CN115557145A - Warehousing system - Google Patents

Abstract

The application discloses a warehousing system, which comprises a warehousing control system, a storage area, a warehouse-out area, a packing area and a sorting robot, wherein packing tables are arranged in the packing area, and a plurality of packing grid openings are formed in each packing table in an encircling manner; picking shelves are arranged in the delivery area, and the number and the height of the picking basket storage layers of each picking shelf respectively correspond to the number and the height of the picking basket storage areas; the storage control system acquires order information to be delivered, splits the order information into a plurality of order lines according to article attribute information contained in the order information, and controls the picking robot to pick articles from the storage area into corresponding picking baskets according to the order lines; controlling a picking robot to convey a picking basket to a picking shelf in a warehouse-out area; and controlling the target picking robot to extract the target picking basket from a picking shelf in the delivery area according to the delivery attribute information in the order information, and transferring the target picking basket to a specified packing grid opening in the packing area to finish packing.

Description

Warehousing system

Technical Field

The invention relates to a storage system.

Background

At present, the sorting of the warehoused goods refers to the operation process of picking the goods from a goods picking area or a storage area according to the requirement of an ex-warehouse order or a distribution plan, and classifying and centralizing the goods according to a certain mode. At present, a batch sorting method is generally adopted, and the method can be summarized as follows: sorting the goods related to the orders of one batch according to the batch, and conveying the goods to a distribution wall; then, according to the types and the quantity of the goods related to each order, the special equipment is appointed to extract the goods in batches according to the types of the goods on the distribution wall, and the goods are conveyed to a goods sorting area; finally, the corresponding goods quantity of each order is sorted out from the single-variety batch goods by the staff in the sorting area, and the goods are packed and delivered out of the warehouse, but the sorting efficiency is low, the goods of the same order relate to sorting and packing for multiple times of dividing the goods into two parts and converging the goods, and a plurality of processes need to be realized manually, so that the flexibility of regulation according to the business order quantity is low, the working efficiency is low, and mistakes are easy to make.

Disclosure of Invention

In view of this, a warehousing system of a warehousing system with higher intelligent management degree, improved warehousing work efficiency and reduced capacity redundancy is provided.

The embodiment of the application provides a warehousing system, which comprises a warehousing control system, a storage area, a warehouse-out area, a packing area and a picking robot, wherein articles to be delivered are stored in the storage area, a plurality of packing tables are arranged in the packing area, and each packing table is provided with a plurality of packing grid openings in an encircling manner; picking shelves are arranged in the delivery area, each picking shelf comprises a plurality of picking basket storage layers which are arranged in an overlapped mode in the vertical direction, each picking robot comprises a plurality of picking basket storage areas which are arranged in an overlapped mode in the vertical direction, and the number and the height of the picking basket storage layers correspond to the number and the height of the picking basket storage areas respectively; the storage control system acquires order information to be delivered, splits the order information into a plurality of order lines according to article attribute information contained in the order information, and controls the picking robot to pick articles from the storage area into corresponding picking baskets according to the order lines; wherein an order line corresponds to an item attribute information; controlling the picking robot to transport the picking baskets to picking shelves in the warehouse-out area; and controlling a target picking robot to extract a target picking basket from the picking goods shelf in the delivery area according to the delivery attribute information in the order information, and transferring the target picking basket to a specified packing cell in the packing area to finish packing.

The warehousing system provided in the above embodiment at least has the following characteristics:

the storage system comprises a storage area, a delivery area and a packing area, goods are directly sorted to the delivery area according to order lines and are extracted to the packing area according to the order lines when the goods are delivered out of the warehouse, and compared with the existing storage system, the storage system eliminates the process that the goods are firstly transferred to a distribution wall to perform division and then confluence when the goods are delivered out of the warehouse, and can reduce repeated work of sorting and basket loading of the goods for multiple times; the method comprises the following steps that a picking robot is designed to move autonomously among a storage area, a delivery area and a packing area, an order sorting process of picking required articles according to order rows and transferring the articles to a picking shelf of the delivery area and an order packing process of picking the articles according to order rows and transferring the articles to specified packing grids in the packing area respectively to complete packing operation are realized, the picking robot can replace manual picking operation when introduced, one-time sorting is also performed when the articles are transferred to a destination, the number of the picking robots actually put into a transfer link can be increased or decreased according to the business order quantity of a warehousing system, flexible capacity can be realized, and capacity redundancy and input waste are reduced;

secondly, the storage control system splits the order information into a plurality of order lines according to the order information to be delivered and the item attribute information contained in the order information, controls the picking robot to pick items from the storage area to the corresponding picking baskets and convey the items to the picking shelves in the delivery area according to the order lines, controls the target picking robot to pick the target picking baskets from the picking shelves in the delivery area according to the delivery attribute information in the order information, and transfers the target picking baskets to the specified packing grid openings in the packing area to complete packing, so that the items related to the same order information can be directly picked to the order lines when being delivered from the storage area, the process of first dividing and then converging when being delivered from the storage area is eliminated, and the repeated work of picking and packing the baskets can be reduced;

thirdly, the transportation from the storage area to the delivery area and then from the delivery area to the packing area can be completed through a picking robot, so that the manual operation can be completely replaced, the working efficiency can be improved, and the error is reduced; the sorting link is equivalently executed by transporting the picking robot to the destination every time, the input quantities of the picking goods shelf and the picking robot can be adjusted in real time, the increase and the decrease of the warehouse business order quantity are facilitated, the flexible capacity is realized, and therefore the flexibility of the sorting and packaging operation of the warehousing system can be conveniently adjusted according to the business order quantity.

Drawings

Fig. 1 is an alternative schematic diagram of an application scenario of an article sorting and packaging method of a warehousing system;

FIG. 2 is a flow diagram of one embodiment of a method of sorting and packaging items;

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of one embodiment of a warehouse control system;

FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram of one embodiment of a warehousing system;

FIG. 5 is a schematic view of one embodiment of a picking rack and picking robot.

Detailed Description

Before the embodiments are described in detail, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited in its application to the details of construction and the arrangements of components set forth in the following description or illustrated in the drawings. The invention is capable of embodiments in other forms of implementation. Also, it is to be understood that the phraseology and terminology used herein is for the purpose of description and should not be regarded as limiting. The use of "including," "comprising," "having," and the like, herein is meant to encompass the items listed thereafter and equivalents thereof as well as additional items. In particular, when "a certain element" is described, the present invention is not limited to the number of the element being one, and may include a plurality of the elements.

Referring to fig. 1, an exemplary view of an optional application scenario of a method for sorting and packaging articles in a warehousing system is provided in the present application, where the warehousing system includes an order management system 11, a warehousing control system 12, a storage area 13, a delivery area 14, a packaging area 15, and a picking robot 16, where the storage area 13 may include a cargo temporary storage area for temporarily storing the goods transported by logistics, and may also include a warehouse area for storing some goods that can be conveniently stored for a relatively long time. The out-of-stock area 14 refers to an area where items sorted out based on the order information currently to be delivered are temporarily stored. The packing area 15 is an area for packing the sorted items according to the order information to be delivered. The picking robot 16 refers to an intelligent transfer device that performs picking of goods of a specified type and quantity and transfer of the picked goods from the storage area 13 to the delivery area 14 and then to the packing area 15. The order management system 11 refers to a management platform for recording and counting orders, and the order management system 11 may be associated with one or more online shopping malls for collecting orders generated from the online shopping malls. The warehousing control system 12 is in communication connection with the order management system 11, and controls the picking robot 16 to complete picking of a specified number of items from the storage area 13 and transferring to the delivery area 14 and controls the picking robot 16 to pick the items from the delivery area 14 and transfer to the packing area 15 for packing to complete packing delivery of the order by executing the item sorting and packing method provided by the embodiment of the present application according to the currently determined order information to be delivered. The warehouse control system 12 may be a computer device with storage, calculation and communication capabilities, such as a smart phone, a personal computer, a tablet computer, a server, and the like, loaded with a computer program for executing the method for sorting and packaging articles provided in the embodiment of the present application. The warehouse control system 12 may include one or more physically separated computer devices, and the multiple computer devices communicate with each other to jointly execute the article sorting and packaging method provided by the embodiment of the present application.

Referring to fig. 2, an embodiment of the present application further provides an article sorting and packing method, which can be applied to the warehousing control system shown in fig. 1, and the method includes the following steps:

s101, obtaining order information to be distributed, splitting the order information into a plurality of order lines according to article attribute information contained in the order information, and controlling a picking robot to pick articles from a storage area into corresponding picking baskets according to the order lines; wherein one order line corresponds to one article attribute information.

The order information to be delivered may be batch order information received by the warehousing control system from the order management system according to a preset work order, for example, the preset work order may be a preset order for receiving currently non-delivered orders from the order management system according to a set frequency. Alternatively, the order information to be delivered may be other forms of determined orders that need to be sorted and packaged currently by the warehousing control system. Each order information may include attribute information such as order purchaser basic information, order generation time, target sending time, target delivery address, type of article, corresponding type and quantity, wherein the attribute information related to sorting out the corresponding article included in each order information is article attribute information, and the attribute information related to completing the order delivery is delivery attribute information. If one piece of order information X1 includes a purchaser user name, ordering time, a target delivery address, one piece of article a with the size of A1, one piece of article a with the size of A2, one piece of article B with the product model of B2, and within 12 hours after ordering, the one piece of article a with the size of A1, the one piece of article a with the size of A2, and the one piece of article B with the product model of B2 in the order information X1 are article attribute information; the ordering time, the target delivery address and the promised sending time of the merchant are delivery attribute information within 12 hours after the ordering.

According to the item attribute information contained in the order information, splitting the order information into a plurality of order lines, wherein one order line corresponds to one item attribute information, so that when the picking robot is controlled to sort items from the storage area into corresponding picking baskets according to the order information to be delivered, each picking basket can contain a plurality of items with the same item attribute information contained in the order information, and in one example, the order information is as shown in the following table:

order information	Article 1	Article 2	Article 3
				Order information X1	Article A with size A1	Item B of type B0
Order information X2	Article A with size A1	Article B with type B0	Article C having color C1
				Order information X3	Article A with size A1		Article C having color C2

According to table one in the above example, the order row into which the order information is split according to the item attribute information includes item a having size A1, item B having model B0, item C having color C1, and item C having color C2, and the picking robot controls the picking robot to pick five items of item a having size A1 into the corresponding picking basket 1, three items of item B having model B0 into the picking basket 2, one item C having color C1 into the picking basket 3, and one item C having color C2 into the picking basket 4 from the storage area according to the order information X1, X2, and X3 to be delivered. It should be noted that the attribute information of the articles of the same article type and different models are different order lines, for example, the article C with the color C1 is separated from the article C with the color C2 according to two order lines.

S103, controlling the picking robot to convey the picking baskets to picking shelves in the warehouse-out area.

And the storage control system controls the picking robot to pick corresponding quantities of articles from the storage area into corresponding picking baskets according to the information of the current order to be delivered and according to the split order lines, and when the quantity of the articles in each picking basket reaches a certain quantity or all the articles matched with the corresponding order lines under the current batch of orders are picked completely, the corresponding picking baskets are conveyed to picking shelves in the delivery area. The picking robot transfers the picking baskets containing corresponding articles to the designated positions on the corresponding picking shelves, and then establishes the association relationship between the picking baskets and the designated positions on the picking shelves, and the storage control system can retrieve the target picking baskets containing the corresponding articles to transfer the target picking baskets to the designated packing grid of the packing table according to the association relationship.

S105, controlling a target picking robot to extract a target picking basket from the picking goods shelf in the warehouse-out area according to the distribution attribute information in the order information, and transferring the target picking basket to a specified packing grid opening in the packing area to finish packing.

The delivery attribute information refers to attribute information related to order information and order delivery completion, such as target delivery address, order placement time, and the like. And the warehousing control system controls a target picking robot to pick a basket from the picking goods shelf in the delivery area according to the delivery attribute information in the order information and the article attribute information contained in each order information, and transfers the target picking basket to a specified packing grid opening in the packing area to finish packing. The packing area can usually comprise one or more packing tables, each packing table can be provided with a plurality of packing grids in a surrounding mode, each packing grid can be used for placing a picking basket or a plurality of picking baskets containing articles in the same order row, therefore, after the picking robot extracts a target picking basket containing corresponding articles from the ex-warehouse area, the target picking basket is transferred to a specified packing grid in the packing area, at the moment, the storage control system can determine the articles placed at each packing grid, and the corresponding number of articles can be picked from the corresponding packing grid according to the article control contained in each order information and loaded into the packing container, so that the packing of corresponding order information is completed.

In the embodiment, the storage control system splits the order information into a plurality of order lines according to the order information to be delivered and the article attribute information contained in the order information, controls the picking robot to pick articles from the storage area to the corresponding picking basket according to the order lines and convey the articles to the picking shelf in the delivery area, and controls the target picking robot to pick the target picking basket from the picking shelf in the delivery area and transfer the target picking basket to the packaging grid specified in the packaging area to complete packaging according to the delivery attribute information in the order information, so that the articles related to the same order information can be directly picked to the order line when delivered from the storage area, and the process of first dividing and then converging when delivered from the storage area is eliminated, thereby reducing the repeated work of picking and loading the baskets; the transportation from the storage area to the delivery area and from the delivery area to the packing area can be completed through the picking robot, so that the manual operation can be completely replaced, the working efficiency can be improved, and the error is reduced; the sorting link is equivalently executed by transporting the picking robot to the destination every time, the input quantities of the picking goods shelf and the picking robot can be adjusted in real time, the increase and the decrease of the warehouse business order quantity are facilitated, the flexible capacity is realized, and therefore the flexibility of the sorting and packaging operation of the warehousing system can be conveniently adjusted according to the business order quantity.

Optionally, the packing area includes at least one packing table, and each packing table includes a plurality of packing cells; said transporting said target picking basket to a designated packing bay in said packing area to complete packing, comprising:

transferring the plurality of target picking baskets to designated packing slots of a plurality of the packing tables in the packing area, respectively;

and controlling a picking mechanical arm to pick up the specified number of articles from the corresponding packing grid into the corresponding packing container, and finishing packing the same order information when all the articles contained in the same order information are picked up into the corresponding packing container.

In an actual application process, the number of packing stations in the packing area and the total number of packing slots included in the packing area determined according to the number of packing slots included in each packing station may be different according to an actual application scenario. In the process of implementing sorting and packaging of articles by the warehousing system, in the process of executing the method for sorting and packaging articles provided by the embodiment of the present application according to the order information to be allocated of a batch, the number of order lines split according to the article attribute information included in the order information is usually different, and when articles corresponding to different order lines are picked up to a sorting basket and then transferred to a plurality of packaging gates in a packaging area, the following situations may occur: firstly, the number of the target picking baskets (that is, the number of order rows formed by splitting the order information of the current batch to be distributed) is less than or equal to the total number of the packing slots contained in the packing area, at this time, the warehousing control system can transfer each different picking basket to a corresponding packing slot respectively to sort corresponding articles, optionally, the warehousing control system can concentrate a plurality of target picking baskets with high article repetition degree contained in the order information on a plurality of packing slots at the same packing table, so that the packing probability of completing articles contained in the same order information at the same packing table can be improved, and the transfer between different packing tables is needed when a plurality of different articles completing the same order information are loaded into corresponding packing containers is reduced. Secondly, the number of the target picking baskets is greater than the total number of the packing grids contained in the packing area, the order of transferring the target picking baskets to the corresponding packing grids of the packing area can be determined according to a preset rule capable of optimizing the packing process, and the target picking baskets are transferred to the corresponding packing grids in the packing area according to the corresponding order so as to sort corresponding articles.

Wherein, a picking mechanical arm can be arranged at each packing platform; alternatively, each packing cell at each packing station may be provided with a picking robot. The warehousing control system can control the picking mechanical arms at the packing stations to pick up the specified number of articles from the corresponding packing grids and place the articles into the corresponding packing containers according to the order information, such as packing bags, packing boxes and the like, and when all the articles contained in the same order information are picked up into the corresponding packing containers, the packing of the same order information is completed. Optionally, the same order information may relate to pickup of a plurality of different types of articles, after one packaging cell finishes pickup of a corresponding article, the corresponding packaging container may be moved to the packaging cell of the next type of article, the warehousing control system controls the picking mechanical arm to pick up a matched number of articles from the packaging cell of the next type of article again and place the articles into the corresponding packaging container, and the above steps may be repeated until all articles contained in the same order information are picked up into the corresponding packaging container. In other alternative embodiments, the same order information may relate to pickup of a plurality of different types of items, and after the picking of the corresponding item is completed at one packing cell, the picking robot may be controlled to transfer the target picking basket containing the next item to the packing cell corresponding to the packing container, and the warehousing control system may control the picking robot to pick up the next item again in a matching amount and place the next item in the corresponding packing container, and the above steps may be repeated until all the items contained in the same order information are picked in the corresponding packing container.

In the embodiment, the picking robot picks target picking baskets from the picking shelves in the delivery area and transfers the picking baskets to the packing grid openings of the packing area according to the order information, the matching between the target picking baskets in the picking shelves and the corresponding packing grid openings relates to multiple targets (namely each picking basket placed in the picking shelves can be regarded as an initial target, each initial target relates to the placement position of the corresponding picking basket, the type and the quantity of the articles contained in the picking basket), and the multiple targets (each packing grid opening can be regarded as a termination target, and each termination target relates to the type and the quantity of the articles contained in the placed picking basket), the picking robot is controlled to move by the warehousing control system according to the order information to complete the matching work from the multiple targets to the multiple targets, the flexible scheduling can be realized, and the redundancy of productivity and the investment waste can be reduced; the specified number of articles are picked from the corresponding packing grid at the packing platform into the corresponding packing container through the automatic picking of the picking mechanical arm controlled by the warehousing control system, and the automatic operation management of the packing operation at the packing platform is realized.

In some embodiments, the packing area comprises at least one packing station, each packing station comprising a plurality of packing compartments; said transferring said target picking basket to a designated packing bay in said packing zone to complete packing, comprising:

transferring the plurality of target picking baskets to designated packing slots of a plurality of the packing tables in the packing area, respectively;

and displaying article pickup information on a display screen of the packaging grid, and finishing packaging the same order information when an operator picks up a specified number of articles from the corresponding packaging grid into the corresponding packaging container according to the article pickup information and when all the articles contained in the same order information are picked up into the corresponding packaging container.

The packaging machine comprises a packaging table, a display screen and a control device, wherein the display screen can be arranged at each packaging table, and the display screen synchronously displays the article pickup information of each packaging grid at the packaging table; or each packing grid at each packing platform can be correspondingly provided with a display screen respectively, and each display screen respectively displays the article pickup information at the corresponding packing grid. An operator can stand at each packing grid, pick up a specified number of articles from the corresponding packing grid to the corresponding packing container according to article pickup information displayed on a display screen, and finish packing the same order information when all the articles contained in the same order information are picked up to the corresponding packing container. The packaging container can be a packaging bag, a packaging box and the like.

In the embodiment, the picking of the specified number of articles from the corresponding packing grid openings to the corresponding packing containers at the packing table can be completed manually, and the number of the articles to be picked corresponding to each packing grid opening is intelligently calculated by the warehousing control system and then displayed through the display screen, so that the reminding effect is achieved for the operators, the packing efficiency of the operators can be improved, and errors are reduced; the packing area manually finishes the picking and packing of the specified number of articles from the packing grid, and is beneficial to the packing operation of various complex articles.

In some embodiments, said controlling a target picking robot to pick a target picking basket from said picking racks within said warehouse area, and to transfer said target picking basket to a packing bay specified in said packing area to complete packing, in accordance with delivery attribute information in said order information, comprises:

determining the order priority of the order information according to a configured packing strategy according to distribution attribute information in the order information;

and controlling a target picking robot to extract a target picking basket from the picking shelf in the warehouse-out area according to the order priority, and transferring the target picking basket to a specified packing grid opening in the packing area to finish packing.

The storage control system controls the picking robot to move according to the order information to complete the matching work from multiple targets to multiple targets from the delivery area to the packing area, wherein the storage control system determines order priorities of the order information according to configured packing strategies according to distribution attribute information in the order information, calculates a matching scheme between the multiple targets and the multiple targets according to the order priorities, controls the target picking robot to pick a target picking basket from a picking shelf in the delivery area, and transfers the target picking basket to a specified packing grid in the packing area.

The packing policy may include a plurality of preset packing policies respectively adapted to different application scenarios, and in an actual application process, a user may select one or more of the packing policies as a currently effective packing policy according to a situation of a current application scenario. In other optional embodiments, the packaging policy may also be obtained by configuring, by the user, after selecting corresponding configuration parameters for each preset configuration item included in the configuration interface, for example, the configuration items included in the configuration interface may include sorting of target configuration addresses, sorting according to order generation time, sorting according to the number of articles included in the same order information, sorting according to the reputation level of an order purchaser, and the like, and the user may perform configuration operation by selecting the corresponding configuration items to complete configuration of the packaging policy.

In the embodiment, the packaging strategy can provide that the user has different configurations based on different application scenes, the warehousing control system calculates the priority of a plurality of order information according to the configured packaging strategy, and controls the target picking robot to move according to the order priority so as to complete the matching work from multiple targets to multiple targets from the ex-warehouse area to the packaging area, so that the overall sorting and packaging operation of the warehousing system under various application environments is optimized, and the warehousing operation efficiency is improved.

In some embodiments, the determining the order priority of the order information according to the configured packaging policy according to the delivery attribute information in the order information includes:

the delivery attribute information in the order information includes at least one of: order generation time and target sending time, determining a retention order according to the distribution attribute information, and improving order priority of the retention order; and/or the presence of a gas in the atmosphere,

the delivery attribute information in the order information includes at least one of the following: and calculating the packing grid and corresponding time length required to be occupied by each order information according to the distribution attribute information so as to determine the order priority.

Determining whether each order information is a retention order according to distribution attribute information related to order distribution timeliness requirements in the order information, determining the order priority of each order according to whether the order is the retention order and the corresponding retention degree of the retention order, and improving the order priority of the retention order. By improving the priority of the retained orders, the time for the retained orders to occupy the packing grid in the packing area can be reduced, on one hand, the excessive quantity of the formed retained orders can be avoided, and the condition that the evaluation of the corresponding orders by a user is influenced due to untimely order distribution is avoided; on the other hand, the circulation rate of each packing cell in the packing area of the warehousing system can be improved, and the efficiency of the warehousing system is improved.

And determining and calculating the packaging grids required to be occupied by each order information and the corresponding time length according to the distribution attribute information related to the quantity and the corresponding time length of the packaging grids required to be occupied by influencing the packaging of the corresponding order in the order information, thereby determining the order priority of the corresponding order. The priority of orders which need to occupy more packing grids and have longer occupied time in the same order is reduced, otherwise, the priority of orders which need to occupy less packing grids and have shorter occupied time in the same order is improved, the overall packing and distribution efficiency of the orders can be improved, the number of retained orders is reduced, and the circulation rate of each packing grid in a packing area is improved. The number of packing grids occupied in the same order is related to the number of order lines formed by splitting the corresponding order, and the like, and the time length of the packing grids occupied by the same order is related to whether the corresponding order comprises special type articles or not, the picking efficiency of the articles in the target picking basket at the corresponding packing grid, and the like.

In the above embodiment, according to distribution attribute information included in the order information, the order priority of the order information is determined according to different configured packing strategies, the priority order of packing operations performed on different orders in the packing area is optimized, and the target picking robot is controlled to move according to the order priority, so that the multi-target-to-multi-target matching operation of extracting a target picking basket from the delivery area and transferring the target picking basket to a specified packing grid of the packing area is completed, the overall sorting and packing operations of the warehousing system under various application environments are optimized, and the warehousing operation efficiency is improved.

In some embodiments, said controlling a target picking robot to pick a target picking basket from said picking racks in said warehouse exit area in accordance with said order priority, transferring said target picking basket to a packing bay designated in said packing area to complete packing, comprises:

controlling a target picking robot to pick a target picking basket from the picking goods shelf in the warehouse-out area according to the order priority, and transferring the target picking basket to a designated packing grid opening in the packing area;

calculating the occupancy rates of the packing grids, and controlling the target picking robot to extract the abnormal retention picking basket for temporary storage when one of the packing grids contains the abnormal retention picking basket;

and when all the articles contained in the same order information are picked up into the corresponding packaging container, packaging the same order information is finished.

After determining the order priority of the current order information to be delivered according to the delivery attribute information and the configured packaging strategy, the storage control system controls the target picking robot to pick a target picking basket from the picking goods shelf in the delivery area according to the order priority, and transfers the target picking basket to a specified packaging grid opening in the packaging area to finish packaging. The order information with relatively higher order priority is preferentially performed in the packing step, that is, according to the order information with relatively higher order priority related to the items, the positions of the items are determined on the picking shelves in the delivery area, the target picking robot is controlled to preferentially extract the picking baskets containing the items as the target picking baskets and transfer the picking baskets to the packing grids specified in the packing area, the corresponding position of each target picking basket and the packing grids can be calculated by the warehousing control system according to the delivery attribute information and the configured packing strategies, the selection of the target picking robot can be determined after calculation according to the number of the picking robots currently contained in the warehousing system, the current state and the current position of each picking robot, the feasible moving track moving from the current position to the corresponding specified packing grids, and the like, and the picking robot which can avoid collision with the moving tracks of other picking robots and has relatively shorter transfer time is selected as the target picking robot. After the target picking robot extracts a target picking basket from a picking shelf in the delivery area and transports the target picking basket to a specified packing cell in the packing area, the target picking robot can pick specified quantity of articles from the corresponding packing cell to the corresponding packing container manually or by a picking mechanical arm arranged at a packing table until all the articles contained in the same order information are picked to the corresponding packing container to complete the packing step.

The warehouse control system can acquire the picking completion progress of the objects at each packing grid in real time through the picking mechanical arm which is manually or arranged at the packing platform from the corresponding packing grid to the corresponding packing container, namely, the packing step is executed in the packing area, so that the occupancy rate of each packing grid can be calculated in real time, when one packing grid contains an abnormal retention picking basket, the target picking robot is controlled to retain the abnormal retention picking basket for extraction and temporary storage, and therefore the abnormal retention picking basket can be prevented from occupying the corresponding packing grid for a long time, and the circulation rate of the corresponding packing grid is influenced. The target picking robot extracts the abnormal retention picking basket to be temporarily stored on the target picking robot, the warehousing control system can further judge the temporary storage time length of the abnormal retention picking basket temporarily stored on the target picking robot, and if the temporary storage time length exceeds a set threshold value or the condition that the difference value between the time of the next picking operation of the article contained in the abnormal retention picking basket and the current time exceeds the set threshold value is judged in advance, the target picking robot can be controlled to convey the abnormal retention picking basket back to the picking goods shelf in the warehouse-out area. And when all the articles contained in the same order information are picked up to correspond to the packaging container, packaging the same order information is finished. The abnormal retention picking basket can be a picking basket which occupies a packing grid for a time period exceeding a preset threshold and has no corresponding picking task requirement according to the current order information to be delivered.

In the above embodiment, in the process of completing the packing operation in the packing area, the storage control system calculates the occupancy rate of each packing grid according to the real-time state of each packing grid, and timely extracts the abnormal retention sorting basket for temporary storage, so as to further integrally optimize the use of each packing grid in the packing area and improve the circulation rate of the packing grid.

In some embodiments, said controlling a target picking robot to pick a target picking basket from said picking racks in said warehouse exit area according to said order priority further comprises, after transferring said target picking basket to a designated packing bay in said packing area:

calculating the current task quantity of each packing grid, adjusting the packing priority of the order information according to the current task quantity of each packing grid, and increasing the packing priority of the order information related to the packing grid with the current task quantity exceeding a set threshold and/or sorted at a preset position;

and picking up the articles contained in the order information into the corresponding packaging containers according to the packaging priority.

In the process of picking up a specified number of articles from the corresponding packing grid into the corresponding packing container manually or by a picking mechanical arm arranged at the packing table, that is, in the process of performing the packing step in the packing area, the warehousing control system can also acquire the picking completion progress of the articles at each packing grid, so as to calculate the current task number of each packing grid and adjust the packing priority of the current uncompleted order information. The storage control system calculates the real-time task quantity of each packing grid according to the real-time working progress of each packing grid so as to adjust the packing priority of each order information, thereby avoiding the problem of influencing the utilization rate of the packing area caused by the influence of various external force interference or non-predicted conditions in the packing area, optimizing the packing strategy of the packing area and improving the working efficiency of the packing area.

In some embodiments, each picking robot includes a plurality of picking basket storage areas arranged one above another in a vertical direction, each picking rack includes a plurality of picking basket storage levels arranged one above another in a vertical direction, the number and height of the picking basket storage levels corresponding to the number and height of the picking basket storage areas, respectively;

the step S103 of controlling the picking robot to pick the items from the storage area into the corresponding picking basket according to the order line includes:

and controlling a picking robot to pick items from the storage area to picking baskets in the picking basket storage area at the corresponding height according to the order line.

The picking robot sets up a plurality of baskets of selecting and deposits the district along vertical direction superpose, it sets up a plurality of baskets of selecting and deposits the layer equally to select the goods shelves along vertical direction superpose, select the quantity that the basket deposits the layer, highly respectively with select the quantity that the basket deposited the district, highly correspond, make the steerable picking robot of storage control system realize picking when the district draws the appointed packing bin that the basket transported the packing district from the delivery area target, each of the picking basket of selecting the robot deposits the layer and aligns one by one with each of the picking basket on the goods shelves of selecting, it can realize that the picking robot picks the basket and draws from selecting any height on the goods shelves to need not to control the lifting motion of picking robot, and can realize the extraction of a plurality of target picking baskets in step, improve and select efficiency.

In some embodiments, the S103, controlling the picking robot to transport the picking baskets to picking racks in the warehouse-out area includes:

controlling the picking robot to transport the picking baskets involved in the current picking complete order to a picking rack in the warehouse-out area.

After the storage control system controls the picking robot to pick the items to the corresponding picking baskets according to the order rows, the orders which are split in the order rows and used for picking the items to the corresponding picking baskets according to the split order rows in the order information to be delivered can be counted in real time, the orders are marked as the current complete picking orders, and the picking robot is controlled to preferentially convey the picking baskets related to the current complete picking orders to the picking shelves in the delivery area when the picking baskets are conveyed to the picking shelves in the delivery area.

In the embodiment, the order information to be delivered can be sorted and packaged according to batches, the types, models, quantities and the like of the articles to be sorted, which are related in the order information contained in each batch, can be greatly different, in the process of realizing sorting and packaging management of the articles, the warehousing system can directly sort the articles to the ex-warehouse area according to the order rows and then directly extract the articles in the corresponding order rows from the ex-warehouse area to the packaging area, the repeated work of picking and basketing the articles for many times can be reduced, the process of directly sorting the articles to the ex-warehouse area according to the order row splitting of the order information by the picking robot is realized, the warehousing control system counts the currently picked complete orders in real time, and controls the picking robot to preferentially and timely transfer the articles currently picked complete orders to the ex-warehouse area, so that the formation of retained orders or the increase of order time caused by the lack of the articles in the subsequent packaging operation process can be reduced.

In another aspect of the embodiment of the present application, please refer to fig. 3, further providing a warehousing control system, which includes a processor 122 and a memory 121, where the memory 121 stores a computer program, and when the computer program is executed by the processor 122, the method for sorting and packaging articles of the warehousing system provided in any embodiment of the present application is performed. The processor 122 and the memory 121 may respectively include one or more processors, the warehousing control system is used as a platform for performing unified control on processes of temporarily transporting articles in the warehousing system to a temporary storage area or storing the articles in the warehousing area, extracting articles from the storage area according to order information to be delivered in batches, picking up the articles according to the order information, packaging the articles in the packaging area, and the like, and may include a plurality of physically separated servers, terminal devices, and the like, and the steps of the article sorting and packaging method of the warehousing system are commonly realized by installing a computer program for realizing the article sorting and packaging method of the warehousing system provided in the embodiment of the present application and by mutual communication interaction among the servers, among the terminal devices, and between the servers and the terminal devices.

On the other hand, please refer to fig. 4 and 5 in combination, which disclose a warehousing system, including a warehousing control system 12, a storage area 13, a warehouse-out area 14, a packing area 15 and a picking robot 16, wherein articles to be delivered are stored in the storage area 13, a plurality of packing tables 151 are arranged in the packing area 15, and a plurality of packing cells 1511 are arranged around each packing table 151; picking shelves 141 are arranged in the warehouse-out area 14, each picking robot 16 comprises a plurality of picking basket storage areas 162 which are stacked in the vertical direction, each picking shelf 141 comprises a plurality of picking basket storage layers 1410 which are stacked in the vertical direction, and the number and the height of the picking basket storage layers 1410 respectively correspond to the number and the height of the picking basket storage areas 162. The warehousing control system 12 controls the picking robot to move autonomously among the storage area 13, the ex-warehouse area 14 and the packing area 15 according to the currently delivered order information, so that an order sorting process of picking required articles according to order rows and transferring the articles to the picking shelves 141 of the ex-warehouse area 14 and an order packing process of picking articles according to order rows and transferring the articles to the designated packing cells 1511 in the packing area 15 respectively to complete packing operations are realized, repeated operation of picking and packing articles for many times can be avoided, and more warehousing system space occupied due to the operation of picking and packing articles for many times can be reduced. The storage control system 12 controlling the picking robot 16 to implement an order sorting process of picking required items by order rows onto the picking shelves 141 of the warehouse-out area may include: acquiring order information to be delivered, splitting the order information into a plurality of order lines according to item attribute information contained in the order information, and controlling a picking robot to pick items from the storage area into corresponding picking baskets according to the order lines; wherein an order line corresponds to an item attribute information; controlling the picking robot to transport the picking baskets to picking racks in the warehouse-out area; the order packing process that the storage control system controls the picking robot to pick the items according to the order rows and respectively transport the items to the specified packing grids in the packing area to complete the packing operation can comprise the following steps: and controlling a target picking robot to extract a target picking basket from the picking goods shelf in the warehouse-out area according to the delivery attribute information in the order information, and transferring the target picking basket to a specified packing grid opening in the packing area to finish packing.

The warehousing control system 12 may be as described in the foregoing embodiments, and will not be described herein again.

When the warehousing control system 12 controls the picking robot to autonomously move among the storage area 13, the ex-warehouse area 14 and the packing area 15, the picking robot 16 can be controlled more accurately by combining the coarse positioning process and the fine positioning process. Optionally, the warehouse-out area 14 is provided with a positioning code above the picking shelf 141, a chassis of the picking robot 16 is provided with a positioning device matched with the positioning code, and the picking robot senses the corresponding positioning code through the positioning device to realize coarse positioning of moving to the corresponding picking shelf. Different positioning codes can respectively represent different picking shelves 141, when a positioning device of the picking robot 16 detects any one positioning code, the picking robot enters a coarse positioning area corresponding to the positioning code, at this time, on one hand, whether the coarse positioning area currently entered by the picking robot 16 is the position of the currently matched picking shelf 141 can be judged according to the positioning code, and on the other hand, whether the requirement for controlling the picking robot 16 and the currently matched picking shelf 141 to perform fine positioning so as to extract the picking basket 17 can be met or not can be judged according to the position of the positioning device in the coarse positioning area radiated by the corresponding positioning code.

Optionally, a fine positioning system 142 is disposed between the picking rack 141 and the picking robot 16, the fine positioning system 142 includes at least one set of straight sensors and at least one set of translation sensors, the warehousing control system 12 controls the picking robot 16 to move into a preset coarse positioning area, and when the picking robot 16 is located in the coarse positioning area and does not meet a fine positioning requirement, the warehousing control system 12 controls the picking robot 16 to exit the coarse positioning area, adjust an orientation, and reenter the coarse positioning area; when the picking robot 16 is located in the coarse positioning area and meets the fine positioning requirement, the warehousing control system 12 controls the picking robot 16 to move to a position aligned with the corresponding picking shelf 141 according to the sensing signals of the straight sensor and the translation sensor. When the positioning device of the picking robot 16 detects any positioning code, the picking robot enters a coarse positioning area corresponding to the positioning code, and at this time, whether the picking robot 16 meets the fine positioning requirement or not can be determined according to the position of the positioning device in the coarse positioning area corresponding to the positioning code radiation. For example, when the picking robot is in the coarse positioning area but the picking robot 16 is shifted relative to the picking rack 141 beyond the movement range of the fine positioning control, indicating that the fine positioning requirement is not satisfied, to avoid the picking robot 16 being unable to quickly move to the position aligned with the picking rack 141 due to the inability to perform the fine positioning, the storage control system 12 controls the picking robot 16 to exit the coarse positioning area, adjust the orientation, and reenter the coarse positioning area, so as to ensure that the picking robot 16 can be quickly and accurately aligned with the picking rack 141 to extract the target picking basket 17.

In some embodiments, the storage area 13 includes a staging area and/or a warehouse area within which the picking racks 141 are disposed. The goods temporary storage area can temporarily store goods transported in logistics within a certain time period or goods which must be matched with orders and sent out in a packaging mode within a preset time range. Correspondingly, the warehouse area can store articles which are not matched with orders and packed to be sent after the logistics transportation exceeds a certain time period. The goods temporary storage area and the warehouse area can also be provided with picking shelves, the goods are stored on the picking shelves 141 and are more conveniently matched with the picking robot 16, and the picking robot 16 can more quickly pick a specified number of goods from specified positions on the picking shelves 16 according to a order row and put the goods into the corresponding picking baskets 17.

In some embodiments, the warehousing system further includes an order management system in communication connection with the warehousing control system 12, and the order management system selects order information to be delivered according to a preset delivery rule and sends the selected order information to the warehousing control system 12; the delivery rule includes at least one of: determining the currently received order as order information to be delivered according to a set period; determining an order containing the preferentially delivered goods as order information to be delivered; determining order information to be delivered according to the order with the accumulated number of the currently received orders reaching the threshold value; and determining the order with the quantity of the articles reaching the threshold value contained in the currently received order as the order information to be delivered. The order management system and the warehousing control system are mutually independent and are in communication connection, the order information to be delivered is selected according to a preset delivery rule and is sent to the warehousing control system, and the warehousing control system executes the article sorting and packaging method according to the current batch of the order information to be delivered to automatically complete the delivery after the order is packaged. The order management system determines one or more distribution rules of the order information to be distributed in the same batch, optimizes the distribution rules to reduce the order backlog, and optimizes the capacity of the warehousing system to match the service order quantity.

The warehousing system provided by the embodiment of the application has the following characteristics:

the storage system comprises a storage area, a delivery area and a packing area, goods are directly sorted to the delivery area according to order lines and are extracted to the packing area according to the order lines when the goods are delivered out of the warehouse, compared with the existing storage system, the flow that the goods are firstly transferred to a distribution wall to perform division and confluence is eliminated, and the repeated work of sorting and basket packing of the goods for multiple times can be reduced;

secondly, designing a sorting robot to move autonomously among a storage area, a warehouse-out area and a packing area, realizing an order sorting process of sorting required articles according to order rows and transferring the selected articles to a sorting shelf of the warehouse-out area and an order packing process of sorting the articles according to the order rows and respectively transferring the sorted articles to specified packing grids in the packing area to complete packing operation, wherein the introduction of the sorting robot can replace manual sorting operation, the transfer to a destination is equivalent to one-time sorting, the number of the sorting robots actually put into a transfer link can be increased or decreased according to the business order quantity of a warehousing system, flexible capacity can be realized, and capacity redundancy and input waste can be reduced;

thirdly, designing a picking goods shelf to be matched with the picking robot, wherein the picking goods shelf can be used as an intermediate carrier for interaction between a manual worker (after being transported to a storage area through logistics, articles can be manually placed on the picking goods shelf) and the picking robot, the picking robot and the picking goods shelf are convenient to be matched to realize bidirectional operation of article extraction and article placement, and a plurality of articles (a plurality of picking baskets) can be synchronously operated between the picking goods shelf and the picking robot at one time for both extraction and article placement operations, so that the efficiency is improved; the number of the sorting shelves in the actual input article circulation link can be increased or decreased according to the business order quantity of the warehousing system, so that flexible capacity can be realized, and capacity redundancy and input waste are reduced;

and fourthly, designing a warehousing control system to execute the flow of the article sorting and packaging method provided by the application, and improving the operation efficiency of the articles from the storage area to the packaging and delivery through system calculation, wherein the optimization of multi-target and multi-target matching before various articles stored according to order lines in the ex-warehouse area to the specified packaging grid of the packaging area is included, the picking and placing of the articles in the autonomous moving process among the storage area, the ex-warehouse area and the packaging area and the avoidance and track optimization in the moving process are controlled, the picking and transporting efficiency of the articles is improved, and the operation efficiency of the warehousing system is improved.

The concepts described herein may be embodied in other forms without departing from the spirit or characteristics thereof. The particular embodiments disclosed should be considered illustrative rather than limiting. The scope of the invention is, therefore, indicated by the appended claims rather than by the foregoing description. Any changes which come within the meaning and range of equivalency of the claims are to be embraced within their scope.

Claims (10)

1. A warehousing system is characterized by comprising a warehousing control system, a storage area, a warehouse-out area, a packing area and a picking robot, wherein articles to be delivered are stored in the storage area, a plurality of packing tables are arranged in the packing area, and each packing table is provided with a plurality of packing grid openings in an encircling manner;

picking shelves are arranged in the delivery area, each picking shelf comprises a plurality of picking basket storage layers which are arranged in an overlapped mode along the vertical direction, each picking robot comprises a plurality of picking basket storage areas which are arranged in an overlapped mode along the vertical direction, and the number and the height of the picking basket storage layers correspond to the number and the height of the picking basket storage areas respectively;

the storage control system acquires order information to be distributed, splits the order information into a plurality of order lines according to article attribute information contained in the order information, and controls a picking robot to pick articles from the storage area into corresponding picking baskets according to the order lines; wherein one order line corresponds to one article attribute information; controlling the picking robot to transport the picking baskets to picking shelves in the warehouse-out area; and controlling a target picking robot to extract a target picking basket from the picking goods shelf in the warehouse-out area according to the delivery attribute information in the order information, and transferring the target picking basket to a specified packing grid opening in the packing area to finish packing.

2. The warehousing system of claim 1, wherein the warehouse-out area is provided with positioning codes above the picking shelves, a chassis of the picking robot is provided with positioning devices matched with the positioning codes, and the picking robot senses the corresponding positioning codes through the positioning devices to realize coarse positioning of moving to the corresponding picking shelves.

3. The warehousing system of claim 2 wherein a fine positioning system is disposed between said picking racks and said picking robot, said fine positioning system including at least one set of inline sensors and at least one set of translation sensors,

the storage control system controls the picking robot to move to a preset coarse positioning area, and when the picking robot is located in the coarse positioning area and does not meet the fine positioning requirement, the storage control system controls the picking robot to exit the coarse positioning area, adjusts the direction and reenters the coarse positioning area;

when the picking robot is located in the coarse positioning area and meets the fine positioning requirement, the warehousing control system controls the picking robot to move to a position aligned with the corresponding picking shelf according to sensing signals of the straight sensor and the translation sensor.

4. The warehousing system of claim 1, wherein said storage areas comprise a staging area and/or a warehouse area, said staging area and/or said warehouse area having said picking racks disposed therein.

5. The warehousing system of claim 1, further comprising an order management system in communication connection with the warehousing control system, the order management system selecting order information to be delivered according to a preset delivery rule and sending the selected order information to the warehousing control system; the distribution rule comprises at least one of the following: determining the currently received order as order information to be delivered according to a set period; determining an order containing the preferentially delivered goods as order information to be delivered; determining order information to be delivered according to the order with the accumulated number of the currently received orders reaching the threshold value; and determining the order with the quantity of the articles reaching the threshold value contained in the currently received order as the order information to be delivered.

6. The warehousing system of claim 1, wherein a picking mechanical arm is disposed at the packing station, the warehousing control system is specifically configured to transfer a plurality of target picking baskets to designated packing slots of a plurality of the packing stations in the packing area, control the picking mechanical arm to pick a designated number of items from the corresponding packing slots into corresponding packing containers, and complete packing of the same order information when all items contained in the same order information are picked into the corresponding packing containers.

7. The warehousing system of claim 1, wherein a display screen is disposed at the packing table, the warehousing control system is specifically configured to transfer a plurality of target picking baskets to designated packing bays of a plurality of the packing tables in the packing area, control the display screen of the packing table to display article pickup information at corresponding packing bays, and when an operator picks up a designated number of articles from the corresponding packing bays into corresponding packing containers according to the article pickup information, finish packing the same order information when all articles contained in the same order information are picked up into the corresponding packing containers.

8. The warehousing system of claim 1, wherein said warehousing control system controls a target picking robot to pick a target picking basket from said picking racks within said warehouse area and transfer said target picking basket to a packing bay designated in said packing area for completion of packing in accordance with delivery attribute information in said order information, comprising:

the warehousing control system determines the order priority of the order information according to the distribution attribute information in the order information and a configured packing strategy; and controlling a target picking robot to pick a target picking basket from the picking shelves in the warehouse-out area according to the order priority, and transferring the target picking basket to a specified packing cell in the packing area to finish packing.

9. The warehousing system of claim 8, wherein said controlling a target picking robot to pick a target picking basket from said picking racks in said out-of-stock area in accordance with said order priority, transferring said target picking basket to a packing bay designated in said packing area for completion of packing comprises:

controlling a target picking robot to pick a target picking basket from the picking goods shelf in the warehouse-out area according to the order priority, and transferring the target picking basket to a designated packing grid opening in the packing area; calculating the occupancy rates of the packing grids, and controlling the target picking robot to extract the abnormal retention picking basket for temporary storage when one of the packing grids contains the abnormal retention picking basket; and when all the articles contained in the same order information are picked up into the corresponding packaging container, packaging the same order information is finished.

10. The warehousing system of any of claims 1-9, wherein the warehousing control system is further configured to calculate a current number of tasks for each of the packing bays during transfer of the target picking basket to a designated packing bay in the packing area to complete packing, adjust a packing priority of the order information according to the current number of tasks at each of the packing bays, and increase the packing priority of the order information related to the current number of tasks exceeding a set threshold and/or being ranked at a previously set packing bay; and picking up the articles contained in the order information into the corresponding packaging containers according to the packaging priority.

Images