CN117401326A - Warehouse system and robot scheduling method - Google Patents
Warehouse system and robot scheduling method Download PDFInfo
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- CN117401326A CN117401326A CN202210801089.6A CN202210801089A CN117401326A CN 117401326 A CN117401326 A CN 117401326A CN 202210801089 A CN202210801089 A CN 202210801089A CN 117401326 A CN117401326 A CN 117401326A
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- 230000003028 elevating effect Effects 0.000 description 1
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Classifications
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- B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
- B65—CONVEYING; PACKING; STORING; HANDLING THIN OR FILAMENTARY MATERIAL
- B65G—TRANSPORT OR STORAGE DEVICES, e.g. CONVEYORS FOR LOADING OR TIPPING, SHOP CONVEYOR SYSTEMS OR PNEUMATIC TUBE CONVEYORS
- B65G1/00—Storing articles, individually or in orderly arrangement, in warehouses or magazines
- B65G1/02—Storage devices
- B65G1/04—Storage devices mechanical
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- B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
- B65—CONVEYING; PACKING; STORING; HANDLING THIN OR FILAMENTARY MATERIAL
- B65G—TRANSPORT OR STORAGE DEVICES, e.g. CONVEYORS FOR LOADING OR TIPPING, SHOP CONVEYOR SYSTEMS OR PNEUMATIC TUBE CONVEYORS
- B65G1/00—Storing articles, individually or in orderly arrangement, in warehouses or magazines
- B65G1/02—Storage devices
- B65G1/04—Storage devices mechanical
- B65G1/137—Storage devices mechanical with arrangements or automatic control means for selecting which articles are to be removed
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- B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
- B65—CONVEYING; PACKING; STORING; HANDLING THIN OR FILAMENTARY MATERIAL
- B65G—TRANSPORT OR STORAGE DEVICES, e.g. CONVEYORS FOR LOADING OR TIPPING, SHOP CONVEYOR SYSTEMS OR PNEUMATIC TUBE CONVEYORS
- B65G1/00—Storing articles, individually or in orderly arrangement, in warehouses or magazines
- B65G1/02—Storage devices
- B65G1/04—Storage devices mechanical
- B65G1/137—Storage devices mechanical with arrangements or automatic control means for selecting which articles are to be removed
- B65G1/1373—Storage devices mechanical with arrangements or automatic control means for selecting which articles are to be removed for fulfilling orders in warehouses
Abstract
The present disclosure relates to a warehouse system and a robot scheduling method, the warehouse system including a travel zone, at least two robots, and a controller. The travelling area is divided into a plurality of cells, at least two robots are configured to travel along the travelling area, and each robot occupies one cell; the controller is configured to control a vertical staggered arrangement of the load platforms of two robots located at two adjacent cells when a preset condition is met, wherein the load platforms are configured for placing goods. The system controls the vertical staggered arrangement of the carrying platforms of the two robots positioned on the two adjacent cells when the preset condition is met so as to compensate the position interference caused when the carrying platforms of the two adjacent robots execute corresponding actions at the same height position, thereby reasonably reducing the area of the cells occupied by each robot, further arranging more robots in the running area with the same area and improving the space utilization rate of the running area.
Description
Technical Field
The disclosure relates to the technical field of warehouse logistics, in particular to a warehouse system and a robot scheduling method.
Background
With the rapid development of science and technology, the automation level of the logistics field is greatly improved, and the original manual work of sorting and carrying goods is replaced by corresponding robots.
Robots that perform the same or different tasks travel in the storage area, sometimes in a queued order, and in order to fully utilize the horizontal space in the storage area, it is often desirable to have a close array of robots.
In general, a plurality of cells with the same size are divided into a traveling area where a robot travels, one robot occupies exactly one cell, and the size of the cell is set to consider the external dimension of the robot and the space occupied by the robot during steering, so as to reserve enough space between two adjacent robots to avoid position interference during traveling.
Along with the continuous improvement of the intelligent level of logistics, more and more work which is finished manually is replaced by robots, and the number of robots in a travelling area is increased, so that the technical problem to be solved by the technicians in the field is that how to reasonably arrange the robots, and the number of the robots which can pass in the travelling area can be increased on the basis of meeting the basic functional requirements of the robots.
Disclosure of Invention
The disclosure provides a storage system and a robot scheduling method for solving the technical problems in the prior art.
In a first aspect, a warehousing system of the disclosure includes:
a travel zone divided into a plurality of cells;
at least two robots configured to travel along a travel zone, each robot occupying one of the cells;
and the controller is configured to control the vertical staggered arrangement of the carrying mechanisms of the two robots positioned on the two adjacent cells when the preset condition is met, wherein the carrying mechanisms are configured for placing cargoes.
In one embodiment, the controller controls the projected portions of the two vertically staggered load mechanisms to overlap in the travel zone without the need for the robot's own overall structure to rotate relative to the travel zone when the robot is steering in the travel zone.
In one embodiment, the robot includes:
a travel mechanism configured to travel in the travel zone;
a load platform configured to carry cargo;
a lifting mechanism configured to connect the carrying mechanism and the travelling mechanism and drive the carrying mechanism to rise or fall relative to the travelling mechanism;
the controller is configured to control the lifting mechanism to enable the corresponding carrying mechanism of the robot to reach a preset height position, and at least enable the carrying mechanisms of two groups of robot queues located in two adjacent columns of the unit grids to be vertically staggered based on the height scheduling of the carrying mechanism of the robot, and enable the carrying mechanisms of two robots of two adjacent units in the same group of robot queues to be vertically staggered or located at the same height position, wherein each group of robot queues comprises at least two robots.
In one embodiment, the robot includes:
the travelling mechanism is configured to travel in the travelling area and rotate to drive the robot to turn;
a load platform configured to carry cargo;
a lifting mechanism configured to connect the carrying mechanism and the travelling mechanism and drive the carrying mechanism to rise or fall relative to the travelling mechanism;
the projection parts of the first rotation track circles of the carrying mechanisms of two robots positioned on two adjacent unit grids on the travelling area are overlapped, and the projection of the first rotation track circle of the carrying mechanism of one robot on the travelling area is not overlapped with the projection of the second rotation track circle of the lifting mechanism of the other robot.
In one embodiment, the first rotation locus circle of the carrying mechanism of one robot positioned in two adjacent cells is tangent to the second rotation locus circle of the lifting mechanism of the other robot.
In one embodiment, when the robots need to turn, the controller is configured to control the carrying mechanism of one robot located in two adjacent cells to rise or fall a preset distance relative to the carrying mechanism of the other robot so that the two carrying mechanisms are vertically staggered.
In one embodiment, the warehouse comprises at least two groups of robot queues, the controller is configured to control the vertical staggered arrangement of the carrying mechanisms of the robots in the two groups of robot queues located in two adjacent columns of unit cells, and the carrying mechanisms of the robots in the same group of robot queues are located at the same height;
the robot queue refers to a queue of robots which are sequentially queued and travel in the same direction along the same straight line path.
In one embodiment, when steering is required, the controller is configured to control the vertical staggered arrangement of the carrying mechanisms of two robots located in two adjacent cells of the same group of robot queues, to control the staggered arrangement of the carrying mechanisms of two groups of robot queues located in two adjacent rows of cells, and to enable the carrying mechanisms of robots in the new same group of robot queues to be located at the same height.
In a second aspect, a robot scheduling method of the present disclosure is applicable to a warehousing system according to any one of the above, and the robot scheduling method includes the following steps:
when the preset conditions are met, controlling the vertical staggered arrangement of the object carrying mechanisms of the two robots positioned on the two adjacent cells.
In one embodiment, the step of controlling the vertical staggered arrangement of the carrying mechanisms of the two robots located in the two adjacent cells when the preset condition is satisfied includes:
when the robot turns in the travelling area, the projection parts of the two carrying mechanisms for controlling the vertical staggered layers are overlapped under the condition that the integral structure of the robot does not need to rotate relative to the travelling area.
In one embodiment, the step of controlling the vertical staggered arrangement of the carrying mechanisms of the two robots located in the two adjacent cells when the preset condition is satisfied includes:
when the robot turns in the travelling area, the whole structure of the robot needs to rotate relative to the travelling area;
when the robots need to turn, the carrying mechanism of one robot positioned at two adjacent cells is controlled to ascend or descend by a preset distance relative to the carrying mechanism of the other robot, so that the two carrying mechanisms are vertically staggered.
In one embodiment, the step of controlling the vertical staggered arrangement of the carrying mechanisms of the two robots located in the two adjacent cells when the preset condition is satisfied includes:
when the warehousing system comprises at least two groups of robot queues and the robots are turned in the travelling area, the whole structure of the robots needs to rotate relative to the travelling area;
controlling the vertical staggered arrangement of the carrying mechanisms of the robots in the two groups of robot queues positioned in two adjacent rows of unit grids, wherein the carrying mechanisms of the robots in the same group of robot queues are positioned at the same height;
when the robot is required to turn, controlling the vertical staggered arrangement of the carrying mechanisms of two robots positioned in two adjacent cells of the same group of robot queues, turning to a new robot queue formed by a group of robots travelling in the same direction along the same straight line path, controlling the staggered arrangement of the carrying mechanisms of the two groups of robot queues positioned in two adjacent cells, and enabling the carrying mechanisms of the robots in the new same group of robot queues to be positioned at the same height;
the robot queue refers to a queue of robots which are sequentially queued and travel along the same straight line path in the same direction.
The storage system has the advantages that when the storage system meets the preset conditions, the storage system controls the vertical staggered arrangement of the carrying platforms of the two robots located on the two adjacent unit grids so as to compensate the position interference caused when the carrying platforms of the two adjacent robots execute corresponding actions at the same height position, so that the area of the unit grids occupied by each robot can be reasonably reduced, more robots can be distributed in the advancing area with the same area, and the space utilization rate of the advancing area is improved.
It should be noted that, the robot scheduling method disclosed by the present disclosure is executed by the controller of the warehouse system, and has the same technical characteristics as the warehouse system, so that the method also has the same technical effects, and is not described herein again.
Drawings
The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated in and constitute a part of this specification, illustrate embodiments of the disclosure and together with the description, serve to explain the principles of the disclosure.
FIG. 1 is a schematic structural view of a robot of the present disclosure in one embodiment;
FIG. 2 is a schematic illustration of the arrangement of two adjacent robots in FIG. 1 prior to staggered placement;
FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of the arrangement of two adjacent robots in FIG. 1 after staggered arrangement;
FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram of a warehouse system when the split-level rear hanging rail robot is in operation;
FIG. 5 is a schematic structural view of a robot of the present disclosure in one embodiment;
FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram of the arrangement of two adjacent robots in FIG. 5 after staggered arrangement;
fig. 7 and 8 are schematic front and top views of two adjacent robots in fig. 5, respectively, arranged in a conventional manner;
fig. 9 and 10 are schematic front and top views, respectively, of the two adjacent robots of fig. 5 arranged in a manner consistent with the present disclosure;
FIG. 11 is a schematic diagram of travel zone cells when multiple robots are scheduled;
FIG. 12 is a schematic illustration of a staggered arrangement of multiple groups of robot queues in the travel zone of FIG. 11 prior to steering;
FIG. 13 is a schematic illustration of a staggered arrangement of multiple groups of robot queues in the travel zone of FIG. 11 after steering.
The one-to-one correspondence between the component names and the reference numerals in fig. 1 to 13 is as follows:
1 running gear, 2 year thing mechanisms, 3 supporting mechanism, 4 goods, 5 elevating system, 6 unit check, 7 first rotation orbit circles, 8 second rotation orbit circles, 9 advancing district.
Detailed Description
Various exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure will now be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. It should be noted that: the relative arrangement of the components and steps, numerical expressions and numerical values set forth in these embodiments do not limit the scope of the present disclosure unless it is specifically stated otherwise.
The following description of at least one exemplary embodiment is merely illustrative in nature and is in no way intended to limit the disclosure, its application, or uses.
Techniques, methods, and apparatus known to one of ordinary skill in the relevant art may not be discussed in detail, but are intended to be part of the specification where appropriate.
In all examples shown and discussed herein, any specific values should be construed as merely illustrative, and not a limitation. Thus, other examples of exemplary embodiments may have different values.
It should be noted that: like reference numerals and letters denote like items in the following figures, and thus once an item is defined in one figure, no further discussion thereof is necessary in subsequent figures.
In the warehouse logistics field, a plurality of cells with the same size are generally divided into a running area where the robots run, one robot occupies exactly one cell, and the size of the cell is set to consider the external dimension of the robot and the space occupied by the robot during steering, so as to reserve enough space between two adjacent robots to avoid position interference during running. Along with the continuous improvement of the intelligent level of logistics, more and more work which is finished manually is replaced by robots in the past, and along with the increase of the number of robots in a travelling area, how to reasonably arrange the robots, and on the basis of meeting the basic functional requirements, the number of the robots which can pass in the travelling area can be increased, so that the technical problem to be solved by the technicians in the field is urgent.
It should be noted that, generally, the shape of the cell is rectangular or square, however, the cell may be in other shapes such as oval or circular based on the specific layout of the traveling area and the specific mechanism and working principle of the robot, and those skilled in the art select the cell with the optimal shape based on the actual situation, which is not limited herein.
To this end, the present disclosure provides a warehousing system including a travel zone, at least two robots, and a controller. The travelling area is divided into a plurality of cells, at least two robots are configured to travel along the travelling area, and each robot occupies one cell; the controller is configured to control a vertical staggered arrangement of the load platforms of two robots located at two adjacent cells when a preset condition is met, wherein the load platforms are configured for placing goods.
Obviously, the warehousing system disclosed by the invention controls the vertical staggered arrangement of the carrying platforms of the two robots positioned on the two adjacent cells when the preset condition is met, so that the position interference caused when the carrying platforms of the two adjacent robots execute corresponding actions at the same height position is compensated, the area of the cell occupied by each robot can be reasonably reduced, more robots can be distributed in the running area with the same area, and the space utilization rate of the running area is improved.
For a better understanding, the specific structure of the warehousing system of the present disclosure and its principles of operation will be described in detail below with reference to fig. 1-13 in conjunction with several embodiments.
Example 1
When the robot turns in the travel zone, the robot itself does not need to rotate relative to the travel zone.
It should be noted that, the travelling area refers to an area that is divided on the working surface of the warehouse and used for the robot to walk, in general, the travelling area is divided into a plurality of cells that are crisscrossed, and the outline dimension of the robot can be just contained in one cell, that is, the robot occupies one cell robot to travel along the rows of cells in the travelling area to form an array.
Referring to fig. 1, the robot includes a traveling mechanism 1, a carrying mechanism 2, and a supporting mechanism 3; the travelling mechanism 1 is configured to travel in a travelling area of the travelling area, and may be a four-way vehicle, that is, the mobile platform includes a vehicle body and two sets of wheel mechanisms, one set of wheel mechanisms drives the vehicle body to travel in a first direction, and the other set of wheel mechanisms drives the vehicle body to travel in a second direction. The travelling mechanism further comprises a switching mechanism, wherein the switching mechanism is configured to select one group of wheel mechanisms to drive the vehicle body to travel so as to achieve the purpose of switching the traveling direction of the vehicle body, and in the switching process, the vehicle body, the carrying mechanism and the supporting mechanism do not move relatively relative to the traveling area. The loading mechanism 2 is configured to load cargo 4, which may be a pallet or the like.
For the robot, the positional relationship between the two robots of the two adjacent cells before and after the staggered layer arrangement of the platforms of the two robots of the two adjacent cells is seen in fig. 2 and 3, it is obvious that the projection parts of the two robots of the two adjacent cells after the staggered layer arrangement on the travelling area overlap, the area of the travelling area occupied by the two adjacent robots is reduced, the reduced area is compensated by the height dimension of the staggered layer, so that the area of the cells in the travelling area can be correspondingly reduced, a larger number of robots can be arranged in the travelling area with the same area, and the utilization rate of the travelling area is greatly improved.
It will be appreciated that the travel zone in which the travel zone is located may be the floor of a warehouse, a platform or track set up above the floor independently of the floor.
Based on different types of travel zones, the robot may be a suspended rail robot, see fig. 4, travelling on a track above the building floor or suspended on the top surface of the warehouse, the travelling mechanism of the suspended rail robot being located along the track, its load carrying mechanism being suspended by an assembly of suspension ropes below the travelling mechanism, the goods of its load carrying mechanism then being vertically staggered and the projected portions on the travel zones overlapping.
It should be noted that, based on the number and arrangement of the robot queues, for the robot that does not need to rotate the carrying mechanism to realize the steering function, the two groups of robot queues located in two adjacent columns of cells are vertically staggered, the controller controls the carrying mechanisms of the robots in one group of robot queues to be higher or lower than the carrying mechanisms of the robots in the other group of robot queues, and the carrying mechanisms of the two robots located in two adjacent cells in the same group of robot queues can be vertically staggered and also can be kept at the same height position.
In addition, the two adjacent cells may be vertically staggered by the two robots, which are arranged in the two adjacent cells:
the first and the travelling areas are respectively provided with two robots of different types, the carrying mechanisms of the two robots are positioned at different height positions, and when the robots are queued to form a robot queue, the controller is used for arranging and combining the two robot queues to form the vertical staggered layer positions of the robots in the two groups of robot queues at least positioned in two adjacent rows of unit cells.
The structure of the robot traveling in the second, traveling zone referring to fig. 5, the robot further includes a lifting mechanism 5 in addition to the traveling mechanism 1 and the load carrying mechanism 2, the lifting mechanism 5 connecting the traveling mechanism 1 and the load carrying mechanism 2 and configured to drive the load carrying mechanism 2 to lift a preset distance with respect to the traveling mechanism 1.
The lifting mechanism 5 can be a cylinder or a piston rod of a hydraulic cylinder, a cylinder body of the lifting mechanism is fixedly arranged on the travelling mechanism, the carrying mechanism is fixedly arranged at the free end of the piston rod, and the piston rod drives the carrying mechanism to lift along with the hydraulic oil or gas entering and exiting from the respective cylinder body so as to lift the container.
The lifting mechanism can also be a telescopic link mechanism which is borne by a plurality of rod members in a hinged combination.
Of course, the lifting mechanism may also include a bracket, a motor, and a power transmission mechanism that functions as a transmission mechanism that converts rotation of the motor into linear motion, such as a rack-and-pinion transmission mechanism, a belt transmission mechanism, a chain transmission mechanism, and the like.
In detail, when the lifting mechanism adopts a gear-rack transmission mechanism, a rack of the lifting mechanism extends along the vertical direction and is fixedly connected to the bracket, and a gear meshed with the rack is rotatably arranged on the carrying mechanism.
After the motor is started, the driving gear drives the carrying mechanism to lift along the extending direction of the rack.
When the lifting mechanism adopts a belt transmission mechanism, two transmission wheels of the lifting mechanism are vertically spaced and are rotatably arranged on the bracket, a transmission belt of the lifting mechanism is tensioned on the two transmission wheels, and the object carrying mechanism is fixedly arranged on the transmission belt.
After the motor is started, the motor drives one of the driving wheels to rotate, and then the driving belt drives the carrying mechanism to lift.
When the lifting mechanism adopts a chain transmission mechanism, two chain wheels are vertically spaced and rotatably arranged on the bracket, a chain is tensioned on the two chain wheels, and the object carrying mechanism is fixedly arranged on the chain.
After the motor is started, one of the chain wheels is driven to rotate, and then the chain belt type movable object carrying mechanism is lifted.
Referring to fig. 6, the controller firstly controls the lifting mechanism to enable the corresponding carrying mechanisms of the robots to reach the preset height position based on the number and arrangement modes of the robot queues, and then at least enables the carrying mechanisms of the two groups of robot queues located in two adjacent columns of unit cells to be vertically staggered based on the height scheduling of the carrying mechanisms of the robots. Of course, the controller may also enable the vertical staggered positions of the carrying mechanisms of two robots located in two adjacent cells in the same group of robot queues, and the specific arrangement mode is preset by a person skilled in the art based on factors such as the area of the travelling area and the number of robots.
In one embodiment, for robots such as four-way vehicles that do not need to turn themselves, referring to fig. 11 and 12, when the warehouse system includes at least two groups of robot queues, the controller controls the vertical staggered arrangement of the carrying mechanisms of the robots in the two groups of robot queues located in two adjacent columns of unit cells, and the carrying mechanisms of the robots in the same group of robot queues are located at the same height. It should be noted that, as used herein, the "robot queue" refers to a queue of robots that are sequentially queued and travel in the same direction along the same straight line path, or only two robots that are suspended on two adjacent cells, where the traveling directions of the two robots may be the same or different.
Referring to fig. 13, the controller controls the vertical staggered arrangement of the carrying mechanisms of two robots located in two adjacent cells of the same group of robot queues, and the controller controls the carrying mechanisms of the robots in the new robot queues to be located at the same height.
Therefore, after the area of the cell is reduced, the scheduling problem of staggered arrangement of scheduling of a plurality of robots can be skillfully solved.
Example two
In case the robot itself needs to rotate relative to the travel zone when the robot is turned in the travel zone.
Also, with continued reference to fig. 5, the robot includes a traveling mechanism 1, a carrying mechanism 2, and a lifting mechanism 5, the lifting mechanism 5 connecting the traveling mechanism 1 and the carrying mechanism 2 and configured to drive the carrying mechanism 2 to ascend or descend with respect to the traveling mechanism 1, the traveling mechanism 1 configured to travel along a traveling zone of the traveling zone, travel along a target path from a current position to a target position based on an instruction issued by the controller, and perform tasks of picking and placing goods from a bin, or picking and placing a bin from a shelf, and the like.
The running gear is similar to an automobile, and the whole structure rotates at an angle relative to the running area when the running gear turns, such as a right angle to realize vertical turning.
Referring to fig. 7 and 8, the dashed line in fig. 7 indicates a first rotation locus circle 7 of the loading mechanism 2 when the robot turns, and in general, the first rotation locus circle 7 of the loading mechanism 2 is larger than a second rotation locus circle of the lifting mechanism and the traveling mechanism.
In order to ensure normal steering of two robots positioned on two adjacent cells, the minimum running area of each cell occupied by each robot is an external quadrangle of a rotation track circle, and if a plurality of robots are arranged in a robot queue, the horizontal space of the robot queue is relatively large, and the number of robots distributed on a unit area is limited.
For this reason, referring to fig. 9 and 10, the projection portions of the first rotation locus circles 7 of the loading mechanisms 2 of two robots located at two adjacent cells in the warehouse system of the present disclosure on the traveling area overlap, as long as the projection of the first rotation locus circle 7 of the loading mechanism 2 of one robot on the traveling area does not overlap with the projection of the second rotation locus circles of the lifting mechanism 5 and the traveling mechanism of the other robot, and does not interfere.
Obviously, compared with the traditional unit cells shown in fig. 7 and 8, the area of the unit cells 6 in the travelling area of the warehousing system is obviously reduced, so that more unit cells 6 can be divided in the travelling area with the same area, more robots can be distributed, and the space utilization rate of the travelling area can be improved.
When the robots need to turn, the controller controls the carrying mechanism of one robot to ascend or descend by a preset distance relative to the carrying mechanism of the other robot in the two robots positioned in the two adjacent cells, so that the two carrying mechanisms are vertically staggered. Therefore, when two robots positioned in two adjacent cells turn, the respective carrying mechanisms are positioned at different height positions, so that position interference is avoided.
For example, taking a two-dimension code navigation robot as an example, assume that the diameter of a first rotation track circle of a carrying mechanism of the robot is about 800mm; the diameter of the second rotation locus circle of the lifting mechanism of the robot is about 600mm.
If following the conventional deployment scheme, each robot needs to occupy 800mm x 800mm cells.
Because the projection part of the first rotation track circle of the carrying mechanism of two robots positioned on two adjacent cells in the warehouse system is overlapped on the traveling area, the projection of the first rotation track circle of the carrying mechanism of one robot and the projection of the second rotation track circle of the lifting mechanism and the traveling mechanism of the other robot on the traveling area are not overlapped, and each robot needs to occupy a cell with the occupied area of 700mm by 700 mm.
With continued reference to fig. 10, the first rotation locus circle 7 of the loading mechanism 2 of one of the two robots located in two adjacent cells is tangent to the second rotation locus circle of the lifting mechanism 5 or the larger of the lifting mechanisms of the other robot.
Therefore, the gap between two robots located in two adjacent cells can be utilized more fully, so that the robots can be distributed more tightly on the basis of realizing the steering function, and the cell area occupied by each robot is further reduced.
For the robots that need to turn themselves, referring to fig. 11 and 12, when the warehouse system includes at least two groups of robot queues, the controller controls the carrying mechanisms of the robots in the two groups of robot queues located in two adjacent columns of unit cells to be vertically staggered, and the carrying mechanisms of the robots in the same group of robot queues are located at the same height. It should be noted that, as used herein, the "robot queue" refers to a queue of robots that are sequentially queued and travel in the same direction along the same straight line path, or only two robots that are suspended on two adjacent cells, where the traveling directions of the two robots may be the same or different.
When the steering is needed, referring to fig. 13, the controller controls the carrying mechanisms of two robots located in two adjacent cells of the same group of robot queues to be vertically staggered, and the controller controls the carrying mechanisms of the robots in the new robot queues to be located at the same height after the steering along the same straight line path and the new robot queues consisting of a pair of robots travelling in the same direction.
Therefore, after the area of the cell is reduced, the scheduling problem of staggered arrangement of scheduling of a plurality of robots can be skillfully solved.
In addition to the warehousing system, the present disclosure also provides a robot scheduling method suitable for the warehousing system, which is executed by a controller of the warehousing system.
It should be noted that, the specific structure and the working principle of the warehousing system are described in detail in the foregoing, and in order to keep the text concise, only specific steps of the robot operation method disclosed in the disclosure are described in detail below, and the specific structure of the warehousing system is not described again.
The robot scheduling method disclosed by the invention comprises the following steps of: when the preset conditions are met, the object carrying mechanisms of the two robots located in the two adjacent cells are controlled to be arranged vertically in a staggered mode.
The preset condition is mainly to distinguish whether the steering of the robot needs to rotate relative to the traveling area where the traveling area is located.
Example 1
When the robot turns in the travelling area, the controller controls the two vertically staggered carrying mechanisms to overlap in the projection part of the travelling area under the condition that the integral structure of the robot does not need to rotate relative to the travelling area. The structure of the robot in this case is described in the foregoing, and will not be described in detail here.
It should be noted that, based on the number and arrangement of the robot queues, for the robot that does not need to rotate the carrying mechanism to realize the steering function, two groups of robot queues located in two adjacent columns of cells are vertically staggered, the controller controls the carrying mechanisms of the robots in one group of robot queues to be higher or lower than the carrying mechanisms of the robots in the other group of robot queues, and the carrying mechanisms of two robots of two adjacent cells in the same group of robot queues can be vertically staggered and also can be kept at the same height position.
In addition, the two adjacent cells may be vertically staggered by the two robots, which are arranged in the two adjacent cells:
the first and the travelling areas are respectively provided with two robots of different types, the carrying mechanisms of the two robots are positioned at different height positions, and when the robots are queued to form a robot queue, the controller is used for arranging and combining the two robot queues to form the vertical staggered layer positions of the robots in the two groups of robot queues at least positioned in two adjacent rows of unit cells.
And secondly, the controller firstly controls the lifting mechanism to enable the corresponding carrying mechanisms of the robots to reach the preset height position based on the number and arrangement modes of the robot queues, and then at least enables the carrying mechanisms of the two groups of robot queues positioned in two adjacent rows of unit grids to be vertically staggered based on the height scheduling of the carrying mechanisms of the robots. Of course, the controller may also cause the loading mechanisms of two robots located in two adjacent cells in the same group of robot queues to be vertically staggered. The specific arrangement mode is preset by a person skilled in the art based on factors such as the area of the travelling area, the number of robots and the like.
Example two
When the robot turns in the travelling area, the whole structure of the robot needs to rotate relative to the travelling area;
when the robots need to turn, the carrying mechanism of one robot in the two robots positioned in the two adjacent cells is controlled to ascend or descend by a preset distance relative to the carrying mechanism of the other robot, so that the two carrying mechanisms are vertically staggered.
Example III
When the warehousing system comprises at least two groups of robot queues and the robots are turned in the travelling area, the whole structure of the robots needs to rotate relative to the travelling area;
controlling the vertical staggered arrangement of the carrying mechanisms of the robots in the two groups of robot queues positioned in two adjacent rows of unit grids, wherein the carrying mechanisms of the robots in the same group of robot queues are positioned at the same height;
when the robot is required to turn, controlling the vertical staggered arrangement of the carrying mechanisms of two robots positioned in two adjacent cells of the same group of robot queues, turning to a new robot queue formed by a group of robots travelling in the same direction along the same straight line path, controlling the staggered arrangement of the carrying mechanisms of the two groups of robot queues positioned in two adjacent cells, and enabling the carrying mechanisms of the robots in the new same group of robot queues to be positioned at the same height;
the robot queues are a queue of robots which are sequentially queued and travel along the same straight line path in the same direction, or are only two robots which are suspended on two adjacent cells, and the traveling directions of the two robots can be the same or different.
The foregoing description of the embodiments of the present disclosure has been presented for purposes of illustration and description, and is not intended to be exhaustive or limited to the embodiments disclosed. Many modifications and variations will be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art without departing from the scope and spirit of the various embodiments described. The terminology used herein was chosen in order to best explain the principles of the embodiments, the practical application, or the technical improvements in the marketplace, or to enable others of ordinary skill in the art to understand the embodiments disclosed herein. The scope of the present disclosure is defined by the appended claims.
Claims (12)
1. A warehousing system, the warehousing system comprising:
a travel zone divided into a plurality of cells;
at least two robots configured to travel along a travel zone, each robot occupying one of the cells;
and the controller is configured to control the vertical staggered arrangement of the carrying mechanisms of the two robots positioned on the two adjacent cells when the preset condition is met, wherein the carrying mechanisms are configured for placing cargoes.
2. The warehousing system of claim 1 wherein the controller controls the projected portions of the two vertically staggered loading mechanisms to overlap in the travel zone without the robot's own overall structure having to rotate relative to the travel zone when the robot is steering in the travel zone.
3. The warehousing system of claim 2 wherein the robot includes:
a travel mechanism configured to travel in the travel zone;
a load platform configured to carry cargo;
a lifting mechanism configured to connect the carrying mechanism and the travelling mechanism and drive the carrying mechanism to rise or fall relative to the travelling mechanism;
the controller is configured to control the lifting mechanism to enable the corresponding carrying mechanism of the robot to reach a preset height position, and at least enable the carrying mechanisms of two groups of robot queues located in two adjacent columns of unit grids to be vertically staggered based on the height scheduling of the carrying mechanism of the robot, and enable the carrying mechanisms of two robots located in two adjacent units in the same group of robot queues to be vertically staggered or located in the same height position, wherein each group of robot queues comprises at least two robots.
4. The warehousing system of claim 1 wherein the robot includes:
the travelling mechanism is configured to travel in the travelling area and rotate to drive the robot to turn;
a load platform configured to carry cargo;
a lifting mechanism configured to connect the carrying mechanism and the travelling mechanism and drive the carrying mechanism to rise or fall relative to the travelling mechanism;
the projection parts of the first rotation track circles of the carrying mechanisms of two robots positioned on two adjacent unit grids on the travelling area are overlapped, and the projection of the first rotation track circles of the carrying mechanisms of one robot on the travelling area is not overlapped with the projection of the second rotation track circles of the lifting mechanisms of the other robot.
5. The warehousing system of claim 4 wherein the first rotation locus circle of the loading mechanism of one robot located adjacent two of the cells is tangent to the second rotation locus circle of the lifting mechanism of the other robot.
6. The warehousing system of claim 4 or 5 wherein the controller is configured to control the loading mechanism of one robot located in two adjacent cells to rise or fall a predetermined distance relative to the loading mechanism of the other robot so that the two loading mechanisms are vertically staggered.
7. The warehousing system of claim 4 or 5 wherein the controller is configured to control the vertical staggered arrangement of the load mechanisms of robots in two groups of robot queues located in adjacent two columns of cells, and the load mechanisms of robots in the same group of robot queues are located at the same height;
the robot queue refers to a queue of robots which are sequentially queued and travel in the same direction along the same straight line path.
8. The warehousing system of claim 7 wherein when steering is required, the controller is configured to control the vertical staggered arrangement of the loading mechanisms of two robots of the same group of robot queues located in two adjacent cells, control the staggered arrangement of the loading mechanisms of two groups of robot queues of the two adjacent columns of cells again, and enable the loading mechanisms of robots in the new same group of robot queues to be located at the same height.
9. A robot scheduling method, suitable for the warehousing system according to any one of claims 1 to 8, comprising the steps of:
when the preset conditions are met, the object carrying mechanisms of the two robots located in the two adjacent cells are controlled to be arranged vertically in a staggered mode.
10. The robot scheduling method of claim 9, wherein the step of controlling the vertical staggered arrangement of the carrier mechanisms of the two robots located in the adjacent two cells when the preset condition is satisfied comprises:
when the robot turns in the travelling area, the projection parts of the two carrying mechanisms for controlling the vertical staggered layers are overlapped under the condition that the integral structure of the robot does not need to rotate relative to the travelling area.
11. The robot scheduling method of claim 9, wherein the step of controlling the vertical staggered arrangement of the carrier mechanisms of the two robots located in the adjacent two cells when the preset condition is satisfied comprises:
when the robot turns in the travelling area, the whole structure of the robot needs to rotate relative to the travelling area;
when the robots need to turn, the carrying mechanism of one robot positioned on two adjacent cells is controlled to ascend or descend by a preset distance relative to the carrying mechanism of the other robot, so that the two carrying mechanisms are vertically staggered.
12. The robot scheduling method of claim 9, wherein the step of controlling the vertical staggered arrangement of the carrier mechanisms of the two robots located in the adjacent two cells when the preset condition is satisfied comprises:
when the warehousing system comprises at least two groups of robot queues and the robots are turned in the travelling area, the whole structure of the robots needs to rotate relative to the travelling area;
controlling the vertical staggered arrangement of the carrying mechanisms of the robots in the two groups of robot queues positioned in two adjacent rows of unit grids, wherein the carrying mechanisms of the robots in the same group of robot queues are positioned at the same height;
when the robot is required to turn, controlling the vertical staggered arrangement of the carrying mechanisms of two robots positioned in two adjacent cells of the same group of robot queues, turning to a new robot queue formed by a group of robots travelling in the same direction along the same straight line path, controlling the staggered arrangement of the carrying mechanisms of the two groups of robot queues positioned in two adjacent cells, and enabling the carrying mechanisms of the robots in the new same group of robot queues to be positioned at the same height;
the robot queue refers to a queue of robots which are sequentially queued and travel along the same straight line path in the same direction.
Priority Applications (2)
| Application Number | Priority Date | Filing Date | Title |
|---|---|---|---|
| CN202210801089.6A CN117401326A (en) | 2022-07-08 | 2022-07-08 | Warehouse system and robot scheduling method |
| PCT/CN2023/092304 WO2024007716A1 (en) | 2022-07-08 | 2023-05-05 | Warehousing system and robot dispatching method |
Applications Claiming Priority (1)
| Application Number | Priority Date | Filing Date | Title |
|---|---|---|---|
| CN202210801089.6A CN117401326A (en) | 2022-07-08 | 2022-07-08 | Warehouse system and robot scheduling method |
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| Publication Number | Publication Date |
|---|---|
| CN117401326A true CN117401326A (en) | 2024-01-16 |
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| Application Number | Title | Priority Date | Filing Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| CN202210801089.6A Pending CN117401326A (en) | 2022-07-08 | 2022-07-08 | Warehouse system and robot scheduling method |
Country Status (2)
| Country | Link |
|---|---|
| CN (1) | CN117401326A (en) |
| WO (1) | WO2024007716A1 (en) |
Family Cites Families (8)
| Publication number | Priority date | Publication date | Assignee | Title |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| JPS6160505A (en) * | 1984-09-03 | 1986-03-28 | Hitachi Ltd | Stacker crane |
| JPH0517010A (en) * | 1991-02-25 | 1993-01-26 | Murata Mach Ltd | Stacker crane |
| JP3198755B2 (en) * | 1993-09-27 | 2001-08-13 | 村田機械株式会社 | Stacker crane |
| JP2004277167A (en) * | 2003-03-19 | 2004-10-07 | Hitachi Kiden Kogyo Ltd | Back up method of plurality of stacker cranes operated in automatic warehouse |
| JP4084240B2 (en) * | 2003-05-26 | 2008-04-30 | 株式会社日立プラントテクノロジー | Operation method of stacker crane in automatic warehouse |
| JP2005104675A (en) * | 2003-09-30 | 2005-04-21 | Daifuku Logistic Technology:Kk | Automatic warehouse |
| JP6597061B2 (en) * | 2014-09-02 | 2019-10-30 | 株式会社ダイフク | Goods transport equipment |
| CN109231082A (en) * | 2018-11-15 | 2019-01-18 | 北京特种机械研究所 | A kind of omnidirectional's stacking order-picking trucks |
-
2022
- 2022-07-08 CN CN202210801089.6A patent/CN117401326A/en active Pending
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- 2023-05-05 WO PCT/CN2023/092304 patent/WO2024007716A1/en unknown
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| WO2024007716A1 (en) | 2024-01-11 |
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