CN114111781A

CN114111781A - Path planning system, method and device

Info

Publication number: CN114111781A
Application number: CN202010877633.6A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 李峰
Original assignee: Beijing Jizhijia Technology Co Ltd
Current assignee: Beijing Jizhijia Technology Co Ltd
Priority date: 2020-08-27
Filing date: 2020-08-27
Publication date: 2022-03-01

Abstract

The specification discloses a path planning system, a method and a device, wherein the destination to be reached by a carrying device for carrying out a picking task is determined, the path weight of the carrying device from the destination to other destinations is respectively determined according to at least part of prestored map information aiming at each destination, a complete graph with each destination as a vertex and the path weight between the destinations as a side is constructed, and the driving path of the carrying device is planned according to at least part of a starting position, an ending position and the complete graph. The overall path planning is carried out on the carrying equipment in the whole process of executing the picking task, and when the carrying equipment runs according to the running path to execute the picking task, the situations such as detour can be avoided, and the efficiency of executing the picking task by the carrying equipment is improved.

Description

Path planning system, method and device

Technical Field

The present disclosure relates to the field of warehouse logistics technologies, and in particular, to a system, a method, and an apparatus for path planning.

Background

Currently, automatic picking and transporting of goods in an order to be picked has become a mainstream trend through a carrying device such as an Autonomous Mobile Robot (AMR).

Specifically, the inventory goods to be selected are placed in the inventory container, different inventory goods to be selected are placed in different inventory containers, and the position of the inventory goods to be selected in the order to be selected (that is, the position information of the inventory container in which the inventory goods to be selected are located in the warehouse) can be determined according to the corresponding relationship between the information of the inventory goods to be selected and the information of the position of the inventory container. When the carrying equipment performs the picking task, the carrying equipment can pick inventory goods to be picked in a plurality of orders to be picked simultaneously, and because each order to be picked can comprise a plurality of inventory goods to be picked, the carrying equipment needs to go to the positions of a plurality of inventory containers for picking.

Generally, the handling equipment loads carriers at stations where the carriers are placed, the carriers are containers where goods to be picked are placed, then the handling equipment drives to positions where stock containers required to be reached for completing a picking task are located to pick the goods, and then the goods are unloaded to a specified station, so that a picking task is completed.

Therefore, in the process of executing the picking task by the conveying equipment, how to plan the path of the conveying equipment becomes a problem to be solved urgently, so that the conveying equipment can finish the picking task more efficiently.

Disclosure of Invention

Embodiments of the present disclosure provide a path planning system, a method, and an apparatus, so as to partially solve the above problems in the prior art.

The embodiment of the specification adopts the following technical scheme:

a path planning system provided by this specification, the system including: a control center and a handling device;

the control center determines destinations required to be reached by the carrying equipment to execute the picking task, wherein the destinations comprise the position of the inventory container, the starting position and the ending position of the carrying equipment to execute the picking task, and the inventory container contains inventory goods to be picked, which are required to be picked by the picking task, and the inventory container is used for storing the inventory goods to be picked;

the control center respectively determines the weight of the path from the destination to other destinations according to at least part of prestored map information aiming at each destination, and constructs a complete graph taking each destination as a vertex and the weight of the path between the destinations as a side;

the control center plans a running path of the carrying equipment at least partially according to the starting position, the ending position and the complete graph, and sends the picking task and the running path to the carrying equipment;

and the conveying equipment receives the picking tasks and the traveling path sent by the control center and travels according to the traveling path in the process of executing the picking tasks.

Optionally, the control center determines each order to be picked that needs to be processed when the transporting device executes the picking task, and determines, at least partially according to information of each order to be picked, a location of at least one inventory container that the transporting device needs to reach to execute the picking task.

Optionally, the control center determines a correspondence between information of the stock goods and information of a stock container accommodating the stock goods as a first correspondence, and determines a correspondence between information of the stock container and information of a position where the stock container is located as a second correspondence;

for the inventory goods to be picked in each order to be picked, determining the information of the inventory containers containing the inventory goods to be picked at least partially according to the information of the inventory goods to be picked and the first corresponding relation, and determining the information of the positions of the inventory containers containing the inventory goods to be picked at least partially according to the information of the inventory containers containing the inventory goods to be picked and the second corresponding relation;

determining the position of the stock container to which the carrying device needs to reach for executing the picking task at least partially according to the information of the position of each stock container containing the stock goods to be picked.

Optionally, the control center performs merging processing on the position of each inventory receptacle accommodating inventory goods to be picked at least partially according to the information of the position of each inventory receptacle accommodating inventory goods to be picked, so as to obtain the position of the inventory receptacle which the conveying device needs to reach to execute the picking task.

Optionally, the control center at least partially determines, according to the information of the carrying device and the information of each order to be picked, whether the carrying device needs to load a specified carrier during the process of executing the picking task, if so, determines a position of a work station on which the specified carrier is placed as the starting position, otherwise, obtains a current position of the carrying device, and takes the current position as the starting position.

Optionally, the control center determines, as the termination position information, a position where each stock item to be picked is placed, at least in part according to information of each order to be picked.

A path planning method provided in this specification, the method including:

determining destinations to which a carrying device needs to reach for executing a picking task, wherein the destinations comprise positions of stock containers, starting positions and ending positions of the carrying device for executing the picking task, and the stock containers contain stock goods to be picked, which need to be picked by the picking task, and are contained in the stock containers;

respectively determining the path weight of the conveying equipment from the destination to other destinations according to at least part of prestored map information aiming at each destination, and constructing a complete graph taking each destination as a vertex and the path weight between the destinations as an edge;

planning a travel path of the handling equipment at least partially according to the starting position, the ending position and the complete map;

and sending the picking task and the running path to the conveying equipment so that the conveying equipment runs according to the running path in the process of executing the picking task.

A path planning apparatus provided in this specification, the apparatus includes:

a destination determining module, configured to determine a destination to which a conveying device needs to reach to perform a picking task, where the destination includes a location of an inventory receptacle, a starting location and a terminating location of the conveying device to perform the picking task, and the inventory receptacle contains inventory goods to be picked that the picking task needs to pick;

a path weight determining module, configured to determine a destination to which a conveying device needs to reach to perform a picking task, where the destination includes a location of an inventory receptacle, a starting location and a terminating location of the conveying device to perform the picking task, and the inventory receptacle contains inventory goods to be picked that the picking task needs to pick;

a travel path determining module for planning a travel path of the handling equipment at least partially according to the starting position, the ending position and the complete map;

and the traveling path sending module is used for sending the picking task and the traveling path to the conveying equipment so that the conveying equipment travels according to the traveling path in the process of executing the picking task.

This specification provides an electronic device comprising one or more processors; and the storage device is used for storing one or more programs, and when the one or more programs are executed by the one or more processors, the one or more processors realize the path planning method.

The present specification provides a computer-readable storage medium having stored thereon a computer program which, when executed by a processor, implements the above-described path planning method.

The embodiment of the specification adopts at least one technical scheme which can achieve the following beneficial effects:

determining destinations required to be reached by the carrying equipment to execute the picking tasks, wherein the destinations comprise the positions of stock containers, starting positions and ending positions of the carrying equipment to execute the picking tasks, the stock containers contain stock goods to be picked which need to be picked by the picking tasks, for each destination, respectively determining the path weights of the carrying equipment from the destination to other destinations according to at least part of prestored map information, constructing a complete map with the destination as a vertex and the path weights among the destinations as sides, planning the traveling path of the carrying equipment according to at least part of the starting positions, the ending positions and the complete map, and transmitting the picking tasks and the traveling path to the carrying equipment so that the carrying equipment travels according to the traveling path in the process of executing the picking tasks. The overall path planning is carried out on the carrying equipment in the whole process of executing the picking task, and when the carrying equipment runs according to the running path to execute the picking task, the situations such as detour can be avoided, and the efficiency of executing the picking task by the carrying equipment is improved.

Drawings

The accompanying drawings, which are included to provide a further understanding of the specification and are incorporated in and constitute a part of this specification, illustrate embodiments of the specification and together with the description serve to explain the specification and not to limit the specification in a non-limiting sense. In the drawings:

fig. 1 is a schematic diagram of a path planning system according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

fig. 2 is a flowchart of a path planning method provided in an embodiment of the present disclosure;

fig. 3 is a schematic diagram of a relationship between a destination and a direct destination corresponding to the destination provided in the embodiments of the present specification;

fig. 4 is a schematic structural diagram of a path planning apparatus provided in an embodiment of the present disclosure;

fig. 5 is a schematic structural diagram of an electronic device provided in an embodiment of the present specification.

Detailed Description

In order to make the objects, technical solutions and advantages of the present disclosure more clear, the technical solutions of the present disclosure will be clearly and completely described below with reference to the specific embodiments of the present disclosure and the accompanying drawings. It is to be understood that the embodiments described are only a few embodiments of the present disclosure, and not all embodiments. All other embodiments obtained by a person of ordinary skill in the art based on the embodiments in the present specification without any creative effort belong to the protection scope of the present specification.

In the field of warehouse logistics, it is common to use handling equipment instead of human labor for automated picking and transportation. A plurality of inventory containers can be placed in an existing common intelligent warehouse, goods are placed in each inventory container, and the goods placed in different inventory containers are different. When the carrying equipment performs the picking task, the carrying equipment can reach the inventory container where the inventory goods to be picked are located to pick the inventory goods, and the picked inventory goods are placed at the specified position so as to be convenient for subsequent processing of the picked inventory goods.

Generally, the carrying device may obtain current position information, determine position information of an inventory container in which each stock goods to be selected is located in the picking task, respectively determine a travel distance or travel time between the current position information and the position information of the inventory container in which each stock goods to be selected is located according to the current position information and the position information of the inventory container in which each stock goods to be selected is located, select a position of the inventory container in which the stock goods to be selected with the shortest travel distance or travel time is located as a next destination, the carrying device may travel from the current position to the next destination, pick up the stock goods at the next destination, and select a position of the inventory container in which the stock goods to be selected with the shortest travel distance or travel time is located as the next destination again until the carrying device completes the picking task.

Of course, the carrying device may also determine each order to be picked in the picking task, determine an allocation order of each order to be picked, and sequentially process the orders to be picked according to the allocation order, that is, the carrying device first picks the stock goods to be picked in the first order to be picked, then picks the stock goods to be picked in the second order to be picked, and so on, and the picking task is completed when the last order to be picked is processed.

When the carrying equipment performs the picking task in the existing mode, the traveling path is not optimized, so that a large amount of time is consumed for the carrying equipment to travel among the inventory containers in the process of performing the picking task, and meanwhile, the situation that the carrying equipment bypasses, repeatedly returns to the same position and the like may occur, so that the efficiency of the carrying equipment in performing the picking task is low.

The technical solutions provided by the embodiments of the present description are described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

Fig. 1 is a schematic diagram of a path planning system according to an embodiment of the present disclosure, which may include a control center 100, a handling apparatus 102, an inventory container 104, a carrier station 106, and an end position 108, wherein:

the control center 100 determines the picking task of the handling equipment 102 and the order to be picked corresponding to the picking task, and plans a traveling path of the handling equipment 102 in the process of executing the picking task according to the information of the order to be picked. The specific process of the control center 100 planning the travel path of the carrier 102 will be described in detail below. The control center 100 may send the picking task, the to-be-picked orders and the travel route to the transporting device 102, so that the transporting device 102 travels along the travel route in the process of executing the picking task to pick the to-be-picked stock goods in each to-be-picked order. The control center 100 may be a device for scheduling picking in a warehouse, such as a server, and may be a single device or a distributed server composed of multiple devices, which is not limited in this specification. In this specification, picking refers to a process of picking goods required for an order from stock containers in a warehouse according to order needs, a to-be-picked order refers to an order that includes the goods that have not been picked, and a to-be-picked stock goods refers to the goods that have not been picked and are included in the to-be-picked order.

The conveying device 102 is a device for picking goods by performing picking tasks, and the conveying device 102 may communicate with the control center 100 remotely (indicated by arrows in fig. 1), receive the picking tasks, the orders to be picked, and the travel paths sent by the control center 100, travel according to the travel paths in the process of performing the picking tasks, and pick the stock goods to be picked in each order to be picked. The handling device 102 may be fixed with non-unloadable carriers, may be provided with an area for placing picked goods, and may reserve a designated position for loading the carriers. The carrier is a container for placing inventory goods to be picked. The description is not limited to how the handling device 102 picks inventory items to be picked and how the handling device holds inventory items to be picked. In addition, the conveyance device 102 may monitor its own position information and transmit the own position information to the control center 100.

The inventory receptacles 104 may be any type of semi-enclosed form of receptacle that holds inventory items, such as shelves (with items placed in the shelves), bins on a fixed support, trays, and the like. The inventory containers 104 may be placed in a warehouse and the inventory containers 104 may be provided with an inventory container identification, which may include information such as an inventory container number, to facilitate locating the inventory containers 104 in the warehouse based on the inventory container identification. The inventory container 104 may have inventory items to be selected placed therein, and different inventory items to be selected placed in different inventory containers 104, so that the correspondence between the information of the inventory items to be selected and the identification of the inventory container and the position information of the inventory container 104 in the warehouse may be determined in advance, that is, the correspondence between the information of the inventory items and the information of the inventory container containing the inventory items may be determined as a first correspondence in advance according to the actual situation, and the correspondence between the information of the inventory container and the information of the position where the inventory container is located may be determined as a second correspondence.

Carriers are placed on the carrier stations 106, and different types of carriers can be placed on different carrier stations 106, wherein the carriers can comprise boxes, storage lattices and the like. By referring to the corresponding relationship between the inventory container 104 and the inventory goods, the corresponding relationship between the carrier stations 106 and the carriers can be determined, and the position information of the carrier stations 106 where the carriers are placed can be determined according to the information of the carriers. In addition, different inventory goods to be selected need to be placed in different carriers in the process of executing the picking task by the carrying device 102, that is, different inventory goods to be selected correspond to different carriers, so that the corresponding relationship between the information of the inventory goods to be selected and the information of the carriers can also be determined.

In this specification, the terminating position 108 may include a sorting station and a designated position, in one scenario, stock goods to be selected in a plurality of orders are placed in a carrier on a handling device, and since an operator needs to perform secondary sorting on the stock goods to be selected in the carrier at the sorting station, the stock goods to be selected corresponding to each order are sorted out, and then are packaged, and the packaging may be completed at the sorting station at the same time, or the stock goods to be selected of each order sorted out at the secondary sorting may be placed in a respective transfer box, and then the stock goods to be selected in the transfer boxes are packaged separately at a packaging station. That is, the handling equipment needs to transport each inventory goods to be selected to the sorting station, so that each inventory goods to be selected enters the next link at the sorting station. In another scenario, when only the inventory goods to be selected in one order are placed in each carrier on the transporting device, the transporting device may directly transport the inventory goods to a designated location, such as a packing station, for subsequent processing, such as packing, of the inventory goods to be selected.

The termination location 108 may place the picked goods, that is, the picked goods may be placed to the termination location 108 after the transporting device 102 finishes picking the stock goods to be picked in each order to be picked. Similarly, different end locations 108 may place different orders of stock goods to be selected, and with reference to the above, the correspondence between the information of each order and the information of the end location 108 may be determined.

It should be noted that the location of the inventory receptacles, the location of the carrier stations, and the termination location that the handling device needs to reach to perform the picking task are relatively wide location areas. Taking the inventory container as an example, usually, a corresponding parking position may be designed for the handling apparatus at the location of the inventory container, so that when the handling apparatus reaches the location of the inventory container, the handling apparatus is parked at the corresponding parking position, that is, the location of the inventory container includes the corresponding parking position of the inventory container. Of course, the transporting device may also be parked at any position in the position area where the inventory container is located, in one transporting scenario, the transporting device performs the transportation task and does not perform the task of picking up the goods, or, in another transporting scenario, the transporting device performs the tasks of transporting and picking up the goods at the same time, since the present specification aims to plan a better traveling path for the transporting device to process a plurality of orders to be picked so that the transporting device avoids detouring and the like during the process of performing the picking task, the transporting device can determine that the transporting device arrives at the destination when arriving at the position area where the inventory container is located, and for better picking up the goods, the transporting device can finely adjust its position during the picking process (at this time, the transporting device is still located in the position area where the inventory container is located, that is, the transporting device has arrived at the destination), therefore, the transport facility can reach the location area where the stock container is located. That is, the position of the transport device at rest in the position area where the inventory container is located does not affect the transport task performed by the transport device. The method for determining the parking positions corresponding to the inventory containers, the carrier stations and the termination positions is not limited in the present specification.

The present specification also provides another path planning system that may include a handling apparatus, an inventory receptacle, a carrier station, and an end location. The system schematic can be seen in fig. 1. In contrast to fig. 1, in the system the handling device may determine the picking order and the order to be picked corresponding to the picking order. The carrying equipment can plan a driving path of the carrying equipment according to the information of each order to be picked and drive according to the driving path in the process of executing the picking task. The present specification will be described in detail below with respect to a process in which the conveyance device plans its own travel path.

In this specification, the control center may determine a picking task and each order to be picked of the transporting apparatus, plan a travel path of the transporting apparatus in a process of executing the picking task according to information of each order to be picked, and send the picking task, the order to be picked, and the travel path to the transporting apparatus, so that the transporting apparatus travels according to the travel path in the process of executing the picking task. In addition, the carrying equipment can also receive the picking tasks and the orders to be picked sent by the control center, plan the driving path of the carrying equipment in the process of executing the picking tasks according to the information of the orders to be picked and drive according to the driving path. That is, the control center and the carrying equipment can plan the driving path of the carrying equipment according to the information of each order to be picked. Therefore, for the sake of understanding, the present specification will describe a process in which the control center plans the travel path of the transport facility, as an example.

Based on the above, the present specification provides a path planning method, and a specific flow may be as shown in fig. 2. Fig. 2 is a flowchart of a path planning method provided in an embodiment of the present specification, which specifically includes the following steps:

s200: determining destinations to which a conveying device needs to reach for executing a picking task, wherein the destinations comprise a position of an inventory container, a starting position and an ending position of the conveying device for executing the picking task, and inventory goods to be picked which need to be picked by the picking task are contained in the inventory container.

In this specification, the control center may determine each order to be picked that needs to be processed when the transporting apparatus executes the picking task, and determine, according to information of each order to be picked, a location of an inventory container that the transporting apparatus needs to reach to execute the picking task.

Specifically, the control center may obtain each order to be picked, allocate the order to be picked to the transporting device, and use a process in which the transporting device processes a plurality of orders to be picked as a process in which the transporting device executes a picking task. That is, the picking order corresponds to a plurality of orders to pick. The description is not limited with respect to the process by which the control center assigns orders to pick to the handling equipment. For each order to be picked, the control center may determine information of each stock goods to be picked in the order to be picked according to the information of the order to be picked, where the information of the stock goods to be selected may include information of a goods identifier, a goods category, and the like of the stock goods to be selected.

The control center can determine a corresponding relation between the information of the stock goods and the information of the stock containers containing the stock goods as a first corresponding relation, determine a corresponding relation between the information of the stock containers and the information of the positions of the stock containers as a second corresponding relation, determine the information of the stock containers containing the stock goods to be picked aiming at the stock goods to be picked in each order to be picked at least partially according to the information of the stock goods to be picked and the first corresponding relation, and determine the information of the positions of the stock containers containing the stock goods to be picked at least partially according to the information of the stock containers containing the stock goods to be picked and the second corresponding relation; the method comprises the steps of determining the position of an inventory container which is required to be reached by a carrying device to execute a picking task at least partially according to information of the position of each inventory container containing inventory goods to be picked, and combining the positions of the inventory containers corresponding to the information of each inventory goods to be selected according to the information of the positions of the inventory containers corresponding to the information of each inventory goods to be selected to obtain the position of the inventory container which is required to be reached by the carrying device to execute the picking task, wherein the first corresponding relation and the second corresponding relation can be stored in a control center in advance or can be obtained from other positions by the control center.

When determining each stock container according to the information of each stock goods to be selected in each order to be selected, the same stock container may exist in each determined stock container due to the fact that the same stock goods to be selected may exist in different orders to be selected, and the like.

For example, the order to be picked corresponding to the picking task includes an order a and an order B, where the inventory goods to be picked in the order a are goods 1, 2, and 3, the position information of the inventory container corresponding to each inventory goods to be selected in the order a is L1, L2, and L3, the inventory goods to be picked in the order B is goods 1 and 4, and the position information of the inventory container corresponding to each inventory goods to be selected in the order B is L1 and L4. The position information of the stock containers to which the carrying apparatus needs to reach to perform the picking task includes L1, L2, L3, L1 and L4, and since the carrying apparatus needs to reach L1 when both the order a and the order B are processed, the carrying apparatus can pick the goods 1 in the order a and can also pick the goods 1 in the order B at L1, the same position information of the stock containers can be removed from the position information of the stock containers to be reached, and the position information of the stock containers to be reached is obtained as L1, L2, L3 and L4.

In addition, in consideration of actual situations, in the determined position of each inventory container, there may be a case where the distance between the positions of the plurality of inventory containers is short, and therefore, according to the information of the position of each inventory container, if there are at least two positions of the inventory container and the distance between any two positions of the inventory container is smaller than the preset distance threshold, the positions of at least two inventory containers may be merged. The control center may merge the positions of at least two inventory containers according to a preset merge rule, for example, a position of one inventory container may be randomly selected from the positions of at least two inventory containers, as a result of merging the positions of a plurality of inventory containers, or, for example, for the positions of at least two inventory containers, a linear distance between the position of the inventory container and the positions of other inventory containers is calculated, a sum of linear distances between the position of the inventory container and the positions of other inventory containers is determined as a total distance corresponding to the position of the inventory container, and according to the total distance corresponding to the position of each inventory container, a position of an inventory container with a smallest total distance is selected from the positions of the inventory containers, as a result of merging the positions of the inventory containers.

At the same time, the control center may determine the starting position of the handling device for performing the picking task.

Specifically, the control center can judge whether the carrying equipment needs to load the specified carrier in the process of executing the picking task according to the information of the carrying equipment and the information of each order to be picked, if so, the position of a station where the specified carrier is placed is determined to be used as the initial position, otherwise, the current position of the carrying equipment is obtained, and the current position is used as the initial position.

The information of the transporting equipment can include information of the type of the transporting equipment, the type of the loadable carrier, the area of the loadable carrier and the like, and the type of the transporting equipment can include fixed carriers, unfixed carriers and the like according to whether the carriers can be loaded or not. Of course, the information of the conveying apparatus may also include information such as the model of the conveying apparatus. The control center can determine the information of the loaded carrier on the carrying equipment according to the information of the carrying equipment, and determine the information of the carrier corresponding to each stock goods to be selected according to the relationship between the stock goods to be selected and the information of the carrier and the information of each stock goods to be selected in each order to be selected, match the information of the carrier corresponding to each stock goods to be selected with the information of the loaded carrier on the carrying equipment, if the matching result is consistent, the carrying equipment is judged not to need to load the specified carrier in the process of executing the picking task, the current position of the carrying equipment can be obtained, the current position is taken as an initial position, if the matching result is inconsistent, the carrying equipment is judged to need to load the specified carrier in the process of executing the picking task, and the position of a carrier station where the specified carrier is placed is determined as the initial position.

It should be noted that the designated carrier is a carrier corresponding to the stock goods to be selected. Because each stock goods to be selected has a corresponding carrier, and the carriers corresponding to the stock goods to be selected may be the same or different, and different carriers are placed at different carrier stations, therefore, the carrying equipment may need to reach a plurality of carrier stations to load a plurality of carriers when executing a picking task. The description is not limited as to how the carrier stations are sequenced.

In addition, the control center may also determine the termination location of the handling device for performing the picking task.

Specifically, according to the information of each order to be picked, the position of the work station where each stock goods to be picked is placed is determined as the termination position information.

Since different end positions correspond to different orders to be picked, the conveying equipment may need to reach a plurality of end positions when executing a picking task, and therefore, the control center can determine each end position needing to be reached according to the information of each order to be picked and sequence the end positions. After the transporting equipment picks the stock goods to be picked, the goods can be placed at the termination positions in sequence according to the sorting result of the termination positions. In order to facilitate planning of the travel path of the handling device, the position of the first termination position that the handling device needs to reach may be used as the termination position. No limitation is made in this specification as to how each termination location is ordered.

S202: and respectively determining the path weight of the conveying equipment from the destination to other destinations according to pre-stored map information, and constructing a complete graph with the destination as a vertex and the path weight between the destinations as a side.

After determining each destination, the control center may determine a weight of a path for the conveyance device to reach from any destination to another destination based on pre-stored map information.

Specifically, the control center may draw and store an electronic map of the warehouse in advance. The description is not limited with respect to the drawing process of the map. The map information may include position information of each inventory container, position information of each termination position and each carrier station, and may further include information such as a travelable area of the transport apparatus.

For each destination, the control center can determine a destination to which the transport apparatus can directly reach with the destination as a start position based on the map information, determine a path weight between the destination and a direct destination corresponding to the destination as the direct destination corresponding to the destination, and determine a path weight between any two destinations based on the path weights between each destination and the direct destination corresponding to each destination. In determining the path weight between any two destinations, the minimum path weight between any two destinations can be determined for better optimization.

Further, when determining the path weight between the destination and the direct destination corresponding to the destination, the control center may determine at least one of a travel time and a travel distance for the transportation device to reach the known destination corresponding to the destination from the destination according to the pre-stored map information, and then determine the path weight between the destination and the direct destination corresponding to the destination according to at least one of the travel time and the travel distance, wherein the path weight is positively correlated to the travel time, and the path weight is positively correlated to the travel distance.

Therefore, the control center can determine the travel time or the travel distance between the destination and the directly reachable destination corresponding to the destination. The control center can obtain historical travel time spent on the transportation equipment reaching the direct destination corresponding to the destination from the destination in history, and determine the average value of the historical travel time spent on the transportation equipment as the travel time spent on the destination and the direct destination corresponding to the destination, or the control center can obtain the travel time spent on a single travel of the transportation equipment reaching the direct destination corresponding to the destination from the destination, and the maximum travel time spent on the single travel is used as the travel time spent on the destination and the direct destination corresponding to the destination. The control center may acquire a historical travel distance of the transportation device historically traveled from the destination to the direct destination, and take the minimum historical travel distance as a travel distance between the destination and the direct destination. Of course, the control center may also determine the travel time or the travel distance between the destination and the direct destination corresponding to the destination in other manners, which is not described herein again.

Here, it should be noted that, if the travel time or the travel distance between the destinations corresponding to the destinations and the direct destination is determined, the route weight may be determined based on the positive correlation between the route weight and the travel time or the positive correlation between the route weight and the travel distance. For example, the control center may directly take the travel time as a path weight between the destination and the direct destination. The above-mentioned manner of directly taking the travel time or the travel distance as the path weight is only an example provided in the present specification. In regard to other ways of determining the path weight according to the travel time or the travel distance, for example, setting a compensation value, and determining a product of the travel time and the compensation value or a product of the travel distance and the compensation value as the path weight, this specification does not exemplify any more.

By way of example, fig. 3 is a schematic diagram of a relationship between a destination and a direct destination corresponding to the destination provided in the embodiments of the present specification. In fig. 3, the arrow between the two destinations indicates accessibility between the two destinations, for example, the carrier may reach L2 directly from L1, but not L1 directly from L2. From the map information, it can be determined that the destinations directly reachable by the carrier with L1 as the start position are L2, L3, and L4, that is, the destinations directly reachable by L1 are L2, L3, and L4. Taking the determination of the path weight from L3 to L4 as an example, the historical travel time of the conveyance apparatus traveling historically from L3 to L4 may be obtained, the average of the historical travel time is determined as the travel time between L3 and L4, the travel time between L3 and L4 may be directly used as the path weight Q (3,4) from L3 to L4, and so on, the path weight from L4 to L1 may be determined as Q (4,1), and the path weights between other destinations may be determined, which are not all shown in fig. 3. That is, fig. 3 is actually a weighted directed graph between destinations.

After obtaining the path weights between each destination and the directly reachable destination corresponding to each destination, the control center may determine the manner in which any destination reaches any other destination and the path weights according to the weighted directed graph shown in fig. 3 by using a shortest path algorithm, so that a complete graph about each destination can be determined according to the manner in which any destination reaches any other destination and the path weights. The shortest path algorithm may include the Floyd algorithm (i.e., Roy-Warshall algorithm), dijkstra algorithm, and the like.

Following the above example, it can be determined that L1 is reached from L3 by starting from L3 through L4 and then to L1, i.e., L3 → L4 → L1, with the distance between L3 and L1 weighted as Q (3,4) + Q (4, 1).

After obtaining the path weights between any two destinations, the control center can construct a complete graph with each destination as a vertex and the path weights between each destination as edges.

The present specification may determine the full graph in other ways than those provided using the above. In this specification, the control center may first determine a weighted directed graph between the locations of all inventory receptacles, the end location, and the carrier station, based on the map information, which may represent the travel of the handling equipment throughout the warehouse. Then, based on the weighted directed graph, a path weight between any two locations in the warehouse may be determined. The control device may then construct a base map with the locations as vertices and the path weights between the locations as edges, the base map representing accessibility between the locations in the warehouse and the path weights between the locations, the base map being a complete map when the locations in the warehouse are destinations for the picking tasks performed by the handling devices. Therefore, the destination of the picking task performed by the conveying equipment can be determined, and the complete map is determined according to the information of the destination and the basic map.

S204: and planning a driving path of the carrying equipment according to the starting position, the ending position and the complete map.

After determining the starting position, the ending position and the complete map, the control center can establish a model to solve the problem of planning the traveling path of the carrying equipment.

Specifically, when the carrying device executes the picking task, the carrying device needs to start from the initial position, pick the stock goods to be picked through the positions of the stock containers, and reach the sorting station (that is, the termination position) after all the stock goods to be picked are picked. Therefore, the control center may convert the problem of determining the travel path into a problem of solving a traveler problem (TSP) based on the complete map for each destination, with the start position information as the start point and the end position information as the end point. Since the starting point and the ending point are the same position in the conventional TSP problem, for the convenience of solving the problem, the starting point and the ending point may be regarded as the same position in this specification, that is, accessibility between the starting point and the ending point is set to be two-way accessibility, and the path weight between the starting point and the ending point is set to be zero. The accessibility and the path weight between the other destinations and the starting and stopping positions are kept unchanged, and the accessibility and the path weight between the other destinations and the stopping positions are kept unchanged.

That is, in this specification, a warehouse map may be first modeled digitally to obtain an electronic map, a travel path of a transport apparatus is represented by a weighted directed graph G (V, E, W), where a node set V represents each stop point at which the transport apparatus needs to perform work, an edge set E represents accessibility and direction between any two nodes, and a weight set W represents a distance between two nodes or a transit time.

Then, a picking task that the carrying equipment needs to execute is determined, the picking task includes one or more orders to be picked, then, the carrying equipment can arrive at a carrier station S according to the demand of the orders to be picked and load a corresponding carrier (if a plurality of carrier stations exist, the first carrier station S to arrive is taken), and if a certain carrier is fixed on the carrying equipment body and does not need to be replaced, the current position point of the carrying equipment is taken as a starting point S. The handling equipment needs to unload the carrier filled with goods to the corresponding station E for unloading operation after the order is completed (if there are a plurality of stations, the last station to be reached is selected as E).

Then, point location information of a stop required by the carrying equipment to complete the order processing is obtained based on the order requirement, repeated points may exist in the obtained stop points, and a deduplication operation is required to be performed, so that a set P { P1, P2.. pn } of the stop points is formed (n is the non-repeated number of the stop points). The information of each position point where the transporting equipment needs to travel is a path chain, wherein the starting point and the end point are fixed, and the traveling sequence of each stop point needs to be determined to optimize the path. Where stations S and E are accessible and are at a distance of 0, the point at distance 0 can be considered to be the same point, and this problem can be translated into a special case of the vrp (vehicle Routing distribution) problem for multiple customers at a distribution center, namely the TSP problem.

Finally, in order to solve the TSP problem, the path needs to be processed, the shortest distance between any two points is calculated based on the Floyd algorithm, and based on the result, the complete graph G '(V', E ', W') required for the current calculation can be constructed.

Therefore, the control center can solve the TSP problem by adopting methods such as a genetic algorithm, an ant colony algorithm, simulated annealing and the like to obtain a driving path. Of course, in addition to solving the TSP problem by the above-mentioned methods, the travel path may be obtained by methods such as an accurate calculation method and a solution using a reinforcement learning model, and the method for solving the TSP problem is not limited in this specification.

Based on the path planning method provided by the above content, an embodiment of the present specification further provides a schematic structural diagram of a path planning apparatus, as shown in fig. 4.

Fig. 4 is a schematic structural diagram of a path planning apparatus provided in an embodiment of the present disclosure, where the apparatus includes:

a destination determining module 401, configured to determine destinations to which the conveying devices need to perform the picking task, where the destinations include a location of an inventory receptacle containing the stock goods to be picked that the picking task needs to pick, a starting location and a terminating location of the conveying devices performing the picking task;

a determine path weight module 402, configured to determine destinations that need to be reached by a transporting apparatus to execute a picking task, where the destinations include a location of an inventory receptacle, a starting location and a terminating location of the transporting apparatus to execute the picking task, and the inventory receptacle contains inventory goods to be picked that need to be picked by the picking task;

a determine driving path module 403, configured to plan a driving path of the handling apparatus at least partially according to the start position, the end position, and the complete map;

a sending traveling path module 404, configured to send the picking task and the traveling path to the transporting apparatus, so that the transporting apparatus travels according to the traveling path in the process of executing the picking task.

Optionally, the destination determining module 401 is specifically configured to determine each to-be-picked order that needs to be processed when the transporting apparatus executes the picking task; determining, based at least in part on information of each order to be picked, a location of at least one inventory receptacle that the handling apparatus needs to reach to perform the picking task.

Optionally, the destination determining module 401 is specifically configured to determine, as a first correspondence, a correspondence between information of the stock goods and information of the stock containers that accommodate the stock goods, and determine, as a second correspondence, a correspondence between information of the stock containers and information of positions where the stock containers are located; for the inventory goods to be picked in each order to be picked, determining the information of the inventory containers containing the inventory goods to be picked at least partially according to the information of the inventory goods to be picked and the first corresponding relation, and determining the information of the positions of the inventory containers containing the inventory goods to be picked at least partially according to the information of the inventory containers containing the inventory goods to be picked and the second corresponding relation; determining the position of the stock container to which the carrying device needs to reach for executing the picking task at least partially according to the information of the position of each stock container containing the stock goods to be picked.

Optionally, the destination determining module 401 is specifically configured to, at least partially according to information of locations of inventory receptacles that accommodate inventory items to be picked, perform merging processing on the locations of the inventory receptacles that accommodate inventory items to be picked, so as to obtain the location of an inventory receptacle that the conveying device needs to reach to execute the picking task.

Optionally, the destination determining module 401 is specifically configured to determine, at least partially according to the information of the transporting apparatus and the information of each order to be picked, whether the transporting apparatus needs to load a specific carrier during the process of executing the picking task; if so, determining the position of a station for placing the specified carrier as the initial position; otherwise, acquiring the current position of the carrying equipment, and taking the current position as the starting position.

Optionally, the destination determining module 401 is specifically configured to determine, as the termination position information, a position where each stock item to be picked is placed, at least in part according to information of each order to be picked.

Optionally, the module for determining a path weight 402 is specifically configured to determine, at least partially according to the map information, a destination that the transportation equipment can directly reach when the destination is the starting location, as a direct destination corresponding to the destination; determining a path weight between the destination and a direct destination corresponding to the destination; and determining the path weight between any two destinations according to the path weight between each destination and the direct destination corresponding to each destination.

Optionally, the module for determining a path weight 402 is specifically configured to determine, at least partially according to the map information, at least one of a travel time and a travel distance of the transportation device from the destination to a directly reachable destination corresponding to the destination; and determining a path weight between the destination and a direct destination corresponding to the destination according to at least one of the travel time and the travel distance, wherein the path weight is positively correlated with the travel time, and the path weight is positively correlated with the travel distance.

The embodiment of the present specification further provides a computer-readable storage medium, where a computer program is stored, and the computer program may be used to execute the path planning method provided by the foregoing content.

Based on the path planning method provided by the above content, the embodiment of the present specification further provides a schematic structure diagram of the electronic device shown in fig. 5. As shown in fig. 5, at the hardware level, the electronic device includes a processor, an internal bus, a network interface, a memory, and a non-volatile memory, but may also include hardware required for other services. The processor reads the corresponding computer program from the nonvolatile memory into the memory and then runs the computer program to realize the path planning method provided by the content.

Of course, besides the software implementation, the present specification does not exclude other implementations, such as logic devices or a combination of software and hardware, and the like, that is, the execution subject of the following processing flow is not limited to each logic unit, and may be hardware or logic devices.

In the 90 s of the 20 th century, improvements in a technology could clearly distinguish between improvements in hardware (e.g., improvements in circuit structures such as diodes, transistors, switches, etc.) and improvements in software (improvements in process flow). However, as technology advances, many of today's process flow improvements have been seen as direct improvements in hardware circuit architecture. Designers almost always obtain the corresponding hardware circuit structure by programming an improved method flow into the hardware circuit. Thus, it cannot be said that an improvement in the process flow cannot be realized by hardware physical modules. For example, a Programmable Logic Device (PLD), such as a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA), is an integrated circuit whose Logic functions are determined by programming the Device by a user. A digital system is "integrated" on a PLD by the designer's own programming without requiring the chip manufacturer to design and fabricate application-specific integrated circuit chips. Furthermore, nowadays, instead of manually making an Integrated Circuit chip, such Programming is often implemented by "logic compiler" software, which is similar to a software compiler used in program development and writing, but the original code before compiling is also written by a specific Programming Language, which is called Hardware Description Language (HDL), and HDL is not only one but many, such as abel (advanced Boolean Expression Language), ahdl (alternate Hardware Description Language), traffic, pl (core universal Programming Language), HDCal (jhdware Description Language), lang, Lola, HDL, laspam, hardward Description Language (vhr Description Language), vhal (Hardware Description Language), and vhigh-Language, which are currently used in most common. It will also be apparent to those skilled in the art that hardware circuitry that implements the logical method flows can be readily obtained by merely slightly programming the method flows into an integrated circuit using the hardware description languages described above.

The controller may be implemented in any suitable manner, for example, the controller may take the form of, for example, a microprocessor or processor and a computer-readable medium storing computer-readable program code (e.g., software or firmware) executable by the (micro) processor, logic gates, switches, an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), a programmable logic controller, and an embedded microcontroller, examples of which include, but are not limited to, the following microcontrollers: ARC 625D, Atmel AT91SAM, Microchip PIC18F26K20, and Silicone Labs C8051F320, the memory controller may also be implemented as part of the control logic for the memory. Those skilled in the art will also appreciate that, in addition to implementing the controller as pure computer readable program code, the same functionality can be implemented by logically programming method steps such that the controller is in the form of logic gates, switches, application specific integrated circuits, programmable logic controllers, embedded microcontrollers and the like. Such a controller may thus be considered a hardware component, and the means included therein for performing the various functions may also be considered as a structure within the hardware component. Or even means for performing the functions may be regarded as being both a software module for performing the method and a structure within a hardware component.

The systems, devices, modules or units illustrated in the above embodiments may be implemented by a computer chip or an entity, or by a product with certain functions. One typical implementation device is a computer. In particular, the computer may be, for example, a personal computer, a laptop computer, a cellular telephone, a camera phone, a smartphone, a personal digital assistant, a media player, a navigation device, an email device, a game console, a tablet computer, a wearable device, or a combination of any of these devices.

For convenience of description, the above devices are described as being divided into various units by function, and are described separately. Of course, the functions of the various elements may be implemented in the same one or more software and/or hardware implementations of the present description.

As will be appreciated by one skilled in the art, embodiments of the present description may be provided as a method, system, or computer program product. Accordingly, the description may take the form of an entirely hardware embodiment, an entirely software embodiment or an embodiment combining software and hardware aspects. Furthermore, the description may take the form of a computer program product embodied on one or more computer-usable storage media (including, but not limited to, disk storage, CD-ROM, optical storage, and the like) having computer-usable program code embodied therein.

The description has been presented with reference to flowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams of methods, apparatus (systems), and computer program products according to embodiments of the description. It will be understood that each flow and/or block of the flow diagrams and/or block diagrams, and combinations of flows and/or blocks in the flow diagrams and/or block diagrams, can be implemented by computer program instructions. These computer program instructions may be provided to a processor of a general purpose computer, special purpose computer, embedded processor, or other programmable data processing apparatus to produce a machine, such that the instructions, which execute via the processor of the computer or other programmable data processing apparatus, create means for implementing the functions specified in the flowchart flow or flows and/or block diagram block or blocks.

These computer program instructions may also be stored in a computer-readable memory that can direct a computer or other programmable data processing apparatus to function in a particular manner, such that the instructions stored in the computer-readable memory produce an article of manufacture including instruction means which implement the function specified in the flowchart flow or flows and/or block diagram block or blocks.

These computer program instructions may also be loaded onto a computer or other programmable data processing apparatus to cause a series of operational steps to be performed on the computer or other programmable apparatus to produce a computer implemented process such that the instructions which execute on the computer or other programmable apparatus provide steps for implementing the functions specified in the flowchart flow or flows and/or block diagram block or blocks.

In a typical configuration, a computing device includes one or more processors (CPUs), input/output interfaces, network interfaces, and memory.

The memory may include forms of volatile memory in a computer readable medium, Random Access Memory (RAM) and/or non-volatile memory, such as Read Only Memory (ROM) or flash memory (flash RAM). Memory is an example of a computer-readable medium.

Computer-readable media, including both non-transitory and non-transitory, removable and non-removable media, may implement information storage by any method or technology. The information may be computer readable instructions, data structures, modules of a program, or other data. Examples of computer storage media include, but are not limited to, phase change memory (PRAM), Static Random Access Memory (SRAM), Dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM), other types of Random Access Memory (RAM), Read Only Memory (ROM), Electrically Erasable Programmable Read Only Memory (EEPROM), flash memory or other memory technology, compact disc read only memory (CD-ROM), Digital Versatile Discs (DVD) or other optical storage, magnetic cassettes, magnetic tape magnetic disk storage or other magnetic storage devices, or any other non-transmission medium that can be used to store information that can be accessed by a computing device. As defined herein, a computer readable medium does not include a transitory computer readable medium such as a modulated data signal and a carrier wave.

It should also be noted that the terms "comprises," "comprising," or any other variation thereof, are intended to cover a non-exclusive inclusion, such that a process, method, article, or apparatus that comprises a list of elements does not include only those elements but may include other elements not expressly listed or inherent to such process, method, article, or apparatus. Without further limitation, an element defined by the phrase "comprising an … …" does not exclude the presence of other like elements in a process, method, article, or apparatus that comprises the element.

This description may be described in the general context of computer-executable instructions, such as program modules, being executed by a computer. Generally, program modules include routines, programs, objects, components, data structures, etc. that perform particular tasks or implement particular abstract data types. The specification may also be practiced in distributed computing environments where tasks are performed by remote processing devices that are linked through a communications network. In a distributed computing environment, program modules may be located in both local and remote computer storage media including memory storage devices.

The embodiments in the present specification are described in a progressive manner, and the same and similar parts among the embodiments are referred to each other, and each embodiment focuses on the differences from the other embodiments. In particular, for the system embodiment, since it is substantially similar to the method embodiment, the description is simple, and for the relevant points, reference may be made to the partial description of the method embodiment.

The above description is only an example of the present specification, and is not intended to limit the present specification. Various modifications and alterations to this description will become apparent to those skilled in the art. Any modification, equivalent replacement, improvement, etc. made within the spirit and principle of the present specification should be included in the scope of the claims of the present specification.

The invention includes A1, a path planning system, characterized by that, the said system includes: a control center and a handling device;

the control center determines destinations required to be reached by the carrying equipment to execute the picking task, wherein the destinations comprise the position of an inventory container, the starting position and the ending position of the carrying equipment to execute the picking task, and the inventory container contains inventory goods to be picked, which are required to be picked by the picking task, and the inventory container is used for storing the inventory goods to be picked;

A2, the system of claim a1, wherein the control center determines each order to be picked that the handling equipment needs to handle when performing the picking order, and determines the location of at least one inventory receptacle that the handling equipment needs to reach to perform the picking order based at least in part on information about each order to be picked.

A3, the system according to claim a2, wherein the control center determines, as a first correspondence, a correspondence between information on inventory items and information on inventory containers that hold inventory items, and determines, as a second correspondence, a correspondence between information on inventory containers and information on locations where inventory containers are located;

A4, the system according to claim A3, wherein the control center combines the positions of the stock containers containing stock goods to be picked at least partly according to the information about the positions of the stock containers containing stock goods to be picked to obtain the positions of the stock containers to which the conveying device has to carry out the picking order.

A5, the system according to claim a2, wherein the control center judges whether the transporting equipment needs to load a specific carrier during the process of executing the picking task at least partially according to the information of the transporting equipment and the information of each order to be picked, if yes, the control center determines the position of a work station where the specific carrier is placed as the starting position, otherwise, the control center obtains the current position of the transporting equipment, and takes the current position as the starting position.

A6, the system of claim a2, wherein the control center determines, as the termination location information, a location to place each stock item to be picked based at least in part on information about each order to be picked.

A7, the system according to claim a1, wherein the control center determines a destination to which the conveyance apparatus can directly reach with the destination as a start position, based at least in part on the map information, determines a path weight between the destination and a direct destination corresponding to the destination as a direct destination corresponding to the destination, and determines a path weight between any two destinations based on the path weights between each destination and the direct destination corresponding to each destination.

A8, the system according to claim A7, wherein the control center determines at least one of a travel time and a travel distance of the transportation device from the destination to the direct destination corresponding to the destination at least partially according to the map information, and determines a path weight between the destination and the direct destination corresponding to the destination at least partially according to the travel time and the travel distance, the path weight being positively correlated with the travel time, and the path weight being positively correlated with the travel distance.

A10, a method for planning a path, the method comprising:

A11, the method of claim a10, wherein determining the location of the inventory receptacle that the handling device needs to reach for performing the picking order includes:

determining each order to be picked which needs to be processed when the carrying equipment executes the picking task;

determining, based at least in part on information of each order to be picked, a location of at least one inventory receptacle that the handling apparatus needs to reach to perform the picking task.

A12, the method of claim a11, wherein determining, based at least in part on information for each order to be picked, a location of at least one inventory receptacle to which the handling apparatus needs to reach for performing a picking task, comprises:

determining a corresponding relation between information of the stock goods and information of a stock container accommodating the stock goods as a first corresponding relation, and determining a corresponding relation between the information of the stock container and information of a position where the stock container is located as a second corresponding relation;

A13, the method of claim a12, wherein determining, based at least in part on information for each order to be picked, a location of at least one inventory receptacle to which the handling apparatus needs to reach for performing a picking task, comprises:

and at least partially according to the information of the positions of the inventory containers containing the inventory goods to be picked, merging the positions of the inventory containers containing the inventory goods to be picked to obtain the positions of the inventory containers which are required to be reached by the carrying equipment to execute the picking task.

A14, the method of claim a11, wherein determining a starting position for the handling apparatus to perform the picking task, comprises:

judging whether the carrying equipment needs to load a specified carrier in the process of executing the picking task or not at least partially according to the information of the carrying equipment and the information of each order to be picked;

if so, determining the position of a station for placing the specified carrier as the initial position;

otherwise, acquiring the current position of the carrying equipment, and taking the current position as the starting position.

A15, the method of claim a11, wherein determining the termination location of the handling apparatus for performing the picking order, comprises:

and determining the position for placing each stock goods to be selected as the termination position information at least partially according to the information of each order to be selected.

A16, the method of claim a10, wherein the determining the weight of the path of the handling equipment from the destination to the other destination, respectively, is based at least in part on pre-stored map information, specifically comprises:

determining a destination which can be directly reached by the carrying equipment under the condition that the destination is taken as a starting position at least partially according to the map information, and taking the destination as a direct destination corresponding to the destination;

determining a path weight between the destination and a direct destination corresponding to the destination;

and determining the path weight between any two destinations according to the path weight between each destination and the direct destination corresponding to each destination.

A17 the method of claim a16, wherein determining the path weight between the destination and the direct destination corresponding to the destination comprises:

determining at least one of travel time and travel distance of the carrying equipment from the destination to a direct destination corresponding to the destination at least partially according to the map information;

and determining a path weight between the destination and a direct destination corresponding to the destination according to at least one of the travel time and the travel distance, wherein the path weight is positively correlated with the travel time, and the path weight is positively correlated with the travel distance.

A18, a path planning device, comprising:

A19, the apparatus of claim a18, wherein the determine destination module is specifically configured to determine each order to be picked that the handling device needs to handle when performing the picking order; determining, based at least in part on information of each order to be picked, a location of at least one inventory receptacle that the handling apparatus needs to reach to perform the picking task.

A20, the apparatus of claim a19, wherein the destination determining module is specifically configured to determine, as a first correspondence, a correspondence between information of inventory items and information of inventory receptacles containing inventory items, and to determine, as a second correspondence, a correspondence between information of inventory receptacles and information of locations where inventory receptacles are located; for the inventory goods to be picked in each order to be picked, determining the information of the inventory containers containing the inventory goods to be picked at least partially according to the information of the inventory goods to be picked and the first corresponding relation, and determining the information of the positions of the inventory containers containing the inventory goods to be picked at least partially according to the information of the inventory containers containing the inventory goods to be picked and the second corresponding relation; determining the position of the stock container to which the carrying device needs to reach for executing the picking task at least partially according to the information of the position of each stock container containing the stock goods to be picked.

A21, the apparatus of claim a20, wherein the destination determining module is configured to merge the locations of the inventory receptacles containing stock items to be picked to obtain the locations of the inventory receptacles to which the handling device needs to reach for executing the picking task, at least partially based on the information about the locations of the inventory receptacles containing stock items to be picked.

A22, the apparatus of claim a19, wherein the destination determining module is specifically configured to determine whether the handling device needs to load a specific carrier during execution of the picking task based at least in part on the information of the handling device and the information of each order to be picked; if so, determining the position of a station for placing the specified carrier as the initial position; otherwise, acquiring the current position of the carrying equipment, and taking the current position as the starting position.

A23, the apparatus of claim a19, wherein the destination determining module is specifically configured to determine a location for placing each stock item to be picked as the termination location information based at least in part on information of each order to be picked.

A24, the apparatus of claim a18, wherein the module for determining the path weight is specifically configured to determine, based at least in part on the map information, a destination that the transportation device can directly reach with the destination as a starting location, as a direct destination corresponding to the destination; determining a path weight between the destination and a direct destination corresponding to the destination; and determining the path weight between any two destinations according to the path weight between each destination and the direct destination corresponding to each destination.

A25, the apparatus of claim a24, wherein the determine path weight module is specifically configured to determine at least one of a travel time and a travel distance of the handling equipment from the destination to a direct destination corresponding to the destination based at least in part on the map information; and determining a path weight between the destination and a direct destination corresponding to the destination according to at least one of the travel time and the travel distance, wherein the path weight is positively correlated with the travel time, and the path weight is positively correlated with the travel distance.

A26, an electronic device, comprising:

one or more processors;

a storage device for storing one or more programs,

when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to implement a path planning method as recited in any of claims a 10-a 17.

A27, a computer-readable storage medium, having stored thereon a computer program, characterized in that the program, when being executed by a processor, is adapted to carry out a method of path planning according to any one of claims a10 to a 17.

Claims

1. A path planning system, the system comprising: a control center and a handling device;

2. The system of claim 1, wherein said control center determines each order to be picked that said handling equipment needs to handle when performing said picking order, and determines a location of at least one inventory receptacle that said handling equipment needs to reach to perform said picking order based, at least in part, on information about each order to be picked.

3. The system according to claim 2, wherein the control center determines, as the first correspondence, a correspondence between information of the stock item and information of a stock container that accommodates the stock item, and determines, as the second correspondence, a correspondence between information of the stock container and information of a position where the stock container is located;

4. The system of claim 3, wherein the control center merges the positions of the inventory receptacles containing the inventory items to be picked based at least in part on information about the positions of the inventory receptacles containing the inventory items to be picked to obtain the positions of the inventory receptacles to which the handling device needs to reach for performing the picking task.

5. The system of claim 2, wherein the control center determines whether the handling device needs to load a specific carrier during the process of executing the picking task at least partially according to the information of the handling device and the information of each order to be picked, if so, determines a position of a work station where the specific carrier is placed as the starting position, otherwise, obtains a current position of the handling device, and takes the current position as the starting position.

6. The system of claim 2, wherein said control center determines a location for placing each stock item to be picked as said termination location information based at least in part on information for each order to be picked.

7. A method of path planning, the method comprising:

8. A path planning apparatus, the apparatus comprising:

9. An electronic device, comprising:

one or more processors;

a storage device for storing one or more programs,

when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to implement the path planning method of claim 7.

10. A computer-readable storage medium, on which a computer program is stored which, when being executed by a processor, carries out the path planning method according to claim 7.