JP2802967B2 - Article storage position determination device in article storage - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Industrial Application Field] The present invention relates to an article storage position determining apparatus in an article storage, and in particular, determines an appropriate storage position so as to efficiently store articles of different sizes. Related to the device.

[Conventional technology]

In a warehouse for storing articles, it is desired to efficiently store as many articles as possible in a limited space. In particular, recently, as land prices soared,
Even a small amount has been devised to improve the storage efficiency. For example, in a warehouse for take-up materials such as printing paper, an efficient storage method has been proposed in which take-up materials are stored upright on the entire floor, and then loaded and unloaded from above using a crane or the like.

[Problems to be solved by the invention]

As mentioned above, when storing articles side by side on the floor,
Usually, articles are arranged in a lattice and accommodated. this is,
This is because articles are regularly arranged in a grid-like arrangement, and efficient storage with no empty space is performed. However, efficient storage can be performed by such a grid-like arrangement only when all the stored articles have the same shape and the same size. When a lattice-like arrangement is performed when accommodating multiple types of articles with different shapes and sizes,
An empty space is generated, and the accommodation efficiency is reduced.

Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide an article storage position determining apparatus in an article storage that can determine a storage position as efficient as possible when storing a plurality of types of articles having different shapes and sizes. I do.

[Means for solving the problem]

The present invention relates to an apparatus for determining a storage position of an article to be stored when a new article is stored in an article storage, and a reference line definition for defining a reference line used to determine a storage direction of the article. Means, an accommodation direction indicating means for indicating one of a first direction along the reference line and a second direction opposite to the first direction as an accommodation direction, and information on an article to be newly accommodated. Information input means for inputting, storage information holding means for holding information on already stored articles together with the order of storage, both of articles already stored in the order of storage as slow as possible, and both other articles or walls A position at which a new article can be stored so as to be in contact with the information is obtained based on the information input by the information input means and the information in the storage information holding means, and is output as a candidate position. Calculating means; and, among the calculated candidate positions, a storage position determining means for determining a candidate position on the storage direction side designated by the storage direction designating means as a storage position of an article to be newly stored; When the accommodation position determined by the means is in contact with a wall that is not parallel to the reference line, accommodation direction inversion means for inverting the accommodation direction designated by the accommodation direction instructing means is provided.

(Operation)

According to the present invention, for an article to be stored, a position that can be physically stored is calculated as a candidate position. Moreover,
This candidate position is a position at which a new article can be accommodated so as to be in contact with both of the articles already accommodated in the order of accommodation as late as possible and another article or wall. Therefore, the candidate position of the newly accommodated article is located near the article finally accommodated. In addition, when there are a plurality of candidate positions, the candidate position on the predetermined accommodation direction side is preferentially selected. Therefore, the items to be stored are
They will be stored in order along the predetermined storing direction.
The storage direction is reversed when the article contacts the wall. In this way, a plurality of articles are sequentially and efficiently accommodated in a zigzag arrangement.

〔Example〕

Hereinafter, the present invention will be described based on the illustrated embodiments.
FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a basic configuration of an article storage position determining apparatus in an article storage according to the present invention. Actually, this apparatus can be realized by a computer, but in this specification, the configuration of this apparatus will be described by dividing it into block elements for each function.

The information input means 10 has a function of inputting information on articles to be newly stored. Specifically, the user inputs the shape and size of the article. The accommodation information holding means 20 has a function of holding information on articles already housed together with the order of accommodation. Specifically, each time a new article is accommodated, the shape and size of the article (these are given from the information input means 10) and the accommodation position (this is given from the accommodation position determination means 40 described later) And
It is held together with the numerical value indicating the order of accommodation. Candidate position calculating means 30, the position of a new article can be accommodated so as to be in contact with both of the articles already accommodated, the article of which accommodation order is as slow as possible, and other articles or walls,
Information inputted by the information input means 10 and accommodation information holding means
It has a function of obtaining the information based on the information in 20 and outputting it as a candidate position. This function will be described later in detail. The accommodation position determination means 40 has a function of determining the most appropriate position among the candidate positions calculated by the candidate position calculation means 30 as the final accommodation position. This determination is made with reference to the housing direction indicated by the housing direction indicating means 50. The reference line defining means 60 defines a reference line parallel to one surface of the wall constituting the storage. The storage direction indicated by the storage direction indicating means 50 is the first direction along the reference line. Or a second direction opposite to this. The accommodation position determining means 40 determines a candidate position on the accommodation direction side designated by the accommodation direction instruction means 50 among the calculated candidate positions as an accommodation position of a newly accommodated article.
The accommodation direction designated by the accommodation direction instructing means 50 is reversed by the accommodation direction inverting means 70. That is, when the storage position determined by the storage position determination unit 40 contacts a wall that is not parallel to the reference line, the storage direction specified by the storage direction specifying unit is reversed.

Before describing the operation of the device shown in FIG. 1 in detail,
A method of determining a storage position that has been generally performed conventionally will be briefly described. FIG. 2 is a top view showing a state in which a large number of columnar winding materials R are stored in the storage box 100. The take-up material R is stored in an upright state on the entire floor in the storage 100. In the storage 100, virtual position reference lines indicated by alternate long and short dash lines are defined in the vertical and horizontal directions, and the positions of the intersections are the storage positions of the winding material R as they are. That is, each winding material R is accommodated such that its central axis is located at this intersection. In other words, each winding material R is stored in the storage 100 so as to form a grid-like arrangement. Similarly, FIG. 3 is a top view showing a state in which a large number of winding materials R are accommodated. Here, a virtual position reference line is defined diagonally, and each winding material is arranged in an oblique lattice pattern. Are formed to form In either case,
A large number of winding materials are stored fairly efficiently. However, the examples shown in FIG. 2 and FIG. 3 are examples in which winding materials R of exactly the same size are accommodated. Here, for example, a case where a plurality of types of winding materials having different radii are accommodated will be considered. In this case, the grid arrangement must be defined based on the largest winding material. Therefore, when a plurality of types of winding materials having different radii are accommodated, an empty space is generated, and efficient accommodation cannot be performed. As described above, as a method of efficiently storing winding materials having different radii, a method of storing separately winding materials having the same radius is conceivable. FIG. 4 shows a case where winding materials R1, R2, and R3 having different radii from large, medium, and small, respectively, are stored in the compartments 100a, 10
It is an example showing a state in which the data is stored separately in 0b and 100c. In this way, if the storage is performed according to the size, and the storage is performed according to the lattice-like arrangement in each of the compartments, the storage can be efficiently performed as far as each of the compartments is concerned. However, each branch 100a, 100b, 10
If the area ratio of 0c and the quantity ratio of winding materials R1, R2, and R3 to be accommodated do not correspond well, one room is full but another room has a lot of empty space Unbalanced state is likely to occur, and in many cases, it will not be efficiently accommodated when viewed comprehensively.

By using the apparatus of the present invention, it is possible to perform efficient storage while mixing winding materials having different radii in the same storage. FIG. 5 is a top view showing a state in which winding materials R1, R2, and R3 having a radius different from those of large, medium, and small (total of 102) are stored in the storage 100 while being mixed using the apparatus of the present invention. is there. The device of the present invention is an article storage position determination device, and is configured to newly store the (n + 1) th winding material based on a state in which the n winding materials are stored in the storage 100. It has a function to determine the optimal storage position. The numbers (1 to 102) given to the winding materials indicated by circles in FIG. 5 indicate the order in which the respective winding materials were stored in the storage 100. For example, when winding materials 1 to 8 in the drawing are already stored, the apparatus of the present invention can determine the storage position of the winding material 9 to be stored next. FIG. 5 is a top view showing a state in which 102 winding materials are stored while the storing positions are sequentially determined by the apparatus of the present invention. As described above, when three types of winding materials are stored based on the apparatus of the present invention, the storage can be performed in an area of 75% as compared with the case where a grid-like arrangement as shown in FIG. 2 is performed. It becomes possible, and it becomes 69
% Of the area can be accommodated. When such efficient storage is performed, the loading and unloading of the wound material is preferably performed by means such as a crane provided above.

Next, the operation of the apparatus shown in FIG. 1 will be described with reference to FIGS. Now, a state in which two winding materials R1 and R2 are already stored in the storage box 100 having a shape as shown in the top view of FIG. 6 (the winding material R1 is stored first, and then (It is assumed that the material R2 has been accommodated.). In order to perform storage by the apparatus of the present invention, it is necessary to define a reference line S parallel to one surface of the wall constituting the storage 100. In the example shown in FIG. 6, a line parallel to the wall W2 is defined as the reference line S. Which line is defined as the reference line S is determined by the operator's option. 6, a line parallel to the wall W1 may be defined as the reference line S instead of the line parallel to the wall W2. The operator, whether the reference line S in advance which line, be defined with respect to the reference line defining means 60. Thus, when the reference line S is determined, the accommodation direction is also determined. The accommodation direction is the first direction along the reference line S and the second direction opposite thereto.
Direction. In the example of FIG. 6, either the right direction D1 in the figure or the left direction D2 in the figure is the accommodation direction. As will be described later, the accommodation direction is alternately reversed when the accommodation position of the wound material approaches the wall. Here, the description will be continued assuming that the accommodation direction is the direction D1 in the drawing.

In FIG. 6, the two winding materials R1 and R2 have already been stored, but the storage
Information about the two winding materials R1 and R2 is held.
Specifically, the accommodation positions of the winding materials R1 and R2 (in this embodiment, indicated by the coordinate values of the center points O1 and O2) and their sizes (in this embodiment, the radii r1 and r2 Are stored together with these accommodation orders (data indicating that they are accommodated in the order of R1 and R2). Further, the position information about the wall of the storage 100 is also stored in the storage
It is kept within 0. Then, as described above, the line S parallel to the wall W2 is defined as the reference line in the reference line defining means 60, and the accommodation direction instructing means 50 designates the direction D1 as the accommodation direction.

In such a state, when a new winding material R3 is to be stored, the purpose of this device is to determine the storage position. In this case, the operator uses information input means.
For 10, information on the shape and size of the article to be newly stored is input. In the example shown here,
Since all the articles handled are cylindrical winding materials,
The information input means 10 has a radius value r3 of the winding material R3 to be stored.
Is enough. The candidate position calculating means 30 calculates the input radius value r3 and the winding material R in the accommodation information holding means 20.
Based on the information about 1, R2, a candidate position for accommodation is obtained by calculation. The candidate position is determined as a position at which a new article can be accommodated so as to be in contact with both an article which is already accommodated in the order of accommodation as late as possible and another article or a wall. Specifically, candidate positions are obtained by the following method. First, articles which are stored as late as possible are extracted from winding materials already stored. In the case of FIG. 6, of the two winding materials R1 and R2 already stored, the winding material R2 whose storage order is later is extracted. Then, a candidate position at which a new winding material R3 to be accommodated can be accommodated so as to be in contact with both the winding material R2 and another winding material or a wall is calculated. Specifically, candidate positions P1, P2 as indicated by broken lines in FIG.
(In the present embodiment, the candidate position is represented by the position coordinates of the center point of the winding material to be accommodated) is calculated. Candidate position P1 is a winding material R2, another winding material R1
And the position that touches both, and the candidate position P2 is
The position is such that it contacts both the winding material R2 and the wall W2. As described above, the information on the position of the wall, the storage positions (O1, O2) and the radii (r1, r2) of the stored winding material are stored in the storage information storage unit 20. Ten
From, the radius r of the winding material to be newly accommodated is given, so that the candidate position calculating means 30 can obtain the candidate positions P1 and P2.

The accommodation position determining means 40 has a function of selecting an optimum candidate position as a final accommodation position from the candidate positions thus obtained. That is, a candidate position on the accommodation direction side designated by the accommodation direction designating means 50 is selected as a final accommodation position from among the plurality of candidate positions.
A specific method for selecting the “candidate position on the accommodation direction side” may be, for example, as follows. In FIG. 6, from the center point O2 of the lastly stored winding material R2,
A vector is drawn to the candidate positions P1 and P2, and the smaller angle between the vector and the accommodation direction D1 may be selected. As a result, the candidate position P2 is selected. Alternatively, this selection may be made by a method of comparing coordinate values regarding the accommodation direction D1. For example, the Y coordinate axis is defined in the direction in which the wall W1 extends, and the X coordinate axis is defined in the direction in which the wall W2 extends, and the X coordinate value of the candidate position P1 and the X coordinate value of the candidate position P2 are compared. You can also choose a larger P2.

Thus, in the example of FIG. 6, the accommodation position of the new winding material R3 is determined as the candidate position P2. This storage position is provided to the storage information holding means 20 and has a winding material having a radius r3.
It will be held as the accommodation position O3 of R3.

By the way, the candidate position calculated by the candidate position calculating means 30 is, as described above, "a new item so as to be in contact with both of the already stored items having the lowest possible storage order and another item or wall. It is required as a "position where articles can be stored." Here, the reason why the "articles in the order of accommodation as late as possible" are used instead of the "articles housed last" for the following reason. Indeed, in the state as shown in FIG.
Even in the case of “articles that are stored in the slowest possible order”, the objects to be treated are still the winding material R2.
However, as shown in FIG. 7, for example, a case in which three winding materials R1, R2, and R3 are housed and a new winding material R4 is further housed is considered. In this case, the “position at which a new article can be accommodated so as to be in contact with both the article lastly housed and another article or wall” cannot physically exist. As shown, the last item stored is a winding material R3 having a small radius r3, and it is no longer possible to store a new winding material R4 in contact with this winding material R3. In such a case, the candidate positions P1 and P2, which are "positions at which new articles can be accommodated so as to be in contact with both the article accommodated next to the last and another article or wall", are obtained. Will be. The reason why the "article with the latest possible accommodation order" is used instead of the "article which is accommodated last" in consideration of such a case where the candidate position does not exist. In the case of the example of FIG. 7, the candidate position P2 on the accommodation direction side is selected from the candidate positions P1 and P2, and the winding material R4 is accommodated in the candidate position P2.

As described above, the articles are successively accommodated in the accommodation direction. Here, the operation of the accommodation direction reversing means 70 will be described. Now, as shown in FIG. 8, let us consider a case where a new winding material R7 is stored in a state where six winding materials R1 to R6 have already been stored. In this case, the “article with the latest possible storage order” is the winding material R6, and as a storage position in contact with both the winding material R6 and another article or wall, a candidate position P3 (another material from the winding material R6) is used. Winding material
R5) and the candidate position P4 (winding material R6
And the wall W3) are obtained by the two candidate position calculating means. At this time, the accommodation direction indicated by the accommodation direction instruction means 50 is D1. Therefore,
The accommodation position determination means 40 selects the candidate position P4, and
R7 will be accommodated at candidate position P4. At this time, the candidate position P4 is in contact with the wall W3, and the wall W3 is not parallel to the reference line S. The storage direction reversing means 70 has a function of reversing the storage direction specified by the storage direction specifying means 50 when the storage position determined by the storage position determining means 40 contacts a wall that is not parallel to the reference line S. . For this reason, when the winding material R7 is stored, the storage direction is reversed from D1 to D2, which is opposite to D1. When the accommodation position is in contact with a wall parallel to the reference line S, the accommodation direction is not reversed. In FIG. 8, although the accommodation positions of the winding materials R1 to R6 are all in contact with the wall W2, the accommodation direction is not reversed because the wall W2 is a wall parallel to the reference line S. This is because

FIG. 9 shows a state in which the winding material R7 is thus stored. Here, in this state, a case where a new winding material R8 is further stored will be considered. In this case, the “article whose storage order is as slow as possible” is the winding material R7, and this winding material
As a storage position in contact with both R7 and another article or wall, a candidate position P5 (in contact with both the winding material R7 and the wall W3) and a candidate position P6 (in a different position from the winding material R7). And both of them are in contact with the winding material R6).
Required by At this time, the accommodation direction indicated by the accommodation direction instruction means 50 is D2 due to inversion. Therefore, the accommodation position determining means 40 selects the candidate position P6, and the winding material R8 is accommodated in the candidate position P6.
Hereinafter, the housing direction is maintained at D2 until the winding material in contact with the opposite wall W1 is housed.

The top view shown in FIG.
1 shows a state in which winding materials of a book are sequentially stored in a storage 100. The accommodation direction until the first to ninth winding materials are accommodated is the direction D1, and the accommodation direction is inverted to D2 when the ninth winding material is accommodated. Hereinafter, the accommodation direction until the tenth to seventeenth winding materials are accommodated is the direction D2, and the accommodation direction is inverted to D1 when the seventeenth winding material is accommodated. Furthermore,
The storage direction until the 18th to 26th winding materials is stored is the direction
It is D1, and the accommodation direction is reversed to D2 when the 26th wound material is accommodated. Hereinafter, the accommodation direction until the 27th to 34th winding material is accommodated is the direction D2, and the accommodation direction is inverted to D1 when the 34th winding material is accommodated. Hereinafter, the same direction
D2 and D1 are alternately repeated, and efficient accommodation is performed.

As described above, the description has been given based on the illustrated embodiment of the present invention. However, the present invention is not limited to this embodiment, and can be implemented in various other modes. For example, in the above-described embodiment, the adjacent winding materials are accommodated so as to be in contact with each other. However, in actuality, when loading or unloading the winding material, the minimum necessary space between adjacent winding materials is required. It is preferable to keep the minimum gap. In the case where the storage is performed while maintaining such a gap, the input value to the information input means 10 may be given a margin. For example, when the radius of the actual winding material is r, the input value to the information input means 10 may be (r + δr), and a margin may be provided by δr. Further, in the above-described embodiment, only the planar accommodation state has been described with reference to the top view. However, in practice, a plurality of winding materials are vertically stacked and three-dimensionally accommodated. For example, in the direction perpendicular to the plane of the paper in the top view shown in FIG. 5, the same winding material is stacked and stored. Note that, in the above-described embodiment, an example in which a cylindrical winding material is accommodated has been described, but the present invention is applicable to a case in which any article having any shape is accommodated. Furthermore, in the above-described embodiment, a line parallel to one surface of the wall forming the storage is defined as the reference line S, but the reference line S may be defined in any direction. However, it is preferable to define a reference line parallel to one surface of the wall, in order to perform accommodation suitable for human sense that the articles are accommodated along one surface of the wall.

〔The invention's effect〕

As described above, according to the present invention, articles to be accommodated can be sequentially accommodated in a predetermined accommodation direction, and an efficient accommodation position can be determined regardless of the shape and size of the articles. .

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a basic configuration of an article storage position determining apparatus according to the present invention, and FIG.
FIG. 3 is a top view showing a state in which a large number of winding materials R are accommodated in an oblique lattice position in a storage, and FIG. 4 is a winding material having different radii. 5 is a top view showing a state in which winding materials having different radii are accommodated while being mixed using the apparatus of the present invention, and FIG. 6 to FIG. It is a figure explaining the specific operation | movement of the apparatus shown in a figure. 10 ... information input means, 20 ... accommodation information holding means, 30 ...
Candidate position calculation means, 40: accommodation position determination means, 50: accommodation direction instructing means, 60: reference line defining means, 70: accommodation direction inversion means, 100: accommodation, D1, D2: accommodation direction , R1 ~
R8: winding material, O1, O2: accommodation position, P1 to P6: candidate position, r1 to r4: radius of winding material, S: reference line, W1, W
2, W3 …… Wall.

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] An apparatus for determining a storage position of an article to be stored when a new article is stored in an article storage, wherein a reference line used to determine a storage direction of the article is defined. Reference line defining means; accommodation direction designating means for designating one of a first direction along the reference line and a second direction opposite to the first direction as the accommodation direction; Information input means for inputting information relating to the items contained therein, accommodation information retaining means for retaining information relating to the articles already accommodated together with the order of accommodation, articles among articles already accommodated which are as slow as possible in the order of accommodation, and other articles or walls. The position at which a new article can be accommodated so as to be in contact with both is obtained based on the information input by the information input means and the information in the accommodation information holding means, and is output as a candidate position. Storage position determining means for determining, as a storage position of a newly stored article, a candidate position on the storage direction side designated by the storage direction specifying means among the calculated candidate positions. The accommodation position determined by the accommodation position determination means,
An accommodation direction reversing means for reversing the accommodation direction instructed by the accommodation direction instructing means when contacting a wall which is not parallel to the reference line; .