JPS60248504A - Warehousing control device in automatic warehouse - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To save a space in the captioned device for warehousing articles of the same kind by a prescribed amount thereof even if a plurality of kinds of the articles are mixed with each other by providing on a warehousing station a stopper controlled by an external instruction and a crane capable of being warehoused also in the warehousing station. CONSTITUTION:A controller 18 conducts a prescribed program processing based on parts stock detection information 1 inputted by an automatic warehouse 8 the number 2 of arrived parts, a fork operation response instruction 4, and a crane movement response instruction 6, while it outputs a stopper open/close instruction 3, fork operation instruction 5, and a crane movement instruction 7. In addition, the controller effects the operations of sending arrived articles of the same kind into the station, temporarily stopping articles of different kinds, temporarily warehousing parts less than the prescribed number, temporarily delivering the temporarily stopped parts and the parts of the same kind described above to the warehousing station, sending the prescribed number of parts into the warehousing station, and regularly warehousing articles. With such arrangement, a space in the warehouse is saved, and a plurality of parts of the same kind can be delivered with ease uppon shipping them.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Field of Application of the Invention] The present invention relates to warehousing control in automatic warehouse equipment, and in particular, even if multiple parts of various types coexist and arrive at a warehousing station irregularly, the same type of parts cannot be handled. The present invention relates to a warehousing control device suitable for warehousing a specified amount at a time.

[Background of the invention]

When several parts are mixed together and arrive at the warehousing station at irregular intervals, the method described below is used.

(1) Single-load warehousing method This is a method in which shelves are allocated to each part and each part is stocked.

According to this method, the inventory density can be increased relative to the capacity in the warehouse, but since the shelf structure is for each item, it has the disadvantage of being fragmented, complicated, and expensive.

Additionally, since the frequency of operation of the crane, which affects the capacity of the automated warehouse, increases, the capacity of the warehouse system as a whole decreases.

(2) Consolidated warehousing method This is a method in which the warehouse shelves are structured so that they can be stocked in specified quantities without being subdivided, and the parts that arrive at the warehousing station are back-pulled to the specified quantity before being stocked.

This method is advantageous over the single-loading method in that the shelf structure is relatively simple and inexpensive, and the frequency of operation of the pv-on can be lowered compared to the quantity of goods. However, there is a drawback that, after several shelves are taken out of the same warehouse, parts other than those of the same type must be returned to the warehouse.

(3) Dual loading method Warehouse shelves can be stocked in specified quantities in the same way as consolidated storage shelves.

If the parts arriving at the warehousing station are of the same type, they are buffered before being warehoved.

This method does not require back-receiving as would be the case with the consolidated loading method, but if the quality of arriving parts changes frequently, the number of shelves that are received without reaching the specified quantity will increase, resulting in The disadvantage is that the loading density decreases.

In this way, all methods have some drawbacks when multiple parts of various types are mixed and arrive irregularly.

[Purpose of the invention]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to provide an automated warehouse that can save space by increasing the density of actual goods on warehouse shelves, and that can easily take out multiple parts of the same type when leaving the warehouse.

[Summary of the invention]

The present invention provides a stopper that temporarily stops the arrival of parts at the parts entrance of the warehousing station, and also has a structure in which the warehousing station and crane can be (temporarily) unloaded from the warehousing station, and gives operational instructions to these stoppers and the crane. Using the control device, (1) Open the stopper and receive the same product into the station (2) Close the stopper and temporarily stop different products (3) Operate the crane and temporarily stock parts that are less than the specified quantity (4) Temporarily stop Temporary delivery of parts of the same quality as the parts to the receiving station (5) Open the stopper, realize the five operations of receiving the specified quantity of parts to the receiving station and (regular) receiving, and by combining these operations, multiple parts of a wide variety of parts Even if they are mixed and arrive irregularly, parts that are less than the specified quantity will be temporarily stored at the receiving station, and when the next identical part arrives, they will be temporarily sent to the receiving station, and parts of the same type will be sent to the receiving station. This is a warehousing control method for automatic warehouses that increases the density of actual goods on warehouse shelves and facilitates the retrieval of multiple parts of the same type by warehousing (regularly) when a specified quantity is available.

[Embodiments of the invention]

Hereinafter, one embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is an example of an automatic warehouse according to the present invention.

The equipment consists of a conveyor 9, a stopper 10, a warehousing station 11, a crane 12, a (crane) moving device 13, a (crane) fork 14, a warehouse 15, a shelf 16, and an unloading station 17, and the equipment group indicated by the broken line 8 is an automated warehouse. Collectively called.

The automated warehouse 8, parts presence detector 1, incoming parts counter 2, fork operation response command 4, and crane movement response command 6 are input to the control device 18.

Further, the control device outputs a stopper opening/closing command 3, an internal calculation result, a fork operation command 5, and a crane movement command 7 based on the input component inventory detection information, incoming component count, and the like.

FIG. 2 shows a detailed block diagram of the control device 18 that implements the control method of the present invention.

The control device of the present invention includes an incoming parts storage register 20, an incoming parts number storage register 21, a stopper opening/closing command creation circuit 22, a fork operation command creation circuit 23, a crane movement command creation circuit 24, a warehousing control circuit 25, and a crane operation creation circuit 22. Circuit 26, warehousing station inventory parts storage register 27, warehousing station outgoing quantity storage register 2B
, a shelf information storage register 29, and a process input/output device 19 for inputting and outputting signals to and from an automated warehouse.

The incoming parts storage register stores the type (Ci) of the parts transported by a conveyor or the like.

The incoming parts number storage register stores the number of incoming parts (Ni) when the stopper is open.

The stopper opening/closing command generation circuit realizes the result of opening or closing determined by the warehousing control circuit as command information.

The product type (Ca) of the parts (group) that are temporarily delivered or transported by conveyor or the like and received at the stocking station is stored in the stocking station stock parts inventory register.

The warehousing station output quantity storage register stores the warehousing parts quantity (Na) when the parts are temporarily unloaded to the warehousing station.

The shelf information storage register stores the type and quantity of parts for each column of the warehouse.

The crane motion creation circuit provides warehouse instructions and instructions to the crane.
A control action for the delivery instruction is created, and the action is realized via the fork movement command creation circuit and crane movement command creation circuit.

The warehousing control circuit uses these devices and registers to perform calculations to realize this control method.

Figure 3 shows the calculation flowchart of the warehousing control circuit.
FIG. 5 shows detailed calculation flowcharts at the time of temporary exit and the time of warehousing, respectively.

The block person clears the incoming parts storage register, the number of incoming parts storage register, the warehousing station stocked parts storage register, and the warehousing station outgoing storage register to 0 (zero).

In block B, a stopper close command is output to the stopper opening/closing command device.

In block C1, the type of component that has been conveyed to the front of the stopper is detected and stored in the incoming component storage register (Ci).

In block C2, the content of the shelf information storage register is checked to see if the same type as the type (Ci) of the received part is temporarily stocked.

If the verification result indicates that the item has been temporarily stored, a command is given to the crane operation circuit to issue a command to take out the temporarily stored item from the storage station.

In block C4, the quantity (Na) of parts delivered to the receiving station is stored in the receiving station delivery quantity storage register.

In block C5, the type (Ca) of the parts delivered to the warehousing station (however, at the current timing, it matches the type of the incoming parts) is stored in the warehousing station inventory section's product storage register.

In block C6, the type of incoming parts is changed to the type of in-stock parts ai (
Ca) is stored in the inventory station stock parts storage register.

In block D1, a stopper opening command is output to the stopper opening/closing command device, and the temporarily stopped parts are delivered into the warehousing station.

In block D2, the quantity (Ni
) is updated by 1.

In block D3, after the parts have passed, a stopper close command is output to the stopper opening/closing device to temporarily stop the subsequent parts.

In block D4, the total quantity of incoming parts (Ni) and the quantity of parts sent to the warehousing station (Na) is the specified quantity (Ni).
Determine whether m) has been reached.

If the quantity is less than the specified quantity, the type of the next arriving part is detected in block D5 and stored again in the incoming parts storage register (Ci).

In block D6, the current part type (Ci) and the received part type (Ca) are compared. If they match, the process moves to block D1 to receive the parts.

If there is a mismatch, block D7 instructs the crane operation circuit to temporarily store the currently received parts.

Further, the information about the temporary stocking is stored in the shelf information storage register in block D8.

If the processing result in block D4 is that the quantity of parts is the specified quantity, then in block D9 the crane motion creation circuit performs (regular) stocking of the part.

Block DIO stores (regular) stock information in the shelf information storage register.

According to the warehousing control method according to the present invention, even if multiple parts of various types are mixed and arrive irregularly, the (regular) incoming parts are organized in the specified quantity for each type, so the warehouse shelf space can be maximized. In addition, it is possible to immediately handle stocking by product type.

(In addition, temporary storage shelves that do not reach the specified quantity only occur at the timing when a fraction of the products currently flowing on the transport equipment occurs, so compared to the known example, considering the space including the shelf structure, In addition, the frequency of V-n operation is higher than that of C2) mixed loading method and (3) overturning method among the known examples. However, in both of these known examples, the number of operations during childbirth is much greater than in the automatic warehouse that employs the control method of the present invention, so the control method according to the present invention is more advantageous from a system-total perspective.

〔Effect of the invention〕

According to the present invention, even if multiple parts of various types coexist and arrive at the warehousing station irregularly, the density of warehouse shelves can be made as high as in the case of single loading and mixed loading systems, and the crane operation frequency is low, It is possible to achieve high efficiency in the above-mentioned unloading, save shelf space, and enable efficient crane operation.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Fig. 1 is a block diagram of the automatic warehouse of the present invention, Fig. 2 is a detailed block diagram of the warehousing control device of the present invention, Fig. 3 is a flowchart of the logical operation circuit for realizing control, Figs. The figure is a detailed view of FIG. 3. 9... Conveyor, 10... Stopper, 11...
Warehousing station, 12... Crane, 13... Moving device, 14... Fork, 15... Warehouse, 16...
・Shelf, 17・°゛Retrieval station, 18...Control device. Agent: Patent Attorney Akio Takahashi, 11 Shizuka, 1111 to Akebono --j Funeral 2

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1. In an automated warehouse consisting of a warehouse, a crane that moves within the warehouse according to commands from the outside, transport equipment such as carts and conveyors, and a station for delivering parts, a warehousing station: A warehousing control device for an automated warehouse, comprising a stopper that can control the movement of parts within the warehouse according to an external command, and a crane that can also take out the warehouse from the warehousing station.