CN113522753B

CN113522753B - Robot-based airport luggage sorting system and method

Info

Publication number: CN113522753B
Application number: CN202110901878.2A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 汤仪平
Original assignee: Liming Vocational University
Current assignee: Liming Vocational University
Priority date: 2021-08-06
Filing date: 2021-08-06
Publication date: 2023-03-28
Anticipated expiration: 2041-08-06
Also published as: ZA202207660B; CN113522753A; WO2023010801A1

Abstract

The invention provides a robot-based airport luggage sorting system and a robot-based airport luggage sorting method, wherein the system comprises a computer management system, a server and a sorting device; the sorting device comprises a central turntable, a first PLC controller, a second PLC controller, a first scanning gun, a second scanning gun, a first photoelectric sensor, a second photoelectric sensor, a cylinder, a robot and a luggage cart; the server, the first scanning gun, the second scanning gun, the first PLC and the second PLC are respectively connected with the computer management system, the first photoelectric sensor and the cylinder are respectively connected with the first PLC, and the second photoelectric sensor and the robot are respectively connected with the second PLC. The invention can realize accurate and real-time baggage transportation, reduce baggage transportation errors and provide efficient baggage handling service for daily operation of large airports.

Description

Robot-based airport luggage sorting system and method

Technical Field

The invention relates to a sorting technology, in particular to an airport luggage sorting system and method based on a robot.

Background

The traditional mode of manual sorting and mechanical belt transmission can not realize accurate real-time baggage transportation, and can only aim at the condition of less baggage quantity, in a large airport, tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of pieces of baggage of passengers leaving, transferring and arriving at the port need to be processed every day, and the traditional sorting system can not meet the requirement and can not maintain the daily operation of the airport. The baggage handling system (the other two systems are a security check system and a departure system) as three critical operation systems for a large airport directly determines the logistics transportation capacity of airport baggage and indirectly determines the passenger journey and the service quality of an airline company, so that improvement and optimization of the airport baggage handling system are particularly necessary to increase the passenger flow.

Disclosure of Invention

The invention aims to solve the technical problem of providing a robot-based airport luggage sorting system and method, which can realize accurate and real-time luggage transportation, reduce luggage transportation errors and provide efficient luggage processing service for daily operation of large airports.

In a first aspect, the present invention provides a robot-based airport baggage sorting system comprising a computer management system, a server, and a sorting device;

the sorting device comprises a central turntable, a first PLC controller, a second PLC controller, a first scanning gun, a second scanning gun, a first photoelectric sensor, a second photoelectric sensor, a cylinder, a robot and a luggage cart;

the system comprises a server, a first scanning gun, a second scanning gun, a first PLC (programmable logic controller) and a second PLC, wherein the server, the first scanning gun, the second scanning gun, the first PLC and a cylinder are respectively connected with the first photoelectric sensor, the second photoelectric sensor and a robot are respectively connected with the second PLC, the computer management system scans a luggage bar code through the first scanning gun, acquires luggage flight information from the server, transmits the luggage flight information to the first PLC, scans the luggage bar code through the second scanning gun, acquires the luggage flight information from the server, and transmits the luggage flight information to the second PLC, the first PLC identifies the luggage rotating position through the first photoelectric sensor according to the luggage flight information and transmits the luggage to the first PLC through the cylinder for shunting, and the second PLC identifies the position of the shunted luggage through the second photoelectric sensor according to the luggage flight information and captures the luggage to a corresponding trolley through the robot.

Furthermore, a transmission inlet and a plurality of branches are correspondingly arranged on the periphery of each central turntable, the first scanning gun is positioned at the transmission inlet, each branch is correspondingly provided with an air cylinder, a second scanning gun, a first photoelectric sensor, a second photoelectric sensor and two luggage trolleys, and a robot is arranged between every two branches.

Furthermore, the system also comprises a luggage customization tray, luggage is placed on the luggage customization tray and then is sent into the input port, and the luggage bar code is attached to the fixed position of the luggage customization tray.

Further, the size of the luggage customization tray is 100cm by 60cm by 40cm.

Further, each of the center turntables is provided with 8 branches.

Further, the robot is a six-degree-of-freedom robot.

Further, the cylinder is a double-acting cylinder.

Further, the central turntable is an annular conveying disc.

In a second aspect, the present invention provides a robot-based airport baggage sorting method, which provides the above airport baggage sorting system, and comprises the following steps:

step 1, obtaining luggage information to generate a luggage bar code, placing the luggage on a luggage customizing tray and attaching the luggage bar code to the luggage customizing tray;

step 2, the luggage and the luggage customization tray are sent into the central turntable together;

step 3, when the first scanning gun scans the luggage bar code, the computer management system acquires first luggage information corresponding to the luggage bar code from the server and then sends the first luggage information to the first PLC, wherein the first luggage information comprises luggage flight information and branch information corresponding to flights;

step 4, when the first photoelectric sensor identifies that the luggage rotates to the corresponding branch position, the first PLC controller pushes the luggage to the corresponding branch through the control cylinder;

step 5, when the luggage bar code is scanned by the second scanning gun on the corresponding branch, the computer management system acquires second luggage information corresponding to the luggage bar code from the server and then sends the second luggage information to the second PLC, wherein the second luggage information comprises luggage flight information and cart information corresponding to flights;

and 6, when the second photoelectric sensor on the corresponding branch identifies that the luggage is pushed to the corresponding position, the second PLC controller pushes the luggage to the corresponding luggage cart by controlling the robot on the corresponding branch.

Further, the method comprises step 7, a staff member performs the shuttle work of the cart to the airplane.

One or more technical solutions provided in the embodiments of the present invention have at least the following technical effects or advantages: the automation of luggage sorting is realized through the control of the air cylinder, the robot and the PLC, the workload of personnel is reduced, the visual fatigue caused by long-time information inspection is avoided, the human misjudgment rate is reduced, and the sorting accuracy and efficiency are improved; the method comprises the steps that a tray capable of being pasted with a label is customized, luggage is placed on a specific tray, the related information of the luggage is obtained by reading the label of the tray, and the information is quickly acquired in a positioning mode; each turntable can realize 8 branches, namely 16 flights can be supported to be used simultaneously, luggage is roughly classified and shunted by adopting a PLC control cylinder, and then is finely classified and grabbed by a robot, and the luggage is carried to a target trolley, so that the automatic sorting device is suitable for the automatic sorting operation of a large airport with large luggage quantity, and the logistics efficiency of the airport is improved; the sorting device is simple in structure and easy to realize and popularize.

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

Drawings

The invention will be further described with reference to the following examples with reference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 is a system block diagram of a robot-based airport baggage sorting system of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a schematic view of the sorting apparatus according to the present invention;

fig. 3 is a flowchart of a method of the robot-based airport baggage sorting method of the present invention.

Detailed description of the preferred embodiments

The embodiment of the application provides a robot-based airport luggage sorting system and method, which are used for solving the problems of high error rate and low efficiency of the conventional manual luggage sorting.

The technical scheme in the embodiment of the application has the following general idea: the tray of customization labeling places luggage on specific tray, acquires luggage relevant information through reading the tray label, adopts PLC control and combines the cylinder to carry out categorised reposition of redundant personnel to luggage, carries luggage to the target shallow through the robot on, accomplishes the work of coming and going of shallow to aircraft by the staff again, very big reduction the hand labor power, and applicable in the huge large-scale airport of luggage quantity, improve whole work efficiency.

The invention provides a robot-based airport luggage sorting system, which comprises a computer management system 1, a server 2 and a sorting device 3, as shown in figures 1 and 2;

the sorting device 3 comprises a central turntable 31, a first PLC controller 32, a second PLC controller 33, a first scanning gun 34, a second scanning gun 35, a first photoelectric sensor 36, a second photoelectric sensor 37, a cylinder 38, a robot 39 and a baggage cart 310;

the server 2, the first scanning gun 34, the second scanning gun 35, the first PLC controller 32 and the second PLC controller 22 are respectively connected to the computer management system 1, the first photoelectric sensor 36 and the cylinder 38 are respectively connected to the first PLC controller 32, the second photoelectric sensor 37 and the robot 39 are respectively connected to the second PLC controller 33, the computer management system 1 scans a baggage barcode through the first scanning gun 34, acquires baggage flight information from the server 2, transmits the baggage barcode to the first PLC controller 32, scans the baggage barcode through the second scanning gun 35, acquires baggage flight information from the server 2, and transmits the baggage flight information to the second PLC controller 33, the first PLC controller 32 identifies a baggage rotation position through the first photoelectric sensor 36 according to the baggage flight information, and pushes the baggage through the cylinder 38 for distribution, and the second PLC controller 33 identifies a baggage position after distribution according to the baggage flight information and through the second photoelectric sensor 37, and then grabs the baggage onto a corresponding baggage cart through the robot 39.

Preferably, a transmission inlet a and a plurality of branches B are correspondingly disposed around each central turntable 31, the first scanning gun 34 is located at the transmission inlet a, each branch B is correspondingly disposed with a cylinder 38, a second scanning gun 35, a first photoelectric sensor 36, a second photoelectric sensor 37 and two baggage carts 310, and a robot 39 is disposed between each two branches B.

Preferably, the system further comprises a baggage customization tray 311, wherein baggage is loaded into the input port after being placed on the baggage customization tray 311, and the baggage barcode is attached to a fixed position on the baggage customization tray 311. The size of the luggage customization tray is 100cm multiplied by 60cm multiplied by 40cm.

Preferably, each of said central turntables is provided with 8 branches. 1 to 8 and branches are arranged according to actual needs.

Preferably, the robot is a six-degree-of-freedom robot.

Preferably, the cylinder is a double-acting cylinder.

Preferably, the central turntable is an annular transfer disc.

The invention provides a robot-based airport baggage sorting method, which needs to provide the airport baggage sorting system, as shown in fig. 1 to 3, and the method comprises the following steps:

step 1, obtaining luggage information to generate luggage bar codes, placing luggage on the luggage customizing tray 311, and attaching the luggage bar codes to the luggage customizing tray 311;

step 2, the luggage and the luggage customization tray 311 are sent into the central turntable 31 together;

step 3, when the first scanning gun 34 scans the baggage barcode, the computer management system 1 acquires first baggage information corresponding to the baggage barcode from the server 2 and then sends the first baggage information to the first PLC controller 32, where the first baggage information includes baggage flight information and branch information corresponding to flights;

step 4, when the first photoelectric sensor 36 identifies that the luggage rotates to the corresponding branch position, the first PLC controller 32 pushes the luggage to the corresponding branch through the control cylinder;

step 5, when the second scanning gun 35 on the corresponding branch scans the baggage bar code, the computer management system 1 acquires second baggage information corresponding to the baggage bar code from the server 2 and then sends the second baggage information to the second PLC, wherein the second baggage information comprises baggage flight information and cart information corresponding to flights;

and 6, when the second photoelectric sensor 37 on the corresponding branch identifies that the luggage is pushed to the corresponding position, the second PLC controller 33 pushes the luggage onto the corresponding luggage trolley 310 by controlling the robot on the corresponding branch.

Preferably, the method further comprises step 7, having the staff perform the shuttle work of the cart to the airplane.

For better understanding of the above technical solutions, the following detailed descriptions will be provided in conjunction with the drawings and the detailed description of the embodiments.

For example, in a specific embodiment, as shown in fig. 2, if a airport has a maximum of 8 flights per time period, the sorting apparatus of the present invention may be configured as a central turntable, and 4 branches (including branch B1, branch B2, branch B3, and branch B4 in sequence) are correspondingly configured, and correspondingly, the number of robots only needs to be configured as 2, and the central turntable corresponds to a first PLC controller and a second PLC controller.

The first PLC controller receives luggage information and sorts luggage, the luggage on different flights is divided and classified, and the different luggage is pushed to corresponding branches through the control cylinder. For example, branch B1 is a branch of the baggage of an airline flight in beijing and tianjin, branch B2 is a branch of the baggage of an airline flight in shanghai and wuhan, branch B3 is a branch of the baggage of an airline flight in guangzhou and hainan, and branch B4 is a branch of the baggage of an airline flight in guiyang and maid.

When the computer management system scans the luggage bar code through the first scanning gun, the information related to the luggage is read from the server, the fact that the luggage is Shanghai flight class is known, and the information is transmitted to the first PLC. When the luggage moves to the intersection of the branch B2, the first photoelectric sensor 36 at the intersection of the branch B2 senses and identifies the arrival position of the luggage, and the first PLC 32 receives the information, controls the cylinder 38 at the branch B2 to act, pushes the luggage to the branch B2 and completes the shunting and classification of the luggage.

At the moment, the second PLC controller controls the two robots to execute a grabbing task and place the luggage on the corresponding trolley. For example, the first baggage cart is a cart for transporting baggage to a beijing airline, the second baggage cart is a cart for transporting baggage to an tianjin airline, the third baggage cart is a cart for transporting baggage to a seafarian, the fourth baggage cart is a cart for transporting baggage to a wuhan airline, the fifth baggage cart is a cart for transporting baggage to a guangzhou airline, the sixth baggage cart is a cart for transporting baggage to a hainan airline, the seventh baggage cart is a cart for transporting baggage to a guiyang airline, and the eighth baggage cart is a cart for transporting baggage to a grand airline.

When the luggage in Shanghai flight class is shunted to the branch B2, the second scanning gun at the branch B2 scans the bar code of the luggage, the server 1 knows that the luggage is of the Shanghai flight class, the luggage arrives at the designated position, the second photoelectric sensor 37 at the branch B2 senses and identifies the luggage and transmits the luggage to the second PLC controller, and the second PLC controller controls the first robot to execute a grabbing action, so that the luggage is placed on a luggage trolley of the Shanghai flight class, namely a third luggage trolley, and the task of grabbing the luggage to the trolley is completed.

The number of the branches can be planned and made according to actual flights of an airport, generally, 8 branches can be built at most by one turntable, one robot is responsible for baggage grabbing work of the two branches, and the control of all the robots can be controlled by one PLC in a unified mode.

The ring section in fig. 2 shows the airport luggage carousel drive (i.e., the center carousel) which is rotatable by the conveyor tracks pushing the luggage cases in motion. The computer management system scans the luggage bar code through a first scanning gun distributed at the transmission inlet and a second scanning gun distributed at each branch, reads the related information of the luggage from the server, transmits the bar code information to the corresponding plc through a serial port, and the plc communicates with the robot (or the air cylinder) through a communication line according to the control requirement or the task and controls the robot (or the air cylinder) to work.

The technical scheme provided in the embodiment of the application has at least the following technical effects or advantages: a large amount of luggage is classified on each flight vehicle through the sorting device, so that the error rate of luggage sorting and transportation is reduced, and the logistics efficiency of an airport is improved.

While specific embodiments of the invention have been described, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that the specific embodiments described are illustrative only and are not limiting upon the scope of the invention, as equivalent modifications and variations as will be made by those skilled in the art in light of the spirit of the invention are intended to be included within the scope of the appended claims.

Claims

1. The utility model provides an airport luggage letter sorting system based on robot which characterized in that: the system comprises a computer management system, a server and a sorting device;

the sorting device comprises a central turntable, a first PLC controller, a second PLC controller, a first scanning gun, a second scanning gun, a first photoelectric sensor, a second photoelectric sensor, a cylinder, a robot and a luggage cart; a transmission inlet and a plurality of branches are correspondingly arranged on the periphery of each central turntable, the first scanning gun is positioned at the transmission inlet, each branch is correspondingly provided with an air cylinder, a second scanning gun, a first photoelectric sensor, a second photoelectric sensor and two luggage trolleys, and a robot is arranged between every two branches;

2. The robot-based airport baggage sorting system of claim 1, wherein: the system also includes a customized luggage tray, luggage is placed on the customized luggage tray and then is fed into the input port, and the luggage bar code is attached to a fixed position of the customized luggage tray.

3. A robot-based airport baggage sorting system according to claim 2, wherein: the size of the luggage customization tray is 100cm multiplied by 60cm multiplied by 40cm.

4. The robot-based airport baggage sorting system of claim 1, wherein: each of the central turntables is provided with 8 branches.

5. The robot-based airport baggage sorting system of claim 1, wherein: the robot is a six-degree-of-freedom robot.

6. A robot-based airport baggage sorting system according to claim 1, wherein: the cylinder is a double-acting cylinder.

7. The robot-based airport baggage sorting system of claim 1, wherein: the central turntable is an annular conveying disc.

8. A robot-based airport baggage sorting method, characterized in that an airport baggage sorting system according to any one of claims 1 to 7 is provided, said method comprising the steps of:

9. The robot-based airport baggage sorting method of claim 8, wherein: the method also comprises step 7, having the staff perform the shuttle work of the cart to the aircraft.