CN113415567A

CN113415567A - Article processing method, device, equipment, system and storage medium

Info

Publication number: CN113415567A
Application number: CN202110791432.9A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 高玉蓉
Original assignee: Hai Robotics Co Ltd
Current assignee: Hai Robotics Co Ltd
Priority date: 2021-07-13
Filing date: 2021-07-13
Publication date: 2021-09-21

Abstract

The embodiment of the disclosure provides an article processing method, an article processing device, an article processing apparatus, an article processing system and a storage medium, wherein the method is applied to a warehousing system, and the warehousing system comprises: a rack area including a plurality of racks, a cargo transporter for a cargo unit that reciprocates along a predetermined path between a top and a bottom of the cargo transporter, an aerial robot that removes items from the racks and places the items in the cargo unit, and a ground transporter for removing items transported to the bottom by the cargo unit; the cargo conveyance device is disposed on one side of a shelf area, the method comprising: controlling the aerial robot to take out the articles from the shelf area; and controlling the aerial robot to place the article on a target freight unit of the freight transportation device so that the target freight unit transports the article to the bottom for the ground transportation device to take away and transport to a target area, and the efficiency of transporting the article from the goods shelf can be improved through the freight transportation device.

Description

Article processing method, device, equipment, system and storage medium

Technical Field

The present disclosure relates to the field of smart storage, and in particular, to a method, an apparatus, a device, a system, and a storage medium for processing an article.

Background

With the continuous development of intelligent warehousing technology, the social demand for warehousing is also continuously increasing. How to ensure the rapid transportation of the goods becomes a hot problem.

In current warehousing systems, items may be transported using smart devices such as robots that may climb on and retrieve items from shelves, and bring items down to the ground and transport the items to a target area.

Because the robot can only drive one article to the target area once, and the robot need move on goods shelves and ground ceaselessly, consequently, there is the problem of inefficiency when the robot transports the article of storage on goods shelves.

Disclosure of Invention

The embodiment of the disclosure provides an article processing method, an article processing device, an article processing apparatus, an article processing system and a storage medium, which are used for solving the technical problem that a robot is low in efficiency when transporting articles stored on a shelf.

In a first aspect, an embodiment of the present disclosure provides an article processing method applied to a warehousing system, where the warehousing system includes: shelf area, cargo transport, aerial robots and ground transport; the shelf area comprises a plurality of shelves for holding items; a goods transportation device is arranged on one side of the goods shelf area and comprises a plurality of freight transportation units, the freight transportation units are used for reciprocating between the top and the bottom of the goods transportation device along a preset path, and the top and the bottom of the goods transportation device are respectively matched with the top of the goods shelf area and the goods taking height of the ground transportation device; the aerial robot is configured to place an item on a cargo unit of the cargo transporter after the item is removed from the shelf area such that the cargo unit transports the item to the bottom; the ground transportation device is used for taking away the goods transported to the bottom by the freight unit; the method comprises the following steps:

controlling the aerial robot to take out the articles from the shelf area;

and controlling the aerial robot to place the article on a target freight unit of the cargo transportation device so that the target freight unit transports the article to the bottom for the ground transportation device to take away and transport to a target area.

In one possible design, the method further includes:

determining the goods taking information of the aerial robot and/or the state information of each freight unit in the freight transportation device;

determining a target freight unit where an article taken by the aerial robot is to be placed according to the goods taking information of the aerial robot and/or the state information of each freight unit in the goods transportation device;

the goods taking information comprises a goods taking position and/or article information corresponding to the taken goods; the state information of the freight unit comprises the current position and/or the occupation state, and the occupation state is used for indicating whether the freight unit is occupied or not.

In one possible design, determining a target freight unit to be placed by an article taken by the aerial robot according to the goods taking information of the aerial robot and/or the state information of each freight unit in the goods transportation device includes:

searching for an idle freight unit according to the state information of each freight unit;

and selecting a target freight unit to be placed with the article taken by the aerial robot from the searched idle freight units according to the goods taking position of the aerial robot and the current position of each idle freight unit.

In one possible design, after selecting a target freight unit to be placed with an item taken by the aerial robot, the method further includes:

updating the occupancy state of the target shipping unit according to the selected target shipping unit;

wherein the occupied cargo units comprise a cargo unit on which the articles are placed and a target article unit of the articles in the process of transportation; the items in transit are items that have been removed from the racks by the aerial robot but have not yet been placed on the cargo transporter.

In one possible design, the plurality of freight units of the freight transportation device form a transmission line, the transmission line comprises a horizontal transmission line formed by the freight units at the top, one side of the horizontal transmission line is provided with a first vertical transmission line, and/or the other side of the horizontal transmission line is provided with a second vertical transmission line;

correspondingly, controlling the aerial robot to place the item on a target cargo unit of the cargo transporter such that the target cargo unit transports the item to the bottom for removal by the ground transporter and transport to a target area includes:

controlling the aerial robot to move to a target freight unit in the transverse transmission line at the top of the shelf area, and placing articles in the target freight unit, so that after the target freight unit horizontally moves to a junction with a first vertical transmission line along the transverse transmission line, the moving direction is changed, and the target freight unit vertically moves to the bottom along the first vertical transmission line, so that the ground transportation device can take away the articles and transport the articles to the target area;

the method further comprises the following steps: when a second vertical transmission line exists, after the goods in the target freight unit are taken away, the target freight unit is controlled to move to the junction with the second vertical transmission line, the moving direction is changed, and the target freight unit vertically moves to the top of the shelf area along the second vertical transmission line. In one possible design, the free cargo unit found is the free cargo unit at the top; selecting a target freight unit to be placed with an article taken by the aerial robot from the searched idle freight units according to the goods taking position of the aerial robot and the current position of each idle freight unit, wherein the target freight unit comprises:

and selecting a target freight unit to be placed with the article taken by the aerial robot from the searched idle freight units according to the goods taking position and the moving speed of the aerial robot and the current position and the moving speed of the freight unit.

In one possible design, selecting a target freight unit to be placed with an article taken by the aerial robot from the searched idle freight units according to the pickup position and the moving speed of the aerial robot and the current position and the moving speed of the freight unit, includes:

calculating the time required by the aerial robot to move to the edge of the goods shelf according to the goods taking position and the moving speed of the aerial robot; wherein the shelf edge is a side edge of the shelf area proximate the cargo conveyance device;

judging whether an idle freight unit which is right for the aerial robot exists when the aerial robot moves to the edge of the goods shelf according to the moving speed of the freight unit of the freight transportation device and the required time;

if yes, determining the free freight unit facing the aerial robot as the target freight unit;

if not, determining that a first idle freight unit closest to the aerial robot in a first direction and a second idle freight unit closest to the aerial robot in a second direction when the aerial robot moves to the edge of the shelf; wherein the first direction is a direction of movement of the cargo unit and the second direction is opposite the first direction;

selecting a target cargo unit from the first and second free cargo units based on the locations of the first and second free cargo units when the aerial robot reaches the shelf edge and the speed of movement of the cargo unit of the cargo transporter.

In one possible design, selecting a target freight unit to be placed with an article taken by the aerial robot from the found idle freight units according to the pickup position of the aerial robot and the current position of each idle freight unit includes:

determining the priority of the articles or the delivery deadline of the articles taken by the aerial robot according to the article information of the articles taken by the aerial robot;

if the priority or the ex-warehouse deadline meets a preset condition, determining idle freight units which can be tracked by the aerial robot according to the goods taking position of the aerial robot and the current position of each idle freight unit; for any idle freight unit, if the time required for the aerial robot to move to the junction is less than the time required for the idle freight unit to move from the current position to the junction, the idle freight unit is an idle freight unit which can be tracked by the robot;

and selecting the most front free freight unit as a target freight unit from the free freight units which can be tracked by the robot.

In one possible design, the plurality of shelf racks are arranged in parallel and are sequentially arranged in the shelf rack area, a tunnel for the aerial robot to walk is arranged between every two adjacent shelf racks, the transmission line is a square transmission line or a transmission line in a shape like a Chinese character 'ji', and a plane formed by the transverse transmission line and the first vertical transmission line is vertical to a plane where the tunnel is located; the first vertical transmission line is matched with the position of the last shelf in the shelf area, when a second vertical transmission line is further arranged on the other side of the transverse transmission line, the second vertical transmission line is matched with the position of the first shelf in the shelf area, and the freight unit in the second vertical transmission line moves from the bottom of the shelf area to the top of the shelf area; the target cargo unit is located on the first vertical transport line and/or the second vertical transport line;

accordingly, controlling the aerial robot to move to a target cargo unit in the lateral transfer line at the top of the shelf area and place an item on the target cargo unit comprises:

if the goods taken by the aerial robot are positioned on the middle goods shelf, controlling the aerial robot to move to the target freight unit in the transverse transmission line at the top of the goods shelf area, and placing the goods on the target freight unit;

the method further comprises the following steps:

when the goods taken by the aerial robot are positioned on a first shelf, controlling the aerial robot to move to a target freight unit in the second vertical transmission line along the horizontal direction, and placing the goods on the target freight unit, so that the target freight unit moves to the junction with the horizontal transmission line along the second vertical transmission line, changes the moving direction, moves horizontally to the junction with the first vertical transmission line along the horizontal transmission line, changes the moving direction again, and moves vertically to the bottom along the first vertical transmission line;

and when the article taken by the aerial robot is positioned at the last goods shelf, controlling the aerial robot to move to the target freight unit in the first vertical transmission line along the horizontal direction, so that the target freight unit moves to the bottom along the first vertical transmission line.

In one possible design, the second vertical transmission line includes a second vertical transmission line, the second vertical transmission line being configured to carry a cargo unit, the second vertical transmission line being configured to:

and controlling the aerial robot to take down the articles to be placed from the freight unit in the second vertical conveying line or the transverse conveying line and place the articles to be placed in the goods shelf.

In one possible design, controlling the aerial robot to place the item at a target cargo unit of the cargo transporter includes:

determining a target position of the aerial robot for unloading the goods at the edge of the goods shelf according to the goods taking position of the aerial robot and the goods information of the goods taken by the aerial robot;

controlling the aerial robot to move to the target location at the shelf edge and placing the item on a first empty cargo unit in a lateral transfer line to which the aerial robot waits at the target location.

In a second aspect, an embodiment of the present disclosure provides an article processing apparatus, which is applied to a warehousing system, where the warehousing system includes: shelf area, cargo transport, aerial robots and ground transport; the shelf area comprises a plurality of shelves for holding items; a goods transportation device is arranged on one side of the goods shelf area and comprises a plurality of freight transportation units, the freight transportation units are used for reciprocating between the top and the bottom of the goods transportation device along a preset path, and the top and the bottom of the goods transportation device are respectively matched with the top of the goods shelf area and the goods taking height of the ground transportation device; the aerial robot is configured to place an item on a cargo unit of the cargo transporter after the item is removed from the shelf area such that the cargo unit transports the item to the bottom; the ground transportation device is used for taking away the goods transported to the bottom by the freight unit; the device comprises:

the control module is used for controlling the aerial robot to take out articles from the goods shelf area;

the control module is further used for controlling the aerial robot to place the object on a target freight unit of the cargo transportation device, so that the target freight unit transports the object to the bottom for the ground transportation device to take away and transport to a target area.

In a third aspect, an embodiment of the present disclosure provides a control apparatus, including:

at least one processor and memory;

the memory stores computer-executable instructions;

the at least one processor executing the computer-executable instructions stored by the memory causes the at least one processor to perform the method of any one of the first aspects.

In a fourth aspect, an embodiment of the present disclosure provides a storage system, including: a shelf area and an item processing apparatus for performing the method of any of the first aspects.

In a fifth aspect, the embodiments of the present disclosure provide a computer-readable storage medium, in which computer-executable instructions are stored, and when a processor executes the computer-executable instructions, the method according to any one of the first aspect is implemented.

In a sixth aspect, the disclosed embodiments provide a computer program product comprising a computer program that, when executed by a processor, implements the method according to any one of the first aspect.

The method is applied to a warehousing system, and the warehousing system comprises the following steps: shelf area, cargo transport, aerial robots and ground transport; the shelf area comprises a plurality of shelves for holding items; a goods transportation device is arranged on one side of the goods shelf area and comprises a plurality of freight transportation units, the freight transportation units are used for reciprocating between the top and the bottom of the goods transportation device along a preset path, and the top and the bottom of the goods transportation device are respectively matched with the top of the goods shelf area and the goods taking height of the ground transportation device; the aerial robot is configured to place an item on a cargo unit of the cargo transporter after the item is removed from the shelf area such that the cargo unit transports the item to the bottom; the ground transportation device is used for taking away the goods transported to the bottom by the freight unit; the method comprises the following steps: controlling the aerial robot to take out the articles from the shelf area; and controlling the aerial robot to place the article on a target freight unit of the freight transportation device so that the target freight unit transports the article to the bottom for the ground transportation device to take away and transport to a target area, and the efficiency of transporting the article from the goods shelf can be improved through the freight transportation device.

Drawings

In order to more clearly illustrate the embodiments of the present disclosure or the technical solutions in the prior art, the drawings needed to be used in the description of the embodiments or the prior art will be briefly introduced below, and it is obvious that the drawings in the following description are some embodiments of the present disclosure, and other drawings can be obtained according to these drawings by those skilled in the art without inventive exercise.

Fig. 1 is a schematic diagram of a process of transporting an article by a robot according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

fig. 2 is a schematic diagram of an application scenario provided in the embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 3 is a schematic flow chart diagram of a method for processing an article according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 4 is a schematic flow chart diagram of another article processing method according to an embodiment of the disclosure

FIG. 5 illustrates an arrangement of a cargo transporter according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 6 illustrates a method of determining a target shipping unit in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure;

fig. 7a is a top view of an aerial robot pick provided by an embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 7b is a top view of an aerial robot provided in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure moving to the edge of a shelf;

FIG. 7c is a schematic diagram of a method of determining a first empty cargo unit and a second empty cargo unit according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 8 is another method of determining a target shipping unit provided by embodiments of the present disclosure;

fig. 9a is a schematic structural diagram of a hoist according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

fig. 9b is a usage state diagram of the hoist according to the embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 9c is a top view of FIG. 9 b;

fig. 9d is a schematic shape diagram of a first driving mechanism in the hoisting machine according to the embodiment of the disclosure;

fig. 9e is a schematic shape diagram of a second driving mechanism in the hoisting machine according to the embodiment of the disclosure;

fig. 9f is a schematic shape diagram of a third driving mechanism in the hoisting machine according to the embodiment of the disclosure;

fig. 9g is a schematic shape diagram of a fourth driving mechanism in the hoisting machine according to the embodiment of the disclosure;

fig. 9h is a schematic shape diagram of a fifth driving mechanism in the hoisting machine according to the embodiment of the disclosure;

fig. 9i is a first schematic structural diagram of a transmission member and a cargo unit in the hoisting machine according to the embodiment of the disclosure;

fig. 9j is a second schematic structural diagram of a transmission member and a cargo unit in the hoisting machine according to the embodiment of the disclosure;

fig. 9k is a schematic structural diagram of a warehousing system provided by an embodiment of the present disclosure;

fig. 10 is a schematic structural diagram of an article processing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

fig. 11 is a schematic structural diagram of an article processing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

Detailed Description

To make the objects, technical solutions and advantages of the embodiments of the present disclosure more clear, the technical solutions of the embodiments of the present disclosure will be described clearly and completely with reference to the drawings in the embodiments of the present disclosure, and it is obvious that the described embodiments are some, but not all embodiments of the present disclosure. All other embodiments, which can be derived by a person skilled in the art from the embodiments disclosed herein without making any creative effort, shall fall within the protection scope of the present disclosure.

Fig. 1 is a schematic diagram of a process of transporting an article by a robot according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. As shown in fig. 1, when an item 102 on a shelf 101 needs to be transported, a robot 103 may go to the shelf 101 to take out a target item, where the robot 103 here is a robot that can climb the shelf, and when the robot receives an instruction to transport the item, where the instruction includes a location of the target item on the shelf and a location of the target item to be placed in a target area 104, the robot 103 may climb the shelf 101 and move to the location where the target item is stored, take out the target item and move the target item from the shelf to the ground, continue to move the target item to the target area 104, and place the target item at the location to be placed.

In the article transportation process, the robot needs to continuously climb up and down the goods shelf, and only one goods can be transported by one robot at a time, so that the article transportation efficiency is low.

In view of the above, the present disclosure provides a cargo transportation device, which includes a plurality of cargo units, wherein the cargo units reciprocate between the top and the bottom of the cargo transportation device along a predetermined path, an aerial robot takes out an article from a shelf, places the article on the cargo unit of the cargo transportation device, and transports the article to the bottom along with the cargo unit, so that the article transported to the bottom can be taken away by a ground transportation device, and the aerial robot does not need to climb up and down the shelf and transport the article to a target area, thereby greatly improving the article transportation efficiency.

In addition to being transported with the freight unit to the bottom, the articles can be transported to a target location having a height that matches the height of the article receiving device (e.g., conveyor line) so that the article receiving device can receive the articles at the target location and transport the articles to a target area.

Fig. 2 is a schematic view of an application scenario provided in the embodiment of the present disclosure. As shown in fig. 2, in the embodiment of the present disclosure, the warehousing system includes: shelf area, cargo transporter 201, aerial robot, and ground transporter 202, etc. The shelf area comprises a plurality of shelves for holding items; a goods transportation device 201 is arranged on one side of the shelf area, the goods transportation device 201 comprises a plurality of freight units, the freight units are used for reciprocating between the top and the bottom of the goods transportation device 201 along a preset path, and the top and the bottom of the goods transportation device 201 are respectively matched with the top of the shelf area and the picking height of the ground transportation device 202; the aerial robot is configured to place an item on a cargo unit of the cargo transporter 201 after the item is removed from the shelf area, such that the cargo unit transports the item to the bottom; the ground transport 202 is used to remove the items transported to the bottom by the cargo unit; wherein the arrows indicate the direction of flow of the articles.

The goods shelf area comprises a plurality of rows of goods shelves, lanes are arranged among the goods shelves, and the goods shelves 101 represent an area defined by the side surface of the first goods shelf, the top of the goods shelf, the side surface of the last goods shelf and the ground, namely the goods transportation device spans a plurality of the goods shelves; alternatively, the shelf may be a dense shelf including a plurality of cells, and the goods are directly stored in each cell in a stacked manner without a partition plate between the goods, in which case, the shelf 101 is represented as a side surface of the shelf.

The top and bottom of the cargo transporter 201 are matched to the top of the shelf area and the pickup height of the ground transporter 202, respectively, to facilitate the aerial robot to place items on the cargo unit and to facilitate the ground transporter 202 to pick up items from the cargo unit.

Aerial robot 103 is for following article are taken out to goods shelves 101, specifically can be for containing moving mechanism and the flexible robot that snatchs the mechanism, can realize climbing in the side of goods shelves, or, along the tunnel climbing between two goods shelves, perhaps, move at the top of goods shelves to can take out article, and drive article and remove.

The ground transportation device 202 is used for taking the buffered items from the cargo transportation device 201 and delivering the buffered items to the target area 104, and the ground transportation device 202 may be a ground robot or a transmission line, and can take the items from the cargo transportation device 201 or directly receive the items transmitted by the cargo transportation device 201 and transmit the items to the target area 104. The floor robot may also be configured with a plurality of baskets for receiving a plurality of articles from the cargo transporter and for driving the articles to a target area 104, such as an operator's station, at one time.

In the following, some embodiments of the present disclosure will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings, and features in the following embodiments and examples may be combined with each other without conflict between the embodiments.

Fig. 3 is a schematic flow chart of an article processing method according to an embodiment of the disclosure. The execution subject of the method in this embodiment may be an article processing device, where the article processing device may be any one of a server, a cargo transporter, an aerial robot, and a ground transporter. As shown in fig. 3, the article processing method in the present embodiment may include:

and 301, controlling the aerial robot to take out the articles from the shelf area.

Wherein the item is an item to be placed onto a cargo conveyance device. In order to improve the transmission efficiency of the articles, the number of the goods shelves and the number of the aerial robots are both multiple, and the aerial robots do not have a fixed corresponding relation with the goods shelves, namely the aerial robots can take out the articles from different goods shelves at different times.

The articles are the articles to be transported and also the articles to be placed on the cargo transporter. The goods to be placed can be idle containers and can also be containers with goods.

The item may be determined by a user, or may be automatically generated by the item processing device according to preset information, such as order information.

Step 302, controlling the aerial robot to place the item on a target freight unit of the cargo transportation device, so that the target freight unit transports the item to the bottom for the ground transportation device to take away and transport to a target area.

Wherein, the aerial robot can control the aerial robot to place the article on the goods transportation device after taking out the article from the goods shelf. The aerial robot can be a robot moving at the top of the goods shelf, and after the goods are taken, the robot can move to the edge of the goods shelf close to one side of the goods transportation device through the sky rail and place the goods on a target goods transportation unit of the goods transportation device; in addition, the aerial robot can also be a robot for climbing up and down on the side surface of the goods shelf to take goods, and the aerial robot can also directly place the goods on the target freight unit on the side surface of the goods shelf.

The goods transportation device is provided with a plurality of freight units, and the freight units reciprocate between the top and the bottom of the goods transportation device at a certain speed (the speed can be adjusted according to actual conditions) and drive the goods to be transported to the bottom. Because be provided with a plurality of freight units among the cargo transportation device, and the freight unit is the reciprocating motion that does not stop, can transport the article on the goods shelves to ground for the conveyer on ground takes away article, and transports to the target area, through the cargo transportation device that this disclosure designed, can improve the conveying efficiency of article.

In the article processing method provided by the embodiment, the aerial robot is controlled to take out articles from the shelf area; the aerial robot is controlled to place the object on a target freight unit of the goods transportation device, so that the object freight unit transports the object to the bottom for the ground transportation device to take away and transport the object to a target area, the robot does not need to perform all operations for transporting the object, and the efficiency of transporting the object can be improved through the goods transportation device.

Fig. 4 is a schematic flow chart of another article processing method according to an embodiment of the present disclosure, and this embodiment describes in detail a process of determining a target cargo unit based on the technical solutions provided in the foregoing embodiments. As shown in fig. 4, the method includes:

step 401, determining the goods taking information of the aerial robot and/or the state information of each freight unit in the freight transportation device.

The goods taking information comprises goods taking positions and/or article information corresponding to taken articles; the state information of the freight unit comprises the current position and/or the occupation state, and the occupation state is used for indicating whether the freight unit is occupied or not.

Among them, since the kinds and positions of the goods stored on the shelves are different, when setting the target cargo unit for the article taken out by the aerial robot, it is necessary to consider the position of the article and the article information. The item information may be information indicating how urgent the item is transported, i.e., whether the item needs to be transported in time, such as priority and delivery deadline.

In addition, the occupancy status of each of the cargo units and the location of each of the cargo units may also need to be considered in determining the target cargo unit. The target cargo unit of the item needs to be in a non-occupied state.

Step 402, determining a target freight unit to be placed on the article taken by the aerial robot according to the goods taking information of the aerial robot and/or the state information of each freight unit in the goods transportation device.

After the goods taking information of the aerial robot and/or the state information of each freight unit in the goods transportation device are determined, the target freight unit corresponding to the goods can be determined according to the information.

A method for determining a target shipping unit based on pickup information and status information for each shipping unit is provided.

Optionally, searching for an idle freight unit according to the state information of each freight unit; and selecting a target freight unit to be placed with the article taken by the aerial robot from the searched idle freight units according to the goods taking position of the aerial robot and the current position of each idle freight unit.

Specifically, there are two states of the cargo unit: and the idle state and the non-idle state are used for finding out the idle freight unit after acquiring the state information of all the freight units, and the freight unit is possibly the target freight unit only when the freight unit is the idle freight unit.

Wherein, a detector or a sensor can be arranged on the freight unit, when the goods are detected or sensed, the freight unit is determined to be a non-idle freight unit; otherwise, the shipping unit is an empty shipping unit. In addition, a location detector may be provided on the cargo unit for obtaining location information of the cargo unit. The detector or sensor or position detector may communicate with the item processing device and transmit status information and location information of the shipping unit to the item processing device.

The aerial robot pickup location and the location of the free cargo units also need to be considered in determining the target cargo unit. The goods picking position of the aerial robot can be position information of an article obtained when the aerial robot picks the goods, and the position information of the article is sent to the article processing equipment. The article processing device may allocate the target cargo unit to the aerial robot after acquiring the pickup position information of the aerial robot and the position information of the free cargo unit. Specifically, the target freight unit is an idle freight unit which is closest to the picking position of the aerial robot at present.

The process of determining a target shipping unit described above may assign the aerial robot an appropriate target shipping unit that may enable the aerial robot to place items on the shipping unit in a minimum amount of time.

The occupation state of the freight units in the freight transportation device changes at any time, and the occupation state needs to be updated in time in order to ensure the accuracy of allocating the target freight units.

Optionally, after selecting a target freight unit to be placed on which an article taken by the aerial robot is to be placed, the method further includes:

updating the occupancy status of the target shipping unit based on the selected target shipping unit.

Wherein, when the target freight unit is determined, the occupancy state needs to be updated in time. There are two situations where the cargo unit is occupied, one of which is: goods are placed on the freight unit; second, although no cargo is placed on the cargo unit, the cargo unit is already assigned to a cargo or an aerial robot.

By updating the occupation state of the freight unit, the goods taken by the aerial robot can be accurately distributed, and the distributed freight unit is prevented from being a non-idle freight unit.

And step 403, controlling the aerial robot to take the articles out of the shelf area.

The implementation manners of step 403 are respectively the same as the specific implementation manners of step 301, and reference may be made to the foregoing embodiments, which are not described herein again.

Step 404, controlling the aerial robot to place the item on a target freight unit of the cargo transportation device, so that the target freight unit transports the item to the bottom for the ground transportation device to take away and transport to a target area.

A specific cargo unit is given below for the process of transporting cargo.

Optionally, a plurality of freight units of the cargo transportation device form a transmission line, the transmission line includes a horizontal transmission line formed by the freight units located at the top, one side of the horizontal transmission line is provided with a first vertical transmission line, and/or the other side of the horizontal transmission line is provided with a second vertical transmission line;

controlling the aerial robot to place the item at a target cargo unit of the cargo conveyance device such that the target cargo unit transports the item to the bottom for removal by the ground conveyance device and transport to a target area, comprising:

the method further comprises the following steps: when a second vertical transmission line exists, after the goods in the target freight unit are taken away, the target freight unit is controlled to move to the junction with the second vertical transmission line, the moving direction is changed, and the target freight unit vertically moves to the top of the shelf area along the second vertical transmission line.

Fig. 5 is an arrangement manner of a cargo transportation device according to an embodiment of the present disclosure, as shown in fig. 5, a transmission line formed by a cargo unit includes a horizontal transmission line 2011 and a first vertical transmission line 2012, where when an aerial robot places an item to a target cargo unit, the aerial robot can take out the cargo at any layer of a shelf, move to the top of the shelf, move to a junction between the shelf and the horizontal transmission line, and place the item on a target cargo unit of the horizontal transmission line, where an arrow indicates a transmission direction of the transmission line, and the target cargo unit will move horizontally to the junction with the first vertical transmission line along the arrow direction and then move vertically to the bottom.

Furthermore, the direction of travel of the conveyor line can be changed when it is desired to transport goods from the bottom to the top of the rack.

The transmission line formed by the freight unit only comprises a transverse transmission line and a vertical transmission line, so that the goods can be transmitted between the goods shelf and the ground.

Furthermore, on the other side of the transverse transport line, a second vertical transport line is provided, by means of which the target cargo unit can be transported from the bottom to the top of the rack.

It should be noted that, step 401 and step 402 may be performed before step 403, may be performed after step 403, and may also be performed in parallel with step 403, which is not limited by the present disclosure.

The method for processing the goods provided by this embodiment is based on the above-mentioned embodiments, a detailed description is given to a process of determining the target cargo unit, updating the state of the target cargo unit, and a transmission line formed by the cargo units, the target cargo unit can be determined more accurately by updating the state of the target cargo unit, the transportation efficiency of the goods can be determined to be improved by searching for an idle cargo unit closest to the target cargo unit when the target cargo unit is determined, and the transportation of the goods can be realized on the premise of saving the cost by arranging the goods transportation device which only includes the transverse transmission line and the first vertical transmission line.

On the basis of the above-described embodiments, a method is considered how to determine a target cargo unit when the cargo conveyance device is in constant motion.

Optionally, the found idle freight unit is an idle freight unit positioned at the top; selecting a target freight unit to be placed with an article taken by the aerial robot from the searched idle freight units according to the goods taking position of the aerial robot and the current position of each idle freight unit, wherein the target freight unit comprises:

In order to improve the cargo transportation efficiency, the cargo unit is in a continuous motion state, so when the target cargo unit is allocated to the article taken by the aerial robot, the moving speed of the aerial robot and the moving speed of the cargo unit need to be further considered. The moving speed of the aerial robot and the moving speed of the freight unit can be actively or passively sent to the article processing equipment, and the article processing equipment determines the target freight unit according to the obtained goods taking position and moving speed of the aerial robot, and the current position and moving speed of the freight unit.

By considering the moving speed of the aerial robot and the moving speed of the freight unit, the suitable target freight unit can be allocated to the goods acquired by the aerial robot on the premise of improving the goods transportation efficiency.

Fig. 6 illustrates a method of determining a target shipping unit in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure.

Optionally, selecting a target freight unit to be placed with an article taken by the aerial robot from the found idle freight units according to the pickup position and the moving speed of the aerial robot and the current position and the moving speed of the freight unit, where the target freight unit includes:

601, calculating the time required by the aerial robot to move to the edge of the goods shelf according to the goods taking position and the moving speed of the aerial robot; wherein the shelf edge is a side edge of the shelf area proximate the cargo conveyance device.

Fig. 7a is a top view of an aerial robot picking goods according to an embodiment of the present disclosure, and fig. 7b is a top view of an aerial robot moving to the edge of a shelf according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. Here, the case where the aerial robot picks up the goods from the top of the rack is described as an example, and as shown in fig. 7a, the cell in the drawing is represented as a storage unit of the rack, and the right cell of the rack is represented as a cargo transportation unit, and when the aerial robot 103 takes out the goods from a certain storage unit and moves to the edge of the rack in the horizontal direction, the position of the aerial robot is the edge position of the rack and is the edge position of the rack on the side close to the cargo transportation device as shown in fig. 7 b. The time T required for the aerial robot to move from the pickup position to the shelf edge needs to be calculated, and specifically, the time T can be determined according to the distance between the pickup position and the shelf edge and the moving speed of the aerial robot. The article processing equipment can calculate the required time T according to the received picking position and the moving speed of the aerial robot.

Step 602, determining whether there is an empty cargo unit for the aerial robot when the aerial robot moves to the edge of the shelf according to the moving speed of the cargo unit of the cargo transporter and the required time.

After the time T required for the aerial robot to move to the edge of the shelf is obtained, the state of the cargo transporter after the movement of the time T can be calculated. Specifically, the moving speed of the cargo unit may be obtained, the moving distance of the cargo unit may be determined according to the moving speed and the time T, and whether the position directly facing the aerial robot is an idle cargo unit may be determined according to the moving distance.

Step 603, if the empty cargo unit exists, determining that the empty cargo unit facing the aerial robot is the target cargo unit.

After the state of the position facing the aerial robot is determined, two situations exist, one is that the position is just an idle freight unit, and then the idle freight unit can be directly determined as a target freight unit.

Step 604, if the empty goods unit does not exist, determining that when the aerial robot moves to the edge of the shelf, a first empty goods unit which is closest to the aerial robot in the first direction and a second empty goods unit which is closest to the aerial robot in the second direction; wherein the first direction is a direction of movement of the cargo unit and the second direction is opposite the first direction;

after determining the state of the position facing the aerial robot, in the second case, the position is not an idle cargo unit, and at this time, the idle cargo unit needs to be searched before and after the position.

Figure 7c is a schematic diagram of a method of determining a first empty cargo unit and a second empty cargo unit according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. As shown in fig. 7c, point O indicates the position in the lateral transport line corresponding to the shelf edge position where the aerial robot is located, and when the point is not an empty cargo unit, it is necessary to search for an empty cargo unit before and after the point, that is, an empty cargo unit B (first empty cargo unit) closest to point O can be obtained in a direction coincident with the moving direction of the cargo unit, and an empty cargo unit a (second empty cargo unit) closest to point O can be obtained in a direction opposite to the moving direction of the cargo unit.

Step 605, selecting a target cargo unit from the first free cargo unit and the second free cargo unit according to the positions of the first free cargo unit and the second free cargo unit when the aerial robot reaches the edge of the shelf and the moving speed of the cargo unit of the cargo transportation device.

Wherein, after determining the first free cargo unit and the second free cargo unit, the method is based on the first free. The position of the cargo unit and the position of the second empty cargo unit, as well as the moving speed of the cargo unit and the moving speed of the aerial robot, determine an empty cargo unit in which the cargo can be placed in a shorter time.

Specifically, if the moving speed of the aerial robot is V1, the moving speed of the cargo unit is V2, the distance between the aerial robot and the first empty cargo unit B is S1, and the distance between the aerial robot and the second empty cargo unit a is S2, where the time required for the aerial robot to move to the first empty cargo unit B (problem pursuit) is T1, and the time required for the aerial robot to move to the second empty cargo unit a (problem encounter) is T2, T1 is S1/(V1-V2); t2 is S2/(V1+ V2), the sizes of T1 and T2 are judged, if T1 is smaller than T2, it is determined that the first idle cargo unit B is the target cargo unit, and the aerial robot is made to move along the moving direction of the cargo unit at the edge of the shelf until the first idle cargo unit B is tracked; if T2 is less than T1, then the second empty cargo unit A is determined to be the target cargo unit and the aerial robot is caused to move at the shelf edge in a direction opposite the direction of movement of the cargo unit until it encounters the second empty cargo unit A.

By the method, only two idle freight units can be obtained, and the target freight unit is determined from the two idle freight units, so that the calculation amount can be reduced on the premise of ensuring the accuracy.

Fig. 8 is another method of determining a target shipping unit provided by embodiments of the present disclosure. This can be done when the cargo is urgently needed to be transported to the ground, as shown in fig. 8.

Optionally, selecting a target freight unit, where an article taken by the aerial robot is to be placed, from the found idle freight units according to the pickup position of the aerial robot and the current position of each idle freight unit, includes:

step 801, determining the priority of the articles or the delivery deadline of the articles taken by the aerial robot according to the article information of the articles taken by the aerial robot.

In order to determine whether the article acquired by the aerial robot needs to be transported to the ground urgently, the article information of the acquired article can be used for determining. The article information may be priority information of the article, or the delivery deadline of the article. For example, the priority of goods belonging to category a is higher than the priority of goods belonging to category B.

Step 802, if the priority or the ex-warehouse deadline meets a preset condition, determining idle freight units which can be tracked by the aerial robot according to the pickup position of the aerial robot and the current position of each idle freight unit; and for any idle freight unit, if the time required for the aerial robot to move to the junction is less than the time required for the idle freight unit to move from the current position to the junction, the idle freight unit is an idle freight unit which can be tracked by the robot.

After the article information of the article taken by the aerial robot is determined, if the priority of the article or the delivery deadline meets a preset condition, for example, the priority of the article is a first priority, and the article with the first priority needs to be delivered in time; or if the current time and the ex-warehouse deadline are less than the time threshold, determining that the article taken by the aerial robot is an article which is urgently needed to be conveyed to the ground.

If the article is determined to need to be conveyed to the ground in time, the empty freight unit which can be tracked by the air robot can be determined according to the position of the air robot and the positions of all the empty freight units. When the aerial robot catches up with the empty freight unit, the aerial robot can move to the junction of the transverse transmission line and the vertical transmission line along the movement direction of the freight unit, if the time for the aerial robot to move to the junction is T3, the time required for the empty freight unit to move to the junction from the current position is T4, and when T3 is smaller than T4, the aerial robot can catch up with the empty freight unit.

In step 803, the most forward empty cargo unit is selected as the target cargo unit from among the empty cargo units that the robot can catch up with.

When there are a plurality of cargo units which can be pursued, the foremost empty cargo unit may be selected as the target cargo unit from among the plurality of empty cargo units. Here, the default moving speed of the aerial robot is greater than the moving speed of the cargo unit, so that the empty cargo unit in the lateral transport line can be pursued.

By the method for determining the target freight unit, when the object is urgently needed to be transported to the ground, the object is placed in the empty freight unit which is transported firstly in a mode of chasing up the empty freight unit, and the transportation of the object can be completed in the shortest time.

Yet another way of determining a target cargo unit is given below, which has the advantage of being simple and easy to implement.

Controlling the aerial robot to place the item at a target shipping unit of the cargo conveyance device, comprising:

determining a target position of the aerial robot for unloading the goods at the edge of the goods shelf according to the goods taking position of the aerial robot and the goods information of the goods taken by the aerial robot; controlling the aerial robot to move to the target location at the shelf edge and placing the item on a first empty cargo unit in a lateral transfer line to which the aerial robot waits at the target location.

In order to control the aerial robot, the target position of the aerial robot for unloading articles at the edge of the shelf can be determined, and the target position can be two, wherein one target position is the position of the edge of the shelf corresponding to the goods taking position of the aerial robot, and the other target position is the position on the edge of the shelf corresponding to the junction of the transverse transmission line and the vertical transmission line. Wherein the determination of the target position can be determined according to the picking position of the aerial robot and the item information of the picked item.

When the article to be taken is not an article which is urgently required to be transported to the ground, the target position may be determined as a position of the shelf edge corresponding to the pickup position of the aerial robot, that is, if the aerial robot picks up the article at the top of the shelf (when the aerial robot picks up the article at other layers of the shelf, it may climb up to the top of the shelf), the article is moved to the position of the shelf edge in the horizontal direction after the pickup. When the goods are needed to be conveyed to the ground, the target position is determined to be the position corresponding to the junction of the transverse transmission line and the vertical transmission line on the edge of the goods shelf, and the goods can be conveyed to the ground in the shortest time.

When the target position is determined, the aerial robot may then be directly controlled to move to the target position and place the item at the first empty cargo unit that is waiting at that position.

By the method, the moving speed of the aerial robot and the moving speed of the freight unit do not need to be considered, the transportation requirement of articles taken by each aerial robot can be met, and the method has the advantage of simple calculation.

The remaining several embodiments of the cargo transport device will be briefly described below.

Optionally, the plurality of shelves are arranged in parallel and sequentially arranged in the shelf area, a tunnel for the aerial robot to walk is arranged between two adjacent shelves, the transmission line is a square transmission line or a transmission line shaped like a Chinese character ji or a transmission line shaped like a Chinese character 'men', and a plane formed by the transverse transmission line and the first vertical transmission line is perpendicular to a plane where the tunnel is located; the first vertical transmission line is matched with the position of the last shelf in the shelf area, a second vertical transmission line is further arranged on the other side of the transverse transmission line, the second vertical transmission line is matched with the position of the first shelf in the shelf area, and the freight unit in the second vertical transmission line moves from the bottom of the shelf area to the top of the shelf area; the target cargo unit is located on the first vertical transport line and/or the second vertical transport line;

the method further comprises the following steps:

In this embodiment, the transmission line in the cargo transporter may be a square transmission line, a zigzag transmission line, or a gate transmission line. Besides the transverse transmission line and the first vertical transmission line, the transmission lines also comprise a second vertical transmission line.

Wherein, there are a plurality of goods shelves in the goods shelves region, be the tunnel between the adjacent goods shelves, the plane that horizontal transmission line and two vertical transmission line are constituteed is perpendicular with the plane or the plane that the tunnel is located at goods shelves place, and for the ease of transmitting more article, and be convenient for the transmission of the article in all goods shelves, can be with two vertical transmission line respectively with the position phase-match of last goods shelves and the position phase-match of first goods shelves.

And for the shelf in the middle position, after the aerial robot takes out the article, the aerial robot can move to the top of the shelf and then move to the target freight unit, and the article is placed on the target freight unit.

For the first goods shelf, the goods can be directly horizontally moved to the edge of the goods shelf at the aerial robot picking position without moving to the top of the goods shelf, and wait for the target freight unit at the place, the goods are placed on the target freight unit and move to the ground along the second vertical transmission line, the transverse transmission line and the first vertical transmission line in sequence. For the last rack, the items are placed on the first vertical transport line in the same way.

Furthermore, the plurality of cargo units of the cargo conveyance device form a circular transmission line; controlling the aerial robot to place the item at a target shipping unit of the cargo conveyance device, comprising: controlling the aerial robot to move to a preset position, and placing the article on a freight unit located at the preset position; wherein the cargo unit at the predetermined location comprises: a cargo unit located at the top of the circular transmission line.

By the arrangement mode of the transmission lines, the goods do not need to be conveyed to the top of the shelf, and more choices are provided for determining the target freight unit of the goods.

In the above embodiments, the cargo transportation device has a plurality of cargo units, each of which can transport at least one item, the cargo transportation device can transport more items in a shorter time, and the ground transportation device can take the items on the cargo units away and transport the items to the target location when the items are transported to the bottom.

However, in the above process, there may be a situation that the ground transportation device cannot timely take the goods on the cargo unit, and the cargo transportation device will drive the goods to be transported to the top again, so that the cargo unit is always in an occupied state.

Based on the above problems, the root cause of the problem that the transportation efficiency of the goods is low is that the goods taking speed of the ground transportation device is lower than the speed of the goods transportation device for transporting the goods. Therefore, the realization form of the ground transportation device is improved or the transportation process of the goods transportation device is controlled, so that the goods taking speed of the ground transportation device is matched with the transportation speed of the goods transportation device.

Optionally, the ground transportation device comprises: a plurality of ground robots; the method further comprises the following steps:

distributing ground robots to the articles carried on the cargo transportation device according to the task state of each ground robot; wherein the task state comprises at least one of a current position, a moving speed, a load state of the ground robot and a position of a corresponding target area;

determining whether the corresponding ground robot is in an idle state when the goods fall to the bottom according to the task state of each ground robot and the current position of the goods carried on the goods transportation device;

and predicting and adjusting the moving speed of the freight unit of the freight transportation device according to whether each ground robot is in an idle state when the corresponding article falls to the bottom.

When the ground transportation device is a ground robot, a plurality of ground robots may be provided to improve the goods taking efficiency of the ground robot. The ground robot may be a robot provided with a robot arm or a fork, and the ground robot may further be provided with a plurality of baskets so that one ground robot can take out a plurality of goods.

In addition, since there are a plurality of ground robots, the states in which the ground robots are located may be different. Accordingly, a ground robot may be assigned to an article carried in the cargo conveyance device, wherein the ground robot may be assigned according to at least one of a current position, a moving speed, a load state of the ground robot, and a position where a corresponding target area is located. The load state refers to whether the ground robot carries goods or the number of the carried goods.

When the number of ground robots is small, after the ground robots are allocated to the goods in the goods transportation device, whether the state of the allocated ground robots is in an idle state or not can be judged when the goods are transported to the ground, that is, the ground robots are possibly in a non-idle state, at this time, the movement speed of the goods transportation device can be properly adjusted, for example, when the goods in the goods transportation device are transported to the ground, if the ground robots are in the non-idle state, or the ground robots are far away from the goods transportation device, the movement speed of the goods transportation device can be reduced, so that when the goods in the goods transportation device are transported to the bottom, the corresponding ground robots can be in an idle state and located near the goods transportation device.

When the moving speed of the freight unit of the cargo transportation device changes, the new moving speed needs to be sent to the article processing equipment, so that the article processing equipment can accurately allocate the freight unit to the article taken by the aerial robot.

According to the method, the number of the ground robots is increased by arranging a plurality of ground robots, the number of the articles taken out of the freight unit can be increased, and the ground robots can take all the articles conveyed to the bottom by adjusting the moving speed of the freight unit.

In addition, the above-mentioned problem that the ground robot has no time to remove the article in the cargo transporter can be solved in the following two ways.

Optionally, the ground transportation device comprises: a ground pick robot for picking items off the cargo conveyance and a ground delivery robot for delivering the items to a target area; the goods taking robot on the ground places the taken goods on the cache goods shelf, and the goods sending robot on the ground takes out the corresponding goods from the cache goods shelf and delivers the goods to a target area.

In order to solve the problem that the ground robot cannot take goods in time, two ground robots can be arranged, one of the ground robots is the ground goods taking robot which is only used for taking goods from the goods transportation device, the other ground goods delivery robot which is used for delivering the goods to the target area is the ground goods delivery robot, and the ground goods taking robot is only used for taking goods and does not need to move to the target area, so that the problem that the goods cannot be taken down in time can be avoided.

In addition, in this implementation manner, a buffer storage rack may be further provided for temporarily storing the articles taken from the cargo transportation device by the ground delivery robot, and for the ground delivery robot to take the corresponding articles away and place the articles in the target area.

According to the method, the ground transportation device is divided into two robots, when the ground goods taking robot is only used for taking goods, the goods on the goods transportation unit can be taken out in time, and the buffer storage shelf and the ground goods delivery robot are required to be arranged at the same time, so that the goods transported to the bottom can be placed in the target area in time.

In addition, in order to solve the problems, a transfer device can be arranged, and multiple articles of the goods transportation device can be received at one time.

Optionally, the warehousing system further comprises: a transfer device provided with a plurality of transfer layers; the placement position of the transfer device is matched with the position of the first vertical transmission line; cargo transportation device's freight unit is provided with transfer mechanism and controller, the controller with the transfer mechanism electricity is connected, the controller is used for controlling transfer mechanism rotates to predetermineeing the direction to correspond the article among a plurality of freight units and transmit to the transfer device that corresponds with a plurality of freight units on, so that the transfer device will accept again the article are transported to the ground conveyer on.

To the problem that the ground robot has no time to take down articles in the cargo transportation device, the second solution is to set up a transfer device, and the transfer device comprises a plurality of transfer layers which are respectively matched with the positions of the first vertical transmission lines. The transfer device may receive the items in the cargo unit in an active or passive manner. For example, each cargo transporting unit of the cargo transporting device may be provided with a transfer mechanism and a controller, the controller is configured to control a moving direction of the transfer mechanism, and when a position of each cargo transporting unit matches with the transfer layer, the controller may control the transfer mechanism to move along a preset direction, so that the articles in the cargo transporting unit may be transferred to the transfer device, and then the ground robot may take the articles away from the transfer device.

Through setting up the transfer device can realize once only accepting the article on a plurality of freight units, the rethread ground robot docks with the transfer device, realizes transporting article to the target area.

By the mode of arranging different types of ground robots or the mode of arranging the transfer device, the problem that the ground robots cannot take down articles in the freight unit in time can be solved.

A method of transferring goods from the ground to a pallet by means of a goods transportation device is described below.

Optionally, the second vertical transmission line includes an article to be placed on the freight unit ground-bearing surface transportation device, and the method further includes:

When the goods need to be stored to the goods shelf from the ground, namely when the goods need to be replenished, the goods to be placed can be placed on the freight unit of the second vertical transmission line through the ground robot, so that the goods can move to the upper part of the goods shelf along with the transmission line, the goods can be taken down from the second vertical transmission line or the transverse transmission line through the aerial robot, and the goods can be placed in the goods shelf. In addition, can also place article on transfer device through ground robot, can set up transfer mechanism and controller in transfer device, through the direction of motion of control transfer mechanism, transfer article to the vertical transmission line of second for aerial robot takes off article from transfer device again, places in the goods shelves.

The goods can also be transported from the ground to the shelves by means of the goods transport device.

The structure of a particular cargo conveyance device is given below. The cargo conveyance device may be a hoist.

Fig. 9a is a schematic structural diagram of a hoist according to an embodiment of the present disclosure; fig. 9b is a usage state diagram of the hoist according to the embodiment of the present disclosure; fig. 9c is a top view of fig. 9 b. Referring to fig. 9a to 9c, the embodiment of the present disclosure provides a lifting machine 100, which includes a supporting frame 110, a driving mechanism 120 and a plurality of cargo units 130, wherein the driving mechanism 120 is mounted on the supporting frame 110, the driving mechanism 120 has a preset driving track, and the driving mechanism 120 is configured to drive each cargo unit 130 to sequentially move up and down along the driving track, so that the cargo units 130 transport a material tank 300 taken out by a box taking robot 400 on the top of a shelf 200 to the lower portion of the shelf 200, or transport the material tank 300 on the lower portion of the shelf 200 to the top of the shelf 200.

It should be noted that the box taking robot 400 in the embodiment of the present disclosure may be applied to different fields of warehouse-out and goods taking of stock products in manufacturing factories, warehouse-out and goods taking of stock products in retail industries, express warehouse-out and goods taking of e-commerce logistics, and the related products or goods may be industrial parts, electronic accessories or products, medicines, clothing ornaments, foods, books, and the like.

Specifically, the box taking robot 400 may move on the top of the shelf 200, so as to take the material box 300 in the shelf 200 on the top of the shelf 200 and carry the material box 300 to the cargo unit 130 of the elevator 100, or carry the material box 300 on the cargo unit 130 of the elevator 100 into the shelf 200.

The box taking robot 400 may include a box taking robot body 410, a telescopic grabbing mechanism 420, and a moving mechanism 430. The telescopic grabbing mechanism 420 and the moving mechanism 430 are both connected with the box taking robot body 410, and the moving mechanism 430 is used for driving the box taking robot body 410 to move on the top of the shelf 200. As shown in fig. 2, the retractable grasping mechanism 420 is retractable with respect to the box extractor robot body 410 so as to extend into the shelf 200 and extract the stacked uppermost material box 300 in the shelf 200.

It should be noted that the telescopic grabbing mechanism 420 may be a steel cable, a steel belt, and a claw or a suction cup connected to the steel cable or the steel belt, which are commonly used by those skilled in the art, and correspondingly, the material tank 300 may also be provided with a connecting portion, such as a hook, for facilitating grabbing or suction by the telescopic grabbing mechanism 420. The moving mechanism 430 may be a moving mechanism driving wheel and a moving mechanism driving member connected to the moving mechanism driving wheel, wherein the moving mechanism driving member may be a rotating motor or a rotating cylinder. The telescopic part on the box taking robot body 410 may be a telescopic member and a telescopic part driving member connected with the telescopic member, the telescopic member is connected with the telescopic grabbing mechanism 420, and the telescopic part driving member drives the telescopic member to stretch, so as to drive the telescopic grabbing mechanism 420 to move toward the middle position of the freight unit 130 of the elevator 100. Wherein, the driving part of the telescopic part can be a linear motor or a hydraulic cylinder or a pneumatic cylinder. The present disclosure does not limit the structures of the telescopic grasping mechanism 420, the moving mechanism 430, and the telescopic portion of the box picker robot body 410.

In the present disclosure, the support bracket 110 is used to support the drive mechanism 120 and each cargo unit 130. The driving mechanism 120 may have a preset driving track, and the freight units 130 may be disposed at intervals on the driving track, so that the driving mechanism 120 drives the freight units 130 to sequentially move up and down along the driving track, and during the moving up and down of the freight units 130, the freight units 130 sequentially reach the top of the shelf 200, so that the freight units 130 transport the material containers 300 taken out by the box-taking robot 400 at the top of the shelf 200 to the lower part of the shelf 200, or transport the material containers 300 at the lower part of the shelf 200 to the top of the shelf 200. Therefore, the supporting frame 110 can carry a plurality of material boxes 300, and the efficiency of the hoister 100 for transporting the material boxes 300 from the top of the shelf 200 is improved.

In a specific implementation, two or more box taking robots 400 may be provided on the top of the shelf 200, so that each box taking robot 400 can timely place the material box 300 thereon on the cargo unit 130 of the elevator 100. In some embodiments, at least two of the cargo units 130 may be simultaneously positioned on top of the shelf 200.

Specifically, in the process that the driving mechanism 120 drives the cargo units 130 to sequentially move up and down along the driving track, at least two cargo units 130 may simultaneously reach the top of the shelf 200, and thus, the at least two box taking robots 400 may simultaneously place the material boxes 300 located on the box taking robots 400 on different cargo units 130 reaching the top of the shelf 200, so that the box taking robots 400 may immediately perform the operation of taking the material boxes 300 from the inside of the shelf 200, and the box taking robots 400 do not need to wait in line when placing the material boxes 300. Accordingly, the freight unit 130 of the lifter 100 can transport at least two material boxes 300 to the top of the shelf 200 at the same time, so that the material boxes can be taken away by different box taking robots 400 in time, thereby improving the working efficiency of the lifter 100 and the box taking robots 400.

In some embodiments, the load bearing surfaces of at least two of the cargo units 130 are flush with the top of the pallet 200 when the cargo units 130 are positioned on the top of the pallet 200. In this way, it is possible for at least two case picker robots 400 to simultaneously place the material cases 300 on the cargo unit 130.

In the present disclosure, the preset driving trajectory of the driving mechanism 120 may be at least one of a circular shape, a rectangular shape, an Jiong-shaped shape, or a several-shaped shape.

The preset driving paths of the different driving mechanisms 120 will be described with reference to the drawings.

Fig. 9d is a schematic shape diagram of a first driving mechanism in the hoisting machine according to the embodiment of the disclosure; fig. 9e is a schematic shape diagram of a second driving mechanism in the hoisting machine according to the embodiment of the disclosure; fig. 9f is a schematic shape diagram of a third driving mechanism in the elevator according to the embodiment of the disclosure. Referring to fig. 9d to 9f, the preset driving trajectory of the driving mechanism 120 may be a closed trajectory. Specifically, the preset driving track of the driving mechanism 120 may be a rectangular track in fig. 9d and 9 f. Alternatively, the preset driving trajectory of the driving mechanism 120 may be a circular trajectory in fig. 9 f. The drive mechanism 120 may be forward or reverse such that the drive mechanism 120 may cyclically drive the cargo unit 130 along its predetermined drive path.

In particular implementations, the predetermined driving trajectory of the driving mechanism 120 may be located within an area formed by the side of the shelf 200, such as shown in fig. 9 d. The predetermined drive trajectory of drive mechanism 120 may be partially outside the area defined by the sides of shelf 200, as shown, for example, in fig. 9e and 9 f. The embodiment is not limited herein.

Wherein the drive trajectory matches the profile of the side of the shelf 200. Thus, the side of the pallet 200 can serve as a support stand 110 for a portion of the lift 100.

Next, the operation of the hoist 100 will be described by taking fig. 9d as an example. For example, the cargo unit 130 at the lower portion of the shelf 200 may simultaneously place a plurality of material containers 300, thereby sequentially transporting the material containers 300 to the top of the shelf 200, and the container taking robot 400 takes the material containers 300 and puts them in the shelf 200. Meanwhile, the box taking robot 400 places the material box 300 taken from the inside of the shelf 200 on the material box 300 at the top of the shelf 200, thereby being transported to the lower portion of the shelf 200 by the cargo unit 130.

Fig. 9g is a schematic shape diagram of a fourth driving mechanism in the hoisting machine according to the embodiment of the disclosure; fig. 9h is a schematic shape diagram of a fifth driving mechanism in the hoisting machine according to the embodiment of the disclosure. Referring to fig. 9g and 9h, the preset driving trajectory of the driving mechanism 120 may be an unclosed trajectory. Specifically, the preset driving track of the driving mechanism 120 may be a zigzag track in fig. 9 g. I.e., the left and right sides of the pallet 200 in fig. 9g, may have a plurality of horizontally disposed cargo units 130. The predetermined driving trajectory of the driving mechanism 120 may be an Jiong-shaped trajectory in fig. 9 h. At this time, the driving mechanism 120 may be rotated forward and backward to drive the cargo unit 130 along its preset driving trajectory.

Next, the structure of the drive mechanism 120 will be described.

Referring to fig. 9a, 9d to 9h, in the elevator 100 according to the embodiment of the disclosure, the driving mechanism 120 includes a driving assembly 121 and a transmission assembly 122, the cargo units 130 are disposed on the transmission assembly 122 at intervals, and the driving assembly 121 is connected to the transmission assembly 122 to drive the cargo units 130 to sequentially lift along the driving track through the transmission assembly 122.

In a specific implementation, the transmission assembly 122 includes a plurality of transmission wheels 1221 and transmission members 1222 engaged with the transmission wheels 1221, a transmission track of the transmission members 1222 is identical to a driving track, and the transmission wheels 1221 are connected with the support frame 110 and rotate relatively to the support frame 110; any of the driving wheels 1221 is connected to the driving assembly 121, and the cargo unit 130 is provided with a connecting portion 131, and the connecting portion 131 is connected to the transmission member 1222.

The supporting frame 110 may have a plurality of spindles, and the driving wheel 1221 is inserted into the spindles and rotates relative to the spindles. In order to allow the driving wheel 1221 to smoothly rotate, a bearing may be provided between the driving wheel 1221 and the spindle. The transmission wheels 1221 may be arranged at intervals and uniformly on the transmission member 1222.

It will be appreciated that the transmission track of transmission member 1222 is supported by transmission wheel 1221, transmission wheel 1221 providing support for transmission member 1222 to maintain its transmission track.

In a possible implementation manner, the driving assembly 121 may include a motor and a transmission structure connected to the motor, wherein the motor drives the transmission structure to rotate, and the transmission structure may be a chain transmission structure, a belt transmission structure, or other transmission structures familiar to those skilled in the art. For convenience of description, a belt driving structure is explained herein. The belt transmission structure comprises a driving belt wheel, a driven belt wheel and a belt, and the belt is sleeved on the driving belt wheel and the driven belt wheel. The motor is connected with a driving belt wheel, and the driven belt wheel is coaxially connected with a driving wheel 1221. The motor drives the driving pulley to rotate, the driving pulley drives the belt to rotate, so that the driven pulley rotates, the driven pulley drives the transmission wheel 1221 to rotate due to the coaxial connection of the driven pulley and the transmission wheel 1221, the transmission wheel 1221 drives the transmission member 1222 to rotate, and therefore each freight unit 130 sequentially goes up and down along the driving track.

In another possible implementation, the driving wheel 1221 connected to the driving assembly 121 may be a composite wheel, i.e., the driving wheel 1221 and the driven pulley coaxially connected to the driven pulley are integrally formed, thereby forming a composite wheel. The remaining structure of the driving element 121 is the same as that of the above embodiments, and is not described herein again.

In the hoisting machine 100 provided by the embodiment of the present disclosure, the transmission member 1222 is a chain or a rack. For convenience of description, the transmission member 1222 is a rack hereinafter.

Fig. 9i is a first schematic structural diagram of a transmission member and a cargo unit in a hoisting machine according to an embodiment of the disclosure. In one possible embodiment, as shown in fig. 9a, 9d to 9f, 9i, the transmission element 1222 has an engagement side 1223 and a coupling side 1224 arranged opposite to each other, the engagement side 1223 engaging with the transmission wheel 1221, and the coupling 131 being coupled to the coupling side 1224.

Specifically, the inner surface of the rack has teeth, forming the engagement side 1223, and the outer surface of the rack is the attachment side 1224.

Fig. 9j is a second schematic structural diagram of a transmission member and a cargo unit in the hoisting machine according to the embodiment of the disclosure. Referring to fig. 9g, 9h, and 9j, in one possible implementation, the transmission member 1222 has adjacent engaging sides 1223 and connecting sides 1224, the engaging sides 1223 can be two, the two engaging sides 1223 can be disposed opposite, the engaging sides 1223 engage with the transmission wheels 1221, and the connecting portion 131 is connected to the connecting sides 1224.

Specifically, both the inner and outer surfaces of the rack have teeth, forming the engagement side 1223, and the side of the rack is the attachment side 1224.

With continued reference to fig. 9a and 9d to 9j, in the present disclosure, the number of the connecting portions 131 is two, and the two connecting portions 131 are respectively located at two opposite sides of the cargo unit 130; the number of the transmission assemblies 122 is two, the driving assembly 121 drives the two transmission assemblies 122 to move synchronously, and the two connecting portions 131 on the same cargo unit 130 are respectively connected with the connecting sides 1224 of the transmission members 1222 in different transmission assemblies 122. This facilitates a secure connection of the cargo unit 130 to the transmission element 1222.

Fig. 9k is a schematic structural diagram of a warehousing system provided by the embodiment of the disclosure. Referring to fig. 9b, 9c and 9k, a storage system according to a further embodiment of the present disclosure includes a shelf 200, at least one case taking robot 400 and at least one lifting machine 100 provided in any one of the above embodiments, where the case taking robot 400 is movable on the top of the shelf 200 to take the material case 300 in the shelf 200 on the top of the shelf 200, and when the cargo unit 130 of the lifting machine 100 reaches the top of the shelf 200, the material case 300 is carried onto the cargo unit 130, or the material case 300 on the cargo unit 130 is carried into the shelf 200.

The structure and principle of the elevator 100 are described in detail in the above embodiments, and are not described in detail here.

According to the warehousing system provided by the embodiment of the disclosure, by arranging the elevator 100, the driving mechanism 120 of the elevator 100 drives the freight units 130 to sequentially ascend and descend along the driving track, and in the process of ascending and descending the freight units 130, the freight units 130 sequentially reach the top of the shelf 200, so that the freight units 130 transport the material boxes 300 taken out by the box taking robot 400 at the top of the shelf 200 to the lower part of the shelf 200, or transport the material boxes 300 at the lower part of the shelf 200 to the top of the shelf 200. Therefore, the supporting frame 110 can carry a plurality of material boxes 300, and the efficiency of the hoister 100 for transporting the material boxes 300 from the top of the shelf 200 is improved.

In a specific implementation, the shelf 200 includes a plurality of storage columns 210 vertically arranged and a rail 220 arranged on the top of each storage column 210, the box taking robot 400 moves along the rail 220, and the plurality of material boxes 300 are vertically stacked in the storage columns 210. By providing the rail 220, guidance is provided for the movement of the box picker robot 400.

In the warehousing system provided by the embodiment of the present disclosure, the number of the hoists 100 in the handling device is at least two, and each hoist 100 is respectively located on different sides of the shelf 200. Thus, the efficiency of the material taking box 300 and the material transporting box 300 is improved.

The warehousing system provided by the embodiment of the disclosure further includes a transfer robot 500, and the transfer robot 500 can pick and place the material box 300 on the elevator 100. The material tank 300 is transported to the sorting area by the transfer robot 500.

The structure of the hoisting machine is only an embodiment, and is not a limitation on the disclosed method, and it is not necessary to adopt a specific structure of the hoisting machine in this embodiment to achieve the improvement of the method in this disclosure, and any structure of the hoisting machine that can achieve the method for processing articles in the embodiment of this disclosure may achieve the method in this disclosure.

Fig. 10 is a schematic structural diagram of an article processing apparatus according to an embodiment of the disclosure, and as shown in fig. 10, the apparatus is applied to a warehousing system, and the warehousing system includes: shelf area, cargo transport, aerial robots and ground transport; the shelf area comprises a plurality of shelves for holding items; a goods transportation device is arranged on one side of the goods shelf area and comprises a plurality of freight transportation units, the freight transportation units are used for reciprocating between the top and the bottom of the goods transportation device along a preset path, and the top and the bottom of the goods transportation device are respectively matched with the top of the goods shelf area and the goods taking height of the ground transportation device; the aerial robot is configured to place an item on a cargo unit of the cargo transporter after the item is removed from the shelf area such that the cargo unit transports the item to the bottom; the ground transportation device is used for taking away the goods transported to the bottom by the freight unit; the device comprises:

a first control module 1001 for controlling the aerial robot to remove items from the shelf area;

a second control module 1002, configured to control the aerial robot to place the item on a target cargo unit of the cargo transportation device, so that the target cargo unit transports the item to the bottom for being taken by the ground transportation device and transported to a target area.

In an optional embodiment, the apparatus further comprises:

the first determining module is used for determining the goods taking information of the aerial robot and/or the state information of each freight unit in the freight transportation device;

the second determining module is used for determining a target freight unit where the article taken by the aerial robot is to be placed according to the goods taking information of the aerial robot and/or the state information of each freight unit in the goods transportation device;

In an optional embodiment, the second determining module is specifically configured to:

In an optional embodiment, the apparatus further comprises:

an updating module, configured to update an occupancy state of the target shipping unit according to the selected target shipping unit; wherein the occupied cargo units comprise a cargo unit on which the articles are placed and a target article unit of the articles in the process of transportation; the items in transit are items that have been removed from the racks by the aerial robot but have not yet been placed on the cargo transporter.

In an alternative embodiment, the plurality of cargo units of the cargo transportation device form a transmission line, the transmission line comprises a horizontal transmission line formed by the cargo units on the top, and a first vertical transmission line is arranged on one side of the horizontal transmission line;

correspondingly, the second control module 1002 is specifically configured to, when controlling the aerial robot to place the article on a target cargo unit of the cargo transportation device, so that the target cargo unit transports the article to the bottom for the ground transportation device to take away and transport the article to a target area:

and controlling the aerial robot to move to the target freight unit in the transverse transmission line at the top of the shelf area, and placing the goods on the target freight unit, so that after the target freight unit horizontally moves to the junction with the first vertical transmission line along the transverse transmission line, the moving direction is changed, and the target freight unit vertically moves to the bottom along the first vertical transmission line, so that the ground transportation device can take away the goods and transport the goods to the target area.

In an alternative embodiment, the free cargo unit found is the free cargo unit at the top; the second determining module is specifically configured to, when selecting a target freight unit to be placed with an article taken by the aerial robot from the found idle freight units according to the pickup position of the aerial robot and the current position of each idle freight unit:

In an optional embodiment, the second determining module, when selecting a target cargo unit to be placed with an article taken by the aerial robot from the found idle cargo units according to the pickup position and the moving speed of the aerial robot and the current position and the moving speed of the cargo unit, is specifically configured to:

In an optional embodiment, when the second determining module selects a target freight unit to be placed with an article taken by the aerial robot from the found idle freight units according to the pickup position of the aerial robot and the current location of each idle freight unit, the second determining module is further configured to:

In an optional embodiment, the plurality of shelves are arranged in parallel and sequentially arranged in the shelf area, a tunnel for the aerial robot to walk is arranged between two adjacent shelves, the transmission line is a square transmission line or a transmission line in a shape like a Chinese character 'ji', and a plane formed by the transverse transmission line and the first vertical transmission line is perpendicular to a plane where the tunnel is located; the first vertical transmission line is matched with the position of the last shelf in the shelf area, a second vertical transmission line is further arranged on the other side of the transverse transmission line, the second vertical transmission line is matched with the position of the first shelf in the shelf area, and the freight unit in the second vertical transmission line moves from the bottom of the shelf area to the top of the shelf area; the target cargo unit is located on the first vertical transport line and/or the second vertical transport line;

the second control module 1002 is specifically configured to, when controlling the aerial robot to move to the target cargo unit in the lateral transportation line on the top of the shelf area and place the item on the target cargo unit:

the device further comprises:

the third control module is used for controlling the aerial robot to move to the target freight unit in the second vertical transmission line along the horizontal direction and placing the object in the target freight unit when the object taken by the aerial robot is positioned on the first shelf, so that the target freight unit moves to the junction with the horizontal transmission line along the second vertical transmission line, changes the moving direction and moves horizontally to the junction with the first vertical transmission line along the horizontal transmission line, and then changes the moving direction again and moves vertically to the bottom along the first vertical transmission line;

the third control module is further configured to control the aerial robot to move to the target cargo unit in the first vertical transportation line along the horizontal direction when the article taken by the aerial robot is located on the last shelf, so that the target cargo unit moves to the bottom along the first vertical transportation line.

In an alternative embodiment, the ground transportation device comprises: a plurality of ground robots; the article processing apparatus further comprises:

the distribution module is used for distributing the ground robots to the articles carried on the goods transportation device according to the task state of each ground robot; wherein the task state comprises at least one of a current position, a moving speed, a load state of the ground robot and a position of a corresponding target area;

the ground robot state determining module is used for determining whether the corresponding ground robot is in an idle state when the goods fall to the bottom according to the task state of each ground robot and the current position of the goods carried on the goods transporting device;

and the prediction adjusting module is used for predicting and adjusting the moving speed of the freight unit of the freight transportation device according to whether each ground robot is in an idle state when the corresponding article falls to the bottom.

In an alternative embodiment, the ground transportation device comprises: a ground pick robot for picking items off the cargo conveyance and a ground delivery robot for delivering the items to a target area; the goods taking robot on the ground places the taken goods on the cache goods shelf, and the goods sending robot on the ground takes out the corresponding goods from the cache goods shelf and delivers the goods to a target area.

In an optional embodiment, the warehousing system further comprises: a transfer device provided with a plurality of transfer layers; the placement position of the transfer device is matched with the position of the first vertical transmission line; cargo transportation device's freight unit is provided with transfer mechanism and controller, the controller with the transfer mechanism electricity is connected, the controller is used for controlling transfer mechanism rotates to predetermineeing the direction to correspond the article among a plurality of freight units and transmit to the transfer device that corresponds with a plurality of freight units on, so that the transfer device will accept again the article are transported to the ground conveyer on.

In an alternative embodiment, the second vertical transmission line is configured to receive an item to be placed on the ground-bearing surface transportation device of the freight unit, and the first control module 1001 is further configured to: and controlling the aerial robot to take down the articles to be placed from the freight unit in the second vertical conveying line or the transverse conveying line and place the articles to be placed in the goods shelf.

In an alternative embodiment, the second control module 1002, when controlling the aerial robot to place the item at the target cargo unit of the cargo transporter, is further configured to:

The apparatus provided in this embodiment may be used to implement the technical solutions of the method embodiments shown in fig. 1 to fig. 9k, and the implementation principles and technical effects thereof are similar, and this embodiment is not described herein again.

Fig. 11 is a schematic structural diagram of an article processing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. As shown in fig. 11, the article processing apparatus of the present embodiment may include: at least one processor 1101 and memory 1102;

the memory 1102 stores computer-executable instructions;

the at least one processor 1101 executes the computer-executable instructions stored by the memory 1102 to cause the at least one processor 1101 to perform a method according to any one of the embodiments described above.

Alternatively, the memory 1102 may be separate or integrated with the processor 1101.

For the implementation principle and the technical effect of the article processing device provided by this embodiment, reference may be made to the foregoing embodiments, and details are not described here.

The embodiment of the present disclosure further provides a storage system, including: a shelf area and an item processing apparatus for use in a method according to any of the above embodiments.

Wherein the article processing apparatus may be any one of a server, a cargo transporter, an aerial robot, and a ground robot.

In the warehousing system provided by the embodiment of the present disclosure, specific working principles, processes, and beneficial effects of the article processing device may refer to the foregoing embodiments, which are not described herein again.

The embodiment of the present disclosure further provides a computer-readable storage medium, in which a computer executing instruction is stored, and when a processor executes the computer executing instruction, the method according to any one of the foregoing embodiments is implemented.

The disclosed embodiments also provide a computer program product comprising a computer program that, when executed by a processor, implements the method according to any of the preceding embodiments.

In the several embodiments provided in the present disclosure, it should be understood that the disclosed apparatus and method may be implemented in other ways. For example, the above-described device embodiments are merely illustrative, and for example, the division of the modules is only one logical division, and other divisions may be realized in practice, for example, a plurality of modules may be combined or integrated into another system, or some features may be omitted, or not executed. In addition, the shown or discussed mutual coupling or direct coupling or communication connection may be an indirect coupling or communication connection through some interfaces, devices or modules, and may be in an electrical, mechanical or other form.

The modules described as separate parts may or may not be physically separate, and parts displayed as modules may or may not be physical units, may be located in one place, or may be distributed on a plurality of network units. Some or all of the modules may be selected according to actual needs to implement the solution of the present embodiment.

In addition, functional modules in the embodiments of the present disclosure may be integrated into one processing unit, or each module may exist alone physically, or two or more modules are integrated into one unit. The unit formed by the modules can be realized in a hardware form, and can also be realized in a form of hardware and a software functional unit.

The integrated module implemented in the form of a software functional module may be stored in a computer-readable storage medium. The software functional module is stored in a storage medium and includes several instructions to enable a computer device (which may be a personal computer, a server, or a network device) or a processor to execute some steps of the methods according to the embodiments of the present disclosure.

It should be understood that the Processor may be a Central Processing Unit (CPU), other general purpose Processor, a Digital Signal Processor (DSP), an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), etc. A general purpose processor may be a microprocessor or the processor may be any conventional processor or the like. The steps of a method disclosed in connection with the present invention may be embodied directly in a hardware processor, or in a combination of the hardware and software modules within the processor.

The memory may comprise a high-speed RAM memory, and may further comprise a non-volatile storage NVM, such as at least one disk memory, and may also be a usb disk, a removable hard disk, a read-only memory, a magnetic or optical disk, etc.

The bus may be an Industry Standard Architecture (ISA) bus, a Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) bus, an Extended ISA (Extended Industry Standard Architecture) bus, or the like. The bus may be divided into an address bus, a data bus, a control bus, etc. For ease of illustration, the buses in the figures of the present disclosure are not limited to only one bus or one type of bus.

The storage medium may be implemented by any type or combination of volatile or non-volatile memory devices, such as Static Random Access Memory (SRAM), electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM), programmable read-only memory (PROM), read-only memory (ROM), magnetic memory, flash memory, magnetic or optical disks. A storage media may be any available media that can be accessed by a general purpose or special purpose computer.

An exemplary storage medium is coupled to the processor such the processor can read information from, and write information to, the storage medium. Of course, the storage medium may also be integral to the processor. The processor and the storage medium may reside in an Application Specific Integrated Circuits (ASIC). Of course, the processor and the storage medium may reside as discrete components in an electronic device or host device.

Those of ordinary skill in the art will understand that: all or a portion of the steps of implementing the above-described method embodiments may be performed by hardware associated with program instructions. The program may be stored in a computer-readable storage medium. When executed, the program performs steps comprising the method embodiments described above; and the aforementioned storage medium includes: various media that can store program codes, such as ROM, RAM, magnetic or optical disks.

Finally, it should be noted that: the above embodiments are only used for illustrating the technical solutions of the present disclosure, and not for limiting the same; while the present disclosure has been described in detail with reference to the foregoing embodiments, those of ordinary skill in the art will understand that: the technical solutions described in the foregoing embodiments may still be modified, or some or all of the technical features may be equivalently replaced; and such modifications or substitutions do not depart from the spirit and scope of the corresponding technical solutions of the embodiments of the present disclosure.

Claims

1. An article handling method, applied to a warehousing system, the warehousing system comprising: shelf area, cargo transport, aerial robots and ground transport; the shelf area comprises a plurality of shelves for holding items; a goods transportation device is arranged on one side of the goods shelf area and comprises a plurality of freight transportation units, the freight transportation units are used for reciprocating between the top and the bottom of the goods transportation device along a preset path, and the top and the bottom of the goods transportation device are respectively matched with the top of the goods shelf area and the goods taking height of the ground transportation device; the aerial robot is configured to place an item on a cargo unit of the cargo transporter after the item is removed from the shelf area such that the cargo unit transports the item to the bottom; the ground transportation device is used for taking away the goods transported to the bottom by the freight unit; the method comprises the following steps:

controlling the aerial robot to take out the articles from the shelf area;

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

3. The method of claim 2, wherein determining a target freight unit to be placed by the article picked up by the aerial robot according to the pick-up information of the aerial robot and/or the status information of each freight unit in the freight transportation device comprises:

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising, after selecting a target shipping unit to place for an item taken by the aerial robot,:

5. A method according to claim 3, characterized in that the plurality of freight units of the freight transportation device form a transmission line, which comprises a lateral transmission line formed by the freight units at the top, which lateral transmission line is provided on one side with a first vertical transmission line and/or on the other side with a second vertical transmission line;

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the free cargo unit located as found is a free cargo unit located at the top; selecting a target freight unit to be placed with an article taken by the aerial robot from the searched idle freight units according to the goods taking position of the aerial robot and the current position of each idle freight unit, wherein the target freight unit comprises:

7. The method as claimed in claim 6, wherein selecting the target freight unit to be placed with the article picked by the aerial robot from the searched idle freight units according to the picking position and the moving speed of the aerial robot and the current position and the moving speed of the freight unit comprises:

8. The method as claimed in claim 5, wherein selecting the target freight unit to be placed with the article picked by the aerial robot from the searched idle freight units according to the picking position of the aerial robot and the current position of each idle freight unit comprises:

9. The method according to claim 5, wherein the plurality of shelves are arranged in parallel and are arranged in sequence in the shelf area, a tunnel for the aerial robot to walk is arranged between two adjacent shelves, the transmission line is a square transmission line or a transmission line in a shape like a Chinese character 'ji', and a plane formed by the transverse transmission line and the first vertical transmission line is perpendicular to a plane where the tunnel is located; the first vertical transmission line is matched with the position of the last shelf in the shelf area, when a second vertical transmission line is further arranged on the other side of the transverse transmission line, the second vertical transmission line is matched with the position of the first shelf in the shelf area, and the freight unit in the second vertical transmission line moves from the bottom of the shelf area to the top of the shelf area; the target cargo unit is located on the first vertical transport line and/or the second vertical transport line;

the method further comprises the following steps:

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the second vertical transmission line carries an item to be placed on a ground-bearing surface of the cargo unit, the method further comprising:

11. The method of claim 1, wherein controlling the aerial robot to place the item at a target cargo unit of the cargo conveyance comprises:

12. An article handling device for use in a warehousing system, the warehousing system comprising: shelf area, cargo transport, aerial robots and ground transport; the shelf area comprises a plurality of shelves for holding items; a goods transportation device is arranged on one side of the goods shelf area and comprises a plurality of freight transportation units, the freight transportation units are used for reciprocating between the top and the bottom of the goods transportation device along a preset path, and the top and the bottom of the goods transportation device are respectively matched with the top of the goods shelf area and the goods taking height of the ground transportation device; the aerial robot is configured to place an item on a cargo unit of the cargo transporter after the item is removed from the shelf area such that the cargo unit transports the item to the bottom; the ground transportation device is used for taking away the goods transported to the bottom by the freight unit; the device comprises:

13. An article processing apparatus, comprising: at least one processor and memory;

the memory stores computer-executable instructions;

the at least one processor executing the computer-executable instructions stored by the memory causes the at least one processor to perform the method of any one of claims 1-11.

14. A warehousing system, comprising: a shelf area and an item processing apparatus for performing the method of any one of claims 1-11.

15. A computer-readable storage medium having computer-executable instructions stored thereon which, when executed by a processor, implement the method of any one of claims 1-11.

16. A computer program product, comprising a computer program, characterized in that the computer program, when executed by a processor, implements the method according to any of claims 1-11.