JPH04303328A - Determination method for carton disposition - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To quickly and efficiently determine two-and three-dimensional disposition of cartons by an automated system using a computer. CONSTITUTION:Cartons are classified into each group having the same height from many carton data A. Then, a process for the same directional disposition C, another process for one-dimensional optimum disposition D and another process for re-disposition E are respectively undertaken on the basis of the size data of classified cartons having the same height and pallet size data B, thereby selecting cartons to ensure high area efficiency. According to this system, the two-dimensional disposition of cartons to be located on a pallet is determined.

Description

[Detailed description of the invention]

0001

[Industrial Application Field] The present invention relates to cardboard boxes and rectangular parallelepiped objects (hereinafter collectively referred to as cartons) containing various articles.
This method relates to a method for determining carton placement used in logistics systems that perform loading operations, and in particular, automatically and efficiently determines two-dimensional and three-dimensional placement when cartons of various sizes are stacked on pallets. This invention relates to a method for determining carton layout.

0002

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Conventionally, several methods have been considered for stacking cartons transported by a conveyor or the like onto pallets. One method is to stack as many cartons as possible in the order in which they are delivered without determining the two-dimensional arrangement of the cartons if there is no consideration given to the stacking efficiency. In important cases, empty cartons are used and the two-dimensional arrangement of the cartons is determined by repeatedly stacking them based on past experience, and the cartons are stacked one after another based on that decision. .

0003

[Problem to be Solved by the Invention] However, in the former carton stacking method, cartons are stacked randomly on the pallet, so the number of cartons stacked on the pallet is small, and the stacking efficiency is extremely low. This is not only bad, but also causes a problem that significantly reduces the efficiency of loading work.

On the other hand, in the latter carton arrangement determination method, a person determines the two-dimensional arrangement of the cartons by thought and error while stacking a large number of empty cartons, and then actually carries out the work of stacking the cartons. There is a problem in that it takes a long time from the loading plan to the completion of the loading work. Furthermore, in order for humans to stack items in a way that is thought-provoking and ultimately find the optimal solution, it is necessary to grasp and search the dimensions of all the cartons, but as the number of cartons increases, the combination of Due to the explosive increase in the number of cartons, it is virtually difficult to determine the two-dimensional arrangement of cartons.

Therefore, in recent years, attempts have been made to use computers to determine the placement of cartons. In this case, the decision to arrange the cartons is limited to arranging cartons of the same size in a fixed direction, and it has not been possible to stack cartons of different sizes or to efficiently arrange cartons two-dimensionally. not present.

The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned circumstances, and is a method for quickly and efficiently determining two-dimensional arrangement by selectively taking out optimal cartons from a large number of cartons of different sizes. The purpose of the present invention is to provide a method for determining the carton layout.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a carton placement determining method that can quickly determine not only the two-dimensional placement of cartons but also the three-dimensional placement.

[0008]

[Means for Solving the Problems] In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the invention related to a carton arrangement determination method corresponding to claim 1 classifies each carton of the same height from the size data and number data of a large number of cartons. After that, based on the classified size data of cartons of the same height and size data of pallets, one or more of uniform placement processing, one-dimensional optimum placement processing, and recursive placement processing is performed to examine the area efficiency. , is a method for determining a two-dimensional arrangement of cartons to be stacked on the pallet.

Next, the invention corresponding to claim 2 is that after determining the two-dimensional arrangement according to claim 1, the three-dimensional arrangement is determined based on the area occupied by the two-dimensional arrangement of the cartons and the height when stacked in multiple stages. This is a method to determine.

0010

[Operation] Therefore, by taking the above-mentioned measures, the invention corresponding to claim 1 can perform any of the same placement processing, one-dimensional optimum placement processing, and recursive placement processing for the classified carton data of the same height. The two-dimensional layout with the most area efficiency is selected by examining the area efficiency in relation to the area of the pallet, so it is possible to efficiently and quickly stack cartons onto pallets using a calculator. Two-dimensional layout can be determined.

Furthermore, in the invention corresponding to claim 2, the pallets are stacked in descending order of area occupied by the two-dimensional arrangement, and are stacked in the height direction while taking into consideration the permissible height of the pallets that can be known in advance. Moreover, the three-dimensional arrangement can be quickly determined.

0012

[Embodiments] Hereinafter, embodiments of the method of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a diagram showing functional blocks that are essential parts of the present invention. In the figure, reference numeral 1 denotes a carton height classification processing means for classifying cartons of almost the same height from among a large number of carton size data (vertical sides, horizontal sides, heights) and number data. The divided carton height classification data is stored in the storage unit 2. Reference numeral 3 denotes a carton two-dimensional arrangement processing means that reads carton height classification data from the storage unit 2 and determines the two-dimensional arrangement of cartons.
Perform one of the one-dimensional optimal placement process and recursive placement process, or perform all of the same direction placement process, one-dimensional optimal placement process, and recursive placement process while attempting two-dimensional placement of cartons. A final two-dimensional layout is determined from the dimensional layout and pallet size data (vertical and horizontal sides) in consideration of area efficiency, and this determined two-dimensional layout determination data is stored in the storage unit 2.

[0013] Here, the same direction placement process is a process to find the area efficiency by arranging all cartons in the same direction, for example, vertically or horizontally, and the one-dimensional optimal placement process is a process in which cartons are placed in the same direction, for example, vertically or horizontally. It is a process to find the area efficiency by arranging cartons vertically or horizontally so that they are optimal in one dimension.Recursive placement processing is a process in which one carton is placed in an unplaced area and the remaining Divide the area into two squares, recursively place each divided area,
This is a process of selecting a two-dimensional layout candidate with the largest occupied area from among several two-dimensional layout candidates.

Reference numeral 4 denotes a three-dimensional carton arrangement processing means that reads two-dimensional arrangement determination data from the storage unit 2 and stacks the cartons in order of increasing area, and stacks the cartons in multiple stages within a range that does not exceed the permissible height of the pallet.

Next, the two-dimensional arrangement processing in the two-dimensional carton arrangement processing means 3 will be explained with reference to FIGS. 2 to 5. FIG. 2 is a flowchart of the two-dimensional placement process, and FIGS. 3 to 5 are diagrams showing examples of carton placement. First, upon receiving a command to start the two-dimensional arrangement process, the two-dimensional carton arrangement processing means 3 reads the height classification data of cartons of the same height from the storage unit 2 and arranges them in the same direction based on the program data shown in FIG. Processing is performed (ST1).

This process is performed by arranging all the cartons vertically (vertically) as shown in FIG. 3(a) and arranging the cartons horizontally (horizontally) as shown in FIG. The area efficiency is calculated from the carton area of these two candidates and the area obtained from the pallet size data (vertical and horizontal sides), and the one with the best area efficiency is calculated. is selected (ST2). If the area efficiency is larger than a predetermined threshold (for example, 90%), the two-dimensional layout candidate is adopted as two-dimensional layout determination data and additionally stored in the storage unit 2 (ST3).

Next, if the area efficiency of the two-dimensional placement candidate obtained by the same-direction placement processing in step ST2 does not exceed the threshold, one-dimensional optimal placement processing is subsequently performed (ST4). This process involves placing the carton horizontally or vertically on the horizontal and vertical sides of the pallet, as shown in Figures 4(a) and (b), so that the length occupied by both sides is maximized. This is a process of arranging them. In other words, it is a process of arranging cartons on a one-dimensional line without waste. Then, after arranging in the most efficient manner, the area efficiency is similarly calculated from the area of this two-dimensional arrangement candidate and the area of the pallet, and this area efficiency is set as a predetermined threshold value as shown in step ST5. If it is larger than , this two-dimensional layout candidate is employed as two-dimensional layout determination data and is additionally stored in the storage unit 2 (ST3). This step S
If the area efficiency of the two-dimensional placement candidate obtained by the one-dimensional optimal placement process does not exceed the threshold at T5, the recursive placement process is subsequently performed (ST6).

In this process, after selecting a carton with the largest base area that can be placed in an unplaced rectangular area, the carton is placed in the unplaced rectangular area as shown in FIGS. 5(a) to 5(d). The cartons are placed vertically and horizontally at the corners of the carton, and the remaining area is divided along the vertical or horizontal sides of the carton. Thereafter, each divided area 1.2 is treated as an unplaced rectangular area and cartons are placed recursively in the same manner as described above until no cartons can be placed. Finally, when no more cartons can be placed, the two-dimensional placement candidate with the largest occupied area (largest area efficiency) is selected as two-dimensional placement determination data and is additionally stored in the storage unit 2.

[0019] Once one two-dimensional arrangement determination for the pallet has been completed as described above, it is subsequently determined in step ST7 whether or not there are any unarranged cartons, and if it is determined that there are, the process returns to step S.
Return to T1 and repeat the same process.

FIGS. 6 and 7 are diagrams explaining the flow of recursive placement processing in more detail. First, after finding the largest carton that can be placed in the free area (ST11), it is determined whether the carton can be placed in the free area (ST12), and if it does not exist, it does not occupy any packets. Return the occupied area to 0 and return to the original state (ST
13). On the other hand, if there is a carton that can be placed in the empty area in step ST12, the carton is placed vertically as shown in FIG. 5(a) (ST14), and then the empty area is divided along the vertical sides of the carton ( ST15). After that, the arrangement procedure is repeated recursively for each divided area 1 and 2, and the value obtained by adding the bottom area of the carton to the sum of the returned values is set as the occupied area "1", and the registration process is performed in the memory (ST1
6).

Next, after the carton is placed vertically as shown in FIG. 5(b), the free space is divided along the horizontal sides of the carton and the same process as described above is performed (ST17, ST18).
, the result is the occupied area "2". Furthermore, after placing the carton horizontally as shown in Figure 5(c), the free space is divided along the vertical sides of the carton and the same process is performed (ST
19 to ST21), and the result is set as the occupied area "3". Similar processing is performed for FIG. 5(d) (ST22, S
T23), and the result is set as the occupied area "4". and,
The carton arrangement with the largest occupied area 1 to 4 is selected, and the two-dimensional arrangement candidate having that occupied area is set as two-dimensional arrangement determination data (ST24).

Thereafter, after determining the two-dimensional arrangement as described above, the three-dimensional carton arrangement processing means 4 executes the three-dimensional arrangement processing according to the program data shown in FIG. This process is a process of stacking cartons in order of area efficiency up to the allowable height of the pallet. Specifically, after sorting the two-dimensional arrangement determination data stored in the storage unit 2 in descending order of area efficiency occupied by cartons (ST31), pallet data is retrieved (ST
32), Take out the loading side of the carton (ST33)
. Then, it is determined whether the stacking surface when cartons are stacked on this pallet exceeds the allowable height of the pallet (ST34). Here, if the permissible height is exceeded, the stacking surface is returned (ST35). On the other hand, if the allowable height is not exceeded, after the loading surface is stacked on the pallet (ST36), it is determined whether there is any surface that has not been loaded yet (ST37), and if there is still a surface that can be loaded. In such a case, the process returns to ST33 and stows again.

Next, FIG. 9 is a diagram showing a schematic configuration of a carton layout planning system to which the method of the present invention is applied. As mentioned above, this system classifies a large number of carton data into cartons of almost the same height, and then uses the classified carton data and pallet data to perform co-directional placement processing, one-dimensional optimal placement processing, and recursive processing. A carton placement determining section 11 that performs placement processing to determine a two-dimensional placement and determines a three-dimensional placement using these two-dimensional placement data, and a three-dimensional placement result obtained by the carton placement determining section 11. A three-dimensional graphic display control section 12 reads data from the computer and performs display control based on a conventionally well-known three-dimensional graphic display program;
and an image display section 3 that displays a dimensional graphic image. Note that these configurations are performed using a computer capable of displaying graphics.

Therefore, according to the configuration of the embodiment as described above, since a large number of cartons to be stacked on a pallet are sorted into cartons of the same height, multi-stage processing by a computer is greatly facilitated. In addition, after sorting into cartons of the same height, the two-dimensional placement of these sorted cartons is determined from the area efficiency using the same direction placement processing, one-dimensional optimal placement processing, and recursive placement processing, so it is relatively computationally efficient. It is easy to adapt to software processing, and the two-dimensional arrangement of cartons can be determined quickly and accurately. Moreover, a computer can be used to formulate a carton arrangement plan without variation in a short time, and by displaying these plans in three-dimensional graphics, it is possible to visually recognize how the cartons are arranged without actually stacking the cartons.

In the above embodiment, all of the same direction placement process, one-dimensional optimal placement process, and recursive placement process were used to determine the two-dimensional placement, but even if the process is performed using only one of them, good. In addition, the present invention can be implemented with various modifications without departing from the gist thereof.

[0026]

[Effects of the Invention] First, according to claim 1, it is possible to automatically, quickly and efficiently determine two-dimensional arrangement by sorting cartons of approximately the same height from among a large number of cartons of different sizes. .

[0027] Furthermore, according to claim 2, not only the two-dimensional arrangement of cartons but also the three-dimensional arrangement can be quickly determined, and the work of stacking cartons in multiple stages can be carried out efficiently.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a functional block diagram showing an embodiment of the method of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart for determining the two-dimensional arrangement of cartons using the method of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating a carton arrangement form in the same direction arrangement process, which is one of the two-dimensional arrangement processes.

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating a carton arrangement form in one-dimensional optimal arrangement processing, which is one of two-dimensional arrangement processing.

FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating a carton arrangement form in recursive arrangement processing, which is one of two-dimensional arrangement processing.

6 is a flowchart illustrating recursive placement processing shown in FIG. 5. FIG.

7 is a flowchart illustrating recursive placement processing shown in FIG. 5. FIG.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart for determining the three-dimensional arrangement of cartons.

FIG. 9 is a schematic configuration diagram of a carton layout planning system to which the method of the present invention is applied.

[Explanation of symbols]

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1... Carton height classification processing means, 2... Storage unit, 3... Carton two-dimensional arrangement processing means, 4... Carton three-dimensional arrangement processing means, 11... Carton arrangement determination section, 12... Three-dimensional graphic display control section, 13... Image display section.

Claims (2)

[Claims] Claim 1: After classifying each carton of almost the same height from the size data and number data of a large number of cartons, the same arrangement processing is performed based on the size data of the cartons of the same height and the size data of the pallet. , one-dimensional optimal placement processing or recursive placement processing
1. A method for determining a carton layout, the method comprising determining a two-dimensional layout of cartons to be stacked on the pallet by performing one or more of the following steps to determine area efficiency. [Claim 2] After classifying each carton of almost the same height from the size data and number data of a large number of cartons, the same arrangement processing is performed based on the size data of the cartons of the same height and the size data of the pallet. , one-dimensional optimal placement processing or recursive placement processing
After determining the two-dimensional arrangement of the cartons to be stacked on the pallet by examining the area efficiency by carrying out one or more of the following steps, the size of the area occupied by the two-dimensional arrangement of the cartons and the height when stacked in multiple stages are further determined. A carton placement determination method characterized by determining a three-dimensional placement from.