JPH08108910A - Automatic warehouse system - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: To avoid the state in which an article cannot be delivered by failure of a carrying device. CONSTITUTION: In the automatic warehouse system provided with plural units each comprising a warehouse 52 having plural warehousing places, and a carrier device 50 to carry articles into the storing place designated, a stock number of the articles of the same sort as the articles to be delivered is counted for each carrier device based on a stock control table, and the carrier device is selected to set the stock numbers of the sort in carrier devices uniform. A delivery destination determination 51 is provided to determine the specified delivery place in the applicable warehouse 52 ass a delivery destination.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

FIELD OF THE INVENTION This invention relates to improvements in automated warehouse systems. In an automatic warehouse system for automatically loading and unloading goods using a crane on an article shelf such as a three-dimensional warehouse, when the crane and the article shelf are set as one set and an automatic warehouse is configured by a plurality of sets, the storage destination of the article is conventionally The cranes are sequentially and cyclically selected, and the empty shelves in the article shelves corresponding to the cranes are determined.

[0002] This determination method has an advantage in that the moving speed of the crane is slow, so that waiting for the warehousing process does not occur by selecting the next crane to which the next article is to be stored, but the articles of a plurality of types are stored. When goods are mixed together, a certain type of goods may be distributed to a specific crane, and if that crane fails, it must be discharged from another crane, and There may be a shortage.

For this reason, there is a demand for an automatic warehouse system that determines the receiving destination so as not to affect the shipping when the crane fails.

[0004]

2. Description of the Related Art FIG. 5 is a block diagram of a conventional example, in which three cranes are provided, and one crane is an object rack for loading and unloading, with two rows on both sides, for a total of six rows. 1 illustrates an example of a configured automated warehouse system.

[0005] Each crane (NO1, NO2, NO3) is an article shelf on both sides.
10 is provided as a loading / unloading destination, and the control device 11 is a crane.
NO, article shelf NO (row NO), shelf NO in the article shelf NO (tier NO,
When the continuous NO) is designated, the designated crane is controlled to store the articles mounted on the crane in the designated article shelf 10, and the article is not drawn from the designated article shelf 10 (usually, not shown). Outgoing control is performed on the other side of the entrance.

FIG. 5 shows an example of a system in which an operator directly mounts an article on a designated crane. Now, when the goods A, B, ... Are sequentially transported to the work place 21 by the transport vehicle, the clerk at the work place 21 registers with the registration terminal 19
Enter the product type and quantity of each transport vehicle.

The input data such as the type and quantity is transmitted to the host 14, and the host 14 stores the article in the registration table.
Register in 17 by dividing into the number of receipt units, and serialize each
While issuing NO, cyclically select cranes and sequentially decide the receiving destination.

That is, the host 14 refers to the crane table 18 storing the next storage destination crane number, and retrieves the inventory information of the article shelf corresponding to the crane number in the management table 16. And if there is an empty shelf in the goods shelf,
The empty shelf is determined as the receiving destination. While sequentially stepping through the crane table 18 in this determination process,
Go to the registration table 17 serial number order. In addition,
When there are a plurality of empty shelves, it is determined by a predetermined determination method such as determining the shelf closer to the exit.

When the receiving destination is determined in this way, the receiving terminal information such as serial number, product type, quantity, receiving crane number, etc. is notified to the registration terminal 18, and the registration terminal 19 prints this receiving destination information. Issue label 20 (or destination list).

[0010] Based on this label 20, the receiving and receiving workshop
At 21, a worker mounts a specified quantity of articles on a pallet 20 and attaches the label 20 to each pallet 22. The worker carries the pallet 22 loaded with the articles in the order of the serial numbers to the article rack 10 by the transport vehicle, and is described on the label attached to the pallet 22 at the receiving terminal 12 installed in the vicinity thereof. Enter the serial number.

This input data is transmitted to the host 14, and the host 14 causes the controller 11 to display the crane NO, the article storage queue,
Notify the dan and continuous NO. As a result, the relevant crane is moved to the storage entrance (the entrance for the staff to put the articles on the crane) (or automatically moved to the storage entrance after the storage processing).
Then, the worker carries the article to the loading entrance of the crane having the number displayed on the label 20 or the loading terminal 12, puts it on the crane, and then presses the button 13.

As a result, the control device 11 controls the crane to control the movement to the designated article rack 10. In addition,
When the receiving destination list is issued, the specified articles are mounted on the specified number pallet 22 from the beginning of the list and transported, and the serial numbers described in the list are input to the receiving terminal 12. In other words, work according to the destination list without attaching the label 20.

[0013]

As described above,
In the conventional method of determining the article storage destination, a crane is cyclically selected, and an empty shelf is searched from the article shelves corresponding to the crane to determine. For this reason, when there are a plurality of product types to be stored, the crane is cyclically selected regardless of the product types, so that the same type of product may be stored in a certain crane.

As a result, if an obstacle occurs in one of the cranes at the time of delivery, another crane, that is, a normal crane must be delivered, and if the article is biased to the article shelf of the failed crane, Issues such as insufficient number of deliveries occur.

In view of the above problems, it is an object of the present invention to provide an automatic warehouse system having a plurality of cranes, which can be put in so as not to hinder the delivery work in the event of a crane failure. And

[0016]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the automatic warehouse system of the present invention, as shown in the principle diagram of the present invention of FIG. Conveyor device that stores goods at a specified storage location in a warehouse
In an automatic warehouse system having a plurality of sets (50) and one set, an inventory management table (53) storing inventory information in association with the transfer device (50) and an inventory of articles of the same type as the article to be stored. The number is counted for each transport device based on the inventory management table (53), and the transport device (50) is selected so that the inventory number for each transport device of the product type is uniform, and the predetermined storage location in the corresponding warehouse is received. A storage destination determining unit (51) for determining the storage destination of the article to be stored is provided.

[0017]

When the goods are stored, the storage destination is determined so that the number of stocks of the product type is uniform for each warehouse for each transport device.

Therefore, the warehousing destination determining unit 51 refers to the inventory management table 53 to count the number of stocks of articles of the same type as the articles to be put in, in units of warehouses for each transport device, and for each transport device of that type. The carrier device 50 is selected so that the number of stocks in the warehouse is uniform, and a predetermined empty storage place of the warehouse 52 targeted by the carrier device 50 is determined as a storage destination.

If the receiving destination is determined so that the number of stocks for each transporting device is constant, even if one transporting device fails, the goods to be delivered are distributed to the receiving target warehouses of other normal transporting devices. Since the goods have been stored, it is only necessary to take them out from those warehouses, and it is possible to avoid the situation in which the goods cannot be delivered due to a failure of the transport device.

[0020]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS FIG. 2 is a block diagram of an embodiment, FIG. 3 is a flow chart of warehousing destination determination processing, and FIG. Note that the same reference numeral represents the same object throughout the drawings.

In this embodiment, the type and quantity of the received goods are registered at the registration terminal 19, and for all the registered goods, the host 36 issues a serial number for each goods receipt and the number of stocked cranes to be received. Based on, the registration terminal 19 outputs the determined storage destination list, puts the goods to be stored in the storage gate 33, and by inputting the serial number from the storage terminal 12 in order from the top of the storage destination list. An example in which an article placed at the storage gate 33 is automatically conveyed to a crane corresponding to the serial number and stored is shown.

In the automated warehouse 30 of FIG. 2, the article shelves 31 constitute a three-dimensional warehouse having a plurality of storage shelves, and each article shelf 31 has a row (numbers from the lower row 1, 2, ...) And a series ( The storage shelves are defined by numbers 1, 2, ...) from the lower side toward the upper side in the figure, and the article shelves 31 are defined by rows (1, 2, ... from the left side in the figure). And the crane N0
1 is the article shelf 31 in rows 1 and 2, crane NO2 is the article shelf 31 in rows 3 and 4, and crane NO3 is the article shelf 31 in rows 5 and 6
Are targeted for loading and unloading, and the control device 32 controls the movement to each storage rack.

The control device 32 controls the relevant crane based on a series of storage destination information (row, stage, station, crane NO) notified from the host 36 to perform storage control. The warehousing control starts at the time when the serial number is input from the warehousing terminal 12.

At that time, the input serial number and host
The target crane for receiving the goods is identified from the series of receiving destination information notified from 36, the crane is moved to the receiving port (the delivery port between the crane and the transport path 34), and the receiving gate 33 is controlled. Then, the articles placed in the storage gate 33 are moved to the storage entrance of the crane in pallet units.

In the host 36, a communication control unit 38 communicates with the registration terminal 19 and the receiving terminal 12. Reference numeral 39 is a registration table, which stores the registered data in which the received goods are classified by the storage unit and the serial numbers are issued.

A warehousing control unit 40 classifies the warehousing units based on the type and quantity input from the registration terminal 19, issues serial numbers for each, and registers them in the registration table 39. The storage destination list 46 in which the storage destination information determined in 41 is described is transmitted to the registration terminal 19 to be output, and management such as updating the management table 42 is performed.

Reference numeral 41 denotes a storage destination determination unit that collectively determines the storage destination of the received goods while referring to the management table 42 and creating an empty shelf table 44 and an inventory table 45, as will be described later.

A communication control unit 43 is a control device for the automatic warehouse 30.
Communicate with 32. Reference numeral 37 is a central processing unit that operates each unit configured by a program. FIG. 4 shows an example of the management table, which corresponds to the crane number, and stock information (serial number, product type, quantity) and empty shelf information (empty shelf is set to "0") in each article shelf 10 Set to "1") and each type A of crane unit
The stock numbers of B, C ... Are stored and managed.

With the above configuration, the storage destination is determined as follows, and the storage operation is performed based on the result. FIG.
Reference (1) When the goods arrive, enter the product type and quantity into the registration terminal 19. This data is sent to host 36. (2) The warehousing control unit 40 classifies the received goods in units of warehousing, issues serial numbers for each, and stores them in the registration table 39. (3) The receiving destination determination unit 41 reads the number of empty shelves for each crane by referring to the management table 42, and creates the empty shelf table 44 (see FIG. 3). (4) Then, the inventory table 45 is obtained from the management table 42 by acquiring the inventory number of the same type as the article to be stored for each crane.
(See FIG. 3). (5) The stock table 45 is arranged in the order of the number of stocks (ascending order). (6) Set i = 1 (the head position of the stock table 45, that is, the crane number with the smallest stock quantity exists at this table position). (7) First, the storage destination of the article with the first serial number is determined. The i-th (here, i = 1) crane number in the inventory table 45 is searched, and the empty shelf table 44 is referenced to search for the presence or absence of an empty shelf of the article shelf 31 handled by the crane. (8) If there are empty shelves, it is decided as one of the storage destinations for the serial number for which the storage destination is to be determined. At this time, when there are a plurality of empty shelves, a separately determined determination method such as determining the empty shelf closest to the exit is used. (9) The inventory number in the inventory table 45 for the corresponding crane is updated, and the empty shelf number in the empty shelf table 44 is decremented by -1. (10) If there is no next serial number to be determined, the process ends. (11) If there is the next serial number, the stock table 45 is arranged in the order of stock quantity, and the same processing is performed from the above step (7). (12) If there is no empty shelf in step (8) above, i = i +
For example, the process from step (7) is performed on the second column of the inventory table 45. In other words, for i = 1, there is no empty shelf even if the inventory is small, so the crane with the next smallest inventory is selected. (13) The above process is performed as normal while the value of i is smaller than or equal to the total number of cranes n, but when it exceeds n, it is regarded as unprocessed and an abnormal process described later is performed. (14) When the warehousing destinations have been determined for all the serial numbers, the warehousing control unit 40 creates the warehousing destination list 46 and sends it to the registration terminal 19 and the control device 32. Also, the management table 42
Update the contents of.

Here, in the above-described abnormality processing, for example, only the determined items are transmitted as the receiving destination list 46, and the fact that there are undecided portions is notified to the worker outside the list. It should be noted that this undecided article will be processed later due to the occurrence of empty shelves due to shipping.

The storage destination list 46 determined as described above is transmitted to the registration terminal 19, and the registration terminal 19 outputs it as the storage destination list 46. The order of the serial numbers in the receiving destination list 46 is determined in consideration of the operating time of the crane. That is,
Since the storage destinations of the articles on one list have already been determined collectively, the storage order does not have to be the serial number order, and the list order is determined so that the same crane is not continuous. Basically, it is cyclic.

Since the storage destination list 46 is output as described above, the worker sequentially carries out the storage operation while looking at this list. First, the first item in the receiving destination list 46 is moved to the receiving gate 33.
The serial number is stored in the storage terminal 12. Thereby, the control device 32 refers to the storage destination list 46 notified from the host 36, and the crane number to be stored,
Recognizing the rows, columns, and lines, the article is conveyed to the storage entrance of the corresponding crane, the crane is controlled to place the article on the crane, and the article is conveyed and stored on the empty shelf of the designated article shelf 31.

As described above, the storage destination can be determined so that the number of stocks is uniform for each crane, so that even if a crane fails, another normal crane can be delivered.

In the embodiment, the crane is automatically transported to the crane automatically determined by the storage gate 33, but as described in the conventional example, it can be applied to the method of transporting the article to the storage entrance of the crane. . In this case, the crane number is written on the receiving destination list 46, and the operator inputs the serial number to the receiving terminal 19 and then carries it to the receiving port of the crane. As a result, manual warehousing work can be speeded up.

[0035]

As described above, the present invention provides an automatic warehouse system for determining a receiving destination so that the number of stocks in each transport device is uniform, and even if a failure occurs in the transport device. Since there is an article to be delivered in a warehouse controlled by a normal transport device, there is an effect that the delivery operation is not hindered.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a principle diagram of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a configuration diagram of an embodiment.

[Fig. 3] Flowchart diagram of warehousing decision processing

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of a management table.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram of a conventional example

[Explanation of symbols]

10 Goods shelf 11 Control device 12 Receipt terminal 13 Button 14 Host 15 Receipt control unit 16 Management table 17 Registration table 18 Crane table 19 Registration terminal 20 Label 21 Receipt / receipt work place 22 Pallet 30 Automatic warehouse 31 Goods shelf 32 Control device 33 Receipt gate 34 Transport route 36 Host 37 Central processing unit CPU 38 Communication control unit 39 Registration table 40 Storage control unit 41 Storage destination determination unit 42 Management table 43 Communication control unit 44 Empty shelf table 45 Inventory table 50 Transfer device 51 Storage destination determination unit 52 Warehouse 53 Inventory management table

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. An automatic warehouse system comprising a plurality of warehouses each having a plurality of storage locations and a transportation device for storing an article at a designated storage location in the warehouse, wherein the inventory information is the transportation equipments. According to the inventory management table, the stock management table stored in association with the above-mentioned items and the number of stocks of articles of the same product type as the goods to be stored are counted for each transport device based on the stock management table, and Select the transport device,
An automatic warehouse system, comprising: a storage destination determination unit that determines a predetermined storage location in a corresponding warehouse as a storage destination of an article to be stored.