JP2024068057A - Picking method and program using cart robot - Google Patents

Abstract

[Problem] To efficiently pick up packages. [Solution] A cart robot has a first arm and a second arm, and picks up and transports packages. While the cart robot is traveling, the first arm grasps the package, and then, while the cart robot is moving, the second arm grasps the package together with the first arm. [Selected Figure] Figure 3

Description

The present invention relates to a picking method and program using a cart robot.

Patent Document 1 discloses a picking device that uses a cart robot that travels autonomously based on a predetermined collection plan for packages and picks packages from shelves using an arm.

JP 2022-068557 A

When a cart robot is autonomously driven to pick up items in a warehouse and transport them to a predetermined location, stopping the cart robot every time a item is picked results in poor picking efficiency.

The present invention was developed in consideration of the above circumstances, and aims to enable efficient package picking.

According to one embodiment of the present invention, a picking method is provided using a cart robot that is equipped with a first arm and a second arm and that picks and transports luggage. In the picking method, while the cart robot is traveling, the first arm grasps the luggage, and then, while moving the cart robot, the second arm grasps the luggage together with the first arm.

In addition, in the picking method of the present invention, the first arm may be attached to the front side of the cart robot, and the second arm may be attached to the rear side of the cart robot.

In addition, in the picking method of the present invention, the cart robot is caused to travel at a first speed, and when picking the luggage, the cart robot is caused to decelerate to a second speed lower than the first speed;
The second speed may be derived based on at least one of the length of the first arm and the second arm, the speed of movement of the first arm and the second arm, the angle of the first arm and the second arm, the gripping capacity of the first arm and the second arm, the distance from the first arm and the second arm to the luggage, the weight of the luggage, and the number of the luggage.

In addition, in the picking method of the present invention, the second speed may be derived using a trained model constructed to output the second speed when at least one of the length of the first arm and the second arm, the speed of movement of the first arm and the second arm, the angle of the first arm and the second arm, the gripping capacity of the first arm and the second arm, the distance from the first arm and the second arm to the luggage, the weight of the luggage, and the number of luggage is input.

In addition, in the picking method of the present invention, the cart robot may be provided with the first arm and the second arm on both the left and right sides of the traveling direction, and the first arm and the second arm on the left side and the first arm and the second arm on the right side may each grasp luggage separately.

According to one embodiment of the present invention, a program is provided for causing a computer to execute the picking method of the present invention.

Note that the above summary of the invention does not list all of the necessary features of the present invention. Also, subcombinations of these features may also be inventions.

FIG. 1 is a plan view of a warehouse floor where a picking method using a cart robot according to an embodiment of the present invention is carried out. FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a cart robot according to an embodiment of the present invention. 11A and 11B are diagrams illustrating the operation of the first arm and the second arm when picking a package. FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating an example of computer hardware that functions as an information processing device of the cart robot in the present embodiment. FIG. 1 is a diagram for explaining a trained model used in the present embodiment. 10 is a flowchart illustrating an operation process of a cart robot according to the present embodiment. FIG. 11 is a perspective view showing another example of the cart robot according to the present embodiment. FIG. 8 is a plan view of a warehouse floor for carrying out the picking method using the cart robot shown in FIG. 7 . FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating an example of a computer hardware configuration that functions as an information processing device.

The present invention will be described below through embodiments of the invention, but the following embodiments do not limit the invention according to the claims. Furthermore, not all of the combinations of features described in the embodiments are necessarily essential to the solution of the invention.

Figure 1 is a plan view of a warehouse floor 50 for carrying out the picking method according to this embodiment.

Picking work is the job of collecting (picking up) the necessary items. Cart robots 52 play an essential role in shipping items within a warehouse, so they are deployed in warehouses of all kinds.

For example, their main job is to collect specified items based on a pre-specified list or order form, and then pass the items together to the inspector and packer. The larger the warehouse, the greater the variety and number of items stored, and so a large number of cart robots 52 will move around the floor 50.

The floor 50 shown in FIG. 1 is provided with a storage area (warehouse, shelf, etc.) 54, in which multiple pieces of luggage 56 are stored. A cart robot 52 moves around the storage area 54. The main role of the cart robot 52 is to deliver and receive luggage 56, and it moves along a predetermined lane 60. The luggage 56 is, for example, a basket containing one or more items.

Lane 60 is a lane set outside storage unit 54 within floor 50, and cart robot 52 moves in a zigzag pattern approaching and moving away from storage unit 54, temporarily slowing down to pick up baggage 56 from storage unit 54.

Floor 50 also has multiple warehouse sensors 53 installed on the ceiling and walls.

Figure 2 is a perspective view of the cart robot. As shown in Figure 2, the cart robot 52 includes a traveling body 10, a first arm 11A, a second arm 11B, a sensor 12, a fixed frame 20, and an information processing device 15 (see Figure 4). The first arm 11A is attached to the front side of the cart robot 52, and the second arm 11B is attached to the rear side of the cart robot 52. In this way, the cart robot 52 is a double-arm robot equipped with two arms 11. The traveling body 10 has, for example, a cart 10b formed in a box shape with an opening at the top. The traveling body 10 is provided with a plurality of driving wheels 10a. Each driving wheel 10a is provided with a motor. The rotation speed of each driving wheel 10a is adjusted by the motor. The traveling body 10 can travel in the forward/backward direction, the left/right direction, and the diagonal direction by adjusting the rotation speed of each driving wheel 10a. In addition, the traveling body 10 can rotate 360 degrees by adjusting the rotation speed of each driving wheel 10a.

The first arm 11A and the second arm 11B pick up the luggage 56. The first arm 11A and the second arm 11B have multiple rod portions 11a and multiple joint portions 11b. The joint portions 11b are provided, for example, between the two rod portions 11a, and allow the two rod portions 11a to rotate relatively. Each joint portion 11b has an actuator such as a motor. The rod portions 11a rotate relatively via each joint portion 11b, causing the first arm 11A and the second arm 11B to extend and retract, and to be able to rotate 360 degrees.

The tips of the first arm 11A and the second arm 11B are provided with gripping parts 11c for gripping luggage. The gripping parts 11c are, for example, suction cups, and grip the luggage 56 by suction from a compressor (not shown). The gripping parts 11c may be so-called robot hands.

The cart robot 52 grasps the luggage 56 with the gripping parts 11c provided on the first arm 11A and the second arm 11B. In other words, the cart robot 52 grasps the luggage 56 at two points, allowing it to stably pick the luggage 56.

The sensor 12 is attached to the traveling vehicle body 10. The sensor 12 is provided on the front side of the traveling vehicle body 10. For example, the sensor 12 is provided at the front end of the traveling vehicle body 10. The sensor 12 is provided at the upper end of the traveling vehicle body 10. The sensor 12 may be provided so as to protrude above the traveling vehicle body 10. The sensor 12 is attached near the center of the traveling vehicle body 10 in the left-right direction.

The sensor 12 and the in-warehouse sensor 53 may include at least one of the highest performance cameras, solid-state LiDAR (light detection and ranging), multi-color laser coaxial displacement meters, or various other sensors. The sensor 12 and the in-warehouse sensor 53 may also include a vibration meter, a thermo camera, a hardness meter, a radar, LiDAR, a high-pixel, telephoto, ultra-wide-angle, 360-degree, high-performance camera, vision recognition, fine sound, ultrasound, vibration, infrared, ultraviolet, electromagnetic waves, temperature, humidity, spot AI weather forecast, high-precision multi-channel GPS, low-altitude satellite information, and long-tail incident AI data. The sensor 12 and the in-warehouse sensor 53 may include multiple sensors.

In addition to the above information, the sensor 12 and the warehouse sensor 53 may detect images, distance, vibration, heat, smell, color, sound, ultrasound, ultraviolet light, or infrared light. Other information detected by the sensor 12 includes the movement of the center of gravity of the cart robot 52, the material of the floor on which the cart robot 52 is placed, the outside air temperature, the outside air humidity, the up, down, sideways, and diagonal tilt angle of the floor, and the amount of moisture. The sensor 12 and the warehouse sensor 53 perform these detections, for example, every nanosecond. Each piece of measured information is used as information for controlling the cart robot 52.

The operation of picking up the luggage 56 by the first arm 11A and the second arm 11B will be described below. FIG. 3 is a diagram for explaining the operation of picking up the luggage 56 by the first arm 11A and the second arm 11B. In FIG. 3, the cart robot 52 is assumed to be traveling in the direction of the arrow A. First, while the cart robot 52 is traveling, the first arm 11A attached to the front side grasps the luggage 56. The cart robot 52 continues to travel, but the position of the luggage 56 does not change. Therefore, the first arm 11A expands and contracts in response to the travel of the cart robot 52, and maintains the grip of the luggage 56. In addition, the second arm 11B attached to the rear side of the cart robot 52 approaches the luggage 56 in response to the travel of the cart robot 52. At this time, the degree of expansion and contraction of the first arm 11A and the position and degree of expansion and contraction of the second arm 11B are appropriately changed in response to the change in position due to the travel of the cart robot 52. Then, when the second arm 11B reaches a position where it can grasp the package 56, the second arm 11B grasps the package 56. This allows the cart robot 52 to pick up the package 56 with the first arm 11A and the second arm 11B while moving.

Next, a configuration example of the information processing device 15 (control device) will be described with reference to FIG. 4. As shown in FIG. 4, the information processing device 15 (control device) includes an information acquisition unit 150, a control unit 152, and an information storage unit 154. FIG. 4 is a control system block diagram of the information processing device 15 according to the embodiment.

The information acquisition unit 150 acquires information detected by the sensor 12 and the warehouse sensor 53. The information acquisition unit 150 acquires signals transmitted from a command device or the like that instructs the operation of the cart robot 52.

The control unit 152 controls the operation of the first arm 11A, the second arm 11B and the traveling vehicle body 10 based on signals transmitted from a command device or the like and acquired by the information acquisition unit 150.

The control unit 152 uses the information acquired by the information acquisition unit 150 and AI (artificial intelligence) to control the operation of the first arm 11A and the second arm 11B. The control unit 152 controls the motors of each joint 11b of the first arm 11A and the second arm 11B. The control unit 152 uses information detected by the sensor 12 and the warehouse sensor 53 to control the operation of the first arm 11A and the second arm 11B.

The control unit 152 also controls the operation of the traveling vehicle body 10 using the information acquired by the information acquisition unit 150 and AI. The control unit 152 controls the motors of each drive wheel 10a of the traveling vehicle body 10. The control unit 152 controls the operation of the traveling vehicle body 10 using information detected by the sensor 12 and the warehouse sensor 53.

The information storage unit 154 is realized by a storage medium such as a semiconductor memory element, such as a random access memory (RAM) or a flash memory. The information storage unit 154 stores various programs executed by the control unit 152. The information storage unit 154 stores information acquired by the information acquisition unit 150.

As described above, the cart robot 52 picks up the luggage 56 from the storage unit 54 while zigzagging to approach and move away from the storage unit 54 and temporarily decelerating. For example, the cart robot 52 travels at a first speed of 40 km/h and decelerates to a second speed lower than the first speed when picking the luggage 56. The second speed is, for example, about 5 km/h. At this time, the second speed is derived based on at least one of the speed of movement of the first arm 11A and the second arm 11B, the angle (degree of extension and contraction) of the first arm 11A and the second arm 11B, the gripping capacity (suction capacity) of the first arm 11A and the second arm 11B, the distance from the first arm 11A and the second arm 11B to the luggage 56, the weight of the luggage 56, and the number of luggage 56. These pieces of information are acquired by the information acquisition unit 150 from the sensor 12 and the warehouse sensor 53, or from a list or order form specified in advance. The control unit 152 derives the second speed based on the information acquired by the information acquisition unit 150.

In this embodiment, the control unit 152 executes the following processes, for example.
(1) The cart robot 52 is moved to the location of the baggage 56 to be picked.
(2) A second velocity of the cart robot 52 when picking up the luggage 56 is derived.
(3) When picking the luggage 56, the cart robot 52 is decelerated to a second speed.
(4) While the cart robot 52 is traveling, the first arm 11A and the second arm 11B are operated to pick up the luggage 56.

In this embodiment, a trained model is used to derive the second speed. FIG. 5 is a diagram for explaining the trained model used in this embodiment. The trained model 70 shown in FIG. 5 is constructed by machine learning a neural network such as a convolutional neural network. In the machine learning, a large amount of teacher data including training data including at least one of the speed of movement of the first arm 11A and the second arm 11B, the angle (degree of extension and contraction) of the first arm 11A and the second arm 11B, the gripping capacity (suction capacity) of the first arm 11A and the second arm 11B, the distance from the first arm 11A and the second arm 11B to the luggage 56, the weight of the luggage 56, and the number of luggage 56, and the correct answer data for the second speed are used.

The trained model 70 outputs the second speed when at least one of the following is input: the speed of movement of the first arm 11A and the second arm 11B actually in use; the angle (degree of extension and contraction) of the first arm 11A and the second arm 11B; the gripping capacity (suction capacity) of the first arm 11A and the second arm 11B; the distance from the first arm 11A and the second arm 11B to the luggage 56; the weight of the luggage 56; and the number of luggage 56. The control unit 152 uses this trained model 70 to derive the second speed.

The operation of this embodiment will be described below with reference to the flowchart of FIG. 6. The information processing device 15 acquires information detected by the sensor 12 and the warehouse sensor 53 (S100). The information processing device 15 derives a second speed for picking the luggage 56 based on the acquired various information (S102). The information processing device 15 further decelerates the cart robot 52 approaching the position of the luggage 56 to the second speed (S104). Next, the information processing device 15 operates the first arm 11A and the second arm 11B to pick up the luggage 56 while causing the cart robot 52 to travel at the second speed (S106). After picking the luggage 56, the cart robot 52 accelerates to the first speed and continues traveling, transporting the luggage 56 to a predetermined location.

In this manner, according to this embodiment, while the cart robot 52 is moving, the first arm 11A grasps the luggage 56, and then, while the cart robot 52 is moving, the second arm 11B grasps the luggage 56 together with the first arm 11A. This eliminates the need to stop the cart robot 52 every time a luggage 56 is picked, and as a result, luggage can be picked efficiently.

In addition, the second speed for decelerating the cart robot 52 is derived based on at least one of the speed of movement of the first arm 11A and the second arm 11B, the angle of the first arm 11A and the second arm 11B, the gripping capacity (suction capacity) of the first arm 11A and the second arm 11B, the distance from the first arm 11A and the second arm 11B to the luggage 56, the weight of the luggage 56, and the number of luggage 56. Therefore, when picking a luggage 56, the cart robot 52 can be appropriately decelerated to pick the luggage 56.

The cart robot according to this embodiment is not limited to the one shown in FIG. 2. FIG. 7 is a perspective view showing another example of the cart robot according to this embodiment. As shown in FIG. 7, the cart robot 59 has first arms 11LA, 11RA and second arms 11LB, 11RB on both the left and right sides in the traveling direction. The first arm 11LA and second arm 11LB on the left side and the first arm 11RA and second arm 11RB on the right side are configured to separately grasp the luggage 56. The first arms 11LA, 11RA and second arms 11LB, 11RB have the same configuration as the first arm 11A and second arm 11B of the cart robot 52 shown in FIG. 2, but are fixed directly to the cart 10b without the fixing frame 20.

Figure 8 is a plan view of a warehouse floor for carrying out the picking method using the cart robot 59 shown in Figure 7. On the floor 50A shown in Figure 8, storage units 54 are provided side by side, and a plurality of packages 56 are stored, and the cart robot 59 moves along a lane 60 between the two storage units 54. The distance between the two storage units 54 is set to a distance that allows the first arms 11LA, 11RA and second arms 11LB, 11RB of the cart robot 59 to pick the packages 56 without the cart robot 59 approaching the storage units 54.

The cart robot 59 has first arms 11LA, 11RA and second arms 11LB, 11RB on both the left and right sides. In the cart robot 59, the control unit 152 controls the first arm 11LA and second arm 11LB on the left side separately from the first arm 11RA and second arm 11RB on the right side. This allows the cart robot 59 to pick up luggage 56 from the storage units 54 on both the left and right sides simultaneously or separately.

For example, for luggage 56A and 56B shown in FIG. 8, the cart robot 59 picks luggage 56B with the first arm 11LA and second arm 11LB on the left side, and picks luggage 56A with the first arm 11RA and second arm 11RB on the right side. After picking luggage 56A and 56B, the cart robot 59 picks luggage 56C with the first arm 11LA and second arm 11LB on the left side. When picking luggage, the speed of the cart robot 59 is decelerated from the first speed to the second speed, similar to the cart robot 52 described above.

In this way, by equipping the cart robot 59 with first arms 11LA, 11RA and second arms 11LB, 11RB on both the left and right sides of the direction of travel, it becomes possible to pick up luggage more efficiently.

As shown in FIG. 7, when using a cart robot 59 equipped with first arms 11LA, 11RA and second arms 11LB, 11RB on both the left and right sides of the traveling direction, a situation may arise in which luggage must be picked up by both the left and right arms at the same time. In this case, if the weights of the luggage on the left and right differ, a different second speed is derived according to the weight of the luggage. When different second speeds are derived in this way, the robot can be slowed down to the slower second speed and the luggage on the left and right can be picked up at the same time.

9 shows an example of a hardware configuration of a computer 1200 functioning as an information processing device 15. A program installed on the computer 1200 can cause the computer 1200 to function as one or more "parts" of the device according to the present embodiment, or cause the computer 1200 to execute operations or one or more "parts" associated with the device according to the present embodiment, and/or cause the computer 1200 to execute a process or steps of the process according to the present embodiment. Such a program can be executed by the CPU 1212 to cause the computer 1200 to execute specific operations associated with some or all of the blocks of the flowcharts and block diagrams described in this specification.

The computer 1200 according to this embodiment includes a CPU 1212, a RAM 1214, and a graphics controller 1216, which are connected to each other by a host controller 1210. The computer 1200 also includes input/output units such as a communication interface 1222, a storage device 1224, a DVD drive, and an IC card drive, which are connected to the host controller 1210 via an input/output controller 1220. The DVD drive may be a DVD-ROM drive, a DVD-RAM drive, etc. The storage device 1224 may be a hard disk drive, a solid state drive, etc. The computer 1200 also includes input/output units such as a ROM 1230 and a keyboard, which are connected to the input/output controller 1220 via an input/output chip 1240.

The CPU 1212 operates according to the programs stored in the ROM 1230 and the RAM 1214, thereby controlling each unit. The graphics controller 1216 acquires image data generated by the CPU 1212 into a frame buffer or the like provided in the RAM 1214 or into itself, and causes the image data to be displayed on the display device 1218.

The communication interface 1222 communicates with other electronic devices via a network. The storage device 1224 stores programs and data used by the CPU 1212 in the computer 1200. The DVD drive reads programs or data from a DVD-ROM or the like and provides them to the storage device 1224. The IC card drive reads programs and data from an IC card and/or writes programs and data to an IC card.

ROM 1230 stores therein a boot program, etc., executed by computer 1200 upon activation, and/or a program that depends on the hardware of computer 1200. I/O chip 1240 may also connect various I/O units to I/O controller 1220 via USB ports, parallel ports, serial ports, keyboard ports, mouse ports, etc.

The programs are provided by a computer-readable storage medium such as a DVD-ROM or an IC card. The programs are read from the computer-readable storage medium, installed in storage device 1224, RAM 1214, or ROM 1230, which are also examples of computer-readable storage media, and executed by CPU 1212. The information processing described in these programs is read by computer 1200, and brings about cooperation between the programs and the various types of hardware resources described above. An apparatus or method may be constructed by realizing the operation or processing of information according to the use of computer 1200.

For example, when communication is performed between computer 1200 and an external device, CPU 1212 may execute a communication program loaded into RAM 1214 and instruct communication interface 1222 to perform communication processing based on the processing described in the communication program. Under the control of CPU 1212, communication interface 1222 reads transmission data stored in a transmission buffer area provided in RAM 1214, storage device 1224, a DVD-ROM, or a recording medium such as an IC card, and transmits the read transmission data to the network, or writes received data received from the network to a reception buffer area or the like provided on the recording medium.

The CPU 1212 may also cause all or a necessary portion of a file or database stored in an external recording medium such as the storage device 1224, a DVD drive (DVD-ROM), an IC card, etc. to be read into the RAM 1214, and perform various types of processing on the data on the RAM 1214. The CPU 1212 may then write back the processed data to the external recording medium.

Various types of information, such as various types of programs, data, tables, and databases, may be stored in the recording medium and may undergo information processing. The CPU 1212 may perform various types of processing on the data read from the RAM 1214, including various types of operations, information processing, conditional judgment, conditional branching, unconditional branching, information search/replacement, etc., as described throughout this disclosure and specified by the instruction sequence of the program, and writes back the results to the RAM 1214. The CPU 1212 may also search for information in a file, database, etc. in the recording medium. For example, when multiple entries each having an attribute value of a first attribute associated with an attribute value of a second attribute are stored in the recording medium, the CPU 1212 may search for an entry whose attribute value of the first attribute matches a specified condition from among the multiple entries, read the attribute value of the second attribute stored in the entry, and thereby obtain the attribute value of the second attribute associated with the first attribute that satisfies a predetermined condition.

The above-described programs or software modules may be stored in a computer-readable storage medium on the computer 1200 or in the vicinity of the computer 1200. In addition, a recording medium such as a hard disk or RAM provided in a server system connected to a dedicated communication network or the Internet can be used as a computer-readable storage medium, thereby providing the programs to the computer 1200 via the network.

The blocks in the flowcharts and block diagrams in this embodiment may represent stages of a process in which an operation is performed or "parts" of a device responsible for performing the operation. Particular stages and "parts" may be implemented by dedicated circuitry, programmable circuitry provided with computer-readable instructions stored on a computer-readable storage medium, and/or a processor provided with computer-readable instructions stored on a computer-readable storage medium. The dedicated circuitry may include digital and/or analog hardware circuitry, and may include integrated circuits (ICs) and/or discrete circuits. The programmable circuitry may include reconfigurable hardware circuitry including AND, OR, XOR, NAND, NOR, and other logical operations, flip-flops, registers, and memory elements, such as, for example, field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), programmable logic arrays (PLAs), and the like.

A computer-readable storage medium may include any tangible device capable of storing instructions that are executed by a suitable device, such that a computer-readable storage medium having instructions stored thereon comprises an article of manufacture that includes instructions that can be executed to create means for performing the operations specified in the flowchart or block diagram. Examples of computer-readable storage media may include electronic storage media, magnetic storage media, optical storage media, electromagnetic storage media, semiconductor storage media, and the like. More specific examples of computer-readable storage media may include floppy disks, diskettes, hard disks, random access memories (RAMs), read-only memories (ROMs), erasable programmable read-only memories (EPROMs or flash memories), electrically erasable programmable read-only memories (EEPROMs), static random access memories (SRAMs), compact disk read-only memories (CD-ROMs), digital versatile disks (DVDs), Blu-ray disks, memory sticks, integrated circuit cards, and the like.

The computer readable instructions may include either assembler instructions, instruction set architecture (ISA) instructions, machine instructions, machine-dependent instructions, microcode, firmware instructions, state setting data, or source or object code written in any combination of one or more programming languages, including object-oriented programming languages such as Smalltalk (registered trademark), JAVA (registered trademark), C++, etc., and conventional procedural programming languages such as the "C" programming language or similar programming languages.

The computer-readable instructions may be provided to a processor of a general-purpose computer, special-purpose computer, or other programmable data processing apparatus, or a programmable circuit, either locally or over a local area network (LAN), a wide area network (WAN), such as the Internet, to cause the processor of the general-purpose computer, special-purpose computer, or other programmable data processing apparatus, or a programmable circuit, to execute the computer-readable instructions to generate means for performing the operations specified in the flowcharts or block diagrams. Examples of processors include computer processors, processing units, microprocessors, digital signal processors, controllers, microcontrollers, etc.

The present invention has been described above using an embodiment, but the technical scope of the present invention is not limited to the scope described in the above embodiment. It is clear to those skilled in the art that various modifications and improvements can be made to the above embodiment. It is clear from the claims that forms incorporating such modifications or improvements can also be included in the technical scope of the present invention.

The order of execution of each process, such as operations, procedures, steps, and stages, in the devices, systems, programs, and methods shown in the claims, specifications, and drawings is not specifically stated as "before" or "prior to," and it should be noted that the processes may be performed in any order, unless the output of a previous process is used in a later process. Even if the operational flow in the claims, specifications, and drawings is explained using "first," "next," etc. for convenience, it does not mean that it is necessary to perform the processes in this order.

10 Traveling vehicle body, 10a Drive wheel, 10b Cart, 11A, 11LA, 11RA First arm, 11B, 11LB, 11RB Second arm, 12 Sensor, 15 Information processing device, 50 Floor, 52, 59 Cart robot, 54 Storage unit, 56 Luggage, 60 Lane, 70 Trained model, 1200 Computer, 1210 Host controller, 1212 CPU, 1214 RAM, 1216 Graphic controller, 1218 Display device, 1220 Input/output controller, 1222 Communication interface, 1224 Storage device, 1230 ROM, 1240 Input/output chip

Claims (6)

A picking method using a cart robot that is equipped with a first arm and a second arm and that picks up and transports luggage, comprising the steps of:
A picking method in which a package is grasped by the first arm while the cart robot is traveling, and then the package is grasped by the second arm together with the first arm while the cart robot is moved. The picking method according to claim 1, wherein the first arm is attached to the front side of the cart robot, and the second arm is attached to the rear side of the cart robot. The cart robot is caused to travel at a first speed, and when picking the luggage, the cart robot is caused to decelerate to a second speed which is lower than the first speed;
2. The picking method according to claim 1, wherein the second speed is derived based on at least one of the length of the first arm and the second arm, the speed of movement of the first arm and the second arm, the angle of the first arm and the second arm, the gripping capacity of the first arm and the second arm, the distance from the first arm and the second arm to the luggage, the weight of the luggage, and the number of the luggage. The picking method according to claim 3, in which the second speed is derived using a trained model constructed to output the second speed when at least one of the length of the first arm and the second arm, the speed of movement of the first arm and the second arm, the angle of the first arm and the second arm, the gripping capacity of the first arm and the second arm, the distance from the first arm and the second arm to the baggage, the weight of the baggage, and the number of the baggage is input. The picking method according to claim 1, wherein the cart robot has the first arm and the second arm on both the left and right sides in the direction of travel, and the first arm and the second arm on the left side and the first arm and the second arm on the right side each grasp a package separately. A program for causing a computer to execute the picking method described in any one of claims 1 to 5.