CN117302808A

CN117302808A - Picking workstation, picking system and control method of picking system

Info

Publication number: CN117302808A
Application number: CN202311160019.8A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 马瑛蓬
Original assignee: Beijing Jizhijia Technology Co Ltd
Current assignee: Beijing Jizhijia Technology Co Ltd
Priority date: 2023-09-08
Filing date: 2023-09-08
Publication date: 2023-12-29

Abstract

The embodiment of the application provides a picking workstation, a picking system and a control method of the picking system, wherein the picking workstation comprises the following components: the workstation comprises a workstation main body, wherein the workstation main body is provided with a fetching mechanism which can at least freely move in a working plane of the workstation main body; the fetching mechanism is configured to at least dock with a movable carrier positioned in the docking area to carry the target article between the movable carrier and the workstation body; the connection area is positioned at one side of the workstation main body; the limiting mechanism is arranged on a moving path of the movable carrier moving towards the docking area, and is configured to be contacted with a target object on the movable carrier when the movable carrier moves towards the workstation main body and limit the target object out of the working plane. The collision between the fetching mechanism of the workstation main body and the feeding box of the movable carrier can be avoided, and the safety of picking and carrying the feeding box of the movable carrier is improved.

Description

Picking workstation, picking system and control method of picking system

Technical Field

The application belongs to the technical field of warehouse logistics equipment, and particularly relates to a picking workstation, a picking system and a control method of the picking system.

Background

In warehouse logistics, an operator typically performs a picking operation of items on shelves, and then carries the picked items to a workstation for boxing.

To improve picking efficiency, labor force is saved and safety is improved; there is provided in the related art a picking system including a workstation, a movable carrier, and an automated handling device; wherein the workstation is provided with container loading and unloading equipment (such as a manipulator or a mechanical arm), and one side of the workstation is provided with a movable carrier parking area; when picking is needed, the automatic conveying equipment conveys the movable carrier (carrying the objects to be picked) to a movable carrier stopping area; the container handling equipment of the workstation selects and transfers the target object to the workstation from the movable carrier for packing and boxing, or transfers the object of the workstation to the movable carrier for storage; as each of the positions of the movable carrier may hold a different item to be picked, this requires the container handling apparatus to be moved between the different positions.

However, the container handling apparatus in the related art is liable to collide with the bin when moving between different cargo positions, resulting in damage to the bin, the shelf, or the container handling apparatus.

Disclosure of Invention

The embodiment of the application provides a pick workstation, pick system and control method of pick system, can avoid the thing mechanism of workstation main part to collide with movable carrier material loading case, has promoted the security of carrying on movable carrier material loading case picking, has promoted the operation efficiency of picking of pick workstation.

According to a first aspect of embodiments of the present application, there is provided a picking workstation comprising:

the workstation comprises a workstation main body, wherein the workstation main body is provided with a fetching mechanism which can at least freely move in a working plane of the workstation main body; the fetching mechanism is configured to at least dock with a movable carrier positioned in the docking area to carry the target article between the movable carrier and the workstation body; the connection area is positioned at one side of the workstation main body;

the limiting mechanism is arranged on a moving path of the movable carrier moving towards the docking area, and is configured to be contacted with a target object on the movable carrier when the movable carrier moves towards the workstation main body and limit the target object out of the working plane.

In an alternative implementation mode, the limiting mechanism is positioned on at least one side of the connection area, and the limiting mechanism is movably connected with the workstation main body;

When the movable carrier moves towards the workstation main body, at least part of the limiting mechanism protrudes out of the working plane.

In an alternative implementation, the limiting mechanism is connected with the main body of the working station in a translational manner along at least a first direction, and the first direction intersects with the working plane; the limiting mechanism is provided with a first position and a second position on the workstation main body;

when the limiting mechanism is at the first position, the limiting mechanism is accommodated in the workstation main body;

when the limiting mechanism is in the second position, at least part of the limiting mechanism protrudes out of the working plane.

In an alternative implementation, the limiting mechanism is rotatably connected with the workstation body, and the limiting mechanism has a first position and a second position on the workstation body;

In an alternative implementation, the limiting mechanism is located on at least one side of the docking area, and the limiting mechanism is fixedly connected with the workstation main body;

along the length direction of the workstation main body, at least part of the limiting mechanism protrudes out of the workstation main body;

and along the first direction, at least part of the limiting mechanism protrudes out of the working plane.

In an alternative implementation, the picking workstation further comprises:

the detection mechanism is arranged on the moving path and is configured to detect a first distance between the target object and the working plane;

and the controller is configured to send out a limit control signal when the first distance is smaller than or equal to a first preset distance by the detection signal so as to limit the target object out of the working plane.

In an alternative implementation, the detection mechanism is any one of a contact switch or a hall sensor; along a first direction, the detection mechanism is positioned at one side of the limiting mechanism, which is back to the working plane, and the first direction is intersected with the working plane.

In an alternative implementation, the detection mechanism is an correlation sensor, the correlation sensor comprising:

a signal emitting part located at one side of the moving path;

a signal receiving part located at the other side of the moving path;

and the signal transmitting part and the signal receiving part are arranged on one side of the working plane along the working plane, and the signal transmitting part and the signal receiving part are at a first preset distance from the working plane along the first direction.

In an alternative implementation, the limiting mechanism protrudes from the work plane according to the limiting control signal to block the target object out of the work plane.

In an alternative implementation, the picking workstation further comprises:

and the alarm piece sends out alarm prompt information according to the limit control signal.

In an alternative implementation, the projection of the stop mechanism onto the movable carrier projects beyond the opening of the target cargo space along a first direction, the first direction intersecting the work plane.

In an alternative implementation, the stop mechanism includes a rib extending in the height direction of the movable carrier, the rib corresponding to a longitudinal target cargo space of the movable carrier.

In an alternative implementation, the plurality of ribs are arranged at intervals along the length direction of the workstation body.

In an alternative implementation, the limiting mechanism includes a protrusion extending in a width direction of the movable carrier, the protrusion corresponding to a lateral target cargo space of the movable carrier.

In an alternative implementation, the plurality of protruding bars are arranged at intervals along the height direction of the movable carrier.

In an alternative implementation, the limiting mechanism further comprises a limiting frame, and the limiting frame is arranged on the workstation main body; the convex strips are rubber strips, and the rubber strips are arranged on one side of the limiting frame, which is back to the working plane.

In an alternative implementation, the picking workstation further comprises:

the pressure-sensitive sensor is arranged in the rubber strip; the pressure-sensitive sensor is configured to generate a pressure-sensitive signal when the rubber strip is pressed by the target object;

and the controller is configured to send out a limit control signal according to the pressure-sensitive signal so as to limit the target object out of the working plane.

According to a second aspect of embodiments of the present application, there is provided a picking system comprising:

a picking workstation as provided in any of the embodiments of the first aspect of the present application;

the connection area is positioned at one side of the picking workstation;

the access area and the connection area are arranged on the same side of the picking workstation, and are arranged side by side along the working plane of the picking workstation, and the limiting mechanism of the picking workstation is arranged in the access area;

a movable carrier carrying the target object;

the transfer robot is used for moving the movable carrier and enters the connection area along the entering area, and in the connection area, the object taking mechanism of the picking workstation is in butt joint with the movable carrier so as to transfer the target object between the movable carrier and the workstation main body.

According to a third aspect of embodiments of the present application, there is provided a method of controlling a picking system for a picking workstation as provided in any of the embodiments of the first aspect of the present application, comprising the steps of;

when the transfer robot transfers the movable carrier to move to the connection area positioned at one side of the workstation main body, a limiting mechanism positioned on the moving path of the movable carrier is contacted with a target object on the movable carrier;

under the condition that the limiting mechanism limits the target object out of the working plane of the workstation main body, the carrying robot carries the movable carrier to move to the connection area;

the pick-up mechanism of the workstation body interfaces with the movable carrier to carry the target item between the movable carrier and the workstation body.

In an alternative design, when the transfer robot transfers the movable carrier to move to the docking area located on the side of the workstation main body, the limiting mechanism located on the moving path of the movable carrier contacts with the target object on the movable carrier and limits the target object out of the working plane of the workstation main body, and the method includes:

when the movable carrier is carried by the carrying robot and moves to a connection area positioned at one side of the main body of the working station, a first distance between a target object and a working plane is obtained;

And under the condition that the first distance is smaller than or equal to a first preset distance, controlling the limiting mechanism to protrude out of the working plane so as to limit the target object out of the working plane.

In an alternative design, when the transfer robot transfers the movable carrier to move to the docking area located on the side of the workstation main body, the limiting mechanism located on the moving path of the movable carrier contacts with the target object on the movable carrier and limits the target object out of the working plane of the workstation main body, and the method further includes:

and under the condition that the first distance is smaller than or equal to a first preset distance, controlling the alarm piece to send out alarm prompt information.

According to the picking workstation, the picking system and the control method of the picking system, the limiting mechanism is arranged on the moving path of the connecting area located at one side of the workstation main body, so that when the movable carrier moves towards the workstation main body, the limiting mechanism can be in contact with a target object carried on the movable carrier, and therefore the target object is limited in the working plane of the workstation main body, and after the movable carrier moves to the connecting area, the object taking mechanism arranged on the workstation main body can move freely in the working plane, so that the movable carrier can be in butt joint with the movable carrier from different target goods positions, and the target object can be conveniently carried between the movable carrier and the workstation main body. That is, compared with the related art, the object is limited outside the working plane through the limiting mechanism, so that the object taking mechanism can move freely in the working plane, the smoothness of the operation of the object taking mechanism is effectively improved, the carrying and picking efficiency of the object is improved, in addition, the service lives of the object taking mechanism, the object container and the movable carrier can be prolonged, and the picking safety of the object is improved.

Drawings

The accompanying drawings, which are included to provide a further understanding of the application and are incorporated in and constitute a part of this application, illustrate embodiments of the application and together with the description serve to explain the application and do not constitute an undue limitation to the application. In the drawings:

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a picking workstation provided in the related art;

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of the operation of a picking workstation provided in the related art;

FIG. 3 is a side view of a picking workstation provided in the related art mated with a movable carrier;

FIG. 4 is a top view of a picking workstation provided in the related art mated with a movable carrier;

FIG. 5 is a schematic overall construction of a picking workstation provided in an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 6 is a top view of a picking workstation mated with a movable carrier provided in an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 7 is another top view of a picking workstation provided by an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 8 is yet another top view of a picking workstation provided by an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 9 is a schematic view of another configuration of a picking workstation coupled to a movable carrier provided in accordance with an embodiment of the present application.

10 20-picking stations; 30 31-a movable carrier;

11 21-a workstation body; 12 22-docking zone; 23-a limiting mechanism; 14 24-entry zone;

111 211-housing; 112 222-conveying line; 113 223-a fetching mechanism; 114 224-stringers; 115 225-beams; 231-limiting frame.

Detailed Description

In order to better understand the technical solutions in the present application, the following description will clearly and completely describe the technical solutions in the embodiments of the present application with reference to the drawings in the embodiments of the present application, and it is obvious that the described embodiments are only some embodiments of the present application, not all embodiments. All other embodiments, which can be made by one of ordinary skill in the art based on the embodiments herein without making any inventive effort, shall fall within the scope of the present application.

It should be noted that in the following description, numerous specific details are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the present application, however, the present application may be practiced in other ways than as described herein, and therefore the scope of the present application is not limited by the specific embodiments disclosed below.

In the description of the present application, it should be understood that the terms "upper," "lower," "horizontal," "bottom," "inner," "outer," and the like indicate an orientation or a positional relationship based on that shown in the drawings, and are merely for convenience of description and simplification of the description, and do not indicate or imply that the apparatus or element in question must have a specific orientation, be configured and operated in a specific orientation, and therefore should not be construed as limiting the present application. In this application, unless expressly stated or limited otherwise, a first feature "up" or "down" a second feature may be the first and second features in direct contact, or the first and second features in indirect contact via an intervening medium.

In the present application, unless explicitly specified and limited otherwise, the terms "connected," "secured," and the like are to be construed broadly, and may be, for example, fixedly connected, detachably connected, or integrally formed; can be directly connected or indirectly connected through an intermediate medium, and can be communicated with the inside of two elements or the interaction relationship of the two elements. However, it is noted that a direct connection indicates that two bodies connected together do not form a connection relationship by an excessive structure, but are connected to form a whole by a connection structure. The specific meaning of the terms in this application will be understood by those of ordinary skill in the art as the case may be.

The description herein as relating to "first," "second," etc. is for descriptive purposes only and is not to be construed as indicating or implying a relative importance thereof or implicitly indicating the number of technical features indicated. Thus, a feature defining "a first" or "a second" may explicitly or implicitly include at least one such feature.

With the rapid development of electronic commerce, electronic commerce plays an increasingly important role in consumer life, and in electronic commerce, storage and transportation of goods play a vital role, so as to facilitate storage and transportation of goods, and goods are generally stored and transported in a warehouse system.

In warehouse logistics, an operator typically performs a picking operation of an article on a shelf, for example, the operator moves to a corresponding shelf according to an order, an article type, a destination, and the like, picks out the corresponding article, and then carries the picked article to a workstation for boxing.

Fig. 1 is a schematic structural view of a picking station provided in the related art, and fig. 2 is a schematic operational view of the picking station provided in the related art.

Referring to fig. 1 and 2, in order to improve picking efficiency, labor is saved and safety is improved; the related art provides a picking system, which comprises a workstation, wherein one side of the workstation is butted and can flexibly configure a temporary storage rack or a conveying line 112 of bins with different storage positions, different heights and different layers according to requirements, and a tally picking operator can pick, seed or pack target cargoes at the conveying line 112; the other side of the workstation interfaces with a movable carrier 30 (which may also be referred to as a pallet in some examples) carrying bins (target items).

Referring to fig. 2, the movable carrier 30 may be moved to one side of a workstation under the handling of a handling robot, where the workstation is provided with a fetching mechanism 113 (which may also be referred to as a robot arm or a manipulator in some examples), and typically, the workstation is provided with a transverse cross beam 115 and a longitudinal beam 114, where the fetching mechanism 113 is disposed on the longitudinal beam 114 and may move in a vertical direction along the longitudinal beam 114, and the longitudinal beam 114 is slidably connected to the cross beam 115, i.e. the longitudinal beam 114 may move in a horizontal direction along the cross beam 115, so as to drive the fetching mechanism 113 to move in the horizontal direction.

That is, the fetching mechanism 113 may move within a working plane of the workstation (in some examples, it may be understood that a plane defined by the longitudinal beam 114 and the transverse beam 115, or, referring to fig. 3, a plane defined by a broken line a in fig. 3) through the longitudinal beam 114 and the transverse beam 115, so as to dock with the movable carrier 30 resting on one side of the workstation, and the fetching mechanism 113 transfers the target object on the movable carrier 30 to the workstation for packing, or, the fetching mechanism 113 transfers the target object on the conveying line 112 to the target carrier for storing.

In some examples, retrieval mechanism 113 may also be free to move within a work plane; for example, the plane formed by the vertical direction and the horizontal direction in which the fetching mechanism 113 moves is a working plane, which is driven by the mechanical arm to move in the vertical direction and the horizontal direction.

In some alternative examples, the robotic arm may be fixedly disposed on the workstation; alternatively, in some examples, the robotic arm may be fixedly disposed on the ground. Alternatively, in other examples, the mechanical arm may be connected to the ground by a rail, a track, or the like, that is, the mechanical arm may be disposed on the rail. The mechanical arm may be detachably and fixedly connected to the ground, and in some examples, the mechanical arm may be detachably and fixedly connected to the ground.

Referring to fig. 2, in general, the movable carrier 30 has a plurality of cargo positions, each of which may store a different target object, and the picking mechanism 113 picks the target object by moving on the longitudinal beam 114 in a vertical direction or moving on the longitudinal beam 114 in a horizontal direction along the transverse beam 115, that is, the picking mechanism 113 can move at least in a working plane of the workstation and reach the cargo position where the target object is located.

In some examples, referring to fig. 2, the movable carrier 30 moves under the handling of a handling robot (not shown), which may be an automated guided vehicle (Automated Guided Vehicle, AVG) that carries the movable carrier 30 at the bottom of the movable carrier 30. For example, the movable carrier 30 may be moved along the movement path s in fig. 2.

Referring to fig. 2, the AVG carriage may move the movable carrier 30 toward the workstation in a direction shown by s1 in the drawing, and after the movable carrier 30 moves within a preset distance range from the workstation, the AVG carriage may move the movable carrier 30 to the docking area 12 in a direction shown by s2 in fig. 2.

In the docking area 12, a portion (e.g., suction cup, fork, or telescopic fork) of the retrieval mechanism 113 interfaces with the target item on the movable carrier 30, thereby transporting the target item to the conveyor line 112 or temporary storage station of the workstation; alternatively, the picking mechanism 113 moves the target object on the conveyor line 112 or the temporary storage table onto the movable carrier 30.

After the cargo handling is completed, the AVG cart moves the movable carrier 30 away from the docking area 12 in the direction shown by s3 in fig. 2, for example, the movable carrier 30 may be moved into a waiting area in the warehouse system to wait for the next picking.

Fig. 3 is a side view of a picking station provided in the related art mated with a movable carrier, and fig. 4 is a top view of a picking station provided in the related art mated with a movable carrier.

It will be appreciated that, as shown in fig. 3 and 4, when the AVG trolley moves the mobile carrier 30 to the docking area 12, the retrieval mechanism 113 needs to handle different target items from different cargo positions of the mobile carrier 30, i.e., the retrieval mechanism 113 needs to move within the work plane constructed by the stringers 114 and the crossbars 115. The object taking mechanism 113 cannot block objects in the process of moving in the working plane; it is generally desirable to have a distance between the movable carrier 30 and the target object (typically a bin or container) carried on the movable carrier 30 and the work plane.

That is, the transfer robot needs to transfer the movable carrier 30 to the distance range so as to meet the normal transfer of the target object by the fetching mechanism 113, and referring to fig. 3, the distance range shown by two vertical dashed lines in fig. 3 may be represented as a distance range in which the movable carrier 30 or the target object needs to be kept with the working plane, and it may be understood that when the movable carrier 30 or the target object is out of the distance range shown by two dashed lines in fig. 3, the distance between the movable carrier 30 or the target object and the working plane is too large, which may cause the fetching mechanism 113 to have difficulty in docking with the target cargo space of the movable carrier 30, resulting in a fetching failure. In general, when the distance between the movable carrier 30 or the target object and the work plane is too large, the movable carrier 30 may be moved by the transfer robot so that the movable carrier 30 or the target object moves to a distance from the work plane within a proper range.

In some examples, the target object on movable carrier 30 may protrude from the end surface (the surface facing the working plane) of movable carrier 30 due to inclination of the ground, vibration during movement of movable carrier 30, or movement inertia of movable carrier 30. In this way, the target article may be caused to be a small distance from the work plane, or even intersect the work plane; the risk of interference and collision of the object under impact with the object under movement of the object retrieval mechanism 113 in the work plane may result in damage to the object retrieval mechanism 113, the object or the movable carrier 30.

Fig. 5 is a schematic overall structure of a picking station provided in an embodiment of the present application, and fig. 6 is a top view of the picking station provided in an embodiment of the present application in cooperation with a movable carrier.

Referring to fig. 5 and 6, in response to technical problems in the related art, an embodiment of the present application provides a picking workstation 20, including: a workstation body 21 and a limiting mechanism 23.

In this embodiment, the workstation main body 21 may be the same as or similar to the picking workstation 20 in the related art, for example, a cross beam 225 may be provided on the workstation main body 21, a longitudinal beam 224 is slidably provided on the cross beam 225, and the picking mechanism 223 is provided on the longitudinal beam 224 and may move in the vertical direction along the longitudinal beam 224; in addition, the longitudinal beam 224 may drive the fetching mechanism 223 to move along the cross beam 225 in the horizontal direction, so that the fetching mechanism 223 may move freely in the working plane of the workstation main body 21 (i.e. the moving plane of the fetching mechanism 223).

Illustratively, after the picking workstation 20 is disposed or deployed in a warehouse system (e.g., a picking workspace of a warehouse), the docking area 22 may be deployed on one side of the workstation body 21. For example, referring to fig. 6, in the embodiment of the present application, one docking area 22 may be disposed on one side of the workstation body 21 or two docking areas 22 may be disposed side by side along the length direction of the workstation body 21 (for example, may be the direction shown by the y-axis in fig. 6).

Referring to the detailed description of the previous embodiments of the present application, the movable carrier 31 may be moved to the docking area 22 under the handling of the handling robot and docked at the docking area 22; the take-out mechanism 223 interfaces with the movable carrier 31 at the docking area 22 to remove the target item from the movable carrier 31 and transfer the target item to the conveyor line 222 or temporary storage location at the other side of the workstation body 21.

Alternatively, in some examples, the retrieval mechanism 223 may also transfer the target item on the conveyor line 222 or staging location on the other side of the workstation body 21 onto the movable carrier 31.

That is, in the embodiment of the present application, the fetching mechanism 223 is movable at least in the working plane corresponding to the docking area 22, so as to transfer the article between the movable carrier 31 and the workstation main body 21.

Referring to fig. 6, in some alternative examples, two fetching mechanisms 223 may be disposed on the workstation main body 21, where one of the two fetching mechanisms 223 corresponds to one of the two docking areas 22, and the other fetching mechanism 223 corresponds to the other docking area 22, so that sorting efficiency of the target objects may be improved.

Illustratively, referring to fig. 6, the transfer robot may transfer the movable carrier 31 along the path shown by the hollow arrow in fig. 6 to move the movable carrier 31 to the docking area 22.

In the embodiment of the present application, the limiting mechanism 23 may be disposed on a moving path along which the movable carrier 31 moves toward the docking area 22. In some examples, the limit mechanism 23 may be a bump or a post disposed in the path of movement of the movable carrier 31. It will be appreciated that the distance of the bumps or posts from the work plane may be within the range of distances that the retrieval mechanism 223 interfaces with the movable carrier 31 and transfers the target item. For example, referring to fig. 3, in the embodiment of the present application, the limiting mechanism 23 may be disposed within a distance range shown by two broken lines (a-c) in fig. 3, and in addition, a side of the limiting mechanism 23 facing the movable carrier 31 protrudes from the working plane, so that, when the movable carrier 31 moves toward the workstation main body 21, the limiting mechanism 23 may contact with the target object on the movable carrier 31, thereby limiting the target object outside the working plane.

It will be appreciated that the distance between the movable carrier 31 and the work plane is typically controllable by a transfer robot. For example, in some examples, a position identifier (typically, a two-dimensional code may be used in some examples) may be set on a movement path of the handling robot (typically, the ground), and the handling robot adjusts a distance between the movable carrier 31 and the working plane by identifying the position identifier, so that a distance between the movable carrier 31 and the working plane is within a range of a fetching distance of the fetching mechanism 223, and the movement of the fetching mechanism 223 in the working plane is not affected.

It will be appreciated that in some examples, the stop mechanism 23 may also be provided at a free location in the warehouse, for example at an edge of the warehouse; the transfer robot may move the movable carrier 31 to the position of the limiting mechanism 23, push the target object (such as a bin) protruding from the movable carrier 31 into the movable carrier 31 through the limiting mechanism 23, then move the movable carrier 31 to the docking area 22 through the transfer robot, and transfer the target object on the movable carrier 31 in the docking area 22.

In other alternative examples, the limiting mechanism 23 may be disposed on one side of the workstation body 21, for example, outside the working plane of the workstation body 21, and as shown in fig. 6, when the transfer robot moves the movable carrier 31 along the path indicated by the hollow arrow in fig. 6 with respect to the movable carrier 31, the limiting mechanism 23 disposed outside the workstation body 21 contacts the target object on the movable carrier 31, thereby limiting the target object outside the working plane.

In addition, in other examples of the embodiment of the present application, the limiting mechanism 23 may also be in contact with a side of the movable carrier 31 facing the working plane. That is, in some examples, the spacing mechanism 23 may also define the movable carrier 31 out of the working plane.

As described in detail in the foregoing embodiments of the present application, the distance between the movable carrier 31 and the working plane can be controlled by the handling robot, in this embodiment of the present application, the limiting mechanism 23 is designed to be in contact with the movable carrier 31, so that the movable carrier 31 is limited outside the working plane, and thus, the distance between the movable carrier 31 and the working plane can be secondarily limited, i.e. double insurance can be achieved, the situation that the movable carrier 31 enters the working plane to interfere with the movement of the fetching mechanism 223 is effectively avoided, and the operation safety of the fetching mechanism 223 is improved.

According to the picking workstation 20 provided by the embodiment of the application, the limiting mechanism 23 is arranged on the moving path of the movable carrier 31 to the docking area 22 located on the side of the workstation main body 21, so that when the movable carrier 31 moves towards the workstation main body 21, the limiting mechanism 23 at least can be in contact with a target object carried on the movable carrier 31, and therefore the target object is limited in the working plane of the workstation main body 21, and after the movable carrier 31 moves to the docking area 22, the fetching mechanism 223 arranged on the workstation main body 21 can move freely in the working plane, so that the movable carrier 31 can be docked with the movable carrier 31 from different target goods positions, and the target object can be conveniently carried between the movable carrier 31 and the workstation main body 21. That is, compared with the related art, the limiting mechanism 23 limits the target object out of the working plane, so that the object taking mechanism 223 can be ensured to move freely in the working plane, the smoothness of the operation of the object taking mechanism 223 is effectively improved, the carrying and picking efficiency of the target object is improved, in addition, the service lives of the object taking mechanism 223, the target object container and the movable carrier 31 can be prolonged, and the picking safety of the target object is improved.

In some alternative examples, referring to fig. 5 and 6, the limiting mechanism 23 is located on at least one side of the docking area 22, and the limiting mechanism 23 is movably connected with the workstation body 21; when the movable carrier 31 moves toward the workstation main body 21, at least part of the stopper mechanism 23 protrudes from the work plane.

As described in detail in the foregoing embodiments of the present application, one docking area 22 may be provided on one side of the workstation body 21, or there may be two docking areas 22, with the two docking areas 22 being arranged side by side along the length of the workstation body 21 (e.g., along the direction shown by the y-axis in fig. 6).

In this embodiment, at least one limiting mechanism 23 may be provided, and when the limiting mechanism 23 is provided, the limiting mechanism 23 is disposed on one side of the docking area 22 along the length direction (for example, the direction shown by the y-axis in fig. 6) of the workstation main body 21.

For example, referring to fig. 6, the limiting mechanism 23 may be disposed on the moving path of the movable carrier 31 and located at the front side of the docking area 22. That is, when the transfer robot moves the movable carrier 31, the transfer robot may first pass through the area where the limiting mechanism 23 is disposed, and the target object on the movable carrier 31 contacts the limiting mechanism 23, and after the limiting mechanism 23 limits the target object out of the working plane, the transfer robot moves the movable carrier 31 to the docking area 22.

Illustratively, the area where the stop mechanism 23 is disposed may be referred to as the access zone 24, and referring to fig. 6, the movable carrier 31 passes through the access zone 24 before moving from the access zone 24 to the docking zone 22.

In some examples, the spacing mechanism 23 may be movably coupled to the workstation body 21. For example, the limiting mechanism 23 may be stored in the workstation main body 21 during the process of carrying and transporting the workstation main body 21, so that the space required for the picking workstation 20 is reduced; at least a portion of the stop mechanism 23 may protrude from the work plane when the picking workstation 20 is installed or assembled into the warehousing system; thus, when the movable carrier 31 moves to the entrance area 24, the limiting mechanism 23 protruding from the working plane can limit the target object on the movable carrier 31, so as to limit the target object outside the area of the working plane.

It will be appreciated that there are typically multiple tiers and columns of cargo space on the mobile carrier 31, each tier and column of cargo space being capable of storing a target item, and thus, in embodiments of the present application, the stop mechanism 23 may be in contact with each tier and column of target items, and, illustratively, the stop mechanism 23 may be in contact with a target item protruding from the mobile carrier 31. As an alternative example, the stopper mechanism 23 may be provided corresponding to each cargo space. That is, the number of limit mechanisms 23 may correspond to the number of cargo spaces on the movable carrier 31. In one example, the number of limit stops 23 may at least correspond to the number of cargo spaces on the end face of the movable carrier 31.

In the embodiment of the application, the limiting mechanism 23 is movably connected to the workstation main body 21, so that the limiting mechanism 23 and the workstation main body 21 are arranged correspondingly, and the limiting mechanism 23 can be stored in the workstation main body 21 under the condition that the picking workstation 20 does not work, so that the occupation of the picking workstation 20 to the storage space can be reduced, and the utilization rate of the storage space is improved; in addition, the stopper mechanism 23 may be housed in the workstation main body 21 during transportation or conveyance of the picking station 20, so that the space required for the picking station 20 can be reduced.

In some alternative examples, as shown with reference to fig. 5 and 6, there may be two docking regions 22, as described in detail in the previous embodiments of the present application; to facilitate picking of target items on the movable carriers 31 of the two docking areas 22, the picking efficiency of the target items is improved; in this embodiment, two limiting mechanisms 23 may be provided, where the two limiting mechanisms 23 are located at sides of the two connection areas 22 facing away from each other; in other words, one of the limiting mechanisms 23 is located on the side of one of the docking areas 22 facing away from the other docking area 22; the other limiting mechanism 23 is oppositely arranged at the other side of the other connection zone 22.

That is, in the embodiment of the application, two movable carriers 31 can be moved by two transfer robots at the same time, and the two movable carriers enter from the entering areas 24 at two sides of the workstation main body 21, and the limiting mechanisms 23 arranged at the entering areas 24 at two sides can limit the target objects on the two movable carriers 31 at the same time, so that the two connection positions can sort the target objects at the same time, and the sorting efficiency of the target objects is improved.

In alternative examples of embodiments of the present application, and with reference to fig. 6, the stop mechanism 23 is translatable with the workstation body 21 in at least a first direction, wherein the first direction intersects the work plane.

In some examples, as described with reference to fig. 6, the first direction may be the direction shown by the x-axis in fig. 6, and the working plane may be the plane shown by the dashed line b in fig. 6 (which may also be generally understood as the plane in which the retrieval mechanism faces the end surface between the target shelves). That is, in the embodiment of the present application, the first direction may be a direction perpendicular to the working plane and protruding from the workstation main body 21.

In this embodiment, the limit mechanism 23 may be connected with the workstation main body 21 in a translational manner along the first direction, which may mean that the limit mechanism 23 may slide relative to the workstation main body 21 along the first direction, for example, the limit mechanism 23 may be driven to move relative to the workstation main body 21 along the first direction by a driving member such as an air cylinder, an electric cylinder or a linear motor.

In other alternative examples, the limiting mechanism 23 may be connected to the workstation body 21 in a translational manner along at least a first direction, and may also refer to movement of the limiting mechanism 23 relative to the workstation body 21, where the limiting mechanism has a certain movement component in the first direction; for example, referring to fig. 6, the movement direction of the stopper mechanism 23 may be non-parallel to the working plane (the direction shown by the y-axis in fig. 6) by the driving of a cylinder, an electric cylinder, or a linear motor, etc., so that the stopper mechanism 23 has a certain movement component in the first direction (the direction shown by the x-axis in fig. 6).

Illustratively, the spacing mechanism 23 has a first position and a second position on the workstation body 21, wherein the spacing mechanism 23 is received in the workstation body 21 when the spacing mechanism 23 is in the first position; when the limiting mechanism 23 is in the second position, as shown with reference to fig. 6, at least a portion of the limiting mechanism 23 may protrude from the working plane.

That is, in this embodiment, when the movable carrier 31 moves toward the entrance area 24, the limiting mechanism 23 may be at the second position, so that a portion of the target object protruding from the end surface of the movable carrier 31 on the movable carrier 31 may timely contact with the limiting mechanism 23, so as to be limited by the limiting mechanism 23, so that the target object is located outside the working plane, which is favorable for the free movement of the fetching mechanism 223 in the working plane, and is convenient for the fetching mechanism 223 to transfer the target object on the movable carrier 31.

In this embodiment, the limiting mechanism 23 and the workstation main body 21 can be connected in a translational manner at least along the first direction, so that the flexibility of the movable connection of the limiting mechanism 23 and the workstation main body 21 is improved, and the limiting mechanism 23 can be flexibly set according to the space structure of the workstation main body 21.

FIG. 7 is a top view of a picking workstation provided by an embodiment of the present application.

In alternative examples of embodiments of the present application, the limiting mechanism 23 may be rotatably connected to the workstation body 21. For example, referring to FIG. 7, in some examples of embodiments of the present application, the spacing mechanism 23 may be rotatable relative to the workstation body 21 in the direction indicated by the double-headed arrow a-a1 in FIG. 7.

In some alternative examples, the limiting mechanism 23 may be rotated relative to the workstation body 21 by a motor (e.g., a servo motor, a stepper motor, or a synchronous motor), or the like.

As a specific example of the embodiment of the present application, referring to fig. 5, the workstation body 21 has a housing 211 (may also be referred to as a shell or a cover in some examples), and in the embodiment of the present application, the limiting mechanism 23 may be a frame structure connected to the housing 211. The connection manner of the limiting mechanism 23 and the housing 211 may refer to the detailed description of the foregoing embodiments of the present application, for example, may be translational or rotatable connection, which is not described in detail in the embodiments of the present application.

In this embodiment, by rotatably connecting the limiting mechanism 23 with the workstation main body 21, when the target object on the movable carrier 31 needs to be limited, the limiting mechanism 23 can be rotated to the second position; in this way, the stroke or displacement of the limiting mechanism 23 required to be moved from the first position to the second position is reduced, the space required to be occupied by the driving piece for driving the limiting mechanism 23 is reduced, and the space utilization rate on the workstation main body 21 is improved.

FIG. 8 is yet another top view of a picking workstation provided by an embodiment of the present application.

In some optional examples of the embodiment of the present application, the limiting mechanism 23 is located on at least one side of the docking area 22, and the limiting mechanism 23 is fixedly connected to the workstation body 21, as shown in fig. 8, along a length direction of the workstation body (a direction shown by a y-axis in fig. 8, or a negative direction of the y-axis), at least part of the limiting mechanism 23 protrudes from the workstation body 21, and along a first direction (a direction shown by an x-axis in fig. 8), at least part of the limiting mechanism 23 protrudes from the working plane, and the first direction intersects with the length direction of the workstation body.

Referring to fig. 8, in some examples, the first direction may be perpendicular or approximately perpendicular to the length direction of the workstation body. As described in detail in the foregoing embodiments of the present application, one side of the workstation main body 21 may have two docking areas 22 arranged side by side, where the docking areas 22 may be arranged side by side along the length direction of the workstation main body, and in order to improve the sorting efficiency of the target objects, in this embodiment of the present application, two limiting mechanisms 23 may also be provided, and along the length direction of the workstation main body, two docking areas 22 may be located between two limiting mechanisms 23.

In other words, in the embodiment of the present application, the stopper mechanisms 23 may be provided at both ends of the workstation body 21 in the length direction of the workstation body. For example, referring to fig. 8, in order to increase the movable range of the fetching mechanism 223, the movable range of the fetching mechanism 223 may cover the whole docking area 22, and in this embodiment, at least part of the limiting mechanism 23 may protrude from the workstation body 21 along the length direction of the workstation body. That is, at least part of the stopper 23 may extend outwardly in the length direction of the workstation body and protrude from the workstation body 21.

It will be appreciated that as described in detail in the foregoing embodiments of the present application, the workstation body 21 is generally provided with a cross member 225 and a stringer 224, and that, illustratively, with reference to fig. 8, the cross member 225 may be disposed extending in the direction shown by the y-axis in fig. 8, that is, the cross member 225 may be disposed along the length of the workstation body; the longitudinal beam 224 is arranged on the cross beam 225 and can move along the extending direction of the cross beam 225, so that the object taking mechanism 223 arranged on the longitudinal beam 224 is driven to move along the length direction of the workstation main body; that is, the movement of the stringers 224 over the cross-beams 225 forms a working plane for the workstation body 21. It will be appreciated that when the longitudinal beam 224 moves to the two ends of the cross beam 225 along the extending direction of the cross beam 225, the longitudinal beam 224 occupies the space at the two ends of the cross beam 225, in other words, the fetching mechanism 223 cannot reach the two ends of the cross beam 225 generally; therefore, referring to fig. 8, in some examples of the embodiments of the present application, another portion of the limiting mechanism 23 may also be disposed at an end of the beam 225, so that the size of the protruding workstation main body 21 of the limiting mechanism 23 may be reduced, that is, the storage space that needs to be occupied by the whole picking workstation 20 may be reduced, and the utilization rate of the storage space is improved.

In some alternative examples of embodiments of the present application, picking workstation 20 further includes: a detection mechanism (not shown) and a controller (not shown).

In some examples, the detection mechanism may be disposed on the path of movement of the movable carrier 31, e.g., the detection mechanism may be disposed at the access zone 24 prior to movement of the movable carrier 31 toward the docking zone 22; in this way, a first distance between the target object and the work plane can be detected by the detection mechanism.

For example, the detection means may be arranged on the table body, for example with the detection surface of the detection means being flush or approximately flush with the working plane. In some examples, the detection mechanism may be a distance detection sensor, such as an infrared sensor, an ultrasonic sensor, or a millimeter wave radar, or the like. It will be appreciated that in the embodiments of the present application, the specific types of detection mechanisms are shown only as some specific examples, and are not limiting, and in some possible examples, the detection mechanisms may also employ other types of sensor devices, which are not listed here.

In the picking process of the target article, the carrier robot may move the movable carrier 31, the movable carrier 31 moves toward the picking station 20 through the entrance area 24, and the detection mechanism provided in the station body 21 detects the first distance between the target article on the movable carrier 31 and the working plane (for example, the detection surface of the detection mechanism) by infrared light, ultrasonic wave or millimeter wave.

It will be appreciated that the detection mechanism may send the first distance to the controller after detecting the first distance between the target object and the work plane, and that a comparison circuit in the controller may compare the first distance to a first preset distance.

In some examples, the controller may be an industrial personal computer, and as some specific examples, the controller may be a central processing unit (Central Processing Unit, abbreviated as CPU), a micro control unit (Microcontroller Uni, abbreviated as MCU), a Field programmable gate array (Field-Programmable Gate Array, abbreviated as FPGA), or a programmable logic controller (Programmable Logic Controller, abbreviated as PLC), or the like.

In this embodiment, the first preset distance may be a minimum distance between the movable carrier 31 or the target object on the movable carrier 31 and the working plane when the fetching mechanism 223 freely moves in the working plane, for example, referring to fig. 3, the first preset distance may be a distance between a dotted line located on the right side in fig. 3 and the working plane.

It should be noted that, in the embodiment of the present application, when the comparing circuit compares the first distance with the first preset distance and determines that the first distance is greater than the first preset distance, the determining circuit of the controller may send out the low-level signal "0", and at this time, it is proved that the target object will not affect the movement of the fetching mechanism 223 in the working plane; in some examples, when the first distance is less than or equal to the first preset distance, the determining circuit of the controller may send a high level signal "1", where the distance between the target object and the working plane is relatively close, which may affect the movement of the fetching mechanism 223 in the working plane; at this point, the controller may issue a limit control signal to limit the target item out of the work plane.

It will be appreciated that in the embodiment of the present application, the movable carrier 31 has a plurality of cargo positions, each cargo position may carry a target object, so that, to ensure the free movement of the fetching mechanism 223 in the working plane, each cargo position (for example, the target object on each cargo position on the end surface of the movable carrier 31) may be detected, so as to ensure that the target object on any cargo position is limited outside the working plane. That is, in some examples, the number of detection mechanisms may be consistent (e.g., identical) with the number of arrangements of cargo space on the movable carrier 31.

In the embodiment of the present application, by arranging a detection mechanism on the moving path of the movable carrier 31, the detection mechanism detects a first distance between the target object on the movable carrier 31 and the working plane; in this way, it can be timely found whether the target object on the movable carrier 31 interferes with the movement of the object taking mechanism 223 in the working plane, so that the target object can be timely adjusted, and the safety of picking the target object is improved.

In an alternative example, the detection means may be a contact switch, which is located on the side of the limit means 23 facing away from the working plane in the first direction. In the embodiment of the present application, the first direction may be perpendicular or approximately perpendicular to the working plane.

For example, the contact switch may be a touch switch, that is, a contact switch trigger signal when the target object touches the contact switch; after the controller receives the trigger signal of the contact switch, a determining circuit of the controller determines a first distance between the target object and the working plane.

In other examples, the contact switch may also be a push switch, that is, after the target object is in contact with the contact switch, pressure is applied to the contact switch, so that the contact switch triggers a signal.

In other alternative examples of embodiments of the present application, the detection mechanism may also be a hall sensor. The hall sensor may have a contact probe and a triggering element, wherein the contact probe is connected to the triggering element via an elastic element, and the triggering element is arranged on the table body or on the limiting means 23.

In some examples, the resilient member urges the contact probe away from the work plane in a first direction such that the contact probe protrudes from the work plane in the first direction; when the device is arranged, a magnetic piece can be arranged on the contact probe, and a Hall element is arranged on the trigger component; when the movable carrier 31 moves toward the table body, the target object may contact the contact probe and push the contact probe toward the working plane, so that the magnetic member on the contact probe senses with the hall element on the trigger member, and the hall element sends out the trigger signal.

It will be appreciated that in some examples, the distance that the contact probe protrudes from the work plane may be set to be within the distance of the retrieval mechanism 223 (e.g., may be within the distance between the two longitudinal dashed lines a-c in fig. 3).

In the embodiment of the application, the detection mechanism is set to be any one of a contact sensor and a hall sensor, and is arranged at one side of the limiting mechanism 23, which is away from the working plane; in this way, the detection mechanism can contact with the target object before the limit mechanism 23, so that whether the target object protrudes out of the movable carrier 31 can be timely found, and the target object can be timely adjusted; so that the impact contact between the target object and the limiting mechanism 23 can be reduced, and the target object can be effectively protected from being damaged.

In other alternative examples of embodiments of the present application, the detection mechanism may also be a correlation sensor, which may be a photogate, for example. Generally, the correlation sensor includes a signal transmitting part and a signal receiving part, wherein the signal transmitting part may be disposed at one side of a moving path of the movable carrier 31, and the signal receiving part may be disposed at the other side of the moving path of the movable carrier 31; and the signal transmitting part and the signal receiving part are arranged on one side of the working plane, and the signal transmitting part and the signal receiving part are at a first preset distance from the working plane along the first direction.

That is, in the embodiment of the present application, the arrangement directions of the signal transmitting part and the signal receiving part may be parallel or approximately parallel to the working plane. For example, in some examples, the signal transmitting member may be disposed at a position out of the working plane at a first preset distance from the working plane, and the signal receiving member may also be disposed at a position out of the working plane at a first preset distance from the working plane.

In some examples, a support rod or arm may be provided on the top of the workstation body 21, the support rod or arm protruding from the working plane in the first direction, and any one of the signal transmitting part and the signal receiving part may be provided on the support rod or arm; the other of the signal transmitting part and the signal receiving part may be disposed on the ground.

Illustratively, when the target object on the movable carrier 31 or the movable carrier 31 is out of the first preset distance range, the movable carrier 31 or the target object does not affect the movement of the fetching mechanism 223 in the working plane; at this time, the signal emitted from the signal emitting part may be received by the signal receiving part, and the signal receiving part may not trigger the signal.

In some possible scenarios, such as ground heave, vibration during movement of the movable carrier 31, movement inertia of the movable carrier 31, etc., it may be caused that the target object on the movable carrier 31 protrudes from the front end surface of the movable carrier 31; in the process of moving the movable carrier 31 by the transfer robot workstation main body 21, when the distance between the target object and the working plane is smaller than or equal to the first preset distance, the target object blocks the signal sent by the signal transmitting component, at this time, the signal receiving component cannot receive the signal sent by the signal transmitting component, and the signal receiving component sends a trigger signal. The controller confirms that the distance between the target object and the working plane is smaller than or equal to a first preset distance according to the trigger signal.

In some examples, referring to fig. 6, the movable carrier 31 generally has multiple layers and multiple rows of cargo space, and when the detecting mechanism is a correlation sensor, each cargo space opening on the end surface of the movable carrier 31 needs to be covered to ensure that each of the target objects in each cargo space opening can be detected; in some examples, the number of correlation sensors may be provided in plurality, for example, the number of correlation sensors may be the same as the number of columns of cargo space ports.

It will be appreciated that in some examples the signal emitting means may also be provided in the form of a strip or bar, for example a light strip, and correspondingly the signal receiving means may also be provided in the form of a strip or bar.

In addition, in some alternative examples, the correlation sensor may also be disposed on both sides of the movement path of the movable carrier 31 in the vertical direction. For example, the signal transmitting part is disposed at one side of the moving path in the vertical direction, and the signal receiving part is disposed at the other side of the moving path in the numerical direction. At this time, the number of correlation sensors may be the same as the number of layers of the cargo space ports on the movable carrier 31.

In some application scenarios of the embodiments of the present application, the limiting mechanism 23 may protrude from the working plane according to the limiting control signal, and block the target object outside the working plane.

For example, as described in detail in the previous embodiments of the present application, the limiting mechanism 23 may be movably connected to the table body, for example, by driving the limiting mechanism 23 to move by a cylinder, an electric cylinder, a linear motor, or the like. In this embodiment, when the controller determines that the first distance between the target object and the working plane is smaller than or equal to the first preset distance, the controller sends a limit control signal to the limit mechanism 23, and the air cylinder, the electric cylinder or the linear motor drives the limit mechanism 23 to protrude out of the working plane, so that blocking or blocking is formed on the target object.

It will be appreciated that in some examples, the target object may protrude from the end surface of the movable carrier 31, and after the limiting mechanism 23 contacts the target object, there may be a situation in which the transfer robot is not moving in place, i.e. the transfer robot continues to carry the movable carrier 31 towards the limiting mechanism 23, at which time the limiting mechanism 23 may push the portion of the target object protruding from the movable carrier 31 back into the movable carrier 31, so that the target object is located out of the working plane.

In this embodiment, when the first distance between the target object and the working plane is smaller than or equal to the preset distance, the limiting mechanism 23 is controlled to push against the target object, so that the target object is out of the working plane, the free movement of the fetching mechanism 223 in the working plane can be ensured, the risk of collision between the fetching mechanism 223 and the target object is reduced, and the service lives of the fetching mechanism 223 and the target object (such as a bin) can be prolonged.

It will be appreciated that to ensure continuous progress of the warehouse operations, the transfer robot typically has a corresponding movable carrier 31 on the docking area 22 on the side of the picking station 20 during the transfer movement of the movable carrier 31 to the picking station 20, that is, the retrieval mechanism 223 may be interfacing with the movable carrier 31 at the docking area 22 to transfer and transfer the target items.

Referring to fig. 6, the retrieval mechanism 223 may move from the docking area 22 to the access area 24 to interface with a cargo space at the edge of the docking area 22 during a docking transfer of the target item. To avoid interference of the retrieval mechanism 223 with a target object on the movable carrier 31 of the access zone 24, in other examples of embodiments of the present application, the retrieval mechanism 223 may stop moving in the work plane according to the limit control signal.

That is, when the first distance is less than or equal to the first preset distance, the object taking mechanism 223 may interfere with, collide with, or collide with the target object, at this time, the controller may send a limit control signal to the object taking mechanism 223, after receiving the limit control signal, the object taking mechanism 223 may stop moving in the working plane, and after the limit mechanism 23 adjusts the target object, the object taking mechanism 223 may move again.

In this embodiment of the application, with spacing control signal transmission to get thing mechanism 223, get thing mechanism 223 according to spacing control signal, stop the removal in work plane, can effectively avoid getting thing mechanism 223 and object article and take place to interfere the collision, promoted the life of getting thing mechanism 223 and object article.

In other alternative examples of embodiments of the present application, picking workstation 20 may further include: the alarm piece can send out alarm prompt information according to the limit control signal.

In some examples, the alert cue information includes: at least one of voice prompt information, light signal prompt information, or display blinking information.

That is, in this embodiment of the present application, the alarm may be a buzzer or a speaker, and when the first distance is less than or equal to the first preset distance, the buzzer or the speaker may send out a sound prompt; at this time, a sorting worker (also referred to as a tally person in some examples) located on the other side of the picking station 20 along the conveyor line 222 may adjust the position of the target item on the movable carrier 31 after hearing the audible prompt, for example, push the target item protruding from the end surface of the movable carrier 31 back into the end surface of the movable carrier 31, thereby ensuring that the target item is out of the working plane.

It can be understood that the effect of the light prompt information or the display flicker and the voice prompt information is the same, and specific reference can be made to the detailed description of the voice prompt information, which is not repeated in the embodiment of the present application.

Referring to fig. 9, in alternative examples of embodiments of the present application, the projection of the stop mechanism 23 onto the movable carrier 31 projects beyond the opening of the target cargo space in a first direction (which may be, for example, the direction shown by the x-axis in fig. 9).

It will be appreciated that, as in the detailed description of the previous embodiments of the present application, the first direction may be a direction intersecting or perpendicular to the working plane, e.g., the first direction may be perpendicular or approximately perpendicular to the working plane. Wherein the movable carrier 31 is movable in a first direction towards the picking workstation 20 under the handling movement of the handling robot.

In this embodiment, the projection of the limiting mechanism 23 on the movable carrier 31 may specifically refer to: the stop 23 is projected in a first direction onto a movable carrier 31 located in the entrance zone 24.

Wherein, the opening projecting the projection in the target cargo space may refer to: the height dimension of the limiting mechanism 23 is larger than that of the target cargo space opening; or the length dimension of the stopper mechanism 23 (the dimension in the length direction of the workstation main body 21, for example, the dimension in the direction shown by the y-axis in fig. 9) is larger than the width dimension of the target cargo space opening; alternatively, in other examples, the height dimension of the stop mechanism 23 may be greater than the height dimension of the target cargo space opening, while the length dimension of the stop mechanism 23 is greater than the width dimension of the target cargo space opening.

Thus, after the spacing mechanism 23 contacts the target article, at least a portion of the spacing mechanism 23 is outside the target article coverage area; when the transfer robot drives the movable carrier 31 to move towards the picking workstation 20, the limiting mechanism 23 can push the target object into the movable carrier 31, and after the end face of the target object is flush with the end face of the movable carrier 31, the limiting mechanism 23 contacts with the end face of the movable carrier 31. In the first aspect, the maximum pushing distance of the limiting mechanism 23 to the target object can be ensured to be at the opening of the movable carrier 31, so that the object taking mechanism 223 can normally transfer the target object on the movable carrier 31; in the second aspect, the limiting mechanism 23 abuts against the movable carrier 31, and can limit the movable carrier 31 outside the working plane, which is equivalent to secondarily limiting the position of the movable carrier 31, so that the accuracy of the position of the movable carrier 31 is improved, interference between the movable carrier 31 and the fetching mechanism 223 is avoided, and the safety of the fetching mechanism 223 moving in the working plane is improved.

In some alternative examples, referring to fig. 9, the spacing mechanism 23 includes a protrusion extending in the height direction of the movable carrier 31, the protrusion corresponding to a longitudinal target cargo space of the movable carrier 31.

Referring to the detailed description of the foregoing embodiments of the present application, the protruding strips may be provided on the housing of the workstation body 21, and referring to fig. 9, the frame structure protruding from the workstation body 21 may be provided along the length direction of the workstation body (for example, the direction shown by the y-axis in fig. 9), and the protruding strips may be provided on the side of the frame structure facing away from the working surface.

In some examples, the ribs may be arranged in the height direction of the movable carrier 31, or the ribs may be arranged in the height direction of the workstation body 21. As an alternative example, the height of the protruding strip may be greater than or equal to the height of the movable carrier 31, so that the protruding strip may perform abutment limiting on the target objects on each layer of cargo space on the movable carrier 31, that is, one protruding strip may limit a row of target objects on the movable carrier 31 outside the working plane; thus, the number of the limit mechanisms 23 can be reduced, the structure of the limit mechanisms 23 can be simplified, and the production cost can be reduced.

It will be appreciated that, in general, the mobile carrier 31 has a plurality of rows of cargo space in the longitudinal direction, and in order to ensure that the target object of each row of cargo space can be defined outside the working plane, in this embodiment, a plurality of ribs may be provided, and the plurality of ribs may be arranged at intervals along the length direction of the workstation body (for example, the direction shown by the y-axis in fig. 9).

Referring to fig. 9, in some examples, the movable carrier 31 has three rows of cargo spaces in the longitudinal direction, and in this embodiment, three ribs may be provided, each rib corresponding to one of the rows of cargo spaces. In this way, it is ensured that the target objects on the movable carrier 31 are all located outside the working plane, and the safety of the movement of the fetching mechanism 223 is improved.

It will be appreciated that in other alternative examples of embodiments of the present application, the ribs may also extend in the width direction of the movable carrier 31. In some examples, it is also understood that the ribs extend in or approximately in the horizontal direction, corresponding to the lateral target cargo space on the movable carrier 31.

It may be further understood that, in the embodiment of the present application, the manner in which the protruding strips are disposed along the transverse direction is the same as or similar to the manner in which the protruding strips are disposed along the longitudinal direction, and reference may be specifically made to the detailed description of the foregoing embodiment of the present application regarding the disposition of the protruding strips along the longitudinal direction, which is not repeated in the embodiment of the present application.

For example, when the convex strips are arranged in the lateral direction, a plurality of convex strips may be arranged at intervals in the height direction of the movable carrier 31.

In other alternative examples of embodiments of the present application, referring to fig. 9, the limiting mechanism 23 may further include a limiting frame 231, where the limiting frame 231 is disposed on the workstation body 21. In this embodiment, the sand grip is the rubber strip, and the one side of limit frame 231 dorsad working plane can be located to the rubber strip.

That is, in the embodiment of the present application, the limiting frame 231 may be a fixing member for supporting and fixing the rubber strip, and the rubber strip is fixed on a side of the limiting frame 231 facing away from the working plane, so that the rubber strip protrudes with respect to the working plane, thereby defining the target object outside the working plane.

In the embodiment of the present application, the rubber strip is used as the protruding strip, so that when the transfer robot transfers the movable carrier 31 and moves to the workbench main body, the target object carried on the movable carrier 31 can be contacted with the rubber strip; it will be appreciated that, in general, the rubber strip has a certain deformation modulus, and when the target object is in contact with the rubber strip, the rubber strip can absorb a part of the impulse of the movement of the target object through deformation, so that the impact on the target object is reduced, and the target object can be effectively protected.

As an alternative example of the embodiment of the present application, in the embodiment of the present application, the detection mechanism may also be a pressure-sensitive sensor. When specifically arranged, the pressure-sensitive sensor may be arranged in the rubber strip. Thus, when the target object is in contact with the rubber strip and presses the rubber strip, the pressure-sensitive sensor provided in the rubber strip can generate a pressure-sensitive signal.

In this embodiment of the present application, the controller may send out a limit control signal when receiving a pressure-sensitive signal sent by the pressure-sensitive sensor, and limit the target object out of the working plane.

It will be appreciated that, in the embodiments of the present application, a specific implementation manner of limiting the target object out of the working plane may be the same as or similar to a detailed description of the foregoing embodiments of the present application, and specific reference may be made to the detailed description of the foregoing embodiments of the present application, which is not repeated herein.

In some alternative examples, the pressure sensitive sensor may be a piezo-resistor.

According to the embodiment of the application, the first distance between the target object and the working plane is detected by arranging the pressure-sensitive sensors in the rubber strips, so that the number of the detection sensors required to be arranged can be reduced, and the production and manufacturing cost of the picking workstation 20 can be reduced.

The embodiment of the application also provides a picking system, which can be arranged in a warehouse of a warehouse, and comprises: picking workstation 20 is provided in any of the alternative examples of the previous embodiments of the present application.

In this embodiment, the picking station 20 may be installed in a warehouse, and a docking area 22 may be provided on one side of the picking station 20, and in a specific setting, the docking area 22 may be a partial area defined on the floor of the warehouse, where the docking area 22 is for the movable carrier 31 to dock, so that the fetching mechanism 223 of the picking station 20 interfaces with the movable carrier 31 docked in the docking area 22, so as to transfer the target item (e.g., remove the target item from the movable carrier 31 and transfer the target item to the picking station 20, or place the target item from the picking station 20 onto the movable carrier 31).

In some examples, the ground of the docking area 22 may be provided with an identification (e.g., a ground two-dimensional code) and after the transfer robot moves the movable carrier 31 to the ground of the docking area 22, the transfer robot may determine whether the movement is in place by identifying the identification of the ground.

In this embodiment, access areas 24 are provided side-by-side along the work plane of the picking workstation 20 on one side of the docking area 22. It will be appreciated that the arrangement of the access zone 24 may be the same as or similar to the arrangement of the docking zone 22 in the foregoing embodiments of the present application, and specific reference may be made to the detailed description of the docking zone 22 in the foregoing embodiments of the present application, which will not be repeated herein.

As an alternative example, the access zone 24 may be located in front of the docking zone 22, on the path of movement of the movable carrier 31; that is, the movable carriers 31 may first pass through the access area 24 to approach the picking station 20 and then move along the work plane of the picking station 20 to interface with the docking area 22.

In some examples, a stop mechanism 23 of picking workstation 20 may be provided at access zone 24. The specific arrangement of the limiting mechanism 23 may be the same as or similar to that of the previous embodiments of the present application, and reference may be made specifically to the detailed description of the previous embodiments of the present application.

It may be appreciated that the picking system provided in the embodiments of the present application has the same or corresponding technical features as the foregoing embodiments of the present application, so that the picking system has the same or similar beneficial effects as the foregoing embodiments of the present application, and reference may be made to the detailed description of the foregoing embodiments of the present application, which is not repeated herein.

The embodiment of the application also provides a control method of the picking system, which can be applied to the picking workstation provided by any optional example of the previous embodiment of the application, and can comprise the following steps:

step s1201, when the transfer robot transfers the movable carrier to move to the docking area located at the side of the workstation main body, the limiting mechanism located on the moving path of the movable carrier contacts with the target object on the movable carrier, and limits the target object to the outside of the working plane of the workstation main body.

In some examples, the transfer robot may transfer the movable carrier along a planned travel path on the warehouse floor, where the movable carrier carries the target item thereon. It will be appreciated that the transfer robot may first move towards the picking station through the access zone located on one side of the docking zone when transferring the movable carriers. With reference to the previous embodiments of the present application, a stop mechanism may be provided at the access zone.

In step s1202, when the limiting mechanism limits the target object to the outside of the working plane of the workstation main body, the transfer robot transfers the movable carrier to the docking area.

That is, in this embodiment of the present application, after the target object on the movable carrier is defined outside the working plane by the limiting mechanism in the access area, the controller of the picking workstation determines that the movement of the target object and the object taking mechanism in the working plane will not interfere, and at this time, the transfer robot may transfer and move the movable carrier to the docking area. For example, referring to the detailed description of the previous embodiments of the present application, the transfer robot may move the movable carrier in the direction of the work plane to the docking area. In this way, the movement of the target object on the movable carrier in the direction intersecting the working plane can be reduced, so that the target object is located outside the working plane, and the mutual collision and interference between the target object and the object taking mechanism are avoided.

In step s1203, the fetching mechanism of the workstation body interfaces with the movable carrier to carry the target object between the movable carrier and the workstation body.

It can be appreciated that the docking of the fetching mechanism with the movable carrier and the handling of the target object between the movable carrier workstation bodies may be referred to the detailed description in the related art, and the embodiments of the present application will not be repeated.

Based on the detailed description of the foregoing embodiments of the present application, in some optional examples of embodiments of the present application, step s1201, when the transfer robot transfers the movable carrier to move to the docking area located at the side of the workstation main body, the limiting mechanism located on the moving path of the movable carrier contacts the target object on the movable carrier, and limits the target object out of the working plane of the workstation main body, includes:

when the movable carrier is moved by the carrying robot to a connection area located on one side of the workstation main body, a first distance between the target object and the working plane is obtained.

Along with the detailed description of the previous embodiments of the present application, the transfer robot may move through the access area to the picking workstation; thus, in embodiments of the present application, a first distance between the target object and the work plane may be acquired at the entry zone. For example, the first distance between the target object and the work plane may be acquired by a detection mechanism provided on the limit mechanism. The specific operation manner of the detection mechanism may refer to the detailed description of the foregoing embodiments of the present application, which is not repeated in the embodiments of the present application.

In some alternative examples, the limiting mechanism is controlled to protrude from the working plane to limit the target object out of the working plane when the first distance is less than or equal to the first preset distance.

In this embodiment of the present application, the comparison and judgment between the first distance and the first preset distance are similar to those in the foregoing embodiment of the present application, and specific reference may be made to the detailed description of the foregoing embodiment of the present application, which is not repeated herein.

It may be appreciated that, in other optional examples of the embodiments of the present application, the alarm prompting information may also be sent by the alarm member when the first distance is less than or equal to the first preset distance. The alarm prompt information comprises: at least one of voice prompt information, light prompt information or display blinking information.

It should be noted that, the control method embodiment of the picking system of the present application has the same or corresponding technical features as the picking workstation of the foregoing embodiment of the present application, so the method embodiment has the same or similar technical effects as the foregoing embodiment of the present application, and particularly reference may be made to the detailed description of the foregoing embodiment of the present application, which is not repeated herein.

It is to be understood that, based on the several embodiments provided in the present application, those skilled in the art may combine, split, reorganize, etc. the embodiments of the present application to obtain other embodiments, where none of the embodiments exceed the protection scope of the present application.

The foregoing detailed description of the embodiments of the present application has further described the objects, technical solutions and advantageous effects thereof, and it should be understood that the foregoing is merely a specific implementation of the embodiments of the present application, and is not intended to limit the scope of the embodiments of the present application, and any modifications, equivalent substitutions, improvements, etc. made on the basis of the technical solutions of the embodiments of the present application should be included in the scope of the embodiments of the present application.

Claims

1. A picking workstation comprising:

a workstation main body (21), wherein the workstation main body (21) is provided with a fetching mechanism (223), and the fetching mechanism (223) can at least move freely in a working plane of the workstation main body (21); the retrieval mechanism (223) is configured to be at least dockable with a movable carrier (31) located at a docking area (22) for handling a target item between the movable carrier (31) and the workstation body (21); the docking area (22) is located on one side of the workstation body (21);

and a limiting mechanism (23), wherein the limiting mechanism (23) is arranged on a moving path of the movable carrier (31) to the connection area (22), and the limiting mechanism (23) is configured to be contacted with a target object positioned on the movable carrier (31) and limit the target object out of the working plane when the movable carrier (31) moves to the working station main body (21).

2. Picking workstation as in claim 1, characterized in that the limiting mechanism (23) is located on at least one side of the docking area (22), and in that the limiting mechanism (23) is movably connected with the workstation body (21);

when the movable carrier (31) moves toward the workstation main body (21), at least part of the limiting mechanism (23) protrudes from the working plane.

3. Picking workstation as in claim 2, characterized in that said limiting mechanism (23) is translationally connectable with said workstation body (21) at least along a first direction intersecting said work plane; the limiting mechanism (23) has a first position and a second position on the workstation body (21);

when the limiting mechanism (23) is at the first position, the limiting mechanism (23) is accommodated in the workstation main body (21);

when the limiting mechanism (23) is in the second position, at least part of the limiting mechanism (23) protrudes out of the working plane.

4. A picking workstation as claimed in claim 2, characterized in that the limit mechanism (23) is rotatably connected to the workstation body (21), the limit mechanism (23) having a first position and a second position on the workstation body (21);

5. Picking workstation according to claim 1, wherein the limiting mechanism (23) is located on at least one side of the docking area (22), and wherein the limiting mechanism (23) is fixedly connected with the workstation body (21);

along the length direction of the workstation main body, at least part of the limiting mechanism (23) protrudes out of the workstation main body (21);

and, along a first direction, at least part of the limiting mechanism (23) protrudes out of the working plane.

6. The picking workstation as recited in claim 1, wherein the picking workstation (20) further includes:

a detection mechanism disposed on the movement path, the detection mechanism configured to detect a first distance between the target article and the work plane;

and the controller is configured to send out a limit control signal when the detection signal is that the first distance is smaller than or equal to a first preset distance so as to limit the target object out of the working plane.

7. The picking workstation of claim 6, wherein the detection mechanism is any one of a contact switch or a hall sensor; along a first direction, the detection mechanism is positioned on one side of the limiting mechanism (23) which is away from the working plane, and the first direction is intersected with the working plane.

8. The picking workstation of claim 6, wherein the detection mechanism is an correlation sensor comprising:

a signal transmitting part located at one side of the moving path;

a signal receiving part located at the other side of the moving path;

and the signal transmitting part and the signal receiving part are arranged on one side of the working plane along the working plane, and the signal transmitting part and the signal receiving part are separated from the working plane by a first preset distance along a first direction.

9. The picking workstation of claim 6 wherein,

the limiting mechanism (23) protrudes from the working plane according to the limiting control signal so as to block the target object outside the working plane.

10. The picking workstation as recited in claim 6, wherein the picking workstation (20) further includes:

11. Picking workstation as in claim 1, characterized in that the projection of the limiting mechanism (23) onto the movable carrier (31) protrudes from the opening of the target cargo space along a first direction, which intersects the working plane.

12. Picking workstation as in claim 11, characterized in that the limit mechanism (23) comprises a rib extending in the height direction of the movable carrier (31), the rib corresponding to a longitudinal target cargo space of the movable carrier (31).

13. The picking station of claim 12 wherein the plurality of ribs is spaced apart along the length of the station body.

14. Picking workstation as in claim 11, characterized in that the limit mechanism (23) comprises a rib extending in the width direction of the movable carrier (31), the rib corresponding to a lateral target cargo space of the movable carrier (31).

15. The picking workstation as recited in claim 14, wherein said plurality of ribs is arranged in a plurality of said ribs spaced apart along a height direction of said movable carrier (31).

16. A picking workstation as claimed in any one of claims 12 to 15, wherein the limiting mechanism (23) further comprises a limiting frame (231), the limiting frame (231) being provided to the workstation body (21); the raised strips are rubber strips, and the rubber strips are arranged on one side of the limiting frame (231) back to the working plane.

17. The picking workstation as recited in claim 16, wherein the picking workstation (20) further includes:

the pressure-sensitive sensor is arranged in the rubber strip; the pressure-sensitive sensor is configured to generate a pressure-sensitive signal when the rubber strip is pressed by the target article;

and a controller configured to issue a limit control signal in accordance with the pressure sensitive signal to limit the target item out of the work plane.

18. A picking system, comprising:

the picking workstation (20) of any of claims 1-17;

-a docking area (22), said docking area (22) being located at one side of said picking workstation (20);

An access area (24), wherein the access area (24) and the connection area (22) are positioned on the same side of the picking workstation (20), the access area (24) and the connection area (22) are arranged side by side along the working plane of the picking workstation (20), and a limiting mechanism (23) of the picking workstation (20) is arranged in the access area (24);

a movable carrier (31), the movable carrier (31) carrying a target object;

-a transfer robot for moving the movable carrier (31) and entering the docking area (22) along the entry area (24), -in the docking area (22), a pick mechanism (223) of the picking workstation (20) is docked with the movable carrier (31) for transferring target items between the movable carrier (31) and the workstation body (21).

19. A method of controlling a picking system, characterized by a picking workstation (20) for any of claims 1-17, comprising the steps of;

when the transfer robot transfers the movable carrier (31) to move to the connection area (22) positioned on the side of the work station main body (21), a limiting mechanism (23) positioned on the moving path of the movable carrier (31) is contacted with a target object on the movable carrier (31) and limits the target object to be out of the working plane of the work station main body (21);

The transfer robot transferring the movable carrier (31) to the docking area (22) with the limiting mechanism (23) limiting the target article to the outside of the working plane;

an object taking mechanism (223) of the workstation main body (21) is in butt joint with the movable carrier (31) so as to convey a target object between the movable carrier (31) and the workstation main body (21).

20. The method of controlling a picking system according to claim 19, wherein the limiting mechanism (23) on a moving path of the movable carrier (31) contacts a target item on the movable carrier (31) and limits the target item outside a work plane of the workstation main body (21) when the transfer robot transfers the movable carrier (31) to the docking area (22) located at a side of the workstation main body (21), comprising:

acquiring a first distance between the target object and the work plane when the transfer robot transfers the movable carrier (31) to a docking area (22) located on the side of a work station main body (21);

and controlling the limiting mechanism (23) to protrude out of the working plane under the condition that the first distance is smaller than or equal to a first preset distance so as to limit the target object out of the working plane.

21. The method of controlling a picking system according to claim 19, wherein the limiting mechanism (23) on a moving path of the movable carrier (31) contacts a target item on the movable carrier (31) and limits the target item outside a work plane of the workstation main body (21) when the transfer robot transfers the movable carrier (31) to the docking area (22) located at a side of the workstation main body (21), further comprises: