KR100923985B1 - System and method for automatic transportation of a roll cage based on RFID - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to an automatic mail container delivery system and method using wireless recognition.

The automatic conveying device can be used to automatically transport the mail container from the arrival hall to the separator of the corresponding mail, and from the separator to the shipping box. To help. Accordingly, it is possible to automatically transport the mail container arrived at the arrival place to prevent damage to the mail container, it is possible to facilitate the operation of moving the mail container. In addition, it is possible to reduce the number of cases in which a mail container containing mail classified at a separator is incorrectly sent to another region, and provide a fast and accurate mail service.

Wireless Recognition, Mail Container, Pallet

Description

System and method for automatic transportation of postal container using wireless recognition

The present invention relates to an automatic postal container delivery system and method, and more particularly, to a system and method for automatically delivering a postal container using wireless recognition.

The present invention is derived from a study performed as part of the postal technology development project of the Ministry of Information and Communication and the Ministry of Information and Communication Research and Development [Task Management Number: 2006-X-004-01, Task Name: Real-time postal logistics element technology development].

In general, mail received at a post office is placed in a pallet, a mail container, and mail in a pallet is carried in a postal vehicle and transported to a postal concentration station. Pallets transported to the Post Office are moved to the appropriate separator slots for automatic sorting according to the type of mail. The pallets are transferred by the operator.

At this time, the postal concentration station is a very large workplace, there is a destination for the arrival of the postal mail, a workshop for sorting and processing the postal mail, and a dispatch site for sending the postal mail to the corresponding areas. In this way, the pallets leading to the arrivals, workshops, and dispatch sites are transported by the operator using an electric vehicle, so there is a possibility of accident risk and damage to facilities, and work efficiency is lowered.

This conventional pallet transport situation will be described with reference to FIGS. 1 and 2.

1 is an exemplary view showing the arrangement of a general postal central office separator, Figure 2 is an exemplary view showing the pallet transport in the workplace by a general electric vehicle.

As shown in FIG. 1, when the postal vehicle 10 arrives at the arrival hall, the pallet 20 containing the mail is sequentially lowered from the rear door of the postal vehicle 20 to the dock, and then to the corresponding separator. Is carried. Mail contained in the pallet (20) is automatically classified by region using a machine, depending on the type of mail separator (40), parcel separator (50), packet separator (60), flat separator (70), etc. It can be divided into

The arrow city shown in FIG. 1 shows the flow of the pallet from the arrival hall to the separator, from the separator to the shipment place. The mail classified by the above-mentioned separator is again contained in the pallet 20 and moved to the shipping place, and is again carried in the postal vehicle 30 to the corresponding area. The pallet used at this time will be described with reference to FIG.

As shown in FIG. 2, the pallet 20 arriving at the arrival hall is moved by the electric vehicle 80 to the workplace with each separator or from the separator to the dispatch site. At this time, there is a connecting ring 25 between the pallet and the pallet so that a plurality of pallets can be moved at once.

In the case of transporting mail using a general pallet as described above, breakage of the pallet itself occurs frequently because a heavy pallet must be pushed or pulled by a worker, and several pallets must be suspended by an electric vehicle to be transported into a workshop. In addition, there is a problem that the pallet collides with the mail separator or the corner of the facility, and the worker may be injured.

In addition, when transporting pallets containing mail separated from the separator to a shipping gate designated by region, if the pallet is incorrectly placed at the gate, it will be mistransmitted to another region, which incurs additional time and cost. There is a problem.

Accordingly, the present invention provides a system and method for automatically delivering mail containers using radio recognition.

According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method for automatically delivering a postal container, the method for automatically delivering a postal container, in a method of automatically delivering a postal container,

Recognizing a tag of a postal container carried to the arrival gate; Setting a path from the arrival gate to a separator that separates the mail based on tag information of the recognized tag; And moving the mail container to the separator based on the set route, and setting the separator to a standby state.

According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method for automatically transporting a postal container, in which a postal container is automatically transported.

Inputting the postal information into a tag of a postal container in which classified postal matters are loaded from a separator; Recognizing a tag of a mail container into which the mail information is input, and setting a path from the separator to a shipping gate based on the recognized tag information; And carrying the mail container based on the set route, and verifying the mail container by recognizing a tag of the mail container at the shipping gate.

Mail container automatic transport system according to another embodiment of the present invention for achieving the above technical problem,

A mail inlet for collecting tag information of a first postal container introduced into an arrival gate and delivering the first postal container to a corresponding separator according to a type of postal item included in the first postal container; A divider which has a plurality of separators each of which moves mails of the first mail container delivered from the mail inlet, along a corresponding path, and outputs the mail classified by the separator through a second mail container; A mail output unit configured to collect tag information of the second postal container and deliver the second postal container to a shipment gate; And a central control unit configured to receive tag information of the first postal container, select a separator of a path corresponding to the tag information, set a path to the selected separator, and deliver the tag to the mail inlet. The section, the section section and the mail output section are connected by an automatic conveying device for conveying the first mail container and the second mail container.

Therefore, it is possible to automatically transport the pallet arrived at the arrival hall to prevent damage to the pallet, it is possible to smooth the operation of the pallet movement.

In addition, it is possible to reduce the number of cases where pallets containing mail classified at the separator are incorrectly sent to other regions, and provide a fast and accurate mail service.

Hereinafter, exemplary embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings so that those skilled in the art may easily implement the present invention. As those skilled in the art would realize, the described embodiments may be modified in various different ways, all without departing from the spirit or scope of the present invention. In the drawings, parts irrelevant to the description are omitted in order to clearly describe the present invention, and like reference numerals designate like parts throughout the specification.

Throughout the specification, when a part is said to "include" a certain component, it means that it can further include other components, without excluding other components unless specifically stated otherwise. In addition, the terms “… unit”, “… unit”, “module”, etc. described in the specification mean a unit that processes at least one function or operation, which may be implemented by hardware or software or a combination of hardware and software. have.

3A and 3B are conceptual diagrams of a postal concentration station according to an embodiment of the present invention.

First, as shown schematically in FIG. 3A, the postal concentration station is composed of a central control unit 100, a centralization station 200, an arrival gate 300 and a delivery gate 400. The arrival gate 300 and the shipment gate 400 include a plurality of gates. In the central office 200, the head separator 210, the parcel separator 220, the packet separator 230, and the flat separator 240 are positioned to separate the mail arriving at the arrival gate 300. The arrival gate 300, the plurality of separators in the concentration station 200, and the shipment gate 400 each include a control unit (not shown) that can be controlled, and these control units are central to control the postal concentration station as a whole. It is connected to the control unit 100.

Looking at the postal concentration station in more detail, as shown in Figure 3b, for transporting pallets used to move the mail container (hereinafter referred to as a pallet) 330 moved to the arrival gate (300) to the separator 202. An automatic conveying device 250 is installed on the floor of the work station 200. In the exemplary embodiment of the present invention, the arrival gate 300, each of the separators 210, 220, 230, and 240, and the shipment gate 400 are described as an example, but are not necessarily limited thereto. In addition, in the embodiment of the present invention, a belt conveyor (belt converyer) is described as an example of the automatic conveying apparatus 250, but is not necessarily limited to this.

Belt conveyors are installed in separate forms at branch points, curved portions, and long straight portions, and each has a structure that can be driven sequentially. To reduce the power loss associated with the use of the belt conveyor, a roller set that moves the belt conveyor is driven just before the pallet is introduced and controlled to stop when the pallet passes. In addition, the presence or absence of the pallet in progress is determined by detecting the sensor (Sensor).

The central office 200 may be classified into a mail inlet 201, a separator 202, and a mail output unit 203. In addition, mails separated by each separator 210, 220, 230, and 240 located in the separator 202 are collected in one pallet 430 before being delivered to the waybill gate 400, where the pallet ( The tag 430 includes a tag including information input through the mobile readers 211, 221, 231, and 241 at each separator 202.

The flow of the pallet flowing into the postal concentration station as described above will be described with reference to FIG. 4.

4 is a flow chart for pallet transport from the arrival gate to the divider according to an embodiment of the present invention.

As shown in FIG. 4, a postal vehicle 310, which has loaded a pallet containing mail at a collection place such as a local post office, arrives at the arrival gate 300 of the concentration station. When the rear part of the postal vehicle 310 is positioned in the dock and the rear door of the vehicle is opened, the pallet 330 containing the postal matter is sequentially unloaded. In this case, the tag attached to the pallet 330 is wirelessly recognized by the reader 320 installed on the top of the arrival gate 300. The information recognized by the reader 320 is sent to the central control unit (100 shown in FIG. 3A) via the reader.

Here, the central control unit 100 extracts mail type information from the information received from the reader, and calculates information on which separator in the division unit 202 of the workplace should be conveyed. In addition, it determines systematically which of the various paths for transporting the pallet 330 to the separator is the optimal path. The central control unit 100 transmits the calculated information to a control unit for controlling the corresponding separator, and the control unit receiving the information switches to the ready state so that the corresponding separator can operate.

When the pallet 330 recognized by the arrival gate 300 enters the mail inlet 201 which is the conveyor inlet rail to move to the separator, the sensor installed in the mail inlet 201 detects the pallet and operates. The belt conveyor in the optimum path set by the central control unit 100 operates sequentially.

Looking at the operation sequence of the system from the arrival gate 300 to the division unit 202 in more detail as follows. First, when the mail vehicle 310 carrying the mail arrives at the arrival gate 300, the sensor detects the arrival of the vehicle (S100) and transmits the detected information to the central controller 100 (S101). The central control unit 100 prepares to operate the RFID system and the belt conveyor system located in the central station 200 through the received information (S102).

Next, when the worker lowers the pallet 330 tagged with the vehicle, the reader 320 recognizes the tag attached to the pallet 300 (S103). At this time, the recognized information is the type information of the mail contained in the pallet 330, and the central control unit 100 is used to determine which separator to carry the pallet.

The recognized information is transmitted to the central control unit 100 (S104), and the central control unit 100 finds out the type information of the mail contained in the pallet 330 from the received information. At the same time, the pallet 300 sets an optimal path among a plurality of paths that are moved to the separator (S105), and sends a control signal to maintain the ready state so that the separator can operate simultaneously with the inflow of the mail of the pallet. (S106).

When the operator inserts the pallet 330 into the mail inlet 201, which is the entrance of the conveyor system, the sensor at the entrance detects the pallet 330 (S107) and drives the conveyor (S108) to classify the pallet 330. Carry to the plane (S109). Next, the sensor located in the mail inlet 202 determines whether the pallet is introduced for a predetermined time (S110), and if the pallet does not enter, the system is stopped and switched to the standby state (S111).

However, if the pallet continues to flow, continue the procedure after step S103. Thereafter, a method of classifying mails in the separating unit 202 is already known, and detailed descriptions thereof will be omitted in embodiments of the present invention.

Next, a procedure of transporting the pallet flowing into the division part through the procedure of FIG. 4 to the shipping gate will be described with reference to FIG. 5.

5 is a flow chart for pallet transportation from the divider to the waybill gate in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

As shown in FIG. 5, the mail classified by each separator is contained in each pallet 430 at the loading portion (not shown) of each separator. At this time, the operator records the information necessary for the tag attached to the pallet 430 by using the mobile reader (211, 221, 231, 241) (S200). The information here includes a sending station symbol, a mailing classification symbol, a destination station symbol, a date and time, and the like.

On the other hand, the pallet containing the mail 430 is put into the mail output unit 203 to be sent to the corresponding gate 400 (S201). When the pallet 430 is input to the mail output unit 203, a sensor located at the mail output unit 203 detects the entry of the pallet 430, and operates the conveyor to move the pallet 430 to the corresponding shipping gate gate 400. Transport it). At this time, when the pallet 400 arrives at the mail output unit 203 of the conveyor, a reader (not shown) located at the mail output unit 203 reads a tag attached to the pallet 430 (S202). The pallet 430 sets an optimal path of which wayway gate 400 of the wayway to go (S203), and carries the pallet 430 to the wayway gate (S204).

When the pallet 430 is moved to the corresponding gate gate 400 and loaded on the postal vehicle 410, the reader 420 located at the gate gate reads the tag attached to the pallet 430 (S205). It is verified whether the pallet is sent (S206). In other words, the dispatch area-related information previously stored in the reader 420 and the tag information of the pallet 430 read by the reader 420 are compared to verify whether the two information match each other.

If the two information match, the reader 420 sends the pallet sending information to the central control unit 100 (S207), and the central control unit 100 stores the received pallet sending information (S208). However, if the two information does not match, it is determined that the pallet is delivered to the wrong shipping gate, and does not load the pallet in the postal vehicle (S209). Next, the sensor located in the mail output unit 203 checks whether or not the pallet is introduced into the mail output unit 203 for a predetermined time (S210), and if not, stops the belt conveyor system and switches to the standby state ( S211).

However, if the pallet continuously flows into the mail output unit 203, the procedure after step S202 is performed. In this case, it is possible to know whether or not the pallet gate 400 is introduced into the central station 200 by providing information between the gate gate 400 and the control unit controlling the mail output unit 203 of the central station 200. Because I receive.

As described above, the pallet can be automatically classified and introduced into the optimal path by reading the wireless tag attached to the pallet by the RFID reader. The tag at this time will be described with reference to FIG.

6 is an exemplary diagram of RFID tag record information according to an embodiment of the present invention.

As shown in Fig. 6, a pallet, which is a postal container, has a radio tag attached thereto, and the tag records the sending station symbol, mail type symbol, destination station symbol, date and time information, etc. for sending the pallet.

The sending station symbol indicates the unique number of the sending station that sends the pallet, and the mail type symbol identifies the type of mail. Types of mail may be classified into letters representing letters, parcels, packets representing thick large mails, and flats representing thin flat mail bundles.

The destination country symbol represents a postal concentration station in the destination to which the mail classified by the separator should finally arrive. The date and time also correspond to time information that indicates when the mail was received.

The embodiments of the present invention described above are not implemented only through the apparatus and the method, but may be implemented through a program for realizing a function corresponding to the configuration of the embodiment of the present invention or a recording medium on which the program is recorded. Implementation may be easily implemented by those skilled in the art from the description of the above-described embodiments.

Although the embodiments of the present invention have been described in detail above, the scope of the present invention is not limited thereto, and various modifications and improvements of those skilled in the art using the basic concepts of the present invention defined in the following claims are also provided. It belongs to the scope of rights.

1 is an exemplary view showing the arrangement of a general mail central office separator.

Figure 2 is an exemplary view showing the pallet transport in the workplace by a general electric vehicle.

3A and 3B are conceptual diagrams of a postal concentration station according to an embodiment of the present invention.

4 is a flow chart for pallet transport from the arrival gate to the divider according to an embodiment of the present invention.

5 is a flow chart for pallet transportation from the divider to the waybill gate in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

6 is an exemplary diagram of RFID tag record information according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Claims (11)

In the method of automatically carrying a mail container, Recognizing a tag of a postal container carried to the arrival gate; Setting a path to a separator that separates mail from the arrival gate based on tag information of the recognized tag; And Moving the mail container to the separator based on the set route, and setting the separator to a standby state Postal container automatic conveying method comprising a. The method of claim 1, The tag information is a postal container automatic conveying method which is postal type information of a postal item contained in the postal container. The method according to claim 1 or 2, Setting the path, Setting an automatic transport device connected to the separator from the arrival gate to a standby state; Mail container automatically carrying method further comprising. The method of claim 3, Determining the presence or absence of a postal container introduced into the separator; And If there is no incoming mail container, setting the separator to be in a standby state to operate the automatic conveying device for moving the mail container to the separator and the mail object Mail container automatically carrying method further comprising. In the method of automatically carrying a mail container, Inputting the postal information into a tag of a postal container in which classified postal matters are loaded from a separator; Recognizing a tag of a mail container into which the mail information is input, and setting a path from the separator to a shipping gate based on the recognized tag information; And Carrying the postal container based on the set route, and verifying the postal container by recognizing a tag of the postal container at the shipping gate gate; Postal container automatic conveying method comprising a. The method of claim 5, The mail information, Automatic mail container method comprising at least one of the country of origin of the mail, the type information of the mail, the country of destination information of the mail, the collection date and time information of the mail. The method of claim 5, The verifying step, When the verification of the mail container is completed, storing the mail container shipment information Mail container automatically carrying method further comprising. The method of claim 5, Determining whether there is a mail container flowing into the shipping gate; And If there is no new incoming mail container, setting the automatic transport device connected from the separator to the shipping gate to a standby state Mail container automatically carrying method further comprising. In a system for automatically transporting mail containers, A mail inlet for collecting tag information of a first postal container introduced into an arrival gate and delivering the first postal container to a corresponding separator according to a type of postal item included in the first postal container; A division unit having a plurality of separators each of which moves mails of the first mail container delivered from the mail inlet, along a corresponding path, and outputs mail classified by the separators through a second mail container; A mail output unit configured to collect tag information of the second postal container and deliver the second postal container to a shipment gate; And A central control unit which receives tag information of the first mail container, selects a separator of a path corresponding to the tag information, sets a path to the selected separator, and delivers the path to the mail inlet; Including; And the mail inlet, the separator and the mail output are connected to an automatic conveying device for conveying the first mail container and the second mail container. The method of claim 9, Tag information of the first mail container, Automatic mail container delivery system including the mail type information of the mail contained in the first mail container. The method of claim 9, Tag information of the second postal container is A mail container automatic conveyance system including at least one of a sending country information of the mail contained in the second mail container, type information of the mail, destination information of the mail, and a collection date and time information of the mail.

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