CN112591359A - Inventory item sorting system and method - Google Patents
Inventory item sorting system and method Download PDFInfo
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- B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
- B65—CONVEYING; PACKING; STORING; HANDLING THIN OR FILAMENTARY MATERIAL
- B65G—TRANSPORT OR STORAGE DEVICES, e.g. CONVEYORS FOR LOADING OR TIPPING, SHOP CONVEYOR SYSTEMS OR PNEUMATIC TUBE CONVEYORS
- B65G1/00—Storing articles, individually or in orderly arrangement, in warehouses or magazines
- B65G1/02—Storage devices
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- B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
- B65—CONVEYING; PACKING; STORING; HANDLING THIN OR FILAMENTARY MATERIAL
- B65G—TRANSPORT OR STORAGE DEVICES, e.g. CONVEYORS FOR LOADING OR TIPPING, SHOP CONVEYOR SYSTEMS OR PNEUMATIC TUBE CONVEYORS
- B65G1/00—Storing articles, individually or in orderly arrangement, in warehouses or magazines
- B65G1/02—Storage devices
- B65G1/04—Storage devices mechanical
- B65G1/137—Storage devices mechanical with arrangements or automatic control means for selecting which articles are to be removed
- B65G1/1371—Storage devices mechanical with arrangements or automatic control means for selecting which articles are to be removed with data records
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- Y02P—CLIMATE CHANGE MITIGATION TECHNOLOGIES IN THE PRODUCTION OR PROCESSING OF GOODS
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Abstract
The present disclosure provides an inventory item sorting system and method, wherein the system comprises: the control server is configured to, in response to an inventory item picking request, determine target storage space information from inventory item information to be picked; if the target storage space is determined to be the first storage space, sending a first control instruction to the first robot; if the target storage space is determined to be the second storage space, sending a second control instruction to the second robot; the first robot is configured to transport the target container from the first storage space to the first target workstation in response to the first control instruction; the second robot is configured to transfer the target container from the second storage space to the second target workstation in response to a second control instruction. The embodiment of the disclosure gives full play to the characteristics of two robots by optimizing the inventory structure, improves the picking efficiency of a single target workstation, and relatively reduces the use amount of the robots.
Description
Technical Field
The disclosure relates to the technical field of warehouse logistics, in particular to a warehouse article sorting system and method.
Background
With the rapid development of electronic commerce, the circulation quantity of goods stored in a warehouse is huge, and how to more efficiently and rapidly transport the stored goods to a designated area for sorting, reduce the goods accumulation on a shelf and realize smooth logistics is a problem to be solved urgently in warehouse management.
In the prior art, a robot can pick one or more material boxes at a time and send the material boxes to a target workstation for picking, and the robot returns the material boxes to a goods shelf after picking is completed.
In the method, aiming at the operation of the single-box robot, only one material box can be conveyed to the workstation at one time, so that more robots are needed by the single workstation; aiming at the operation of a multi-box robot, the robot can reach a plurality of places to carry a plurality of material boxes in one cycle, but the picking difficulty is relatively high, the picking efficiency of a single workstation is low, the time of carrying one cycle by the multi-box robot is long, and the picking efficiency is reduced.
Disclosure of Invention
The embodiment of the disclosure at least provides an inventory item picking system and method.
In a first aspect, an embodiment of the present disclosure provides an inventory item picking system, where the system includes an inventory area, a control server, a first robot and a second robot, and a shelf included in the inventory area is divided into a first storage space and a second storage space, where:
the control server is configured to, in response to an inventory item picking request, determine target storage space information from inventory item to be picked information contained in the inventory item picking request; if the target storage space is determined to be the first storage space according to the target storage space information, sending a first control instruction to the first robot; if the target storage space is determined to be the second storage space according to the target storage space information, sending a second control instruction to the second robot;
the first robot is configured to, in response to the first control instruction, transport a target container from the first storage space to a first target workstation, the target container having the item of inventory to be picked contained therein;
the second robot is configured to transfer a target container from the second storage space to a second target workstation in response to the second control instruction.
In an optional embodiment, the control server is further configured to divide the inventory item into a first type of item and a second type of item according to the type and/or the ex-warehouse quantity of the inventory item, wherein the first type of item is stored in the first storage space, and the second type of item is stored in the second storage space.
In an alternative embodiment, the first type of article is delivered in a greater amount than the second type of article.
In an alternative embodiment, the first storage space includes shelves having a distance from the first target station less than a preset threshold, and the second storage space includes shelves having a distance from the second target station greater than or equal to a preset threshold.
In an alternative embodiment, the first storage space includes a lower storage layer in a shelf having a distance from the first target station less than a preset threshold, and the second storage space includes an upper storage layer in a shelf having a distance from the second target station less than a preset threshold and a shelf having a distance from the second target station greater than or equal to a preset threshold.
In an alternative embodiment, the first storage space comprises a lower storage level of a shelf, and the second storage space comprises an upper storage level of a shelf;
the first robot is further configured to, in response to the first control instruction, transfer a target container from the lower storage level of the rack to a first target workstation;
the second robot is further configured to, in response to the second control instruction, transfer a target container from the upper storage level of the rack to a second target workstation.
In an alternative embodiment, the first type of item is also stored in the upper storage layer;
the control server is further configured to send a third control instruction to the second robot in response to an inventory item replenishment request in the event that the number of inventory items contained in a target container placed in a lower storage tier of the rack is below a preset threshold;
the second robot is further configured to restock inventory items contained in target containers placed in the upper storage level of the rack to target containers placed in the lower storage level of the rack in response to the third control instruction.
In an optional embodiment, a temporary storage space is further arranged in the stock area; and
the control server is further configured to send a fourth control instruction to the second robot if the target storage space is determined to be the second storage space according to the target storage space information; and sending a fifth control instruction to the first robot under the condition that the second robot is determined to convey the target container to the temporary storage space;
the second robot is further configured to, in response to the fourth control instruction, transfer the target container from the second storage space to the staging storage space;
the first robot is further configured to transport the target container from the staging storage space to a third target workstation in response to the fifth control command.
In an optional embodiment, the control server is further configured to send a sixth control instruction to the second robot if it is determined that the target storage space is the second storage space according to the target storage space information;
the second robot is further configured to, in response to the sixth control instruction, transfer the target container from the second storage space to the first robot and send a seventh control instruction to the first robot;
the first robot is further configured to transport the target container from the current position to a fourth target workstation in response to the seventh control instruction.
In an alternative embodiment, the first robot comprises a single-box robot and the second robot comprises a multi-box robot.
In an alternative embodiment, the second robot is further configured to be used as the first robot in an idle state.
In a second aspect, an embodiment of the present disclosure provides an inventory item sorting method, in which a shelf included in an inventory area is divided into a first storage space and a second storage space; the method comprises the following steps:
in response to an inventory item picking request, determining target storage space information from inventory item information to be picked contained in the inventory item picking request;
if the target storage space is determined to be a first storage space according to the target storage space information, sending a first control instruction to the first robot, wherein the first control instruction is used for controlling the first robot to carry a target container from the first storage space to a first target workstation, and the target container contains the inventory item to be picked;
and if the target storage space is determined to be the second storage space according to the target storage space information, sending a second control instruction to the second robot, wherein the second control instruction is used for controlling the second robot to carry the target container from the second storage space to the second target workstation.
In an optional implementation manner, the inventory item is divided into a first type item and a second type item according to the type and/or the delivery amount of the inventory item, the delivery amount of the first type item is greater than the delivery amount of the second type item, the first type item is stored in the first storage space, and the second type item is stored in the second storage space.
In an alternative embodiment, the first type of article is delivered in a greater amount than the second type of article.
In an alternative embodiment, the first storage space includes shelves having a distance from the first target station less than a preset threshold, and the second storage space includes shelves having a distance from the second target station greater than or equal to a preset threshold.
In an alternative embodiment, the first storage space includes a lower storage layer in a shelf whose distance from the first target station is less than a preset threshold, and the second storage space includes an upper storage layer in a shelf whose distance from the second target station is less than a preset threshold and a shelf whose distance from the second target station is greater than or equal to a preset threshold.
In an alternative embodiment, the first storage space comprises a lower storage level of a shelf, and the second storage space comprises an upper storage level of a shelf; the first control instruction is used for controlling the first robot to convey the target container from the lower storage layer of the shelf to the first target workstation; the second control instructions are used for controlling the second robot to convey the target container from the high-position storage layer of the shelf to a second target workstation.
In an alternative embodiment, the first type of item is also stored in the upper storage layer; the method further comprises the following steps:
and in the case that the quantity of the inventory items contained in the target container placed in the lower storage layer of the shelf is lower than a preset threshold value, sending a third control instruction to the second robot in response to an inventory item replenishment request, wherein the third control instruction is used for controlling the second robot to replenish the inventory items contained in the target container placed in the upper storage layer of the shelf into the target container placed in the lower storage layer of the shelf.
In an optional embodiment, a temporary storage space is further arranged in the stock area; and
the method further comprises the following steps:
if the target storage space is determined to be the second storage space according to the target storage space information, sending a fourth control instruction to the second robot, wherein the fourth control instruction is used for controlling the second robot to carry the target container from the second storage space to the temporary storage space;
and under the condition that the second robot is determined to convey the target container to the temporary storage space, sending a fifth control instruction to the first robot, wherein the fifth control instruction is used for controlling the first robot to convey the target container from the temporary storage space to a third target workstation.
In an optional embodiment, the method further comprises: if the target storage space is determined to be the second storage space according to the target storage space information, sending a sixth control instruction to the second robot, wherein the sixth control instruction is used for controlling the second robot to carry the target container from the second storage space to the first robot;
and sending a seventh control instruction to the first robot when the second robot is determined to convey the target container to the first robot, wherein the seventh control instruction is used for controlling the first robot to convey the target container from the current position to a fourth target workstation.
In an alternative embodiment, the first robot comprises a single-box robot and the second robot comprises a multi-box robot.
In an alternative embodiment, the second robot is further configured to be used as the first robot in an idle state; the first robot is further configured to be used as the second robot in an idle state.
For a description of the effect of the inventory item picking method, reference is made to the description of the inventory item picking system, and details are not repeated here.
According to the inventory item picking system and method provided by the embodiment of the disclosure, by optimizing an inventory structure, inventory items are divided into a first type of items and a second type of items according to the types and/or the delivery volume of the inventory items, the delivery volume of the first type of items is larger than the delivery volume of the second type of items, the first type of items and the second type of items are respectively stored in a first storage space and a second storage space, different storage spaces are matched for a first robot and a second robot according to the characteristics of the first robot and the second robot, a mixed deployment mode of the first robot and the second robot is adopted, the first robot and the second robot in the prior art carry one target container to a target arrival workstation at one time, and more robots are needed by the single target workstation; the second robot can reach a plurality of places to carry a plurality of target containers in one cycle, but the carrying of the second robot is longer in one cycle time, so that compared with the situation that the picking efficiency of a single target workstation is low and the like, the first robot is given full play, the speed is high, and the picking efficiency of the single target workstation is high; the second robot can carry the target containers to a plurality of places, and the characteristic of carrying a large number of target containers at one time improves the picking efficiency of a single target workstation and relatively reduces the use amount of the robot.
Further, according to the method for picking inventory items provided by the embodiment of the disclosure, a temporary storage space can be further set in the inventory area, the second robot carries the target container to the temporary storage space, the first robot carries the target container to the target workstation, and the second robot and the first robot complete the carrying of the target container in a relay manner, so that the inventory item picking efficiency is improved.
In order to make the aforementioned objects, features and advantages of the present disclosure more comprehensible, preferred embodiments accompanied with figures are described in detail below.
Drawings
In order to more clearly illustrate the technical solutions of the embodiments of the present disclosure, the drawings required for use in the embodiments will be briefly described below, and the drawings herein incorporated in and forming a part of the specification illustrate embodiments consistent with the present disclosure and, together with the description, serve to explain the technical solutions of the present disclosure. It is appreciated that the following drawings depict only certain embodiments of the disclosure and are therefore not to be considered limiting of its scope, for those skilled in the art will be able to derive additional related drawings therefrom without the benefit of the inventive faculty.
Fig. 1a is a schematic view illustrating an application scenario of an inventory item picking system provided by an embodiment of the present disclosure;
fig. 1b shows a schematic view of an application scenario of another inventory item picking system provided by an embodiment of the present disclosure;
fig. 1c is a schematic diagram illustrating an application scenario of another inventory item picking system provided by an embodiment of the present disclosure;
FIG. 1d illustrates a schematic diagram of inventory picking provided by an embodiment of the present disclosure;
FIG. 2 illustrates a flow chart of an inventory picking method provided by an embodiment of the present disclosure;
fig. 3 is a flowchart illustrating a specific method for applying a replenishment scenario in an inventory item sorting method according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;
fig. 4 shows a flowchart of an implementation of an inventory item picking method according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.
Detailed Description
In order to make the objects, technical solutions and advantages of the embodiments of the present disclosure more clear, the technical solutions of the embodiments of the present disclosure will be described clearly and completely with reference to the drawings in the embodiments of the present disclosure, and it is obvious that the described embodiments are only a part of the embodiments of the present disclosure, not all of the embodiments. The components of the embodiments of the present disclosure, generally described and illustrated in the figures herein, can be arranged and designed in a wide variety of different configurations. Thus, the following detailed description of the embodiments of the present disclosure, presented in the figures, is not intended to limit the scope of the claimed disclosure, but is merely representative of selected embodiments of the disclosure. All other embodiments, which can be derived by a person skilled in the art from the embodiments of the disclosure without making creative efforts, shall fall within the protection scope of the disclosure.
Furthermore, the terms "first," "second," and the like in the description and in the claims, and in the drawings described above, in the embodiments of the present disclosure are used for distinguishing between similar elements and not necessarily for describing a particular sequential or chronological order. It will be appreciated that the data so used may be interchanged under appropriate circumstances such that the embodiments described herein may be practiced otherwise than as specifically illustrated or described herein.
Research shows that the two current schemes of the robot for conveying the inventory item to the target workstation have advantages and disadvantages: the first robot carries inventory items to the target workstation, the order structure with high inventory item delivery efficiency requirement and high commodity concentration is suitable, and a picker can quickly pick a plurality of commodities from a target container carried by the robot; the second robot is suitable for the situation that the robot can respectively carry a plurality of hit target containers to a plurality of positions due to the order structure that the requirement on the delivery efficiency of the inventory items from the target workstation is relatively low and the commodities are scattered.
Based on the research, the invention provides a stock article picking system and method, which can be used for distributing matched goods shelves for different robots by optimizing a stock structure, fully playing the characteristics of the two robots, improving the picking efficiency of a single target workstation and relatively reducing the use amount of the robots.
The above-mentioned drawbacks are the results of the inventor after practical and careful study, and therefore, the discovery process of the above-mentioned problems and the solutions proposed by the present disclosure to the above-mentioned problems should be the contribution of the inventor in the process of the present disclosure.
It should be noted that: like reference numbers and letters refer to like items in the following figures, and thus, once an item is defined in one figure, it need not be further defined and explained in subsequent figures.
Example one
To facilitate understanding of the embodiments of the present disclosure, an application scenario of an inventory item picking system disclosed in the embodiments of the present disclosure is first described, and the inventory item picking system provided in the embodiments of the present disclosure may be applied to the inventory item picking systems shown in fig. 1a, 1b, and 1 c. The system comprises: a first robot 111, a second robot 112, a control server 120, and an inventory area 130, the inventory area 130 including shelves 1310 and workstations 1320. Typically, a plurality of workstations 1320 are provided on one side of the inventory area 130. The first robot and the second robot may be robots with different carrying capacities, for example, the first robot may be a single-box robot, and the second robot may be a multi-box robot; the following description is given by taking single-box robots and multi-box robots as examples:
the control server 120 is a software system with data storage and information processing capability running on the server, and can be connected with the robot, the hardware input system and other software systems through wireless or wired connection. The control server 120 may include one or more servers, and may be a centralized control architecture or a distributed computing architecture. The control server 120 has a processor 121 and a memory 122, and may have an order pool 123 in the memory 122. The operator may operate the control server 120 through the operation panel 140, the control server 120 wirelessly communicates with the first robot 111 and the second robot 112, plans the moving paths for the first robot 111 and the second robot 112 according to the tasks, and the first robot 111 and the second robot 112 travel along the empty space (a part of the passage of the first robot 111 and the second robot 112) in the array of shelves 1310 formed by the shelves 1310 according to the moving paths. In order to plan the moving path for the first robot 111 and the second robot 112, the working area of the first robot 111 and the second robot 112 (which is at least the area where the inventory area 130 is located) is divided into a plurality of sub-areas (i.e., cells) in advance, and the first robot 111 and the second robot 112 move cell by cell to form a moving track.
In the embodiment of the present disclosure, in order to improve the picking efficiency of inventory items, shelves 1310 included in the inventory area 130 are divided into a first storage space 1311 and a second storage space 1312, inventory items are divided into a first type item and a second type item according to the type and/or the delivery amount of the inventory items, the delivery amount of the first type item is greater than the delivery amount of the second type item, the first type item is stored in the first storage space 1311, and the second type item is stored in the second storage space 1312. In one embodiment, the first type of item may be a large inventory item and the second type of item may be a small inventory item.
In a specific implementation, the delivery amount of each inventory item may be obtained by counting the delivery amount of the inventory items included in the order processed by the order pool 123 within a period of time. In a statistical time period, for any inventory item, if the delivery quantity of the inventory item is greater than a preset delivery quantity threshold value, determining that the inventory item is a first-class item, and if the delivery quantity of the inventory item is not greater than the preset delivery quantity threshold value, determining that the inventory item is a second-class item; alternatively, the determination may be performed according to a ratio of the warehouse-out amount of the inventory item to the warehouse-out amount of all inventory items, for example, if the warehouse-out amount of the inventory item is greater than a preset ratio, the inventory item is determined to be a first type of item, and if the warehouse-out amount of the inventory item is not greater than the preset ratio, the inventory item is determined to be a second type of item.
In a first embodiment, as shown in fig. 1a, the first storage space 1311 consists of the lower storage level of a shelf 1310, and the second storage space 1312 consists of the upper storage level of a shelf 1310, where in each storage level of the shelf a plurality of target containers 1313 are arranged, which target containers 1313 are used for storing stock items to be picked.
The low-order storage layer and the high-order storage layer are divided according to the relative position of the storage layer in the shelf, and in specific implementation, the high-order storage layer and the low-order storage layer can be divided according to actual requirements, which is not limited in the embodiment of the present invention, taking the case that the shelf 1310 includes 10 storage layers in total, the low-order storage layer may include 1-5 storage layers of the shelf 1310, and the high-order storage layer may include 6-10 storage layers of the shelf 1310.
For example: placing the first type of items collectively on 1-5 shelves of shelves 1310; the second type of item is placed on 6-10 of the shelves 1310.
In a second embodiment, as shown in fig. 1b, the first storage space 1311 may be composed of shelves 1310 whose distance from the first target station is less than a preset threshold, and the second storage space 1312 may be composed of shelves 1310 whose distance from the second target station is greater than or equal to the preset threshold, wherein the preset threshold may be obtained from an empirical value, and is not limited herein.
For example: placing a first type of item collectively on shelves 1310 near a workstation area; the second type of item is placed on a shelf 1310 remote from the workstation area.
Generally, the shelves 1310 forming the first storage space 1311 may be low shelves having no more storage layers than a predetermined number of layers, and the shelves 1310 forming the second storage space 1312 may be high shelves having storage layers larger than a predetermined number of layers, which may be set according to actual needs, for example, the predetermined number of layers may be set to 5.
In a third embodiment, as shown in fig. 1c, the first storage space 1311 may be composed of a lower storage layer in a shelf having a distance from the first target station less than a preset threshold, and the second storage space 1312 may be composed of an upper storage layer in a shelf having a distance from the second target station less than a preset threshold, and a shelf 1310 having a distance from the second target station greater than or equal to a preset threshold.
In specific implementation, the inventory items are classified according to the categories and the delivery amount of the inventory items, so that the inventory items with less categories and larger delivery amount can be determined as the first category of items, the inventory items with more categories and smaller delivery amount can be determined as the second category of items, the first category of items are stored in the first storage space 1311, and the second category of items are stored in the second storage space 1312.
Further, for better understanding of the picking scenario of the first robot and the second robot, reference may be made to fig. 1d, which is a schematic diagram of inventory picking provided by an embodiment of the present disclosure.
Example two
Based on the first storage space 1311 and the second storage space 1312 divided as described above, according to the characteristics of the first robot 111 and the second robot 112, in the embodiment of the present disclosure, the control server 120 may control the first robot 111 to transfer the target container from the first storage space 1311 to the target workstation, and control the second robot 112 to transfer the target container from the second storage space 1312 to the target workstation.
In one embodiment, control server 120 is configured to, in response to an inventory item picking request, determine target storage space information from to-be-picked inventory item information contained in the inventory item picking request; if the target storage space is determined to be the first storage space according to the target storage space information, sending a first control instruction to the first robot; if the target storage space is determined to be the second storage space according to the target storage space information, sending a second control instruction to the second robot; the first robot 111 is configured to, in response to a first control instruction, transfer the target container from the first storage space to the first target workstation; the second robot 112 is configured to transfer the target container from the second storage space to the second target workstation in response to the second control instruction.
In specific implementation, the control server 120 receives an inventory item picking request sent by an upstream system, where the inventory item picking request carries information of inventory items to be picked, and the control server 120 determines a target container for storing the inventory items to be picked according to the information of the inventory items to be picked, and determines target storage space information to which the target container belongs according to a shelf where the target container is located. If the target storage space is determined to be the first storage space according to the determined target storage space information, determining that the to-be-picked item belongs to a first class of item, and scheduling a first robot for processing; and if the target storage space is determined to be the second storage space according to the determined target storage space information, determining that the to-be-picked item belongs to the second type of item, and scheduling the second robot for processing.
According to the inventory item picking system provided by the embodiment of the application, the first robot is high in efficiency of conveying inventory items, so that the first robot can be used for conveying inventory items with small categories and large delivery quantity stored in the first storage space, the second robot can be used for conveying target containers to multiple places, the number of the target containers is large in one-time conveying, the second robot can be used for conveying inventory items with large categories and small delivery quantity stored in the second storage space, and the picking efficiency of a single target workstation is improved through the cooperative working mode of the first robot and the second robot.
Based on the inventory structure in the inventory item picking system shown in fig. 1a, the first type of items may also be stored in the lower storage layer and the upper storage layer of the shelf, respectively. In specific implementation, the control server is further configured to send a third control instruction to the second robot in response to the inventory item replenishment request when the number of inventory items contained in the target container placed in the lower storage tier of the shelf is lower than a preset threshold; the second robot is further configured to restock inventory items contained in target containers placed in the upper storage level of the rack to target containers placed in the lower storage level of the rack in response to a third control instruction, and to carry inventory items to be picked from the lower storage level to the target workstation by the first robot.
Further, according to the provided inventory item picking system, inventory items to be picked and inventory items for replenishment are placed in the lower storage layer and the upper storage layer of the shelf respectively, so that when the number of the inventory items to be picked placed in the lower storage layer is lower than a preset threshold value, the control server can schedule the second robot to replenish the inventory items contained in the target container placed in the upper storage layer into the target container placed in the lower storage layer, and the replenishment efficiency of the inventory items is improved.
On the basis of the inventory structure in the inventory-item picking system shown in fig. 1b, a temporary storage space may also be provided in the inventory area. The temporary storage space may be selectively placed in the middle of the stock area, or may be set at a boundary position between the first storage space and the second storage space, and is arranged according to the stock area management experience or the actual demand, which is not limited in the embodiment of the present disclosure.
In this embodiment, the control server is further configured to send a fourth control instruction to the second robot if it is determined from the target storage space information that the target storage space is the second storage space; the second robot is also configured to, in response to a fourth control instruction, transfer the target container from the second storage space to the temporary storage space; sending a fifth control instruction to the first robot under the condition that the second robot is determined to convey the target container to the temporary storage shelf; the first robot is further configured to, in response to a fifth control command, transfer the target container from the staging storage space to a third target workstation.
In the above embodiment, the second robot and the first robot are used to complete the conveying mode of the inventory items to be picked in a relay manner, so that the picking efficiency of a single target workstation can be further improved.
In a possible implementation manner, the target container can be directly placed on the first robot through the second robot, so that another carrying manner of the second robot and the first robot in relay can be realized. In a specific implementation, the control server may be configured to send a sixth control instruction to the second robot if the target storage space is determined to be the second storage space according to the target storage space information; the second robot is further configured to, in response to a sixth control instruction, transfer the target container from the second storage space to the first robot and send a seventh control instruction to the first robot; the first robot is further configured to transport the target container from the current position to the fourth target workstation in response to the seventh control instruction.
In a possible embodiment, the second robot in an idle state may be used as the first robot, and in a state where the second robot has a small number of tasks or the second robot has a sufficient number of tasks and the first robot has a heavy task, the scheduling in this manner may flexibly and efficiently sort the inventory items
Based on the same inventive concept, the embodiment of the present disclosure further provides an inventory item picking method corresponding to the inventory item picking system, and as the principle of solving the problem of the method in the embodiment of the present disclosure is similar to that of the inventory item picking system in the embodiment of the present disclosure, the implementation of the method may refer to the implementation of the system, and repeated details are not repeated.
EXAMPLE III
For the convenience of understanding the present embodiment, a detailed description will be given below of an inventory picking method disclosed in the embodiments of the present disclosure by taking an execution subject as a server as an example.
Based on the optimized inventory structure, an embodiment of the present disclosure provides an inventory item sorting method, as shown in fig. 2, which is a flowchart of an inventory item sorting method, and may include the following steps:
s201: in response to an inventory item picking request, target storage space information is determined from inventory item to be picked information contained in the inventory item picking request.
In this step, the inventory items to be picked in the inventory item picking request may be in the same target container, or may be in different target containers, and the target storage space information to which the inventory items to be picked belong is determined according to the target container in which the inventory items to be picked belong.
S202: and if the target storage space is determined to be the first storage space according to the target storage space information, sending a first control instruction to the first robot.
The first control instruction is used for controlling the first robot to convey the target container from the first storage space to the first target workstation.
In this step, if the target storage space is determined to be the first storage space according to the target storage space information, which indicates that the inventory item to be picked is an item with less categories and large delivery quantity, the control server sends a control instruction to the first robot, and schedules the first robot to process an order task of the first storage space.
The first robot, in response to control instructions of the control server, transports a target container containing inventory items to be picked from the first storage space to a first target workstation for processing.
S203: and if the target storage space is determined to be the second storage space according to the target storage space information, sending a second control instruction to the second robot.
And the second control instruction is used for controlling the second robot to carry the target container from the second storage space to the second target workstation.
In this step, if the target storage space is determined to be the second storage space according to the target storage space information, and it is indicated that the inventory item to be picked is an item with more items and less delivery quantity, the control server sends a control instruction to the second robot, and schedules the second robot to process the order task of the second storage space.
The second robot, in response to control instructions of the control server, transports the target container containing the inventory item to be picked from the second storage space to a second target workstation for processing.
In a possible embodiment, the second robot is further configured to be used as said first robot in an idle state; the first robot is further configured to be used as the second robot in an idle state. In specific implementation, the first robot and the second robot may assist each other, for example, some second robots may be used as the first robot in an idle state when the number of tasks matching the second robot is small; accordingly, in the case where the above-described task amount matching the first robot is small, some of the first robots may be used as the second robot in the idle state. Taking the first robot as a single-box robot and the second robot as a multi-box robot, the scheduling of both the single-box robot and the multi-box robot can be adjusted according to the order processing status. For example, if the single-box robot is in an idle state after completing the order task of the current first storage space, the single-box robot may be scheduled to process the order task of the second storage space, so as to help the multi-box robot complete the picking of inventory items with small delivery volume; if the multi-box robot is in an idle state after completing the task of the current second storage space, the multi-box robot can be dispatched to process the order task of the first storage space, and the single-box robot is helped to complete the sorting of the inventory items with large delivery quantity.
In some embodiments, based on the inventory structure provided in fig. 1a of the present disclosure, the first type of items are placed in both the lower storage tier and the upper storage tier of the shelf 1310, and in this embodiment, for the replenishment scenario, when the number of inventory items in the lower storage tier is lower than a preset threshold, the control server may control the second robot to transfer the inventory items from the upper storage tier to the lower storage tier for replenishment. In specific implementation, the control server may schedule the second robot to transfer the target container from the upper storage layer to the lower storage layer according to the flow shown in fig. 3:
s301: the control server judges whether the number of inventory items contained in the target container placed in the low-order storage layer is lower than a preset threshold value, if so, step S302 is executed, and if not, the process is ended.
S302: and sending a third control instruction to the second robot, wherein the third control instruction is used for controlling the second robot to replenish the inventory items contained in the target containers placed in the high storage layer to the target containers placed in the low storage layer.
In order to improve the picking efficiency of the target workstation, the embodiment of the disclosure provides a temporary storage space on the basis of the optimized inventory structure.
In other embodiments, based on the inventory structure provided in fig. 1b of the present disclosure, a temporary storage space may be further disposed in the inventory area, and the transportation of the goods to be picked is completed in a relay manner by the second robot and the first robot. As shown in fig. 4, which is a flowchart implemented based on the inventory item picking method of this embodiment, the method may include the following steps:
s401: in response to an inventory item picking request, target storage space information is determined from inventory item to be picked information contained in the inventory item picking request.
In this step, the specific process may refer to the implementation of step S201, which is not described herein again.
S402: and if the target storage space is determined to be the second storage space according to the target storage space information, sending a fourth control instruction to the second robot.
S403: and the fourth control instruction is used for controlling the second robot to convey the target container from the second storage space to the temporary storage space.
S404: and sending a fifth control instruction to the first robot, wherein the fifth control instruction is used for controlling the first robot to carry the target container from the temporary storage space to the third target workstation.
It will be understood by those skilled in the art that in the method of the present invention, the order of writing the steps does not imply a strict order of execution and any limitations on the implementation, and the specific order of execution of the steps should be determined by their function and possible inherent logic.
It can be clearly understood by those skilled in the art that, for convenience and brevity of description, the specific working process of the method described above may refer to the corresponding process in the foregoing system embodiment, and is not described herein again. In the several embodiments provided in the present disclosure, it should be understood that the disclosed system and method may be implemented in other ways. The above-described embodiments of the apparatus are merely illustrative, and for example, the division of the units is only one logical division, and there may be other divisions when actually implemented, and for example, a plurality of units or components may be combined or integrated into another system, or some features may be omitted, or not executed. In addition, the shown or discussed mutual coupling or direct coupling or communication connection may be an indirect coupling or communication connection of devices or units through some communication interfaces, and may be in an electrical, mechanical or other form.
The units described as separate parts may or may not be physically separate, and parts displayed as units may or may not be physical units, may be located in one place, or may be distributed on a plurality of network units. Some or all of the units can be selected according to actual needs to achieve the purpose of the solution of the embodiment.
In addition, functional units in the embodiments of the present disclosure may be integrated into one processing unit, or each unit may exist alone physically, or two or more units are integrated into one unit.
The functions, if implemented in the form of software functional units and sold or used as a stand-alone product, may be stored in a non-volatile computer-readable storage medium executable by a processor. Based on such understanding, the technical solution of the present disclosure may be embodied in the form of a software product, which is stored in a storage medium and includes several instructions for causing a computer device (which may be a personal computer, a server, or a network device) to execute all or part of the steps of the method according to the embodiments of the present disclosure. And the aforementioned storage medium includes: various media capable of storing program codes, such as a usb disk, a removable hard disk, a Read-Only Memory (ROM), a Random Access Memory (RAM), a magnetic disk, or an optical disk.
Finally, it should be noted that: the above-mentioned embodiments are merely specific embodiments of the present disclosure, which are used for illustrating the technical solutions of the present disclosure and not for limiting the same, and the scope of the present disclosure is not limited thereto, and although the present disclosure is described in detail with reference to the foregoing embodiments, those skilled in the art should understand that: any person skilled in the art can modify or easily conceive of the technical solutions described in the foregoing embodiments or equivalent technical features thereof within the technical scope of the present disclosure; such modifications, changes or substitutions do not depart from the spirit and scope of the embodiments of the present disclosure, and should be construed as being included therein. Therefore, the protection scope of the present disclosure shall be subject to the protection scope of the claims.
Claims (10)
1. An inventory item picking system, characterized in that the system comprises an inventory area, a control server, a first robot and a second robot, and a shelf contained in the inventory area is divided into a first storage space and a second storage space, wherein:
the control server is configured to, in response to an inventory item picking request, determine target storage space information from inventory item to be picked information contained in the inventory item picking request; if the target storage space is determined to be the first storage space according to the target storage space information, sending a first control instruction to the first robot; if the target storage space is determined to be the second storage space according to the target storage space information, sending a second control instruction to the second robot;
the first robot is configured to, in response to the first control instruction, transport a target container from the first storage space to a first target workstation, the target container having the item of inventory to be picked contained therein;
the second robot is configured to transfer a target container from the second storage space to a second target workstation in response to the second control instruction.
2. The system of claim 1, wherein the control server is further configured to classify the inventory item into a first type of item and a second type of item according to a type and/or an ex-warehouse volume of the inventory item, the first type of item being stored in the first storage space and the second type of item being stored in the second storage space.
3. The system of claim 1, wherein the first storage space comprises shelves at a distance from the first target station less than a preset threshold, and the second storage space comprises shelves at a distance from the second target station greater than or equal to a preset threshold.
4. The system of claim 1, wherein the first storage space comprises a lower storage tier of shelves having a distance from the first target station less than a preset threshold, and the second storage space comprises an upper storage tier of shelves having a distance from the second target station less than a preset threshold and shelves having a distance from the second target station greater than or equal to a preset threshold.
5. The system of claim 1, wherein the first storage space comprises a lower storage tier of shelves and the second storage space comprises an upper storage tier of shelves;
the first robot is further configured to, in response to the first control instruction, transfer a target container from the lower storage level of the rack to a first target workstation;
the second robot is further configured to, in response to the second control instruction, transfer a target container from the upper storage level of the rack to a second target workstation.
6. The system of claim 4 or 5, wherein the first type of item is also stored in the upper storage layer;
the control server is further configured to send a third control instruction to the second robot in response to an inventory item replenishment request in the event that the number of inventory items contained in a target container placed in a lower storage tier of the rack is below a preset threshold;
the second robot is further configured to restock inventory items contained in target containers placed in the upper storage level of the rack to target containers placed in the lower storage level of the rack in response to the third control instruction.
7. The system of claim 1, wherein a temporary storage space is further provided in the inventory area; and
the control server is further configured to send a fourth control instruction to the second robot if the target storage space is determined to be the second storage space according to the target storage space information; and sending a fifth control instruction to the first robot under the condition that the second robot is determined to convey the target container to the temporary storage space;
the second robot is further configured to, in response to the fourth control instruction, transfer the target container from the second storage space to the staging storage space;
the first robot is further configured to transport the target container from the staging storage space to a third target workstation in response to the fifth control command.
8. The system of claim 1, wherein the control server is further configured to send a sixth control instruction to the second robot if it is determined from the target storage space information that the target storage space is the second storage space;
the second robot is further configured to, in response to the sixth control instruction, transfer the target container from the second storage space to the first robot and send a seventh control instruction to the first robot;
the first robot is further configured to transport the target container from the current position to a fourth target workstation in response to the seventh control instruction.
9. The system of claim 1, wherein the first robot comprises a single-box robot and the second robot comprises a multi-box robot.
10. A method for sorting inventory items is characterized in that a shelf contained in an inventory area is divided into a first storage space and a second storage space; the method comprises the following steps:
in response to an inventory item picking request, determining target storage space information from inventory item information to be picked contained in the inventory item picking request;
if the target storage space is determined to be a first storage space according to the target storage space information, sending a first control instruction to the first robot, wherein the first control instruction is used for controlling the first robot to carry a target container from the first storage space to a first target workstation, and the target container contains the inventory item to be picked;
and if the target storage space is determined to be the second storage space according to the target storage space information, sending a second control instruction to the second robot, wherein the second control instruction is used for controlling the second robot to carry the target container from the second storage space to the second target workstation.
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