CN209918349U

CN209918349U - Delivery device, sorting field and sorting system

Info

Publication number: CN209918349U
Application number: CN201822101328.9U
Authority: CN
Inventors: 周绸
Original assignee: Hangzhou Haikang Robot Technology Co Ltd
Current assignee: Hangzhou Hikrobot Co Ltd
Priority date: 2018-12-14
Filing date: 2018-12-14
Publication date: 2020-01-10
Anticipated expiration: 2028-12-14

Abstract

The utility model discloses a deliver device, letter sorting place and letter sorting system, it includes to deliver the device: the delivery lattice openings are formed in the upper layer field of the sorting field; a delivery container movably arranged on a lower floor of the sorting floor and arranged in correspondence with the delivery bay such that a parcel can fall from the delivery bay into the delivery container; and the upper delivery trolley and the lower delivery trolley run on the upper floor and the lower floor of the sorting floor respectively to deliver the packages to the delivery grids and the delivery containers respectively. Therefore, the parcel sorting can be carried out on the upper layer field and the lower layer field simultaneously, and the operation efficiency is improved.

Description

Delivery device, sorting field and sorting system

Technical Field

The utility model relates to a logistics distribution field, more specifically say, relate to a deliver device, letter sorting place and letter sorting system.

Background

In electricity merchant storehouse joining in marriage, express delivery commodity circulation field, rely on manual work to accomplish the letter sorting and the sending of express delivery basically, the amount of manual labor is big to the mistake is appeared easily and is divided, the hourglass divides the phenomenon, and administrative cost is higher, is difficult to satisfy the requirement of letter sorting efficiency and rate of accuracy. The sorting equipment used at present is poor in flexibility, large-scale infrastructures such as steel platforms need to be built, the site implementation requirement is high, and the later maintenance or capacity expansion cost is high. In addition, sorting destination slots are fixed and cannot effectively sort hot-wave express items.

Traditional electricity merchant storehouse is joined in marriage, express delivery commodity circulation field, relies on manual work to accomplish the letter sorting and the sending of express delivery basically, and the amount of labour is big, appears the mistake easily moreover and divides, leaks to divide the phenomenon, is difficult to satisfy the requirement of letter sorting efficiency and rate of accuracy to administrative cost is higher. Traditional letter sorting equipment flexibility is relatively poor, only sorts at the individual layer, and space utilization is lower, and letter sorting efficiency is lower.

SUMMERY OF THE UTILITY MODEL

According to the utility model discloses an embodiment provides a delivery device, delivery device includes: the delivery lattice openings are formed in the upper layer field of the sorting field; a delivery container movably arranged on a lower floor of the sorting floor and arranged in correspondence with the delivery bay such that a parcel can fall from the delivery bay into the delivery container; and the upper delivery trolley and the lower delivery trolley run on the upper floor and the lower floor of the sorting floor respectively to deliver the packages to the delivery grids and the delivery containers respectively.

Optionally, an upper layer passage channel allowing the upper layer delivery trolley to pass through is formed between two adjacent rows of delivery grids on the upper layer site, and the width of the upper layer passage channel allows at least one upper layer delivery trolley to pass through in parallel; and a lower layer passage channel allowing the lower layer delivery vehicles to pass through is formed between the delivery containers in two adjacent rows on the lower layer field, and the width of the lower layer passage channel allows at least one lower layer delivery vehicle to pass through in parallel.

Optionally, on the upper floor, an upper passage channel allowing the upper delivery trolley to pass through is formed between every two rows of the delivery grids, and the width of the upper passage channel allows at least one upper delivery trolley to pass through in parallel; on the lower floor, a lower floor passage channel allowing the lower floor delivery vehicles to pass through is formed between every two rows of the delivery containers, and the width of the lower floor passage channel allows at least one lower floor delivery vehicle to pass through in parallel.

Optionally, ground guide marks are arranged on the upper passage channel of the upper floor and the lower passage channel of the lower floor, so that the upper delivery trolley and the lower delivery trolley move along the ground guide marks.

Optionally, a guide chute is provided below the delivery bay, the guide chute extending to the delivery container such that packages delivered from the delivery bay can fall along the guide chute into a delivery container.

Optionally, the lower and upper delivery carts each comprise a package holder for picking up and holding a package, wherein the package holder of the lower delivery cart has a height above the opening position of the delivery container or the package holder can be lifted above the opening position of the delivery container.

Optionally, the lower delivery trolley comprises a walking part, a plurality of columns vertically arranged on the walking part and a package holding part arranged on the tops of the columns, wherein the height of the package holding part is higher than the height of the opening position of the delivery container, and the package holding part can carry the package and turn over to deliver the package into the delivery container.

Optionally, the parcel holding section of the lower delivery trolley is higher than the parcel holding section of the upper delivery trolley.

Optionally, the lower delivery trolley comprises a sensor for sensing whether a parcel in the delivery container has reached a predetermined capacity.

Optionally, the upper layer delivery trolley and/or the lower layer delivery trolley comprises a flip robot or a belt conveyor robot with a flip function.

Optionally, a bag transfer aisle is provided at the bottom of the delivery container to allow bag transfer carts to enter to allow bag transfer carts to move therethrough to the bottom of the delivery container for removal from the delivery container.

According to another embodiment of the present invention, there is provided a sorting system, the sorting system comprises the above delivering device, the sorting system further comprises: a package handling cart capable of handling the delivery containers to a package packing area and capable of handling empty delivery containers to a sorting floor for packing packages within the delivery containers together; and the dispatching unit is used for controlling the operation of the lower layer delivery trolley, the upper layer delivery trolley and the bag collecting and carrying trolley.

Optionally, the bag handling cart comprises a lifting robot or a twin drum robot.

According to the utility model discloses a further embodiment, still provide a letter sorting place for letter sorting system, letter sorting place includes: the upper-layer site is provided with delivery grids, and an upper-layer passing channel is formed between at least two rows of adjacent delivery grids so as to allow an upper-layer delivery trolley to pass through; the lower floor is provided with delivery container placing positions for placing delivery containers, the delivery containers are movably arranged on the lower floor, and a lower floor passage channel is formed between at least two rows of adjacent delivery container placing positions in the horizontal plane where the delivery container placing positions are located so as to allow lower floor delivery trolleys to pass through.

Optionally, the upper passage channel is formed between the delivery grids in two adjacent rows, and the width of the upper passage channel allows at least one upper delivery trolley to pass through in parallel; the lower passage channel is formed between two adjacent rows of delivery containers, and the width of the lower passage channel allows at least one lower delivery trolley to pass through in parallel.

Optionally, the upper passage channel is formed between every two rows of the delivery gates, and the width of the upper passage channel allows at least one upper delivery trolley to pass through in parallel; the lower passage channel is formed between every two rows of the delivery containers and has a width allowing at least one lower delivery trolley to pass in parallel.

Optionally, the lower yard further comprises a bag transfer passage extending through the delivery container placement location to allow a bag transfer trolley to be moved therethrough to the bottom of the delivery container to be removed from the delivery container.

According to the utility model discloses a further embodiment still provides a letter sorting system, letter sorting system includes above-mentioned letter sorting place, letter sorting system further includes: the delivery lattice openings are formed in the upper layer field of the sorting field; a delivery container movably arranged on a lower floor of the sorting floor and arranged in correspondence with the delivery bay such that a parcel can fall from the delivery bay into the delivery container; the upper layer delivery trolley and the lower layer delivery trolley respectively run on an upper layer field and a lower layer field of the sorting field to respectively deliver the packages to the delivery cell and the delivery container; a package handling cart that handles the delivery containers to a package packing area and is capable of handling empty delivery containers to the sorting floor to pack packages within the delivery containers together; and the dispatching unit is used for controlling the operation of the upper layer delivery trolley, the lower layer delivery trolley and the bag collecting and carrying trolley.

Optionally, the upper and lower delivery carts comprise package holders for picking up and holding packages, wherein the package holders of the lower delivery carts have a height above the opening position of the delivery containers or the package holders can be lifted above the opening position of the delivery containers.

Optionally, the delivery trolley comprises a sensor for sensing whether a package within the delivery container reaches a predetermined volume.

Optionally, the upper layer delivery trolley and/or the lower layer delivery trolley comprises a flip robot or a belt conveyor robot with a turning function, and the bag collecting and carrying trolley comprises a lifting robot or a double-roller robot.

Optionally, the bottom of the delivery container is provided with a bag transfer passage allowing the bag transfer trolley to enter to allow the bag transfer trolley to move therethrough to the bottom of the delivery container to be removed from the delivery container.

Through the utility model provides a deliver device and letter sorting system can utilize different machine equipment to accomplish the letter sorting operation in coordination on two places from top to bottom simultaneously, for example deliver and collect the encapsulation operation, in upper place, deliver the dolly and deliver the parcel and deliver the check mouth and then the parcel falls into the container of delivering on the lower floor's place, can carry out a packet operation after the container of delivering of lower floor is full, deliver through upper and lower two-layer simultaneously, show to have improved the operating efficiency, shortened the letter sorting time. In addition, in the letter sorting in-process, the delivery address that delivery container corresponds and arrange the position and can carry out the adaptability adjustment based on real-time letter sorting situation, realize high-efficient letter sorting, transport and delivery operation according to the cold and hot degree of parcel flow direction to can realize intelligent letter sorting, show and shorten the letter sorting time, and further improve letter sorting efficiency.

Drawings

The following drawings are only schematic illustrations and explanations of the present invention, and do not limit the scope of the present invention.

Fig. 1 is a schematic diagram of a portion of a double deck sortation system in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 2 is a schematic diagram of another portion of a double deck sortation system in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

The reference numbers illustrate:

11: lower floor, 12: upper field, 100: sorting system, 110: delivery container, 122: upper delivery trolley, 121: a lower delivery trolley; 130: bag collecting and conveying trolley, 141: lower passage, 142: upper passage, 150: and delivering the lattice.

Detailed Description

In order to clearly understand the technical features, objects, and effects of the present invention, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which like reference numerals refer to like parts in the drawings.

For the sake of simplicity, the drawings only schematically show the parts relevant to the present invention, and do not represent the actual structure as a product. In addition, in order to make the drawings concise and understandable, components having the same structure or function in some of the drawings are only schematically illustrated or only labeled.

According to the utility model discloses an embodiment, referring to fig. 1 and fig. 2, provide a letter sorting system 100 for sorting parcel, this letter sorting system 100 can be used for sending the parcel to various places in the warehouse to classify and stack and encapsulate including the letter sorting place. The sorting system 100 can be applied to various scenes such as electronic distribution, rapid logistics or manufacturer distribution and the like which need to sort and stack a large number of goods or articles.

The sorting floor may include a lower floor 11 and an upper floor 12 at a height above the lower floor. An upper table is also provided within the sorting yard onto which packages within the warehouse may be conveyed via various suitable conveying devices (e.g., cranes, elevators, slides, pipes or conveyors, etc.). The piece feeding table can be provided in a plurality in the sorting field so as to perform sorting operation more quickly. For example, in the example of fig. 1, two upper stages may be provided. In one example, an upper table may be provided on each of the lower floor 11 and the upper floor 12 to deliver packages to the sorting floor.

The sortation system 100 may include a delivery device, a bag handling cart 130, and a dispatch unit. The delivery device may be used to pick up packages from the loading station and to perform a sorted delivery of the packages according to the delivery address affixed to the packages. The delivery device may include a plurality of delivery bays 150, and the delivery bays 150 may be open to the upper floor 12. For example, the delivery bays 150 may be arranged substantially in rows. Each delivery bay 150 may be matched with a delivery destination information so that packages corresponding to the delivery destination information can be received. A plurality of delivery vehicles (which may be referred to as upper delivery vehicles) 122 are also provided on the upper yard 12, and these upper delivery vehicles 122 may travel freely on the upper yard to enable delivery of packages to the delivery bay 150 corresponding to the delivery destination information.

The delivery device may further comprise a plurality of delivery containers 110, which delivery containers 110 may be arranged in rows within the lower floor 11, and each delivery container 110 is movable within the lower floor 11. The delivery containers 110 are each matched with information for a delivery destination that may hold packages having the same delivery address as the delivery destination. Delivery container 110 may be in the form of a cabinet or other container suitable for holding or containing packages. A plurality of delivery vehicles (which may be referred to as lower delivery vehicles) 121 are also provided on the lower floor 12, and these lower delivery vehicles 121 may freely travel on the lower floor 12 to enable delivery of the packages to the delivery containers 110 corresponding to the delivery destination information.

The delivery bays 150 and delivery containers 110 may be arranged in correspondence with each other, or in one-to-one correspondence, so that packages can fall into the delivery containers 110 on the lower floor 11 after being delivered from the upper floor 12 to the delivery bays 150.

Both the upper delivery vehicles 122 and the lower delivery vehicles 121, which run on the upper and

lower floors

12 and 11, respectively, can pick up a package from the upper table, and identify the delivery destination of the picked-up package, and then move on the upper and

lower floors

12 and 11, respectively, according to the delivery address information identified on the package, thereby delivering the package to the delivery container 110 and the delivery bay 150 corresponding to the destination information. Wherein, when the lower delivery trolley 121 running on the lower ground 11 delivers towards the delivery container 110, the lower delivery trolley 121 can deliver the parcel to the opening position higher than the delivery container 110, thereby ensuring the parcel is delivered smoothly.

In one embodiment, the upper delivery cart 122 and the lower delivery cart 121 may each be provided with a scanner for scanning a speed slip affixed to a package to identify destination information to which the package is to be sent.

For the lower floor 11, the delivery containers 110 may be arranged in a substantially matrix form, and the aisles between two adjacent rows of delivery containers 110 in their horizontal and vertical arrangement may be formed as lower level traffic aisles 141, or the lower level traffic aisles 141 may include aisles in both horizontal and vertical directions to allow the lower level delivery vehicles 121 to move therethrough in both horizontal and vertical directions. Thus, for each delivery container 110, packages may be delivered toward it from any of its angular orientations around its perimeter. The lower passage way 141 has a width allowing passage of at least one lower delivery car 121. For example, the width of the lower passage lane 141 may be set to allow two lower delivery vehicles 121 to pass in parallel, the lower delivery vehicles 121 passing in parallel may deliver packages towards two rows of delivery containers 110 on either side of the lane, respectively. Alternatively, in another embodiment, the lanes between each two rows of delivery containers 110 may be arranged in one of the arrangement directions (e.g., vertical direction) as a lower transit lane 141 allowing passage of lower delivery vehicles 121, while in another arrangement direction, such as horizontal direction, a lower transit lane 141 extending in the horizontal direction may be formed between each two adjacent rows of delivery containers 110, and the width of the lower transit lanes 141 extending in the horizontal and vertical directions may each be arranged to allow passage of at least one lower delivery vehicle 121. Thus, for each delivery container 110, packages may be delivered toward it from three angular orientations around it. For example, in this embodiment, the width of the lower passage way 141 may be set to allow two lower delivery vehicles 121 to pass in parallel, which two lower delivery vehicles 121 may deliver packages towards two rows of delivery containers 110 on either side of the way, respectively.

Similarly, for the upper floor 12, the delivery bays 150 may be arranged generally in a matrix, and the aisles between two adjacent rows of delivery bays 150 in their horizontal and vertical arrangement may be formed as upper level traffic aisles 142, or the upper level traffic aisles 142 may include both horizontal and vertical aisles to allow the upper level delivery vehicles 122 to move therethrough in both the horizontal and vertical directions. Thus, for each delivery bay 150, packages may be delivered toward it from any of its four angular orientations. The upper level passage way 142 has a width allowing passage of at least one (e.g. two) upper level delivery vehicles 122, and the upper level delivery vehicles 122 passing in parallel may deliver packages towards two rows of delivery bays 150 on both sides of the way, respectively. Alternatively, in another embodiment, the aisle between each two rows of delivery bays 150 may be arranged in one of the arrangement directions (e.g., vertical direction) as an upper passage aisle 142 allowing passage of upper delivery carts 122, while in another arrangement direction, such as horizontal direction, an upper passage aisle 142 extending in the horizontal direction may be formed between each two adjacent rows of delivery bays 150, and the width of the upper passage aisle 142 extending in the horizontal and vertical directions may each be arranged to allow passage of at least one (e.g., two) upper delivery carts 122, with parallel upper delivery carts 122 being able to deliver packages towards the two rows of delivery bays 150 on either side of the aisle, respectively. Thus, for each delivery bay 150, packages may be delivered toward it from three angular orientations around it.

It should be understood that delivery bays 150, delivery containers 110 and corresponding transit lanes may take other arrangements than the specific above, so long as each delivery bay 150 and delivery container 110 has at least one peripheral adjacent transit lane allowing a delivery vehicle to drop a package thereto. For example, delivery bays 150 and delivery containers 110 may be arranged in groups of four, wherein each of the four delivery containers 110 and four delivery bays 150 may be generally rectangular in shape, as defined by four "mouths".

In one embodiment, a guide chute may be provided between the delivery bay 150 and the delivery containers 110, which guide chute may extend downwardly from the delivery bay 150 on the upper floor 12 to the delivery containers 110 on the lower floor 11. After the upper delivery trolley 122 delivers the packages to the delivery bay 150 at the upper floor 12, the packages may slide down the guide chute and fall into the delivery containers 110. Of course, in this case, the delivery destination information of the delivery bay 150 and the delivery container 110 corresponding to each other is the same, avoiding the presence of packages with different delivery addresses in the same delivery container 110.

Ground guide marks can be further arranged on the upper-layer passage channel 142 and the lower-layer passage channel 141, the ground guide marks can be arrow posts stuck on the ground, two-dimensional codes stuck on the ground, magnetic nails arranged on the ground and the like, or infrared emitters can be arranged at the ends of the channels, so that the respective delivery trolleys can move along the ground guide marks or infrared rays emitted by the infrared emitters, and the disorder of the moving track of the delivery trolleys is avoided, and the delivery trolleys can move forward along a preset path.

As described above, the delivery containers 110 arranged on the lower floor 11 are each assigned with respective delivery destination information, and in one embodiment, the delivery destination information with which the delivery containers 110 are assigned is adjustable, and the positions at which they are arranged in the lower floor 11 are also adjustable. That is, the scheduling unit may adjust the delivery destination information of each delivery container 110 and the arrangement position at the lower yard 11 in real time based on the package information currently delivered from the warehouse.

It should be noted that in the case described above or in the case where adjustment is required as described below, after the adjustment of the delivery destination information of the delivery container 110, the delivery destination information matched by the corresponding delivery bay 150 is also adjusted accordingly so that the delivery destination information of the delivery container 110 and the delivery bay 150 arranged in pair is always the same.

In particular, since the delivery addresses for a plurality of packages transferred from within a warehouse may be based on historical sort data or real-time sort data, there may be substantially hot delivery addresses and cold delivery addresses. For example, for e-commerce warehouse distribution, certain areas have higher consumption capacity, corresponding to more online shopping events, and the number of packages sent to these areas is larger or the quantity of the packages in a batch is larger, such as large and medium cities like beijing, shanghai, and the like. Conversely, there may also be regions where there are fewer purchase events. To improve sorting efficiency, those areas with a high number of packages may be categorized as hot delivery addresses and those areas with a low number of packages may be categorized as cold delivery addresses. For packages destined for a hot delivery address, it is possible that the number of all packages delivered to the pick-up station is also substantial.

Thus, when arranging delivery containers 110 at the lower floor 11, the number of delivery containers 110 matching the hot delivery address may be set larger, while the number of delivery containers 110 matching the cold delivery address may be set smaller, in order to allocate resources reasonably.

Further, more delivery containers 110 corresponding to the hot delivery addresses may be provided based on the hot delivery addresses and the cold delivery addresses, and correspondingly, fewer delivery containers 110 corresponding to the cold delivery addresses may be provided to reduce sorting time. In addition, during the sorting delivery, data statistics may also be performed on the previously performed package sorting operation to obtain the hot delivery address information, and the scheduling unit may adjust the number of delivery containers 110 corresponding to the hot delivery addresses in real time based on the obtained information. At the same time, the delivery bay 150 may be similarly adjusted.

That is, in the real-time sorting process, the scheduling unit may modify delivery destination information of the delivery containers 110 and the delivery bays 150 corresponding to other delivery addresses to hot delivery address information, thereby increasing the number of delivery containers 110 and delivery bays 150 corresponding to the hot delivery addresses. Besides, the dispatching unit can set the arrangement positions of the delivery containers 110 and the delivery grids 150 corresponding to the hot door delivery addresses to be close to the upper piece table in the sorting field, so that the packages are delivered from the upper piece table to the corresponding delivery containers 110 and the delivery grids 150 by using the delivery trolleys as fast as possible, the sorting efficiency is further improved, and the operation time is shortened.

At the same time, the scheduling unit may also adjust the position of other delivery containers 110 in real time, e.g., the positions of delivery containers 110 and delivery bays 150 corresponding to cold door delivery addresses may be located away from the upper desk, while allowing a relatively large number of delivery containers 110 and delivery bays 150 corresponding to other delivery addresses to be located closer to the upper desk. In some embodiments, the dispatch unit may even dispatch delivery containers 110 for cold delivery addresses off the sorting floor to centrally sort packages for hot addresses.

It should be noted that during the above-described destination information adjustments to delivery containers 110 and delivery bays 150, the adjustments made by the scheduling unit may be based on real-time sort data, but also based on historical sort data (e.g., current year sort data, etc.).

In addition, on the sorting field, some spare delivery containers can be additionally arranged, and when the number of packages at the hot door delivery destination is increased, the spare delivery containers can be upgraded to correspond to the hot door delivery address to participate in the package sorting operation.

In one embodiment, the delivery trolleys on the upper and lower floors can be any suitable machine equipment such as a flip robot or a belt conveyor robot with a turning function, or can be traveling cranes and the like. Both the upper and lower delivery carts may include a package holder for picking up or automatically receiving and holding packages, e.g. packages picked up from an upper table may be placed on the package holder. In one embodiment, when a delivery is made at the upper yard 12, the delivery bay 150 is opened directly at the upper yard 12 so that it is substantially level with the upper yard 12, so that the upper delivery trolley 122 may be a lower delivery trolley with lower requirements on the height of its parcel holding section, i.e., the parcel holding section of the upper delivery trolley 122 may be set relatively low. When delivering on the lower floor 11, the opening position of the delivery bay 110 has a certain height, the parcel holding part of the lower delivery trolley 121 needs to be higher than the opening position to complete the delivery smoothly, therefore, the lower delivery trolley 121 can adopt a high-position delivery trolley, that is, the parcel holding part can be set relatively higher than the opening position of the delivery bay 110, or the parcel holding part can be lifted to the opening position higher than the delivery container 110, thereby the parcel can be delivered to the delivery container 110 when the lower delivery trolley 121 walks around the corresponding delivery container 110. That is, the parcel holding section of the lower delivery trolley 121 is higher than the parcel holding section of the upper delivery trolley 122.

For example, in one embodiment, the lower delivery trolley 121 may comprise a walking portion and a plurality of uprights vertically arranged on the walking portion, on top of which uprights are further arranged parcel holders having a height above the opening position of the delivery containers 110. For example, in the present example, the package holders may be flip boards that can be flipped over, on which the packages are carried when they are received, and flipped over when the lower delivery trolley 121 travels to a predetermined delivery container 110, thereby delivering the packages into the delivery container 110, completing the package sortation. Alternatively, in other examples, the package holder may also be a belt, by which the packages may be delivered into the delivery container 110.

At least the lower delivery trolleys 121 may also be provided with sensors for detecting whether the packages that have been dropped into the delivery containers 110 have reached a predetermined capacity and for sending corresponding information to the dispatch unit. If the sensor detects that the volume of the package has not reached the predetermined volume, delivery of the package continues into the delivery container 110. If it is detected that the volume of the package exceeds a predetermined volume, subsequent package packaging operations may be performed, as described in more detail below.

In the embodiment of the present invention, the delivery containers 110 of the delivery system 100 can be transported to the parcel sealing area 30 to be sealed by a plurality of parcel carrying trolleys 130, and empty delivery containers 110 can be transported from the parcel sealing area 30 or other areas to return to the designated position of the sorting field. In this embodiment, the bag handling cart 130 may be provided only on the lower yard 11.

At the bottom of the delivery container 110 a space is provided to allow the bag handling trolley 130 to pass through it. Alternatively stated, the bottom of the delivery container 110 may be formed as a bag transfer lane to which the bag transfer trolley 130 may travel from the transit lane 140, the bag transfer trolley 130 may transfer the delivery container 110 off from below the delivery container 110 and transfer the delivery container 110 to the bag collection area as the bag transfer trolley 130 moves beneath the delivery container 110.

For example, after sensors on the lower delivery vehicles 121 detect that the volume of packages within a delivery container 110 has reached a predetermined volume, the dispatch unit may command the pallet transport 130 to transport the delivery container 110 to the package packing area 30, to pack or case packages addressed to the same address, and may then transport the empty delivery container 110 back to the original location of the sorting yard or other location after adjustment to continue the sorting operation, thereby forming a dynamic sorting cycle.

The bag handling cart 130 may be any suitable machine for carrying out handling operations, such as a lift robot or a twin-roll robot.

According to another embodiment of the present invention, there is also provided a sorting floor for a sorting system to perform a sorting operation, which may include a lower floor 11 and an upper floor 12 at a certain height above the lower floor. A plurality of delivery bays 150 may be formed in the upper floor 12, and the delivery bays 150 may be arranged in rows. A plurality of delivery container deposit locations may be provided on the lower floor 11 for depositing delivery containers 110, wherein the delivery containers 110 are movably arranged on the lower floor 11, i.e. can be moved from one delivery container deposit location to another. Additionally, on the upper yard 12, an upper level passage way 142 may be formed between at least two adjacent rows of delivery bays 150 to allow upper level delivery vehicles 122 to pass therethrough to deliver packages into the delivery bays 150. On the lower floor 11, a lower passage way 141 may be formed in the horizontal plane of the delivery container deposit locations between at least two adjacent rows of delivery container deposit locations to allow lower delivery trolleys 121 to pass therethrough for delivering packages into the delivery containers 110 placed on the delivery container deposit locations.

For the lower floor 11, the delivery container placement locations may be arranged substantially in a matrix, and the aisles between two adjacent rows of delivery container placement locations may be formed as lower level traffic aisles 141 in both horizontal and vertical directions of arrangement, or alternatively, the lower level traffic aisles 141 may include aisles in both horizontal and vertical directions to allow the lower level delivery cars 121 to move therethrough in both horizontal and vertical directions. Thus, for each delivery container 110 disposed in the delivery container deposit location, packages may be delivered thereto from any angular orientation about its circumference. The lower passage way 141 has a width allowing passage of at least one lower delivery car 121. For example, the width of the lower passage lane 141 may be set to allow two lower delivery vehicles 121 to pass in parallel, the lower delivery vehicles 121 passing in parallel may deliver packages towards two rows of delivery containers 110 on either side of the lane, respectively. Alternatively, in another embodiment, the aisles between each two rows of delivery container placement locations may be arranged in one of the arrangement directions (e.g., vertical direction) as lower level passage aisles 141 allowing passage of lower level delivery vehicles 121, while in another arrangement direction, such as horizontal direction, lower level passage aisles 141 extending in the horizontal direction may be formed between two adjacent rows of delivery container placement locations, and the width of the lower level passage aisles 141 extending in the horizontal and vertical directions may each be arranged to allow passage of at least one lower level delivery vehicle 121. Thus, for each delivery container 110, packages may be delivered toward it from three angular orientations around it. For example, in this embodiment, the width of the lower passage way 141 may be set to allow two lower delivery vehicles 121 to pass in parallel, which two lower delivery vehicles 121 may deliver packages towards two rows of delivery containers 110 on either side of the way, respectively.

In addition, on the lower yard 11, there may be further provided a bag transfer passage extending through the delivery container placing locations, through which the bag transfer trolley 130 may travel to the bottom of the delivery containers 110, so that the delivery containers 110 may be transferred to the bag collecting area.

On the upper passage channel 142 and the lower passage channel 141, ground guide marks can be further arranged, the ground guide marks can be arrow posts stuck on the ground, two-dimensional codes stuck on the ground, magnetic nails arranged on the ground and the like, or infrared emitters can be arranged at the ends of the channels, so that the delivery trolleys on the respective sites can move along the infrared rays emitted by the ground guide marks or the infrared emitters, and the disorder of the moving track of the delivery trolleys is avoided, and the delivery trolleys can move forward along a preset path.

According to another embodiment of the present invention, there is also provided a sorting system, which may comprise the sorting field in the above embodiment and the delivery bays 150, the delivery containers 110, the delivery carts, the bag handling carts 130 and the dispatching units described in detail above.

The sorting floor may include a lower floor 11 and an upper floor 12 at a height above the lower floor. A plurality of delivery bays 150 may be formed in the upper floor 12, and the delivery bays 150 may be arranged in rows. A plurality of delivery container deposit locations may be provided on the lower floor 11 for depositing delivery containers 110, wherein the delivery containers 110 are movably arranged on the lower floor 11, i.e. can be moved from one delivery container deposit location to another. Additionally, on the upper yard 12, an upper level passage way 142 may be formed between at least two adjacent rows of delivery bays 150 to allow upper level delivery vehicles 122 to pass therethrough to deliver packages into the delivery bays 150. On the lower floor 11, a lower passage way 141 may be formed in the horizontal plane of the delivery container deposit locations between at least two adjacent rows of delivery container deposit locations to allow lower delivery trolleys 121 to pass therethrough for delivering packages into the delivery containers 110 placed on the delivery container deposit locations.

The delivery bays 150 may be provided in the upper floor 12. For example, the delivery bays 150 may be arranged substantially in rows. Each delivery bay 150 may be matched with a delivery destination information so that packages corresponding to the delivery destination information can be received. A plurality of upper delivery carts 122 are also provided on the upper yard 12, and these upper delivery carts 122 are freely movable on the upper yard to enable delivery of packages to the delivery bay 150 corresponding to the delivery destination information.

The delivery containers 110 may be arranged in rows within the lower floor 11 and each delivery container 110 is movable within the lower floor 11. The delivery containers 110 are each matched with information for a delivery destination that may hold packages having the same delivery address as the delivery destination. Delivery container 110 may be in the form of a cabinet or other container suitable for holding or containing packages. A plurality of lower delivery vehicles 121 are also provided on the lower floor 12, and these lower delivery vehicles 121 can freely travel on the lower floor 12 to be able to deliver packages to the delivery containers 110 corresponding to the delivery destination information.

In addition, the delivery bays 150 and delivery containers 110 may be arranged in correspondence with each other, or in one-to-one correspondence, so that packages can fall into the delivery containers 110 on the lower floor 11 after being delivered from the upper floor 12 to the delivery bays 150.

A guide chute may also be provided between the delivery bay 150 and the delivery containers 110, which guide chute may extend downwardly from the delivery bay 150 on the upper floor 12 to the delivery containers 110 on the lower floor 11. After the delivery trolley delivers the packages to the delivery bay 150 at the upper floor 12, the packages may slide down the guide chute and drop into the delivery containers 110. Of course, in this case, the delivery destination information of the delivery bay 150 and the delivery container 110 corresponding to each other is the same, avoiding the presence of packages with different delivery addresses in the same delivery container 110.

lower floors

12 and 11, respectively, can pick up a package from the upper stage and identify the delivery destination of the picked-up package, and then walk on the upper and

lower floors

In one embodiment, the delivery trolley may be any suitable machine device such as a clamshell robot or a belt conveyor robot with a flip function, or may be a traveling crane or the like.

A scanner may be provided on the delivery cart for scanning the speed tickets affixed to the packages to identify destination information to which the packages are to be sent. The delivery trolley may comprise a package holder for picking up or automatically receiving and holding packages, e.g. packages picked up from a pick-up station may be placed on the package holder, which may be at a height above the opening position of the delivery containers 110, or the package holder may be lifted to an opening position above the delivery containers 110, enabling the packages to be delivered into the delivery containers 110 when the delivery trolley is moved around the respective delivery container 110.

The bag handling cart 130 is capable of transporting full delivery containers 110 to the bag holding area 30 for packaging operations and also capable of transporting empty delivery containers 110 from the bag holding area 30 or other areas back to designated locations on the sorting floor. In this embodiment, the bag handling cart 130 may be provided only on the lower yard 11.

In addition, a space is provided at the bottom of the delivery container 110 to allow the bag handling trolley 130 to pass through it. Alternatively stated, the bottom of the delivery container 110 may be formed as a bag transfer lane to which the bag transfer trolley 130 may travel from the transit lane 140, the bag transfer trolley 130 may transfer the delivery container 110 off from below the delivery container 110 and transfer the delivery container 110 to the bag collection area as the bag transfer trolley 130 moves beneath the delivery container 110.

After sensors on the lower delivery vehicles 121 detect that the volume of packages within the delivery containers 110 has reached a predetermined volume during package sortation, the dispatch unit may command the pallet 130 to travel to a package handling lane to travel below the delivery containers 110 and to transport the delivery containers 110 to the package packing area 30 to pack or case packages addressed to the same address.

In other embodiments, in a real-time sorting process, the dispatch unit may modify delivery destination information for delivery containers 110 corresponding to other delivery addresses to hot delivery address information, thereby increasing the number of delivery containers 110 corresponding to the hot delivery addresses. Besides, the dispatching unit can set the arrangement position of the delivery container 110 corresponding to the hot door delivery address to be close to the upper piece platform in the sorting field, so that the package can be delivered from the upper piece platform to the corresponding delivery container 110 by using the delivery trolley as fast as possible, thereby further improving the sorting efficiency and shortening the operation time.

At the same time, the scheduling unit may also adjust the position of other delivery containers 110 in real time, e.g. the position of the delivery container 110 corresponding to a cold delivery address may be arranged on a ground station, while allowing a relatively large number of delivery containers 110 corresponding to other delivery addresses to be located closer to the ground station. In some embodiments, the dispatch unit may even dispatch delivery containers 110 for cold delivery addresses off the sorting floor to centrally sort packages for hot addresses.

Through the utility model provides a delivery device and letter sorting system, can utilize the free machine equipment who thoughtlessly goes to accomplish the letter sorting operation in coordination on two places from top to bottom simultaneously, on the upper place, the dolly is delivered to the upper strata and the parcel is delivered to the delivery check mouth then the parcel falls into the delivery container on the place of lower floor, after the delivery container full package of lower floor alright carry out the operation of collection package, deliver through upper and lower two-layer simultaneously, the operating efficiency is showing and is improved, the letter sorting time has been shortened, and still showing and having reduced manual work in the letter sorting operation, and through the accurate control to the letter sorting operation, the wrong branch has been reduced, the phenomenon of the hourglass branch. In addition, in the letter sorting in-process, the delivery address that delivery container corresponds and arrange the position and can carry out the adaptability adjustment based on real-time letter sorting situation, realize high-efficient letter sorting, transport and delivery operation according to the cold and hot degree of parcel flow direction to can realize intelligent letter sorting, show and shorten the letter sorting time, and further improve letter sorting efficiency.

The above list of details is only for the feasible embodiments of the present invention and is not intended to limit the scope of the present invention, and all equivalent embodiments or modifications, such as combinations, divisions or repetitions of the features, which do not depart from the technical spirit of the present invention, should be included in the scope of the present invention.

Claims

1. A delivery device, characterized in that the delivery device comprises:

the delivery lattice openings (150) are formed in the upper layer field (12) of the sorting field;

a delivery container (110) movably arranged on a lower floor (11) of the sorting floor, and the delivery container (110) is arranged in correspondence with the delivery bay (150) such that a package can fall from the delivery bay (150) into the delivery container (110);

an upper delivery trolley (122) and a lower delivery trolley (121) running on an upper floor yard (12) and a lower floor yard (11) of the sorting yard, respectively, to deliver packages into the delivery bays (150) and the delivery containers (110), respectively.

2. Delivery device according to claim 1, characterized in that on the upper floor yard (12) an upper passage way (142) is formed between the delivery bays (150) of two adjacent rows, allowing passage of the upper delivery vehicles (122), and that the width of the upper passage way (142) allows parallel passage of at least one upper delivery vehicle (122);

on the lower floor (11), a lower floor passage channel (141) allowing the lower floor delivery vehicles (121) to pass through is formed between the delivery containers (110) in two adjacent rows, and the width of the lower floor passage channel (141) allows at least one lower floor delivery vehicle (121) to pass through in parallel.

3. Delivery device according to claim 1, characterized in that on the upper floor yard (12) an upper passage lane (142) allowing passage of the upper delivery vehicles (122) is formed between every two rows (150) of the delivery bays (150), and the width of the upper passage lane (142) allows parallel passage of at least one upper delivery vehicle (122);

on the lower floor (11), a lower floor passage channel (141) allowing passage of the lower floor delivery vehicles (121) is formed between every two rows of delivery containers (110) in the delivery containers (110), and the width of the lower floor passage channel (141) allows parallel passage of at least one lower floor delivery vehicle (121).

4. Delivery device according to claim 2 or 3, characterized in that ground guide signs are arranged on the upper passage way (142) of the upper yard (12) and the lower passage way (141) of the lower yard (11), respectively, so that the upper delivery trolley (122) and the lower delivery trolley (121) move along the ground guide signs.

5. Delivery device according to claim 1, characterized in that a guiding chute is provided below the delivery bay (150), which guiding chute extends to the delivery container (110) so that packages delivered from the delivery bay (150) can fall along the guiding chute into a delivery container (110).

6. Delivery device according to claim 1, characterized in that the lower delivery trolley (121) and the upper delivery trolley (122) each comprise a parcel holding for picking up and holding a parcel,

wherein the package holders of the lower delivery trolley (121) have a height above the opening position of the delivery containers (110) or can be lifted above the opening position of the delivery containers (110).

7. Delivery device according to claim 6, characterized in that the lower delivery trolley (121) comprises a walking part, a plurality of uprights arranged vertically on the walking part and a package holder arranged on top of the plurality of uprights, the height of the package holder being higher than the opening position height of the delivery container (110) and being capable of carrying a package and turning over for delivering the package into the delivery container (110).

8. Delivery device according to claim 6, characterized in that the parcel holding of the lower delivery trolley (121) is higher than the parcel holding of the upper delivery trolley (122).

9. Delivery device according to claim 1, characterized in that the lower layer delivery trolley (121) comprises a sensor for sensing whether a parcel in the delivery container (110) has reached a predetermined volume.

10. Delivery device according to claim 1, characterized in that the upper delivery trolley (122) and/or the lower delivery trolley (121) comprises a flip robot or a belt conveyor robot with flip functionality.

11. Delivery device according to claim 1, characterized in that a bag transfer lane allowing bag transfer carts to enter is provided at the bottom of the delivery container (110) to allow the bag transfer carts to move therethrough to the bottom of the delivery container (110) to be removed from the delivery container (110).

12. A sorting system, characterized in that the sorting system comprises a delivery device according to any of claims 1-11, the sorting system further comprising:

a package handling cart capable of handling the delivery containers (110) to a package packing area and capable of handling empty delivery containers (110) to a sorting floor for packing packages within the delivery containers (110) together;

a dispatching unit for controlling the operation of the lower layer delivery trolley (121), the upper layer delivery trolley (122) and the bag collecting and carrying trolley.

13. The sortation system as claimed in claim 12, wherein said bale handler cart comprises a lift robot or a dual drum robot.

14. A sorting floor for a sorting system, the sorting floor comprising:

the upper floor (12), the upper floor (12) is provided with delivery grids (150), and an upper passage channel (142) is formed between at least two rows of adjacent delivery grids (150) to allow the upper delivery trolley (122) to pass through;

-an underlying yard (11) having delivery container placement locations for placing delivery containers (110), said delivery containers (110) being movably arranged on said underlying yard (11) and an underlying traffic channel (141) being formed in a horizontal plane with said delivery container placement locations between at least two adjacent rows of delivery container placement locations for allowing passage of underlying delivery vehicles (121).

15. Sorting yard according to claim 14, characterized in that the upper level passage channels (142) are formed between the delivery bays (150) of two adjacent rows, and the width of the upper level passage channels (142) allows parallel passage of at least one upper level delivery trolley (122);

the lower passage channel (141) is formed between two adjacent rows of delivery containers (110), and the width of the lower passage channel (141) allows at least one lower delivery trolley (121) to pass through in parallel.

16. Sorting yard according to claim 14, characterized in that the upper level passage channels (142) are formed between every two rows of delivery bays (150) in the delivery bays (150), and the width of the upper level passage channels (142) allows parallel passage of at least one upper level delivery trolley (122);

the lower level passage way (141) is formed between every two rows of delivery containers (110) of said delivery containers (110), and the width of the lower level passage way (141) allows for the parallel passage of at least one lower level delivery trolley (121).

17. Sorting yard according to claim 15 or 16, characterized in that ground guide signs are arranged on the upper passage way (142) of the upper yard (12) and the lower passage way (141) of the lower yard (11), respectively, so that the upper delivery wagon (122) and the lower delivery wagon (121) move along the ground guide signs.

18. A sorting yard according to claim 14, characterised in that the lower yard (11) further comprises a bag transfer passage extending through the delivery container placement position to allow bag transfer carts to move therethrough to the bottom of the delivery containers (110) to be removed from the delivery containers (110).

19. A sorting system, characterized in that the sorting system comprises a sorting floor according to any of claims 14-18, the sorting system further comprising:

upper (122) and lower (121) delivery carts running on said upper (12) and lower (11) yards, respectively, to deliver packages into said delivery bays (150) and said delivery containers (110), respectively;

a package handling cart for handling the delivery containers (110) to a package packing area and capable of handling empty delivery containers (110) to the sorting floor for packing packages within the delivery containers (110) together;

a scheduling unit for controlling the operation of the upper layer delivery trolley (122), the lower layer delivery trolley (121) and the bag collecting and carrying trolley.

20. Sorting system according to claim 19, characterised in that the upper delivery trolley (122) and the lower delivery trolley (121) each comprise a parcel holding for picking up and holding a parcel,

21. Sorting system according to claim 19, characterised in that a guiding chute is provided below the delivery bay (150), which guiding chute extends to the delivery container (110) so that packages delivered from the delivery bay (150) can fall along the guiding chute into a delivery container (110).

22. Sorting system according to claim 19, characterised in that the lower delivery trolley (121) comprises a sensor for sensing whether a package in the delivery container (110) has reached a predetermined capacity.

23. Sorting system according to claim 19, characterised in that the upper delivery trolley (122) and/or the lower delivery trolley (121) comprises a flip robot or a belt conveyor robot with flip function and the bale handler trolley comprises a lifting robot or a double drum robot.

24. Sorting system according to claim 19, characterised in that the bottom of the delivery container (110) is provided with a bag transfer passage allowing the bag transfer trolley to enter in order to allow the bag transfer trolley to move through to the bottom of the delivery container (110) and out of the delivery container (110).