CN112150078A

CN112150078A - Material handling method, system, device and central management equipment

Info

Publication number: CN112150078A
Application number: CN202011063472.3A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 白寒; 贾永华; 吴永海; 李必勇
Original assignee: Hangzhou Hikrobot Technology Co Ltd
Current assignee: Hangzhou Hikrobot Technology Co Ltd
Priority date: 2020-09-30
Filing date: 2020-09-30
Publication date: 2020-12-29
Also published as: WO2022068454A1

Abstract

The disclosure provides a material handling method, a material handling system, a material handling device and central management equipment, and relates to the technical field of automation equipment. The method comprises the following steps: acquiring attribute information of a material to be carried; determining at least one target handling device; determining a carrying position of each target carrying device for carrying the material according to the attribute information of the material and the device information of the at least one target carrying device; based on the carrying position of each target carrying device, at least one target carrying device is controlled to carry materials at the carrying position of the target carrying device, the requirement on the appearance structure of the carrying device is lowered, the carrying device with any appearance structure can be applied to the material carrying process, and the flexibility of dispatching the carrying device is improved.

Description

Material handling method, system, device and central management equipment

Technical Field

The disclosure relates to the technical field of automation equipment, in particular to a material handling method, a material handling system, a material handling device and central management equipment.

Background

With the development of automation equipment, the intelligent robot is more and more widely applied to the aspects of production, manufacturing, storage, logistics and the like. For example, in production manufacturing, a material to be processed or the like is carried by a carrier robot. However, materials involved in the production and manufacturing process may be various, and sizes, shapes, weights and the like of different materials are different, so that robots of different types are required to be used for carrying the materials, and therefore, carrying robots of various types are required to be provided, and the input of the carrying robots is wasted.

In the related art, in order to reduce the waste of investment caused by providing transfer robots of different models, different materials are transferred by assembling a plurality of robots. For example, the magnetic sticker is arranged on a side plate of the carrying robot, a plurality of carrying robots are assembled into a whole matched with materials through the magnetic sticker according to information such as the size, the shape and the weight of the materials to be carried in response to material carrying, and therefore the materials with different sizes, shapes and weights can be carried.

In the related art, since a plurality of transfer robots need to be assembled into a whole, for any material, the transfer robots for transferring the material need to be assembled according to the size, shape, weight and the like of the material, and the requirements on the shape structure and the like of the transfer robots are high during the assembly process, which results in an inflexible scheduling manner of the transfer robots.

Disclosure of Invention

The disclosure provides a material handling method, a material handling system, a material handling device and a central management device, which can simplify the operation process of material handling. The technical scheme comprises the following steps:

according to an aspect of an embodiment of the present disclosure, there is provided a material handling method, including:

acquiring attribute information of a material to be carried; and determining at least one target handling apparatus for handling the material;

determining a carrying position of each target carrying device for carrying the material according to the attribute information of the material and the device information of the at least one target carrying device;

controlling the at least one target handling apparatus to handle the material at the handling position of the target handling apparatus based on the handling position of each target handling apparatus.

In some embodiments, the determining at least one target handling apparatus for handling the material comprises:

determining a plurality of carrying clusters according to the attribute information of the materials, wherein each carrying cluster comprises at least one carrying device with different quantity;

selecting a target carrying cluster with the least number of carrying equipment from the plurality of carrying clusters;

determining all handling devices of the target handling cluster as the at least one target handling device.

In some embodiments, the determining a plurality of handling clusters from the property information of the material includes:

determining a plurality of target quantities, wherein the target quantities are the quantities of the conveying equipment in the conveying cluster;

for each target number, dividing the plurality of handling apparatuses into a plurality of handling apparatus combinations, each handling apparatus combination including the target number of handling apparatuses;

determining, according to the attribute information of the material, a handling equipment combination in which a distance between the handling positions of any two handling equipment is smaller than a minimum safety gap and a total weight that can be handled by the handling equipment combination is larger than a weight of the material from among the plurality of handling equipment combinations, and obtaining at least one handling cluster corresponding to the target number;

determining the plurality of handling clusters based on at least one handling cluster corresponding to each target number.

In some embodiments, said determining said plurality of handling clusters based on said at least one handling cluster corresponding to each target quantity comprises:

for each target number of at least one handling cluster, determining a distance between each handling apparatus and the material in each handling cluster; determining the handling cluster with the minimum sum of the distances between the handling equipment and the materials as the handling cluster corresponding to the number; alternatively, the first and second electrodes may be,

for at least one handling cluster of each target number, determining a scheduling duration of each handling cluster, the scheduling duration of the handling cluster being a longest duration from a current position to the material by a handling device in the handling cluster; and selecting the carrying cluster with the shortest scheduling time length from the plurality of carrying clusters according to the scheduling time length of each carrying cluster.

In some embodiments, the determining a handling position at which each target handling apparatus handles the material based on the property information of the material and the apparatus information of the at least one target handling apparatus comprises:

determining the bearing capacity required by each stress key point of the material according to the attribute information of the material;

acquiring the maximum load bearing capacity of each target carrying device from the device information of the at least one target carrying device;

for target carrying equipment, selecting a target stress key point from each stress key point, wherein the load capacity required by the target stress key point is not more than the maximum load capacity of the target carrying equipment;

and determining the conveying position of the target conveying equipment based on the target stress key point.

In some embodiments, the determining, according to the attribute information of the material, a load bearing capacity required by each stressed key point of the material includes:

acquiring the weight and the shape of the material from the attribute information of the material;

determining the number of stressed key points matched with the shape according to the shape of the material;

and analyzing the stress points of the material based on the weight of the material and the number of the stress key points to obtain the bearing capacity required by each stress key point.

In some embodiments, the determining the handling position of the target handling apparatus based on the target force critical point includes:

taking the target stress key point as a conveying position of the target conveying equipment; alternatively, the first and second electrodes may be,

and taking the ground position corresponding to the target stress key point as the conveying position of the target conveying equipment.

In some embodiments, said controlling said at least one target handling apparatus to handle said material at said target handling apparatus 'handling position based on said each target handling apparatus' handling position comprises:

generating a first carrying task according to the carrying position of the at least one target carrying device;

determining a first handling device from the at least one target handling device;

and sending the first carrying task to the first carrying equipment, so that the first carrying equipment sends a carrying subtask to at least one second carrying equipment in the at least one target carrying equipment according to the carrying position of each target carrying equipment in the first carrying task.

for each target conveying device, generating a second conveying task based on the conveying position of the target conveying device;

and sending the second carrying task to the target carrying equipment.

According to another aspect of embodiments of the present disclosure, there is provided a materials handling system, the system comprising: a central management facility, a plurality of conveyance facilities;

the central management equipment is used for acquiring attribute information of the materials to be carried; and determining at least one target handling apparatus for handling the material; determining a carrying position of each target carrying device for carrying the material according to the attribute information of the material and the device information of the at least one target carrying device; controlling the at least one target handling apparatus to handle the material at the handling position of the target handling apparatus based on the handling position of each target handling apparatus;

the plurality of handling equipment is used for handling the materials at the handling positions of the target handling equipment under the control of the at least one target handling equipment by the central management equipment.

In some embodiments, the central management device is further configured to determine, according to the attribute information of the material, a plurality of handling clusters, where each handling cluster includes at least one handling device of a different number; selecting a target carrying cluster with the least number of carrying equipment from the plurality of carrying clusters; determining all handling devices of the target handling cluster as the at least one target handling device.

In some embodiments, the central management device is further configured to determine a plurality of target numbers, where the target numbers are numbers of the handling devices in the handling cluster; for each target number, dividing the plurality of handling apparatuses into a plurality of handling apparatus combinations, each handling apparatus combination including the target number of handling apparatuses; determining, according to the attribute information of the material, a handling equipment combination in which a distance between the handling positions of any two handling equipment is smaller than a minimum safety gap and a total weight that can be handled by the handling equipment combination is larger than a weight of the material from among the plurality of handling equipment combinations, and obtaining at least one handling cluster corresponding to the target number; determining the plurality of handling clusters based on at least one handling cluster corresponding to each target number.

In some embodiments, the central management facility is further configured to, for each target number of at least one handling cluster, determine a distance between each handling facility and the item in each handling cluster; determining the handling cluster with the minimum sum of the distances between the handling equipment and the materials as the handling cluster corresponding to the number; alternatively, the first and second electrodes may be,

the central management equipment is further configured to determine, for each target number of at least one handling cluster, a scheduling duration of each handling cluster, where the scheduling duration of a handling cluster is a longest duration from a current position to the material of a handling equipment in the handling cluster; and selecting the carrying cluster with the shortest scheduling time length from the plurality of carrying clusters according to the scheduling time length of each carrying cluster.

In some embodiments, the central management apparatus is further configured to determine, according to the attribute information of the material, a load bearing amount required by each stressed key point of the material; acquiring the maximum load bearing capacity of each target carrying device from the device information of the at least one target carrying device; for target carrying equipment, selecting a target stress key point from each stress key point, wherein the load capacity required by the target stress key point is not more than the maximum load capacity of the target carrying equipment; and determining the conveying position of the target conveying equipment based on the target stress key point.

In some embodiments, the central management apparatus is further configured to obtain the weight and the shape of the material from the attribute information of the material; determining the number of stressed key points matched with the shape according to the shape of the material; and analyzing the stress points of the material based on the weight of the material and the number of the stress key points to obtain the bearing capacity required by each stress key point.

In some embodiments, the central management device is further configured to use the target stress key point as a carrying position of the target carrying device; alternatively, the first and second electrodes may be,

and the central management equipment is also used for taking the ground position corresponding to the target stress key point as the carrying position of the target carrying equipment.

In some embodiments, the central management apparatus is further configured to generate a first transporting task according to the transporting position of the at least one target transporting apparatus; determining a first handling device from the at least one target handling device; sending the first carrying task to the first carrying equipment;

the first carrying equipment is used for receiving a first carrying task sent by the central management equipment; sending a carrying subtask to at least one second carrying equipment in the at least one target carrying equipment according to the carrying position of each target carrying equipment in the first carrying task;

the at least one second carrying device is used for receiving the carrying subtasks sent by the first carrying device and carrying the materials based on the carrying subtasks.

In some embodiments, the central management apparatus is further configured to generate, for each target handling apparatus, a second handling task based on the handling position of the target handling apparatus; sending the second carrying task to the target carrying equipment;

the at least one target handling device is used for receiving the second handling task and handling the materials based on the second handling task.

In some embodiments, a communication module is disposed on each of the plurality of handling apparatuses, and data interaction is performed between the plurality of handling apparatuses through the communication module.

According to another aspect of the disclosed embodiments, there is provided a materials handling apparatus, the apparatus comprising:

the acquisition module is used for acquiring the attribute information of the material to be carried;

a first determination module to determine at least one target handling apparatus for handling the material;

the second determining module is used for determining the carrying position of each target carrying device for carrying the material according to the attribute information of the material and the device information of the at least one target carrying device;

and the control module is used for controlling the at least one target carrying device to carry the material at the carrying position of the target carrying device based on the carrying position of each target carrying device.

In some embodiments, the first determining module comprises:

the first determining unit is used for determining a plurality of carrying clusters according to the attribute information of the materials, and each carrying cluster comprises at least one carrying device with different quantities;

a first selection unit configured to select a target transport cluster having the smallest number of transport devices from the plurality of transport clusters;

a second determining unit, configured to determine all the conveying apparatuses in the target conveying cluster as the at least one target conveying apparatus.

In some embodiments, the first determination unit comprises:

the first determining subunit is used for determining a plurality of target quantities, wherein the target quantities are the quantities of the conveying equipment in the conveying cluster;

a dividing subunit, configured to divide, for each target number, the plurality of handling apparatuses into a plurality of handling apparatus combinations, each handling apparatus combination including the target number of handling apparatuses;

a second determining subunit, configured to determine, according to the attribute information of the material, a combination of handling apparatuses, where a distance between the handling positions of any two of the handling apparatuses is smaller than a minimum safety gap, and a total weight that can be handled by the combination of handling apparatuses is larger than a weight of the material, from among the plurality of combinations of handling apparatuses, to obtain at least one handling cluster corresponding to the target number;

a third determining subunit, configured to determine the multiple handling clusters based on at least one handling cluster corresponding to each target number.

In some embodiments, the third determining subunit is configured to determine, for each target number of at least one handling cluster, a distance between each handling apparatus and the item in each handling cluster; determining the handling cluster with the minimum sum of the distances between the handling equipment and the materials as the handling cluster corresponding to the number; alternatively, the first and second electrodes may be,

a third determining subunit, configured to determine, for each target number of at least one transport cluster, a scheduling duration of each transport cluster, where the scheduling duration of a transport cluster is a longest duration from a current position to the material of a transport apparatus in the transport cluster; and selecting the carrying cluster with the shortest scheduling time length from the plurality of carrying clusters according to the scheduling time length of each carrying cluster.

In some embodiments, the second determining module comprises:

the third determining unit is used for determining the bearing capacity required by each stress key point of the material according to the attribute information of the material;

an obtaining unit, configured to obtain a maximum load capacity of each target transport apparatus from the apparatus information of the at least one target transport apparatus;

the second selection unit is used for selecting a target stress key point from each stress key point for target carrying equipment, and the load capacity required by the target stress key point is not more than the maximum load capacity of the target carrying equipment;

and the fourth determining unit is used for determining the conveying position of the target conveying equipment based on the target stress key point.

In some embodiments, the third determining unit is configured to obtain the weight and the shape of the material from the attribute information of the material; determining the number of stressed key points matched with the shape according to the shape of the material; and analyzing the stress points of the material based on the weight of the material and the number of the stress key points to obtain the bearing capacity required by each stress key point.

In some embodiments, the fourth determining unit is configured to use the target force-bearing key point as the carrying position of the target carrying apparatus; alternatively, the first and second electrodes may be,

and the fourth determining unit is used for taking the ground position corresponding to the target stress key point as the carrying position of the target carrying equipment.

In some embodiments, the control module is configured to generate a first handling task according to a handling position of the at least one target handling device; determining a first handling device from the at least one target handling device; and sending the first carrying task to the first carrying equipment, so that the first carrying equipment sends a carrying subtask to at least one second carrying equipment in the at least one target carrying equipment according to the carrying position of each target carrying equipment in the first carrying task.

In some embodiments, the control module is configured to generate, for each target handling apparatus, a second handling task based on a handling position of the target handling apparatus; and sending the second carrying task to the target carrying equipment.

According to another aspect of the embodiments of the present disclosure, there is provided a central management apparatus including a processor and a memory, the memory storing therein at least one program code, the at least one program code being loaded and executed by the processor to implement the instructions of the materials handling method according to the embodiments of the present disclosure.

According to another aspect of the embodiments of the present disclosure, there is provided a computer-readable storage medium, wherein at least one program code is stored in the computer-readable storage medium, and the at least one program code is loaded and executed by a processor to implement the instructions of the material handling method according to the embodiments of the present disclosure.

According to another aspect of the embodiments of the present disclosure, there is provided an application program, wherein when the program code of the application program is executed by a processor of a central management device, the application program implements the instructions of the material handling method according to the embodiments of the present disclosure.

The technical scheme provided by the embodiment of the disclosure can have the following beneficial effects:

in the embodiment of the disclosure, at least one target carrying device capable of carrying the material is selected according to the attribute information of the material, and the target carrying devices are controlled to carry the material at corresponding carrying positions, so that in the process of carrying the material, the carrying devices do not need to be assembled, and carrying work can be completed without being attached between the carrying devices, therefore, information such as shapes and sizes of the carrying devices does not need to be considered, so that the requirements on the appearance structures of the carrying devices are reduced, the carrying devices with any appearance structures can be applied to the process of carrying the material, and the flexibility of dispatching the carrying devices is improved.

It is to be understood that both the foregoing general description and the following detailed description are exemplary and explanatory only and are not restrictive of the disclosure.

Drawings

The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated in and constitute a part of this specification, illustrate embodiments consistent with the invention and together with the description, serve to explain the principles of the invention.

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a materials handling system shown in accordance with an exemplary embodiment;

FIG. 2 is a schematic illustration of a handling apparatus shown in accordance with an exemplary embodiment;

FIG. 3 is a flow diagram illustrating a method of material handling in accordance with an exemplary embodiment;

FIG. 4 is a flow diagram illustrating a method of material handling in accordance with an exemplary embodiment;

FIG. 5 is a flow diagram illustrating a method of material handling in accordance with an exemplary embodiment;

FIG. 6 is a flow diagram illustrating a method of material handling in accordance with an exemplary embodiment;

FIG. 7 is a schematic illustration of a material handling system shown in accordance with an exemplary embodiment;

FIG. 8 is a schematic illustration of a material handling system shown in accordance with an exemplary embodiment;

FIG. 9 is a schematic illustration of a material handling system shown in accordance with an exemplary embodiment;

FIG. 10 is a schematic illustration of a material handling system shown in accordance with an exemplary embodiment;

FIG. 11 is a schematic illustration of a material handling system shown in accordance with an exemplary embodiment;

FIG. 12 is a block diagram illustrating a materials handling apparatus in accordance with an exemplary embodiment;

fig. 13 is a schematic diagram illustrating a configuration of a central management device according to an example embodiment.

Detailed Description

Reference will now be made in detail to the exemplary embodiments, examples of which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings. When the following description refers to the accompanying drawings, like numbers in different drawings represent the same or similar elements unless otherwise indicated. The embodiments described in the following exemplary embodiments do not represent all embodiments consistent with the present invention. Rather, they are merely examples of apparatus and methods consistent with certain aspects of the invention, as detailed in the appended claims.

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a materials handling system shown in accordance with an exemplary embodiment. As shown in fig. 1, the materials handling system includes: a central management facility and a plurality of handling facilities.

The central management equipment is used for acquiring attribute information of the materials to be carried; and determining at least one target handling apparatus for handling the material; determining a carrying position of each target carrying device for carrying the material according to the attribute information of the material and the device information of the at least one target carrying device; controlling the at least one target handling equipment to handle the material at the handling position of the target handling equipment based on the handling position of each target handling equipment;

the plurality of handling equipment is used for handling the materials at the handling positions of the target handling equipment under the control of the central management equipment by the at least one target handling equipment.

The central management equipment and the plurality of carrying equipment are provided with first communication modules, and the central management equipment can perform data interaction with the plurality of carrying equipment through the first communication modules. And a second communication module is arranged on the plurality of carrying devices, and data interaction is carried out among the plurality of carrying devices through the second communication module. The first communication module and the second communication module are the same or different, and are not particularly limited in the embodiments of the present disclosure. For example, the first communication module and the second communication module are both WIFI (Wireless Fidelity), bluetooth module, and the like.

In this implementation, a plurality of handling equipment communicate through communication module to need not to connect and just can realize the data interaction, handling equipment need not to link together at the in-process of carrying the material like this, makes handling equipment can not combine together when carrying the material, makes the handling equipment of arbitrary appearance structure can both use the in-process of carrying the material, has improved the flexibility of dispatch handling equipment.

Alternatively, the plurality of conveyance apparatuses are the same conveyance apparatus or different conveyance apparatuses, and in the embodiment of the present disclosure, the size, shape, and form of the plurality of conveyance apparatuses are not particularly limited. Referring to fig. 2, fig. 2 illustrates several handling apparatuses according to an exemplary embodiment. Each carrying device comprises a walking drive, a universal caster, a lifting mechanism, a translation mechanism, a display screen, an obstacle avoidance module, a navigation module and the like. Alternatively, the walking drive is used for driving the carrying device to move, and the walking drive is any form of walking drive, for example, the walking drive is differential drive, omnidirectional differential drive, mecanum wheel drive, steering engine, any form of drive capable of realizing straight walking, and the like, and in the embodiment of the present disclosure, the walking drive is not particularly limited. The universal caster is used for realizing the change of the advancing direction of the carrying equipment. The lifting mechanism is used for controlling lifting or lowering of conveyed materials, and the lifting mechanism is used for controlling at least one piece of conveying equipment to be in the same horizontal position in the material conveying process. The lifting mechanism is provided with a translation mechanism which is used for horizontally moving and sending out the materials after lifting or putting down the materials. The translating mechanism is any mechanism capable of translating a material, for example, the translating mechanism is a belt transferring mechanism, a roller transferring mechanism, a chain transferring mechanism, and the like. The display screen is used for displaying information such as the working state, the carrying route and the like of the current carrying equipment.

The central management device is a terminal or a server. And responding to the fact that the central management equipment is a terminal, and the central management equipment is a mobile phone, a computer, a tablet computer or wearable equipment and the like. In response to that the central management device is a server, and the central management device is an independent server, a server cluster composed of a plurality of servers, or a cloud server, etc., in the embodiment of the present disclosure, the central management device is not particularly limited.

In addition, due to the fact that the materials are conveyed through the plurality of conveying devices, the materials can move in any direction through the plurality of conveying devices, and accordingly the materials can be conveyed to achieve omnidirectional walking, namely straight walking, transverse walking, oblique walking and arbitrary curve walking. The reason is that the lifting mechanism of the carrying equipment is provided with the turntable, and a single carrying equipment becomes a walking driving wheel capable of rotating 360 degrees relative to materials, so that the carrying equipment cluster becomes a carrying equipment capable of translating in all directions. Alternatively, in response to the carrying device adopting a differential walking driving structure, the turntable is required to be configured; in response to the fact that the carrying equipment adopts an omnidirectional walking driving structure, such as a steering engine, a differential omnidirectional steering engine, a Mecanum walking driving structure and the like, a turntable is not needed to be configured.

In some embodiments, the central management device is further configured to determine a plurality of handling clusters according to the attribute information of the material, where each handling cluster includes at least one handling device of a different number; selecting a target transport cluster with the least transport equipment number from the plurality of transport clusters; all handling apparatuses in the target handling cluster are determined as the at least one target handling apparatus.

In this implementation, the central management device determines at least one target handling device suitable for the current handling from the plurality of handling devices by determining the attribute information of the materials and the device information of the handling devices, so that the handling device more suitable for the current materials can be selected from the plurality of material handling devices, and the accuracy of selecting the handling devices is improved on the premise of ensuring the flexibility of selecting the handling devices.

In some embodiments, the central management device is further configured to determine a plurality of target numbers, where the target numbers are numbers of the handling devices in the handling cluster; for each target number, dividing the plurality of handling equipment into a plurality of handling equipment combinations, wherein each handling equipment combination comprises the target number of handling equipment; determining a carrying equipment combination which has a distance between the carrying positions of any two carrying equipment smaller than the minimum safety gap and a total weight which can be carried by the carrying equipment combination larger than the weight of the material from the plurality of carrying equipment combinations according to the attribute information of the material to obtain at least one carrying cluster corresponding to the target number; and determining the plurality of handling clusters based on at least one handling cluster corresponding to each target number.

In the embodiment of the disclosure, the carrying clusters are determined according to the target number respectively, so that the carrying equipment can be freely combined, the carrying equipment in different types can be combined, and the combination form of the carrying equipment is more flexible.

In some embodiments, the central management facility is further configured to, for each target number of at least one handling cluster, determine a distance between each handling facility and the item in each handling cluster; determining the carrying cluster with the minimum sum of the distances between the carrying equipment and the materials as the carrying cluster corresponding to the number; alternatively, the first and second electrodes may be,

the central management device is further configured to determine, for each of the at least one handling cluster of the target number, a scheduling duration of each handling cluster, where the scheduling duration of the handling cluster is a longest duration from a current position of the handling device in the handling cluster to the material; and selecting the carrying cluster with the shortest scheduling time length from the plurality of carrying clusters according to the scheduling time length of each carrying cluster.

In the implementation mode, the handling equipment closest to the materials is determined from at least one handling cluster, so that unnecessary energy consumption of the handling equipment is reduced, and energy of the handling equipment is saved. Or the carrying equipment with the shortest time for reaching the materials is determined from at least one carrying cluster respectively, so that the carrying efficiency is improved.

In some embodiments, the central management device is further configured to determine, according to the attribute information of the material, a load bearing amount required by each stressed key point of the material; acquiring the maximum load bearing capacity of each target carrying device from the device information of the at least one target carrying device; for target carrying equipment, selecting a target stress key point from each stress key point, wherein the load capacity required by the target stress key point is not more than the maximum load capacity of the target carrying equipment; and determining the conveying position of the target conveying equipment based on the target stress key point.

In the implementation mode, the target carrying equipment matched with the stress key points is determined according to the bearing capacity required by each stress key point of the material, and then the carrying position of the target carrying equipment is determined, so that the carrying position of the target carrying equipment is more matched with the target carrying equipment.

In some embodiments, the central management device is further configured to obtain the weight and the shape of the material from the attribute information of the material; determining the number of stressed key points matched with the shape according to the shape of the material; and analyzing the stress points of the material based on the weight of the material and the number of the stress key points to obtain the bearing capacity required by each stress key point.

In the implementation mode, the stress points of the materials are analyzed according to the attribute information of the materials, so that the accuracy of determining the stress key points of the materials and the bearing capacity required by each stress key point is improved.

the central management equipment is also used for taking the ground position corresponding to the target stress key point as the conveying position of the target conveying equipment.

In the implementation mode, the stress key point or the bottom surface position corresponding to the stress key point is used as the conveying position of the target conveying equipment, and the determination form of the target conveying position is enriched.

the at least one second handling device is used for receiving the handling subtasks sent by the first handling device and handling the materials based on the handling subtasks.

In this implementation manner, the central management device only needs to generate one first carrying task, and the first carrying device sends the first carrying task to the first carrying device, so that the first carrying device controls at least one second carrying device to carry out material carrying, thereby reducing the data processing pressure of the central management device.

In the implementation mode, the central management equipment generates the second carrying task of each carrying equipment, so that the carrying equipment only needs to receive and execute the carrying task, and the data processing requirement of the carrying equipment is reduced.

Optionally, the first transporting device acquires the position information of the second transporting device according to the device identifier of the second transporting device; or the central management equipment acquires the equipment identifier of the second carrying equipment and sends the acquired equipment identifier of the second carrying equipment to the first carrying equipment. In the embodiment of the present disclosure, a method for acquiring the device identifier of the second handling device by the first handling device is not particularly limited.

FIG. 3 is a flow diagram illustrating a method of material handling in accordance with an exemplary embodiment. As shown in fig. 3, the traffic control method includes the following steps.

Step 301: acquiring attribute information of a material to be carried; and determining at least one target handling apparatus for handling the material.

Step 302: and determining a handling position of each target handling device for handling the material according to the attribute information of the material and the equipment information of the at least one target handling device.

Step 303: and controlling the at least one target handling equipment to handle the material at the handling position of the target handling equipment based on the handling position of each target handling equipment.

determining a plurality of carrying clusters according to the attribute information of the material, wherein each carrying cluster comprises at least one carrying device with different quantity;

selecting a target transport cluster with the least transport equipment number from the plurality of transport clusters;

all handling apparatuses in the target handling cluster are determined as the at least one target handling apparatus.

for each target number, dividing the plurality of handling equipment into a plurality of handling equipment combinations, wherein each handling equipment combination comprises the target number of handling equipment;

determining a carrying equipment combination which has a distance between the carrying positions of any two carrying equipment smaller than the minimum safety gap and a total weight which can be carried by the carrying equipment combination larger than the weight of the material from the plurality of carrying equipment combinations according to the attribute information of the material to obtain at least one carrying cluster corresponding to the target number;

and determining the plurality of handling clusters based on at least one handling cluster corresponding to each target number.

In some embodiments, the determining the plurality of handling clusters based on the at least one handling cluster corresponding to each target quantity includes:

for each target number of at least one handling cluster, determining a distance between each handling apparatus and the material in each handling cluster; determining the carrying cluster with the minimum sum of the distances between the carrying equipment and the materials as the carrying cluster corresponding to the number; alternatively, the first and second electrodes may be,

for at least one handling cluster with each target quantity, determining the scheduling duration of each handling cluster, wherein the scheduling duration of each handling cluster is the longest duration from the current position to the material of the handling equipment in the handling cluster; and selecting the carrying cluster with the shortest scheduling time length from the plurality of carrying clusters according to the scheduling time length of each carrying cluster.

In some embodiments, the determining a handling position at which each target handling apparatus handles the material based on the property information of the material and the equipment information of the at least one target handling apparatus comprises:

In some embodiments, the determining, according to the attribute information of the material, a load bearing amount required by each stressed key point of the material includes:

In some embodiments, the controlling the at least one target handling apparatus to handle the material at the handling position of the target handling apparatus based on the handling position of each target handling apparatus comprises:

generating a first conveying task according to the conveying position of the at least one target conveying device;

and sending the second conveying task to the target conveying equipment.

FIG. 4 is a flow diagram illustrating a method of material handling in accordance with an exemplary embodiment. As shown in fig. 4, the method includes the following steps.

Step 401: the central management equipment acquires attribute information of the materials to be carried.

The attribute information of the material to be carried comprises information such as weight, shape, position coordinates and size of the material to be carried.

Optionally, the central management device receives attribute information of the material input by the user. Accordingly, the central manager receives attribute information input by the user directly or indirectly. For example, the user sends the attribute information of the materials to be transported to the central management device through the terminal, and the central management device receives the attribute information sent by the terminal and determines the attribute information as the attribute information of the materials to be transported. Or displaying an attribute information filling option in the central management equipment, receiving the attribute information input by the user through the attribute information filling option by the central management equipment, and determining the received attribute information as the attribute information of the material to be carried.

Step 402: and the central management equipment determines a plurality of carrying clusters according to the attribute information of the materials.

Wherein each handling cluster comprises at least one handling device with different number. In this step, the central management device determines a plurality of handling clusters corresponding to different target quantities according to the attribute information of the material. The process is realized by the following steps (1) to (4), and comprises the following steps:

(1) the central management device determines a plurality of target quantities.

Wherein the target number is the number of the handling equipment in the handling cluster. The target number is used for dividing the plurality of conveying equipment by the central management equipment according to the target number. The target carrying number is set and changed as needed, and is not particularly limited in the embodiment of the present disclosure. For example, the plurality of target numbers are 2, 3, 4, and so on, respectively.

(2) For each target number, the central management apparatus divides the plurality of carrying apparatuses into a plurality of carrying apparatus combinations, each carrying apparatus combination including the target number of carrying apparatuses.

In this step, the central management facility selects a conveyance facility set from among the plurality of conveyance facilities, in accordance with the different number. For example, referring to fig. 5 and 6, the number of the conveying apparatuses is 2, 3, and 4, respectively, for example, and for each target number, a combination of cooperative conveying by different conveying apparatuses for the target number is determined from the plurality of conveying apparatuses.

Alternatively, the central management apparatus can randomly select a conveyance apparatus corresponding to each target number from the plurality of conveyance apparatuses. Or the central management equipment acquires the electric quantity of each of the plurality of carrying equipment according to the equipment information of the plurality of carrying equipment, and selects the carrying equipment with the residual electric quantity more than the preset electric quantity from the plurality of carrying equipment according to the electric quantity of each carrying equipment. Or the central management equipment acquires the current position coordinates of the plurality of carrying equipment according to the equipment information of the plurality of carrying equipment, and selects the carrying equipment which is closer to the material to be carried from the plurality of carrying equipment according to the current position coordinates of the plurality of carrying equipment. In the embodiment of the present disclosure, a method for selecting the handling apparatus set by the central management apparatus is not particularly limited.

The device information of each handling device includes a weight bearing amount, a shape, a device identifier, position information, and the like of the handling device. In addition, for the equipment information of the plurality of conveying equipment, the central management equipment can also store the equipment identification of the plurality of conveying equipment in advance, and record the working state, the electric quantity information and the like of each conveying equipment. When the conveying equipment is selected, at least one conveying equipment capable of working is determined from the plurality of conveying equipment directly according to the equipment identification of the conveying equipment and other information of the conveying equipment which are stored in advance.

(3) And the central management equipment determines the carrying equipment combination with the distance between the carrying positions of any two carrying equipment smaller than the minimum safety gap and the total weight capable of being carried by the carrying equipment combination larger than the weight of the material from the plurality of carrying equipment combinations according to the attribute information of the material, and obtains at least one carrying cluster corresponding to the target number.

The minimum safety gap is a minimum distance for ensuring safe operation between AGV (automatic Guided Vehicle) handling equipment. The minimum safety clearance is set and changed as needed, and in the embodiment of the present disclosure, the minimum safety clearance is not particularly limited. For example, the minimum safety clearance is 1cm, 2cm, or 3cm, etc.

In this step, the central management facility first determines whether each number of handling facilities is free to move during the material handling process. Correspondingly, the central management equipment determines the size of the conveying equipment in each conveying equipment combination from the equipment information of the conveying equipment; and acquiring the size of the material from the attribute information of the material, and determining whether the minimum safety clearance can be ensured in the material handling process of the handling equipment set. The size of the carrying equipment is the autorotation diameter of the carrying equipment, namely the diameter of a circle obtained by horizontally rotating the carrying equipment for one circle by taking the geometric center of the carrying equipment as the center of the circle, namely the horizontal floor area of the carrying equipment.

And the central management equipment verifies whether the minimum safety clearance can be ensured for the carrying equipment according to different carrying modes. For example, with continued reference to FIG. 5, for any material, the number of current handling equipment is n; the bearing capacity of each conveying device is respectively T1, T2, T3, T4, … … Tn and the like, and the bearing capacity of the conveying device selected from the T1, the Tm, Tu, Tj and the like; the sizes of the conveying equipment are respectively DA1, DA2, DA3, DA4, … … DAN and the like, and the sizes of the conveying equipment selected from the conveying equipment are respectively DAk, DAm, DAu, DAj and the like; the distances from the current carrying equipment to the materials are respectively D1, D2, D3, D4, … … Dn and the like, and the distances from the selected carrying equipment to the materials are respectively Dk, Dm, Du and Dj; the minimum safety clearance is B.

For the number of handling equipment 2, see fig. 7, the material is rectangular, the handling equipment is located at both ends of the material, the size of the handling robot is DAk and DAm, the length of the material is L, and the minimum safety clearance is B. Half the size of each handling robot does not exceed half the difference between the length of the material and the minimum safety clearance, then the two handling apparatuses should satisfy 0.5 DAk < 0.5L-0.5B, and 0.5 DAm < 0.5L-0.5B;

for the case that the number of the carrier devices is 3, referring to fig. 8 or 9, the carrier devices are respectively located at three top corners of the material, the sizes of the carrier robots are DAk, DAm and DAu, respectively, the length of one right-angle side of the material is L, the length of the other right-angle side of the material is W, and the minimum safety clearance is B. Half the size of each transfer robot on each side does not exceed half the difference between the side length and the minimum safety gap, and three transfer apparatuses should satisfy 0.5 Dam +0.5 DAk < (W + L)^{^}0.5-B, and, 0.5 Dam +0.5 Dam DAu < (W + L)^{^}0.5-B and, 0.5 DAk < 0.5L-0.5B, and, 0.5L DAu < 0.5L-0.5B;

for the case that the number of the handling devices is 4, referring to fig. 10, the material is rectangular, the handling devices are respectively located at the four top corners of the material, the sizes of the handling robots are DAk, DAm, DAu and DAj, the length of the material is L, and the width of the material is W, and then the sum of the sizes of the two handling devices corresponding to each side is smaller than the difference between the side length and the minimum safety gap. Then the four transfer apparatuses should satisfy 0.5 DAk +0.5 DAm < L-B, and 0.5 DAk +0.5 DAu < W-B, and 0.5 DAj DAu +0.5 DAj < L-B, and 0.5 DAj +0.5 DAm < W-B.

In some embodiments, for a strip-like item of length L, for a number of handling equipment of 2, see fig. 11, the handling robots are dimensioned DAk and DAm, respectively, the item length L and the minimum safety clearance B. If the distance between the two transport devices is not less than the minimum safety gap, the two transport devices should satisfy 0.5 × DAk +0.5 × DAm < L-B;

for the case where the number of the carrier devices is 3, the sizes of the carrier robots are DAk, DAm, and DAu, respectively, the material length is L, and the minimum safety clearance is B. If the interval between every two conveying devices is not less than the minimum safety clearance, the three conveying devices should satisfy 0.5 × Dam +0.5 × DAk + DAu < L-2B;

for the case of the number of the transfer devices being 4, the transfer robots are respectively DAk, DAm, DAu, and DAj, the length of the material is L, and the interval between every two transfer devices is not less than the minimum safety gap, then three transfer devices should satisfy 0.5 × DAm +0.5 × DAk + DAu + DAj < L-3B.

In this step, the central management facility determines the conditions that the number of the corresponding handling apparatuses satisfy in the handling mode, and determines the total weight of the handling of each group of the handling apparatuses that satisfy the conditions, for example, in the case of two handling apparatuses, the total weight of the handling corresponding to the group of the handling apparatuses is Tk + Tm if the carrying amounts of the handling apparatuses are Tk and Tm, respectively; for the case of three conveying devices, the load carrying amounts of the conveying devices are Tk, Tm and Tu respectively, and the total conveying weight corresponding to the group of conveying devices is Tk + Tm + Tu; for the case of four conveying apparatuses, the carrying capacities of the conveying apparatuses are Tk, Tm, Tu and Tj, respectively, and the total conveying weight corresponding to the group of conveying apparatuses is Tk + Tm + Tu + Tj, and so on.

In response to any number of conveyance apparatuses that do not satisfy the condition, the number of conveyance modes in the conveyance mode is not effective.

The central management facility selects a handling cluster having a total weight bearing greater than the weight of the material from a plurality of handling combinations that meet the minimum safety clearance. Accordingly, the central management device determines the sum of the weight bearing capacity of the handling device in the plurality of handling combinations, thereby determining the weight bearing capacity value and the handling combination which is not less than the weight of the material.

It should be noted that, the central management device determines, from the multiple combinations of the handling devices, that the distance between the handling positions of any two of the handling devices is smaller than the minimum safety gap, and then determines the combination of the handling devices whose total weight that can be handled by the combination of the handling devices is greater than the weight of the material, to obtain at least one handling cluster corresponding to the target number; or the central management equipment determines the carrying equipment combination with the total weight which can be carried by the carrying equipment combination larger than the weight of the material, and then determines that the distance between the carrying positions of any two carrying equipment is smaller than the minimum safety clearance, so as to obtain at least one carrying cluster corresponding to the target number. In the embodiments of the present disclosure, this order is not particularly limited.

In the embodiment of the disclosure, the carrying clusters are determined according to the equipment information of the carrying equipment and the attribute information of the materials respectively, so that the carrying equipment can be freely combined, carrying equipment of different types can be combined, and the combination form of the carrying equipment is more flexible.

For each type of the transport clusters corresponding to the target number, the central management facility selects a group of transport clusters with the closest sum of the distances from the transport facility to the materials as the transport clusters corresponding to the target number from the transport clusters corresponding to the same target number. That is, for each target number of at least one handling cluster, the central management facility determines a distance between each handling facility and the material in each handling cluster; and determining the handling cluster with the minimum sum of the distances between the handling equipment and the materials as the handling cluster corresponding to the number. For example, in the case of 2 transport apparatuses, the transport cluster with the smallest Dk + Dm is selected from the transport clusters as the transport cluster corresponding to two transport apparatuses, in the case of 3 transport apparatuses, the transport cluster with the smallest Dk + Dm + Du is selected from the transport clusters as the transport cluster corresponding to three transport apparatuses, and in the case of 4 transport apparatuses, the transport cluster with the smallest Dk + Dm + Du + Dj is selected from the transport clusters as the transport cluster corresponding to four transport apparatuses, and so on. And Dk, Dm, Du and Dj are distances between the handling equipment and the materials respectively.

In the implementation mode, the central management equipment selects the carrying equipment closest to the materials, so that unnecessary energy consumption of the carrying equipment is reduced, and the energy of the carrying equipment is saved.

Or, for each type of carrying clusters corresponding to the target quantity, the central management equipment selects a group of carrying clusters with the fastest carrying equipment all reaching the material from the carrying clusters corresponding to the same target quantity as the carrying clusters corresponding to the quantity. That is, for at least one handling cluster of each target number, determining a scheduling duration of each handling cluster, where the scheduling duration of the handling cluster is a longest duration from a current position to the material of a handling device in the handling cluster; and selecting the carrying cluster with the shortest scheduling time length from the plurality of carrying clusters according to the scheduling time length of each carrying cluster.

In the implementation mode, the central management equipment determines the carrying equipment with the shortest time for reaching the materials from at least one carrying cluster, so that the carrying efficiency is improved.

The central management facility further determines the plurality of transporting facility clusters according to different transporting methods. Wherein the carrying mode is a carrying mode preset in the terminal management equipment. Alternatively, the conveyance system may be a parallel conveyance system, a diffusion conveyance system, or the like. In the embodiment of the present disclosure, the conveyance method is not particularly limited.

Optionally, the handling pattern is determined according to the shape of the material. For example, the material is triangular, the central management device determines that the material is conveyed in a diffusion type, and correspondingly, the conveying robot diffuses at the positions of three corners of the material; for another example, the material is in a strip shape, the central management device determines that the material handling mode is a parallel handling mode, and correspondingly, the handling robot carries the material in parallel.

The method includes that in the process of confirming a material carrying mode, in response to that the material is rectangular in shape, the terminal further determines the material carrying mode according to the aspect ratio of the rectangle, and in response to that the aspect ratio of the material is smaller than a preset threshold value, the central management device determines that the material is wide, and a diffusion type carrying mode is adopted; and responding to the fact that the length-width ratio of the materials is not smaller than a preset threshold value, the central management equipment determines that the materials are long-strip-shaped, and a parallel type carrying mode is adopted.

Another point to be noted is that the shape of the material is the geometric shape of the material, or the shape of the material is a shape determined according to the geometric center of gravity of the material. In the embodiments of the present disclosure, the determination manner of the shape of the material is not particularly limited. For example, in response to the shape of the material being an irregular shape, the central management apparatus determines the position of the center of gravity of the material based on the shape of the material, and determines the shape corresponding to the geometric center of gravity of the material based on the position of the center of gravity. Accordingly, in this step, the central management facility selects a conveyance facility set from the plurality of conveyance facilities according to the different number of conveyance modes.

Step 403: the central management facility selects a target transport cluster having the smallest number of transport facilities from the plurality of transport clusters.

Optionally, the central management device determines at least one carrying cluster in each target quantity, and selects a carrying cluster with the least quantity from the at least one carrying cluster; or the central management equipment firstly determines the carrying clusters meeting the conditions under the condition of two carrying equipment, and directly determines the two carrying equipment as the carrying cluster with the least carrying equipment number in response to the existence of the two carrying equipment meeting the conditions; in response to the absence of eligible two carrier clusters, the central management facility determines eligible three carrier clusters, and so on.

Step 404: the central management apparatus determines all the transport apparatuses in the target transport cluster as the at least one target transport apparatus.

In this step, the central management apparatus determines at least one handling apparatus of the determined handling cluster as a target handling apparatus for handling the material to be handled.

Step 405: the central management equipment determines the carrying position of each target carrying equipment for carrying the material according to the attribute information of the material and the equipment information of the at least one target carrying equipment.

The carrying position is a position where the target carrying equipment carries the material, the target carrying position is a contact point of the material, or the bottom position where the target carrying equipment carries the material. In the embodiments of the present disclosure, this is not particularly limited. Correspondingly, the central management equipment takes the target stress key point as the conveying position of the target conveying equipment; or, the central management equipment takes the ground position corresponding to the target stress key point as the conveying position of the target conveying equipment.

Optionally, the central management apparatus randomly assigns at least one center of gravity to the at least one target handling apparatus. Or, the central management device determines the position of each target conveying device, and determines the gravity center closest to the target conveying device for at least one target conveying device according to the position of each target management device. Or the central management device determines the load bearing capacity of the at least one target carrying device according to the device information of the at least one target management device, and divides the gravity center of weight matching for the at least one target device according to the load bearing capacity of the at least one target carrying device.

Correspondingly, in a possible implementation manner, the central management equipment determines the shape of the material according to the attribute information of the material; determining a handling position of each of the target handling apparatuses based on the shape of the material and the apparatus information of the plurality of handling apparatuses. In the implementation mode, the conveying position of each target conveying device is determined according to the shape of the material, so that the process of determining the conveying position of the conveying device is simplified, and the efficiency of conveying the determined conveying position of the conveying device is improved.

In another possible implementation manner, the central management device performs area division on the material according to the number of the at least one target handling device and the attribute information of the material to obtain a handling area of the material; a conveyance position in each conveyance area is determined. In this implementation, the material is divided into regions, so that the carrying position of each carrying device is more accurate.

In the step, the central management equipment determines the bearing capacity required by each stress key point of the material according to the attribute information of the material; and determining target carrying equipment matched with the load capacity, and finishing the distribution of the carrying position. The process is realized by the following steps (1) to (4), and comprises the following steps:

(1) and the central management equipment determines the load bearing capacity required by each stress key point of the material according to the attribute information of the material.

In this step, the central management device obtains the weight and the shape of the material from the attribute information of the material, and analyzes the stress point of the material according to the weight and the shape of the material to obtain the load bearing capacity required by each stress key point. The process is realized by the following steps (1-1) to (1-3), including:

(1-1) the central management device acquires the weight and shape of the material from the attribute information of the material.

In this step, the central management device calls the attribute information of the material, and reads the weight and shape of the material from the attribute information.

And (1-2) determining the number of stressed key points matched with the shape by the central management equipment according to the shape of the material.

In this step, the central management device determines the number of stressed key points from the correspondence between the shape and the stressed key points according to the shape of the material. For example, the material is in a strip shape, and the number of the stress key points is determined to be two; the shape of the material is triangular, and the number of the stress key points is determined to be 3; the shape of the material is rectangular, and the number of the stress key points is 4, and the like.

And (1-3) the central management equipment analyzes the stress points of the material based on the weight of the material and the number of the stress key points to obtain the bearing capacity required by each stress key point.

Wherein, the central management equipment analyzes the stress point of the material by any stress analysis method. And the central management equipment takes the quotient of the weight of the material and the number of the stress points as the required bearing capacity of each stress key point.

(2) The central management device acquires the maximum load bearing capacity of each target carrying device from the device information of the at least one target carrying device.

In this step, the central management apparatus calls the apparatus information of the at least one target conveyance apparatus, and reads the maximum load bearing amount of each conveyance apparatus from the apparatus information.

(3) For the target carrying equipment, the central management equipment selects a target stress key point from each stress key point, and the load capacity required by the target stress key point is not more than the maximum load capacity of the target carrying equipment.

And the central management equipment compares the load capacity required by each stress key point with the load capacity of the target carrying equipment, and determines the target carrying equipment of which the maximum load capacity is not less than the target stress key point from the at least one target carrying equipment.

(4) And the central management equipment determines the conveying position of the target conveying equipment based on the target stress key point.

Step 406: the central management equipment controls the at least one target handling equipment to carry the material at the carrying position of the target handling equipment based on the carrying position of each target handling equipment.

Alternatively, the central management apparatus can directly control the at least one target carrying apparatus, and the central management apparatus can also control the other carrying apparatuses by one carrying apparatus of the at least one target carrying apparatus.

Accordingly, in one possible implementation, the central management transmits the conveying positions to the at least one target conveying device. The process is as follows: for each target transport apparatus, the central management apparatus generates a second transport job based on the transport position of the target transport apparatus. The central management device sends the second transportation task to the target transportation device.

In another possible implementation manner, the central management device determines a first carrying device from the at least one target carrying device, and determines other target carrying devices as second carrying devices; the central management device sends the at least one carrying position to the first carrying device, and sends the device identification of the second carrying device to the first carrying device, and each second carrying device of the first carrying device sends the carrying position of the second carrying device. The process is realized by the following steps (1) to (3), and comprises the following steps:

(1) the central management device generates a first conveying task according to the conveying position of the at least one target conveying device.

The handling task includes a start coordinate position and an end coordinate position for handling the material. In this step, the central management device determines the weight, the start position coordinates, the end position coordinates, and the like of the material according to the attribute information, plans a transportation route according to the start position coordinates and the end position coordinates, and creates a first transportation task.

(2) The central management device determines a first carrying device from the at least one target carrying device

In this step, the central management apparatus selects the first transporting apparatus from the at least one target transporting apparatus. The first carrying equipment is a main carrying equipment in the carrying group. Optionally, the central management device randomly selects one carrying device from the at least one target carrying device as the first carrying device; or the central management equipment determines the electric quantity of each carrying equipment in the at least one target carrying equipment, selects the carrying equipment with the highest electric quantity from the at least one target carrying equipment, and determines the carrying equipment with the highest electric quantity as the first carrying equipment; or the central management equipment determines equipment identifications in at least one target carrying equipment, and selects the target carrying equipment corresponding to the equipment identification with the equipment identification being the specified type from the at least one target carrying equipment as the first carrying equipment. In the embodiment of the present disclosure, a method of determining the first handling apparatus by the central management apparatus is not particularly limited.

The central management equipment sends the carrying task to the first carrying equipment, and the central management equipment is used for dividing the carrying subtasks for at least one second carrying equipment according to the carrying task by the first carrying equipment. And the central manager issues the created carrying task to the first carrying equipment. The first carrying equipment decomposes the received carrying task into subtasks and issues the subtasks to the second carrying equipment. Wherein the subtasks include lifting the material, carrying the material, lowering the material, etc. Before each subtask starts, the first carrying equipment sends the subtask to the second carrying equipment, and correspondingly, the second carrying equipment receives the carrying subtask sent by the first carrying equipment and executes the carrying subtask.

It should be noted that, after determining at least one target transporting apparatus, the central management apparatus creates a first transporting task; or the central management equipment creates a first carrying task before determining the at least one target carrying equipment; alternatively, the central management apparatus simultaneously determines at least one target transporting apparatus and creates the first transporting task. That is, in the embodiment of the present disclosure, the order of determining the target conveying apparatus and creating the first conveying task is not particularly limited.

(3) The central management device sends the first carrying task to the first carrying device, and is used for the first carrying device to send a carrying subtask to at least one second carrying device in the at least one target carrying device according to the carrying position of each target carrying device in the first carrying task.

It should be noted that, in addition to the coordination of each subtask, during the process of the lifting, moving and other moving subtasks, the consistency of the actions among the handling devices is ensured through a specific algorithm, that is, the heights of the lifted materials of the handling devices are ensured to be consistent at each time point during the lifting process. Meanwhile, in the process of moving materials by the carrying equipment, the relative position between the carrying equipment is kept unchanged through a specific formation keeping algorithm.

FIG. 12 is a block diagram illustrating a material handling apparatus in accordance with an exemplary embodiment. The apparatus is for performing the steps performed when performing the above method, see fig. 12, the apparatus comprising:

an obtaining module 1201, configured to obtain attribute information of a material to be handled;

a first determination module 1202 for determining at least one target handling apparatus for handling the material;

a second determining module 1203, configured to determine, according to the attribute information of the material and the equipment information of the at least one target handling equipment, a handling position at which each target handling equipment handles the material;

a control module 1204, configured to control the at least one target handling apparatus to handle the material at the handling position of the target handling apparatus based on the handling position of each target handling apparatus.

In some embodiments, the first determination module 1202 includes:

the first determining unit is used for determining a plurality of carrying clusters according to the attribute information of the material, and each carrying cluster comprises at least one carrying device with different quantity;

In some embodiments, the first determination unit comprises:

a third determining subunit, configured to determine the multiple handling clusters based on the at least one handling cluster corresponding to each target number.

In some embodiments, the third determining subunit is configured to determine, for each target number of at least one handling cluster, a distance between each handling apparatus and the item in each handling cluster; determining the carrying cluster with the minimum sum of the distances between the carrying equipment and the materials as the carrying cluster corresponding to the number; alternatively, the first and second electrodes may be,

a third determining subunit, configured to determine, for each target number of at least one transport cluster, a scheduling duration of each transport cluster, where the scheduling duration of the transport cluster is a longest duration from a current position to the material of a transport apparatus in the transport cluster; and selecting the carrying cluster with the shortest scheduling time length from the plurality of carrying clusters according to the scheduling time length of each carrying cluster.

In some embodiments, the second determining module 1203 includes:

an acquiring unit, configured to acquire a maximum load capacity of each target transporting apparatus from the apparatus information of the at least one target transporting apparatus;

the second selection unit is used for selecting a target stress key point from each stress key point for the target carrying equipment, and the load capacity required by the target stress key point is not more than the maximum load capacity of the target carrying equipment;

the fourth determining unit is configured to use the ground position corresponding to the target stress key point as the transporting position of the target transporting device.

In some embodiments, the control module 1204 is configured to generate a first handling task according to the handling position of the at least one target handling device; determining a first handling device from the at least one target handling device; and sending the first carrying task to the first carrying equipment, so that the first carrying equipment sends a carrying subtask to at least one second carrying equipment in the at least one target carrying equipment according to the carrying position of each target carrying equipment in the first carrying task.

In some embodiments, the control module 1204 is configured to generate, for each target handling apparatus, a second handling task based on the handling position of the target handling apparatus; and sending the second conveying task to the target conveying equipment.

It should be noted that: in the material handling device provided in the above embodiment, only the division of the functional modules is illustrated in the material handling process, and in practical applications, the function distribution may be performed by different functional modules as needed, that is, the internal structure of the device is divided into different functional modules to perform all or part of the functions described above. In addition, the material handling apparatus and the material handling method provided in the above embodiments belong to the same concept, and specific implementation processes thereof are described in detail in the method embodiments and are not described herein again.

Fig. 13 shows a block diagram of a central management apparatus 1300 according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention. The central management apparatus 1300 may be: a smart phone, a tablet computer, an MP3 player (Moving Picture Experts Group Audio Layer III, motion video Experts compression standard Audio Layer 3), an MP4 player (Moving Picture Experts Group Audio Layer IV, motion video Experts compression standard Audio Layer 4), a notebook computer, or a desktop computer. The central management apparatus 1300 may also be referred to as a user equipment, a portable terminal, a laptop terminal, a desktop terminal, or other names.

Generally, the central management apparatus 1300 includes: a processor 1301 and a memory 1302.

Processor 1301 may include one or more processing cores, such as a 4-core processor, an 8-core processor, and the like. The processor 1301 may be implemented in at least one hardware form of a DSP (Digital Signal Processing), an FPGA (Field-Programmable Gate Array), and a PLA (Programmable Logic Array). The processor 1301 may also include a main processor and a coprocessor, where the main processor is a processor for Processing data in an awake state, and is also referred to as a Central Processing Unit (CPU); a coprocessor is a low power processor for processing data in a standby state. In some embodiments, the processor 1301 may be integrated with a GPU (Graphics Processing Unit), which is responsible for rendering and drawing content that the display screen needs to display. In some embodiments, processor 1301 may further include an AI (Artificial Intelligence) processor for processing computational operations related to machine learning.

Memory 1302 may include one or more computer-readable storage media, which may be non-transitory. The memory 1302 may also include high speed random access memory, as well as non-volatile memory, such as one or more magnetic disk storage devices, flash memory storage devices. In some embodiments, a non-transitory computer readable storage medium in memory 1302 is used to store at least one instruction for execution by processor 1301 to implement the materials handling method provided by method embodiments herein.

In some embodiments, the central management apparatus 1300 may further include: a peripheral interface 1303 and at least one peripheral. Processor 1301, memory 1302, and peripheral interface 1303 may be connected by a bus or signal line. Each peripheral device may be connected to the peripheral device interface 1303 via a bus, signal line, or circuit board. Specifically, the peripheral device includes: at least one of radio frequency circuitry 1304, touch display 1305, camera 1306, audio circuitry 1307, positioning component 1308, and power supply 1309.

Peripheral interface 1303 may be used to connect at least one peripheral associated with I/O (Input/Output) to processor 1301 and memory 1302. In some embodiments, processor 1301, memory 1302, and peripheral interface 1303 are integrated on the same chip or circuit board; in some other embodiments, any one or two of the processor 1301, the memory 1302, and the peripheral device interface 1303 may be implemented on a separate chip or circuit board, which is not limited in this embodiment.

The Radio Frequency circuit 1304 is used to receive and transmit RF (Radio Frequency) signals, also called electromagnetic signals. The radio frequency circuitry 1304 communicates with communication networks and other communication devices via electromagnetic signals. The radio frequency circuit 1304 converts an electrical signal into an electromagnetic signal to transmit, or converts a received electromagnetic signal into an electrical signal. Optionally, the radio frequency circuit 1304 includes: an antenna system, an RF transceiver, one or more amplifiers, a tuner, an oscillator, a digital signal processor, a codec chipset, a subscriber identity module card, and so forth. The radio frequency circuitry 1304 may communicate with other control devices via at least one wireless communication protocol. The wireless communication protocols include, but are not limited to: metropolitan area networks, various generation mobile communication networks (2G, 3G, 4G, and 5G), Wireless local area networks, and/or WiFi (Wireless Fidelity) networks. In some embodiments, the radio frequency circuit 1304 may also include NFC (Near Field Communication) related circuits, which are not limited in this application.

The display screen 1305 is used to display a UI (User Interface). The UI may include graphics, text, icons, video, and any combination thereof. When the display screen 1305 is a touch display screen, the display screen 1305 also has the ability to capture touch signals on or over the surface of the display screen 1305. The touch signal may be input to the processor 1301 as a control signal for processing. At this point, the display 1305 may also be used to provide virtual buttons and/or a virtual keyboard, also referred to as soft buttons and/or a soft keyboard. In some embodiments, the display 1305 may be one, providing the front panel of the central management device 1300; in other embodiments, the display 1305 may be at least two, respectively disposed on different surfaces of the central managing apparatus 1300 or in a folded design; in still other embodiments, the display 1305 may be a flexible display disposed on a curved surface or on a folded surface of the central management device 1300. Even further, the display 1305 may be arranged in a non-rectangular irregular figure, i.e., a shaped screen. The Display 1305 may be made of LCD (Liquid Crystal Display), OLED (Organic Light-Emitting Diode), or the like.

The camera assembly 1306 is used to capture images or video. Optionally, camera assembly 1306 includes a front camera and a rear camera. Generally, a front camera is provided on a front panel of the control apparatus, and a rear camera is provided on a rear surface of the control apparatus. In some embodiments, the number of the rear cameras is at least two, and each rear camera is any one of a main camera, a depth-of-field camera, a wide-angle camera and a telephoto camera, so that the main camera and the depth-of-field camera are fused to realize a background blurring function, and the main camera and the wide-angle camera are fused to realize panoramic shooting and VR (Virtual Reality) shooting functions or other fusion shooting functions. In some embodiments, camera assembly 1306 may also include a flash. The flash lamp can be a monochrome temperature flash lamp or a bicolor temperature flash lamp. The double-color-temperature flash lamp is a combination of a warm-light flash lamp and a cold-light flash lamp, and can be used for light compensation at different color temperatures.

The audio circuit 1307 may include a microphone and a speaker. The microphone is used for collecting sound waves of a user and the environment, converting the sound waves into electric signals, and inputting the electric signals to the processor 1301 for processing, or inputting the electric signals to the radio frequency circuit 1304 for realizing voice communication. For stereo capture or noise reduction purposes, multiple microphones may be provided, each at a different location of the central management apparatus 1300. The microphone may also be an array microphone or an omni-directional pick-up microphone. The speaker is used to convert electrical signals from the processor 1301 or the radio frequency circuitry 1304 into sound waves. The loudspeaker can be a traditional film loudspeaker or a piezoelectric ceramic loudspeaker. When the speaker is a piezoelectric ceramic speaker, the speaker can be used for purposes such as converting an electric signal into a sound wave audible to a human being, or converting an electric signal into a sound wave inaudible to a human being to measure a distance. In some embodiments, audio circuitry 1307 may also include a headphone jack.

The positioning component 1308 is used to locate the current geographic Location of the central management device 1300 for navigation or LBS (Location Based Service). The Positioning component 1308 can be a Positioning component based on the GPS (Global Positioning System) of the united states, the beidou System of china, the graves System of russia, or the galileo System of the european union.

The power supply 1309 is used to supply power to the various components in the central management apparatus 1300. The power source 1309 may be alternating current, direct current, disposable or rechargeable. When the power source 1309 comprises a rechargeable battery, the rechargeable battery may support wired or wireless charging. The rechargeable battery may also be used to support fast charge technology.

In some embodiments, the central management apparatus 1300 further includes one or more sensors 1310. The one or more sensors 1310 include, but are not limited to: acceleration sensor 1311, gyro sensor 1312, pressure sensor 1313, fingerprint sensor 1314, optical sensor 1315, and proximity sensor 1316.

The acceleration sensor 1311 may detect the magnitude of acceleration on three coordinate axes of the coordinate system established with the central management apparatus 1300. For example, the acceleration sensor 1311 may be used to detect components of gravitational acceleration in three coordinate axes. The processor 1301 may control the touch display screen 1305 to display the user interface in a landscape view or a portrait view according to the gravitational acceleration signal collected by the acceleration sensor 1311. The acceleration sensor 1311 may also be used for acquisition of motion data of a game or a user.

The gyro sensor 1312 may detect the body direction and the rotation angle of the central management apparatus 1300, and the gyro sensor 1312 may collect the 3D motion of the user with respect to the central management apparatus 1300 in cooperation with the acceleration sensor 1311. Processor 1301, based on the data collected by gyroscope sensor 1312, may perform the following functions: motion sensing (such as changing the UI according to a user's tilting operation), image stabilization at the time of photographing, game control, and inertial navigation.

The pressure sensors 1313 may be disposed on the side bezel of the central management device 1300 and/or underneath the touch screen 1305. When the pressure sensor 1313 is disposed on the side frame of the central management apparatus 1300, a user's holding signal to the central management apparatus 1300 may be detected, and the processor 1301 performs left-right hand recognition or shortcut operation according to the holding signal acquired by the pressure sensor 1313. When the pressure sensor 1313 is disposed at a lower layer of the touch display screen 1305, the processor 1301 controls an operability control on the UI interface according to a pressure operation of the user on the touch display screen 1305. The operability control comprises at least one of a button control, a scroll bar control, an icon control and a menu control.

The fingerprint sensor 1314 is used for collecting the fingerprint of the user, and the processor 1301 identifies the identity of the user according to the fingerprint collected by the fingerprint sensor 1314, or the fingerprint sensor 1314 identifies the identity of the user according to the collected fingerprint. When the identity of the user is identified as a trusted identity, the processor 1301 authorizes the user to perform relevant sensitive operations, including unlocking a screen, viewing encrypted information, downloading software, paying, changing settings, and the like. The fingerprint sensor 1314 may be disposed on the front, back, or side of the central management device 1300. When a physical button or vendor Logo is provided on the central management device 1300, the fingerprint sensor 1314 may be integrated with the physical button or vendor Logo.

The optical sensor 1315 is used to collect the ambient light intensity. In one embodiment, the processor 1301 can control the display brightness of the touch display screen 1305 according to the intensity of the ambient light collected by the optical sensor 1315. Specifically, when the ambient light intensity is high, the display brightness of the touch display screen 1305 is increased; when the ambient light intensity is low, the display brightness of the touch display 1305 is turned down. In another embodiment, the processor 1301 can also dynamically adjust the shooting parameters of the camera assembly 1306 according to the ambient light intensity collected by the optical sensor 1315.

The proximity sensor 1316, also known as a distance sensor, is typically disposed on a front panel of the central management apparatus 1300. The proximity sensor 1316 is used to gather the distance between the user and the front face of the central management device 1300. In one embodiment, the processor 1301 controls the touch display 1305 to switch from the bright screen state to the dark screen state when the proximity sensor 1316 detects that the distance between the user and the front face of the central management device 1300 gradually decreases; when the proximity sensor 1316 detects that the distance between the user and the front face of the central management device 1300 becomes gradually larger, the touch display 1305 is controlled by the processor 1301 to switch from the breath-screen state to the bright-screen state.

Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the configuration shown in FIG. 13 does not constitute a limitation of the central management apparatus 1300, and may include more or fewer components than shown, or combine certain components, or employ a different arrangement of components.

In an exemplary embodiment, a computer readable storage medium is also provided, in which at least one program code is stored, the at least one program code being loaded and executed by a processor to implement the material handling method in the above-mentioned embodiments. The computer readable storage medium may be a memory. For example, the computer-readable storage medium may be a ROM (Read-Only Memory), a RAM (Random Access Memory), a CD-ROM (Compact Disc Read-Only Memory), a magnetic tape, a floppy disk, an optical data storage device, and the like.

In an embodiment of the present disclosure, a computer program product is further provided, where at least one program code is stored in the computer program product, and the at least one program code is loaded and executed by a processor, so as to implement the material handling method in the implementation of the present disclosure.

With regard to the apparatus in the above-described embodiment, the specific manner in which each module performs operations has been described in detail in the embodiment related to the method, and will not be described in detail here.

It will be understood that the invention is not limited to the precise arrangements described above and shown in the drawings and that various modifications and changes may be made without departing from the scope thereof. The scope of the invention is limited only by the appended claims.

Claims

1. A method of material handling, the method comprising:

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the determining at least one target handling equipment for handling the material comprises:

3. The method of claim 2, wherein determining a plurality of handling clusters based on the property information of the material comprises:

4. The method of claim 3, wherein said determining the plurality of handling clusters based on the at least one handling cluster corresponding to each target quantity comprises:

5. The method according to claim 1, wherein said determining a handling position for each target handling apparatus to handle the material based on the property information of the material and the apparatus information of the at least one target handling apparatus comprises:

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the determining the load bearing capacity required by each stressed key point of the material according to the attribute information of the material comprises:

7. The method of claim 5, wherein said determining a handling position of the target handling apparatus based on the target force critical point comprises:

8. The method according to claim 1, wherein said controlling said at least one target handling apparatus to handle said material at the handling position of said target handling apparatus based on the handling position of said each target handling apparatus comprises:

9. The method according to claim 1, wherein said controlling said at least one target handling apparatus to handle said material at the handling position of said target handling apparatus based on the handling position of said each target handling apparatus comprises:

and sending the second carrying task to the target carrying equipment.

10. A materials handling system, characterized in that the system comprises: a central management facility, a plurality of conveyance facilities;

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the central management facility is further configured to determine a plurality of handling clusters based on the property information of the material, each handling cluster including a different number of at least one handling device; selecting a target carrying cluster with the least number of carrying equipment from the plurality of carrying clusters; determining all handling devices of the target handling cluster as the at least one target handling device.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the central management facility is further configured to determine a plurality of target numbers, the target numbers being the number of handling facilities in a handling cluster; for each target number, dividing the plurality of handling apparatuses into a plurality of handling apparatus combinations, each handling apparatus combination including the target number of handling apparatuses; determining, according to the attribute information of the material, a handling equipment combination in which a distance between the handling positions of any two handling equipment is smaller than a minimum safety gap and a total weight that can be handled by the handling equipment combination is larger than a weight of the material from among the plurality of handling equipment combinations, and obtaining at least one handling cluster corresponding to the target number; determining the plurality of handling clusters based on at least one handling cluster corresponding to each target number.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the central management facility is further configured to determine, for each target number of at least one handling cluster, a distance between each handling facility and the item in each handling cluster; determining the handling cluster with the minimum sum of the distances between the handling equipment and the materials as the handling cluster corresponding to the number; alternatively, the first and second electrodes may be,

14. The method of claim 10, wherein the central management device is further configured to determine a required load bearing capacity for each stressed key point of the material according to the attribute information of the material; acquiring the maximum load bearing capacity of each target carrying device from the device information of the at least one target carrying device; for target carrying equipment, selecting a target stress key point from each stress key point, wherein the load capacity required by the target stress key point is not more than the maximum load capacity of the target carrying equipment; and determining the conveying position of the target conveying equipment based on the target stress key point.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the central management device is further configured to obtain the weight and shape of the material from the property information of the material; determining the number of stressed key points matched with the shape according to the shape of the material; and analyzing the stress points of the material based on the weight of the material and the number of the stress key points to obtain the bearing capacity required by each stress key point.

16. The method according to claim 14, wherein the central management facility is further configured to use the target force-bearing key point as a handling position of the target handling facility; alternatively, the first and second electrodes may be,

17. The method according to claim 10, wherein the central management facility is further configured to generate a first handling task based on the handling position of the at least one target handling facility; determining a first handling device from the at least one target handling device; sending the first carrying task to the first carrying equipment;

18. The method according to claim 10, characterized in that the central management facility is further configured to generate, for each target handling apparatus, a second handling task based on the handling position of the target handling apparatus; sending the second carrying task to the target carrying equipment;

19. The system of claim 10, wherein a communication module is provided on each handling device, and data interaction between the plurality of handling devices is performed through the communication module.

20. A materials handling apparatus, characterized in that the apparatus comprises:

21. A central management device comprising a processor and a memory, the memory having stored therein at least one program code, the at least one program code being loaded and executed by the processor to carry out the instructions of the materials handling method as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 9.