CN113568408A

CN113568408A - Distributed AGV system

Info

Publication number: CN113568408A
Application number: CN202110859486.4A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 张学彦; 林淦斌; 叶航
Original assignee: Fuqin Intelligent Technology Kunshan Co ltd
Current assignee: Fuqin Intelligent Technology Kunshan Co ltd
Priority date: 2021-07-28
Filing date: 2021-07-28
Publication date: 2021-10-29

Abstract

The embodiment of the application relates to a distributed AGV system. The system comprises: each AGV node carries a motion function of the AGV node and a management function of the AGV node to be managed; different AGV nodes bear different management functions; and all AGV nodes assist in completing the management work of the AGV nodes to be managed together through the management function born by the AGV nodes. Compared with the traditional mode of carrying out centralized management through a central server, the method achieves the purpose of 'going to the center' or 'weak center', enables each AGV node to be maintained independently and expanded in functions, does not affect the work of other AGV nodes, and improves the reliability of the whole AGV system.

Description

Distributed AGV system

Technical Field

The present application relates to the field of internet technologies, and in particular, to an Automated Guided Vehicle (AGV) system.

Background

Along with the increase of cost of labor, in fields such as logistics industry, more and more enterprises use AGV to replace high human cost, and it not only can reduce enterprise's operation cost, can also improve production efficiency.

At present, common AGV system is the centralized framework of AGV node around central server, and this kind of framework mode leads to AGV system's the maintenance degree of difficulty to be high, and when AGV node quantity and scene complexity linear increase, this AGV system's management complexity will also be exponential increase.

Disclosure of Invention

Based on this, this application provides a distributed AGV system for the maintenance of system is easier, and has good expansion performance.

An embodiment of the present application provides a distributed AGV system, including: the system comprises a plurality of AGV nodes which are electrically connected, wherein each AGV node is loaded with a motion function and a management function of the AGV nodes to be managed; different AGV nodes bear different management functions;

and all AGV nodes assist in completing the management work of the AGV nodes to be managed together through the management function born by the AGV nodes.

In one embodiment, the management function is a message-driven based function block;

and each AGV node drives the execution of the function block carried by the AGV node through the transmission of the message.

In one embodiment, the types of the functional blocks include, according to different message passing manners:

the source function block is used for describing a function which is executed periodically and does not need to be driven by a message;

the terminal function block is used for describing that no message is output to other function blocks after the message is input to the function block;

the combiner function block is used for describing that the execution of the function block needs a plurality of message drivers, and the function block only outputs one message after being executed;

the shunt function block is used for describing that the execution of the function block is driven by one message, and the function block outputs a plurality of messages after being executed;

and the single-pass function block is used for describing that the execution of the function block is driven by one message, and the function block only outputs one message after being executed.

In one embodiment, each function block includes a message protocol, interface, and data space for communication between AGV nodes.

In one embodiment, the AGV nodes share their respective data spaces with each other.

In one embodiment, the interface includes:

the initialization interface is used for initializing the current functional block;

the interrupt interface is used for suspending the work of the current functional block;

the recovery interface is used for recovering the suspended work of the current functional block;

an ending interface for emptying all message streams and making the current functional block enter an idle state;

and the execution interface is used for acquiring the data provided by the upstream functional block and processing the data, and transmitting the processed data to the downstream functional block after the data processing is finished.

In one embodiment, the system further comprises: the server is electrically connected with each AGV node;

and the server is used for providing computing resources for each AGV node.

In one embodiment, the management function includes data management of AGV nodes, task allocation or scheduling of AGV nodes of different paths;

the data comprise positioning data, task data and traffic data, and the tasks comprise moving tasks of the AGV nodes, charging tasks and management tasks of the AGV nodes to the access control equipment in the moving process.

In one embodiment, the system further comprises: backing up an AGV node; the backup AGV node has the same management function as the current AGV node;

and under the condition that the current AGV node fails, the backup AGV node replaces the current AGV node to execute the management work of the AGV nodes to be managed.

In one embodiment, AGV nodes are deployed in the same local area network and communicate with each other via wireless networking.

According to the technical scheme, the management function of the AGV nodes to be managed is borne through the AGV nodes, different AGV nodes bear different management functions, and therefore the AGV nodes can complete management work of the AGV nodes to be managed through the management function borne by the AGV nodes and the management function borne by the AGV nodes is assisted together. Compared with the traditional mode of carrying out centralized management through a central server, the method achieves the purpose of 'going to the center' or 'weak center', enables each AGV node to be maintained independently and expanded in functions, does not affect the work of other AGV nodes, and improves the reliability of the whole AGV system.

Drawings

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a distributed AGV system according to an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of another configuration of a distributed AGV system according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 3 is a schematic structural diagram of a source functional block according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 4 is a schematic structural diagram of an end functional block provided in an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 5 is a schematic structural diagram of a combining function block provided in an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 6 is a schematic structural diagram of a splitting functional block according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 7 is a schematic structural diagram of a single-pass functional block according to an embodiment of the present application.

Detailed Description

At present, a common AGV system is a centralized architecture in which AGV nodes surround a central server, that is, all AGV nodes are strongly coupled with the central server, and all the jobs of the AGV nodes depend on the management of the central server. The centralized system architecture mainly has the following technical problems:

(1) difficult maintenance: the operation of the AGV nodes is greatly affected when the central server fails or is upgraded.

(2) Difficult expansion: since all management scheduling is centralized in the central server, the management complexity will grow exponentially as the number of AGV nodes and the scene complexity increase linearly.

Therefore, the distributed AGV system provided in the embodiment of the present application aims to solve the technical problem existing in the conventional AGV system. In order to make the objects, technical solutions and advantages of the present application more apparent, the technical solutions in the embodiments of the present application are further described in detail by the following embodiments in combination with the accompanying drawings. It should be understood that the specific embodiments described herein are merely illustrative of the present application and are not intended to limit the present application.

Fig. 1 is a schematic structural diagram of a distributed AGV system according to an embodiment of the present application. As shown in FIG. 1, the distributed AGV system may include: each AGV node carries a motion function of the AGV node and a management function of the AGV node to be managed; different AGV nodes bear different management functions; and all AGV nodes assist in completing the management work of the AGV nodes to be managed together through the management function born by the AGV nodes.

Specifically, a central server strongly coupled with the services of the AGV nodes is not set in the distributed AGV system, the management function of the central server is split into functions with smaller granularity and borne by different AGV nodes, and the original management function of the central server is realized through mutual cooperation of the AGV nodes.

Above-mentioned electric connection between each AGV node, each AGV node can directly carry out the message interaction. Optionally, the AGV nodes are deployed in the same local area network and communicate with each other in a wireless networking manner. In practical applications, the Wireless networking mode may be a Wireless-Fidelity (WiFi) network, an operator base station, a private network base station, or the like, and may also be Device-to-Device (D2D) communication based on a mobile network, and various Wireless networking modes are used to meet the requirement of the interconnected communication between the AGV nodes in the distributed AGV system.

Each AGV node in the system not only bears the motion function of the AGV node, but also bears the function of smaller granularity obtained after splitting the management function of the original central server. The motion function of the AGV node itself may include a task execution function and a motion control function, and is responsible for navigation calculation, guidance implementation, AGV node walking, loading and unloading operations, and the like of the AGV node itself. The management functions carried by the AGV nodes may include data management, task allocation or AGV node scheduling of different paths of the AGV nodes, and the management functions carried by different AGV nodes are different. And the management function borne by each AGV node is used for managing each work of the AGV nodes to be managed. For example, when the to-be-managed AGV node has a charging requirement, the to-be-managed AGV node may report the requirement to the AGV node bearing the charging task allocation function, and the to-be-managed AGV node is controlled to execute the charging task by the AGV node bearing the charging task allocation function.

Further, in order to improve the reliability of the distributed AGV system, the management function may be split into smaller granularity functions, and the smaller granularity functions are carried by different AGV nodes. For example, the data management function of the AGV node may be further divided into management of positioning data, task data, traffic data, and the like; and further splitting the task allocation function into a moving task and a charging task of the AGV node, a management task of the access control equipment in the moving process of the AGV node and the like. And then, respectively bearing the split management functions by a plurality of AGV nodes. The function of small granularity is more convenient for management and maintenance, if a certain AGV node breaks down, the influence range is better controlled, and the overhead of the data backup recovery function is smaller, that is to say, the maintenance cost of the failure of a single AGV node is lower.

To further improve the reliability of the distributed AGV system, on the basis of the foregoing embodiment, optionally, the distributed AGV system may further include: backing up an AGV node; the backup AGV node has the same management function as the current AGV node; and under the condition that the current AGV node fails, the backup AGV node replaces the current AGV node to execute the management work of the AGV nodes to be managed.

The current AGV node may be any AGV node carrying a management function. After the AGV node carrying the management function fails, in order to quickly recover the corresponding management function, a corresponding number of backup AGV nodes may be set in the distributed AGV system in advance, and the backup AGV nodes also carry the management function in the original central server, which is equivalent to the backup of the management function of the current AGV node. Therefore, after the current AGV node breaks down, the management function which is the same as that of the current AGV node in the backup AGV node can be started, and the backup AGV node replaces the current AGV node to execute the management work of the AGV node to be managed.

It should be noted that the AGV nodes are equivalent in form and may be functionally replaced with each other. That is to say, each AGV node can carry all the management functions in principle, but is not completely enabled, only part of the management functions are enabled based on actual needs, and each AGV node enables different management functions by enabling different management functions, so that different AGV nodes carry different management functions, and the structure of the distributed AGV system is flatter. The distributed AGV system with the flattened structure can simplify the complex scheduling problem of the AGV nodes through the distributed cooperation scheme, and when the number of the AGV nodes working simultaneously is increased, obvious complexity improvement can not be brought, so that the distributed AGV system has good expansion performance.

The following describes the working process of the distributed AGV system according to the embodiment of the present application, taking the execution of the movement task as an example:

it is assumed that the AGV node 1 carries a management function of movement task allocation, and interacts with an external system (e.g. a logistics system) to receive the requirements of the external system. AGV node 2 bears the management function of traffic control, and AGV node 3 bears the management function of access control equipment control, and AGV node 1, AGV node 2 and AGV node 3 are the management node. After the AGV node 1 receives a demand for transporting goods from an external system, the AGV node 1 determines that the AGV node 4 executes the task from all idle AGV nodes, and sends a moving task, i.e., a transport instruction, to the AGV node 4, where the moving task is used to instruct the AGV node 4 to transport the goods from the location a to the location B. At this time, the AGV node 4 is an AGV node to be managed. After receiving the transport instruction, the AGV node 4 plans a movement route, and sends a corresponding message to the AGV node 2 to instruct the AGV node 2 to determine whether the movement route is feasible. Meanwhile, the AGV node 4 can also send corresponding messages to the AGV node 3 so as to indicate the AGV node 3 to interact with the access control equipment and control the opening of the access control equipment. After receiving the confirmation messages of the AGV nodes 2 and 3, the AGV node 4 determines that the condition for executing the mobile task is satisfied, and then the AGV node 4 can execute the mobile task through the motion function carried by itself.

Further, as shown in fig. 2, the distributed AGV system may further include: the server is electrically connected with each AGV node; and the server is used for providing computing resources for each AGV node.

The distributed AGV system provided by the embodiment of the application aims at 'decentering' or 'weak center', and does not exclude the existence of the server in the system on the basis of the 'decentering' or 'weak center'. Considering that the computing performance of the server is generally better than that of the AGV nodes, for the AGV nodes, some work with higher computing pressure can still be solved by the server, but the server is not a server strongly coupled with the traffic of each AGV node, but exists as a computing resource for providing the computing resource for each AGV node.

The distributed AGV system that this application embodiment provided bears the management function who treats management AGV node through each AGV node, and different AGV nodes bear different management function, like this, each AGV node alright with the management function who bears through itself, assists the completion jointly to treat the management work of management AGV node. Compared with the traditional mode of carrying out centralized management through a central server, the method achieves the purpose of 'going to the center' or 'weak center', enables each AGV node to be maintained independently and expanded in functions, does not affect the work of other AGV nodes, and improves the reliability of the whole AGV system.

Each AGV node in the system bears a function of smaller granularity obtained after splitting the management function of the original central server. Therefore, how to perform reasonable function splitting is a key for realizing the distributed AGV system, and for this reason, a set of meta-templates describing AGV node function blocks is defined in the embodiments of the present application, and based on the meta-templates, each management function of the AGV nodes can be split and refined and encapsulated into the function blocks based on message driving. Based on this, on the basis of the above embodiment, optionally, the management function with smaller granularity carried by each AGV node may be a function block based on message driving; and each AGV node drives the execution of the function block carried by the AGV node through the transmission of the message, so that a specific management function is realized.

Referring to fig. 3-7, the kinds of function blocks may include a source function block (e.g., fig. 3), a sink function block (e.g., fig. 4), a combiner function block (e.g., fig. 5), a splitter function block (e.g., fig. 6), and a one-pass function block (e.g., fig. 7) according to different message passing manners.

The source function block is used for describing a periodically executed function and does not need to be driven by a message; the terminal function block is used for describing that no message is output to other function blocks after the message is input to the function block; the combiner function block is used for describing that the execution of the function block needs a plurality of message drivers, and the function block only outputs one message after being executed; the shunt function block is used for describing that the execution of the function block is driven by one message, and the function block outputs a plurality of messages after being executed; and the single-pass function block is used for describing that the execution of the function block is driven by one message, and the function block only outputs one message after being executed. It should be noted that the left side of the functional blocks in fig. 3-7 represents an input message, and the right side represents an output message.

In theory, the implementation of all management functions in the system can be split into a combination of the descriptions of the above 5 functional blocks. Continuing with the execution example of the mobile task in the above embodiment, the AGV node 1 serves as an initiator of the mobile task, and it carries an active function block, and is used to allocate the mobile task to the AGV node 4, that is, issue a transport instruction. The AGV node 4 is used as a receiver of the moving task, and carries a shunting function block, and is used for receiving the moving task distributed by the AGV node 1, planning a motion route based on the moving task, and sending corresponding messages to the AGV node 2 and the AGV node 3, and driving execution of the function blocks carried in the AGV node 2 and the AGV node 3. The AGV nodes 2 and 3 bear single-pass function blocks, the AGV nodes 2 receive messages sent by the AGV nodes 4, whether a movement route planned by the AGV nodes 4 is feasible or not is judged based on movement data of other AGV nodes, and corresponding results are fed back to the AGV nodes 4. The AGV node 3 receives the message sent by the AGV node 4, interacts with the access control equipment, controls the opening of the access control equipment, and feeds back a corresponding result to the AGV node 4. The AGV node 4 is also provided with a combining function block, based on the feedback results of the AGV node 2 and the AGV node 3, after the combining function block judges that the execution condition of the mobile task is met, a mobile task execution instruction is output, and the AGV node 4 executes the mobile task through the motion function born by the AGV node 4.

It should be noted that, in this embodiment, only the combination functional block includes two input messages, and the splitting functional block includes two output messages as an example, which does not specifically limit the number of input messages of the combination functional block and the number of output messages of the splitting functional block. In practical application, the number of input messages of the branching function block and the number of output messages of the branching function block can be correspondingly set according to service requirements.

Based on the above embodiments, each function block may optionally include a message protocol, interface and data space for communication between AGV nodes.

Specifically, the message protocol is used to manage read-write operations and Quality of Service (QoS) of messages transmitted between AGV nodes, and may be configured correspondingly based on specific Service requirements.

The interfaces may include an initialization interface, an interrupt interface, a recovery interface, an end interface, and an execution interface. The initialization interface is used for initializing the current functional block; the interrupt interface is used for suspending the work of the current functional block; the recovery interface is used for recovering the suspended work of the current functional block; an ending interface for emptying all message streams and making the current functional block enter an idle state; and the execution interface is used for acquiring the data provided by the upstream functional block and processing the data, and after the data processing is finished, the processed data is sent to the downstream functional block.

And the AGV nodes share respective data spaces with each other. That is, for a certain target AGV node, it may notify other AGV nodes in the system of the storage location of its data, so that other AGV nodes can access the data of the target AGV node. That is, for a management function composed of several function blocks, the related data is attributed to the data space corresponding to the function. The data space not only includes data of the local AGV node, but also includes data of other AGV nodes which are functionally related to the local AGV node in the system.

In this embodiment, the management function is a function block based on message driving, and each AGV node drives the function block carried by itself to execute through the transmission of a message, thereby completing a specific management operation of the AGV node to be managed. The management function borne by the AGV nodes is realized through the message-driven function blocks, so that the function combination among the AGV nodes is more flexible, and the reliability and the flexibility of the whole AGV system are further improved.

The technical features of the embodiments described above may be arbitrarily combined, and for the sake of brevity, all possible combinations of the technical features in the embodiments described above are not described, but should be considered as being within the scope of the present specification as long as there is no contradiction between the combinations of the technical features.

The above-mentioned embodiments only express several embodiments of the present application, and the description thereof is more specific and detailed, but not construed as limiting the scope of the present application. It should be noted that, for a person skilled in the art, several variations and modifications can be made without departing from the concept of the present application, which falls within the scope of protection of the present application. Therefore, the protection scope of the present patent shall be subject to the appended claims.

Claims

1. A distributed AGV system, comprising: the system comprises a plurality of AGV nodes which are electrically connected, wherein each AGV node is loaded with a motion function and a management function of the AGV nodes to be managed; different AGV nodes bear different management functions;

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the management function is a message-driven based function block;

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the categories of the function blocks include, according to different message passing manners:

4. The system of claim 3 wherein each function block includes a message protocol, interface and data space for communication between AGV nodes.

5. The system of claim 4 wherein the AGV nodes share respective data spaces with each other.

6. The system of claim 4, wherein the interface comprises:

and the execution interface is used for acquiring the data provided by the upstream functional block and processing the data, and after the data processing is finished, the processed data is sent to the downstream functional block.

7. The system of any one of claims 1 to 6, further comprising: the server is electrically connected with each AGV node;

and the server is used for providing computing resources for each AGV node.

8. System according to any of claims 1 to 6, characterized in that the management functions comprise data management of AGV nodes, task allocation or AGV node scheduling of different paths;

9. The system of any one of claims 1 to 6, further comprising: backing up an AGV node; the backup AGV node has the same management function as the current AGV node;

10. The system according to any one of claims 1 to 6, wherein AGV nodes are deployed on the same local area network and communicate with each other via wireless networking.