KR101282354B1 - Parcel sorting system, context aware method for controling the system and recoding media saving computer program implelenting the method - Google Patents

Abstract

There is provided a shipment classification system for automating a shipment classification task which has been manually performed by using a robot, and a situation recognition method for providing predetermined control information so that the system operates intelligently. The shipment classification system includes a delivery sequence generator for determining an optimal delivery order for each shipper using a pre-entered delivery address and geographic information, a transfer system for transferring shipments to a classification place, a shape of a shipment being transferred, A sensor system for recognizing situation information including a location and an identifier, a situation recognition system for analyzing the situation information to generate pickup information of the shipment, and generating drop information of the picked-up shipment with reference to the delivery order; And a robot system controlling the robot to pick up the shipment correctly according to the pickup information, and controlling the robot to drop the picked up shipment in a predetermined area for each shipper according to the drop information. .

Description

PARAMETER SORTING SYSTEM, CONTEXT AWARE METHOD FOR CONTROLING THE SYSTEM AND RECODING MEDIA SAVING COMPUTER PROGRAM IMPLELENTING THE METHOD}

The present invention provides a shipment classification system in which a shipment classification robot accurately picks up shipments transferred to a conveyor belt and divides the shipments according to predetermined conditions, and the appearance, weight, packing state, and conveyor belt of the shipment so that accurate classification can be performed. The present invention relates to a method for providing a delivery classification system by recognizing a situation such as an arrangement, and a recording medium for storing a program implementing the method.

The present invention is derived from the subject of the research "Development of Smart Robot Manipulator for Parcel Delivery Classification" conducted by the Ministry of Knowledge Economy and Daedeok Special Zone Support Center of Daedeok Special Zone. (Subject name: Development of robot control situational awareness system based on image and digital signal)

A parcel service is the most popular means of logistics. Parcel service refers to a service that delivers a relatively small size of goods and is sometimes referred to as courier.

Parcels that have received a request for delivery are collected in a certain place and distributed to delivery agents in each area through two or more processes. Specifically, the parcels can be divided into the process of classification by destination and customer address.

The sorting operation by base is to sort the parcels by the area where the delivery point is located.It is processed mechanically by using the automatic sorting machine in large distribution centers such as postal central offices. Since they have to be loaded on delivery vehicles in order for the address to be visited, they are handled manually by the couriers at local delivery centers such as local post offices.

Parcel sorting work consisting of manual work consists of the first sorting work to classify parcels arriving at the post office or delivery center by the courier, and the second sorting work to sort by the order of delivery in the delivery area assigned to the courier.

This parcel delivery classification according to the deliveryman and delivery order requires a large space at the post office or delivery center for manual processing, and mainly due to the characteristics of the delivery center located in the city, there is a problem of increasing the rental cost of real estate, and due to the volume and weight of the parcel. There is a problem that an unexpected social cost is incurred due to excessive labor or manual industrial accidents due to musculoskeletal diseases. Therefore, it is necessary to improve the working environment through automation.

In addition, it usually takes two to three hours to separate delivery by address, but for a general distribution center or post office that needs to deliver more than 4,000 parcels a day, it is possible to reduce the delivery time to provide customers with faster delivery service. It is also an important task to be achieved for customer satisfaction.

The problem to be solved by the embodiments of the present invention, in the shipment classification system for automating the shipment sorting work that was made by hand using a robot, the situation of the shipment to the classification robot that operates simple repetition as previously programmed It is to suggest a way to give intelligence to operate actively according to the system.

In other words, the general industrial robot manipulator operates only according to a pre-planned program, and thus cannot be used to pick up parcels of various shapes and weights and distinguish them in a special order. Robot manipulators currently used in the logistics industry are limited to this type of box or small pallets. In order to overcome and improve the limitations of the existing robot manipulators in the logistics field, it is necessary to analyze the form, weight, and position of the parcels in real time and change the control commands that can operate appropriately in the given situation to the robot manipulators. Do.

In order to solve the above problems, the present invention, a shipping order generator for determining the optimal shipping order for each shipper using a shipping address and geographic information entered in advance; and a transfer system for transferring the shipment to a separate place; And A sensor system for recognizing situation information including a shape, a position, and an identifier of a shipment being transported; and analyzing the situation information to generate pickup information of the shipment, and dropping the pickup shipment by referring to the delivery procedure. A system for generating information; and controlling the robot to pick up the shipment correctly according to the pickup information, and placing the picked up shipment in a predetermined area for each shipper according to the drop information. In one embodiment, a system for sorting a shipment including a robot system for controlling the system is provided.

The situation recognition system includes a situation information collector for receiving situation information from the sensor system, a situation information processor for converting the received situation information into a processable data form for generating pickup information, and whether the converted data is a predetermined situation. A pickup information generator including an information generator for generating pickup information by substituting an algorithm; and a shipping address generator for obtaining a shipping address by querying a shipping information DB connected to a computer network by using an identifier of a shipment included in the situation information; And a drop information generator for receiving a delivery address from the delivery address generator and receiving a delivery order from the delivery order generator, and an information generator for determining a drop location with reference to the received delivery address and delivery order. Include.

The information generator of the pickup information generator includes at least one of a height from a bottom surface, an inclination of the top surface of a shipment, and a pickup pressure by substituting a shape and a position of a shipment included in the situation information into a predetermined situation recognition algorithm. Generate information.

The information generator of the pickup information generator, when the situation information further includes additional information including at least one of the composite slope and the item information of the upper surface of the shipment, a rule model (rule model) similar in pattern to the additional information; Search, and add at least one of a top surface material, a compound tilt, and a center of gravity of the shipment specified in the found rule model to the pickup information.

When the robot system includes a plurality of robots, the situation awareness system receives a shipping address from the shipping address generator or the shipping information collector, and queries the shipping address / robot mapping information stored in advance to correspond to the shipping address. After querying the robot, the robot assignment information generator may be further configured to generate robot assignment information including the inquired identifier of the robot and provide the generated robot assignment information to the robot system.

When the transfer system is configured to branch to each robot after passing through the sensor system, the robot assignment information generator may provide the transfer system with conveyor switching control information further including branch control information in the robot assignment information. Can be.

Another embodiment of the present invention relates to a situation recognition method of the situation recognition system for controlling a shipment classification system including a sensor system, a situation awareness system, a transport system, and a robot system, wherein the situation of a shipment from the sensor system is provided. Receiving information; A pickup information generation step comprising converting the situation information into a form of data which can be processed for generating pickup information, and generating pickup information by substituting the converted data into a predetermined situation recognition algorithm; and the situation information A shipping address generation step of finding a shipping address by querying a shipping information DB connected to a computer network by using an identifier of a shipment included in the computer network; And a drop information generation step including determining a drop position by referring to a delivery order for each shipper determined using a previously inputted shipping address and geographic information and the generated shipping address.

The pickup information generating step may include: substituting a shape and a position of a shipment included in the situation information into a predetermined situation recognition algorithm; And generating pickup information including at least one of a height from a bottom surface, an inclination of an upper surface of a shipment, and a pickup pressure by executing the situation awareness algorithm.

The pickup information generation step, when the situation information further includes additional information including at least one of the complex slope and item information of the upper surface of the shipment, searching for a rule model (rule model) similar in pattern to the additional information And adding at least one of a top surface material, a compound slope, and a center of gravity of the shipment specified in the searched rule model to the pickup information.

When the robot system includes a plurality of robots, inquiring of the pre-stored shipping address / robot mapping information to query the robot corresponding to the generated shipping address, and the robot assignment information including the identifier of the inquiry robot The method may further include generating robot assignment information, the method comprising providing the generated robot assignment information to the robot system.

When the transfer system is configured to branch to each robot after passing through the sensor system, the robot assignment information generating step may include conveyor switching control information including the branch control information in the robot assignment information to the transfer system. Providing a step may include.

In the above embodiments, the drop location may be one of the index number of the delivery classification boxes that are pre-indexed by the position coordinates around the robot and the position around the robot.

In addition, the context awareness method of the context awareness system may be implemented as a software program and stored in a computer-readable recording medium.

According to the present invention, since the parcel forwarder can automatically classify the parcel delivery order classified manually by using a large space in a delivery center or a post office, a robot manipulator can reduce the work space required by the parcel delivery center or a post office. Can, and do not need the empirical knowledge of the deliveryman. In addition, it is possible to reduce the excessive labor consumption in the manual process due to the large volume and weight of the parcel, to prevent the occurrence of industrial accidents, such as musculoskeletal diseases, and above all, there is an effect that can reduce the labor costs and work time of delivery classification.

1 shows a schematic configuration of a parcel classification system to which a situational awareness system according to an embodiment of the present invention is applied.
Figure 2 is a block diagram showing in more detail the configuration of the shipment classification system according to an embodiment of the present invention.
3 is a flowchart illustrating a situation recognition method according to an embodiment of the present invention and a method of classifying a shipment using the method.
4 is a flowchart illustrating a generation process of pickup information, in particular, in a situation recognition method according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.
5 is a flowchart illustrating in detail a process of generating robot assignment information in the situation recognition method according to an embodiment of the present invention.
6 is a flowchart illustrating in detail a process of generating drop information in the situation recognition method according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.
7 is a diagram illustrating an arrangement of delivery distribution boxes assigned to each robot according to an embodiment of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION 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. The present invention may be embodied in many different forms and is not limited to the embodiments described herein. In the drawings, the same reference numerals are used to denote the same parts throughout the specification. In addition, when any part of the specification is to "include" any component, which means that it may further include other components, except to exclude other components unless otherwise stated.

Throughout the specification, the term 'delivery' refers to a parcel or a parcel delivered through a post office or a parcel delivery company, but is not necessarily limited thereto. The size and weight of the parcel may be picked up by a robot manipulator while moving through a predetermined transport system. Any item that has the article may correspond to the shipment.

Throughout the specification, the term "delivery classification robot" refers to a mechanical means that picks up a provided shipment and transfers it to a predetermined point. A robot manipulator having a multi-joint, a humanoid humanoid or a rectangular coordinate robot, etc. It can be embodied in the form of.

Throughout the specification, the term 'recording medium' refers to a nonvolatile memory, and includes a portable memory such as a data CD, a USB memory, a memory stick, a memory card, a hard disk, a floppy disk, and a static memory. Non-portable memory (SRAM).

In the following embodiments, a parcel is assumed as a specific example of a shipment to aid understanding, and a robot manipulator is described as a shipment classification robot.

Robotic manipulators can be used to classify parcels that arrive in a separate area to the couriers in detail. Robot manipulators can be a very effective means of automating parcel sorting operations in confined spaces, such as a courier's regional delivery center or local post office. The robot manipulator can be used to: 1) work in a relatively narrow space, 2) at a very high speed compared to manual work, 3) to accurately classify parcels, and for similar reasons, robots for fast and accurate logistics transfer in various industrial sites such as the automotive industry and the electronics industry. Manipulator is being used.

1 shows a schematic configuration of a parcel classification system to which a situational awareness system according to an embodiment of the present invention is applied.

As shown in FIG. 1, the parcel separation system includes a sensor system 100, a delivery order generator 200, a situation recognition system 300, a transfer system 400, and a robot system 500.

The sensor system 100 recognizes the situation information including at least one of a volume, a shape, a position, a packaging state, a weight, and delivery information of the parcel, and transmits the situation information to the situation recognition system 300. To this end, the sensor system 100 includes at least one sensor (not shown in the figure) for detecting predetermined information from the parcel, and a communication interface (not shown in the figure) for transmitting the detected information to the situation awareness system 300. C).

A line scanner or three-dimensional scanner may be used as a sensor for recognizing the shape or volume of the parcel. In addition, a digital camera can be used as a sensor for recognizing the position or packaging status of the parcel delivery system. In addition, a gravity sensor may be used as a sensor for recognizing the weight of the parcel.

In addition, the delivery information including at least one of the identifier of the parcel, the contents of the parcel, the weight of the parcel, the shipper address from the address, the postal address, the postal code, the sender, and the recipient may include a barcode or an RFID. If a barcode or RFID is attached to the parcel, a barcode scanner or an RFID reader can be used as the sensor. Here, the barcode refers to an image-based information transfer means that matches predetermined information with a geometric image, and includes a barcode, a three-dimensional barcode, and a QR code.

The delivery order generator 200 initially uses a delivery address of the delivery information DB 20 stored through the acceptor terminal 10 and the geographical information of the pre-established geographic information system 30 when receiving the parcel shipment. Determines the delivery route and delivery order of the parcels allocated to each parcel. The delivery address input to the acceptor's terminal 10 may be transmitted to the delivery order generator 200 in real time or may be provided in a batch manner.

The delivery sequence generator 200 is provided with a delivery address of the parcels to be delivered from the receiver terminal 10 or the delivery information DB 20 and a communication module for receiving geographic information of the jurisdiction from the geographic information system 30 (drawings). And a route calculation module (not shown) for generating an optimal delivery route and delivery order by applying a predetermined algorithm to the provided delivery information and geographic information. In addition, the communication module of the delivery order generator 200 provides the generated delivery path and delivery order to the situation recognition system 300.

The situation recognition system 300 generates basic data for controlling pick-up and drop of the robot manipulator using the situation information of the parcel, and transmits each generated information to the robot system 500. do. When the shipment classification system of the present invention includes a plurality of robotic manipulators, the transport system 400 may be configured to branch to each robotic manipulator through the sensor system 100. In this case, the situation recognition system 300 may further generate basic data for branch control of the transport system 400 using the situation information of the parcel.

The transport system 400 is responsible for moving the parcel from the collection point to the division point where the robot manipulator is located. Specifically, the transfer system 400 includes a transfer means (not shown) such as a conveyor belt or a conveyor roller, a drive means (not shown) for applying a driving force to the transfer means, and a transfer control unit for controlling the drive means. (Not shown in the drawings). If a plurality of robot manipulators are arranged, the conveying means and the driving means may be configured such that the parcel being moved reaches a specific point and branches into a pre-assigned robot manipulator. Here, the transfer control unit controls the transfer means and the driving means so that a specific parcel is transferred to a specific robot manipulator according to the branch information provided by the situation awareness system 300.

The robot system 500 includes at least one robot manipulator (not shown) and a robot control center (not shown) for controlling each robot manipulator. The robot control center receives pick-up information and drop information of a specific robot manipulator from the situation awareness system 300, and transmits specific motion control signals to the robot manipulator with reference to the received pick-up information and drop information.

The robot manipulator comprises at least one joint (not shown), a rotating means (not shown) and a pickup means (not shown). The robot manipulator picks up the parcel correctly according to the pick-up information and the drop information of the situation awareness system 300, and correctly drops it at a predetermined loading point. The pickup means is also called 'End-Effect' in other words.

The robot manipulator may be provided with various means of pickup means for picking up parcels. For example, any one of the first method of pressing up the left and right of the parcel, the second method of adsorbing and picking up the surface of the parcel through the compressor, the third method of lifting after inserting the support means on the bottom of the parcel You can use or use more than one combination. In the case of the first method, the manipulator needs to know exactly which posture the parcel is placed on the conveying means in order to press the side of the parcel accurately. In addition, in the case of the second method, the weight and packaging form of the package that can be lifted by the adsorption method is limited, so that accurate information about the weight, packaging form (for example, plastic packaging), contents, etc. of the package is not required to prevent pickup. Must be delivered to Similarly, in the third method, the manipulator needs to know the exact placement of the parcel in order to accurately insert the support plate on the bottom of the parcel. As a result, in order to accurately pick up the robot manipulator, it can be seen that in the previous step, the situation recognition system should accurately detect the parcel transport situation and generate the optimal pickup information. The shipment sorting system of the present invention can be regarded as an intelligent smart sorting system in that the optimal pickup information and drop information are generated for the parcels according to the various orders. have.

Meanwhile, as briefly shown in FIG. 1, a robot manipulator may be disposed near the end of the transfer means, that is, near the end point of the transfer, and parcels may be loaded in a circular area within a certain transaction about the robot manipulator. In this case, the circular zone is again divided into two or more zones, and each zone may be assigned to different deliverymen. As a result, the robot manipulator performs parcel classification by stacking parcels to be delivered by a specific deliveryman according to the pickup information and the drop information of the situation recognition system 300 in a predetermined specific area. However, such a parcel classification method is merely presented as an example, and the method of dividing the parcel by surrounding the robot manipulator may be variously modified.

Hereinafter, the shipment classification system of the present invention will be described in more detail with reference to the situational awareness system 300.

Figure 2 is a block diagram showing in more detail the configuration of the shipment classification system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

As shown in FIG. 2, the situational awareness system 300 according to an exemplary embodiment includes a pickup information generator 310, a delivery address generator 320, and a drop information generator 330, and robot assignment information. The generator 340 and / or the situation monitor 350 may be further included.

The pickup information generator 310 generates basic data for controlling the sophisticated pickup operation of the robot manipulator. Specifically, the pickup information generator 310, the situation information collector 311 for receiving the situation information, including at least one of the shape, volume, position, packaging state, weight of the parcel from the sensor system 100, the received situation information A situation information processor 312 converts the data into a processable data form for generating pickup information, and an information generator 313 for generating basic data on how to lift the parcel.

The information generator 313 may generate pickup information by applying a predetermined situation recognition algorithm and a rule model to the data converted by the situation information processor 312. The situation recognition algorithm and rule model are stored in the situation processing rule DB 314, and the pickup information includes the spatial coordinates, the height, the slope of the upper surface, the position of the parcel placed so that the pickup means of the robot manipulator can pick up the parcel accurately. At least one of the shape of the upper surface, the pickup pressure.

The delivery address generator 320 grasps the delivery address of the parcel and provides it to the drop information generator 330. The drop information generator 330 may generate drop information for allowing the robot manipulator to accurately drop the parcel to the area assigned to the specific delivery house by using the delivery address.

If the robot system 500 includes a plurality of robot manipulators, the delivery address generator 320 may further provide a delivery address of the parcel to the robot assignment information generator 340. The robot assignment information generator 340 may generate robot assignment information that designates which robot manipulator is responsible for the classification of the parcel using the delivery address. The robot assignment information is provided to the pickup information generator 310 and the drop information generator 330 of the situation awareness system 300 to be added to the pickup information and the drop information, and also provided to the transport system 400 so that the parcel is provided. Allow branching to the appropriate robot manipulator.

In detail, the delivery address generator 320 may include an identifier (for example, a registration number or a courier number) of the parcel recognized from the barcode or RFID attached to the parcel by the sensor system 100 to the delivery information DB 20 connected to the computer network. The query finds the delivery address of the parcel and transmits the found delivery address to the drop information generator 330 and / or the robot assignment information generator 340.

The drop information generator 330 generates basic data on which position the robot manipulator will drop the picked up parcel. In detail, the drop information generator 330 receives the delivery address of the parcel from the delivery address generator 320 and the delivery information collector 331 for receiving the delivery order and the delivery route from the delivery order generator 200, and the received delivery address. / Information generator 332 for determining the drop position with reference to the delivery order and delivery path.

The drop position generated by the information generator 332 may be specific coordinates around the robot manipulation, or may be index numbers of parcel boxes that are pre-indexed for each position. In the former case the parcel is placed on the ground at a specific point near the robot manipulator, whereas in the latter case it is placed in one of a number of distribution boxes lying near the robot manipulator.

The robot assignment information generator 340 generates robot assignment information for determining which of the plurality of robot manipulators to apply the pick-up information and the drop information, and uses the generated robot assignment information as the context aware system 200 and the transfer system. To 400. Specifically, the robot assignment information generator 340 receives the parcel delivery address from the delivery address generator 320 or the delivery information collector 331, and searches the pre-stored delivery address / robot mapping information to correspond to the corresponding delivery address. After querying the robot manipulator, robot assignment information including the identifier of the inquired robot manipulator is generated. Then, the generated robot assignment information is transmitted to the situation recognition system 200 and the transfer system 400. The robot assignment information provided to the transport system 400 may further include predetermined branch control information. In this sense, the robot assignment information provided to the transport system 400 is called conveyor switching control information.

The situation monitor 350 collects and monitors the pickup and drop results of the parcel, and generates a predetermined alarm such as a warning sound and / or interruption of the classification process when a problem occurs.

3 is a flowchart illustrating a situation recognition method and a method of classifying a shipment using the method according to an embodiment of the present invention. In the following embodiments, the parcel division process will be taken as an example for clarity. It is also assumed that the robot system 500 includes a plurality of robot manipulators.

As shown in FIG. 3, the process of classifying parcels through situational awareness begins with the deliveryman putting the parcels into the transport system 400 (hereinafter referred to as a 'conveyor'). When the parcel is put into the conveyor and started to be transported, the shape recognition sensor in the sensor system 100 recognizes the parcel horizontal, vertical, and height as an image to identify the parcel and to distinguish it from other parcel information. -No is given (S101). The shape recognition sensor may calculate a volume based on the shape of the parcel and may give a Tag-No to the calculated volume. In addition, the weight recognition sensor of the sensor system 100 measures the weight of the parcel (S102).

The situation information of the parcel generated by the shape recognition sensor and the weight recognition sensor is transmitted to the situation recognition system 300 together with the Tag-No (S103). The situation information collector 311 of the situation recognition system receives the situation information of the parcel including the shape and weight, and the situation information processor 312 analyzes the received situation information and converts it into a data form that can be used by the situation awareness algorithm. The situation information is stored in the DB (S104).

On the other hand, the parcel is transported by conveyor and then branched toward the robot manipulator assigned to it through the shape recognition sensor. In other words, parcel identification and shape recognition in steps S101 to S103 are performed by the shape recognition sensor, while this branch can also be made with a specific robot manipulator, and the parcel is identified again while passing through a separate shape recognition sensor. A branch may be made accordingly.

When the parcel reaches the pickup position of the robot manipulator after branching, the position recognition sensor of the sensor system 100 recognizes the spatial coordinate of the point where the parcel is finally located (S105), and the spatial coordinate of the parcel is tagged with Tag-No. Together with the situational awareness system 300 is transmitted (S106). The situation information collector 311 of the pickup information generator receives the position information (spatial coordinate and Tag-No) of the parcel transmitted by the position recognition sensor, and the situation information processor 312 analyzes the received position information to determine a situation awareness algorithm. The data is converted into a usable data format and stored in the context information DB (S107).

The information generator 313 of the pickup information generator 310 generates predetermined pickup information so that the robot manipulator can pick up the parcel accurately. To this end, the information generator 313 reads the shape, weight, and spatial coordinates corresponding to the Tag-No from the situation information DB and substitutes them into the situation recognition algorithm (S108). At this time, the supplementary information such as the top surface material, the inclination of the inclination and the center of gravity of the parcel is added to the pickup information by using a predetermined rule model that analyzes the parcel pattern in advance so that the end-effect of the robot manipulator can pick up the parcel more accurately. It may also be (S109).

Subsequently, the information generator 313 completes the final pickup information by combining the spatial coordinates of the parcel with the primary pickup information to which the situation awareness algorithm and the roll model are applied (S111). When the situation awareness system 300 transmits the completed pickup information to the robot system 500 (S112), the robot system 500 transmits actual driving control information reflecting the pickup information to a specific robot manipulator (S113). . The specific robot manipulator picks up the parcel placed on the conveyor according to the drive control information (S114), and transmits the result to the situation recognition system 300 so that the situation monitor 330 can utilize it (S115).

4 is a flowchart illustrating a generation process of pickup information, in particular, in a situation recognition method according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

As shown in Figure 4, by the shape recognition sensor and the weight recognition sensor of the sensor system 100, at least one of the width, length, height information and the inclination information of the top surface of the parcel, the shape information of the parcel top surface and the weight of the parcel Context data including information is generated, and the generated context information is transmitted to the context recognition system 300 together with the tag-no of the parcel (S201).

The situation recognition system 300 applies a default rule to the received situation information so that the end-effect of the robot manipulator picks up the parcel, that is, the height from the bottom, the slope of the top of the parcel, The pressure and the like at the time of picking up the parcel are generated as primary pickup information (S202). Here, the general rule is used in the same sense as the algorithm described above.

If additional information is added for more accurate robot control in addition to the first pickup information (S203), a best selected rule model corresponding to the situation information is selected among predetermined rule models. Thereafter, the contextual information may be applied to the selected rule model. That is, when the situation information further includes additional information such as the top shape and the compound slope of the parcel and the item information of the parcel (for example, clothes, electronic products, agricultural products, books, etc.) (S203), the parcel additional information and By finding an optimal rule model with a similar pattern (S204), pickup information suitable for a parcel situation may be additionally extracted (Context Extraction). In addition, the extracted pickup information may include at least one of a top surface material, a complex inclination, and a center of gravity of the parcel, and the final pickup information is generated by adding the primary pickup information and the additional pickup information (S206).

5 is a flowchart illustrating in detail a process of generating robot assignment information in the situation recognition method according to an embodiment of the present invention.

When the robot system 500 constituting the shipment classification system of the present invention comprises a plurality of robot manipulators, specific parcels assigned to the parcel being transferred through the conveyor are transmitted to the transport system 400 by transmitting predetermined robot assignment information to the transport system 400. Can be branched to the robot manipulator.

When the parcel is introduced into the conveyor and started to be transported, the shape recognition sensor recognizes the parcel and gives a tag-no, which is an identifier for distinguishing it from other parcels (S301). In addition, the bar code recognition sensor recognizes a bar code in which identification information, such as a registration number or a courier number, can be distinguished from a parcel uniquely. The barcode recognition sensor transmits the barcode information of the parcel together with the tag-no to the situation recognition system 300 (S303).

The situation information collector 311 of the situation recognition system receives the barcode information of the parcel, and the situation information processor 312 stores the barcode information in the situation information DB (S304).

The shipping information collector 331 reads the shipping address corresponding to the barcode information from the shipping address generator 320, and the robot assignment information generator 340 uses the prestored address / robot mapping information to assign the robot to the shipping address. The manipulator is inquired (S305). After generating the conveyor switching control information instructing the transfer system 400 to branch the parcel to the inquired robot manipulator (S306), the generated conveyor switching control information is transmitted to the transfer system 400. (S307).

The transport system 400 branches according to the received conveyor switching control information (S308), branches the parcel toward a specific robot manipulator (S309), and transmits the parcel branching result to the situational awareness system (S310). The situation awareness system 300 receives the parcel branch result and makes it available to the situation monitor 330 (S311).

6 is a flowchart illustrating in detail a process of generating drop information in the situation recognition method according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

As shown in FIG. 6, when a parcel is introduced into the conveyor 400 and started to be conveyed, the shape recognition sensor identifies a parcel and gives a tag-no that is a unique identifier so that it can be distinguished from other parcel information (S401). In addition, the barcode recognition sensor recognizes the barcode information that can uniquely identify the parcel from the barcode attached to the parcel (S402). The barcode recognition sensor transmits the barcode information of the parcel together with the tag-no to the situation recognition system 300 (S403).

The situation information collector 311 of the situation recognition system receives the barcode information of the parcel, and the situation information processor 312 stores the barcode information in the situation information DB (S404). The shipping information collector 331 reads the shipping address corresponding to the barcode information from the shipping address generator 320, and the robot assignment information generator 340 uses the prestored address / robot mapping information to assign the robot to the shipping address. The manipulator is queried (S405).

The drop information generator 330 generates drop information necessary for controlling the robot manipulator to drop the picked up parcel to be matched with the delivery address to a predetermined location or a delivery classification box (S406). The generated drop information is transmitted to the robot system 500 together with the robot assignment information, and the robot system 500 generates a specific motion control signal by referring to the drop information, and then assigns the motion control signal to the robot assignment information. The data is transmitted to the robot manipulator (S407).

According to the operation control signal (S408), the robot manipulator puts the corresponding parcel in a pre-matched position or delivery box (S409), and transmits a parcel classification result to the situational awareness system (S410). The situational awareness system 300 receives the parcel classification result so that it can be utilized in the situation monitor 330 (S411).

Finally, a case where a robot manipulator uses a delivery classification box among the methods of classifying and unloading parcels in a work area will be described with reference to the drawings.

7 is a diagram illustrating an arrangement of delivery distribution boxes assigned to each robot according to an embodiment of the present invention. Here, a case where two robot manipulators 510 and 520 are arranged in the robot system 500 will be described.

As shown in FIG. 7, a plurality of delivery classification boxes 511 are arranged in a predetermined pattern in the work area of each robot manipulator. Every box is mapped to a specific shipping address, and each box is assigned an index number, a unique identifier. Since the robot system 500 knows in advance the index number of each box arranged around the robot manipulator and its arrangement position, the robot allocation information (including the identification information of the robot) + drop information (box) from the situation awareness system 300 is known. Where the index number of is included), an appropriate parcel drop position can be calculated.

Each courier has several distribution boxes per person, and each distribution box has several addresses that map to the parcel delivery path. Finally, the robot manipulator automatically sorts thousands of parcels that arrive at the delivery center or post office each day, sorting them into boxes, and the couriers carry the boxes assigned to them in the reverse order of delivery.

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.

Particularly, in the above-described embodiments, Tag-No given by the shape recognition sensor is used as a means for identifying the parcel, but the tag-no is assigned to a barcode attached to the parcel or stored as an identification number or invoice number stored in an RFID chip. The Tag-No may be substituted.

In addition, if the weight is measured at the time of the first reception of the parcel is input to the receiver terminal 10 in advance, if the weight information together with the registration number or invoice number received can be stored in the delivery information DB (20) The step of separately recognizing the weight from the parcel being transported may be omitted and may be replaced by recognizing the identifier from the parcel being transported and retrieving the weight information corresponding to the identifier from the delivery information DB 20. In addition, if identification information such as registration number or invoice number and weight information are stored together in the RFID, the step of loading the weight information from the delivery information DB 20 may also be omitted.

Claims (14)

A shipping order generator for determining an optimal shipping order for each shipper using a pre-entered shipping address and geographic information;
A transport system for transporting the shipment to a separate place;
A sensor system for recognizing situation information including a shape, a location, and an identifier of a shipment being transported;
A situation recognition system for generating pickup information of the shipment by analyzing the situation information and generating drop information of the picked-up shipment with reference to the delivery order;
The robot system controls the robot to pick up the shipment correctly according to the pickup information, and controls the robot to drop the picked up shipment in a predetermined area for each shipper according to the drop information.
/ RTI >
The pickup information includes at least one of a height from a bottom surface, an inclination of a top surface of a shipment, and a pickup pressure by substituting a shape and a position of a shipment included in the situation information into a predetermined situation recognition algorithm.
The pickup information further includes additional information including at least one of a complex slope of the upper surface of the shipment and item information in the situation information, and searches for a rule model having a pattern similar to the additional information and searching for a rule. A shipment identification system that adds at least one of the top material, composite slope, and center of gravity of the shipment specified in the model. The system of claim 1, wherein the situational awareness system comprises:
A situation information collector for receiving the situation information from the sensor system, a situation information processor for converting the received situation information into a form of data that can be processed for generating pickup information, and the converted data into a predetermined situation recognition algorithm to be substituted for pickup information. Pickup information generator comprising an information generator for generating a;
A delivery address generator for finding a delivery address by querying a delivery information DB connected to a computer network by using an identifier of a shipment included in the situation information; And
A drop information generator including a shipping information collector which receives a shipping address from the shipping address generator and receives a shipping order from the shipping order generator, and an information generator which determines a drop location by referring to the received shipping address and shipping order;
Shipping classification system comprising a. delete delete The robot system of claim 2, wherein the robotic system comprises a plurality of robots,
The situation recognition system receives a delivery address from the delivery address generator or the delivery information collector, inquires a pre-stored delivery address / robot mapping information, and inquires a robot corresponding to the delivery address, and then identifies the identified robot. And a robot assignment information generator for generating robot assignment information including and providing the generated robot assignment information to the robot system. The method of claim 5,
The transfer system is configured to branch to each robot passing through the sensor system, wherein the robot assignment information generator provides the transfer system with conveyor switching control information further including branch control information in the robot assignment information. Shipping classification system, characterized in that. The method of claim 2, wherein the drop position is,
Shipment classification system, characterized in that one of the index number of the delivery classification box pre-indexed by the position coordinates around the robot and the position around the robot. In the situation recognition method of the situation recognition system for the control of the delivery classification system including a sensor system, a situation recognition system, a transport system and a robot system,
Receiving status information of a shipment from the sensor system; A pickup information generation step of converting the situation information into a processable data form for generating pickup information, and generating pickup information by substituting the converted data into a predetermined situation recognition algorithm;
A shipping address generation step of obtaining a shipping address by querying a shipping information DB connected to a computer network by using an identifier of a shipment included in the situation information; And
Drop information generation step comprising the step of determining the drop position by referring to the delivery order for each shipper determined using the previously entered shipping address and geographic information and the generated shipping address
Lt; / RTI >
The pickup information includes at least one of a height from a bottom surface, an inclination of a top surface of a shipment, and a pickup pressure by substituting a shape and a position of a shipment included in the situation information into a predetermined situation recognition algorithm.
The pickup information further includes additional information including at least one of a complex slope of the upper surface of the shipment and item information in the situation information, and searches for a rule model having a pattern similar to the additional information and searching for a rule. And at least one of a top material, a composite slope, and a center of gravity of the shipment specified in the model. delete delete The method of claim 8, wherein the robotic system comprises a plurality of robots,
Querying the pre-stored shipping address / robot mapping information to search for a robot corresponding to the generated shipping address, generating robot assignment information including the identifier of the inquired robot, and generating the robot assignment information. Method for producing a robot assignment information comprising the step of providing to the robot system. The method of claim 11,
The transfer system is configured to branch to each robot passing through the sensor system, and the robot assignment information generating step includes the conveyor switching control information including the branch control information further included in the robot assignment information to the transfer system. Providing a method. The method of claim 8, wherein the drop position is,
And one of the index numbers of the delivery classification boxes which are pre-indexed by the position coordinates around the robot and the position around the robot. A computer-readable recording medium storing a program implementing the method of claim 8.

Images