time period is closer to the supply device of the article.

Embodiment 10 may include an automated transport apparatus comprising:

the system comprises a first acquisition module, a second acquisition module and a third acquisition module, wherein the first acquisition module is used for acquiring a transportation path of the automatic transportation equipment, and the transportation path is determined based on destination information of at least two articles carried by the automatic transportation equipment;

and the conveying module is used for controlling the automatic conveying equipment to convey the at least two loaded articles to article receiving places corresponding to the destination information of the articles respectively based on the acquired conveying paths, and delivering the articles to the article receiving equipment at the article receiving places at corresponding delivery heights, wherein the delivery heights are related to the article receiving equipment.

Embodiment 11 may include a server comprising:

the second acquisition module is used for acquiring destination information of at least two articles carried by the automatic transportation equipment;

the determining module is used for determining a transportation path of the automatic transportation device based on the acquired destination information, so that the automatic transportation device respectively transports the at least two loaded articles to an article receiving place corresponding to the destination information of each article based on the transportation path, and delivers the articles to the article receiving device at the article receiving place at the corresponding article receiving place at a corresponding delivery height, wherein the delivery height is related to the article receiving device.

Embodiment 12 may include a machine-readable medium having instructions stored thereon, which when executed on a machine, cause the machine to perform a method of sorting articles as described in any of embodiments 1-9.

Embodiment 13 may include a system comprising:

A processor, which is one of the processors of the system, for performing the method for sorting items according to any one of embodiments 1 to 9.

While the present application has been shown and described with reference to certain preferred embodiments thereof, it will be understood by those of ordinary skill in the art that various changes in form and details may be made therein without departing from the spirit and scope of the present application.

Claims

1. A method of sorting articles, comprising:

2. The article sorting method according to claim 1, further comprising, before the automatic transport apparatus acquires the transport path of the automatic transport apparatus:

the automatic transportation equipment acquires the destination related information of the article from the carried article and sends the acquired destination related information to a server so that the server can determine the transportation path based on the received destination related information.

3. The item sorting method according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the automatic transport apparatus includes an item conveying assembly and an automated guided vehicle;

4. The article sorting method according to claim 3, wherein the article transfer assembly further comprises a discharge portion that cooperates with the carrier article to separate the article on the carrier article from the carrier article at a desired height when desired.

5. The article sorting method according to claim 1, further comprising, before the automatic transport apparatus acquires the transport path of the automatic transport apparatus:

6. The method of sorting articles as in claim 1, wherein the article receiving station has a plurality of article receiving devices at different heights.

7. A method of sorting articles, comprising:

8. The method of sorting articles as claimed in claim 7, further comprising:

9. The article sorting method according to claim 7 or 8, wherein there is a correspondence relationship between destination-related information of the article and the article receiving place; and is

The method further comprises the following steps:

the server counts the destination related information of the articles uploaded by at least one article receiving device received in a preset time period, and adjusts the article receiving position corresponding to the destination related information according to the counting result, so that the article receiving position corresponding to the destination related information with more occurrence times in the preset time period is closer to the supply device of the article.

10. An automated transport apparatus, comprising:

11. A server, comprising:

and the determining module is used for determining a transportation path of the automatic transportation device based on the acquired destination related information, so that the automatic transportation device respectively transports the at least two loaded articles to an article receiving place corresponding to the destination information of each article based on the transportation path, and delivers the articles to the article receiving device at the article receiving place at the corresponding article receiving place at a corresponding delivery height, wherein the delivery height is related to the article receiving device.

12. A machine-readable medium having stored thereon instructions which, when executed on a machine, cause the machine to perform the method of sorting articles of any of claims 1 to 9.

13. A system, comprising:

A processor, being one of the processors of the system, for performing the method of sorting an item of any one of claims 1 to 9.