JP6562511B2 - Automatic warehouse storage shelf allocation system - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to an automatic warehouse that stores, stores, and unloads a plurality of bottles having the same shape in one pallet as a handling unit, and in particular, an actual bottle and contents filled with the contents stored in the pallet. The present invention relates to a storage shelf allocation system for an automatic warehouse for sorting and storing empty bottles that are not filled.

  Usually, plastic containers (bottles) are used for liquid delivery. Here, it is assumed that the liquid is purified water and such a bottle is used for delivery between the water purification plant and the customer. A bottle used for the delivery of purified water from a water purification plant to a consumer or a consumer via a relay center has a capacity of 1 to several gallons, which is also called a gallon bottle. Bottles filled with clean water are heavy, but empty bottles are orders of magnitude lighter. It is more efficient to store product bottles and empty bottles in the same warehouse rather than storing them in separate warehouses.

  This type of bottle is a so-called returnable bottle, and used bottles are returned to the water purification plant for reuse. The returned empty bottle is stored in an automatic warehouse when it is sent directly to the purified water production line or when the return quantity is large, and is delivered to the production line according to the status of the purified water process. Empty bottles put into the production line are inspected for damage or the like, and bottles that have passed the inspection are filled with clean water through a washing process. A plurality of bottles (for example, 10 bottles) are placed on a so-called pallet, and the automatic warehouse is loaded and unloaded.

  In addition, empty bottles received from the bottle manufacturer are temporarily stored in an automatic warehouse, and are discharged in response to a shipping request from the purified water manufacturing system and put into the production line. After that, the water is filled. A plurality of filled bottles are placed on a pallet one by one, temporarily stored in an automatic warehouse, and discharged according to demand.

  In the production line, the bottles are moved on a conveyor. The filled bottle is placed on a pallet by a transfer robot, and the pallet on which the bottle is placed is placed on an automatic traveling carriage and transferred to a crane master. The empty bottles to be stored are similarly transferred to the conveyor at the loading station and to the crane master by the automatic traveling cart. The crane master moves the designated aisle in the automated warehouse and stores the pallet on the assigned shelf. Patent Document 1 can be cited as a disclosure of this type of prior art.

Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 08-81009 JP2013-91555A

  An automatic warehouse is configured by arranging a plurality of racks assembled in three dimensions and provided with a large number of storage shelves. Crane masters (stacker cranes) for loading and unloading pallets with articles placed on these many storage shelves are allocated by moving in a three-dimensional section (vertical X-horizontal Y-height Z). A pallet is stored (incoming) in a storage shelf, taken out from a designated storage shelf (picking), transferred to an outgoing station, and transferred to a dedicated truck for delivery.

  In general, in a three-dimensional automated warehouse, heavy items are stored on a shelf (lower storage shelf) as close as possible to the installation floor, and lightweight items are related to their positions if they are empty storage shelves. Instead, they are stored on empty storage shelves. Even if the bottles that handle purified water have the same shape, the weight varies greatly depending on whether or not the purified water is filled. When such bottles are received and stored in the same automatic warehouse and are issued according to demand, simply by storing the filled bottles on the lower storage shelf, the rack weight balance is biased, Durability is hindered and vulnerable to disasters such as earthquakes.

  The object of the present invention is to improve the durability of an automatic warehouse by optimizing the allocation of the storage shelves when storing articles of the same packaging with extremely different weights in the storage shelves of the racks constituting the automatic warehouse in common. An object of the present invention is to provide a storage shelf allocation system for an automatic warehouse that can improve the earthquake resistance and reduce the electric power (movement energy) required for moving the crane master.

  The present invention reduces the mechanical load on the rack by comprehensively optimizing the allocation of the storage shelves of the rack configured in three dimensions in consideration of the difference in the weight of the bottles, and moves the crane master. The power required was saved. That is, in order to achieve the above object, the present invention is configured as described below.

(1) Storage shelf allocation in an automatic warehouse that is attached to the water purification production line, stores empty bottles for filling with purified water and actual bottles filled with purified water on a common pallet for each pallet and stores them in units of pallets. A system,
The automatic warehouse is a three-dimensional array for storing empty bottles including new bottles delivered from a bottle manufacturer, used bottles returned from a purified water consumer, and actual bottles filled with purified water in the purified water production line. One or more racks having a number of shelves;
An automatic traveling carriage for transferring the empty bottles or actual bottles in units of pallets between the water purification production line and the plurality of racks;
A crane master for storing the pallet transported by the automatic traveling carriage in a designated empty shelf of the rack, or picking the pallet stored in the shelf and delivering it to the automatic traveling carriage;
An empty shelf allocating device for allocating an empty shelf for storing the empty bottle or the actual bottle to an empty shelf among the plurality of shelves;
The empty shelf allocation device is set in a shelf table memory for storing shelf arrangement information corresponding to empty racks in the rack, an input interface for receiving a warehousing request and a warehousing request, contents of the request, and a shelf in the shelf table memory. An arithmetic unit that allocates an appropriate shelf based on the attribute information and updates the contents of the shelf table memory according to the allocated contents;
The input interface is virtually divided into an actual bottle shelf zone and an empty bottle shelf zone, and the warehousing request input from the input interface is an actual bottle warehousing, and for the actual bottle in the shelf table memory. Zone boundary changing means for preferentially allocating as an actual bottle temporary shelf from the lowest empty shelf of the empty bottle shelf zone based on the condition that the shelf of the shelf zone is full,
And an output interface for outputting a drive signal based on the assigned shelf information to the automatic traveling carriage and the crane master.

  (2) When the attribute of the warehousing request in (1) above is an empty bottle, the shelf allocating means assigns priority to an empty shelf in the upper layer of the shelf table memory.

  (3) The zone boundary changing means according to (1) or (2) is based on the condition that an empty shelf is generated in the actual bottle shelf zone and the actual bottle stored in the temporary shelf is delivered. It is characterized by being returned to a temporary shelf.

  (4) As an initial value of the virtual division between the actual bottle shelf zone and the empty bottle shelf zone in the above (1) to (3), the past storage in the actual bottle shelf zone and the empty bottle shelf zone It is set based on the data of the delivery.

  (5) The empty bottle shelf zone is set to be large as an initial value for virtual division of the actual bottle shelf zone and the empty bottle shelf zone in (1) to (3) above.

  The present invention is not limited to the above-described configuration and the configuration of the embodiments described later, and various modifications can be made without departing from the technical idea of the present invention.

  ADVANTAGE OF THE INVENTION According to this invention, allocation of the said storage shelf at the time of storing the articles | goods of the same packing form in which weight differs extremely on the storage shelf of the rack which comprises an automatic warehouse in common is optimized. Thereby, durability and earthquake resistance of an automatic warehouse improve, and it becomes possible to reduce the electric power (movement energy) required for movement of a crane master.

It is a block diagram explaining one Example of the empty shelf allocation apparatus which comprises the principal part of the storage shelf allocation system of the automatic warehouse which concerns on this invention. It is a flowchart explaining an example of the shelf allocation processing operation of the empty shelf allocation apparatus which comprises the principal part of the storage shelf allocation system of the automatic warehouse which concerns on this invention. It is a flowchart which shows the branch process of FIG. 2 explaining an example of the shelf allocation processing operation of the empty shelf allocation apparatus which comprises the principal part of the storage shelf allocation system of the automatic warehouse which concerns on this invention.

  DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS Hereinafter, an embodiment of a storage shelf allocation system for an automatic warehouse according to the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings of the examples.

  FIG. 1 is a block diagram for explaining an embodiment of an empty shelf allocating device constituting the main part of a storage shelf allocating system for an automatic warehouse according to the present invention. The empty shelf allocation device 100 includes an input interface 103, a shelf table memory 104, a CPU 105, a ROM 106, a RAM 107, a shelf allocation unit 108, a zone boundary changing unit 109, and an output interface 110. These are connected to each other by a bus (data / control) 200.

  The input interface 103 accepts an incoming request or outgoing request 101 to the automatic warehouse. The output interface 110 outputs the warehousing or eviction information determined according to the warehousing request or the warehousing request 101 to the automatic traveling vehicle (STV) control unit 112 and the crane master control unit 114. In addition, the shelf arrangement of the automatic warehouse, the current status information, and the like are displayed on the screen of the monitor 111 and provided to the operator.

  The shelf table memory 104 stores the storage status of all storage shelves in the automatic warehouse and is reflected on the monitor 111. The shelf allocating unit 108 searches for empty shelves in the rack of the automatic warehouse based on the information on whether the incoming bottle is an actual bottle or an empty bottle, and attribute information such as quantity, and updates the contents of the shelf table memory 104 with the determined result.

  The actual shelf of the automatic warehouse is virtually divided into an actual bottle shelf zone and an empty bottle shelf zone on the shelf table memory 104. For example, based on the condition that the warehousing request input from the input interface 101 is the warehousing of the actual bottle and the shelves of the actual bottle shelf zone of the shelf table memory 104 are full, the zone boundary changing unit 109 Preferentially allocates temporary shelves for actual bottles from the lowest empty shelf in the shelf zone. A drive signal based on the assigned shelf information is output to the automatic traveling vehicle control unit 112 and the crane master control unit 114.

  As a result of determining whether the warehousing request is an actual bottle or an empty bottle, if the bottle content attribute is “empty bottle”, the shelf allocation unit 108 is in the lower layer of the shelf table memory 104 (the lower region of the rack of the automatic warehouse). Preferentially allocate from the empty shelf as a temporary real bottle zone shelf.

  The zone boundary changing means 109 returns the temporary shelf to the original empty bottle shelf zone under the condition that an empty shelf occurs in the actual bottle shelf zone and the actual bottle stored in the temporary shelf is delivered.

  The setting terminal 102 inputs an initial value of virtual division between the actual bottle shelf zone and the empty bottle shelf zone. This initial value is set on the basis of data of past receipt and delivery in the actual bottle shelf zone and the empty bottle shelf zone. Generally, each half of the lower layer region and the upper layer region of the rack is allocated, and the virtual partition ratio between the actual bottle shelf zone and the empty bottle shelf zone is changed according to the results of subsequent warehousing / shipping.

  The initial value for virtual partitioning between the actual bottle shelf zone and the empty bottle shelf zone is set to be slightly larger than the empty bottle shelf zone, so that It is possible to respond quickly to any increase.

  Data processing relating to the allocation of empty shelves to the warehousing request is executed by the CPU 105 using the RAM according to the processing program stored in the ROM. Note that these memories may use a partial area of the shelf table memory 104.

  2 and 3 are flowcharts for explaining an example of the shelf assignment processing operation of the empty shelf assignment device constituting the main part of the storage shelf assignment system of the automatic warehouse according to the present invention. 2 and 3, when the empty shelf allocation device is started, first, the setting of the actual bottle shelf zone and the empty bottle shelf zone is confirmed (step 1, hereinafter referred to as S-1). The CPU 105 monitors the input interface 103 for the presence / absence of a warehousing / exiting request (S-2). When there is a warehousing request, the CPU 105 determines whether the request is an actual bottle (S-3).

  If it is an actual bottle, it is determined whether or not there is an empty shelf in the actual bottle shelf zone of the automatic warehouse (S-4). If there is an empty shelf, the receipt request is sent to the empty shelf in the actual bottle shelf zone. The allocation (S-5) and the contents of the shelf table memory 104 are updated (S-6). A command is issued to the automatic traveling carriage control unit 112 and the crane master control unit 114 to store the actual bottles on the assigned shelf, and the actual bottles are stored (S-7).

  In (S-3) of FIG. 2, when the request is an empty bottle, it goes to (S-31) of FIG. 3 and is preferentially assigned to the upper layer of the empty shelf in the empty bottle shelf zone. The result is reflected in the shelf table memory (S-32), and a command is issued to the automatic traveling carriage control unit 112 and the crane master control unit 114 to store the above empty bottles on the assigned shelf, and the actual bottles are stored. (S-7). Thereafter, the process returns to the monitoring of the presence / absence of the warehousing request (S-2 in FIG. 2).

  When it is determined in (S-4) of FIG. 2 that there is no empty shelf in the actual bottle shelf zone, the procedure goes to (S-41) in FIG. 3, and the actual bottle shelf is placed in the lowest layer of the empty bottle shelf zone. Assign (set temporarily). The shelf table is updated with the assigned shelf data (S-42). At this time, the zone boundary (the boundary between the actual bottle shelf zone and the empty bottle shelf zone) was changed, and the actual bottle shelf zone area temporarily occupied a part of the empty bottle shelf zone. Become. A command is issued to the automatic traveling carriage control unit 112 and the crane master control unit 114 to store the actual bottles on the temporary assigned shelf (the newly set empty shelf), and the actual bottles are stored (S-43). Thereafter, the process returns to the monitoring of the presence / absence of the warehousing request (S-2 in FIG. 2).

  By processing the warehousing request as described above, it is possible to operate an efficient automatic warehouse that prioritizes real bottles. By such an operation, the allocation of the storage shelves when the articles having the same packing form having extremely different weights are commonly stored in the storage shelves of the racks constituting the automatic warehouse is optimized. Thereby, durability and earthquake resistance of an automatic warehouse improve, and it becomes possible to reduce the electric power (movement energy) required for movement of a crane master.

  In the above explanation, storage processing of water purification bottles was taken as an example, but the present invention is not limited to this, and various automatic warehouses that improve the earthquake resistance and mechanical durability of warehouse structures with articles having extremely different weights. Applicable.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 100 ... Empty shelf allocation apparatus 103 ... Input interface 104 ... Shelf table memory 105 ... CPU
106 ... ROM
107 ... RAM
108 ... shelf allocation means 109 ... zone boundary changing means 110 ... output interface 200 ... bus (data / control)
111 ... Monitor 112 ... Automatic traveling vehicle (STV) control unit 114 ... Crane master control unit

Claims (5)

It is a storage shelf allocation system in an automatic warehouse that is attached to the water purification production line and stores multiple empty bottles for filling with purified water and actual bottles filled with purified water on a common pallet and stores them in units of pallets. And
The automatic warehouse is a three-dimensional array for storing empty bottles including new bottles delivered from a bottle manufacturer, used bottles returned from a purified water consumer, and actual bottles filled with purified water in the purified water production line. One or more racks having a number of shelves;
An automatic traveling carriage for transferring the empty bottles or actual bottles in units of pallets between the water purification production line and the plurality of racks;
A crane master for storing the pallet transported by the automatic traveling carriage in a designated empty shelf of the rack, or picking the pallet stored in the shelf and delivering it to the automatic traveling carriage;
An empty shelf allocating device for allocating an empty shelf for storing the empty bottle or the actual bottle to an empty shelf among the plurality of shelves;
The empty shelf allocation device is set in a shelf table memory for storing shelf arrangement information corresponding to empty racks in the rack, an input interface for receiving a warehousing request and a warehousing request, contents of the request, and a shelf in the shelf table memory. An arithmetic unit that allocates an appropriate shelf based on the attribute information and updates the contents of the shelf table memory according to the allocated contents;
The input interface is virtually divided into an actual bottle shelf zone and an empty bottle shelf zone, and the warehousing request input from the input interface is an actual bottle warehousing, and for the actual bottle in the shelf table memory. Zone boundary changing means for preferentially allocating as an actual bottle temporary shelf from the lowest empty shelf of the empty bottle shelf zone based on the condition that the shelf of the shelf zone is full,
A storage shelf allocation system in an automatic warehouse, comprising: an output interface for outputting a drive signal based on information on the allocated shelf to the automatic traveling carriage and the crane master. In claim 1,
A storage shelf allocation system in an automatic warehouse, wherein when the attribute of the warehousing request is an empty bottle, the shelf allocation means assigns priority to an empty shelf in an upper layer of the shelf table memory. In claim 1 or 2,
The zone boundary changing means returns to the temporary shelf under the condition that an empty shelf is generated in the actual bottle shelf zone and the actual bottle stored in the temporary shelf is delivered. Storage shelf allocation system. In any one of Claims 1 thru | or 3,
As an initial value of virtual division between the actual bottle shelf zone and the empty bottle shelf zone, the actual bottle shelf zone and the empty bottle shelf zone are set on the basis of the data of past entry and exit. Storage shelf allocation system in automatic warehouse. In any one of Claims 1 thru | or 3,
A storage shelf allocation system in an automatic warehouse, wherein a large empty bottle shelf zone is set as an initial value of virtual division between the actual bottle shelf zone and the empty bottle shelf zone.

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