CN114803243A

CN114803243A - Goods delivery method, device and system and electronic equipment

Info

Publication number: CN114803243A
Application number: CN202210346493.9A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 魏豫
Original assignee: Beijing Jingdong Qianshi Technology Co Ltd
Current assignee: Beijing Jingdong Qianshi Technology Co Ltd
Priority date: 2022-03-31
Filing date: 2022-03-31
Publication date: 2022-07-29
Anticipated expiration: 2042-03-31
Also published as: CN114803243B

Abstract

The disclosure provides a goods delivery method, a device and a system and electronic equipment. The method comprises the following steps: acquiring sorting work station information of a target work station group, wherein the target work station group comprises a plurality of sorting work stations; determining a task to be sorted corresponding to the sorting work stations in the target work station group according to the information of the sorting work stations in the target work station group and the order to be processed; determining a target transport robot and a target cargo turnover box corresponding to the target workstation group according to the to-be-sorted task corresponding to each sorting workstation in the target workstation group; and after the target transport robot is controlled to transport the target cargo turnover box to the target work station group, controlling the target cargo turnover box to enter one or more corresponding sorting work stations where tasks to be sorted are located so as to finish the goods delivery. The embodiment of the disclosure can improve the goods delivery efficiency.

Description

Goods delivery method, device and system and electronic equipment

Technical Field

The disclosure relates to the field of warehouse logistics, in particular to a goods delivery method, device and system and electronic equipment.

Background

With the development of warehouse logistics technology, small-sized transportation robots are widely applied to warehouse-out and transportation work of warehoused goods so as to transport the goods from a warehousing position to a picking workstation for workers to pick the goods manually.

In the related art, an order is generally selected for each workstation in an order pool or a task pool, then a storage position corresponding to the order is selected, and an idle small transport robot is selected for carrying goods according to the storage position and the workstation position. However, each task of each workstation in the scheme needs to occupy one small-sized transportation robot, so that the carrying capacity of the small-sized transportation robot cannot be fully utilized, the requirement on the number of the small-sized transportation robots is huge, and the carrying efficiency is low.

Therefore, a method for delivering the warehoused goods is needed to improve the efficiency of transporting the warehoused goods.

It is to be noted that the information disclosed in the above background section is only for enhancement of understanding of the background of the present disclosure, and thus may include information that does not constitute prior art known to those of ordinary skill in the art.

Disclosure of Invention

The invention aims to provide a goods delivery method, a device, a system and electronic equipment, which are used for solving the problems of large quantity of small transportation robots, low goods delivery efficiency and the like in the prior art at least to a certain extent.

According to a first aspect of an embodiment of the present disclosure, there is provided a cargo ex-warehouse method, including: acquiring sorting work station information of a target work station group, wherein the target work station group comprises a plurality of sorting work stations, each sorting work station is provided with a plurality of groove positions, and the sorting work station information comprises information of groove positions to be processed in the sorting work stations; determining a task to be sorted corresponding to the sorting workstation in the target workstation group according to the sorting workstation information and the order to be processed of the target workstation group; according to the task to be sorted corresponding to each sorting work station in the target work station group, determining a target transport robot and a target cargo turnover box corresponding to the target work station group, wherein each target cargo turnover box corresponds to one or more tasks to be sorted, and the one or more tasks to be sorted correspond to one or more sorting work stations; and after controlling the target transport robot to transport the target cargo turnover box to the target work station group, controlling the target cargo turnover box to enter one or more corresponding sorting work stations where the tasks to be sorted are located so as to finish the goods delivery.

In an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure, the information of the slot to be processed includes an order type and a cargo type corresponding to the slot to be processed, and the determining, according to the information of the sorting workstation of the target workstation group and the order to be processed, a task to be sorted corresponding to the sorting workstation of the target workstation group includes: determining the order to be processed corresponding to each slot position to be processed according to the order type corresponding to the slot position to be processed and the goods types corresponding to all slot positions in the target workstation group; determining a to-be-processed order corresponding to the target sorting workstation according to the to-be-processed order corresponding to the to-be-processed slot position corresponding to the target sorting workstation; and generating a to-be-sorted task corresponding to the target sorting workstation according to the to-be-processed order corresponding to the target sorting workstation, wherein the to-be-sorted task comprises a target goods type corresponding to the target sorting workstation and a to-be-processed quantity corresponding to each target goods type.

In an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure, the determining, according to the order type corresponding to the slot to be processed and the kinds of goods corresponding to all slots in the target workstation group, the order to be processed corresponding to each slot to be processed includes: acquiring to-be-processed order information of a plurality of to-be-processed orders, wherein the order information comprises an order type corresponding to each to-be-processed order, a goods type corresponding to each to-be-processed order and a to-be-processed quantity corresponding to each goods type; setting the order types corresponding to all the slots to be processed in the target workstation group as target order types, and setting the to-be-processed orders with the order types as the target order types in the to-be-processed orders as target orders; determining a matching score of the goods category of the target order and the goods category corresponding to each sorting workstation in the target workstation group; and according to the matching score of the target order from high to low, allocating the target order to the slot to be processed with the same order type as the target order.

In an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure, the slot to be dealt with includes an empty slot and a slot of an incomplete aggregate single set, and allocating the target order to the slot to be dealt with which the order type is the same according to a matching score of the target order from high to low includes: determining an order type of the target order and a sorting workstation corresponding to the highest matching score of the target order; acquiring the processing category of the sorting workstation for the order type of the target order; when the processing type is the collection sheet, the target order is allocated to a slot position with the same order type and without an assembly single sheet, or the target order is allocated to an empty slot position with the same order type, or the target order cannot be allocated to the workstation when the empty slot position does not exist or the target order cannot form the collection sheet; and when the processing type is the order, allocating the target order to the empty slot with the same order type.

In an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure, the determining, according to the task to be sorted corresponding to each sorting workstation in the target workstation group, a target transport robot and a target cargo turnover box corresponding to the target workstation group includes: determining a goods turnover box corresponding to the target goods type according to the target goods type corresponding to all the tasks to be sorted of the target workstation group; determining a target transport robot corresponding to the target workstation group in an idle transport robot; acquiring a convenience score of the goods turnover box on the target workstation group, wherein the convenience score is in direct proportion to a quantity matching value and in inverse proportion to a distance value, the quantity matching value is determined according to a ratio of the inventory quantity of the goods turnover box to a to-be-processed quantity of a target goods type corresponding to the goods turnover box in the target workstation, and the distance value comprises the distance between the goods turnover box and the target workstation group, the distance between the goods turnover box and the target transport robot, and the matching degree of the position of the goods turnover box and a planned path of the target transport robot; and determining one or more goods turnover boxes as target goods turnover boxes corresponding to the target workstation group according to the inventory quantity of the goods turnover boxes and the convenience score from high to low.

In an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure, before determining the target transport robot, further includes: determining target goods turnover boxes which correspond to the target workstation groups in all the goods turnover boxes corresponding to the target goods types; updating the quantity to be processed of the target task to be sorted according to the available inventory of each goods type in the target goods turnover box, wherein the target goods type of the target task to be sorted exists in the target goods turnover box; and binding the target cargo turnover box with the sorting work station corresponding to the target task to be sorted.

In an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure, controlling the target cargo turnover box to enter the corresponding one or more sorting workstations where the tasks to be sorted are located to complete the cargo delivery comprises: determining one or more tasks to be sorted corresponding to the target cargo turnover box; determining one or more sorting workstations corresponding to the one or more tasks to be sorted; controlling the target cargo turnover box to run on a first conveyor belt of the target workstation group, and identifying the position of the target cargo turnover box in real time, wherein the first conveyor belt is connected with an inlet and an outlet of a second conveyor belt of each sorting workstation in the target workstation group; and when the target cargo turnover box reaches the inlet of the second conveyor belt of the corresponding sorting workstation, controlling the target cargo turnover box to enter the inlet of the second conveyor belt.

According to a second aspect of the embodiments of the present disclosure, there is provided a cargo delivery system including: a plurality of sorting stations, each sorting station having layout connectivity; the first conveyor belt is in a ring shape, moves along a first direction and is connected with a plurality of sorting work stations of the same work station group; a plurality of second conveyors moving in the first direction or a second direction opposite the first direction, each of the second conveyors corresponding to one of the sorting stations, the second conveyors having inlets and outlets connected to the first conveyors; the system comprises a plurality of transportation robots, a plurality of sorting robots and a control system, wherein each transportation robot is used for acquiring one or more goods turnover box numbers according to tasks to be sorted, acquiring the goods turnover boxes from a storage area according to the goods turnover box numbers and conveying the goods turnover boxes to a work station group corresponding to the tasks to be sorted; and the processor is in communication connection with the sorting workstation, the first conveyor belt, the second conveyor belt and the transportation robot and is used for executing the goods delivery method.

According to a third aspect of the embodiments of the present disclosure, there is provided a cargo delivery apparatus including: the system comprises an information acquisition module, a processing module and a processing module, wherein the information acquisition module is used for acquiring the information of a sorting work station of a target work station group, the target work station group comprises a plurality of sorting work stations, each sorting work station is provided with a plurality of slots, and the information of the sorting work stations comprises the information of the slots to be processed in the sorting work stations; the task distribution module is used for determining a to-be-sorted task corresponding to the sorting work station in the target work station group according to the information of the sorting work station in the target work station group and the to-be-processed order; the transportation distribution module is configured to determine, according to the task to be sorted corresponding to each sorting workstation in the target workstation group, a target transportation robot and a target cargo turnover box corresponding to the target workstation group, wherein each target cargo turnover box corresponds to one or more tasks to be sorted, and the one or more tasks to be sorted correspond to one or more sorting workstations; and the sorting control module is used for controlling the target transport robot to transport the target cargo turnover box to the target work station group and then controlling the target cargo turnover box to enter one or more corresponding sorting work stations where the tasks to be sorted are located so as to finish the goods delivery.

According to a fourth aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided an electronic device comprising: a memory; and a processor coupled to the memory, the processor configured to perform the method of any of the above based on instructions stored in the memory.

According to a fifth aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a computer-readable storage medium having stored thereon a program which, when executed by a processor, implements a cargo consignment method as recited in any one of the above.

According to the method and the device, the orders are distributed to the sorting workstations according to the workstation groups, and the transport robots and the goods turnover boxes are configured in a centralized mode according to the workstation groups, so that the number of sorting tasks realized by one-time transportation of the transport robots can be effectively increased, and the demand for the transport robots is reduced; simultaneously, through controlling the goods turnover case to get into a plurality of letter sorting workstations, can realize once transport, sort many times, effectively improve a plurality of letter sorting workstations's common work efficiency, and then improve goods efficiency of leaving warehouse.

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

Drawings

The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated in and constitute a part of this specification, illustrate embodiments consistent with the present disclosure and together with the description, serve to explain the principles of the disclosure. It is to be understood that the drawings in the following description are merely exemplary of the disclosure, and that other drawings may be derived from those drawings by one of ordinary skill in the art without the exercise of inventive faculty.

Fig. 1 is a flowchart of a cargo ex-warehouse method in an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure.

Fig. 2A and 2B are schematic diagrams of a group of workstations in an embodiment of the disclosure.

FIG. 3 is a sub-flowchart of step S2 in one embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 4 is a sub-flowchart of step S21 in one embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 5 is a sub-flowchart of step S214 in one embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 6 is a sub-flowchart of step S3 in one embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 7 is a sub-flowchart of step S3 in one embodiment of the present disclosure.

Fig. 8 is a schematic view of a target transport robot transporting a target cargo tote in one embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 9 is a sub-flowchart of step S4 in one embodiment of the present disclosure.

Fig. 10 is a schematic illustration of a target cargo tote traveling between a first conveyor and a second conveyor in one embodiment of the disclosure.

Fig. 11 is a schematic diagram of a cargo warehouse-out system in an embodiment of the present disclosure.

Fig. 12A and 12B are schematic views of a first conveyor belt and a second conveyor belt in an embodiment of the disclosure.

Fig. 13 is a block diagram of a cargo outbound device in an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure.

Fig. 14 is a block diagram of an electronic device in an exemplary embodiment of the disclosure.

Detailed Description

Example embodiments will now be described more fully with reference to the accompanying drawings. Example embodiments may, however, be embodied in many different forms and should not be construed as limited to the examples set forth herein; rather, these embodiments are provided so that this disclosure will be thorough and complete, and will fully convey the concept of example embodiments to those skilled in the art. The described features, structures, or characteristics may be combined in any suitable manner in one or more embodiments. In the following description, numerous specific details are provided to give a thorough understanding of embodiments of the disclosure. One skilled in the relevant art will recognize, however, that the subject matter of the present disclosure can be practiced without one or more of the specific details, or with other methods, components, devices, steps, and the like. In other instances, well-known technical solutions have not been shown or described in detail to avoid obscuring aspects of the present disclosure.

Further, the drawings are merely schematic illustrations of the present disclosure, in which the same reference numerals denote the same or similar parts, and thus, a repetitive description thereof will be omitted. Some of the block diagrams shown in the figures are functional entities and do not necessarily correspond to physically or logically separate entities. These functional entities may be implemented in the form of software, or in one or more hardware modules or integrated circuits, or in different networks and/or processor devices and/or microcontroller devices.

The following detailed description of exemplary embodiments of the disclosure refers to the accompanying drawings.

Referring to fig. 1, a cargo ex-warehouse method 100 may include:

step S1, obtaining the information of a target workstation group, wherein the target workstation group comprises a plurality of sorting workstations, each sorting workstation has a plurality of slots, and the information of the sorting workstations comprises the information of the slots to be processed in the sorting workstations;

step S2, determining a task to be sorted corresponding to the sorting workstation in the target workstation group according to the information of the sorting workstation in the target workstation group and the order to be processed;

step S3, determining, according to the task to be sorted corresponding to each sorting workstation in the target workstation group, a target transportation robot and a target cargo turnover box corresponding to the target workstation group, where each target cargo turnover box corresponds to one or more tasks to be sorted, and the one or more tasks to be sorted correspond to one or more sorting workstations;

step S4, after controlling the target transportation robot to transport the target cargo turnover box to the target workstation group, controlling the target cargo turnover box to enter one or more sorting workstations where the corresponding tasks to be sorted are located, so as to complete the delivery of the cargo.

The steps of the shipment method 100 will be described in detail below.

In step S1, sorting station information of a target station group is obtained, the target station group including a plurality of sorting stations, each sorting station having a plurality of slots, the sorting station information including information of slots to be disposed in the sorting stations.

The sorting work station is a work area for carrying out warehouse-out sorting and is divided into a manual sorting work station and a special work station. The workstation group of the disclosed embodiment includes a plurality of sorting workstations, and the workstation group currently being a calculation object is referred to as a target workstation group.

Referring to fig. 2A, the station cluster 200 includes a plurality of sorting stations 1, each sorting station 1 including a plurality of slots 11. Sorting stations divided into the same station group have positional continuity, i.e. the stations can be divided into a plurality of station groups according to the connectivity of the warehouse conveyor line layout, as shown in fig. 2A as 200 and 201, which are two station groups.

The quantity of the sorting workstations in the workstation group can be determined according to the quantity of the slot positions of each sorting workstation, the types of goods (such as large pieces of household appliances or small pieces of shampoos, bread and the like) fixedly corresponding to each slot position or each sorting workstation and the capacity of the transport robot, so that the transport capacity of the transport robot can be fully utilized, the primary transport capacity of the transport robot is not exceeded, that is, the transport robot can meet the requirements of all the sorting workstations in the workstation group on the goods as far as possible, and the transport capacity is not wasted.

In some embodiments, the slot 11 or the sorting workstation 1 may not correspond to a fixed cargo type, and the workstation group may be configured according to the distance between the sorting workstations, the warehouse layout, and other factors, which is not limited in this disclosure.

Referring to fig. 2B, one station set 200 is provided with one first conveyor belt 2. The first conveyor belt 2 is endless and moves in a first direction, for example clockwise or counter-clockwise. The first conveyor belt 2 is connected with the sorting workstations 1, a first waiting area 21 is arranged at an inlet of the first conveyor belt 2, the first waiting area 21 is used for accommodating the transportation robots 3 to be queued and is provided with a plurality of waiting positions, and the transportation robots 3 which are sequenced into the first position place the cargo turnover boxes 4 on the first conveyor belt 2.

Each sorting station 1 has a second conveyor belt 12, the second conveyor belt 12 moving in a first or second direction, opposite to the first direction, counter-clockwise or clockwise. Each second conveyor belt 12 corresponds to a sorting station 1, the inlet 121 and the outlet 122 of the second conveyor belt 12 being connected to the first conveyor belt 1.

When the first direction is counterclockwise, the second direction may also be counterclockwise, as shown in fig. 2, so that the outlet 122 of the second conveyor belt 12 is located forward of the inlet 121 in the first direction, thereby improving the transportation efficiency of the cargo container 4. In another embodiment, when the first direction is counterclockwise, the second direction may also be clockwise, so that the outlet of the second conveyor belt 12 is located behind the inlet in the first direction, providing an opportunity for missed picking, additional sorting, and additional sorting.

A plurality of slots 11 in the sorting station 1 are used to provide a space for receiving the sorted goods, for example by arranging a box (e.g. empty carton). Each slot 11 corresponds to an order or an aggregate. One collection sheet is a combination of a plurality of orders so as to improve the efficiency of goods centralized delivery, and the collection sheet needs to be further sorted subsequently. At the start of delivery, each slot 11 may be set to an order type. The order types include, but are not limited to, single-piece orders, multiple-piece orders, return supplier orders, internally coordinated inventory orders, and the like, and the type and quantity of the order types can be set by one skilled in the art according to actual conditions.

Before the ex-warehouse task begins, information of each sorting workstation in the target workstation group can be obtained firstly. The information of the sorting work station includes information of the slot to be processed, such as the number of the slot to be processed in one sorting work station, the sorting work station where each slot to be processed is located, the order type corresponding to each slot to be processed, and the like. The to-be-handled slot refers to a slot to which an order can be allocated, for example, an empty slot (a slot to which an order has not been allocated yet), a slot to which an aggregate single-set order is not completed (an aggregate single is not full), and the like, where the empty slot may be pre-configured to process the aggregate single-set order or the order, or may be configured to process the aggregate single-set order or the order according to actual conditions of the order in a subsequent processing process according to actual requirements.

In other embodiments, the information for a sorting workstation also includes the particular order type (if any) to which the sorting workstation corresponds, the dispatch limit condition for the sorting workstation, whether the sorting workstation is enabled, and the like. The purpose of obtaining information for sorting workstations is to collect resources that may be used to place sort orders.

In step S2, according to the information of the sorting workstation of the target workstation group and the to-be-processed order, a to-be-sorted task corresponding to the sorting workstation of the target workstation group is determined.

In the disclosed embodiment, pending orders may be obtained from an order center (order pool). The order center (BPC) is used for receiving the pending order information of the peripheral system and managing the task life cycle generated inside the system. One pending order needs to correspond to one slot of one sorting workstation, but one slot may correspond to multiple pending orders when set to process a collection.

The orders to be processed have attributes of order type, goods type-goods quantity, etc., each order to be processed corresponds to one order type, each order to be processed may correspond to one or more goods types, and the goods quantity corresponding to each goods type may be one or more.

Referring to fig. 3, in one embodiment, step S2 may include:

step S21, determining the order to be processed corresponding to each slot position to be processed according to the order type corresponding to the slot position to be processed and the goods types corresponding to all slot positions in the target workstation group;

step S22, determining the order to be processed corresponding to the target sorting workstation according to the order to be processed corresponding to the slot to be processed corresponding to the target sorting workstation;

step S23, generating a to-be-sorted task corresponding to the target sorting workstation according to the to-be-processed order corresponding to the target sorting workstation, wherein the to-be-sorted task comprises target goods types corresponding to the target sorting workstation and to-be-processed quantity corresponding to each target goods type.

In the embodiment shown in fig. 3, it is first required to ensure that the order to be processed matches the order type of the slot to be processed, and then to ensure that the coincidence degree between the order to be processed and all the goods types already corresponding to the target workstation group is high as much as possible, so as to reduce the number of the goods types to be processed by the target workstation group.

Referring to FIG. 4, in one embodiment, the process of allocating a pending order for a pending slot in step S21 may include:

step S211, obtaining order information to be processed of a plurality of orders to be processed, wherein the order information comprises an order type corresponding to each order to be processed, a goods type corresponding to each order to be processed and a quantity to be processed corresponding to each goods type;

step S212, after the order types corresponding to all the slots to be processed in the target workstation group are set as target order types, the order to be processed with the order type of the target order type in the order to be processed is set as the target order;

step S213, determining the matching score of the goods type of the target order and the goods type corresponding to each sorting work station in the target work station group;

and step S214, allocating the target order to the slot to be processed with the same order type according to the matching score from high to low.

First, a to-be-processed order matched with the order types of all to-be-processed slots of the target workstation group can be selected from the order pool and used as a target order to be allocated to the target workstation group. Next, a degree of matching of the goods type of the target order with the goods types corresponding to all the slots may be determined. The disclosed embodiments determine the goods category match score for a target order with a target workstation group by calculating the goods category match score for the target order with each sorting workstation in the target workstation group.

The calculation of a target order and a goods category match score for each sorting station in the target station group will now be described using a target sorting station as an example.

Firstly, selecting a sorting work station with a slot position to be processed as a target sorting work station i, wherein i is more than or equal to 1.

Secondly, determining the goods type of which the destination is the target sorting work station i, wherein the goods corresponding to the goods type are, for example, the goods of which the destination is the target sorting work station i and the state is in warehouse-out transportation, the goods which are bound with the target sorting work station i but are not yet scheduled to be produced, and recording the set of the goods types corresponding to the target sorting work station i as omega _i 。

Thirdly, according to the order type priority, repeating the following process to select the target order until the target order cannot be selected continuously:

selecting a target order, calculating a first cargo type overlap ratio r for each (target order-target sorting station i) combination ₁ ：

And calculating the second cargo type coincidence degree r for each (target order-other sorting work station in the target work station group) combination ₂ ：

Wherein omega ₁ 、Ω ₂ And the like refer to the goods category sets corresponding to other sorting workstations in the target workstation group.

And then determining a goods type matching score r of the target order and the target sorting workstation according to the two contact ratios:

r＝αr ₁ +βr ₂ (3)

wherein α and β are weights, α > β.

By increasing the degree of coincidence r of the first cargo kind ₁ The weight of the target order is preferably considered, the coincidence degree of the target order and the goods type of the target sorting work station group is preferentially considered, and the target order can be preferentially distributed to the sorting work stations with higher coincidence degree of the goods type of the target order; by considering the degree of overlap r of the target order with the second goods category of the other sorting workstations of the group of target workstations ₂ Target orders in the order pool having a high degree of overlap with the goods category of the target workstation group may be preferentially assigned to the target workstation group.

After determining the matching score of each target order (which matches the order type of the to-be-processed slot of the target sorting workstation i) and the target sorting workstation i, the replacement target sorting workstation calculates the matching score until the matching scores of all (target orders-target sorting workstations) in the group of target workstations are determined.

When the target orders are selected, the target orders can be selected from high to low according to the preset processing priority of the target orders, and if the matching scores r of all the target orders under the current priority are 0, the target orders of the next priority are continuously considered.

Next, in step S214, the target order is allocated to the slot to be processed with the same order type as the target order according to the matching score from high to low.

Referring to fig. 5, in an embodiment of the present disclosure, the slot to be handled includes an empty slot and a slot of the single group list of incomplete collections, and step S214 may include:

step S2141, determining an order type of a target order and a sorting workstation corresponding to the highest matching score of the target order;

step S2142, acquiring the processing category of the sorting workstation to the order type of the target order;

step S2143, when the processing type is the collection sheet, the target order is distributed to the slot position with the same order type and incomplete collection sheet, or the target order is distributed to the empty slot position with the same order type, or the target order is judged to be incapable of being distributed to the workstation when the empty slot position does not exist or the target order cannot form the collection sheet;

step S2144, when the processing type is an order, the target order is allocated to the empty slot with the same order type.

When there is a (target order-target sorting workstation) combination for which r > 0, the (target order-target sorting workstation) combination for which the r value is the highest is selected, and the target orders within that combination are assigned to slots to be dealt in the target sorting workstations within that combination for which the order types match. And circulating allocation until each target order is allocated to the slot to be processed or cannot be allocated to the proper slot, or each slot to be processed cannot accommodate more orders or is matched with the proper order.

In particular, each sorting workstation is provided with processing categories for different order types, including, for example, processing by collection and processing by order. For example, some sorting workstations are configured to process single orders (both the type of goods and the quantity to be processed are equal to one) according to the order, i.e., one order corresponds to one slot; some sorting workstations are configured to process the internal preparation orders according to a collection list, that is, a slot can be allocated with a plurality of orders, and the commodities of the orders are collectively sorted into an empty box and wait for further sorting in the subsequent circulation process. The processing categories for each order type may vary from sorting workstation to sorting workstation, or from group of workstations, and the disclosure is not limited in this respect.

When a target order is allocated to a target sorting workstation with the highest matching score, the processing type of the order type of the target order in the target sorting workstation can be checked firstly, and if the order is processed according to the order, an empty slot position matched with the order type is directly occupied; and if the order is processed according to the collection sheet, whether the target order can be added into the slot position corresponding to the collection sheet which is not completed by order combination and the limitation of the slot position on the quantity of the goods is met is judged, and if the order cannot be added, an empty slot position is selected to create the collection sheet or other processing is carried out.

The logic for determining the grouping of the collection list is, for example:

if a slot to be processed with the matched order type exists and the slot to be processed is processed according to the collection sheet, and the collection sheet does not reach the upper limit (volume and order number), the target order is allocated to the collection sheet of the slot.

If the slot to be processed matched with the order type does not exist, or the collection sheet corresponding to the slot to be processed matched with the order type reaches the order number upper limit or the residual volume cannot accommodate the order, occupying an empty slot matched with the order type, newly forming a collection sheet for the slot, and recording the volume corresponding to the slot and the order number upper limit.

If the target order cannot be added into the collection list matched with the order type of the sorting workstation due to the cargo volume and the like and cannot be newly combined, marking the slot to be processed of the order type, which cannot be allocated to the sorting workstation, of the target order.

Finally, each workstation supporting the order (target order) is checked, and if no target order which can be distributed to the sorting workstation and only corresponds to the slot to be processed of the order type exists in the order pool, the slot to be processed of the order type is marked to complete the order.

When there are multiple (order-workstation) combinations with the same r-value (same matching score for the same target order to multiple sorting workstations or matching score for multiple target orders to the same sorting workstations), the target orders can be allocated to the slots to be processed according to the order taking time from early to late and the number of goods to be processed in the order from high to low.

After the to-be-processed orders are allocated to the specific slots of the target workstation group, the to-be-processed orders corresponding to the target sorting workstations are determined according to the to-be-processed orders corresponding to the to-be-processed slots corresponding to the target sorting workstations in step S22, and then to-be-sorted tasks corresponding to the target sorting workstations are generated according to the to-be-processed orders corresponding to the target sorting workstations in step S23, where the to-be-sorted tasks include target goods types corresponding to the target sorting workstations and to-be-processed quantities corresponding to each of the target goods types. That is, the format of the job to be sorted is, for example, (kind of goods-quantity to be handled-sorting work station number). Each to-be-processed order can generate one or more to-be-sorted tasks according to the goods types, and each sorting workstation can also correspond to a plurality of to-be-sorted tasks.

In step S3, according to the task to be sorted corresponding to each sorting workstation in the target workstation group, a target transportation robot and a target cargo turnover box corresponding to the target workstation group are determined, where each target cargo turnover box corresponds to one or more tasks to be sorted, and the one or more tasks to be sorted correspond to one or more sorting workstations.

The task to be sorted is a transfer task assigned to the transport robot. The transport robot is a device capable of automatically transporting an article to a destination, and executes a transport task and reports a state in real time according to a control command received by wireless communication and preset information (such as map information and fixed action information). The transportation robot may be generally classified into a "flying wolf" mode and a "belane" mode according to different transportation modes and application scenarios. The flying wolf is a box type warehouse storage robot which is based on storage and taking of the goods turnover boxes, has high storage density and can carry a plurality of goods turnover boxes through storage and taking at one time.

The goods turnover box is a container used for storing goods and assisting in carrying the goods. One goods turnover box can contain one kind of goods, or a single product with one specification and multiple colors of one kind of goods (for example, one goods turnover box can contain mobile phones with four colors and the same specification), or a single product with multiple specifications of one kind of goods, and in some scenes, one goods turnover box can also contain two or more kinds of goods. The goods turnover box is arranged in the storage area according to the serial number, the goods turnover box can be placed in the storage area through equipment such as a goods shelf, a plurality of tunnels for accommodating the transportation robot to shuttle can be arranged between the goods shelves of the storage area, the tunnels are provided with tunnel serial numbers, and the transportation robot can locate the position where the goods turnover box belongs to according to the tunnel serial numbers, the goods shelf serial numbers, the number of layers of the goods shelves and the serial numbers of the goods turnover box. The goods types and the stocks in the goods turnover box are increased according to the warehousing tasks and decreased according to the ex-warehouse tasks, the warehousing tasks and the ex-warehouse tasks update the goods types and the stock data according to the serial numbers of the goods turnover boxes, and the current positions of the goods turnover boxes are recorded according to the execution conditions of the warehousing tasks and the ex-warehouse tasks.

When the warehouse-out task is executed, the transport robot obtains the number of the target cargo turnover box, the number reaches a roadway where the cargo turnover box is located and a shelf where the cargo turnover box is located through a preset map or a map received in real time, the cargo turnover box is taken down according to the number and placed on a bearing position of the transport robot, at the moment, if the next target cargo turnover box to be taken exists, the process is repeatedly executed until all the target cargo turnover boxes are obtained, and the transport robot starts from the roadway where the last target cargo turnover box is located to a waiting position of a target workstation group. When the transport robot is arranged to the first position when queuing at the waiting position, the transport robot pushes the goods turnover box carried by the transport robot to the first conveyor belt. It should be noted that, whether enough containing positions exist on the first conveyor belt needs to be checked in real time at this time, and if the containing positions are insufficient, the transport robot needs to push a goods storage box onto the first conveyor belt when waiting for the containing positions to appear on the first conveyor belt at the waiting position. Therefore, the work station group is provided with a plurality of waiting positions to provide queuing space for a plurality of transport robots.

In this embodiment of the disclosure, each task to be sorted corresponds to one or more target goods turnover boxes, and in each target goods turnover box corresponding to one task to be sorted, goods of the kind of goods corresponding to the task to be sorted are stored. For example, one to-be-sorted task may include 5 identical large barrels of laundry detergent, and the corresponding cargo totes of the laundry detergent can only hold two barrels of laundry detergent each, and the laundry detergent is stored in 20 respective cargo totes, i.e. the full stock of the laundry detergent is 40 barrels. At this time, the task to be sorted corresponds to 20 target cargo turnover boxes, and 3 most suitable cargo turnover boxes need to be selected from the 20 target cargo turnover boxes as objects for the transport robot to perform the transport task, so that the transport robot can transport the 3 cargo turnover boxes to the target workstation group.

In another case, one to-be-sorted task includes one bottle of shampoo with fragrance type a, the shampoo with fragrance type a is only stored in one goods turnover box, the goods turnover box contains the stocks with two fragrance types of shampoo of the brand, the stock of fragrance type a is 5 bottles, the stock of fragrance type B is 8 bottles full, at this time, the to-be-sorted task corresponds to one target goods turnover box, the transport robot needs to transport the goods turnover box to the target work station group where the sorting work station corresponding to the to-be-sorted task is located, and after queuing in the waiting area, the goods turnover box is pushed onto the first conveyor belt of the target work station group.

Next, how to select a container for carrying out a transport task among a plurality of target containers will be described.

Referring to fig. 6, in one embodiment, step S3 may include:

step S31, determining a goods turnover box corresponding to the target goods type according to the target goods type corresponding to all the tasks to be sorted of the target workstation group;

step S32, determining a target transport robot corresponding to the target work station group in the idle transport robots;

step S33, acquiring convenient scores of the goods turnover box to the target workstation group, wherein the convenient scores are in direct proportion to quantity matching values and in inverse proportion to distance values, the quantity matching values are determined according to the ratio of the inventory quantity of the goods turnover box to the quantity to be processed of the target goods type corresponding to the middle goods turnover box of the target workstation, and the distance values comprise the distance between the goods turnover box and the target workstation group, the distance between the goods turnover box and the target transport robot, and the matching degree of the position of the goods turnover box and the planned path of the target transport robot;

and step S34, determining one or more goods turnover boxes as target goods turnover boxes corresponding to the target workstation group according to the stock quantity of the goods turnover boxes and the convenience score from high to low.

In the embodiment shown in fig. 6, the cargo container containing SKU (Stock Keeping Unit) in the task to be sorted corresponding to the target workstation group can be queried first and recorded as set { T }. It should be explained that a SKU includes one size/color/size of goods corresponding to one model of a good, for example, a model B of a mobile phone with a model a has a color C and a specification D (8G/256G) is one SKU, and if the model B of the mobile phone with a model a has four colors and four specifications, the model B of the mobile phone with a model a corresponds to 4 SKU — 16, and each SKU is called a goods category.

If all the tasks to be sorted of the target workstation group correspond to 50 target cargo categories (SKUs), the numbers of all the cargo totes (for example, 500) corresponding to the 50 target cargo categories are found in step S31, so as to select the cargo tote bearing the tasks to be sorted from the cargo totes.

In some cases, some sorting tasks corresponding to the current target work station group are already distributed in the goods turnover boxes, and even the goods turnover boxes are being carried to the target work station group, so before the transportation robot is selected to carry the goods turnover boxes from the storage space, the tasks to be sorted can be firstly additionally sorted to the goods turnover boxes which are already in transit, the use and transportation time cost of the transportation robot is reduced, and one-time carrying of the goods turnover boxes corresponds to more tasks to be sorted.

Referring to FIG. 7, in one embodiment, between step S31 and step S32, step S3 may include:

step S71, determining the target goods turnover box corresponding to the target workstation group in all the goods turnover boxes corresponding to the target goods type;

step S72, updating the quantity to be processed of the target task to be sorted according to the available inventory of each goods type in the target goods turnover box, wherein the target goods type of the target task to be sorted exists in the target goods turnover box;

and step S73, binding the target cargo turnover box with the sorting work station corresponding to the target task to be sorted.

In the embodiment shown in fig. 7, the target cargo transfer boxes already corresponding to the target workstation group include a cargo transfer box which is in delivery and has the destination of the target workstation group, a cargo transfer box to which the task to be sorted of the corresponding target workstation group is bound but has not been delivered, and the like, and in some cases, the cargo transfer box may be a cargo transfer box already existing on the first conveyor belt of the target workstation group, and even a cargo transfer box already located on the second conveyor belt of the sorting workstation. The set T may be traversed to screen out those cargo totes that may allow for the addition of the task to be sorted.

And then, determining whether each goods turnover box can meet more tasks to be sorted according to the available inventory in the goods turnover boxes and the goods type corresponding to each goods turnover box.

For example, if a cargo container being transported out of the warehouse stores a SKU whose available stock (stock available — the number required for the outbound job being executed) is 10, and there is a job to be sorted corresponding to the SKU whose number to be handled is 5, the job to be sorted may be bound to the cargo container, the number to be handled of the job to be sorted is updated to 0, and the available stock of the cargo container is updated to 10-5 — 5. After the cargo turnover box is conveyed to the target work station group, the sorting work stations needing to enter comprise the sorting work stations corresponding to the tasks to be sorted.

For another example, a container on the first conveyor belt stores two SKUs (E and F), the available stocks of the two SKUs are 8 and 10 respectively, and the container corresponds to F goods in the outbound task executed this time. There is one to-be-sorted task for E-good, with a to-be-handled quantity of 4. At this moment, when the goods turnover box is found, the goods turnover box is found to meet the sorting requirement of the E goods, at this moment, the task to be sorted and the goods turnover box can be bound, the quantity to be processed in the task to be sorted is updated to be 0, the available inventory of the E goods in the goods turnover box is updated to be 8-4, and the goods turnover box is set to enter the sorting work station corresponding to the task to be sorted before leaving the first conveyor belt and participate in executing the task to be sorted.

The above is merely an example, and the logic for actually generating the additional task may be more complex, and may be set by a person skilled in the art according to the actual situation.

After task addition is carried out on the bound goods turnover boxes, one of the idle transport robots can be selected as a target transport robot, the transport task of the target workstation group is executed, and then the proper goods turnover box is selected from the remaining goods turnover boxes corresponding to the target goods type and sent to the target transport robot for the goods turnover box to be transported to the target workstation group after being picked up.

After the target transport robot is selected, the attribute of the target transport robot can be acquired, and initialization information is set for the target transport robot. The attributes comprise the number N of the transportable containers and the current coordinate P, the set initialization information comprises that the selected lane set of the target transport robot is Z (Z is initialized to be empty), and the group number of the target workstation is equal to the group number w of the target workstation.

Next, the tasks to be sorted can be divided into a plurality of levels according to the task priorities, the task sets to be sorted under the plurality of levels are sequentially traversed, and the cargo turnover boxes carried by the target transport robot are determined for each task to be sorted. It should be noted that the sorting work stations corresponding to the tasks to be positioned all belong to the target work station group.

Firstly, selecting a task to be sorted with the highest grade, and only when judging that the task meets the following conditions at the same time, continuously selecting the goods turnover box for the task:

1. the work station with the cache bit larger than zero exists under the work station group corresponding to the task to be sorted;

2. the number to be processed of the tasks to be sorted is larger than zero;

3 the goods turnover box set corresponding to the task to be sorted is not empty.

And if the task to be sorted simultaneously meets the conditions, traversing a goods turnover box set corresponding to the target goods type (SKU) in the task to be sorted, and determining the convenience score of each goods turnover box.

The convenience score relates to two parts, one is a quantity matching value of the goods turnover box and the current task to be sorted, and the other is a distance relation between the current position of the goods turnover box and the transport robot and the target workstation group. The convenience score is in direct proportion to the quantity matching value and in inverse proportion to the distance value, the quantity matching value is determined according to the ratio of the inventory quantity of the goods turnover boxes to the quantity to be processed of the target goods type corresponding to the medium goods turnover box of the target workstation, and the distance value comprises the distance between the goods turnover boxes and the target workstation group, the distance between the goods turnover boxes and the target transport robot, and the matching degree of the positions of the goods turnover boxes and the planned path of the target transport robot.

In one embodiment, a convenient score c for a cargo tote j _j Can be determined by the following formula:

wherein S represents the SKU set to be delivered corresponding to the task to be sorted, q _s Indicating SKU in the cargo storage Box _s Amount of inventory, r _s Indicating the number of jobs to be sorted for the job,

the ratio of the stock quantity to the quantity to be processed is expressed.

T ₁ The task set to be sorted of all other same work station groups of the task level of the task to be sorted is represented by T2, and the task set to be sorted of all other same work station groups of all task levels is represented by T2. Theta _ts Representing corresponding setsAll to-be-sorted task pairs SKU in T _s The amount to be processed.

L _j Indicating the distance, R, of the cargo container j from the target station group _j The distance between the goods turnover box j and the transport robot is represented; z _j And (4) indicating whether the roadway where the goods turnover box j is located belongs to the selected roadway (1 or 0).

α、β、δ、σ、ρ、

Respectively, are constant coefficients.

The convenient score of the goods turnover box j to the current task to be sorted can be calculated through the formula. After calculating the convenience scores of all the goods turnover boxes of the current task to be sorted, selecting one or more goods turnover boxes with the highest convenience scores (determined according to whether one goods turnover box can meet the quantity to be processed of the task to be sorted) as the goods turnover box corresponding to the task to be sorted, adding the selected goods turnover box into the carrying object set of the target transport robot, deleting the selected goods turnover box from the set { T }, and adding the roadway where the selected goods turnover box is located into the roadway set Z of the target transport robot. Meanwhile, the number of the tasks to be processed of the tasks to be sorted is updated,

the tasks to be sorted can be replaced, the convenience scores of all the goods turnover boxes corresponding to each task to be sorted are calculated, and then the goods turnover boxes are selected for each task to be sorted until the number of the selected goods turnover boxes is equal to the capacity N of the target transport robot or the qualified turnover boxes cannot be selected.

In some embodiments, the tasks to be sorted may be selected from high to low according to their task rank.

In some embodiments, one transport robot cannot complete all sorting tasks corresponding to the target workstation group, and at this time, after the target cargo turnover box is determined for one target transport robot, one of the idle transport robots may be selected again as the next target transport robot. Repeating the above process can distribute all the tasks to be sorted of the target workstation group.

By repeating the above processes, the carrying tasks can be allocated to all idle transport robots, or the target transport robot and the target cargo turnover box can be determined for all to-be-sorted tasks of all the workstation groups.

Referring to fig. 8, the target transport robot a0 is used to sequentially acquire target cargo totes a1 to a5, the target transport robot B0 is used to sequentially acquire target cargo totes B1 to B7, the stock area still has a cargo tote a for a task to be sorted with the target transport robot a0 and a cargo tote B for a task to be sorted with the target transport robot B0, but since the convenience score is low, a1 to a5 and B1 to B7 are finally determined as target cargo totes of two workstation groups.

And after the target transport robot acquires all the target cargo turnover boxes according to the positions of the target cargo turnover boxes, transporting the target cargo turnover boxes to waiting positions of the target workstation group, and when queuing to the first position, placing the target cargo turnover boxes on a first conveyor belt by the target transport robot.

In step S4, after the target transportation robot is controlled to transport the target cargo tote to the target workstation group, the target cargo tote is controlled to enter one or more sorting workstations where the corresponding tasks to be sorted are located, so as to complete the shipment.

After the target goods turnover box is placed on the first conveyor belt by the target transport robot, the number and the position of each target goods turnover box can be detected by the detection device arranged on the first conveyor belt, so that the target goods turnover box is pushed to the second conveyor belt of the corresponding sorting workstation where the task to be sorted is located from the first conveyor belt at a proper position.

Referring to fig. 9, in one embodiment, step S4 may include:

step S41, determining one or more to-be-sorted tasks corresponding to the target cargo turnover box;

step S42, determining one or more sorting workstations corresponding to one or more tasks to be sorted;

step S43, controlling the target goods turnover box to run on a first conveyor belt of the target workstation group, and identifying the position of the target goods turnover box in real time, wherein the first conveyor belt is connected with an inlet and an outlet of a second conveyor belt of each sorting workstation in the target workstation group;

and step S44, when the target goods turnover box reaches the entrance of the second conveyor belt of the corresponding sorting work station, controlling the target goods turnover box to enter the entrance of the second conveyor belt.

Referring to fig. 10, the loop sequence values of sorting workstation a, sorting workstation B, sorting workstation C, sorting workstation D are initially set to 1, 2, 3, 4 for the target group of workstations according to the physical order of the sorting workstations on the conveyor line.

When one cargo turnover box 4 corresponds to the tasks to be sorted of the plurality of sorting workstations, the tasks to be sorted and the conveyor belt conversion tasks are issued according to the loop sequence values of the sorting workstations.

The control sequence is for example:

and initializing a loop sequence n of the sorting work stations corresponding to the goods storage boxes to be 0.

And checking the sorting work stations corresponding to all the tasks to be sorted in real time, eliminating the sorting work stations without buffer positions, and recording the available sorting work station set as W.

If W is empty, all sorting workstations have no buffer position, and the goods turnover box is in turn waiting along the circular running direction of the first conveyor belt on the first conveyor belt. The buffer positions refer to spaces for placing the goods turnover boxes in the sorting work station, and can determine that a plurality of goods turnover boxes currently exist in the sorting work station according to the difference value of the goods turnover boxes entering the second conveyor belt and leaving the second conveyor belt, and determine that a plurality of buffer positions currently remain in the sorting work station according to the set upper limit of the buffer positions.

When the W is found not to be empty, selecting a sorting work station i (i is 1, 2, 3 and 4) with the minimum numerical value of the loop sequence > n from the W, issuing a task to be sorted corresponding to the goods turnover box, detecting the position of the goods turnover box in real time, and when the goods turnover box is found to run to the inlet of a second conveyor belt of the sorting work station i on the first conveyor belt, controlling a mechanical device to place the goods turnover box on the second conveyor belt by a mode including but not limited to pushing, clamping and conveying and the like. Meanwhile, if the sorting is performed manually, the task to be sorted corresponding to the cargo tote may be displayed on a task screen (for displaying the cargo tote number-the number to be processed-the slot number of the task to be sorted) of the sorting workstation i. In some cases, a cargo container may correspond to multiple tasks to be sorted at a sorting workstation, i.e., multiple slots, and each task to be sorted may be displayed on a task screen. If the sorting is carried out by the sorting robot, the tasks to be sorted can be directly sent to the sorting robot.

The staff or the sorting robot of the sorting station i obtains the goods turnover box from the second conveyor belt according to the task to be sorted, starts sorting according to the task to be sorted, and stores the sorted goods in the corresponding slot positions (for example, places the goods into cartons). In some embodiments, the worker or the sorting robot may control the second conveyor belt to stop running and sort directly on the second conveyor belt. In other embodiments, the worker or the sorting robot may control the cargo tote to leave the second conveyor belt and enter the buffer location to improve the distribution efficiency of the cargo tote. In still other embodiments, a second conveyor or other type of robot may control the goods tote to exit the second conveyor and enter the buffer location, such as by transferring the goods tote from the second conveyor to the buffer location at a designated location, including but not limited to pushing, pinching. The method of controlling the exit of the second turnaround box into the cache bit may be various and is not particularly limited by this disclosure.

After the sorting work of the sorting work station i is finished, the worker or the robot puts the goods turnover box back to the second conveyor belt or controls the second conveyor belt to operate again, and the goods turnover box reaches the outlet of the second conveyor belt along with the operation of the second conveyor belt and arrives at the first conveyor belt again.

And (e) setting n to i (i is the loop sequence of the current sorting work station), repeating the process until the goods turnover box finishes the tasks to be sorted of all the sorting work stations, and generating a warehouse returning task. The goods turnover boxes corresponding to the warehouse returning task can be pushed or clamped to the outlet cache position at the outlet of the first conveyor belt by controlling the first conveyor belt, so that the transport robot is controlled to transport the plurality of goods turnover boxes to the original warehouse positions.

To sum up, this disclosed embodiment divides a plurality of sorting workstations into a workstation group, can carry out the order according to the commodity contact ratio of sorting workstation place workstation group when distributing pending order, improves the letter sorting number of goods turnover case once transportation correspondence, improves letter sorting efficiency. In addition, the to-be-processed quantity (the required goods quantity) corresponding to the sorting work stations in the same work station group is merged for carrying out total positioning, so that the carrying of the goods turnover box can be reduced, and the use loss of the goods turnover box is reduced. The goods turnover boxes corresponding to different sorting workstations in the same workstation group are mixed together to select the optimal and minimum transportation robot for carrying, so that the utilization rate of the transportation robot can be increased, and the requirements for the transportation robot are reduced. Meanwhile, one cargo turnover box can go to a plurality of sorting workstations in the same workstation group to be sequentially sorted, the sorting workstations in the same workstation group can realize addition of tasks to be sorted, the carrying of the cargo turnover box can be reduced, the use times of a transport robot is reduced, and the cargo delivery sorting efficiency is improved.

Referring to fig. 11, the cargo de-warehousing system 1100 may include:

the workstation groups 110, each workstation group 1 may include a plurality of sorting workstations 111, the plurality of sorting workstations 111 having layout connectivity.

A first conveyor belt 112, in the form of a loop, moving in a first direction, connects the sorting stations of the same station group. The entrance of the first conveyor belt 2 is provided with a first waiting area for accommodating the transport robots to queue up, and the transport robots ordered as the first place the goods turnover boxes on the first conveyor belt 112.

A plurality of second conveyors 113 moving in a first direction or a second direction opposite to the first direction, each second conveyor 32 corresponding to a sorting station 111, the inlets and outlets of the second conveyors 113 being connected to the first conveyor 112.

And each transport robot 114 is used for acquiring one or more goods turnover box numbers according to the tasks to be sorted, acquiring the goods turnover boxes from the storage area according to the goods turnover box numbers, and conveying the goods turnover boxes to the work station group 110 corresponding to the tasks to be sorted.

The processor 115 is in communication connection with the sorting workstation 111, the first conveyor belt 112, the second conveyor belt 113, and the transportation robot 114, and is configured to perform the cargo delivery method according to the embodiment shown in fig. 1 to 10.

The communication connection mode is, for example, a wireless network connection or a cellular network connection. The processor 115 issues to-be-sorted task information to the sorting workstation 111, where the to-be-sorted task information includes a cargo type, a to-be-processed quantity, and a slot position. The processor 115 sends an instruction to the first conveyor belt 112, and controls the first conveyor belt 112 and the auxiliary machines thereof to transport the goods turnover box to a destination position, wherein the destination position comprises an entrance of the second conveyor belt 113 and a buffer area of the returned goods turnover box. The processor 115 sends instructions to the second conveyor belt 113 to control the direction of travel, the speed of travel, and in some embodiments, the second conveyor belt 113 to transport the cargo totes to the buffer of the sorting station 111. The processor 115 sends a control command to the transport robot 114, and controls the transport robot 114 to the next destination to take or place the cargo container.

The form of the first conveyor belt 112 and the second conveyor belt 113 may vary depending on the zone setting of the sorting station 111, and there are various implementations.

Referring to fig. 12A, in addition to the form shown in fig. 11, in one embodiment, the plurality of sorting stations 111 of the station group 110 are arranged in a line, and the first conveyor belt 112 is in the shape of a flat ring, one side of which connects the plurality of sorting stations 111. The second conveyor 113 of each sorting station 111 has its entrance and exit connected to the first conveyor 112. At this time, a waiting position of the first conveyor belt 112 and a buffer position of the goods turnover box returned to the warehouse may be provided on a side of the first conveyor belt 112 not close to the sorting work station 111.

Referring to fig. 12B, in another embodiment, the plurality of sorting stations 111 of the station group 1 are arranged in an array or a ring, and the first conveyor belt 112 is in a circular shape or a rounded rectangle and is located at a common center of the plurality of sorting stations 111. In this case, the waiting position or the buffer position of the first conveyor belt 112 may be set in the gap between the two sorting stations 111, and the waiting position and the buffer position may be adjacent to each other or may be set in different gaps.

The arrangement method of the first conveyor belt 112 and the second conveyor belt 113 may also be various, and in some embodiments, more robots may also be arranged inside the sorting workstation 111 to provide the cargo container moving or sorting function, which is not limited in this disclosure.

Corresponding to the method embodiment, the present disclosure further provides a goods delivery device, which may be used to execute the method embodiment.

Referring to fig. 13, the goods delivery apparatus 1300 may include:

an information obtaining module 131 configured to obtain sorting workstation information of a target workstation group, where the target workstation group includes a plurality of sorting workstations, each sorting workstation has a plurality of slots, and the sorting workstation information includes information of slots to be processed in the sorting workstations;

a task allocation module 132 configured to determine a to-be-sorted task corresponding to the sorting workstation in the target workstation group according to the sorting workstation information of the target workstation group and the to-be-processed order;

a transportation allocation module 133 configured to determine, according to the task to be sorted corresponding to each sorting workstation in the target workstation group, a target transportation robot and a target cargo turnover box corresponding to the target workstation group, where each target cargo turnover box corresponds to one or more tasks to be sorted, and the one or more tasks to be sorted correspond to one or more sorting workstations;

and the sorting control module 134 is configured to control the target cargo transportation box to enter one or more corresponding sorting work stations where the tasks to be sorted are located so as to complete the cargo delivery after controlling the target transportation robot to transport the target cargo transportation box to the target work station group.

In an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure, the information of the slot to be processed includes an order type and a cargo category corresponding to the slot to be processed, and the task allocation module 132 is configured to: determining the order to be processed corresponding to each slot position to be processed according to the order type corresponding to the slot position to be processed and the goods types corresponding to all slot positions in the target workstation group; determining a to-be-processed order corresponding to the target sorting workstation according to the to-be-processed order corresponding to the to-be-processed slot position corresponding to the target sorting workstation; and generating a to-be-sorted task corresponding to the target sorting workstation according to the to-be-processed order corresponding to the target sorting workstation, wherein the to-be-sorted task comprises a target goods type corresponding to the target sorting workstation and a to-be-processed quantity corresponding to each target goods type.

In an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure, the task assignment module 132 is configured to: acquiring to-be-processed order information of a plurality of to-be-processed orders, wherein the order information comprises an order type corresponding to each to-be-processed order, a goods type corresponding to each to-be-processed order and a to-be-processed quantity corresponding to each goods type; setting the order types corresponding to all the slots to be processed in the target workstation group as target order types, and setting the to-be-processed orders with the order types as the target order types in the to-be-processed orders as target orders; determining a matching score of the goods category of the target order and the goods category corresponding to each sorting workstation in the target workstation group; and according to the matching score of the target order from high to low, allocating the target order to the slot to be processed with the same order type as the target order.

In an exemplary embodiment of the disclosure, the slot to be handled includes an empty slot and a slot of the single group list of incomplete collections, and the task allocation module 132 is configured to: determining an order type of the target order and a sorting workstation corresponding to the highest matching score of the target order; acquiring the processing category of the sorting workstation for the order type of the target order; when the processing type is the collection sheet, the target order is allocated to a slot position with the same order type and an incomplete collection sheet, or the target order is allocated to an empty slot position with the same order type, or the target order cannot be allocated to the workstation when the empty slot position does not exist or the collection sheet cannot be formed by the target order; and when the processing type is the order, allocating the target order to the empty slot with the same order type.

In an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure, the transportation allocation module 133 is configured to: determining a goods turnover box corresponding to the target goods type according to the target goods type corresponding to all the tasks to be sorted of the target workstation group; determining a target transport robot corresponding to the target workstation group in an idle transport robot; acquiring convenience scores of the goods turnover boxes on the target workstation groups, wherein the convenience scores are in direct proportion to quantity matching values and in inverse proportion to distance values, the quantity matching values are determined according to the ratio of the inventory quantity of the goods turnover boxes to the to-be-processed quantity of the target goods types corresponding to the goods turnover boxes in the target workstations, and the distance values comprise the distances between the goods turnover boxes and the target workstation groups, the distances between the goods turnover boxes and the target transport robots, and the matching degrees of the positions of the goods turnover boxes and the planned paths of the target transport robots; and determining one or more goods turnover boxes as target goods turnover boxes corresponding to the target workstation group according to the inventory quantity of the goods turnover boxes and the convenience score from high to low.

In an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure, before determining the target transport robot, the transport allocation module 133 is configured to: determining target goods turnover boxes which correspond to the target workstation groups in all the goods turnover boxes corresponding to the target goods types; updating the quantity to be processed of the target task to be sorted according to the available inventory of each goods type in the target goods turnover box, wherein the target goods type of the target task to be sorted exists in the target goods turnover box; and binding the target cargo turnover box with the sorting work station corresponding to the target task to be sorted.

In an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure, the sort control module 134 is configured to: determining one or more tasks to be sorted corresponding to the target cargo turnover box; determining one or more sorting workstations corresponding to the one or more tasks to be sorted; controlling the target cargo turnover box to run on a first conveyor belt of the target workstation group, and identifying the position of the target cargo turnover box in real time, wherein the first conveyor belt is connected with an inlet and an outlet of a second conveyor belt of each sorting workstation in the target workstation group; and when the target cargo turnover box reaches the inlet of the second conveyor belt of the corresponding sorting workstation, controlling the target cargo turnover box to enter the inlet of the second conveyor belt.

Since the functions of the apparatus 1300 have been described in detail in the corresponding method embodiments, the disclosure is not repeated herein.

It should be noted that although in the above detailed description several modules or units of the device for action execution are mentioned, such a division is not mandatory. Indeed, the features and functionality of two or more modules or units described above may be embodied in one module or unit, according to embodiments of the present disclosure. Conversely, the features and functions of one module or unit described above may be further divided into embodiments by a plurality of modules or units.

In an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure, an electronic device capable of implementing the above method is also provided.

As will be appreciated by one skilled in the art, aspects of the present invention may be embodied as a system, method or program product. Thus, various aspects of the invention may be embodied in the form of: an entirely hardware embodiment, an entirely software embodiment (including firmware, microcode, etc.) or an embodiment combining hardware and software aspects that may all generally be referred to herein as a "circuit," module "or" system.

An electronic device 1400 according to this embodiment of the invention is described below with reference to fig. 14. The electronic device 1400 shown in fig. 14 is only an example, and should not bring any limitation to the functions and the scope of use of the embodiments of the present invention.

As shown in fig. 14, the electronic device 1400 is embodied in the form of a general purpose computing device. The components of the electronic device 1400 may include, but are not limited to: the at least one processing unit 1410, the at least one memory unit 1420, and the bus 1430 that couples the various system components including the memory unit 1420 and the processing unit 1410.

Wherein the storage unit stores program code that is executable by the processing unit 1410, such that the processing unit 1410 performs steps according to various exemplary embodiments of the present invention described in the above section "exemplary methods" of the present specification. For example, the processing unit 1410 may perform a method as shown in the embodiments of the present disclosure.

The storage unit 1420 may include readable media in the form of volatile memory units, such as a random access memory unit (RAM)14201 and/or a cache memory unit 14202, and may further include a read only memory unit (ROM) 14203.

Storage unit 1420 may also include a program/utility 14204 having a set (at least one) of program modules 14205, such program modules 14205 including but not limited to: an operating system, one or more application programs, other program modules, and program data, each of which, or some combination thereof, may comprise an implementation of a network environment.

Bus 1430 may be any type of bus structure including a memory cell bus or memory cell controller, a peripheral bus, an accelerated graphics port, a processing unit, or a local bus using any of a variety of bus architectures.

The electronic device 1400 can also communicate with one or more external devices 1500 (e.g., keyboard, pointing device, bluetooth device, etc.), with one or more devices that enable a user to interact with the electronic device 1400, and/or with any devices (e.g., router, modem, etc.) that enable the electronic device 1400 to communicate with one or more other computing devices. Such communication can occur via an input/output (I/O) interface 1450. Also, the electronic device 1400 may communicate with one or more networks (e.g., a Local Area Network (LAN), a Wide Area Network (WAN), and/or a public network, such as the internet) via the network adapter 1460. As shown, the network adapter 1460 communicates with the other modules of the electronic device 1400 via the bus 1430. It should be appreciated that although not shown in the figures, other hardware and/or software modules may be used in conjunction with the electronic device 1400, including but not limited to: microcode, device drivers, redundant processing units, external disk drive arrays, RAID systems, tape drives, and data backup storage systems, among others.

Through the above description of the embodiments, those skilled in the art will readily understand that the exemplary embodiments described herein may be implemented by software, or by software in combination with necessary hardware. Therefore, the technical solution according to the embodiments of the present disclosure may be embodied in the form of a software product, which may be stored in a non-volatile storage medium (which may be a CD-ROM, a usb disk, a removable hard disk, etc.) or on a network, and includes several instructions to enable a computing device (which may be a personal computer, a server, a terminal device, or a network device, etc.) to execute the method according to the embodiments of the present disclosure.

In an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure, there is also provided a computer-readable storage medium having stored thereon a program product capable of implementing the above-described method of the present specification. In some possible embodiments, the various aspects of the invention may also be implemented in the form of a program product comprising program code means for causing a terminal device to carry out the steps according to various exemplary embodiments of the invention described in the above section "exemplary method" of this description, when said program product is run on said terminal device.

The program product for implementing the above method according to an embodiment of the present invention may employ a portable compact disc read only memory (CD-ROM) and include program codes, and may be run on a terminal device, such as a personal computer. However, the program product of the present invention is not limited in this regard and, in the present document, a readable storage medium may be any tangible medium that can contain, or store a program for use by or in connection with an instruction execution system, apparatus, or device.

The program product may employ any combination of one or more readable media. The readable medium may be a readable signal medium or a readable storage medium. A readable storage medium may be, for example, but not limited to, an electronic, magnetic, optical, electromagnetic, infrared, or semiconductor system, apparatus, or device, or any combination of the foregoing. More specific examples (a non-exhaustive list) of the readable storage medium include: an electrical connection having one or more wires, a portable disk, a hard disk, a Random Access Memory (RAM), a read-only memory (ROM), an erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM or flash memory), an optical fiber, a portable compact disc read-only memory (CD-ROM), an optical storage device, a magnetic storage device, or any suitable combination of the foregoing.

A computer readable signal medium may include a propagated data signal with readable program code embodied therein, for example, in baseband or as part of a carrier wave. Such a propagated data signal may take any of a variety of forms, including, but not limited to, electro-magnetic, optical, or any suitable combination thereof. A readable signal medium may also be any readable medium that is not a readable storage medium and that can communicate, propagate, or transport a program for use by or in connection with an instruction execution system, apparatus, or device.

Program code embodied on a readable medium may be transmitted using any appropriate medium, including but not limited to wireless, wireline, optical fiber cable, RF, etc., or any suitable combination of the foregoing.

Program code for carrying out operations for aspects of the present invention may be written in any combination of one or more programming languages, including an object oriented programming language such as Java, C + + or the like and conventional procedural programming languages, such as the "C" programming language or similar programming languages. The program code may execute entirely on the user's computing device, partly on the user's device, as a stand-alone software package, partly on the user's computing device and partly on a remote computing device, or entirely on the remote computing device or server. In situations involving remote computing devices, the remote computing devices may be connected to the user computing device through any kind of network, including a Local Area Network (LAN) or a Wide Area Network (WAN), or may be connected to external computing devices (e.g., through the internet using an internet service provider).

Furthermore, the above-described figures are merely schematic illustrations of processes involved in methods according to exemplary embodiments of the invention, and are not intended to be limiting. It will be readily understood that the processes shown in the above figures are not intended to indicate or limit the chronological order of the processes. In addition, it is also readily understood that these processes may be performed synchronously or asynchronously, e.g., in multiple modules.

Other embodiments of the disclosure will be apparent to those skilled in the art from consideration of the specification and practice of the disclosure disclosed herein. This application is intended to cover any variations, uses, or adaptations of the disclosure following, in general, the principles of the disclosure and including such departures from the present disclosure as come within known or customary practice within the art to which the disclosure pertains. It is intended that the specification and examples be considered as exemplary only, with a true scope and spirit of the disclosure being indicated by the following claims.

Claims

1. A method for delivering goods, comprising:

acquiring sorting work station information of a target work station group, wherein the target work station group comprises a plurality of sorting work stations, each sorting work station is provided with a plurality of groove positions, and the sorting work station information comprises information of groove positions to be processed in the sorting work stations;

determining a task to be sorted corresponding to the sorting workstation in the target workstation group according to the sorting workstation information and the order to be processed of the target workstation group;

according to the task to be sorted corresponding to each sorting work station in the target work station group, determining a target transport robot and a target cargo turnover box corresponding to the target work station group, wherein each target cargo turnover box corresponds to one or more tasks to be sorted, and the one or more tasks to be sorted correspond to one or more sorting work stations;

and after controlling the target transport robot to transport the target cargo turnover box to the target work station group, controlling the target cargo turnover box to enter one or more corresponding sorting work stations where the tasks to be sorted are located so as to finish the goods delivery.

2. The method of discharging goods from a warehouse as claimed in claim 1, wherein the information of the slot to be disposed includes an order type and a goods category corresponding to the slot to be disposed, and the determining the task to be sorted corresponding to the sorting workstation of the target workstation group according to the sorting workstation information of the target workstation group and the order to be disposed includes:

determining the order to be processed corresponding to each slot position to be processed according to the order type corresponding to the slot position to be processed and the goods types corresponding to all slot positions in the target workstation group;

determining a to-be-processed order corresponding to the target sorting workstation according to the to-be-processed order corresponding to the to-be-processed slot position corresponding to the target sorting workstation;

and generating a to-be-sorted task corresponding to the target sorting workstation according to the to-be-processed order corresponding to the target sorting workstation, wherein the to-be-sorted task comprises a target goods type corresponding to the target sorting workstation and a to-be-processed quantity corresponding to each target goods type.

3. The goods delivery method of claim 2, wherein the determining the pending orders for each slot to be processed according to the order type corresponding to the slot to be processed and the goods types corresponding to all slots in the target workstation group comprises:

acquiring to-be-processed order information of a plurality of to-be-processed orders, wherein the order information comprises an order type corresponding to each to-be-processed order, a goods type corresponding to each to-be-processed order and a to-be-processed quantity corresponding to each goods type;

setting the order types corresponding to all the slots to be processed in the target workstation group as target order types, and setting the to-be-processed order with the order type being the target order type in the to-be-processed order as the target order;

determining a matching score of the goods category of the target order and the goods category corresponding to each sorting workstation in the target workstation group;

and according to the matching score of the target order from high to low, allocating the target order to the slot to be processed with the same order type as the target order.

4. The method of discharging goods according to claim 3, wherein the slot to be disposed includes an empty slot and a slot of an incomplete aggregate single set of orders, and wherein allocating the target order to the slot to be disposed of which the order type is the same from high to low according to the matching score of the target order comprises:

determining an order type of the target order and a sorting workstation corresponding to the highest matching score of the target order;

acquiring the processing category of the sorting workstation for the order type of the target order;

when the processing type is the collection sheet, the target order is allocated to a slot position with the same order type and an incomplete collection sheet, or the target order is allocated to an empty slot position with the same order type, or the target order cannot be allocated to the workstation when the empty slot position does not exist or the collection sheet cannot be formed by the target order;

and when the processing type is the order, allocating the target order to the empty slot with the same order type.

5. The method for delivering the goods out of the warehouse of claim 1, wherein the step of determining the target transportation robot and the target goods turnover box corresponding to the target workstation group according to the task to be sorted corresponding to each sorting workstation in the target workstation group comprises the following steps:

determining a goods turnover box corresponding to the target goods type according to the target goods type corresponding to all the tasks to be sorted of the target workstation group;

determining a target transport robot corresponding to the target workstation group in an idle transport robot;

acquiring convenience scores of the goods turnover boxes on the target workstation groups, wherein the convenience scores are in direct proportion to quantity matching values and in inverse proportion to distance values, the quantity matching values are determined according to the ratio of the inventory quantity of the goods turnover boxes to the to-be-processed quantity of the target goods types corresponding to the goods turnover boxes in the target workstations, and the distance values comprise the distances between the goods turnover boxes and the target workstation groups, the distances between the goods turnover boxes and the target transport robots, and the matching degrees of the positions of the goods turnover boxes and the planned paths of the target transport robots;

and determining one or more goods turnover boxes as target goods turnover boxes corresponding to the target workstation group according to the inventory quantity of the goods turnover boxes and the convenience score from high to low.

6. The cargo unloading method according to claim 5, further comprising, before determining the target transport robot:

determining target goods turnover boxes which correspond to the target workstation groups in all the goods turnover boxes corresponding to the target goods types;

updating the quantity to be processed of the target task to be sorted according to the available inventory of each goods type in the target goods turnover box, wherein the target goods type of the target task to be sorted exists in the target goods turnover box;

and binding the target cargo turnover box with the sorting work station corresponding to the target task to be sorted.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein controlling the target cargo container to enter the corresponding one or more sorting workstations where the task to be sorted is located to complete the cargo delivery comprises:

determining one or more tasks to be sorted corresponding to the target cargo turnover box;

determining one or more sorting workstations corresponding to the one or more tasks to be sorted;

controlling the target cargo turnover box to run on a first conveyor belt of the target workstation group, and identifying the position of the target cargo turnover box in real time, wherein the first conveyor belt is connected with an inlet and an outlet of a second conveyor belt of each sorting workstation in the target workstation group;

and when the target cargo turnover box reaches the inlet of the second conveyor belt of the corresponding sorting workstation, controlling the target cargo turnover box to enter the inlet of the second conveyor belt.

8. A cargo warehouse-out system, comprising:

a plurality of sorting stations, each sorting station having layout connectivity;

the first conveyor belt is annular, moves along a first direction and is connected with a plurality of sorting work stations of the same work station group;

a plurality of second conveyor belts moving in the first direction or a second direction opposite to the first direction, each of the second conveyor belts corresponding to one of the sorting workstations, and an inlet and an outlet of each of the second conveyor belts being connected to the first conveyor belt;

the system comprises a plurality of transportation robots, a plurality of sorting robots and a control system, wherein each transportation robot is used for acquiring one or more goods turnover box numbers according to tasks to be sorted, acquiring the goods turnover boxes from a storage area according to the goods turnover box numbers and conveying the goods turnover boxes to a work station group corresponding to the tasks to be sorted;

a processor, communicatively connected to the sorting workstation, the first conveyor belt, the second conveyor belt, and the transportation robot, for performing the cargo delivery method according to any one of claims 1 to 8.

9. A cargo delivery apparatus, comprising:

the system comprises an information acquisition module, a processing module and a processing module, wherein the information acquisition module is used for acquiring the information of a sorting work station of a target work station group, the target work station group comprises a plurality of sorting work stations, each sorting work station is provided with a plurality of slots, and the information of the sorting work stations comprises the information of the slots to be processed in the sorting work stations;

the task allocation module is used for determining a task to be sorted corresponding to the sorting work station in the target work station group according to the information of the sorting work station in the target work station group and the order to be processed;

the transportation allocation module is configured to determine, according to the task to be sorted corresponding to each sorting workstation in the target workstation group, a target transportation robot and a target cargo turnover box corresponding to the target workstation group, wherein each target cargo turnover box corresponds to one or more tasks to be sorted, and the one or more tasks to be sorted correspond to one or more sorting workstations;

and the sorting control module is used for controlling the target transport robot to transport the target cargo turnover box to the target work station group and then controlling the target cargo turnover box to enter one or more corresponding sorting work stations where the tasks to be sorted are located so as to finish the goods delivery.

10. An electronic device, comprising:

a memory; and

a processor coupled to the memory, the processor configured to perform the cargo de-warehousing method of any of claims 1-7 based on instructions stored in the memory.

11. A computer-readable storage medium, on which a program is stored, which when executed by a processor implements the cargo consignment method according to any one of claims 1 to 7.