CN114620386A

CN114620386A - Warehousing system and control method thereof

Info

Publication number: CN114620386A
Application number: CN202210138889.4A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 李洪波
Original assignee: Beijing Jizhijia Technology Co Ltd
Current assignee: Beijing Jizhijia Technology Co Ltd
Priority date: 2022-02-15
Filing date: 2022-02-15
Publication date: 2022-06-14
Anticipated expiration: 2042-02-15
Also published as: CN114620386B

Abstract

The present disclosure provides a warehousing system and a control method thereof, wherein a warehousing area of the system is used for storing carriers, and storage positions of the carriers are used for storing containers; the control server is configured for generating tally instructions, picking order instructions, and updating inventory information; the handling equipment is configured to move at least two containers which have order relevance and are stored on different carriers to the same target carrier based on the tally command of the control server. Therefore, when the picking order received by the warehousing system comprises at least two containers finished in tallying, the warehousing system can directly carry the containers from the target carrier to the workstation area for corresponding operation, the step that carrying equipment reciprocates between different carriers in the prior art is omitted, or the step that the containers are respectively picked and placed for operation after the different carriers are carried to the workstation area is omitted, and therefore the operation efficiency of the warehousing system is greatly improved.

Description

Warehousing system and control method thereof

Technical Field

The disclosure relates to the technical field of warehousing systems, in particular to a warehousing system and a control method thereof.

Background

In order form, the warehouse system usually receives a plurality of goods, and the goods are stored in different containers, which may be stored on a plurality of carriers.

The warehousing system controls the carrying equipment to move to and fro different operation areas such as carriers, picking stations and the like for multiple times according to the order content, and carries different containers with the goods to the operation areas for corresponding operation.

It can be seen that the conventional warehousing system requires the container handling equipment to move different containers between a plurality of carriers to and from the order picking work, and has the problem of low operation efficiency.

Disclosure of Invention

The present disclosure provides a warehousing system on the one hand for solving the problem of low operating efficiency of the existing warehousing system.

The warehousing system of this disclosure includes:

a workstation zone;

the storage area is used for storing carriers, and the storage positions of the carriers are used for storing containers;

a control server configured to generate tally instructions;

a handling apparatus configured to move at least two containers having order relevance and stored on different carriers to the same target carrier based on the tally instruction,

in one embodiment of the warehousing system of the present disclosure, the control server is further configured to generate pick order instructions comprising the at least two containers with finished tallies;

the handling apparatus is further configured to take out and place at least two containers on the target carrier into the workstation zone based on the pick order instructions.

In one embodiment of the warehousing system of the present disclosure, the handling device is configured to transfer a container to an empty storage location of the target carrier when the container needs to be moved based on the tally instruction;

alternatively, the container is interchanged with other containers on the target vehicle.

In one embodiment of the warehousing system of the present disclosure, the handling device is configured to transfer a plurality of containers to the idle storage locations of the target vehicles, respectively, when the containers need to be moved based on the tally instruction;

or, interchanging a plurality of said containers with other containers on said target vehicle;

or, transferring one part of the containers to an idle storage position of the target carrier, and exchanging the other part of the containers with other containers on the target carrier.

In an embodiment of the warehousing system of the disclosure, the handling equipment selects a carrier in which one of the at least two containers is located as the target carrier based on the tally instruction.

In one embodiment of the warehousing system of the present disclosure, when the carrier is a fixed carrier, the handling apparatus includes:

a mobile container handling apparatus configured to pick up and drop the at least two containers from the respective current carrier onto the target carrier at the inventory zone based on the tally instructions; and/or the presence of a gas in the gas,

the mobile container handling apparatus is further configured to retrieve the at least two containers on the target vehicle at the inventory zone based on the pick order instructions and move from the inventory zone to the workstation zone for picking.

In one embodiment of the warehousing system of the present disclosure, when the vehicle is a mobile vehicle, the handling apparatus includes a fixed container handling apparatus and a vehicle handling apparatus;

the carrier handling equipment is configured to handle a current carrier and a target carrier respectively storing at least two containers from the inventory area to the workstation area based on the tally instruction;

the fixed container handling apparatus is disposed at the workstation zone and configured to pick up and place at least two containers from respective current carriers onto the target carrier based on the tally instructions; and/or the presence of a gas in the gas,

the stationary container handling apparatus is further configured to retrieve at least two containers from the target carrier for picking based on the pick order instructions.

In an embodiment of the warehousing system of the present disclosure, when the carrier is a movable carrier, the handling apparatus includes:

a carrier handling apparatus configured to handle current carriers respectively storing at least two containers from the inventory area to the workstation area based on the tally instruction;

the fixed container handling equipment is arranged in the workstation area and is configured to select one current carrier as a target carrier based on a tally instruction, and take out and place containers on the rest current carriers onto the target carrier; and/or the presence of a gas in the gas,

In an embodiment of the warehousing system of the present disclosure, when the target vehicle is a mobile vehicle, the handling apparatus includes:

a mobile container handling apparatus configured to handle the at least two containers from respective current carriers onto the target carrier at the inventory zone;

a vehicle handling apparatus configured to handle the target vehicle from the inventory zone to the workstation zone for picking.

In one embodiment of the warehousing system of the present disclosure, the vehicle handling apparatus is further configured to handle a current vehicle from the workstation area to the inventory area after a tally operation is completed; and/or the presence of a gas in the gas,

the carrier handling apparatus is further configured to carry a target carrier from the workstation area to the inventory area upon completion of a picking operation.

In one embodiment of the warehousing system of the present disclosure, the warehousing system further comprises a waiting area;

the control server is further configured for controlling the vehicle handling equipment to handle at least one pair of vehicles selected by the tally instruction;

when one carrier in the at least one pair of carriers selected by the tallying command arrives at the workstation area first, the carrier carrying equipment carries the carrier which arrives at the workstation area first to the waiting area to wait for the rest carriers in the at least one pair of carriers selected by the tallying command to arrive.

In an embodiment of the warehousing system disclosed herein, when the remaining vehicles in the at least one pair of vehicles selected by the tallying instruction arrive at the workstation, the vehicle handling equipment is controlled to carry the vehicle in the waiting area to the workstation.

In one embodiment of the warehousing system of the present disclosure, the stationary container handling equipment has a caching mechanism having at least one caching bit for caching containers;

the control server is further configured for controlling the vehicle handling equipment to handle a selected pair of vehicles in the tally instructions to the workstation zone;

the stationary container handling apparatus is further configured to pick containers from the carriers and place them in the buffer bay, and pick containers from the buffer bay and place them on the target carrier after the target carrier arrives.

the fixed container handling equipment is configured to temporarily store the containers subjected to the picking operation on the buffer position, and after the target carriers of the containers reach the workstation area, take out and place the containers of the buffer position on the target carriers.

In one embodiment of the warehousing system of the present disclosure, the handling equipment further includes an identification device configured to identify at least one of the following information:

whether a container is stored in the storage position of the carrier selected by the tally instruction;

and whether the identity information of the container on the storage position of the carrier selected by the tally instruction is consistent with the identity information of the container selected by the tally instruction or not is judged.

In one embodiment of the warehousing system of the present disclosure, the identification device includes a reader, a 2D/3D image acquisition device, or a depth information acquisition device.

In one embodiment of the warehousing system of the present disclosure, the control server is configured to generate an abnormality processing instruction or issue an alarm signal based on the recognition result of the recognition device being an abnormality.

In one embodiment of the disclosed warehousing system, the workstation area is docked with a docking facility that includes a conveyor line for delivering containers out of the workstation area.

In one embodiment of the warehousing system of the present disclosure, the workstation area is provided with a picking station configured for placing containers to be picked for picking operations.

In one embodiment of the warehousing system of the present disclosure, the control server is further configured to update inventory information based on the containers being empty after the picking operation.

In one embodiment of the warehousing system of the present disclosure, the control server is configured to update the quantity of items in the container in the current inventory information to a remaining quantity to update the inventory information based on when items remain in the container after the picking operation.

On the other hand, the present disclosure also provides a control method of a warehousing system, where the warehousing system is the warehousing system described above, and the control method includes the following steps:

the control server generates a tally instruction and sends the tally instruction to the carrying equipment;

and the carrying equipment moves at least two containers which have order relevance and are stored on different carriers to the same target carrier based on the tallying instruction.

In an embodiment of the control method of the present disclosure, the control method further includes the steps of:

the control server generates a picking order instruction and sends the picking order instruction to the carrying equipment;

and the carrying equipment takes out at least two containers on the target carrier and puts the containers into the workstation area based on the picking order instruction.

The warehousing system of the present disclosure performs a tallying operation first, that is, stores at least two containers having order relevance and stored on different carriers on the same target carrier.

Therefore, when the picking order received by the warehousing system comprises at least two containers finished in tallying, the warehousing system can directly carry the containers from the target carrier to the workstation area for corresponding operation, the step that carrying equipment reciprocates between different carriers in the prior art is omitted, or the step that the containers are respectively picked and placed for operation after the different carriers are carried to the workstation area is omitted, and therefore the operation efficiency of the warehousing system is greatly improved.

The warehousing system disclosed by the invention can also implement the picking operation, namely, at least two containers containing finished tallies in the picking order are directly conveyed to the workstation area from the same carrier to carry out corresponding operation, so that the step of reciprocating motion of conveying equipment among different carriers in the prior art is omitted, or the step of respectively taking and placing the containers for operation after different carriers are conveyed to the workstation area is omitted, and the operation efficiency of the warehousing system is further greatly improved.

Drawings

The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated in and constitute a part of the specification, illustrate embodiments of the disclosure and together with the description, serve to explain the principles of the disclosure.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of one embodiment of a warehousing system of the present disclosure;

FIG. 2 is a schematic structural view of one embodiment of a handling apparatus of the present disclosure;

FIG. 3 is a schematic structural view of another embodiment of a handling apparatus of the present disclosure;

fig. 4 is a control flow chart of a control method of the warehousing system of the present disclosure.

The one-to-one correspondence between component names and reference numbers in fig. 1 to 3 is as follows:

1 carrier, 10 fixed carrier, 11 movable carrier, 20 movable container handling equipment, 21 first container taking and placing mechanism, 210 support, 211 first container taking and placing assembly, 30 carrier handling equipment, 31 fixed container handling equipment, 310 gantry, 311 second container taking and placing assembly.

Detailed Description

Various exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure will now be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. It should be noted that: the relative arrangement of the components and steps, the numerical expressions, and numerical values set forth in these embodiments do not limit the scope of the present disclosure unless specifically stated otherwise.

The following description of at least one exemplary embodiment is merely illustrative in nature and is in no way intended to limit the disclosure, its application, or uses.

Techniques, methods, and apparatus known to those of ordinary skill in the relevant art may not be discussed in detail but are intended to be part of the specification where appropriate.

In all examples shown and discussed herein, any particular value should be construed as merely illustrative, and not limiting. Thus, other examples of the exemplary embodiments may have different values.

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, further discussion thereof is not required in subsequent figures.

Orders involved in warehousing systems such as pick orders include a variety of items that are placed in different containers that are stored on different carriers. The carriers include fixed carriers, which typically include divider carriers that are fixedly disposed on the floor of the warehouse and cannot be moved, and movable carriers that can be handled by carrier handling equipment to move between various areas of the warehouse.

When the storage system receives a picking order, if a plurality of containers hit by the picking order are respectively stored on different fixed carriers, the control server controls the carrying equipment to move between different carriers and the workstation area for a plurality of times so as to carry the containers hit by the picking order to the workstation area for picking operation.

If a plurality of containers hit by the picking order are respectively stored on different mobile carriers, the server controls the carrier carrying equipment to respectively carry the mobile carriers to the workstation area, and then controls the container loading and unloading equipment to carry the containers on the mobile carriers to the workstation area for picking operation.

Obviously, when the existing control method of the warehousing system processes the picking orders, no matter the hit container is stored in the fixed carrier or on the movable carrier, the steps of obtaining different containers from different carriers are involved, and the problems of long time consumption, complex operation and low efficiency of the picking process exist.

In order to solve the above technical problem, the present disclosure provides a warehousing system including an inventory area, a workstation area, containers, carriers, a handling apparatus, and a control server. The storage area is used for storing carriers, and the storage positions of the carriers are used for storing containers; the control server is configured for generating tally instructions; the handling equipment is configured to move at least two containers which have order relevance and are stored on different carriers to the same target carrier based on the tallying instruction of the control server.

It should be noted that the order relevance includes an order hit rate, where the order hit rate refers to a ratio between an order quantity hit by the target item and a total order quantity within a preset time period, for example, an order quantity hit by a first target item (cola) within one day is 100, an order hit by a second target item (popcorn) is 90, a total order quantity of the day is 1000, an order hit rate of the first target item is 10%, and an order hit rate of the second target item is 9%.

In the warehousing system disclosed by the disclosure, when the order hit rates of the articles packed in the at least two containers reach a preset threshold, the at least two containers are related to the order. For example, if the preset order hit rate threshold value preset by the control server is 8%, it indicates that the order hit rates of the first target item and the second target item reach the preset threshold value, that is, the order relevance of the first container storing the first target item and the second container storing the second target item both reach the preset threshold value.

In the warehousing system of the present disclosure, when 2 or more items packed in at least two containers are matched products or hit by multiple orders at the same time, the at least two containers may also be described as having order correlation. Such as nail polish and nail polish, shampoo, and hair conditioner, among others.

The control server of the warehousing system of the present disclosure is further configured to generate a pick order instruction; the handling apparatus is further configured to take out and place at least two containers on the target carrier into the workstation zone based on a pick order instruction, wherein the pick order instruction includes the at least two containers with finished tallying.

The warehousing system disclosed by the invention can also implement the picking operation, namely, the order hitting the at least two containers simultaneously is preferentially selected to generate a picking order instruction when picking the order, and the at least two containers are transported to the workstation area from the target carrier according to the picking order instruction, so that the step that the transporting equipment reciprocates between different carriers in the prior art is omitted, or the step that the containers are respectively taken and placed for operation after the different carriers are transported to the workstation area is omitted, and the operation efficiency of the warehousing system is further greatly improved.

That is to say, the warehousing system of the present disclosure may only implement the tally operation, or may implement both the tally operation and the sorting operation, and those skilled in the art may select an appropriate function based on the actual application scenario.

For convenience of understanding, the warehousing system of the present disclosure is described in detail with reference to fig. 1 to 4 by taking specific embodiments as examples, and in order to keep the text concise, the control method of the warehousing system is also described while describing the warehousing system, and the control method thereof is not separately described again.

The warehousing system at least comprises a workstation area, an inventory area, carriers, containers, carrying equipment and a control server.

The storage area may be a dense storage area or a non-dense storage area, and a plurality of carriers are disposed in the storage area, and the carriers are used for storing containers and generally include fixed carriers and movable carriers. Fixed carriers typically include a bulkhead carrier that is fixedly disposed on the floor of the warehouse and cannot be moved, while movable carriers may be carried by carrier handling equipment to move between various areas of the warehouse.

Distinguished from the storage function, the container includes a general container and a special container, wherein the general container refers to a container capable of storing any goods, such as a storage box, an arrangement box and the like, and the special container refers to a container specially used for placing a certain kind or a certain kind of goods, such as a shoe box, a fresh food box, a water bucket and the like. The containers are distinguished from the materials, and comprise paper boxes, glass bottles, plastic boxes, metal boxes, leather cases and the like.

The workstation zone is an area divided within the warehouse that is distinct from the inventory zone.

The control server is connected with the carrying equipment in a wired or wireless communication mode, workers operate the control server through the operation console to work, the control server is a software system which runs on the server and has data storage and information processing capabilities and can be connected with the software system of the carrying equipment through wireless connection and the like, the control server can comprise one or more servers and can be in a centralized control architecture or a distributed computing architecture, the control server is provided with a processor and a memory, an order pool can be arranged in the memory, and order information is stored in the order pool.

The control server is configured for generating tally instructions, pick order instructions, and/or updating inventory information.

According to one embodiment of the disclosure, the control server selects at least two containers which have order relevance and are stored on different carriers based on information such as historical orders and the like to generate a tally instruction, so that a tally operation is completed before a picking order hitting the relevant container is delivered, and the at least two containers having order relevance are stored on the same target carrier as much as possible.

According to one embodiment of the disclosure, the control server of the disclosure further selects orders which hit at least two containers involved in the tallying instruction simultaneously to generate a picking order instruction, so as to preferentially select orders which complete the tallying operation for dispatching for a human or a picking device to complete the picking operation, and updates the inventory information based on the picking operation result.

The carrying equipment is configured to move at least two containers which have order relevance and are stored on different carriers to the same target carrier based on a tallying instruction of the control server so as to complete the tallying operation.

According to one embodiment of the disclosure, when a tally command needs to move one container and the target carrier has an idle storage position, the carrying equipment is configured to transfer the container needing to be moved to the idle storage position of the target carrier based on the tally command.

According to one embodiment of the disclosure, when a tally order requires movement of one container and there are no free storage locations on the target carrier, the handling apparatus is configured to interchange the container requiring movement with other containers of the target carrier based on the tally order.

According to one embodiment of the disclosure, when a tally command requires to move a plurality of containers and the target carrier has an idle storage position thereon, the handling equipment is configured to transfer the plurality of containers to be moved to the corresponding idle storage position of the target carrier based on the tally command.

According to one embodiment of the disclosure, when a tally order requires movement of multiple containers and there are no free storage locations on the target vehicle, the handling apparatus is configured to interchange the multiple containers requiring movement with other containers of the target vehicle based on the tally order.

According to one embodiment of the disclosure, when a tally command requires to move a plurality of containers and the target carrier has a free storage position thereon, the handling equipment is configured to transfer a part of the containers required to be moved to the corresponding free storage position of the target carrier based on the tally command and exchange another part of the containers required to be moved with other containers of the target carrier.

It should be noted that the manner of exchanging the container to be moved by the transporting apparatus with another container on the target carrier is as follows: the carrying equipment firstly takes out other containers on the target carrier and places the containers on the buffer position, then takes out the containers needing to be moved from the current carrier and places the containers on the vacant storage positions above the target carrier, and finally places the containers on the buffer position on the carrier where the moved containers originally are located.

The buffer position may be a buffer position on a buffer mechanism of the handling apparatus itself, or a buffer position on a docking mechanism of the handling apparatus independent from the workstation, the docking structure may be any carrier or rack capable of storing a container, and the buffer position may also be an independent area partitioned from the workstation.

Other containers used for interchange in the warehousing system are containers that do not have order relevance.

According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, a specific vehicle may be selected as a target vehicle in the tally instruction of the present disclosure, and the target vehicle does not belong to a current vehicle in which any one of at least two containers selected in the tally instruction is located.

According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, the selected target carrier in the tally instruction of the present disclosure is a carrier in which one container of the at least two containers is selected in the tally instruction.

Therefore, the carrying equipment only needs to move the other container in the at least two containers from the current carrier to the target carrier. Compared with the selection of a specific carrier, the times of moving the container by the carrying equipment are reduced, and the tallying efficiency is improved.

As mentioned above, the carrier includes a fixed carrier and a movable carrier, and the specific structure and operation principle of the carrying apparatus are related to the type of the carrier used with the fixed carrier and the movable carrier, that is, the carrying apparatus used with the fixed carrier and the movable carrier is different, and two specific embodiments of the carrying apparatus will be described below separately with reference to the specific type of the carrier.

According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, referring to fig. 2, if the target vehicle of the warehousing system is the fixed vehicle 10, the handling equipment engaged therewith is the mobile container handling equipment.

The mobile container handling apparatus is configured to pick at least two containers from respective current carriers and place them onto target carriers at the inventory area based on the tally instructions; and/or the mobile container handling apparatus is further configured to retrieve at least two containers on the target vehicle at the inventory zone based on the pick order instructions and move from the inventory zone to the workstation zone for picking.

In detail, the transportable container apparatus includes a first handling mechanism 20 and a first pick-and-place container mechanism 21. It should be noted that, in order to facilitate the overall view of the portable container handling apparatus, only one side bracket of the fixed carrier is shown in fig. 2, and the partition and other structures are hidden.

Wherein, the first carrying mechanism 20 is configured to drive the first container taking and placing mechanism 21 to move in the inventory area and the workstation area; the first container taking and placing mechanism 21 is configured to take out at least two containers from respective current carriers and place the containers on the target carrier in the inventory area based on the tally instruction; and/or the first pick-and-place container mechanism 21 is further configured to pick at least two containers on the target vehicle at the inventory zone based on the pick order instructions, move with the first handling mechanism 21 from the inventory zone to the workstation zone, and place the at least two containers at the workstation zone.

In detail, the first pick-and-place container mechanism 21 includes a support frame 210 and a first pick-and-place container assembly 211 movably disposed on the support frame 210. The bracket 21 is fixedly arranged on the first carrying mechanism 20, and the container taking and placing component 211 takes out a container selected by the tally command from the storage position of a carrier selected by the tally command based on the tally command of the control server and moves the container to a target carrier selected by the tally command.

The first container taking and placing assembly 211 is related to the storage location of the fixed carrier, if each layer of partition board of the fixed carrier is provided with a storage location of a container in the depth direction, the container taking and placing assembly is a container robot in a single extending position, if each layer of partition board of the fixed carrier is provided with storage locations of two containers in the depth direction, the container taking and placing assembly is a container robot in a double extending position, and if each layer of partition board of the fixed carrier is provided with storage locations of a plurality of containers in the depth direction, the container taking and placing assembly is a container robot in a multiple extending position.

It should be noted that, in another embodiment of the present disclosure, the first pick-and-place container assembly of the present disclosure picks, clamps, sucks, lifts, and holds the container in any manner.

The first transport mechanism 20 may be an AGV. An AGV is a transport vehicle equipped with an electromagnetic or optical automatic navigation device, capable of traveling along a predetermined navigation route, and having safety protection and various transfer functions. The industrial application does not need a driver's truck, and a rechargeable battery is used as a power source of the truck. Generally, the traveling path and behavior can be controlled by a computer, or the traveling path is set up by using an electromagnetic track (electromagnetic path-following system), the electromagnetic track is adhered to the ground, and the unmanned transport vehicle moves by using a message brought by the electromagnetic track or uses a ground two-dimensional code or SLAM navigation.

In which, slam (hierarchical localization and Mapping), also called cml (current localization and localization), performs instant positioning and Mapping, or performs Mapping and positioning concurrently. The problem can be described as: the present invention relates to a method for mapping an unknown environment, and more particularly, to a method for placing a robot at an unknown position in an unknown environment, and whether there is a method for allowing the robot to trace a complete map of the environment while moving, wherein the complete map (a contained map) refers to every corner where a room can enter without being obstructed.

In practical applications, in order to improve the access efficiency, a buffer mechanism 22 may be further disposed on the first container taking and placing mechanism, where the buffer mechanism 22 has at least one buffer bit, and the buffer bit is used for buffering one container, and the buffer mechanism 22 may enable the handling device to take and place a plurality of containers at a time, so as to improve the taking and placing efficiency.

For example, during the cargo handling operation, the container taking and placing assembly 211 may first cache other containers on the target carrier on the cache mechanism 22 to generate idle storage bits, then place the target containers selected by each cargo handling instruction one by one into the idle storage bits on the target carrier, and finally place the other containers on the cache mechanism 22 into each storage bit of the original target container.

According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, referring to fig. 3, if the vehicle of the present disclosure is a mobile vehicle 11, the handling apparatus includes a vehicle handling apparatus 30 and a stationary container handling apparatus 31.

Wherein the carrier handling apparatus 30 is configured to handle a current carrier and a target carrier respectively storing at least two containers from the inventory area to the workstation area based on the tally instruction; the fixed container handling equipment 31 is arranged in the workstation area and is configured to take out at least two containers from respective current carriers and put them on the target carrier based on a tally order; and/or the stationary container handling apparatus 31 is further configured to take at least two containers out of the target carrier and into the workstation zone based on the pick order instructions. In particular, the carrier handling apparatus 30 may be an AGV cart, also commonly referred to as an AGV cart.

According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, if the vehicle of the present disclosure is a mobile vehicle 11, the handling apparatus includes a vehicle handling apparatus 30 and a stationary container handling apparatus 31.

Wherein the carrier handling apparatus 30 is configured to handle current carriers respectively storing at least two containers from the inventory area to the workstation area based on the tally instruction; the fixed container handling equipment 31 is arranged in the workstation area and is configured to select one current carrier as a target carrier based on a tally instruction, and take out and place containers on the rest current carriers onto the target carrier; and/or the stationary container handling apparatus 31 is further configured to take at least two containers out of the target carrier and into the workstation zone based on the pick order instructions.

In detail, the stationary container handling apparatus 31 includes a gantry 310 and a second pick-and-place container assembly 311 that moves along X, Y and Z axes of a spatial coordinate system relative to the gantry 310. The vertical distance direction between the picking station and the carrier is taken as the Y-axis direction, the direction vertical to the Y-axis in the horizontal plane is taken as the X-axis direction, and the direction vertical to the horizontal plane is taken as the Z-axis direction. It is also understood that the X-axis and the Y-axis lie in a horizontal plane and the Z-axis lies in a vertical plane.

The gantry 310 is fixed to the ground of the station area by fasteners such as chemical bolts. The second pick-and-place container assembly 311 picks up the container selected by the tally instruction from the storage location of the carrier selected by the tally instruction based on the tally instruction of the control server, and moves the container to the target carrier selected by the tally instruction.

It should be noted that, in another embodiment of the present disclosure, the second pick-and-place container assembly of the present disclosure picks, clamps, sucks, lifts, and holds the container in any manner.

According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, when the target vehicle is a mobile vehicle, the handling apparatus may also include a mobile container handling apparatus and a vehicle handling apparatus. Wherein the mobile container handling apparatus is configured to handle at least two containers from respective current carriers onto a target carrier in an inventory area; the carrier handling apparatus is configured to handle a target carrier from the inventory zone to the workstation zone for picking.

It should be noted that the specific structures of the mobile container handling apparatus and the carrier handling apparatus in the present embodiment are the same as those described in the previous embodiments, and those skilled in the art can fully implement the specific structures based on the related contents, so that the detailed description thereof is omitted here.

As mentioned above, in the warehousing system of the present disclosure, the tallying operation for the fixed carrier is performed in the inventory area, and the tallying operation for the mobile carrier is performed in the workstation area. That is, the handling apparatus first carries the selected carrier to the workstation based on the tally order, and then moves the containers on the selected carrier to the same target carrier, which may be the carrier where one of the at least two containers is located in the tally order.

However, in practical use, the control server of the warehousing system may simultaneously control the vehicle transportation apparatus to sequentially transport a plurality of mobile vehicles, and at least one pair of the mobile vehicles is selected by the tally command, and the other mobile vehicles directly participate in other operations such as picking without the tally operation. Therefore, when one of the pair of movable carriers selected by the tallying instruction arrives at the workstation area first and the other one of the pair of movable carriers does not arrive yet, the carrying equipment needs to wait, and other movable carriers cannot enter the workstation area to perform corresponding operation due to occupied space of the workstation area during the waiting period, so that the warehousing system is in a shutdown state.

To this end, if the vehicles of the warehousing system are mobile vehicles, with continued reference to fig. 1, according to one embodiment of the present disclosure, the warehousing system of the present disclosure further includes a waiting area, the control server is further configured to control the vehicle handling equipment 30 to handle at least three vehicles, the at least three vehicles include at least one pair of vehicles selected by the tally instruction, and one of the pair of vehicles is set as the target vehicle; when one of the at least one pair of vehicles arrives at the workstation first, the control server is further configured to control the vehicle handling apparatus 30 to handle one of the pair of vehicles to the waiting area for the arrival of the other vehicle; and when the rest vehicles in the at least one pair of vehicles arrive at the workstation, the control server controls the vehicle carrying equipment to enable the vehicles waiting in the waiting area in the at least one pair of vehicles to be in the workstation area. If at least one pair of carriers selected by the tally instruction arrive at the workstation sequentially or simultaneously, but the workstation is in a working state at the moment, the at least one pair of carriers are firstly carried to a waiting area for waiting, and when the workstation is idle after finishing the processing, the at least one pair of carriers are carried to the workstation. In addition, the at least one pair of carriers selected by the tally instruction may or may not include the target carrier. When the target carrier is not contained, the control server controls the carrier carrying equipment to carry the target carrier to the workstation, and it can be understood that if the target carrier and the carrier selected by the tally instruction do not arrive at the workstation simultaneously or continuously, the carrier which arrives at the workstation first is carried to the equal area for waiting; or the target carrier and the carrier selected by the tallying command are transported to the waiting area to wait when the work station arrives simultaneously or continuously but is in a working state, and the target carrier and the carrier selected by the tallying command are transported to the work station to be tallied when the work station is idle.

The control method of the warehousing system comprises the following steps:

the control server simultaneously controls the carrier handling equipment 30 to carry at least three carriers, wherein the at least three carriers comprise at least one pair of carriers selected by the tally instruction, and one of the pair of carriers is set as the target carrier;

the control server controls the carrier handling apparatus 30 to handle one of the pair of carriers to the waiting area for the other carrier to arrive, and then to handle the pair of carriers to the workstation area.

Therefore, the carrier selected by the tally instruction and arriving first waits in the waiting area, other carriers not selected by the tally instruction can be carried to the workstation area for corresponding operation, and after another carrier selected by the tally instruction also reaches the waiting area, the carrier carrying equipment 30 carries a pair of carriers selected by the tally instruction from the waiting area to the workstation area for tally operation, so that a plurality of carriers can queue up to carry out respective corresponding operation in sequence, the problem of disordered and out-of-control scheduling of the warehousing system is avoided, and the warehousing system is ensured to work smoothly and orderly.

In one embodiment of the present disclosure, the warehousing system of the present disclosure further includes a waiting area, the control server is further configured to control the vehicle handling equipment 30 to handle at least three vehicles simultaneously, the at least three vehicles include at least one pair of vehicles selected by the tally command, and one of the pair of vehicles is set as a target vehicle; the control server is also configured to control the vehicle handling equipment to carry the pair of vehicles to the workstation area and to carry the rest vehicles to the waiting area to queue.

Therefore, a pair of carriers selected in the tallying instruction are firstly carried to the workstation area for tallying operation, and other carriers are carried to the waiting area for waiting, so that the carriers can queue up for respective corresponding operation, the problem of disordered and out-of-control scheduling of the warehousing system is avoided, and the warehousing system can work smoothly and orderly.

With continued reference to fig. 3, the stationary container handling apparatus of the present disclosure has a caching mechanism having at least one cache bit for caching a container, according to one embodiment of the present disclosure.

The control server is also configured to control the carrier handling equipment to carry the selected pair of carriers in the tally instruction to the workstation area and set one of the pair of carriers as the target carrier;

the fixed container handling equipment is also configured to take out and put the containers on the carriers into the buffer bay, and take out and put the containers in the buffer bay onto the target carrier after the target carrier arrives.

Therefore, when other carriers are inserted into the middle of a pair of carriers selected in the tally instruction, the containers which need to be moved on the selected carriers and arrive first can be temporarily stored on the buffer positions, the containers temporarily stored on the buffer positions are moved to the target carriers after the selected target carriers arrive, and during waiting, the fixed container carrying equipment 31 can perform corresponding operation on the other carriers, so that the storage system can work smoothly and orderly.

When a target carrier of the warehousing system reaches a workstation area, all containers with order relevance on the target carrier are conveyed to a workbench for a worker or equipment to carry out picking operation, and meanwhile, the carrier conveying equipment conveys the target carrier to a waiting area or returns to a stock area, so that the space of the workstation area is prevented from being occupied by idle target carriers to influence the picking operation.

To this end, according to one embodiment of the present disclosure, a stationary container handling apparatus of the present disclosure has a caching mechanism having at least one cache bit for caching a container.

The fixed container handling equipment is configured to temporarily store the containers subjected to the picking operation on the buffer positions, and after the target carriers of the containers reach the workstation area, the containers in the buffer positions are taken out and placed on the target carriers.

Therefore, when the warehousing system is used for picking operation, the target carriers are moved away, the containers which finish the picking operation are temporarily stored on the buffer positions, after the picking operation of all the containers is finished, the target carriers of the containers are carried to the workstation area, the containers are returned to the corresponding target carriers, the space of the workstation area is fully utilized by the holes, and the tidiness and the openness of the workstation area are kept.

The carrying equipment carries out cargo handling operation based on a cargo handling instruction of the control server, namely, a selected container in the cargo handling instruction is moved to the same target carrier, the cargo handling instruction comprises storage bit information of the selected container on a carrier where the selected container is located, and the storage bit information comprises storage bit ID, for example, the storage bit ID comprises carrier number, column number and row number of the container on the carrier, and the like. The control server sends the storage bit information to the carrying equipment, and the carrying equipment finds the corresponding storage bit based on the storage bit information so as to take and place the container.

In an actual application scenario, due to reason such as a tally error, the storage bit may not be stored in the container or the stored container is inconsistent with the identity information of the container selected by the tally instruction, and the like, which further causes a failure of the tally operation.

To this end, in one embodiment of the present disclosure, the handling apparatus of the present disclosure further includes an identification device configured to identify at least one of the following information:

The identity information of the container is a unique code, and the warehousing system sets a code information for each container so that the handling equipment can accurately find a target container, and the specific coding mode depends on the management mode of the warehousing system, and those skilled in the art can set the coding mode based on the actual application scenario, which is not limited herein.

In detail, the recognition apparatus includes a 2D/3D image acquisition device.

The control method of the warehousing system in the embodiment comprises the following steps of:

the identification device identifies whether a container is stored in the storage position of the carrier selected by the tally instruction;

if the storage bit is stored with a container, continuously identifying whether the identity information of the container is consistent with the identity information of the container selected by the tally instruction, or else entering an exception handling step or a server for alarming;

if the identity information is consistent, the container is moved to a target carrier by the carrying equipment;

otherwise, an exception handling step is entered or the server alarms, that is, the control server is further configured to generate an exception handling instruction or send an alarm signal based on the recognition result of the recognition device being an exception.

Wherein the exception handling step comprises entering into generating a next tally operation instruction.

Therefore, the carrying equipment carries out information identification before the tallying operation, so that the waste of resources caused by idle work can be avoided, and the tallying efficiency is further improved.

And entering a picking operation step after the warehousing system finishes the tallying, wherein the carrying equipment is further configured to take out and put at least two containers on the target carrier finished with the tallying operation into a picking operation area for the picking operation based on the picking order command generated by the control server.

It will be appreciated that the picking operation of the warehousing system may be performed manually or by picking equipment, and the specific implementation thereof is not limited herein.

According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, the workstation area of the present disclosure interfaces with a docking apparatus that includes a conveyor line or carrier for transferring containers out of the workstation area for subsequent operations.

According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, a docking apparatus includes a carrier for buffering containers.

According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, a workstation area of the present disclosure is provided with a picking station into which a handling apparatus places containers for picking operations.

Upon completion of the picking operation, the control server is further configured to update inventory information based on the picking operation results.

Based on the specific picking operation result, the ways for the control server to update the inventory information include the following:

first, when the container is empty after the picking operation, the control server updates the inventory information, and the inventory updating may be to delete the empty container or to indicate that the container is idle.

I.e. the control server is further configured to update the inventory information based on the container being empty after the picking operation.

The removed container is returned to the empty container storage area waiting to be enabled.

Second, when the container has the remaining articles after the picking operation, the transporting equipment puts the container back into the carrier, and the control server updates the inventory information retaining container and deducts the information of the articles which are picked and removed. For example, 100 bottles of colas are originally stored in the container, 50 bottles of colas are left in the container after the sorting operation is completed, and the control server includes the container information and updates the number of colas in the container to 50.

That is, the control server is configured to update the number of items in the container in the current inventory information to the remaining amount to update the inventory information, based on when the items remain in the container after the picking operation.

Referring to fig. 4, the control method of the warehousing system comprises the following main steps:

s10, the control server generates a tally instruction and sends the tally instruction to the carrying equipment;

and S11, the carrying equipment moves at least two containers which have order relevance and are stored on different carriers to the same target carrier based on the tallying instruction.

With continued reference to fig. 4, the control method of the warehousing system of the present disclosure further includes the steps of:

s12, the control server generates a picking order instruction and sends the picking order instruction to the carrying equipment, wherein the picking order instruction comprises at least two containers on the target carrier which is finished in tallying;

and S13, taking out at least two containers on the target carrier and placing the containers into the workstation area by the carrying equipment based on the picking order instruction.

The control method of the warehousing system disclosed by the invention firstly carries out the tallying operation, namely, at least two containers which have order relevance and are stored on different carriers are stored on the same target carrier, then the orders which hit the at least two containers simultaneously are preferentially selected to generate a picking order instruction when picking and dispatching the orders, then the at least two containers are transported to a workstation area from the carriers according to the picking order instruction, and finally the stock information is updated.

Obviously, the control method of the warehousing system disclosed by the invention can pick and place the container from the same carrier to the workstation area for corresponding operation, so that the step of reciprocating movement of the carrying equipment among different carriers in the prior art is omitted, or the step of respectively picking and placing the container for operation after different carriers are carried to the workstation area is omitted, and the operation efficiency of the warehousing system is greatly improved.

In order to further update the inventory information of the warehousing system in time, after the order picking command is completed, the control method of the warehousing system disclosed by the invention further comprises the following steps:

and S14, the control server updates the inventory information.

In detail, the ways in which the control server updates the inventory information based on the specific picking operation results include the following:

first, when a container is empty after a picking operation, the control server updates the inventory information to delete the empty container.

I.e. the control server is further configured to delete a container from the current inventory information to update the inventory information or to note that the container is in an idle state, based on the container being empty after a picking operation.

The removed container is returned to the empty container storage area awaiting enablement.

Second, when the container has the remaining articles after the picking operation, the transporting equipment puts the container back into the carrier, and the control server updates the inventory information retaining container and deducts the information of the articles which are picked and removed. For example, 100 bottles of cola are originally stored in the container, 50 bottles of cola are left in the container after the sorting operation is completed, and the control server includes the container information and updates the number of the cola in the container to be 50 bottles.

That is, the control server is configured to update the amount of the items in the container in the current inventory information to the remaining amount based on when the items remain in the container after the picking operation, to update the inventory information.

According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, if the carrier of the warehousing system of the present disclosure is a movable carrier, the carrier handling equipment is further configured to carry the current carrier from the workstation area to the inventory area after the cargo handling operation is completed, so as to avoid that the carrier which does not temporarily participate in the work occupies a space of the workstation area, which causes resource waste or inconvenience for a worker or other equipment in the workstation area.

Similarly, according to an embodiment of the present disclosure, if the carriers of the warehousing system of the present disclosure are movable carriers, the carrier handling equipment is further configured to carry the target carrier from the workstation area to the inventory area after the picking operation is completed, so as to avoid that the carriers that do not temporarily participate in the work occupy the space of the workstation area, which causes resource waste or inconvenience in the actions of the staff or other equipment in the workstation area.

It will be appreciated that the vehicle handling apparatus may be configured to perform only the current vehicle recovery operation after the picking operation or only the target vehicle recovery operation after the picking operation. Of course, the carrier handling apparatus may perform both the current carrier recovery operation after the tally operation and the target carrier recovery operation after the picking operation, and those skilled in the art may select the target carrier based on the actual application scenario.

Having described embodiments of the present disclosure, the foregoing description is intended to be exemplary, not exhaustive, and not limited to the disclosed embodiments. Many modifications and variations will be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art without departing from the scope and spirit of the described embodiments. The terminology used herein was chosen in order to best explain the principles of the embodiments, the practical application, or technical improvements to the market, or to enable others of ordinary skill in the art to understand the embodiments disclosed herein. The scope of the present disclosure is defined by the appended claims.

Claims

1. A warehousing system, comprising:

a workstation zone;

a control server configured to generate tally instructions;

and the carrying equipment is configured to move at least two containers which have order relevance and are stored on different carriers to the same target carrier based on the tally command.

2. The warehousing system of claim 1, wherein the control server is further configured to generate a pick order comprising the at least two containers tallied;

the handling apparatus is further configured to pick and place at least two containers on the target vehicle into the workstation zone based on the pick order instructions.

3. The warehousing system of claim 1 or 2 wherein said handling equipment is configured to transfer a container to an empty storage location of said target vehicle when said container needs to be moved based on said tally instructions;

4. The warehousing system of claim 1 or 2, wherein the handling equipment is configured to transfer a plurality of containers to free storage locations of the target vehicles when the containers need to be moved based on the tally order;

5. The warehousing system of claim 1 or 2, wherein the handling equipment selects the carrier of one of the at least two containers as the target carrier based on the tally instructions.

6. The warehousing system of claim 2, wherein when the vehicle is a fixed vehicle, the handling apparatus comprises:

7. The stocker system according to claim 2, wherein when the vehicle is a mobile vehicle, the handling apparatus comprises:

a carrier handling apparatus configured to handle a current carrier and a target carrier respectively storing at least two containers from the inventory zone to the workstation zone based on the tally instruction;

a stationary container handling apparatus disposed at the workstation zone and configured to pick up and drop in at least two containers from respective current carriers onto the target carrier based on the tally instructions; and/or the presence of a gas in the gas,

8. The stocker system according to claim 2, wherein when the vehicle is a mobile vehicle, the handling apparatus comprises:

the fixed container handling equipment is arranged in the workstation area and is configured to select one current carrier as a target carrier based on a tallying instruction, and take out and put containers on the rest current carriers into the target carrier; and/or the presence of a gas in the gas,

9. A control method of a warehousing system as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 8, comprising the steps of:

10. The control method according to claim 9, characterized by further comprising the step of:

the control server generates a picking order instruction and sends the picking order instruction to the carrying equipment, wherein the picking order instruction comprises at least two containers on the target carrier which is finished in order;