CN114707820A

CN114707820A - Cargo transportation method and device, terminal equipment and readable storage medium

Info

Publication number: CN114707820A
Application number: CN202210262642.3A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 吴明; 陈峥; 陈伟斌
Original assignee: Gauss Robot Shenzhen Co ltd
Current assignee: Gauss Robot Shenzhen Co ltd
Priority date: 2022-03-17
Filing date: 2022-03-17
Publication date: 2022-07-05

Abstract

The application provides a cargo transportation method, a cargo transportation device, a terminal device and a readable storage medium, relates to the technical field of electronic information, and solves the problem that when the number of cargos is large, the calculated amount in a path planning process is too large. The method comprises the following steps: acquiring transportation information of a plurality of cargos to be transported and equipment information of a plurality of AGV equipment; determining at least one target AGV device from a plurality of AGV devices according to the transportation information and the device information; task division is carried out on a plurality of goods according to the transportation information, and a transportation task of each target AGV device is obtained; and respectively planning paths of the target AGV devices according to the transportation tasks of the target AGV devices, and determining a transportation scheme corresponding to each target AGV device, wherein the transportation scheme is used for transporting cargos of the corresponding target AGV devices.

Description

Cargo transportation method and device, terminal equipment and readable storage medium

Technical Field

The application belongs to the technical field of electronic information, and particularly relates to a cargo transportation method, a cargo transportation device, a terminal device and a readable storage medium.

Background

With the development of society, the production and living styles of people change. AGVs (Automated Guided vehicles, also known as Automated Guided vehicles or Automated Guided vehicles) are increasingly used in logistics activities to increase the efficiency of transporting goods and to reduce operating costs. The AGV has the remarkable characteristics that the AGV is unmanned, and the automatic guiding system is arranged on the AGV, so that the system can be ensured to automatically run along a preset route without manual navigation, and goods or materials are automatically conveyed to a destination from a starting point.

When the AGV equipment is used for transporting goods, path planning is generally required to be carried out in advance to obtain a transportation scheme, and then the transportation scheme is issued to the AGV equipment, so that the AGV equipment can carry out goods transportation operation according to the transportation scheme.

For the same batch of goods, the traditional method is to perform overall route planning on all goods to be transported, and then obtain a transportation scheme. Since the path planning process involves all the goods to be transported, when the number of the goods is large, the technical problem that the calculation amount in the path planning process is too large is caused.

Disclosure of Invention

The embodiment of the application provides a cargo transportation method, a cargo transportation device, a terminal device and a readable storage medium, and can solve the technical problem that the calculated amount in the path planning process is too large when the number of cargos is large.

In a first aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a cargo transportation method, including:

the method comprises the steps of obtaining transportation information of a plurality of cargos to be transported and equipment information of a plurality of AGV equipment;

determining at least one target AGV device from the plurality of AGV devices according to the transportation information and the device information;

task division is carried out on the multiple cargos according to the transportation information, and a transportation task of each target AGV device is obtained;

and respectively planning the paths of the target AGV devices according to the transportation tasks of the target AGV devices, and determining the transportation scheme corresponding to each target AGV device, wherein the transportation scheme is used for correspondingly transporting cargos by the target AGV devices.

In the above embodiment, after the target AGV device for transporting the to-be-transported goods is determined from the multiple AGV devices according to the transportation information and the device information, the to-be-transported goods are allocated to the target AGV device, and then the path of each target AGV device is planned, so that the number of the goods involved in each path planning is small, the conditions to be considered in each path planning are reduced, and therefore each path planning can be realized by adopting less computing resources.

In a possible implementation manner of the first aspect, the determining at least one target AGV device from the multiple AGV devices according to the transportation information and the device information includes:

determining the required quantity of the AGV equipment according to the transportation information;

and determining at least one target AGV device from the plurality of AGV devices according to the demand, the target transportation time information and the device information.

In a possible implementation manner of the first aspect, the transportation information further includes a start position and an end position of each of the cargoes, and the target transportation time information includes a target transportation time length; determining the required quantity of the AGV equipment according to the transportation information comprises the following steps:

respectively determining unit transportation time of each cargo according to the starting position and the ending position corresponding to each cargo, and preset cargo conversion time and empty waiting time, wherein the unit transportation time represents theoretical time required by an AGV device to finish transportation of the corresponding cargo;

determining unit total transportation time according to the unit transportation time of the multiple cargos and a preset working coefficient of AGV equipment;

and determining the demand according to the target transportation time and the unit total transportation time.

In one possible implementation manner of the first aspect, the target transportation time information includes a target transportation time period; the equipment information comprises equipment state information and equipment electric quantity information; the equipment state information represents that the corresponding AGV equipment is in an idle state, a working state or a fault state in the target transportation time period, and the equipment electric quantity information represents the predicted electric quantity of the corresponding AGV equipment in the target transportation time period;

determining at least one target AGV device from the plurality of AGV devices according to the demand, the target transport time information, and the device information, including:

determining first candidate AGV equipment according to the target transportation time period, the equipment state information and the equipment electric quantity information; during the target transport time period, the first candidate AGV device is in an idle state and the predicted power is greater than a first threshold;

and if the number of the first candidate AGV equipment is larger than or equal to the demand, determining the target AGV equipment from the first candidate AGV equipment according to the demand.

In a possible implementation manner of the first aspect, after determining the first candidate AGV device according to the target transportation time period, the device state information, and the device power amount information, the method further includes:

if the number of the first candidate AGV devices is smaller than the required amount, acquiring a difference value between the required amount and the number of the first candidate AGV devices;

determining second candidate AGV equipment according to the target transportation time period, the equipment state information and the electric quantity information, wherein in a part of time period of the target transportation time period, the second candidate AGV equipment is in an idle state and the predicted electric quantity is larger than the first threshold value;

and determining the target AGV equipment from the first candidate AGV equipment and the second candidate AGV equipment according to the difference value and the equipment state information corresponding to the second candidate AGV equipment.

In one possible implementation manner of the first aspect, the target transportation time information includes a target transportation time period; the equipment information comprises equipment state information, wherein the equipment state information represents that the corresponding AGV equipment is in an idle state, a working state or a fault state in a target transportation time period;

according to the target transportation time period and the equipment state information, determining first candidate target AGV equipment from the plurality of AGV equipment, wherein the equipment state of the first candidate target AGV equipment is in an idle state in the target transportation time period or in a part of the target transportation time period;

sending task request information to each first candidate target AGV device, wherein the task request information is used for indicating each first candidate target AGV device to judge whether the electric quantity of the first candidate target AGV device meets the transportation requirement;

receiving responses of the first candidate target AGV devices, and determining second candidate target AGV devices for receiving task request information, wherein the second candidate target AGV devices are the first candidate target AGV devices of which the electric quantity meets the transportation requirements;

and determining target AGV equipment from the second candidate target AGV according to the demand and the equipment state information.

In a possible implementation manner of the first aspect, the method further includes:

and sending the transportation scheme to corresponding target AGV equipment so that the corresponding target AGV equipment can transport the goods according to the transportation scheme.

In a second aspect, embodiments of the present application provide a cargo transportation device, the device including:

the system comprises an acquisition unit, a storage unit and a display unit, wherein the acquisition unit is used for acquiring transportation information of a plurality of cargos to be transported and equipment information of a plurality of AGV equipment;

the target AGV equipment determining unit is used for determining at least one target AGV equipment from the plurality of AGV equipment according to the transportation information and the equipment information;

the dividing unit is used for carrying out task division on the multiple cargos according to the transportation information to obtain a transportation task of each target AGV device;

and the transportation scheme determining unit is used for respectively planning the paths of the target AGV devices according to the transportation tasks of the target AGV devices, determining the transportation scheme corresponding to each target AGV device, wherein the transportation scheme is used for correspondingly transporting cargos by the target AGV devices.

In a third aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a terminal device, which includes a memory, a processor, and a computer program stored in the memory and executable on the processor, where the processor, when executing the computer program, implements the steps of the method described in any one of the foregoing embodiments of the first aspect.

In a fourth aspect, the present application provides a computer-readable storage medium, which stores a computer program, and when the computer program is executed by a processor, the computer program implements the steps of the method as described in any one of the above embodiments of the first aspect.

In a fifth aspect, the present application provides a computer program product, which when run on a server, causes the server to perform the steps of the method described in any one of the above embodiments of the first aspect.

It is understood that the beneficial effects of the second aspect to the fifth aspect can be referred to the related description of the first aspect, and are not described herein again.

Drawings

In order to more clearly illustrate the technical solutions in the embodiments of the present application, the drawings needed to be used in the embodiments or the prior art descriptions will be briefly described below, and it is obvious that the drawings in the following description are only some embodiments of the present application, and it is obvious for those skilled in the art to obtain other drawings without creative efforts.

FIG. 1 is a schematic block diagram of a cargo transportation management system according to an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 2 is a flow chart of a method of transporting cargo as provided by an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 3 is a diagrammatic, pictorial flow diagram illustration of a method for determining a target AGV device, as provided by an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating a method for determining a demand for AGV devices according to an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating a method for a transport management device to determine a target AGV device according to an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 6 is a block diagram of a cargo transporter provided in accordance with an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 7 is a schematic internal structure diagram of a terminal device according to an embodiment of the present application.

Detailed Description

In the following description, for purposes of explanation and not limitation, specific details are set forth, such as particular system structures, techniques, etc. in order to provide a thorough understanding of the embodiments of the present application. It will be apparent, however, to one skilled in the art that the present application may be practiced in other embodiments that depart from these specific details. In other instances, detailed descriptions of well-known systems, devices, circuits, and methods are omitted so as not to obscure the description of the present application with unnecessary detail.

It will be understood that the terms "comprises" and/or "comprising," when used in this specification and the appended claims, specify the presence of stated features, integers, steps, operations, elements, and/or components, but do not preclude the presence or addition of one or more other features, integers, steps, operations, elements, components, and/or groups thereof.

It should also be understood that the term "and/or" as used in this specification and the appended claims refers to any and all possible combinations of one or more of the associated listed items and includes such combinations.

As used in this specification and the appended claims, the term "if" may be interpreted contextually as "when", "upon" or "in response to" determining "or" in response to detecting ". Similarly, the phrase "if it is determined" or "if a [ described condition or event ] is detected" may be interpreted contextually to mean "upon determining" or "in response to determining" or "upon detecting [ described condition or event ]" or "in response to detecting [ described condition or event ]".

Furthermore, in the description of the present application and the appended claims, the terms "first," "second," "third," and the like are used for distinguishing between descriptions and not necessarily for describing or implying relative importance.

Reference throughout this specification to "one embodiment" or "some embodiments," or the like, means that a particular feature, structure, or characteristic described in connection with the embodiment is included in one or more embodiments of the present application. Thus, appearances of the phrases "in one embodiment," "in some embodiments," "in other embodiments," or the like, in various places throughout this specification are not necessarily all referring to the same embodiment, but rather "one or more but not all embodiments" unless specifically stated otherwise. The terms "comprising," "including," "having," and variations thereof mean "including, but not limited to," unless expressly specified otherwise.

The application provides a goods transportation method, after target AGV equipment used for transporting goods to be transported is determined from a plurality of AGV equipment according to transportation information and equipment information, the goods to be transported are distributed to the target AGV equipment, and then the path of each target AGV equipment is planned, so that the number of the goods involved in each path planning is small, conditions needing to be considered in path planning are reduced, and therefore the path planning can be achieved by adopting fewer computing resources each time. Therefore, the warehouse management system adopting the cargo transportation method can realize path planning of large batches of cargos to be transported under the condition of not improving the computing capacity; thereby avoiding the increase of cost caused by improving the configuration of the warehouse management system.

The cargo transportation method provided by the present application is exemplarily described below with reference to specific embodiments.

Referring to fig. 1, the freight transportation management system provided for the present application includes a transportation management device 101 and a plurality of AGV devices 102, where the AGV devices 102 are disposed in a warehouse 103 for transporting cargos in the warehouse, the transportation management device 101 is in communication connection with the AGV devices, and cargo information of cargos in the warehouse is stored in the transportation management device.

In this embodiment, the transportation management device 101 may be a terminal device, and may be a smart phone, a portable notebook, a tablet computer, or a smart wearable device, for example. The transportation management device may also be a server device, which may be a local server device or a cloud platform server device, for example.

In an embodiment of the present application, the communication link between the transport management device 101 and the plurality of AGV devices 102 may be a wireless communication link. The wireless communication method includes, but is not limited to, infrared communication (IRDA), Bluetooth (Bluetooth), ZigBee, Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN), cellular network (cellular network), and the like.

As shown in fig. 1, in the embodiment of the present application, transportation of goods in a warehouse is taken as an example for illustration, and a transportation process of goods may be an ex-warehouse or in-warehouse process of goods, and may also be a transfer of goods inside the warehouse. It will be understood by those skilled in the art that fig. 1 is only an example of an application scenario of the cargo transportation method in the embodiment of the present application, and does not constitute a limitation on the cargo transportation method. For example, the freight transportation method in the embodiment of the present application may also be applied to freight transportation between different warehouses, freight transportation at ports, and the like.

Based on the cargo transportation management system shown in fig. 1, as shown in fig. 2, a flowchart of an embodiment of a cargo transportation method provided by the present application is shown. The execution subject of the method is transportation management equipment. Referring to fig. 2, the method may include:

step S201, obtaining transportation information of a plurality of cargos to be transported and equipment information of a plurality of AGV equipment.

In an embodiment, the transportation information is used to describe transportation condition information of corresponding goods, and may be transportation condition information common to multiple goods, or may include transportation condition information corresponding to each of the goods.

For example, the transportation management device obtains the transportation information through communication with the outside, specifically, the transportation management device obtains the transportation information by receiving input information of an input interface, or obtains the transportation information by obtaining a file storing the cargo information in another storage device, or of course, obtains the transportation information by receiving the file storing the cargo information through communication with a third-party device. Optionally, the transportation management device may further obtain the cargo information by scanning a label corresponding to the cargo to be transported.

The pieces of equipment information of the AGV equipments may be stored in advance in the transportation management equipment, or may be acquired by the transportation management equipment through communication with the AGV equipments.

Step S202, determining at least one target AGV device from a plurality of AGV devices according to the transportation information and the device information.

The target AGV equipment is the AGV equipment which is determined to be used for transporting the goods to be transported in the embodiment, and the target AGV equipment is associated with the transportation information and the equipment information, so that the applicability of the target AGV equipment to the goods transportation and the usability of the equipment are guaranteed.

In the process of determining the target AGV device, the number of the target AGV devices and which AGV devices can be used as the target AGV devices need to be determined.

The following is an exemplary description of a target AGV device determination process. The application provides a method for determining target AGV equipment, where transportation information includes target transportation time information corresponding to each cargo, and as shown in fig. 3, the method may include:

and S301, determining the required quantity of the AGV equipment according to the transportation information.

In an embodiment, the demand for AGV devices is an expected number of AGV devices determined from the transport information. The demand is greater than or equal to the number of target AGV devices that are ultimately determined.

In one embodiment, a simulation calculation method may be used to obtain the required quantity of the AGV devices, that is, simulation modeling is performed according to the actual conditions of the warehouse, and the required quantity of the AGV devices is obtained through trial operation of the simulation model.

For example, an analysis method may also be used to obtain the required quantity of the target AGV device, and the analysis method may establish a mathematical model according to the obtained information and the device information, and solve the required quantity through the mathematical model.

Step S302, determining at least one target AGV device from a plurality of AGV devices according to the demand, the target transportation time information and the device information.

In an embodiment, the target transportation time information refers to a time requirement corresponding to the completion of the to-be-transported goods, for example, assuming that the a lot of to-be-transported goods includes 100 pieces of goods, the transportation task requirement is 8:00 am to 10 am: 00, the target transportation time length corresponding to all the goods of the A batch is 2 hours.

The process of determining the target AGV equipment required to be used from the plurality of AGV equipment fully considers the transportation information and the equipment information of the goods to be transported, so that the finally determined target AGV equipment can fully meet the transportation requirement of the goods.

And S203, performing task division on the multiple cargos according to the transportation information to obtain a transportation task of each target AGV device.

The task division is to distribute the goods to be transported among each target AGV device. The transport task refers to the goods that the corresponding target AGV device needs to transport.

In the embodiment, the specific distribution process of the goods can be performed according to the actual demand of the goods to be transported, the distribution principle can be that the transport mileage and the used time of each target AGV device are reduced as much as possible, and the working time of each target AGV device is as close as possible to the target transport duration in the target transport time information.

For example, in the range of the weight that the target AGV apparatus can bear, the same target AGV apparatus is allocated with the goods having the same start position and the same end position; assuming cargo X is within the range of weight that the target AGV device can bear₁End position of and cargo X₂Are very close to each other, and can be used for loading the goods X₁And goods X₂To the same target AGV device.

And S204, respectively planning the path of each target AGV according to the transportation task of each target AGV, and determining a transportation scheme corresponding to each target AGV, wherein the transportation scheme is used for the corresponding target AGV to transport goods.

The path planning of the AGV device may be performed by using an existing algorithm that can be used for path planning, for example, a local path planning method such as an artificial potential field method, a neural network method, an ant colony algorithm, or a global path planning algorithm such as a grid method, a topogram method, a genetic algorithm, or the like; or path planning may also be performed by using a combination of the above algorithms, which is not described herein.

The transport scheme refers to the running route of the corresponding target AGV device, and the target AGV device runs according to the transport route in the corresponding transport scheme, so that the goods are transported.

In the embodiment, the path of each target AGV is planned according to the transportation task corresponding to each AGV device, the number of cargos involved in the path planning process is small, the calculated amount of each target AGV device in the path planning process is small, the performance requirement on the transportation management device is low, the calculation pressure of the transportation management device can be reduced, and the increase of the cost of the transportation management system caused by replacing the high-performance transportation management device in order to deal with the increase of the total amount of cargos is avoided.

In another embodiment, the cargo transportation method further comprises: and sending the transportation scheme to the corresponding target AGV equipment so that the corresponding target AGV equipment can transport the goods according to the transportation scheme.

For example, in order to achieve a fast-obtaining transportation scheme for the AGV device, an OTA (Over-the-Air Technology) may be used to send the transportation scheme to the corresponding target AGV device.

In one embodiment, the target AGV device may delete the completed transportation solution after completing the transportation task in the transportation solution. The specific deletion operation may be completed by the transportation management system, or may be performed by the target AGV device itself.

Optionally, the transportation scheme further includes start time information of the transportation task, so that the transportation method in the present application can be performed on multiple batches of goods to be transported in advance to obtain corresponding transportation schemes, and the corresponding transportation schemes are sent to corresponding target AGV devices. The method comprises the steps of obtaining and sending the transportation schemes of multiple batches of goods to be transported in advance, so that the utilization rate of the AGV equipment is high.

To enable those skilled in the art to better understand the present application, a method for analytically determining the required amount of AGV equipment is described in detail below.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating a method for determining a required quantity of AGV devices according to an embodiment of the present application, wherein the transport information further includes a start position and an end position of each piece of goods, and the target transport time information includes a target transport duration. As shown in FIG. 4, a method of determining the demand for AGV devices may include the steps of:

step S401, unit transportation time of each cargo is respectively determined according to the starting position and the ending position corresponding to each cargo, and preset cargo conversion time and empty waiting time, and the unit transportation time represents theoretical time required by one AGV device to finish transportation of the corresponding cargo.

In the embodiment, the starting position refers to an initial placement position of the goods, and the ending position refers to a destination position of the goods transportation. For example, the goods to be transferred in the warehouse may be located at a certain shelf, and the end position is another shelf in the warehouse; for the goods put in storage, the initial position can be an entrance of the warehouse, and the final position is a shelf used for storing the goods in the warehouse; for the goods out of the warehouse, the initial position may be a shelf in the warehouse for storing the corresponding goods, and the final position is the exit of the warehouse. The starting position and the ending position in other application scenarios may be determined as needed, and are not described herein.

The unit transportation time corresponding to the goods further comprises the time used in the transportation process of the goods, and specifically, the unit transportation time is related to the starting position and the ending position of the goods. For example, in the case where the start and end positions of the cargo are determined, the transportation route of the cargo may be estimated, and thus the time taken for the cargo transportation process may be estimated. For example, the time used for the cargo transportation process may include an empty vehicle travel time and a full vehicle travel time.

The cargo change-over time and the empty waiting time may be set in advance based on past transportation experience. Wherein the load transfer time may include the time required for loading and unloading of the load onto the AGV apparatus. The empty waiting time may include the time required for the AGV to avoid other AGV devices during transport or the time waiting for loading and unloading of goods, etc. Optionally, the goods conversion time and the empty waiting time are generally related to actual conditions of the warehouse and the AGV, and for the same batch of goods, for convenience of calculation, the goods conversion time and the empty waiting time corresponding to all the goods may be set to be fixed values, that is, the goods conversion time corresponding to different goods is equal, and the empty waiting time corresponding to different goods is equal.

Optionally, the unit transportation time corresponding to a certain cargo may be calculated according to the following formula:

Tr＝Tw+Tk+Tm+Tz

in the formula, Tr is unit transportation time corresponding to the goods, Tw is empty vehicle waiting time, Tk is empty vehicle running time, Tm is full vehicle running time, and Tz is goods conversion time.

And S402, determining the total transportation time per unit according to the unit transportation time of the multiple cargos and the preset work coefficient of the AGV equipment.

The unit total transport time refers to the total time required for transporting a plurality of goods by using one AGV device. The preset work coefficient is mainly set based on the fact that some special conditions affecting the transportation efficiency exist in the AGV equipment. For example, the preset work coefficients may include an AGV passing efficiency coefficient and an AGV charging correction coefficient.

Alternatively, assuming that there are i total goods to be transported, the total transport time per unit can be calculated according to the following formula:

wherein Tb is the total transport time per unit, i is the number of goods in the goods to be transported, Tr is the transport time per unit,

and the pass efficiency coefficient of the AGV equipment is omega, and the charge correction coefficient of the AGV equipment is omega.

And S403, determining the demand according to the target transportation time and the unit total transportation time.

In an embodiment, the target transport time length refers to a task requirement time length of a transport task of the goods to be transported. For example, batch a includes 100 shipments, and the shipping task requires that between 8:00 am and 10 am: and 00, finishing the transportation, namely the target transportation time length corresponding to all the cargos in the A batch is 2 hours.

For example, the target transport time duration and the unit total transport time may be substituted into the following formula to obtain the required amount of the target AGV device:

in the formula, C is the demand, Tb is the unit total transport time, and Ta is the target transport duration.

In an embodiment, the demand is a theoretical value, and specifically, the calculation of the demand requires that each AGV device participate in the transport for the entire target transport period. In the calculation of the demand, the working time of each AGV device is close to or equal to the target transportation time, and the service efficiency of each AGV device is ensured to be in the optimal state.

In the embodiment, the required quantity of the AGV equipment is obtained through an analytical method, the obtained required quantity fully considers transportation information of goods such as a starting position and an ending position, and also fully considers the actual transportation condition of the AGV equipment, such as preset goods conversion time, empty waiting time, a preset working coefficient and the like; the obtained demand takes the factors of loading and unloading of goods, avoidance behaviors among AGV equipment, working efficiency of the AGV equipment and the like into consideration; thereby ensuring that the demand can fully meet the transportation demand.

In the embodiment of the present application, step S302, determining at least one target AGV device from a plurality of AGV devices according to the demand, the target transportation time information, and the device information may be implemented in different manners. In the embodiment of the application, two methods for determining target AGV equipment are provided, wherein in one method, the transport management equipment determines the target AGV equipment; in another method, a transport management device interacts with AGV devices to determine a target AGV device. Two methods are specifically described below.

First mode, determining target AGV equipment by transportation management equipment

FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating a method for a transport management facility to identify a target AGV according to an embodiment of the present application, wherein the target transport time information includes a target transport time period; the equipment information comprises equipment state information and equipment electric quantity information; the device state information represents that the corresponding AGV device is in an idle state, a working state or a fault state in the target transportation time period, and the device electric quantity information represents the predicted electric quantity of the corresponding AGV device in the target transportation time period. As shown in fig. 5, the method includes:

step S501, determining first candidate AGV equipment according to the target transportation time period, the equipment state information and the equipment electric quantity information; during the target transport period, the first candidate AGV device is idle and the predicted power is greater than the first threshold.

In an embodiment, the first candidate AGV device refers to an AGV device that is idle for the entire target transportation period and has a power level meeting the transportation task requirement.

The device power information refers to the predicted power of the corresponding AGV device in the target transportation time period. For example, for an idle AGV device that is to be used for this time, the predicted electric quantity is the current electric quantity; for the AGV devices that are still in working status (i.e. executing other tasks), the predicted power amount refers to the remaining power amount of the corresponding AGV devices after the tasks are executed.

Optionally, the predicted electric quantity may be that the corresponding AGV device performs self-prediction according to the previous transportation, and sends the self-prediction to the transportation management device; or the transportation management equipment can predict the electric quantity of the AGV equipment by monitoring and acquiring the state information of the AGV equipment in real time.

Optionally, the target time period information includes a transportation start time and a transportation end time, and the predicted electric quantity may be a predicted electric quantity of the transportation start time or a predicted electric quantity of the transportation end time. If the predicted electric quantity is the electric quantity of the transport starting time, the first threshold value is larger than the electric quantity required by the corresponding target AGV equipment to finish the transport task; if the predicted electric quantity of the transportation termination time is greater than the residual electric quantity required by the corresponding target AGV device to complete the transportation task (a safety range is required, so that the recommended electric quantity has a certain residual), in this case, the electric quantity required by the target AGV device to complete the transportation task needs to be predicted.

For example, the power prediction method may perform prediction by using a mathematical analysis method according to an empirical value, for example, a route in a transportation scheme of a task being performed by the AGV device may be obtained; acquiring the required electric quantity of the AGV equipment for completing the task according to the route; acquiring the current electric quantity of AGV equipment; and calculating the difference value between the current electric quantity and the required electric quantity to obtain the predicted electric quantity of the AGV equipment after the task is completed.

Step S502, if the number of the first candidate AGV devices is larger than or equal to the demand, determining the target AGV devices from the first candidate AGV devices according to the demand.

In an embodiment, the number of the first candidate AGV devices is greater than or equal to the required amount, which indicates that the first candidate AGV devices are sufficiently used in the target transportation time period, so that the required amount can be directly used as the number of the target AGV devices, and the target AGV devices can be determined from all the first candidate AGV devices.

In an embodiment, when the number of the first candidate AGV devices is equal to or greater than the required amount, the finally determined actual number of the target AGV devices is equal to the calculated required amount. For example, if the required amount is 50 and the number of the first candidate AGV devices is 60, 50 AGV devices may be selected as the target AGV devices from the 60 first candidate AGV devices.

Step S503, if the number of the first candidate AGV devices is smaller than the required amount, acquiring a difference value between the required amount and the number of the first candidate AGV devices.

In an embodiment, if the number of the first candidate AGV devices is smaller than the required amount, it indicates that the number of the first candidate AGV devices is not enough to be used, and therefore, the AGV devices that are in an idle state in a partial time period within the target transportation time period need to be screened, so that it is ensured that enough AGV devices transport the goods.

Step S504, second candidate AGV equipment is determined according to the target transportation time period, the equipment state information and the equipment electric quantity information, and in a partial time period of the target transportation time period, the second candidate AGV equipment is in an idle state and the predicted electric quantity is larger than a first threshold value.

In an embodiment, the second candidate AGV device refers to an AGV device that is in an idle state during a part of the target transportation period and has a power level meeting the transportation task requirement. Here, the method of determining the second candidate AGV apparatus is similar to the method of determining the first candidate AGV apparatus, and reference may be made to the specific statement of step S501.

And step S505, determining target AGV equipment from the first candidate AGV equipment and the second candidate AGV equipment according to the difference value and the equipment state information corresponding to the second candidate AGV equipment.

In an embodiment, the target AGV device is determined from a first candidate AGV device and a second candidate AGV device. Generally all of the first candidate AGV devices are required to be the target AGV device, while the second candidate AGV device may be the target AGV device in whole or in part.

In one embodiment, step S505 specifically includes: determining all the first candidate AGV devices as target AGV devices; determining the required amount of the second candidate AGV equipment according to the difference value, the target transportation time length and the equipment state information corresponding to the second candidate AGV equipment; and if the number of the second candidate AGV devices is larger than or equal to the required amount, taking the required amount of the second candidate AGV devices as the target AGV devices.

In the embodiment, all the first candidate AGV devices are determined as the target AGV devices, and since the number of the first candidate AGV devices is not enough, a second candidate AGV device is needed to participate in the cargo transportation in order to complete the cargo transportation task.

The second candidate AGV can only participate in transportation as the target AGV device in a partial time period of the target transportation time period, so that the usable time of the second candidate AGV device is shorter than the target transportation time; the required amount of the second candidate AGV apparatus is larger than the difference obtained in step S503.

An exemplary description of the different calculation methods for the required amount of the second candidate AGV device follows.

Illustratively, the idle duration of the second candidate AGV device during the target transport period is T₂Assuming that the target transport time length is Ta and the difference is m, the number of the required second candidate AGV devices may be obtained according to the following formula:

where D is the required amount of the second candidate AGV device.

In an embodiment, when the number of the first candidate AGV devices is smaller than the required amount, the finally determined actual number of the target AGV devices is the sum of the number of the first candidate AGV devices and the required amount of the second candidate AGV devices, that is, the actual number is larger than the calculated required amount.

Optionally, if the number of the second candidate AGV devices is smaller than the required amount in one embodiment, it is proved that the AGV devices in the warehouse cannot meet the transportation requirement of the goods to be transported, and the problem can be solved by calling AGV devices of other warehouses or purchasing new AGV devices; the calling or purchasing requirements of the AGV equipment can be obtained in advance through calculation, and delay of transportation of goods is avoided.

Optionally, a part of the goods may be allocated to the first candidate AGV device; and then the remaining goods are confirmed from the second candidate AGV devices according to the transportation method in the embodiment of the application, and the remaining goods are distributed.

In another embodiment of the present application, the target AGV device is determined by interaction between the transportation management device and the AGV device. Wherein the target transportation time information comprises a target transportation time period; the equipment information includes equipment state information, wherein the equipment state information indicates that the corresponding AGV equipment is in an idle state, a working state or a fault state in the target transportation time period. The method comprises the following steps: the transport management equipment determines first candidate target AGV equipment from the plurality of AGV equipment according to the target transport time period and the equipment state information, and the equipment state of the first candidate target AGV equipment is in an idle state in the target transport time period or in a part of the target transport time period; the transportation management equipment sends task request information to each first candidate target AGV equipment; the first candidate target AGV equipment sends reply information responding to the information of the task request to the transportation management equipment according to the electric quantity information of the first candidate target AGV equipment, wherein the reply information indicates the first candidate target AGV equipment to accept the task request or reject the task request; the transportation management equipment receives the reply information, and if the reply information is a task receiving request, the corresponding first candidate target AGV equipment is determined to be second candidate target AGV equipment; and the transportation management equipment determines the target AGV equipment from all the second candidate target AGV equipment according to the demand and the equipment state information.

In an embodiment, the first candidate target AGV device refers to an AGV device that has an idle state in a target transportation time period, and the second candidate target AGV device is the first candidate target AGV device whose electric quantity meets transportation requirements.

In the embodiment, when the transportation management device determines the target AGV devices from all the second candidate target AGV devices, it is preferable that the second candidate target AGV devices in an idle state in the whole target transportation time period are used as the target AGV devices; and when the number of the second candidate target AGV devices which are in the idle state in the whole target transportation time period is less than the required amount, taking the second candidate target AGV devices which are in the idle state in the partial time period of the target transportation time period as the target AGV devices.

In the method, the transportation management equipment only needs to judge the equipment state of the AGV equipment in the target transportation time period, so that the first candidate target AGV equipment is screened out. And judging whether the electric quantity meets the transportation requirement or not is given to the first candidate target AGV device for carrying out. The transportation management equipment determines which first candidate target AGV equipment is used as second candidate target AGV equipment through interaction with the first candidate target AGV equipment, and then selects target AGV equipment from the second candidate target AGV equipment. According to the method, the first candidate target AGV equipment is used for judging the electric quantity of the first candidate target AGV equipment, so that the accuracy of electric quantity judgment is higher, and the calculation cost of the transportation management equipment can be reduced without the need of judging the electric quantity by the transportation management equipment.

It should be understood that, the sequence numbers of the steps in the foregoing embodiments do not imply an execution sequence, and the execution sequence of each process should be determined by its function and inherent logic, and should not constitute any limitation to the implementation process of the embodiments of the present application.

Fig. 6 shows a block diagram of a cargo transporter provided in the embodiment of the present application, which corresponds to the receiving address confirmation method described in the above embodiment, and only the relevant parts to the embodiment of the present application are shown for convenience of illustration. Referring to fig. 6, the cargo transporter 600 includes: an acquisition unit 601, a target AGV apparatus determination unit 602, a dividing unit 603, and a transportation scheme determination unit 604:

an obtaining unit 601, configured to obtain transportation information of multiple cargos to be transported and equipment information of multiple AGV devices;

a target AGV device determining unit 602, configured to determine at least one target AGV device from the multiple AGV devices according to the transportation information and the device information;

the dividing unit 603 is configured to perform task division on the multiple goods according to the transportation information to obtain a transportation task of each target AGV device;

and a transportation scheme determining unit 604, configured to perform path planning on each target AGV according to the transportation task of each target AGV, and determine a transportation scheme corresponding to each target AGV, where the transportation scheme is used for the corresponding target AGV to transport the goods.

Optionally, the transportation information includes target transportation time information of each piece of goods, and the target AGV device determining unit 602 is configured to determine at least one target AGV device from the multiple AGV devices according to the transportation information and the device information, and includes:

Optionally, the transportation information further includes a start position and an end position of each cargo, and the target transportation time information includes a target transportation duration; the target AGV device determining unit 602 is configured to determine a required amount of AGV devices according to transportation information, and includes:

respectively determining unit transportation time of each cargo according to the starting position and the ending position corresponding to each cargo, and preset cargo conversion time and empty waiting time, wherein the unit transportation time represents the theoretical time required by an AGV device to finish transportation of the corresponding cargo;

determining unit total transportation time according to the unit transportation time of the multiple goods and the preset work coefficient of the AGV equipment;

Optionally, the target transportation time information includes a target transportation time period; the equipment information comprises equipment state information and equipment electric quantity information; the device state information represents that the corresponding AGV device is in an idle state, a working state or a fault state in the target transportation time period, and the device electric quantity information represents the predicted electric quantity of the corresponding AGV device in the target transportation time period; a target AGV device determining unit 602, configured to determine at least one target AGV device from a plurality of AGV devices according to the demand, the target transportation time information, and the device information, includes:

determining first candidate AGV equipment according to the target transportation time period, the equipment state information and the equipment electric quantity information; within the target transportation time period, the first candidate AGV device is in an idle state and the predicted electric quantity is larger than a first threshold value;

and if the number of the first candidate AGV equipment is larger than or equal to the demand, determining target AGV equipment from the first candidate AGV equipment according to the demand.

Optionally, the target AGV device determining unit 602 is configured to, after determining the first candidate AGV device according to the target transportation time period, the device state information, and the device power amount information, further include:

determining second candidate AGV equipment according to the target transportation time period, the equipment state information and the electric quantity information, wherein the second candidate AGV equipment is in an idle state and the predicted electric quantity is larger than a first threshold value in a partial time period of the target transportation time period;

and determining target AGV equipment from the first candidate AGV equipment and the second candidate AGV equipment according to the difference value and the equipment state information corresponding to the second candidate AGV equipment.

Optionally, the target transportation time information includes a target transportation time period; the equipment information comprises equipment state information, wherein the equipment state information represents that the corresponding AGV equipment is in an idle state, a working state or a fault state in the target transportation time period; a target AGV device determining unit 602, configured to determine at least one target AGV device from a plurality of AGV devices according to the demand, the target transportation time information, and the device information, includes:

sending task request information to each piece of first candidate target AGV equipment;

Optionally, as shown in fig. 6, the goods transportation apparatus further includes a sending unit 605, where the sending unit 605 is configured to send the transportation scheme to the corresponding target AGV device, so that the corresponding target AGV device transports the goods according to the transportation scheme.

It should be noted that, for the information interaction, execution process, and other contents between the above devices/units, the specific functions and technical effects thereof based on the same concept as those of the method embodiment of the present application can be specifically referred to the method embodiment portion, and are not described herein again.

Based on the same inventive concept, an embodiment of the application also provides a terminal device. As shown in fig. 7, the terminal device 700 of this embodiment includes: a processor 701, a memory 702, and a computer program 704 stored in the memory 702 and executable on the processor 701. The computer program 704 may be executed by the processor 701 to generate the instruction 703, and the processor 701 may implement the steps in the embodiments of the receiving address confirmation method according to the instruction 703. Alternatively, the processor 701 implements the functions of each module/unit in each apparatus embodiment described above, for example, the functions of the acquisition unit 601 to the transmission unit 605 shown in fig. 6, when executing the computer program 704.

Illustratively, the computer program 704 may be partitioned into one or more modules/units, which are stored in the memory 702 and executed by the processor 701 to accomplish the present application. One or more of the modules/units may be a series of computer program instruction segments capable of performing specific functions, which are used to describe the execution of the computer program 704 in the terminal device 700.

Those skilled in the art will appreciate that fig. 7 is merely an example of a terminal device 700 and does not constitute a limitation of terminal device 700, that terminal device 700 may include more or fewer components than shown, or some components may be combined, or different components, e.g., terminal device 700 may also include input-output devices, network access devices, buses, etc.

The Processor 701 may be a Central Processing Unit (CPU), other general purpose Processor, a Digital Signal Processor (DSP), an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) or other Programmable logic device, discrete Gate or transistor logic, discrete hardware components, etc. A general purpose processor may be a microprocessor or the processor may be any conventional processor or the like.

The storage 702 may be an internal storage unit of the terminal device 700, such as a hard disk or a memory of the terminal device 700. The memory 702 may also be an external storage device of the terminal device 700, such as a plug-in hard disk, a Smart Media Card (SMC), a Secure Digital (SD) Card, a Flash memory Card (Flash Card), or the like provided on the terminal device 700. Further, the memory 702 may also include both internal and external memory units of the terminal device 700. The memory 702 is used for storing computer programs and other programs and data required by the terminal device 700. The memory 702 may also be used to temporarily store data that has been output or is to be output.

It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that, for convenience and brevity of description, only the above-mentioned division of the functional units and modules is illustrated, and in practical applications, the above-mentioned function distribution may be performed by different functional units and modules according to needs, that is, the internal structure of the apparatus is divided into different functional units or modules to perform all or part of the above-mentioned functions. Each functional unit and module in the embodiments may be integrated in one processing unit, or each unit may exist alone physically, or two or more units are integrated in one unit, and the integrated unit may be implemented in a form of hardware, or in a form of software functional unit. In addition, specific names of the functional units and modules are only for convenience of distinguishing from each other, and are not used for limiting the protection scope of the present application. The specific working processes of the units and modules in the system may refer to the corresponding processes in the foregoing method embodiments, and are not described herein again.

The embodiments of the present application further provide a computer-readable storage medium, where a computer program is stored, and when the computer program is executed by a processor, the steps in the above-mentioned method embodiments are implemented.

The embodiments of the present application provide a computer program product, which when running on a server, enables the server to implement the steps in the above method embodiments when executed.

In the above embodiments, the descriptions of the respective embodiments have respective emphasis, and reference may be made to the related descriptions of other embodiments for parts that are not described or illustrated in a certain embodiment.

Those of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that the various illustrative elements and algorithm steps described in connection with the embodiments disclosed herein may be implemented as electronic hardware or combinations of computer software and electronic hardware. Whether such functionality is implemented as hardware or software depends upon the particular application and design constraints imposed on the implementation. Skilled artisans may implement the described functionality in varying ways for each particular application, but such implementation decisions should not be interpreted as causing a departure from the scope of the present application.

In the embodiments provided in the present application, it should be understood that the disclosed apparatus/terminal device and method may be implemented in other ways. For example, the above-described embodiments of the apparatus/terminal device are merely illustrative, and for example, the division of the modules or units is only one logical division, and there may be other divisions when actually implemented, 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 through some interfaces, devices or units, 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 application 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 integrated unit can be realized in a form of hardware, and can also be realized in a form of a software functional unit.

The integrated module/unit, if implemented in the form of a software functional unit and sold or used as a stand-alone product, may be stored in a computer readable storage medium. Based on such understanding, all or part of the processes in the methods of the embodiments described above can be implemented by a computer program, which can be stored in a computer-readable storage medium and can implement the steps of the embodiments of the methods described above when the computer program is executed by a processor. Wherein the computer program comprises computer program code, which may be in the form of source code, object code, an executable file or some intermediate form, etc. The computer readable medium may include at least: any entity or device capable of carrying computer program code to a device/server, recording medium, computer Memory, Read-Only Memory (ROM), Random-Access Memory (RAM), electrical carrier signals, telecommunications signals, and software distribution medium. Such as a usb-disk, a removable hard disk, a magnetic or optical disk, etc. In some jurisdictions, computer-readable media may not be an electrical carrier signal or a telecommunications signal in accordance with legislative and proprietary practices.

The above-mentioned embodiments are only used to illustrate the technical solutions of the present application, and not to limit the same; although the present application has been described in detail with reference to the foregoing embodiments, it should be understood by those of ordinary skill in the art that: the technical solutions described in the foregoing embodiments may still be modified, or some technical features may be equivalently replaced; such modifications and substitutions do not substantially depart from the spirit and scope of the embodiments of the present application and are intended to be included within the scope of the present application.

Claims

1. A method of transporting cargo, comprising:

acquiring transportation information of a plurality of cargos to be transported and equipment information of a plurality of AGV equipment;

and respectively carrying out path planning on the target AGV equipment according to the transportation tasks of the target AGV equipment, and determining each transportation scheme corresponding to the target AGV equipment, wherein the transportation schemes are used for carrying out goods transportation on the corresponding target AGV equipment.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein said transport information includes target transport time information for each of said loads, said determining at least one target AGV device from said plurality of AGV devices based on said transport information and said device information comprising:

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the transportation information further includes a start position and an end position of each of the goods, and the target transportation time information includes a target transportation time period; determining the required quantity of the AGV equipment according to the transportation information comprises the following steps:

determining unit total transport time according to the unit transport time of the multiple cargos and a preset work coefficient of the AGV equipment;

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the target transit time information comprises a target transit time period; the equipment information comprises equipment state information and equipment electric quantity information; the equipment state information represents that the corresponding AGV equipment is in an idle state, a working state or a fault state in the target transportation time period, and the equipment electric quantity information represents the predicted electric quantity of the corresponding AGV equipment in the target transportation time period;

determining first candidate AGV equipment according to the target transportation time period, the equipment state information and the equipment electric quantity information; during the target transport period, the first candidate AGV device is in an idle state and the predicted power is greater than a first threshold;

5. The method of claim 4, wherein said determining a first candidate AGV device based on said target transport period, said device status information, and said device power information further comprises:

6. The method of claim 2, wherein the target transit time information comprises a target transit time period; the equipment information comprises equipment state information, wherein the equipment state information represents that the corresponding AGV equipment is in an idle state, a working state or a fault state in a target transportation time period;

sending task request information to each first candidate target AGV device;

7. The method of any of claims 1 to 6, further comprising:

8. A cargo conveyance device, characterized in that the device comprises:

9. A terminal device comprising a memory, a processor and a computer program stored in the memory and executable on the processor, characterized in that the processor realizes the steps of the method according to any of claims 1 to 7 when executing the computer program.

10. A computer-readable storage medium, in which a computer program is stored which, when being executed by a processor, carries out the steps of the method according to any one of claims 1 to 7.