CN115657611A

CN115657611A - Task allocation and processing method and device

Info

Publication number: CN115657611A
Application number: CN202211164302.3A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 李学军
Original assignee: Beijing Jingdong Qianshi Technology Co Ltd
Current assignee: Beijing Jingdong Qianshi Technology Co Ltd
Priority date: 2022-09-23
Filing date: 2022-09-23
Publication date: 2023-01-31

Abstract

The invention discloses a method and a device for distributing and processing tasks, and relates to the field of warehouse logistics. One embodiment of the method comprises: acquiring a handling task set to be processed, and determining a handling roadway set corresponding to each handling task in the roadway set to construct a handling roadway vector corresponding to each handling task; determining the number of devices which are operated in each roadway in the roadway set at present to construct a current roadway device vector, and calculating the similarity between each carrying roadway vector and the current roadway device vector; and acquiring a carrying equipment set in an idle state at present, and issuing carrying tasks to carrying equipment in sequence for processing according to the sequence of similarity from small to large. The implementation mode calculates the priority of each carrying task to be issued to the carrying robot one by one according to the priority sequence for processing, so that peak-off issuing is realized.

Description

Task allocation and processing method and device

Technical Field

The invention relates to the field of warehouse logistics, in particular to a task allocation and processing method and device.

Background

The transfer Robot is an AMR (Automatic Mobile Robot) based on SLAM (Simultaneous Localization And Mapping) technology, can autonomously create a map And position navigation according to environmental information, and can autonomously travel to a destination point.

In the process of implementing the invention, the inventor finds that the prior art has at least the following problems: the carrying tasks are issued according to the sequence of the creation time of the task list, and a mechanism of peak-miss issuing and space-dispersed issuing is adopted, so that the carrying tasks are concentrated on certain goods picking and storing positions in a period of time, a large number of carrying robots are concentrated on a certain area to execute the tasks, and the jam probability is increased.

Disclosure of Invention

In view of this, embodiments of the present invention provide a method and an apparatus for task allocation and processing, which can at least solve the problem in the prior art that a transport robot is jammed in some areas due to a task that is not issued off-peak.

To achieve the above object, according to an aspect of an embodiment of the present invention, there is provided a task allocation method including:

acquiring a handling task set to be processed, and determining a handling roadway set corresponding to each handling task in the roadway set to construct a handling roadway vector corresponding to each handling task;

determining the number of devices which are operated in each roadway in the roadway set at present to construct a current roadway device vector, and calculating the similarity between each carrying roadway vector and the current roadway device vector;

and acquiring a carrying equipment set in an idle state at present, and issuing carrying tasks to carrying equipment in sequence for processing according to the sequence of similarity from small to large.

Optionally, the constructing a conveying lane vector corresponding to each conveying task includes:

and marking a first numerical value on the conveying roadway, marking a second numerical value on the non-conveying roadway, and arranging the numerical values marked on each roadway according to the roadway numbering sequence to obtain a conveying roadway vector corresponding to each conveying task.

Optionally, the determining the number of devices currently operating in each lane in the lane set to construct a current lane device vector includes:

inquiring all tasks of the current operation, and acquiring task information of each task; the task information comprises a picking storage position number, and one task only corresponds to one device;

determining a tunnel number corresponding to each goods picking and storing position number, and accumulating the equipment number of the current operation corresponding to each tunnel number by counting the equipment number of the current operation corresponding to each goods picking and storing position number;

and arranging the number of the equipment in the current operation corresponding to each lane number according to the lane number sequence to construct a current lane equipment vector.

Optionally, after the calculating the similarity between each carrying roadway vector and the current roadway equipment vector, the method further includes:

determining a first carrying task set with the similarity larger than a preset similarity threshold value from the carrying task sets;

acquiring the preset latest warehouse-out time of each carrying task in the first carrying task set, and calculating the difference value between the preset latest warehouse-out time and the current time;

and determining a second transportation task set with a difference value larger than a preset task minimum buffer time threshold value from the first transportation task set so as to remove the second transportation task set from the first transportation task set.

Optionally, the method further includes: and responding to the difference value between the preset latest delivery time of one or more carrying tasks and the current time, and preferentially issuing the one or more carrying tasks when the difference value is smaller than the preset task minimum buffer time threshold.

Optionally, the sending the carrying task to the carrying device in sequence for processing includes:

determining a first number of handling tasks in the set of handling tasks and a second number of handling devices in the set of handling devices;

in response to the first number being less than or equal to the second number, determining the first number of handling devices from the set of handling devices to issue each handling task to each determined handling device; or

And in response to the fact that the first number is larger than the second number, determining the second number of the conveying tasks from the conveying task set according to the sequence of the similarity from small to large, and issuing each determined conveying task to each conveying device.

and acquiring a current congestion point set, and issuing each carrying task to carrying equipment for processing so that the carrying equipment carries out path planning based on the current congestion point set and the carrying task.

Optionally, the obtaining the current set of chokepoints includes:

inquiring task information of current operation of each device; wherein the task information comprises a picking storage position number;

determining coordinate point information of each device mapped to a carrying device map based on the position information corresponding to each picking and storing position number, and planning an influence range for each device by combining the influence length configured for each device in advance;

and acquiring a pre-planned driving path on the carrying equipment map, responding to the intersection of at least one driving path and the influence range, and determining a coordinate point falling into the influence range on the at least one driving path as a blocking point so as to generate a current blocking point set.

To achieve the above object, according to an aspect of an embodiment of the present invention, there is provided a task processing method including:

the method comprises the steps that a carrying device receives a carrying task, generates a first carrying sequence based on one or more picking storage position numbers corresponding to the carrying task, and determines a first picking storage position number which is the first in sequence in the first carrying sequence;

acquiring a real-time blocking point set, and planning a path by combining the current position information of the carrying equipment and the position information corresponding to the first picking and storing position number;

responding to the existence of a path planning result, and driving to the position information corresponding to the first picking and storing position number according to the planned path to carry out carrying operation;

and after the carrying completion information is received, determining a second goods picking storage position number which is sequenced in the first carrying sequence, and repeating the path planning operation until the carrying is completed at the position information corresponding to each goods picking storage position number.

Optionally, the method further includes:

responding to the condition that a path planning result does not exist, and performing path planning based on the current position information of the carrying equipment and the position information corresponding to the first picking storage position number;

responding to the existence of a path planning result, and driving to position information corresponding to the first picking storage position number according to the planned path to carry out carrying operation;

and in response to the fact that the front part is monitored to be an obstacle in the driving process or in response to the fact that the path planning result does not exist, generating a second conveying sequence based on the one or more picking storage position numbers again, and repeating the path planning operation until the conveying is completed at the position information corresponding to each picking storage position number.

To achieve the above object, according to another aspect of the embodiments of the present invention, there is provided a task assigning apparatus including:

the acquisition module is used for acquiring a handling task set to be processed and determining a handling roadway set corresponding to each handling task in the roadway set so as to construct a handling roadway vector corresponding to each handling task;

the calculation module is used for determining the number of devices which are operated in each roadway in the roadway set at present so as to construct a current roadway device vector and calculate the similarity between each carrying roadway vector and the current roadway device vector;

and the distribution module is used for acquiring the current carrying equipment set in the idle state and sequentially issuing the carrying tasks to the carrying equipment for processing according to the sequence of the similarity from small to large.

Optionally, the obtaining module is configured to:

and marking a first numerical value on a carrying roadway, marking a second numerical value on a non-carrying roadway, arranging the numerical values marked on each roadway according to the roadway numbering sequence, and obtaining a carrying roadway vector corresponding to each carrying task.

Optionally, the calculating module is configured to:

Optionally, the system further comprises a filtering module, configured to:

acquiring preset latest ex-warehouse time of each carrying task in the first carrying task set, and calculating a difference value between the preset latest ex-warehouse time and the current time;

Optionally, the system further includes a priority assignment module, configured to:

and responding to the difference value between the preset latest delivery time of one or more carrying tasks and the current time, and preferentially issuing the one or more carrying tasks when the difference value is smaller than the preset task minimum buffer time threshold.

Optionally, the allocating module is configured to:

determining a first number of handling tasks in the set of handling tasks and a second number of handling equipment in the set of handling equipment;

And in response to the fact that the first number is larger than the second number, determining the second number of the carrying tasks from the carrying task set according to the sequence from small similarity to large similarity, and issuing each determined carrying task to each carrying device.

Optionally, the allocating module is configured to:

To achieve the above object, according to another aspect of an embodiment of the present invention, there is provided a task processing device including:

the system comprises a generation module, a receiving module, a processing module and a processing module, wherein the generation module is used for receiving a carrying task by carrying equipment, generating a first carrying sequence based on one or more picking storage position numbers corresponding to the carrying task, and determining a first picking storage position number which is the first in sequence in the first carrying sequence;

the planning module is used for acquiring a real-time blocking point set and planning a path by combining the current position information of the carrying equipment and the position information corresponding to the first picking storage position number;

the carrying module is used for responding to the existence of a path planning result and carrying out carrying operation by driving to the position information corresponding to the first picking storage position number according to the planned path;

and the repeating module is used for determining the second picking storage position number in the second order in the first carrying sequence after receiving the carrying completion information, and repeating the path planning operation until the carrying is completed at the position information corresponding to each picking storage position number.

Optionally, the apparatus further includes a sequence adjusting module, configured to:

responding to the result of the path planning to be absent, and performing the path planning based on the current position information of the carrying equipment and the position information corresponding to the first picking and storing position number;

To achieve the above object, according to still another aspect of the embodiments of the present invention, there is provided a task allocation and processing electronic device.

The electronic device of the embodiment of the invention comprises: one or more processors; and the storage device is used for storing one or more programs, and when the one or more programs are executed by the one or more processors, the one or more processors realize any one of the task allocation and processing methods.

To achieve the above object, according to a further aspect of the embodiments of the present invention, there is provided a computer readable medium, on which a computer program is stored, where the computer program is used to implement any one of the task allocation and processing methods described above when the computer program is executed by a processor.

According to the scheme provided by the invention, one embodiment of the invention has the following advantages or beneficial effects: the coincidence degree of each carrying task and a congested roadway is calculated, so that task off-peak issuing is carried out according to the coincidence degree, and the congestion phenomenon caused by operation of a plurality of carrying robots in a certain area is avoided; through the task information of each equipment in the real-time collection storehouse in order to generate the jam point set, the transfer robot can plan the route of detouring according to the jam point set, has shortened the transport distance and time, even run in-process and meet the barrier or when not having new route, also can change the purpose and choose goods storage position to the order of priority handling has the route to choose goods storage position, with this promotion handling efficiency.

Further effects of the above-mentioned non-conventional alternatives will be described below in connection with the embodiments.

Drawings

The drawings are included to provide a better understanding of the invention and are not to be construed as unduly limiting the invention. Wherein:

fig. 1 is a schematic view of a conveyance path of a conventional conveyance robot;

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of a prior art barrier block-no-prejudged detour;

FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating a task assignment method according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram of the off-peak issue task;

FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating a specific task assignment methodology according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 6 is a flow diagram of a method of task processing according to an embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 7 is a schematic diagram of an obstacle blocking, early anticipation of detour;

FIG. 8 is a schematic diagram of the main blocks of a task assignment device according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 9 is a schematic diagram of the main blocks of a task processing device according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 10 is an exemplary system architecture diagram in which embodiments of the present invention may be applied;

FIG. 11 is a schematic block diagram of a computer system suitable for use with a mobile device or server implementing an embodiment of the invention.

Detailed Description

Exemplary embodiments of the present invention are described below with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which various details of embodiments of the invention are included to assist understanding, and which are to be considered as merely exemplary. Accordingly, those of ordinary skill in the art will recognize that various changes and modifications of the embodiments described herein can be made without departing from the scope and spirit of the invention. Also, descriptions of well-known functions and constructions are omitted in the following description for clarity and conciseness.

It should be noted that the embodiments and features of the embodiments may be combined with each other without conflict. According to the technical scheme, the data (such as the personal information of the user) are acquired, stored, used, processed and the like according with relevant regulations of national laws and regulations, and the public order and good custom are not violated.

The scheme is mainly suitable for the field of warehouse logistics or similar working scenes, such as in-plant line edge carrying and the like, and mainly takes the warehouse logistics scene as an example for explanation, such as a man-machine cooperation warehouse. The warehouse is internally provided with a carrying robot (or called carrying equipment), a manual cart, a forklift and other equipment for working simultaneously, wherein the manual cart and the forklift are operated manually and completely depend on subjective judgment and operation of people. The goods shelves in the warehouse are multilayer goods shelves, one layer of the goods shelves are sorting storage positions, and two or more layers of the goods shelves are storage positions, wherein the carrying robot and the manual cart are used for carrying goods out of the warehouse, and the forklift is used for goods warehousing, replenishment, tallying and other work.

Referring to fig. 1, a transfer path for one transfer task is shown for the transfer robot. A transport task contains a plurality of goods picking and storing positions, after receiving the transport task, the transport robot automatically runs to the position of each goods picking and storing position, goods picking objects are placed into a container of the transport robot by a goods picker, after the goods picking at the current storing position is finished, the transport robot automatically runs to the position of the next goods picking and storing position, and the like until all the objects in the goods picking and storing positions are picked, and one transport task is executed.

While the transfer robot can learn the environment and build maps, and be able to locate and navigate autonomously, it is more dependent on relatively invariant static map data. The operation environment of the man-machine cooperation warehouse is complex, the field environment changes randomly, and the carrying robot cannot know the change factors of manual operation, so that prejudgment cannot be made in advance, and certain interference and influence are caused to the path planning. Referring to fig. 2, a forklift is parked on a carrying path, a driving route of the carrying robot is blocked, the carrying robot cannot monitor that the forklift is an obstacle when exceeding a laser radar monitoring range of the carrying robot, so that pre-judgment can not be made whether to detour, the forklift can be monitored as the obstacle only when the carrying robot drives nearby the forklift, the path needs to be re-planned to detour at the moment, time is wasted, a plurality of distances are driven, and carrying efficiency is reduced.

Taking the human-machine cooperation bin as an example: 1. the existing Warehouse Control System (WCS for short) issues the handling tasks to the handling robot according to the sequence of the creation time of the task list. 2. The carrying robot drives to every goods picking and storing position in the carrying task in sequence to carry, and the carrying robot carries out the process: 1) And judging whether all the goods picking and storing positions in the carrying task are finished, if so, ending the process, otherwise, executing the step 2). 2) And the carrying robot travels to the next picking storage position, if the traveling path is blocked by an obstacle and cannot pass through, the step 3) is executed, and otherwise, the step 4) is executed. 3) And (3) replanning the path by the transfer robot, if a new path exists, executing the step 2) according to the planned new path, and otherwise, waiting for the removal of the barrier in situ. 4) The picker puts the item into the container of the carrier robot, and performs step 1).

Referring to fig. 3, a main flowchart of a task allocation method according to an embodiment of the present invention is shown, including the following steps:

s301: acquiring a handling task set to be processed, and determining a handling roadway set corresponding to each handling task in the roadway set to construct a handling roadway vector corresponding to each handling task;

s302: determining the number of devices which are operated in each roadway in the roadway set at present to construct a current roadway device vector, and calculating the similarity between each carrying roadway vector and the current roadway device vector;

s303: and acquiring a carrying equipment set in an idle state at present, and issuing carrying tasks to carrying equipment in sequence for processing according to the sequence of similarity from small to large.

In the above embodiment, as for step S101, the warehouse control system sets a task pool in advance, the transport tasks issued by the upstream task generating system are first put into the task pool, and the warehouse control system queries all the transport tasks from the task pool at regular time (for example, every 5S), and records the query as a set T.

Recording the conveying roadway (roadway: channel between two goods shelves) set of the ith conveying task in the set T as a vector W _i Because the carrying roadway sets corresponding to different carrying tasks are different, all roadways need to be considered for facilitating the subsequent congestion similarity calculation. Referring to table 1, a lane requiring picking (a carrier robot carries a picker, which picks a goods by the picker) is marked as 1 (i.e., a first value, which is adjustable), and a lane not requiring picking is marked as 0 (i.e., a second value, which is adjustable, which is different from the first value):

table 1 roadway vector information for picking up goods required for transport task

For each transport task, the marking values of each lane are arranged in sequence according to the sequence of the lane numbers from small to large to generate a transport lane vector, and if the vector obtained according to the table 1 is {0,1, 0}, the situation that only goods need to be picked in the lane B and the lane D is shown.

For step S102, the number of devices currently operating in each lane, that is, the number of devices such as manual carts, forklifts, and handling robots currently operating in each lane is determined, so as to provide data support for task off-peak delivery. Initializing a key value pair (key: value) set, recording as a set M, and storing the number of real-time lane devices, wherein the key is a lane number, the value is the number of devices currently operating in a lane, the initial value is 0, and the size of the set is the number of lanes, and the result is shown in table 2:

TABLE 2 real-time roadway equipment quantity example

Roadway numbering	Number of devices
		A	0
B	1
		C	0
D	2
		E	1
F	0
		……	……

The warehouse control system inquires the tasks currently operated in the warehouse management system at regular time (for example, every 5 s), and extracts the information such as the task type, the picking storage position number and the like of each task. The task types include multiple types, different service scenes can be distinguished, the scheme mainly relates to a racking task (forklift operation), a replenishment task (forklift operation), a delivery task (manual pushing and carrying robot) and other tasks which may influence the robot equipment in the future, the tasks are not specifically limited, and the tasks can be set as a system parameter and configured according to the service scenes.

And acquiring a corresponding tunnel number through the picking storage position number, and counting the task quantity of current operation in each tunnel, namely the equipment quantity according to the tunnel number. Suppose that a picking storage position 1, a picking storage position 2 and a picking storage position 3 are arranged in a tunnel A, a task a operates at the picking storage position 1 through a forklift at present, a task b operates at the picking storage position 1 through a manual cart at present, a task c operates at the picking storage position 2 through the forklift at present, and a task d operates at the picking storage position 3 through a carrying robot at present, so that the number of tasks corresponding to the tunnel A is counted to be 4. In the scheme, each task corresponds to only one device, so that the obtained task number is the device number, and the device number corresponding to the roadway A is 4 as described above. The warehouse control system collects the quantity of the roadway equipment at regular time in the mode, assigns the quantity to the key value pair set M and covers old data.

Arranging the equipment quantity of each roadway in sequence according to the sequence of the roadway numbers from small to large so as to record the real-time roadway equipment quantity set as a vector W ₀ Vector W, e.g. obtained according to Table 1 ₀ ：{0,1,0,2,1,0}。

Calculating vector W of each carrying roadway _i And the current roadway equipment vector W ₀ The cosine similarity d represents the congestion coincidence degree of each carrying task and the congested roadway. And (4) carrying out positive sequence sequencing on the transport task set T according to the cosine similarity d of each transport task, namely, the transport tasks with the smaller transport path congestion similarity are less congested and need to be issued preferentially. The cosine similarity d is calculated by the following formula:

assume that there are 5 transport tasks, task 1, task 2, task 3, task 4, and task 5. Setting the number W of roadway devices ₀ : {0,1,0,2,1,0}, assuming:

task 1's haulage roadway vector W ₁ Is {1,0, 1}, known as W ₀ Calculating W when the current operation laneway is not coincident ₁ And W ₀ Cosine similarity d of ₁ ＝0；

Task 2's haulage roadway vector W ₂ Is {0,1, 0}, known as W ₀ The roadway of the current operation is completely overlapped, and W is calculated ₂ And W ₀ Cosine similarity d of ₂ ＝0.94；

Task 3's haulage roadway vector W ₃ Is {1, 0}, known as W ₀ The current operation roadway B is overlapped, and W is calculated ₃ And W ₀ Cosine similarity d of ₃ ＝0.24；

Task 4's haulage roadway vector W ₄ Is {1, 0}, known as W ₀ The roadway B and the roadway D are coincided in the current operation, 2 devices are currently operated in the roadway D, and W is calculated ₄ And W ₀ Cosine similarity d of ₄ ＝0.70；

Conveyance lane vector W of task 5 ₅ Is {1,0,1, 0}, known as W ₀ The roadway B and the roadway E of the current operation are superposed, and W is calculated ₅ And W ₀ Cosine similarity d of ₅ ＝0.47。

Sequencing the tasks according to the sequence of cosine similarity from small to large to obtain a task sequence: { task 1, task 3, task 5, task 4, task 2}.

For step S103, the warehouse control system sets two configuration parameters in advance, 1) a threshold of congestion coincidence degree (or referred to as a preset similarity threshold) is recorded as P1, and if the configuration value is 0.5, for a transport task with cosine similarity (i.e., congestion coincidence degree) greater than 0.5, the transport task can wait for reprocessing in the next period, or can be issued again when the roadway is not congested; 2) The minimum buffer time threshold of the task is denoted as P2, the unit is minutes, if the configuration value is 60, if the latest ex-warehouse time required by a certain transport task is 12, the current time exceeds 11.

Firstly, traversing whether the cosine similarity of each carrying task in the carrying task set T is greater than P1, and if the cosine similarity of at least one carrying task is greater than P1, generating a first carrying task set T1 based on at least one carrying task. The method comprises the steps of obtaining the preset latest warehouse-out time of each carrying task in a first carrying task set T1, calculating the time difference minutes m between each preset latest warehouse-out time and the current time, and generating a second carrying task set T2 based on the carrying tasks of which the difference m is greater than P2 so as to remove the second carrying task set T2 from the carrying task set T.

For the removed conveying tasks, the conveying paths of the tasks are relatively congested, no overtime risk exists, the tasks can be processed when the tasks are not congested or are urgent in time, and only the conveying tasks which are not congested and urgent in time are reserved in the conveying set T. As described above, the cosine similarity of both task 2 and task 4 is greater than P1, but the latest warehouse-out time of task 4 is 2022.07.13.12pm, the difference from the current 2022.07.12.10am is greater than 60 minutes, and the latest warehouse-out time of task 2 is 2022.07.12.10.

And acquiring all idle transfer robots currently recorded as a set N, and recording the number of the idle transfer robots as j. The number of the transport tasks in the transport task set T (or the updated transport task set T) is recorded as k, if j is larger than or equal to k, k transport robots are determined from the transport robot set N (which can be selected randomly or according to the sequence of robot numbers), and the k transport tasks in the transport task set T are issued to the k transport robots respectively. However, if j < k, j transport tasks are determined from the transport task set T, and the j transport tasks are issued to j transport robots, respectively.

It should be noted that each transport task is limited by the delivery time, if the congestion coincidence degree of a task at the current time point is high and the distance from the current time point to the delivery time is long, the task can be processed not at first, and whether the task is delivered at the next time point is judged, if the same result is obtained, the task is judged again at the next time point, in general, polling at the previous time points can be processed and completed, and the task is delivered in a distributed manner when the congestion coincidence degree is low at a certain time point. Unless in an extreme case (a small probability event), the task is jammed when the remaining time from the warehouse-out time is less than 60 minutes, the task needs to be issued immediately, and although the transportation is possibly slow due to jamming, the task can be guaranteed to be normally and timely warehouse-out.

Referring to fig. 4, a schematic diagram of off-peak task issuing is shown, for the conveying lanes of task 1 and task 2, no other device such as a manual cart, a forklift and a conveying robot is provided, and therefore the calculated similarity is small (for example, 0). For task 3, the haulage roadway through which the haulage roadway passes just avoids the forklift and the manual trolley, namely, the haulage roadway through which the haulage roadway passes is not blocked by obstacles. In the

tasks

1, 2 and 3, the conveying lanes where the conveying robot passes are not blocked by obstacles, and the conveying paths of the three tasks do not intersect, so that the tasks can be issued preferentially.

Suppose there are 3 idle transfer robots at present, and the picking points of a plurality of continuously issued tasks are:

task 1

Task 2

Task 3

Task 4

Task 5

Task 6

Task 7

Task 8

According to the existing scheme, the task 1, the task 2 and the task 3 are respectively issued to 3 idle carrying robots, so that the carrying path overlapping degree of the 3 carrying robots is too high, and the congestion condition is easily caused. According to the scheme, the task mode is issued according to the priority, the tasks 1, 4 and 6 are issued to the 3 carrying robots respectively, so that the 3 carrying robots can be scattered during operation, and the roadway congestion probability is reduced.

The method provided by the embodiment analyzes the equipment operation condition of each roadway in the warehouse, calculates the contact ratio of each carrying task and the blocked roadway, adjusts the task issuing priority to perform off-peak issuing, and if the carrying tasks which are not blocked and have urgent time to leave the warehouse are preferentially issued, enables the carrying robots to operate in the warehouse as dispersedly as possible at the same time, thereby improving the carrying efficiency.

Referring to fig. 5, a flowchart of a specific task allocation method according to an embodiment of the present invention is shown, including the following steps:

s501: acquiring a handling task set to be processed, determining a handling roadway set corresponding to each handling task in a roadway set, marking a first numerical value on a handling roadway, marking a second numerical value on a non-handling roadway, and arranging the numerical values marked on each roadway according to the roadway numbering sequence to obtain a handling roadway vector corresponding to each handling task;

s502: determining the number of devices which are operated in each roadway in the roadway set at present to construct a current roadway device vector, and calculating the similarity between each carrying roadway vector and the current roadway device vector;

s503: determining a first carrying task set with the similarity larger than a preset similarity threshold from the carrying task sets;

s504: acquiring the preset latest warehouse-out time of each carrying task in the first carrying task set, and calculating the difference value between the preset latest warehouse-out time and the current time;

s505: determining a second transportation task set with a difference value larger than a preset task minimum buffer time threshold value from the first transportation task set so as to remove the second transportation task set from the first transportation task set;

s506: and acquiring a carrying equipment set in an idle state at present, and issuing carrying tasks to the carrying equipment in sequence according to the sequence of similarity from small to large so as to process the carrying tasks, so that the carrying equipment performs path planning based on the current blockage point set and the carrying tasks.

Referring to fig. 6, a flowchart of a method for processing tasks according to an embodiment of the present invention is shown, including the following steps:

s601: the method comprises the steps that a carrying device receives a carrying task, generates a first carrying sequence based on one or more picking storage position numbers corresponding to the carrying task, and determines a first picking storage position number which is the first in sequence in the first carrying sequence;

s602: acquiring a real-time blocking point set, and planning a path by combining the current position information of the carrying equipment and the position information corresponding to the first picking and storing position number;

s603: responding to the existence of a path planning result, and driving to the position information corresponding to the first picking and storing position number according to the planned path to carry out carrying operation;

s604: and after the carrying completion information is received, determining the second picking storage position number in the first carrying sequence, and repeating the path planning operation until the carrying is completed at the position information corresponding to each picking storage position number.

In the above embodiment, the existing transfer robots, the manual carts, the forklifts and other devices execute their tasks respectively, and the task information is not shared, so the transfer robots cannot acquire the working state and position information of the manual carts, the forklifts and other devices, cannot predict obstacles on the transfer path in advance, can only detect the obstacles when the vehicles drive near the obstacles, need to plan the path again or wait for the obstacles to be removed in situ, and increase the driving distance and the transfer time. In addition, when the transporting robot encounters an obstacle which cannot pass through and replans a new path, the transporting robot can only wait for the obstacle to be removed in situ and cannot replace the target goods picking and storing position, so that the transporting efficiency is reduced.

In order to solve the problems, a real-time blocking point set is firstly constructed, namely a coordinate point set which is mapped to obstacles (such as a manual cart, a forklift and a transfer robot) on the current driving path of the transfer robot so as to provide data support for path planning of the transfer robot.

The warehouse control system initializes a set, denoted B, for storing real-time choke point information, initially empty. The set B may be regarded as a global parameter in the warehouse control system, and the warehouse control system sets a timer to periodically (e.g. every 5 s) update the maintenance set B according to the collected blocking points, and new blocking points may be added, but if a certain blocking point is released (e.g. a forklift is removed), the new blocking point is deleted from the set B, so that each update and maintenance is to overwrite old data with new data.

The warehouse control system inquires the task information of all equipment in the warehouse management system, and extracts the information such as task types, picking storage position numbers and the like. Each goods picking and storing position number is unique, and position information is preset, so that coordinate point information of all obstacles on a robot map can be acquired through the goods picking and storing position numbers. Actually, the mapping relationship between the picking point and the storage location is maintained in the map data of the robot, for example, the numbers AA201, AA202, AA201, and AA204 of the picking storage location are all mapped to the coordinate 00210058 of the picking point on the map of the robot, and then all the devices operating in the storage location are mapped to the coordinate 00210058, so that the coordinate of the device can be regarded as 00210058.

An influence range is configured for each device in advance, the influence range can be set as a system configuration parameter, and the influence range can be configured according to the size of the device, the precision of the influence, and the like, for example, the length of the manual cart is about 1 meter, the influence range can be defined as a circle with the diameter of 1.5 meters, the diameter of the manual cart plus the fork is about 3 meters, and the influence range can be defined as a circle with the diameter of 3.5 meters. The parameters can be set and maintained according to actual conditions, different calculation strategies are set in the calculation method, and the parameters can be replaced according to actual requirements in the future, for example, the range is rectangular, irregular shapes and the like, and the parameters are preferably set to be circular at present. And all the devices in the warehouse can be changed in model at any time, such as adding new devices and eliminating old devices, so that the information of each device can be configured as parameters.

And determining all paths planned in advance on a robot map and capable of driving the transfer robot, if the influence range of a certain obstacle intersects with the points in a certain path, determining the points falling into the influence range as blocking points, and assigning the newly calculated blocking points to a set B to cover the old data. For example, a forklift currently operating exists on the path Y, and the influence range of the forklift is a circle drawn with the current position of the forklift as the center and the influence diameter of the forklift as the radius. The forklift influences the passing of the equipment on the path Y, so that the point falling into the influence range of the forklift on the path Y can be used as a blocking point, all other equipment passing through the path Y can be referred to, and the equipment can be bypassed in advance, and a certain equipment is not referred to.

Table 3 example set of real-time chokepoints

P10

P11

P97

P115

P201

P202

……

For steps S601 to S604, through the foregoing operations, the choke point set B may be obtained in advance and updated in real time, that is, it is determined which coordinate points have equipment currently operating, so as to provide reference factors for the path planning of the transfer robot. After receiving the carrying task, the carrying robot can carry out path planning by taking the real-time blocking points as reference conditions when going to a target goods picking and storing position so as to prejudge whether to detour.

One transport task comprises one or more picking points, such as a picking storage position number 01, a picking storage position number 02, a picking storage position number 03 and a picking storage position number 04, and the picking of the articles is completed by traversing the 4 points. A plurality of delivery sequences can be generated based on the four picking points, and a common algorithm for solving the TSP (traveling salesman problem), such as a greedy algorithm, an integer programming algorithm, and other related algorithms, such as 1234, 4321, 1243, 1324, can be used to randomly select one of the delivery sequences or select the default number in a descending order, and determine the first picking storage position number in the first order in the selected delivery sequence, such as 1234 being the selected delivery sequence and 01 being the first picking storage position number in the first order.

1. And (3) planning a path by using the real-time choke point integration as a condition and combining the current position information of the carrying robot and the position information of the first picking storage position number 01, and if a planned path exists, executing the step 2, otherwise, executing the step 3.

2. If the planned route exists, the vehicle travels to the position information corresponding to the first picking storage place number 01 according to the planned route to carry out the transportation operation: 1) When no obstacle is encountered during the driving process, the vehicle can directly drive to the position information corresponding to the first picking storage place number 01, and after the transportation is completed, the second picking storage place number in the second sorting in the transportation sequence 1234 can be determined to be 02 again, and step 1 is executed, and the path planning operation is repeated. 2) And (4) when an obstacle is encountered during driving, executing step 4.

3. If no route can be planned, the route planning is carried out without using the real-time congestion point set as the condition, if the route is planned, the step 2 is executed, although the congestion condition (shown in figure 2) is possibly met, at least the route can be driven, and the decision is carried out according to the actual condition when the congestion condition is met; otherwise, executing step 4.

4. Judging whether other picking storage space numbers exist in the carrying sequence 1234 besides the current first picking storage space number 01, if so, executing step 5; otherwise, step 1 is executed until a new path or an obstacle is removed.

5. And recalculating the carrying sequence, replacing the serial number of the target picking storage position, and executing the step 1 to perform path planning again.

For example, the carrying robot detects that the front is an obstacle on the road going to the first picking storage place number 01, no new path can be planned, and the carrying robot needs to wait in situ according to the existing scheme, and the scheme solves the problem by changing the carrying sequence, for example, if the original carrying sequence is 1234, the carrying sequence is readjusted, the goods on other storage places are carried preferentially, for example, the goods are adjusted to be 3241, 4321, 3421 and the like, and a point which is not blocked and has the shortest path can be selected, and the first picking storage place number 01 is waited to carry again.

As shown in fig. 2, after the transfer robot encounters an obstacle forklift on the travel path, a new path is newly planned to travel to the pick-up point 3. After the scheme is used, the real-time blocking point set is constructed in advance, so that when the transfer robot plans a path, a detour path capable of avoiding the forklift is obtained, and the driving distance is reduced relative to the original image 2 as shown in fig. 7.

According to the method provided by the embodiment, the set of the blocking points is constructed to provide a basis for the carrying robot to plan whether the path bypasses, and when the carrying robot encounters an obstacle or has no new path in the running process, the target goods picking and storing position can be determined again in a mode of adjusting the carrying sequence, so that the purposes of optimizing the planned path and avoiding the congestion are achieved, and the carrying efficiency is further improved.

The embodiment of the invention is mainly applied to a transfer robot in a man-machine cooperation bin, provides an optimization strategy method for avoiding congestion, and provides data support for a transfer robot planning path by acquiring task information of each device (the transfer robot, a manual cart, a forklift and other devices) in the bin in real time and using the task information as shared data:

1. vectorization management is carried out on the number of real-time roadway equipment and the carrying roadway of each carrying task, the contact ratio of each carrying task and the congested roadway is calculated through cosine similarity, and the higher the contact ratio is, the more congested the carrying path of the carrying task is. Determining an issuing sequence according to the priority of each transport task, and issuing the transport tasks of the idle roadway preferentially so as to realize peak-shifting issuing and reduce the jam probability of the roadway;

2. when planning a path, the carrying robot preferentially avoids a congested path according to a real-time congestion point set to reduce carrying distance time, but when determining that the congested path cannot be avoided, the real-time congestion point set is not considered for carrying out path planning, and if congestion conditions are met in the driving process, the congestion conditions are solved according to actual conditions, so that carrying efficiency is improved;

3. if the transfer robot meets an obstacle and has no path during the driving process, the transfer sequence can be adjusted to preferentially process the feasible goods picking storage positions with paths.

Referring to fig. 8, a schematic diagram illustrating main modules of a task allocation apparatus 800 according to an embodiment of the present invention is shown, including:

an obtaining module 801, configured to obtain a set of transport tasks to be processed, and determine a transport lane set corresponding to each transport task in a lane set, so as to construct a transport lane vector corresponding to each transport task; the method comprises the following steps: marking a first numerical value on a carrying roadway, marking a second numerical value on a non-carrying roadway, arranging the numerical values marked on each roadway according to the serial number of the roadways to obtain a carrying roadway vector corresponding to each carrying task

A calculating module 802, configured to determine the number of devices currently operating in each lane in the lane set, so as to construct a current lane device vector, and calculate a similarity between each carrying lane vector and the current lane device vector;

the allocating module 803 is configured to obtain a set of transporting devices currently in an idle state, and issue the transporting tasks to the transporting devices in sequence according to a sequence of similarity from small to large for processing.

Specifically, the method comprises the following steps: determining a first number of handling tasks in the set of handling tasks and a second number of handling equipment in the set of handling equipment;

In the apparatus according to the embodiment of the present invention, the calculating module 802 is configured to:

The device of the embodiment of the invention also comprises a filtering module used for:

determining a first carrying task set with the similarity larger than a preset similarity threshold from the carrying task sets;

The device of the embodiment of the invention also comprises a priority distribution module which is used for:

and responding to the difference value between the preset latest ex-warehouse time and the current time of one or more carrying tasks, wherein the difference value is smaller than the preset task minimum buffer time threshold, and preferentially issuing the one or more carrying tasks.

In the apparatus according to the embodiment of the present invention, the allocating module 803 is configured to:

acquiring a current congestion point set, and issuing each carrying task to carrying equipment for processing so that the carrying equipment carries out path planning based on the current congestion point set and the carrying task;

and

Referring to fig. 9, a schematic diagram of main modules of a task processing device 900 according to an embodiment of the present invention is shown, including:

a generating module 901, configured to receive a transportation task, generate a first transportation sequence based on one or more picking storage location numbers corresponding to the transportation task, and determine a first picking storage location number in the first transportation sequence;

a planning module 902, configured to obtain a set of real-time blocking points, and perform path planning by combining information of a current location of a handling device and information of a location corresponding to the first picking storage location number;

the carrying module 903 is used for responding to the existence of the path planning result and driving to the position information corresponding to the first picking storage position number according to the planned path to carry out carrying operation;

a repeating module 904, configured to determine a second picking storage location number in the first conveying sequence after receiving the conveying completion information, and repeat the path planning operation until the conveying is completed at the position information corresponding to each picking storage location number.

The device of the embodiment of the invention also comprises a sequence adjusting module used for:

In addition, the detailed implementation of the device in the embodiment of the present invention has been described in detail in the above method, so that the repeated description is not repeated here.

Fig. 10 shows an exemplary system architecture 1000 to which embodiments of the invention may be applied, including

terminal devices

1001, 1002, 1003, a network 1004 and a server 1005 (by way of example only).

The

terminal devices

1001, 1002, 1003 may be various electronic devices having a display screen and supporting web browsing, and are installed with various communication client applications, and users may interact with the server 1005 via the network 1004 using the

terminal devices

1001, 1002, 1003 to receive or transmit messages or the like.

The network 1004 is used to provide a medium for communication links between the

terminal devices

1001, 1002, 1003 and the server 1005. Network 1004 may include various connection types, such as wired, wireless communication links, or fiber optic cables, to name a few.

The server 1005 may be a server providing various services, and it should be noted that the method provided by the embodiment of the present invention is generally executed by the server 1005, and accordingly, the apparatus is generally disposed in the server 1005.

It should be understood that the number of terminal devices, networks, and servers in fig. 10 is merely illustrative. There may be any number of terminal devices, networks, and servers, as desired for implementation.

Referring now to FIG. 11, shown is a block diagram of a computer system 1100 suitable for use with a terminal device implementing embodiments of the present invention. The terminal device shown in fig. 11 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. 11, the computer system 1100 includes a Central Processing Unit (CPU) 1101, which can perform various appropriate actions and processes in accordance with a program stored in a Read Only Memory (ROM) 1102 or a program loaded from a storage section 1108 into a Random Access Memory (RAM) 1103. In the RAM 1103, various programs and data necessary for the operation of the system 1100 are also stored. The CPU 1101, ROM 1102, and RAM 1103 are connected to each other by a bus 1104. An input/output (I/O) interface 1105 is also connected to bus 1104.

The following components are connected to the I/O interface 1105: an input portion 1106 including a keyboard, mouse, and the like; an output portion 1107 including a signal output unit such as a Cathode Ray Tube (CRT), a Liquid Crystal Display (LCD), and a speaker; a storage section 1108 including a hard disk and the like; and a communication portion 1109 including a network interface card such as a LAN card, a modem, or the like. The communication section 1109 performs communication processing via a network such as the internet. Drivers 1110 are also connected to the I/O interface 1105 as needed. A removable medium 1111 such as a magnetic disk, an optical disk, a magneto-optical disk, a semiconductor memory, or the like is mounted on the drive 1110 as necessary, so that a computer program read out therefrom is mounted into the storage section 1108 as necessary.

In particular, according to the embodiments of the present disclosure, the processes described above with reference to the flowcharts may be implemented as computer software programs. For example, embodiments of the present disclosure include a computer program product comprising a computer program embodied on a computer-readable medium, the computer program comprising program code for performing the method illustrated by the flow chart. In such an embodiment, the computer program can be downloaded and installed from a network through the communication portion 1109 and/or installed from the removable medium 1111. The computer program, when executed by the Central Processing Unit (CPU) 1101, performs the above-described functions defined in the system of the present invention.

It should be noted that the computer readable medium shown in the present invention can be a computer readable signal medium or a computer readable storage medium or any combination of the two. A computer 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 of the computer readable storage medium may include, but are not limited to: an electrical connection having one or more wires, a portable computer diskette, 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. In the present invention, a computer 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. In the present invention, however, a computer readable signal medium may include a propagated data signal with computer readable program code embodied therein, for example, in baseband or as part of a carrier wave. Such a propagated data signal may take many forms, including, but not limited to, electro-magnetic, optical, or any suitable combination thereof. A computer readable signal medium may also be any computer readable medium that is not a computer 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 computer readable medium may be transmitted using any appropriate medium, including but not limited to: wireless, wire, fiber optic cable, RF, etc., or any suitable combination of the foregoing.

The flowchart and block diagrams in the figures illustrate the architecture, functionality, and operation of possible implementations of systems, methods and computer program products according to various embodiments of the present invention. In this regard, each block in the flowchart or block diagrams may represent a module, segment, or portion of code, which comprises one or more executable instructions for implementing the specified logical function(s). It should also be noted that, in some alternative implementations, the functions noted in the block may occur out of the order noted in the figures. For example, two blocks shown in succession may, in fact, be executed substantially concurrently, or the blocks may sometimes be executed in the reverse order, depending upon the functionality involved. It will also be noted that each block of the block diagrams or flowchart illustration, and combinations of blocks in the block diagrams or flowchart illustration, can be implemented by special purpose hardware-based systems that perform the specified functions or acts, or combinations of special purpose hardware and computer instructions.

The modules described in the embodiments of the present invention may be implemented by software or hardware. The described modules may also be provided in a processor, which may be described as: a processor includes an acquisition module, a calculation module, and an allocation module. Where the names of these modules do not in some cases constitute a limitation of the module itself, for example, the acquisition module may also be described as a "pick lane set acquisition module".

As another aspect, the present invention also provides a computer-readable medium that may be contained in the apparatus described in the above embodiments; or may be separate and not incorporated into the device. The computer readable medium carries one or more programs which, when executed by a device, cause the device to perform any of the task assigning and processing methods described above.

The computer program product of the present invention includes a computer program, and the computer program realizes the task allocation and processing method in the embodiment of the present invention when being executed by a processor.

The above-described embodiments should not be construed as limiting the scope of the invention. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that various modifications, combinations, sub-combinations, and substitutions can occur, depending on design requirements and other factors. Any modification, equivalent replacement, and improvement made within the spirit and principle of the present invention should be included in the protection scope of the present invention.

Claims

1. A task allocation method, comprising:

2. The method of claim 1, wherein said constructing a handling lane vector corresponding to each handling task comprises:

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the determining the number of devices in the set of lanes currently operating in each lane to construct a current lane device vector comprises:

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising, after the calculating a similarity of each haulage roadway vector to the current roadway equipment vector:

5. The method of claim 1 or 4, further comprising:

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the sequentially issuing the handling tasks to the handling equipment for processing comprises:

7. The method according to claim 1 or 6, wherein the sequentially issuing the carrying tasks to the carrying equipment for processing comprises:

8. The method of claim 7, wherein obtaining the current set of chokepoints comprises:

9. A task processing method, comprising:

and after the carrying completion information is received, determining the second picking storage position number in the first carrying sequence, and repeating the path planning operation until the carrying is completed at the position information corresponding to each picking storage position number.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

11. A task assigning apparatus, comprising:

12. A task processing apparatus, comprising:

the carrying module is used for responding to the existence of the path planning result and carrying out carrying operation on the position information corresponding to the first goods picking and storing position number according to the planned path;

13. An electronic device, comprising:

one or more processors;

a storage device for storing one or more programs,

the one or more programs, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to implement the method recited in any of claims 1-10.

14. A computer-readable medium, on which a computer program is stored, which, when being executed by a processor, carries out the method according to any one of claims 1-10.