JPH047204A - Automatic storehouse controller - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To control stock and also improve efficiency by dividing a shelf group in a storehouse into a delivering shelf group near a delivery port and the other storing shelf group and transferring the articles in the storing shelf group to the delivering shelf group according to a sequence of priority of delivery during idle time of receiving and delivering processes. CONSTITUTION:Each shelf has such priority as to be indicated by numeric character with a circle by regarding a receiving port 11-1 as reference. Five shelves of priority 50 to 54 near a delivery port 11-2 are classified as a delivering shelf group 11-3 and the rest of shelves as a storing shelf group 11-4. A replacement control part refers to the stock data of a shelf stock information storing part and searches free shelves by using idle time having no external receiving and delivering process. When there are empty shelves, the stock data is referred to according to the sequence of priority of shelves and articles with higher priority in the storing shelf group 11-4 are sequentially transferred to the empty delivering shelf group 11-3. According to this construction, receiving and delivering efficiency can be improved while making stock control.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Purpose of the Invention (Industrial Application Field) The present invention relates to an automatic warehouse control device that can improve the efficiency of loading and unloading goods while managing inventory.

(Prior Art) Generally, in an automatic warehouse control device that stores articles on shelves in a three-dimensional warehouse and takes out the articles from the stored shelves at any time, a shelf address consisting of a series of numbers is assigned to each column of a warehouse group. ,
By assigning priorities to each shelf address and also assigning product numbers to identify the stored items in each column, inventory management is performed in each column to control the entry and exit of items. ing.

In this case, when stocking an item, a search for shelf groups is simply performed in order of priority, the item is stocked at the shelf address of an empty shelf, and the shelf address and product number of the stored item are matched for the shelf where the item was stocked. The information stored in the shelf inventory information storage section is used for inventory management.

On the other hand, when retrieving items from a shelf group, the shelf group is simply searched in order of priority, the item with the shelf address corresponding to the requested item number is removed, and the same item is retrieved from the shelf inventory information storage unit. The product number of the shelf address is deleted and the empty shelf is remembered.

In this way, for each item that is sent to the storage entrance of the warehouse group, the item is stored one by one on the empty shelf of the shelf group, and when there is a request for retrieval, the shelf storing the item with the corresponding item number is stored. By searching and specifying an address, the goods stored at that shelf address are taken out to the exit and exited from the warehouse.

(Problem to be Solved by the Invention) However, in such conventional automatic warehouse control devices, when goods are stored on a shelf near the warehouse entrance or when goods are taken out from a shelf located near the warehouse exit, It is possible to carry out loading and unloading operations in a short time, but it takes time to load and unload shelves located far from the loading and unloading entrances, and the operation time required for loading and unloading may vary depending on the shelf address where the item is stored. There was a problem with unevenness.

Moreover, as automated warehouses have become larger in size in recent years, the unevenness of the operation time required for loading and unloading has become increasingly large.
It was exacerbating the problem.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to provide a quick-response automatic warehouse control device that can efficiently operate various equipment of an automatic warehouse and shorten and equalize the operation time for loading and unloading.

[Configuration of the Invention (Means for Solving the Problems) In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, the present invention divides the warehouse shelves near the exit into an exit tank group and the rest into a storage shelf group, and When the information is input, the article movement mechanism is controlled to receive articles from outside, move articles from storage shelf groups to empty retrieval shelf groups, move articles between storage shelf groups, and remove articles from retrieval tank groups. In an automatic warehouse control device that performs warehouse retrieval, shelf inventory stores inventory information of the retrieval tank group and storage shelf group, which is acquired by detecting the presence or absence of articles or the movement state of the warehouse shelf group, together with inventory article information. an information storage means; a warehousing/retrieval request input means for specifying the inventory item information in each column and inputting a warehousing/retrieval request; and, when a warehousing request is received from the warehousing/unloading request input means, searching the shelf inventory information storage means; a warehousing control means for controlling the movement of articles from the warehousing entrance to a corresponding shelf of the storage shelf group by the article moving mechanism; a warehousing control means for controlling the movement of articles identified from a corresponding shelf of the warehousing tank group to a warehousing exit by an article moving mechanism; and a warehousing control means in which a weighting coefficient having a temporal and periodic change in the number of warehousing priorities is stored. A priority weighting coefficient storage means determines whether or not the article moving mechanism is performing a loading/unloading operation with the outside, and if it is determined that the loading/unloading operation is not performed, the storage unit stores the loading/unloading priority weight coefficient. article replacement control means for controlling the movement of articles stored in the storage shelf group by the article moving mechanism to the retrieval tank group in descending order of the retrieval priority number based on the weighting coefficient taken in by the means; It is something.

(Function) In the automatic warehouse control device having such a configuration, the warehouse storage tank group near the warehouse exit stored in the shelf inventory information storage means,
The inventory of the warehouse shelf group is managed together with the inventory items based on the inventory status or inventory item information in each column of the storage shelf group. Then, the articles sent to the storage entrance are stored in the empty shelves group of the storage shelf group in sequence, and the articles stored in the storage tank group are stored in accordance with the withdrawal request from the storage/retrieval request input means. The information in the inventory information storage unit is searched and the article is taken out from the corresponding delivery tank group to the exit. Furthermore, using the idle time of these external storage/output processes, the replacement control means searches the information in the shelf stock information storage means for each item stored in the storage shelf group, and searches the information in the shelf inventory information storage means for each item stored in the storage shelf group, and searches the information in the order of the outgoing priority number. Articles can be sequentially moved from the storage shelf group to the empty shelves of the retrieval tank group, and can be immediately taken out from the retrieval tank group to the exit port if there is a request for retrieval.

In this way, when goods are placed in and out of the warehouse, the process of entering the goods from the storage entrance to the storage shelf group and the process of taking them out from the outgoing tank group to the outgoing door are performed, and in addition, during these idle times, goods with high delivery priority are Since it is moved from the storage shelf group to the delivery tank group in advance, it is possible to shorten and equalize the operation time for loading and unloading.

(Example) An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 shows an example of a schematic system configuration of an automatic warehouse control device according to the present invention. In FIG. 1, reference numeral 11 denotes a group of warehouse shelves constructed in multiple vertically symmetrical rows with multiple tiers, and articles 13 are moved from the storage entrance to the left and right warehouse shelves by a stacker crane 12. It can be sent to a predetermined location and taken out from the exit.

On the other hand, 14 accepts the storage/output information from the terminal or the central center (host) and imports it into an internal buffer, and also detects the warehouse shelf group based on the data and the detection signal detected by the storage/output status detector 15. This is a control device consisting of an electronic computer that determines where to place the article 13 using arithmetic processing functions, details of which will be described later, and transmits control information to the ground control panel 16 that controls the stacker crane 12.

FIG. 2 shows an example of the shelf divisions of the warehouse shelf group 11 of the above-mentioned automated warehouse. This warehouse shelf group 11 is arranged horizontally from 1 to
There are 8 rows of sections up to 8, and 7 sections of 1 to 7 above and below, making up a total of 56 shelf groups.

In each column, the shelf address is specified by the serial number and the number of columns. Furthermore, this warehouse shelf group 11 is provided with a storage entrance 11-1 and a storage exit 11-2. Articles entering the warehouse from the outside are sent to the storage entrance 11-1, and goods to be left are sent to the storage exit 11-2. transported outside. On the other hand, for such a warehouse shelf group 11, a priority is assigned to each column based on the warehouse entrance 11-1, and the number surrounded by O in the figure indicates the priority. In addition, as shown in Fig. 2, five shelves with priorities 50 to 54 near the exit 11-2 are classified as an exit tank group 11-3, and the remaining shelves with priorities 1 to 49 are storage shelves. It is classified as group 11-4.

FIG. 3 is a block circuit diagram showing a configuration example of an automatic warehouse control device according to the present invention. As shown in FIG. 3, the automatic warehouse control device includes a warehousing/receiving request reception unit 101 that accepts a warehousing request or a warehousing request, and an input/output request receiving unit 101 that receives warehousing/unloading request data that is temporarily stored. A retrieval reception buffer 102 and a request read control unit 103 that sequentially reads out the retrieval request data stored in the retrieval reception buffer 102.
It is equipped with In addition, the goods arriving at the storage entrance 11-1 of the warehouse shelf group 11 in FIG. 2 are sequentially stored in the storage shelf group 11-4.
a warehousing control unit 104 that performs control of stocking the empty shelves in storage shelf group 11-4; and a replacement control unit that sequentially moves articles stored in storage shelf group 11-4 to empty shelves in storage shelf group 11-3 in descending order of their outgoing priority numbers. 105, and an outgoing control unit 10 that takes out articles stored in the warehouse shelf group 11 to the outgoing exit 11-3 based on a outgoing request.
It is equipped with 6.

In this case, in order to move the stored articles to the storage shelf group 11-4 in descending order of priority, the replacement control unit 105 counts the number of stored items for each product number and detects the status of the retrieval tank group 11-3. A situation detection unit 107, an outgoing priority number calculation unit 108 that calculates the outgoing priority number for each product number, an outgoing priority number storage unit 109 that stores the outgoing priority number for each product number, and an outgoing priority number calculation unit 108 that calculates the outgoing priority number calculation unit 108 at regular intervals. Timer 110 to start
It is equipped with

Furthermore, the delivery tank group 11-3 and the storage shelf group 1 of the warehouse shelf group 11
A shelf inventory information storage unit 1 for storing the article inventory status for each column 1-4 together with article information for each column and performing inventory management.
It is equipped with 11.

Here, in FIG. 3, a indicates a warehouse entry/exit request data signal, b an activation signal, C a data erasure signal, and d a notification/removal request data signal.
The activation signal, e is an inventory data signal, f is a shipping count data signal, g is a shipping priority number data signal for each product number, and h is a shipping priority weighting coefficient data signal.

Next, the operation of the automatic warehouse control device configured as described above will be described.

The warehousing and retrieval request reception buffer 102 temporarily stores warehousing and retrieval request data, but its storage data format is
As shown in the figure, each request input is made up of data on an entry/exit classification 114 and an article number 115 as article information.

The storage data formats of the outgoing status detection unit 107 and outgoing priority number storage unit 109 are as shown in FIGS. 5 and 6, respectively, and the item number 115 and the outgoing number 116 or 116 or Issue priority number 1
It consists of 17 data.

In addition, as shown in FIG. 7, the storage data format of the inventory information in the shelf inventory information storage unit 111 is based on the shelf address 118 specified by the serial number and number of shelves of the warehouse shelf group 11, and the inventory stored at the shelf address. It is composed of data of article number 115.

Furthermore, the storage data format of the shipping priority weighting coefficient in the shipping priority weighting coefficient storage unit 113 is as shown in FIG. , and data of a dynamically controlled delivery priority weighting coefficient 119.

Now, when a warehousing/retrieval request is inputted from an input/output device such as a CRT, the warehousing/retrieval request reception unit 101 accepts this warehousing/retrieval request, writes the warehousing/retrieval request data signal a to the warehousing/retrieval request reception buffer 102, and , an activation signal is given to the request read control unit 103 to activate the request read control unit 103. Then, the request readout control unit 103 starts controlling the loading and unloading of the entire apparatus based on the flowchart shown in FIG.

First, in step S1, the loading/unloading request data from the loading/unloading request reception buffer 102 is read, and the process proceeds to step S2. In this step S2, it is determined whether the warehousing/receiving classification 114 of the warehousing/receiving request data shown in FIG. At the same time, the warehousing control unit 104 is activated, and the warehousing/receiving request data in the warehousing/receiving request reception buffer 102 is subsequently deleted in step S4.

Warehousing control unit 104 activated in step S3 above
refers to the inventory data in the shelf inventory information storage unit 111, searches for empty shelves in the storage shelf group 11-4 in order of priority, and uses the warehousing control information to store items on the empty shelves as shown in FIG. Transfer to the control panel 16.

Therefore, the stacker crane 12 is operated by the ground control panel 16, and the articles sent to the storage entrance 11-1 are stored at the shelf address of the empty shelf.

At the same time, the warehousing control unit 104 controls the shelf inventory information storage unit 1.
The inventory data of the corresponding shelf address No. 11 is updated, and the request read control unit 103 is restarted.

When the request readout control unit 103 is restarted by the warehousing control unit 103, the request readout control unit 1 is restarted in step S1 as described above.
03 reads the warehousing/receiving request data from the warehousing/receiving request reception buffer 102, and when it is determined in step S2 that the warehousing/receiving request data is not a warehousing request and is determined to be a warehousing request in step S5, the warehousing/receiving request data is read out. The product number is notified to the warehousing control unit 106, and the warehousing control unit 106 is activated in step S6, and then the warehousing/discharging request reception buffer 10
2 is deleted in step S4.

The delivery control unit 106 activated in step S6 above
refers to the inventory data in the shelf inventory information storage unit 111 in order of priority, searches the inventory in the warehouse shelf group 11, and outputs the shipping control information to the warehouse shown in FIG. Transfer to the control panel 16. Therefore, this ground control panel 16 controls the stacker crane 12 and controls the warehouse shelf group 1.
1 is searched, and the article corresponding to the requested product number is sent to the exit port 11-2 and exited from the warehouse.

At the same time, the shipping control unit 106 controls the shelf inventory information storage unit 1.
11, the stock data of the corresponding shelf address is updated, the number of products corresponding to the product number determined by the stock issue status detection unit 107 is counted up, and the request read control unit 103 is restarted.

Furthermore, the request readout control unit 10
3 is restarted, the request reading control unit 103 reads the warehousing/unloading request data from the warehousing/unloading request reception buffer 102 in step S1 as described above, and the warehousing/unloading request data is determined to not be a warehousing request in step S2, If it is determined in step S5 that it is not a shipping request, the process proceeds to step S7,
The replacement control unit 105 is activated.

When the replacement control unit 105 is activated, this replacement control unit 10
5 refers to inventory data in the shelf inventory information storage section 111 and searches whether there is an empty shelf in the shipping tank group 11-3. When an empty shelf exists, the inventory data in the shelf inventory information storage unit 111 is referred to in order of priority seating on the shelf, and the corresponding product number is searched in descending order of the number of outgoing priorities stored in the outgoing priority number storage unit 109. . Then, when the corresponding product number exists in the storage shelf group 11-4, replacement control information is shown in FIG. Transfer to the ground control panel 16. Therefore, this ground control panel 16 controls the stacker crane 2 to move the article at the shelf address where the corresponding product number exists in the storage shelf group 11-4 to the blank space in the shipping tank group 11-3.

At the same time, the replacement control unit 105 controls the shelf inventory information storage unit 11.
The inventory data of the corresponding shelf address No. 1 is updated, and the request read control unit 103 is restarted.

The outgoing priority number calculation unit 108 is periodically activated by the timer 110, and the outgoing priority number calculation unit 108 calculates the outgoing priority number for each product number in the outgoing priority number storage unit 109. A shipping priority weighting coefficient that takes into consideration the number of items counted, the number of items by product number within the shipping shelf group in the shelf stock information storage unit 111, and the temporal and period priority in the shipping priority weighting coefficient storage unit 113 is periodically collected, The shipping priority number for each product number is updated and written using the calculation formula.

In this case, the exit priority number calculation unit 108 calculates the exit priority number using the following formula.

P-(ZX (SutxTls)+ (Nu+1), where P: number of delivery priorities, Sut: number of delivery per unit time, Tl
s: Final shipping system or time, Nu: Number of individual items within shipping shelf group, α
: Is the shipping priority weighting coefficient.

As described above, in this embodiment, as is clear from the warehouse control described above, when articles are sequentially sent into the storage entrance 11-1 from the outside, the articles are stored in the storage shelf 11-4 in sequence, and Taking advantage of the idle time of the loading/unloading process with the warehouse storage tank group 11-
3, and when there is a request for delivery, the corresponding article can be taken out from the delivery tank group 11-3 through the delivery port 11-2.

Therefore, articles with a high output priority number are collected in the output tank group near the exit, and the output priority number also changes depending on the number of each product number in the output tank group, so there is no bias in the number of items collected in the output tank group. Furthermore, since the shelves near the storage entrance are likely to become empty, the storage/unloading process with the outside can be performed between the shelves near the storage/unloading port, and the time required for storage/unloading processing can be shortened. In other words, there is no need to carry out the loading/unloading process of directly transferring the product from the loading port 11-3 to a shelf located far away in the warehouse shelf group 11, and the loading/unloading process can be performed extremely efficiently.

[Effects of the Invention] As described above, according to the present invention, a group of warehouse shelves is divided into a group of unloading tanks near the unloading entrance and a group of storage shelves, and storage is performed by utilizing the idle time of loading and unloading processing with the outside. The items stored in the shelf group are moved to the retrieval shelf group in order of priority, starting with the item with the highest retrieval priority, so items that are sent to the storage entrance like before can be directly transferred to a shelf located far away. This eliminates the need to transport goods that are located far from the warehouse directly to the warehouse, which greatly reduces the time required for the warehouse loading and unloading process. Stored items can be stored on a shelf near the storage entrance, and taken out from the shelf near the storage exit when leaving the warehouse, making it possible to carry out the storage/unloading process efficiently.

In addition, since it is transferred from the storage shelf group to the retrieval tank group near the retrieval exit according to the retrieval priority number, there is no bias depending on the product number on the shelf near the retrieval exit, which shortens and equalizes the processing time for external storage and retrieval. I can do it.

Furthermore, by adding a weighting coefficient for the number of delivery priorities to the number of delivery priorities, it is also possible to dynamically collect only a certain number of products in a collection tank group.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing a schematic configuration example of an automated warehouse system to which the present invention is applied, FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of classification of warehouse shelf groups, and FIG. 3 is an automatic warehouse control device according to the present invention. FIG. 4 is a block circuit diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention; FIG.
Figure 6 is a configuration diagram showing the format of shipping priority number data for each product number in the same embodiment; Figure 6 is a configuration diagram showing the format of shipping priority number data for each product number in the same embodiment;
FIG. 8 is a block diagram showing the format of inventory data in the same embodiment, FIG. 8 is a block diagram showing the format of shipping priority weighting coefficient data in the same embodiment, and FIG. 9 is a block diagram showing the format of the shipping priority weighting coefficient data in the same embodiment. It is a figure which shows a flowchart. 11... Warehouse shelf group, 11-1... Warehouse entrance, 11-2
... Outlet, 11-3... Outlet tank group, 11-4...
・Storage shelf group, 12...Stacker crane, 13...
- Article, 14... Control device, 15... Detector, 16
... Ground control panel, 101 ... Input/output request reception unit, 1
02... Warehouse entry/exit reception buffer, 103... Request read control unit, 104... Warehousing control unit, 105... Replacement control unit, 106... Warehousing control unit, 107... Warehousing status detection unit, 108... Output priority number calculation unit, 109...
Output priority number storage unit, 110... timer, 111...
- Shelf stock information storage unit, 112... Shipping priority weighting coefficient control unit, 113... Shipping priority weighting coefficient storage unit. Applicant's Representative Patent Attorney Takehiko Suzue Figure 1 Figure 4 Figure 4 Figure Figure Figure

Claims (1)

[Claims] The warehouse shelves are divided into shelves near the exit and others into storage shelves, and when input/output information is input, the article movement mechanism is controlled to receive items from outside and empty the storage shelves. In an automatic warehouse control device that moves articles to a warehouse shelf group, moves articles between storage shelf groups, and takes out articles from a warehouse shelf group, the existence or movement state of articles on the warehouse shelf group is determined. a shelf inventory information storage means for storing the inventory information of the outgoing shelf group and the storage shelf group, which is captured by the detection, together with inventory article information; and a warehousing/output request for specifying the inventory article information of each shelf and inputting a warehousing/output request. an input means, and a warehousing control that searches the shelf inventory information storage means when there is a warehousing request from the warehousing/output request input means, and controls the movement of articles from the warehousing opening to the corresponding shelf of the storage shelf group using the article moving mechanism. and when a retrieval request is received from the retrieval request input means, the shelf inventory information storage means is searched, and the article moving mechanism controls the movement of the specified article from the corresponding shelf of the retrieval shelf group to the retrieval exit. A delivery control means, a delivery priority weighting coefficient storage means storing a weighting coefficient having temporal and periodic changes in the number of delivery priorities, and the article moving mechanism perform storage/retrieval operations with the outside. If it is determined that the goods are not being put in or taken out, the goods are stored in the storage shelf group by the article moving mechanism based on the weighting coefficient taken in from the delivery priority weighting coefficient storage means. 1. An automatic warehouse control device comprising: article replacement control means for controlling the movement of articles that are in stock to the output shelf group in descending order of output priority number.