CN112061653B

CN112061653B - Logistics system and method for reducing sorting time

Info

Publication number: CN112061653B
Application number: CN202010809339.1A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 久恒理树
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 2020-08-12
Filing date: 2020-08-12
Publication date: 2022-04-01
Anticipated expiration: 2040-08-12
Also published as: CN112061653A

Abstract

The invention relates to a logistics system and a method for reducing sorting time, wherein the system comprises a plurality of first freight devices and a plurality of second freight devices, wherein the first freight devices are configured to transfer cargos with the second freight devices; the first shipping device includes a cargo sorting system configured to sort cargo in the first shipping device during operation of the first shipping device. The freight device of the invention utilizes the transportation time to finish the goods sorting, so the goods sorting does not occupy the logistics time, and compared with the prior logistics mode which needs a plurality of stages of fixed sorting time, the invention effectively reduces the whole logistics time of the goods, thereby effectively improving the logistics efficiency.

Description

Logistics system and method for reducing sorting time

Technical Field

The invention relates to the technical field of logistics, in particular to a logistics system and a method for reducing sorting time.

Background

Driven by both technology and economy, the logistics industry is rapidly transforming from traditional logistics to modern logistics. In the process of moving commodities from a production place to a consumption place, the logistics chain related to multiple links of transportation, storage, distribution and the like is evolved towards automation, informatization, intellectualization and unmanned direction. In the logistics industry, a large amount of research and development funds are continuously invested, the goods circulation efficiency is improved, and users can obtain better logistics experience. However, due to the limitation of the existing logistics mode, the goods need to be sorted in a plurality of different sorting centers during the logistics process, and the sorting and staying time of the sorting centers accounts for the large proportion of the overall logistics time.

Disclosure of Invention

Aiming at the technical problems in the prior art, the invention provides a logistics system and a method for reducing sorting time, which are used for reducing the time occupied by goods sorting in the logistics process.

In order to solve the technical problem, the invention provides a logistics system for reducing sorting time, which comprises a plurality of first freight devices and a plurality of second freight devices; wherein the first cargo device is configured to transfer cargo with the second cargo device; the first shipping device includes a cargo sorting system configured to sort the cargo in the first shipping device during operation of the first shipping device.

According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a logistics method for reducing sorting time, comprising the steps of:

transporting the cargo using the first cargo device; and

the first freight device transfers goods with the second freight device and/or the fixed-position warehouse; the goods in the first freight device are sorted during the operation of the first freight device.

According to the logistics system and the method provided by the invention, after the goods enter the logistics system, the freight device finishes goods sorting by utilizing the transportation time, so that the goods sorting does not occupy the logistics time.

Drawings

Preferred embodiments of the present invention will now be described in further detail with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a schematic illustration of a multi-level freight device transport according to one embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a schematic illustration of multi-level freight device transport distances according to one embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 3 is a perspective block diagram of a library location unit according to one embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 4 is a schematic view of a state in which a storage device according to an embodiment of the present invention is placed in a magazine unit;

FIG. 5A is a schematic view of a storage device according to one embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 5B is a schematic view of a storage device according to another embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 5C is a bottom schematic view of a storage device according to one embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 6A is a front perspective view of a storage table according to one embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 6B is a rear perspective view of a storage table according to one embodiment of the present invention;

FIGS. 7A-7B are schematic diagrams of a state where an AGV stops in an library cell according to one embodiment of the present invention;

FIGS. 8A-8B are schematic diagrams of a storage bay unit with a storage device loaded therein and an AGV according to one embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 9 is a schematic diagram of a library site unit according to another embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 10 is a schematic diagram of a library site cell according to another embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 11 is a schematic view of a parent transfer container according to another embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 12 is a schematic diagram of a library site cell connection according to one embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 13 is a schematic diagram of a library site cell connection according to another embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 14A is a schematic diagram of a local connection structure of a library site unit according to another embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 14B is a schematic diagram of a local connection structure of a library site unit corresponding to the structure shown in FIG. 14A;

FIG. 14C is an enlarged view of a schematic diagram of another bitcell connection configuration based on the configuration shown in FIG. 14B;

FIG. 15 is a schematic illustration of a stereoscopic warehouse according to one embodiment of the invention;

fig. 16A is a schematic illustration of a stereoscopic warehouse according to another embodiment of the invention;

fig. 16B is a schematic view illustrating the movement of the goods in the stereoscopic warehouse according to another embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 17A is a schematic illustration of a stereoscopic warehouse with one level of floor according to one embodiment of the invention;

fig. 17B is a schematic illustration of a stereoscopic warehouse with two horizontal levels according to another embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 18 is a schematic illustration of a stereoscopic warehouse according to another embodiment of the invention;

FIGS. 19A-19B are schematic views of sub-containers according to one embodiment of the invention

FIGS. 20A-20D are diagrammatic illustrations of an AGV in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention in its entirety;

FIGS. 21A-21B are general schematic views of a drive assembly according to one embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 22 is a schematic view with the drive wheel carrier removed, in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 23 is a schematic view of a roller assembly and a portion of a drive assembly in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 24 is a schematic view of a roller assembly and roller bracket according to one embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 25 is a schematic view of the overall construction of a steering assembly according to one embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 26 is a schematic view of a portion of a steering assembly according to one embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 27 is a schematic structural view of a steering mechanism according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 28 is a schematic view of another steering assembly in general configuration in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 29 is a schematic illustration of a jacking assembly construction according to one embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 30 is a partial schematic view of a jacking assembly according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 31 is one of the schematic structural views of a jacking mechanism according to one embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 32 is a second schematic structural view of a jacking mechanism according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 33 is a third schematic structural view of a jacking mechanism according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIGS. 34A-34B are schematic views of a guide wheel assembly of the guide mechanism;

FIG. 35 is an AGV stand-alone control according to one embodiment of the present invention;

figures 36A-36D are schematic illustrations of a sorting apparatus according to one embodiment of the present invention, as applied to a stereoscopic warehouse;

FIGS. 37A-37C are schematic structural views of a balancing arm of a sorting robot according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIGS. 38A-38C are schematic views of a sorting robot motion drive according to one embodiment of the present invention;

39A-39C are schematic diagrams of a sorting robot gripper module according to one embodiment of the present invention;

40A-40C are schematic illustrations of a sorting robot gripper module according to another embodiment of the present invention;

41A-41H are schematic illustrations of a sorting robot grasping a good according to one embodiment of the present invention;

42A-42B are schematic diagrams of a sorting robot grabbing and sorting goods according to one embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 43 is a schematic view of a sorting apparatus applied to a stereoscopic warehouse according to another embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 44 is a functional block diagram of a sorting apparatus control system according to one embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 45 is a schematic view of the interior of a stereoscopic warehouse according to one embodiment of the invention;

46A-46B are schematic illustrations of a courier cabinet configuration according to one embodiment of the invention;

47A-47B are schematic illustrations of another side of a courier cabinet structure according to one embodiment of the invention;

48A-48B are schematic illustrations of a micro-truck configuration according to one embodiment of the present invention;

FIGS. 49A-49B are schematic diagrams of a city recycle wagon according to one embodiment of the present invention;

FIGS. 50A-50B are schematic illustrations of the slide-out compartment of the internal stereo warehouse of a municipality cycle wagon according to one embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 51 is a functional block diagram of a control system for a shipping apparatus according to one embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 52A is a functional block diagram of a docking control module according to another embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 52B is a functional block diagram of a sorting module according to another embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 53 is a functional block diagram of a control system for a shipping apparatus according to another embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 54 is an overall structural view of an express robot according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 55 is one of the schematic illustrations of the interior of a courier robot base according to one embodiment of the invention;

Figure 56 is a second schematic view of the interior of a courier robot base according to one embodiment of the invention;

figure 57 is a third schematic view of the interior of a courier robot base according to one embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 58 is a schematic view of a courier robot tote rack, according to one embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIGS. 59A-59D are schematic illustrations of a courier robot tote configuration in accordance with one embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 60 is a schematic view of a drive assembly of a courier robot inside a base, according to one embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 61 is a schematic view of a roller assembly coupled to a drive assembly of the courier robot, according to one embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 62 is an enlarged view of the reversing mechanism of FIG. 61 with the pedestal removed;

63-66 are schematic views of a drive assembly gear train according to one embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 67 is an overall schematic view of a steering assembly located within a base, according to one embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 68 is a schematic view of a roller assembly coupled to a steering assembly in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 69 is a schematic illustration of the roller assembly being rotated through an angle under the control of a steering assembly in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 70 is a functional block diagram of a control device of a courier robot, according to one embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 71 is a functional block diagram of an interaction control module of a courier robot, according to one embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 72 is a functional block diagram of a logistics control system in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 73 is a functional block diagram of the customer service system according to one embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 74 is a schematic diagram of a logistics control module in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 75 is a flowchart of a method of operation of the courier robot in picking a good, according to one embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 76 is a flow diagram illustrating a process of guiding a user in delivery by the courier robot according to one embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 77 is a flow diagram of a courier robot to cabinet empty delivery, according to one embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIGS. 78A-78C are diagrams of express robot to cabinet evacuation actions, in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 79 is a flowchart of a courier robot delivery operation, according to one embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 80 is a flow diagram of a courier robot performing multiple tasks, according to one embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 81 is a flow diagram of a shipping user self-delivering via a courier cabinet, according to one embodiment of the invention;

82A-82C are schematic illustrations of a pickup truck docking with a courier robot, according to one embodiment of the present invention;

figure 83 is a schematic illustration of a fixed position warehouse docking with a mini-truck according to one embodiment of the present invention;

figure 84 is a schematic illustration of a pickup truck docking with a city recycling truck in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 85 is a schematic illustration of the docking of two urban recycle trucks according to one embodiment of the present invention;

figure 86 is a schematic illustration of a drone in docking with a fixed location warehouse, according to one embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 87 is a schematic view of a fixed-location warehouse interfacing with a shipping apparatus, according to one embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 88 is a flow chart of warehousing of goods when the fixed-location warehouse is docked with a shipping apparatus, according to one embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 89 is a schematic flow chart of an AGV transporting a parent tote for storage according to one embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 90 is a schematic illustration of a flow chart for shipment of goods from a warehouse, in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 91 is a flow chart of transporting a parent container to a designated storage location unit according to another embodiment of the present invention

Fig. 92 is a flowchart of the exchange of goods between warehouses according to one embodiment of the present invention;

FIGS. 93A-93D are flow diagrams of a sorting method according to one embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 94 is a flow diagram of a logistics method in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 95 is a schematic product stream order flow diagram in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 96 is a schematic diagram of a pickup flow according to an embodiment of the present invention;

97A-97B are schematic cargo transportation flow diagrams according to one embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 98 is a schematic dispatch flow diagram in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention; and

FIG. 99 is a flow chart of a logistics method of reducing sort time according to one embodiment of the present invention.

Detailed Description

In order to make the objects, technical solutions and advantages of the embodiments of the present invention clearer, the technical solutions in the embodiments of the present invention will be clearly and completely described below with reference to the drawings in the embodiments of the present invention, and it is obvious that the described embodiments are some, but not all, embodiments of the present invention. All other embodiments, which can be derived by a person skilled in the art from the embodiments given herein without making any creative effort, shall fall within the protection scope of the present invention.

In the following detailed description, reference is made to the accompanying drawings that form a part hereof and in which is shown by way of illustration specific embodiments of the application. In the drawings, like numerals describe substantially similar components throughout the different views. Various specific embodiments of the present application are described in sufficient detail below to enable those skilled in the art to practice the teachings of the present application. It is to be understood that other embodiments may be utilized and structural, logical or electrical changes may be made to the embodiments of the present application.

In the prior art, each link in a logistics chain has the following characteristics:

first, in the logistics chain, a warehouse for storing goods is an important link therein. Whether traditional warehouse or modern intelligent warehouse, put the goods by the goods shelves basically. A channel is reserved between the goods shelf and used for goods moving operation such as loading and unloading of goods. In some large warehouses, different cargo areas are also divided, such as entry and exit bays, sorting bays, and the like. In conventional warehouses, the loading, unloading and moving of goods are basically achieved by manual or manually assisted handling equipment (such as a forklift). In chinese patent application publication No. CN107577215A entitled "shelf and scheduling method and operational height method, center and system", a movable shelf is disclosed that can be moved in different areas within a warehouse, thereby improving the delivery efficiency of goods. Compared with a traditional warehouse, the intelligent warehouse has great improvement on the automation and the working efficiency of goods moving, however, no matter the traditional warehouse or the modern intelligent warehouse, enough space needs to be reserved in the warehouse to smoothly complete the moving of the goods, the storage space for storing the goods is less than half of the whole space of the warehouse, and the space utilization rate of the warehouse is not high.

Secondly, the handling of the goods by the logistics system, including the handling of the goods between the loading and unloading platforms and the warehouse and the inside of the warehouse, generally includes several ways, such as manual, semi-manual and fully-automatic equipment. Along with the development of science and technology, most logistics systems all adopt semi-manual work at present, and the staff utilizes equipment to carry the goods promptly. If the staff drives the fork truck, the goods are taken and stored by matching with the lifter. Most of the existing intelligent warehouses adopt agv (automated Guided vehicle) trolleys to carry goods. The AGV has various forms according to the size of a warehouse, the volume of goods and the size, for example, an AGV with a lifting frame is provided in a patent with an authorization publication number of CN203715182U and the name of the invention of "an AGV"; the patent application with the publication number of CN104317289A and the invention name of 'a novel forklift type AGV' provides a forklift type AGV which can rotate in situ and reduce the turning radius when turning. In addition, there are other types of AGVs, such as piggyback AGVs, traction AGVs, and the like.

The structures and the operation methods of the AGV are all suitable for the current logistics mode, and are mainly applied to various large warehouses, and the AGV runs in a channel between shelves or carries goods in different areas, such as a sorting area and a delivery area.

Again, during the movement of the goods from the place of origin to the place of consumption, the goods undergo various handling scenarios in various links of circulation. In order to avoid damage to the goods during transportation, different packaging means are required to package the goods according to the properties of the goods. For example, for some common small goods, they are packaged by cardboard boxes, plastic bags, tapes, hot melt adhesives, etc., and the inside of the cardboard boxes is filled with fillers to prevent the goods from shaking in the cardboard boxes. Special packaging, such as custom-shaped foam boxes and the like, is also required to be added to fragile goods, such as glass products, ceramic products and the like. Thus, a small volume of goods is typically required, requiring a large amount of packaging material to enable the goods to be safely delivered to their destination. The excessive packaging mode not only occupies a large amount of storage and transportation space, but also wastes a large amount of packaging materials, and most of the packaging materials, such as plastic and foam, are materials which cannot be recycled, so that huge pressure and harm are brought to the environment.

Again, sorting is another important link in the logistics chain. In order to improve the efficiency of transportation and distribution, a logistics system is usually provided with a multi-stage sorting center. For example, a piece of goods collected from a customer may be sorted through a sorting center, transported, sorted at a next level of the sorting center, transported again … … until reaching a distribution station, from which it is distributed to a destination. The sorting center comprises at least a warehouse for temporarily storing goods. The goods in storage are sorted by corresponding levels by manpower or equipment in the warehouse, then collected and transported to a designated area for storage, and are boxed when a transport vehicle arrives and transported from the sorting center to the next sorting center or distribution station.

With the development of science and technology, sorting technology is gradually improved. From the original manual sorting to automatic sorting using various automated equipment. For example, a sorting device is disclosed in the publication No. CN102218404B entitled "logistics sorting system and method based on radio frequency, video and infrared identification and tracking", which includes a cargo delivery conveyor, a cargo conveying roller bed, a plurality of sorting port conveyors and a cargo identification device. The goods are thrown into the goods conveying roller way by the goods throwing conveyor and are conveyed into the corresponding sorting port conveyor after being identified by the goods identification equipment. For another example, patent application with publication number CN103949408B entitled "high-speed goods sorting vehicle and sorting system" provides a sorting scheme in which a pipelined sorting system is provided in a warehouse of a sorting center, a plurality of sorting ports are provided in a pipelined conveying path, and a sorting vehicle is used to load goods to be sorted. The sorting car discerns the goods at transfer passage removal in-process, pushes into the letter sorting mouth when the goods that will discern are through corresponding letter sorting mouth. There are also various other types of sorting equipment or sorting robots.

In the aforesaid various sorting techniques, need open up enough big region in the warehouse and place letter sorting equipment or letter sorting robot, wait to sort goods and the goods that sort to, after sorting, still need enough region to supply transportation equipment such as fork truck to collect the goods after the letter sorting, then transport the regional storage of goods through the transportation channel, wait for the shipment of leaving warehouse, therefore the warehouse need leave enough space for letter sorting, transportation. In addition, in the warehouse of the sorting center, the goods need to stay for a period of time for sorting and waiting for being out of the warehouse from the warehouse to the warehouse, and the stay time is closely related according to factors such as warehouse management technology, sorting technology, warehouse-out transportation frequency and the like.

Finally, the goods taking and delivery at the end of the logistics still need to be completed manually, for example, express delivery personnel are required to drive a vehicle to a user for taking or delivering the goods. Although some express delivery robots have appeared, these express delivery robots need to cooperate with staff, put into and collect express delivery robot's goods by post house staff, and itself can not independently accomplish getting of goods and put.

The invention (comprising a plurality of patent applications related to the patent application) provides a revolutionary brand-new logistics system, provides a plurality of breakthrough solutions different from the existing logistics system aiming at each link of a logistics chain, can reduce the retention time of goods, improve the transportation efficiency of the goods, reduce the use of fixed position warehouses, increase the space utilization rate of the warehouses, ensure the whole-course supervision of the goods and reduce the environmental pressure caused by excessive packaging.

According to one or more embodiments of the present invention, the logistics system of the present invention comprises: the system comprises a customer service system, a multi-stage midway delivery type logistics device and a plurality of logistics control modules, wherein in order to facilitate the description of the whole system, various logistics devices are named correspondingly in the following description so as to make the scheme easier to understand.

Fig. 1 is a schematic view of a multi-stage logistics apparatus transportation according to one embodiment of the present invention. In this embodiment, the terminal logistics devices include an express robot 8, a fixed-position warehouse (such as an express cabinet 10), a drone M1 (including a small-sized drone and a large-sized drone, a small-sized drone is shown in the figure), a mini-truck 9a, and the like. The chain line is an end logistics chain, and a user interacts with an end logistics device to enable goods to enter the logistics system from the user or come out of the logistics system to return to the user. The thin line is a secondary logistics chain and occurs between end logistics devices, and cargo transfer is carried out in a small-range area. The thick solid line is a three-level logistics chain, goods are transferred between the terminal logistics equipment and the three-level logistics equipment with the longer transportation distance, and the goods in a small range are transported by the three-level logistics equipment with the longer transportation distance for a long distance. The thick dotted line is a four-level logistics chain for transferring goods between the three groups of logistics equipment and intercity logistics equipment. In this level of logistics chain, goods are delivered by the tertiary logistics equipment to the inter-city logistics equipment, which transports goods from one city or country to another.

In some embodiments, the logistics devices include urban freight devices such as mini-trucks 9a and relatively large urban recycling trucks 9b, and international and inter-city logistics devices, which may include cargo planes, inter-city railways, long and short haul trucks, maritime cargo vessels, and the like, depending on the distance.

In some embodiments, a courier robot is described as an example of an end logistics chain. It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that the work of the courier robot may be replaced by a courier. This will not be described in detail in the following description herein.

In some embodiments, the logistics apparatus includes a fixed location warehouse and a movable freight device, each logistics apparatus has a unique identification, the movable freight device has a corresponding transportation distance range, and the whole freight device is divided into a plurality of levels according to the size of the transportation distance range, for example, three levels of international, intercity and city in general.

The city-level freight device can be divided into a plurality of different levels according to the size of a city and the transportation distance of the freight device. Fig. 2 is a schematic diagram showing the transportation distance of a city-level multi-level freight device. In this embodiment, the transportation distance S1 of the express delivery robot 8 at the end of the logistics is the shortest, so that the number of the express delivery robots is the largest, and the transportation range of the express delivery robot 8 can cover all user areas in the city as a whole. The mini-truck 9a is a second-level freight device, the transportation distance S2 of the mini-truck is greater than the transportation distance S1 of the express robot 8, the urban circulation truck is a third-level freight device, and the transportation distance S3 of the mini-truck is the largest urban transportation distance. The smaller the number required, the greater the transport distance. Of course, the number is also related to the amount of shipment. Under the condition of large object flow, the number of freight devices is large, and the more the freight devices are, the faster the flow of the cargos is. The logistics system has the advantages that the advantages are more obvious when the material flow is larger, and the efficiency is higher.

In some embodiments, the transport area of each level of the freight device changes as it moves, and thus is more flexible in scheduling. When the goods are transferred, the butt joint place of the goods transport device and the butt joint goods transport device are calculated and determined only according to the logistics direction, the distribution of the goods transport device and the transportation direction of the goods transport device, so that the goods are transferred and butted more flexibly and quickly, the retention time of the goods is reduced, and the logistics efficiency is improved.

As will be appreciated by those skilled in the art, each level of shipping equipment includes a vehicle capable of accommodating the level of transportation. However, the present invention is not limited thereto. For example, a large freight transportation device, which is typically a secondary logistics chain, may also be used as an end logistics chain apparatus to pick up goods directly from a user. As another example, a pickup truck as an end logistics chain may also be used to transfer cargo directly to an aircraft, which is typically a three-level logistics chain cargo unit, without passing through other levels of cargo units.

In some embodiments, fixed-location warehouses may not be included in the logistics chain of the present invention. The goods are transferred between the various levels of the physical chain without first being moved to a fixed location warehouse (or sorting center) and then removed from the fixed location warehouse by another shipping device. Therefore, the residence time of the goods can be greatly reduced, the logistics efficiency is improved, and the logistics cost is reduced. In some embodiments, fixed-location warehouses (including courier cabinets) may be added to the logistics chain of the present invention as an ancillary facility. For example, in the receiving and delivery links, if the user cannot temporally agree with the shipping device of the end logistics chain, the user experience may be reduced. The express delivery cabinet can compensate for the difference between the express delivery cabinet and the express delivery cabinet in time, and the satisfaction degree of a user can be improved. In some embodiments, fixed location warehouses (including suburban large warehouses) may be an important component of the logistics chain, becoming an important ring in the logistics chain. Such fixed-location warehouses can serve as buffer warehouses for large quantities of goods entering and exiting the city to facilitate the dispatching of the freight devices. In some embodiments of the invention, the ratio of the number of items in the freight device to the number of items in the fixed-location warehouse is 50% or more, 80% or more, 90% or more, 95% or more, or 99% or more.

In some embodiments, the freight device comprises a stereoscopic warehouse, which can be used for both goods transportation and goods storage. In some embodiments, the freight device comprises a stereoscopic warehouse, a storage device, a moving device, a sorting device and a vehicle. The stereoscopic warehouse is carried by a vehicle. The specifications of the stereoscopic warehouse vary according to the type and carrying capacity of the vehicle. For example, when the vehicle is a small vehicle, an airplane, a ship, a smaller-scale stereoscopic warehouse is carried; when the transportation means is large-scale trucks, trains, cargo planes and marine cargo ships, the large-scale stereoscopic warehouse can be carried. Goods are arranged in the storage device in the stereoscopic warehouse. In some embodiments, the storage device comprises a child-mother tote. The goods are arranged in the subsidiary turnover boxes, and the main turnover box contains a plurality of subsidiary turnover boxes. The mother turnover box is accommodated in a storage space in a storage position unit of the stereoscopic warehouse. In some embodiments, the article moving device is, for example, a small and ultra-thin AGV, which is located in the article moving space of the storage location unit and is used for transporting the mother turnover box. In some embodiments, according to the size of the stereoscopic warehouse, sorting devices with different numbers are dispersed in the stereoscopic warehouse, connected with adjacent warehouse location units and fused in the warehouse location units.

In some embodiments, the goods are placed in the child totes and the child totes are placed in the parent totes, which are stored in the bin position units in the stereoscopic warehouse. Therefore, the goods cannot be piled and pushed together. The sub-turnover boxes have various specifications and can be suitable for goods with various shapes and sizes; to some fragile goods, anti-collision parts and other structures are designed in the sub turnover box, so that the goods in the sub turnover box can be protected, and collision or damage in the transportation and carrying processes is avoided. In some embodiments, when the goods are transported, for example, in the stereoscopic warehouse and the stereoscopic warehouse is in butt joint, the moving device provided by the invention, for example, the AGV, is used for transporting the mother turnover box, the operation is stable, and the violent transportation and the violent sorting in the existing logistics system are avoided. Therefore, the goods in the logistics system do not need various packaging tapes, packaging boxes, foam boxes, fillers and the like in the existing logistics system, the problem of excessive packaging in the existing logistics system can be avoided, and the logistics system is more environment-friendly.

In some embodiments, each cargo device is a stereoscopic warehouse with same-specification warehouse location units, and the main turnover box for storing the sub turnover boxes can be commonly used in each cargo device. When goods are handed over, the AGV directly transports the sorted mother turnover boxes from the current freight transport device to another freight transport device. Links such as unloading and loading in the conventional logistics system are not needed any more, so that the time for loading and unloading goods can be saved. Moreover, each butt joint link does not need personnel intervention, so that the efficiency is high, and the contact between goods and people can be avoided.

In some embodiments, during transport, cargo is transferred from one shipping apparatus to another in a logistic direction. The different levels of freight devices form a plurality of logistic chain levels. The goods are delivered from the delivery to the arrival destination through the plurality of freight devices having different transport distances, and are finally delivered to the receiving user through or without passing through a warehouse at a fixed position.

The present invention will be described in detail below with reference to specific examples.

In some embodiments, the stereoscopic warehouse has a high space utilization. Most of the space in the warehouse is used as a storage space for accommodating the storage device. The storage device is, for example, a storage box or a storage table. In one embodiment, the storage device comprises a child turnover box and a mother turnover box, wherein the child turnover box is a closed device and used for placing goods, and the child turnover box is placed in the mother turnover box. An object moving space for accommodating an object moving device, such as an ultrathin AGV, is arranged above or below the storage space. The storage device of the storage space is moved through the object moving device to complete the operations of goods entering, exiting, moving in the warehouse and the like. According to the specific structural design of the storage space and the article moving space, the volume ratio of the storage space to the article moving space can be greater than or equal to 4:1, or 5:1, or 6:1, or 7:1, or 8:1, or 9:1, or 10: 1. The stereoscopic warehouse provided by the invention has far more space utilization than any traditional warehouse or modern intelligent warehouse in the prior art.

Embodiment of the library site Unit

In one embodiment, the present invention provides a standardized, modular storage unit that can be stacked together to form a space efficient stereoscopic warehouse.

FIG. 3 is a perspective block diagram of a standardized, modular library location unit in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention. The storage unit 1 at least comprises a cubic frame, which comprises four upright posts 111, four frames 112 at the top and a bottom plate 113. The four uprights 111 of the cubic frame are connected with a support structure by means of which the storage device is supported. In this embodiment, the support structure is a support block, and two inwardly facing support blocks 12 are attached to each column. In other embodiments, the support structure may be a fan-shaped structure connected to the upright and facing the storage space, wherein the arc of the fan-shaped structure is less than or equal to 90 degrees.

The bottom surface of the three-dimensional frame of the storage location unit is a whole bottom plate 113. In other embodiments, the bottom plate 113 may be hollowed or woven as required, so as to save cost. In order to be able to determine the distribution of the goods in the three-dimensional space, each storage space unit is provided with an identity tag 14. As shown in fig. 3, the identity tag 14 may be an electronic tag located at a suitable position on the base plate 113, in which the identity information of the library location unit, such as a number in the library, is recorded.

The space inside the cube frame of the storage space unit 1, from the support block 12 to the top of the cube frame, comprises a storage space 101 for accommodating storage devices, such as the female turnover box 2 in this embodiment. Referring to fig. 4, a schematic diagram of a state where the parent container 2 is placed in the library unit 1 is shown. The purpose of providing the mother turnover box 2 is to be able to utilize the storage space of the storage location unit as much as possible. Since the stored goods have various possibilities in specification, volume and shape, and the like, the goods with different specifications and different volumes can be orderly collected through the mother turnover box 2. The four supporting blocks 12 of the cubic frame support the bottom of the mother turnover box 2, so that the mother turnover box 2 can be stably stored in the storage space 101.

In one embodiment, the goods are placed in a sub-container (not shown). The subsidiary turnover box is placed in the main turnover box 2. In some embodiments, the parent container 2 comprises a first body 20, the dimensions of which match the specifications of the storage space 101 of the storage space unit 1 in this embodiment. As shown in fig. 5A, the height of the first body 20 of the main circulation box 2 matches with the storage space 101, and the top of the first body 20 is open for taking and placing the sub circulation box from the top surface. In other embodiments, as shown in fig. 5B, the height of the first body 20 of the mother turnover box 2 is lower than the height of the storage space 101. In other embodiments, as shown in fig. 6A-6B, the first body 20 of the parent container 2 is in the shape of a storage table and comprises a rim 22 a. The positioning grooves 23a of various specifications are orderly arranged on the first body 20 and are used for accommodating goods of different specifications and different volumes.

In the foregoing three embodiments, the bottom of the first body 20 of the parent turnover box 2 has the conveying structure. As shown in the figure, the conveying structure may be a positioning structure 21 matched with a jacking mechanism of the article moving device, so that the article moving device can jack the mother turnover box 2 from the bottom of the first body 20 of the mother turnover box 2. In some embodiments, each parent container 2 is provided with an identity tag 24, as shown in fig. 5C. In one embodiment, the identity tag is an electronic tag, in which the identity information of the parent turnover box 2, such as the number of the parent turnover box 2, is recorded.

In some embodiments, from the support block 12 to the bottom of the cube frame is a migration space 102. As the walking space of the object moving device. In one embodiment, the mover employs an AGV 3. The AGV3 moves within the transfer space 102. The floor 113 of the storage unit 1 is the running surface of the AGV3, and is a schematic diagram showing a state where the AGV3 is stopped in the storage unit 1 as shown in fig. 7A to 7B. In some embodiments, and with reference to FIG. 3, guide channel 1131 is orthogonally disposed on base plate 113. Because of the rectangular shape of floor 113, orthogonally disposed guide slots 1131 are parallel to respective bottom edges so that AGV3 can move unimpeded on floor 11 a. Two guide wheels 31 are provided at the bottom of the AGV3 for engaging the guide slots 1131, as shown in fig. 7B, to prevent the AGV3 from deviating from the travel path during travel. In this embodiment, a set of orthogonal guide slots 1131 are provided in floor 113, or two or three sets may be provided, with corresponding guide wheels 31 also being provided at corresponding locations on the bottom of AGV 3.

The guide slots and wheels are used to force the AGV to stay in the path without deviating from it during travel. According to similar thinking, can set up the sand grip on frame bottom surface 113, set up matched with recess on the AGV bottom surface, the effect that can play the direction equally. The mechanical mode is low in cost and high in stability, and a control system is easy to realize.

In addition to these two mechanical configurations, other configurations may be used to guide AGV3, such as electromagnetic, laser, infrared, ultrasonic, UWB, or optical configurations. Any kind of guiding structure can be selected by those skilled in the art according to actual needs, and will not be described herein.

In some embodiments, to move the parent tote 2, a jack 32 is provided on the top of the AGV3, and the jack 32 is retracted within the top of the AGV3 when no load is being moved. When it is desired to move the load, the lift mechanism 32 extends from the top of the AGV3 and engages the locating structure 21 on the bottom of the parent container 2 to lift the parent container 2 from the support block as the lift mechanism 32 is raised.

In some embodiments, an electronic tag reader/writer (not shown) is provided on the outside of the lower surface of the base of AGV3 to read the identity tags of library level units 1; an electronic tag reader-writer (not shown in the figure) is arranged outside the upper surface of the base and used for reading the identity tag of the mother turnover box 2.

Fig. 8A-8B show a state in which one magazine unit 1 is loaded with mother turnover boxes 2 and stops one AGV 3. In order to move the mother turnover box 2, the AGV3 moves below the moving mother turnover box 2 and stops, the mother turnover box 2 is jacked up by the jacking mechanism 32 to separate the mother turnover box 2 from the supporting block 12, and then the AGV3 drives the mother turnover box 2 to move. In the magazine unit 1, a lifting space 103 is left for the parent container 2, so that the AGV3 can lift the parent container 2 from the supporting block 12, thereby separating from the supporting block 12 for easy movement. The height of the lifting space 103 is matched with the lifting distance of the jacking mechanism of the AGV3, and the mother turnover box 2 can be moved without hindrance after the jacking mechanism 32 of the AGV3 jacks up the mother turnover box, so that the lifting space 103 does not need to be too large, for example, the height of the lifting space 103 may be less than 5cm, or less than 3cm, or less than 1 cm.

In this embodiment, the thickness of the AGV3 used to move the load determines the size of the transfer space 102, while the thickness of the AGV3 is only a small portion of the height of the storage unit 1, so that most of the storage space in the storage unit 1 is the storage space. According to the size and the load capacity of the mother turnover box 2, the space occupied by the inner components of the AGV3 and the load capacity of the inner components, the ratio of the thickness of the AGV to the height of the storage unit 1 can be found in the range of 1/8-1/4 through calculation, that is, the space utilization rate of one storage unit 1 can reach 75% -90%. When the object moving device adopts other modes, such as magnetic suspension and the like, the space utilization rate can reach 95%.

Second embodiment of the library site Unit

FIG. 9 is a diagram illustrating a library site unit according to another embodiment of the present invention. In this embodiment, the storage unit 1b includes at least one cubic frame 11b, and the cubic frame 11b includes four columns 111b, a top plate 112b, and a bottom plate 113 b. The top plate 112b is provided with a guide rail 1121b, the moving device is a telescopic manipulator 3b which is connected to the guide rail 1121b through a hanging mechanism 31b, and the hanging mechanism 31b can rotate 360 degrees to rotate the manipulator 3b, and can also be telescopic up and down to lift the manipulator 3 b.

The parent container 2b differs from the previous embodiment in that the carrying structure is a handle 21b disposed on the four top edges of the first body, and the identity tag can be disposed on any one of the four top edges of the first body for reading by the moving device disposed thereon.

The mother turnover box 2b is placed on the bottom plate 113b, the hanging mechanism 31b drives the manipulator 3b to move above the mother turnover box 2b along the guide rail 1121b, the manipulator 3b is expanded to correspond to the handle 21b, so that the handle 21b of the mother turnover box 2b is grabbed, the mother turnover box 2b is grabbed from the bottom plate 113b, and the goods are moved along the x direction or the y direction through the guide rail, so that the horizontal crossed movement of the goods is realized. In the embodiment, the article moving space 102b where the article moving device is located is above the article storage space 101b, and the space occupied by the article moving device can be reduced by the structure of the article moving device, such as the manipulator 3b, so that the ratio of the article storage space 101b to the article moving space 102b in the embodiment can be at least larger than 2/1.

Library site unit embodiment III

FIG. 10 is a diagram illustrating a library site unit according to another embodiment of the present invention. In this embodiment, the storage unit 1c includes at least one cubic frame including four columns 111c, partitions 112c, and a bottom plate 113 c. The partition plate 112c is connected to the upper half of the column 111c, and forms an article moving space 102c with the plane where the top end of the column is located, and the partition plate 112c is provided with a guide rail or a guide groove for guiding the operation of the article moving device 3c on the partition plate 112 c. The mother turnover box 2 is placed on the bottom plate 113 c. The mother turnover box 2 and the transferring device 3c have a contactless connection structure. For example, the transferring device 3c generates a suction force when the mother turnover box 2 needs to be moved, and the suction force can be a suction force generated when vacuum is drawn or an electromagnetic suction force. Correspondingly, the first body of the mother turnover box 2 is provided with an adsorption device, which can be a vacuum adsorption device or an electromagnetic adsorption device corresponding to the transferring device 3c, and the adsorption device is attracted by the transferring device 3c to leave the bottom plate 113c and move along with the transferring device 3c, so that the goods are moved in a crossing manner in the horizontal direction. In the embodiment, the partition 112c and the bottom plate 113c include a lifting space 103c and a storage space 101c therebetween, and the object moving space 102c is above the partition 112 c. The height of the lifting space 103c is the height of the parent container 2 away from the base 113c when being sucked, and thus the height of the space can be small, such as centimeter or millimeter. The volume of the article moving device 3c is not required to be large, so the height of the article moving space 102c is small relative to the height of the storage space 101c, the space in the storage unit 1c is mostly the storage space 101c, and the storage space 101c can reach over 75% of the whole space.

Corresponding to the storage location unit in the embodiment, the parent circulation box may also be configured as shown in fig. 11, wherein the first body 20c is provided with an openable and closable side door 201c at a side thereof, which can be freely set in two parts and respectively slide to the top and the bottom when opened, for taking and placing the child circulation box from the side. In this embodiment, the side door 201c is a roller door, and may be a slidable door made of other flexible materials. In the storage state, the side door 201c is closed, and when the sub-container is put in or taken out from the side door 201c, the side door 201c is opened. For example, at the time of receiving, delivering, and sorting, the side door 201c is opened.

The warehouse location unit provided by the invention is a modular and standardized storage unit, and a stereoscopic warehouse can be obtained when a plurality of units are stacked and connected together. In some embodiments, adjacent library site cells may share a pillar. That is, the vertical column of the stereoscopic warehouse can be shared by the warehouse location units adjacent to each other left and right or up and down. When a stereoscopic warehouse is manufactured, a plurality of storage units are also formed at the same time.

In other embodiments, all or some of the adjacent bay units in the stereoscopic warehouse may each have their own columns in order to increase the flexibility of the stereoscopic warehouse. In order to connect the storage position units together, the three-dimensional frame of the storage position unit provided by the invention is respectively provided with connecting structures with corresponding dimensions in three dimensions, and the connecting structures are used for connecting different storage position units together.

Embodiment one of the library site unit connection structure

FIG. 12 is a schematic diagram of a library bit cell connection. In this embodiment, the three-dimensional frame of the storage unit is provided with a connecting hole 11a, when two storage units 1 are connected together, the respective connecting holes 11a are communicated, and at this time, the two storage units 1 can be connected together by using a bolt and a nut (not shown in fig. 12).

Second embodiment of the library site unit connection structure

FIG. 13 is a schematic diagram of another library site unit connection. In this embodiment, more than one groove is arranged on one upright post or edge on the three-dimensional frame, when two storage position units are parallel, the two grooves are corresponding, and the buckle 11b is buckled in the groove, so that the two storage position units are connected together. Through setting up a plurality of recesses at a storehouse position unit's x, y, z three-dimensional, can connect other storehouse position units in three dimensions, can connect arbitrary a plurality of storehouse position units as required.

Third embodiment of the library site unit connection structure

FIGS. 14A-14C are schematic diagrams of yet another library bit cell connection. As shown in fig. 14A, more than one groove 11c is provided on each upright post or edge on the three-dimensional frame, as shown in fig. 14B, another storage location unit is provided with a convex strip or a convex block 11d, and when two storage location units with the same specification are juxtaposed, one storage location unit convex strip or convex block 11d is matched with the other storage location unit groove 11c for plugging together. In addition, in order to make the connection between the two storage units after the insertion, as shown in fig. 14C, a hook 11e may be disposed at the end of the protrusion 11d, and a corresponding slot (not shown) may be disposed in the corresponding groove 11C, and when the protrusion 11d is inserted into the groove 11C, the hook 11e and the slot are engaged with each other, so that the connection is made more secure.

In the above warehouse location unit connection structure, the connection structures are respectively arranged in three dimensions, so that other arbitrary warehouse location units 1 can be connected in two horizontal directions X, two longitudinal directions Y and two directions Z, and stereoscopic warehouses with different warehouse location unit numbers and different volumes can be obtained.

Embodiment of stereoscopic warehouse structure

Referring to fig. 15, a schematic view of a stereoscopic warehouse according to an embodiment of the present invention is shown. In this embodiment, the stereoscopic warehouse includes a plurality of horizontally connected warehouse location units. Each warehouse location unit can extend and connect in the x direction and the y direction, thereby forming the stereoscopic warehouse with different specifications according to actual needs. When the storage position units are connected together, the respective article moving spaces are communicated with each other to form an integral large article moving space. Because the extension length of the supporting structure for supporting the storage device is very small, the AGV cannot be prevented from moving. Thereby allowing the AGV to move freely across the entire transfer space in both the x-direction and the y-direction. For example, an AGV lifts up its storage device in one of the storage units and then moves to another storage unit; after positioning, the jacking mechanism is withdrawn, and the storage device is placed on the support structure of the new storage location unit, thereby completing the movement of the storage device.

Second embodiment of the stereoscopic warehouse structure

Referring to fig. 16A, a schematic view of a stereoscopic warehouse according to another embodiment of the invention is shown. In this embodiment, a plurality of storage units are stacked and connected to form a two-layer stereoscopic warehouse. Of course, three or more layers may be used according to actual needs. In order to realize that the article moving device and the article storing device can move between different layers, the lifting system 4 is further included. The lifting system 4 comprises a support column 41 and a lifting platform 42. The lifting platform 42 is matched with the supporting upright 41, ascends or descends under the driving of the driving mechanism, and can be butted with a storage position unit at any height. The structure of the top of the lifting table 42 is the same as that of the base plate 113 of the storage location unit, and when the lifting table 42 is butted and positioned with the storage location unit 1, the top of the lifting table 42 forms a part of the moving space.

When the AGV3 needs to change floors, the lift 42 moves to the corresponding floor, the AGV3 moves to the floor of the lift 42, the lift 42 moves to the target floor again, the AGV3 stops after abutting and positioning with the storage location unit of the target floor, and the AGV3 moves from the floor of the lift 42 to the target floor. When it is necessary to transfer a parent container 2 on the lower layer, or a parent container 2 received from the outside, to a stock location unit on the upper layer. The AGV3 carries the storage device to the elevator platform 42 as shown in FIG. 16B. The elevating table 42 is driven by the driving mechanism to ascend, and when reaching the upper layer, the elevating table 42 stops ascending, and abuts against and is positioned with the storage unit of the upper layer. The AGV3 carries the parent container 2 toward the target library bit position. When the target magazine bit unit is reached, the jack-up mechanism is withdrawn, and the parent container 2 is placed on the support structure of the target magazine bit unit.

Third embodiment of stereoscopic warehouse structure

Referring to fig. 17A-17B, schematic illustrations of a stereoscopic warehouse according to another embodiment of the invention. In this embodiment, the stereoscopic warehouse includes an integral frame, which is cross-connected by a plurality of cross beams 111c and a plurality of columns 112c, thereby forming a plurality of storage units 1. The storage units 1 form a unit array in horizontal and vertical directions. As shown in fig. 17A, a horizontal one-story stereoscopic warehouse is formed, and as shown in fig. 17B, a two-story stereoscopic warehouse is formed. The storage unit 1 is used for accommodating a storage device (not shown), such as a storage device or a storage table. A support structure 12 is provided on each upright 112c, and a storage device is placed on the support structure 12. As shown by the dotted lines, the space from the support structure 12 to the top of the parent transfer container 2 constitutes a storage space 101, and the space from the support structure 12 to the bottom plate 113c constitutes a transfer space 102. A certain height of distance is left between the top of the storage device (not shown) and the cross beam 111c, or between the goods on the top of the storage device and the upper floor 113c, which is a lifting space (not shown). In order to drive the storage device to move together in the object moving space 102, the object moving device moves to a position below the storage device, the storage device is jacked up by using a jacking mechanism, and then the object moving device moves horizontally in the object moving space 102 without hindrance. Therefore, the height of the lifting space 103 is determined according to whether the female turnover box 2 can move without hindrance by the jacking mechanism. For example, the height may be less than 5cm, or less than 3cm, or less than 1 cm.

In order to realize the movement of the object moving device between the storage units in the vertical direction, a lifting system may be further included, such as the lifting system shown in fig. 16A, which may be referred to in particular with reference to the descriptions corresponding to fig. 16A-16B, and will not be described herein again.

Fourth embodiment of the stereoscopic warehouse structure

Referring to fig. 18, fig. 18 is a schematic view of a stereoscopic warehouse according to yet another embodiment of the present invention. In this embodiment, the stereoscopic warehouse includes a plurality of storage layers and a plurality of transfer layers (two storage layers and two transfer layers are shown in this embodiment), and the structural relationship of the storage layers and the transfer layers may be as any one of embodiments one to three. Different from the first to third embodiments, the heights of the transfer layers and the heights of the transfer layers in the present embodiment are not all the same, wherein the height of the upper layer storage position unit 1a1 is smaller than the height of the lower layer storage position unit 1a2, so that storage devices with different specifications can be used, and the specifications of goods which can be stored are increased. In this embodiment, the overall framework adopted by the stereoscopic warehouse may also be formed by combining and connecting a plurality of individual warehouse location units.

Sub-turnover box embodiment

Fig. 19A-19B are schematic views of sub-containers according to one embodiment of the invention. In the present embodiment, the sub-circulation box 7 includes: a second body 70, a clasp 71 and an identity tag 72. In the embodiment, the catch 71 is disposed at the middle position of the box cover 701, and in order not to affect the placement stability of the stacked sub-containers, another protrusion 702 is further disposed on the top surface of the box cover 701, and the height of the protrusion is the same as that of the catch 71, so that the stability of the top surface of the sub-containers can be maintained. The catch 71 is intended to cooperate with a gripper of a sorting robot during the sorting process. The identity tag 72 may be an RFID electronic tag or a two-dimensional code tag, and is configured to record at least identity binding relationship information between the identity tag and the parent container and logistics information in the circulation process.

The second body 70 is used for placing goods, and in order to ensure the safety of the goods, the box cover 701 is locked with the second body 70 by one or more locks. As shown in the figure, two electronic locks 703 are respectively disposed on two sides of the case cover 701, but of course, the lock used in this embodiment may be any type of lock, for example, a mechanical lock, a combination lock, a fingerprint lock, or the like.

In this embodiment, the cover 701 and the second body 20 are movably connected together by a connecting member 704. To control the speed and state of the cover 701 when opened, a damper is provided on the connecting member. The cover 701 and the second body 20 may also be separately disposed, and a fixing structure, such as a snap structure, an insertion structure, or an absorption structure, is disposed on each of the cover and the second body, so that the cover and the second body are connected together when closed. In another embodiment, various structures of buffering parts can be arranged in the second body to adapt to the goods in the second body.

AGV embodiment

FIGS. 20A-20D are diagrammatic illustrations of an AGV according to one embodiment of the present invention. In this embodiment, the AGV includes a chassis 30, a drive assembly 33, a steering assembly 34, a lift assembly 35, an electrical component enclosure 36, and a battery enclosure 37, all of which are positioned within its housing. A guide mechanism, in this embodiment guide wheels 31, is provided under the base 30, and there are two sets, two in each set, for guiding the AGV in two directions perpendicular to each other. A jacking mechanism comprising a jacking rod 32 and other structures is engaged with the jacking assembly 35 inside the base 30 and can extend or retract from the upper surface of the base 30. Underneath the base 30, there is also provided a running mechanism, in this embodiment four roller assemblies 38, arranged at four corners, which cooperate with said drive assembly 33 and steering assembly 34 inside the base 30.

Fig. 21A-21B are overall schematic views of the drive assembly 33, with fig. 21B being a schematic view with the base housing removed, with reference to fig. 20D. The driving assembly 33 includes a driving motor 330 for outputting a walking driving force. In order to transmit power to the four travelling mechanisms, a multi-stage transmission mechanism is also included. In the present embodiment, a synchronous belt transmission mechanism is adopted, and the primary transmission mechanism includes a driving pulley 332 and four driving synchronous pulleys 334, and transmits the power of the driving motor 330 to the driving synchronous pulleys 334 through a synchronous belt 333. Wherein the driving timing pulley 334 corresponds to the traveling mechanism. In the present embodiment, since the axis of the output shaft of the driving motor 330 is parallel to the bottom surface and the power transmission direction is perpendicular to the bottom surface, and the axis of the four driving timing pulleys 334 is perpendicular to the bottom surface, the power transmission direction is parallel to the bottom surface. Therefore, in order to change the transmission direction of the output power, the present invention further includes a reversing mechanism between the end of the output shaft of the driving motor 330 and the axle of the driving pulley 332, as shown in fig. 22, which is a schematic view after the bracket 331 of the driving pulley 332 is removed. In this embodiment, a bevel gear 3351 is connected to the end of the driving wheel shaft 3321, and a bevel gear 3352 is connected to the end of the output shaft of the driving motor 330, so that the vertical power of the output shaft of the driving motor 330 is converted into horizontal power through the two bevel gears. Wherein an idler is provided on each side of the driving wheel 332 to ensure that the driving wheel 332 and the synchronous belt have sufficient contact area to transmit power.

As shown in fig. 23-24, since the traveling mechanism in this embodiment includes the roller assembly 38, it includes the roller body 381, and the centers of both are fixed by the roller axle 382. The roller body 381 can be driven to rotate along the radial direction of the shaft by driving the roller axle 382 to rotate. The power driving the roller axle 382 is in a vertical direction and the power transmitted by the timing pulley 334 is in a horizontal direction, thus further including a two-stage reversing mechanism. In the present embodiment, a bevel gear 3361 is connected to the end of the driving timing pulley 334, and the horizontal power transmitted to the driving timing pulley 334 is converted into the vertical power by another bevel gear 3362 engaged therewith. The roller synchronizing wheel 337 is coaxially connected to the bevel gear 3362 (the shaft is not shown), and the roller synchronizing wheel 337 and the roller shaft 382 are connected via a timing belt, so as to drive the roller shaft 382 to rotate, thereby driving the roller body 381 to roll.

In this embodiment, four roller assemblies are provided and a single drive motor is used, and those skilled in the art will appreciate that the number of roller assemblies and the number of drive motors may be set to appropriate values depending on the size of the AGV chassis. When a plurality of driving motors are provided, the synchronous operation of the driving motors needs to be controlled.

Fig. 25 is a schematic view of the overall structure of a steering assembly according to an embodiment of the present invention. Referring also to fig. 20D, in the present embodiment, the steering assembly 34 includes a steering motor 340 and a steering mechanism. The steering mechanism is fixed with the traveling mechanism, and the transmission mechanism is further included for transmitting steering power to the steering mechanism. In this embodiment, the transmission mechanism includes a steering capstan 342 and a steering synchronizing wheel 344 located in the steering mechanism. In this embodiment, the steering driving wheel 342 uses a timing belt 343 to drive the steering timing wheel 344 to rotate. Since the direction of the output power of the steering motor 340 is radial, i.e. vertical to the bottom surface, and the steering mechanism needs horizontal power, a reversing mechanism is further included between the output shaft of the steering motor 340 and the steering driving wheel 342, as shown in fig. 26, the end of the wheel shaft of the steering driving wheel 342 is connected with a bevel gear 3451, and the end of the output shaft of the steering motor 340 is connected with a bevel gear 3452 matched with the bevel gear 3451, so as to change the axial power transmitted by the output shaft of the steering motor 340 into radial power, i.e. to change the transmission direction of the power from vertical to horizontal.

Fig. 27 is a schematic structural view of a steering mechanism according to an embodiment of the present invention. The steering synchronizing wheel 344 is connected with a bogie, which mainly comprises a bogie 3461 and a wheel carrier 3462. Two side ears of the wheel frame 3462 are fixed with the roller wheel shaft 382, the top of the wheel frame 3462 is a fixed surface, the top is provided with connecting holes such as screw holes, and the periphery is provided with a boss. The steering synchronizing wheel 344 is fixed to a boss of a fixed surface of the wheel frame 3462. The bottom of the bogie 3461 is fitted to the top of the wheel frame 3462 and is provided with attachment holes corresponding to the attachment holes of the fixed surface of the wheel frame 3462 for attaching the bogie 3461 and the wheel frame 3462 together by means of attachment members. The top of the bogie 3461 is fixed to the axle that drives the synchronizing wheel 334.

When the steering motor 340 rotates, its output shaft is configured to output axial power. Axial power is converted into radial power through the bevel gear, a steering driving wheel shaft coaxial with the bevel gear drives a steering driving wheel 342 to rotate, the steering driving wheel 342 drives a steering synchronous wheel 344 to rotate through a synchronous belt, the steering synchronous wheel 344 drives a bogie fixed with the steering synchronous wheel 344 to rotate, the bogie 346 drives a roller wheel shaft and a roller synchronous mechanism, a reversing mechanism and a driving synchronous wheel 334 connected with the roller wheel shaft to rotate together, accordingly, the rolling direction of a roller body 381 is changed, the in-situ rotation can be achieved by matching with the control of the driving mechanism, and the turning radius is 0. As shown in fig. 28, the view is rotated by 90 degrees with respect to fig. 25.

In the invention, the driving synchronizing wheel of the driving mechanism and the steering synchronizing wheel of the steering mechanism are coaxially fixed and are integrated with the roller assembly in the traveling mechanism through the bogie, thereby ensuring the miniaturization of the AGV, reducing the thickness of the AGV and reducing the occupation of space during transportation.

FIG. 29 is a schematic diagram of a jacking assembly structure according to one embodiment of the present invention. The jacking assembly 35 includes a jacking motor 350 for outputting jacking power. In order to transmit power to the jacking mechanism, a transmission mechanism is further included. In this embodiment, there are 4 push rods 32 and their associated structures, which are used as the transporting mechanism for the AGV to transport the goods and are uniformly distributed at the four corners of the base 30. In order to transmit the power of the jacking motor 350 to the 4 jacking rods 32 and the matched structure thereof synchronously, the invention comprises a jacking driving wheel 352 and 4 jacking synchronous wheels 354 positioned on the 4 jacking mechanisms, and the four jacking rods 32 are provided with guide wheels 321. Idler pulleys are respectively arranged on two sides of the jacking driving wheel 352 and the jacking synchronous wheel 354 for adjusting the direction of the synchronous belt 353.

FIG. 30 is a partial schematic view of a jacking assembly according to one embodiment of the present invention. In this embodiment, a reversing mechanism, such as a pair of engaged umbrella wheels, is provided at the end of the output shaft of the jacking motor 350 and the end of the axle of the jacking driving wheel 352 for changing the transmission direction of the jacking power.

Fig. 31-33 are schematic structural views of a jacking mechanism according to an embodiment of the present invention. In this embodiment, the jacking mechanism including the ram 32 further includes a gear 321, a transmission rack 322, a cross bar 323 at the side of the rack, and a locking solenoid valve 324. In order to transmit the power transmitted from the lift-up driving wheel 352 to the gear 321, a reversing mechanism is further included. Such as a pair of

bevel gears

3541 and 3542. Gear 321 is coaxial with bevel gear 3542 (the shaft is not shown).

When the jacking motor 350 rotates, the direction of the machine changing mechanism is changed, the jacking motor 350 drives the jacking driving wheel 352 to rotate, the jacking driving wheel 352 drives the jacking synchronous wheel 354 to rotate, the jacking synchronous wheel 354 drives the gear 321 to rotate through the reversing mechanism, and the transmission rack 322 meshed with the gear 321 rises or falls along with the rotating direction of the gear 321. As shown in fig. 31, the ram 32 is retracted. When the transmission rack 322 rises to a certain height, the cross bar 323 on the side of the rack props against the bottom end of the ejector rod 32, the cross bar 323 pushes the ejector rod 32 to rise along with the continuous rising of the transmission rack 322, the ejector rod 32 extends out of the upper surface of the base, and when the ejector rod 32 rises to a preset height, the jacking motor 350 stops rotating, and the transmission rack 322 stops rising. The lock solenoid 324 operates to lock the ram 32 from descending, as shown in fig. 33.

Although 4 jacking mechanisms are provided in the present embodiment, it should be understood by those skilled in the art that the number of the jacking mechanisms is not only 4, but also can be, for example, a plurality of jacking mechanisms, such as 8 jacking mechanisms. Or the lifting mechanism is adjusted, for example, the ejector rod is thickened or the structure of the top of the ejector rod is improved according to stress calculation, so that the area of the lifting mechanism is increased, and the number of the locking mechanisms with proper stress can be reduced to 3, 2 or 1.

In order to enable the AGV to accurately stop at a predetermined position in an unstable transport environment, the present invention further includes a positioning mechanism. Referring to fig. 33, in the present embodiment, the positioning mechanism is the positioning rod 39, and the mechanism for driving the positioning rod to ascend and descend adopts the structure for driving the push rod 32, so that not only the ascending and descending of the positioning rod 39 can be controlled, but also the space occupation can be reduced. In this embodiment, the top end of the positioning rod 39 faces the cross bar 323, and when the cross bar 323 moves downward with the transmission rack 322, the positioning rod 39 is pushed out from the bottom surface of the base. In this embodiment, the positioning rod 39 and the cross rod 323 can be integrally designed, that is, the movement of the positioning rod 39 moves along with the cross rod 323, and when the jacking motor 350 controls the cross rod 323 to ascend, the positioning rod 39 ascends synchronously to retract into the base. In another embodiment, a return structure, such as a return spring, may be designed for the positioning rod 39. The return spring is compressed while the cross bar 323 presses the positioning rod 39 down. When the cross rod 323 rises, the return spring drives the positioning rod 39 to return.

In the present embodiment, the driving motor 330, the steering motor 340, and the jacking motor 350 may be stepping motors or servo motors, so that the running distance may be precisely controlled. Because the lifting motor 350 has a small lifting control distance and a large moment, a planetary reducer can be configured for achieving control accuracy.

In addition, whether to use the reversing mechanism can be determined according to the installation direction of the motor. In this embodiment, the output shafts of the various motors are parallel to the bottom surface, thus requiring a reversing mechanism. When the motor is rotated 90 degrees to make the output shaft vertical to the bottom surface, the reversing mechanism is not needed. In addition, the bevel gear is adopted for reversing in the embodiment, and other structures, such as a worm and gear structure, can be adopted according to the conditions of the inner space of the base and the like.

Fig. 34A-34B are schematic views of the construction of a guide wheel assembly in the guide mechanism. Referring to fig. 20B and 21A, the bottom of the housing of the base 30 is provided with an embedded guide channel 301, in which a guide wheel assembly is disposed. The guide wheel assembly includes a wheel frame 310, a guide wheel 31, a control lever 312, and a position sensor (not shown in the drawings). One end of the wheel frame 310 is fixed at one end of the guide groove 301 through a shaft 3100, the other end of the wheel frame 310 is fixed with the guide wheel 31, the middle position is connected with the tail end of the control rod 312 through a shaft 3120, the head end of the control rod 312 is fixed in the guide groove 301, the position sensor is arranged in the guide groove 301, and the position sensor is adjusted to trigger the guide wheel 31 to send a positioning signal after the guide wheel is put down and enters the guide groove of the driving surface. In one embodiment, as the guide wheel controller, according to the principle of an electromagnetic lock, the control rod 312 is configured as an electromagnetic lock, and the state shown in fig. 34A is a state when the control rod 312 is not energized, and at this time, the control rod 312 does not generate a suction force, and the guide wheel 31 is in a down state, and preferably, a structure such as a spring may be further provided inside or on the wheel carrier 312, and presses the wheel carrier 310 to prevent the guide wheel 31 from jumping upwards. Fig. 34B shows a state in which the lever 312 is energized, and the lever 312 generates suction force at this time, and the suction wheel holder 310 lifts up the guide wheel 31. Referring to fig. 20B, in the present embodiment, there are two sets of guide wheel assemblies, two for each set, and two sets are vertically disposed. When the AGV moves in one direction, the two guide wheels 31 in that direction descend to engage with the guide grooves, as shown in fig. 34A, and the position sensor is triggered to send a signal; the other two guide wheels are lifted and retracted, and in the state shown in fig. 34B, the corresponding positioning sensors stop generating signals, so that the guide wheels and the guide grooves can be determined to be well matched, and the normal running of the AGV is ensured. When the AGV needs to turn 90 degrees, the two guide wheels in the original direction are lifted and retracted, the current guide wheels are determined to be retracted through the positioning signals, and then the AGV turns 90 degrees. After the steering, the other two guide wheels descend to be matched with the guide grooves, and the operation is started after the guide wheels are matched with the guide grooves through the signals of the positioning sensors.

FIG. 35 is an AGV stand-alone control apparatus according to one embodiment of the present invention, which is disposed inside the chassis 30, including: a task management module 305, a movement control module 302, and a conveyance control module 303. The task management module 305 communicates with the upper computer through the communication module 304, and is configured to receive the carrying task and send related information in the task completion process to the upper computer. The transport task at least includes an identification of the target cargo and a target position, and in this embodiment, the target position is a specific storage location unit. In one embodiment, the planned walking route, that is, the walking route from the current position to the carrying target position and then to the destination target position, may also be received from the upper computer. The task management module 305 sends the target location or the planned travel route to the movement control module 302.

When only the target position exists, the mobile control module 302 calculates a walking route according to the current position and the position relation data stored in the mobile control module, and if the walking route is received, the mobile control module controls the driving motor and the steering motor to walk and/or steer according to the planned route. The walking route is composed of a plurality of straight line segments. When the AGV is applied to the stereoscopic warehouse, two adjacent straight line sections are 90 degrees, namely, the AGV travels in the vertical direction and the horizontal direction. In the straight line segment, the movement control module 302 determines the total number of turns of the driving motor 330 according to the distance of the straight line segment and the distance traveled by the roller assembly 38 per turn of the driving motor 330, and determines the required number of driving pulses according to the total number of turns, so that the traveling distance of the AGV can be accurately controlled. When the straight line segment is finished and the turning is needed to be 90 degrees, the movement control module determines the pulse number needed by the turning for 90 degrees according to the radius of the turning synchronizing wheel 344, controls the turning motor 340 to turn for 90 degrees, and meanwhile, the left guide wheel and the right guide wheel are placed down and the front guide wheel and the rear guide wheel are lifted. Since the driving synchronizing wheel 334 rotates synchronously during steering, and the synchronous rotation of the driving synchronizing wheel 334 drives the roller assembly to travel, the corresponding pulse number is sent to the driving motor 330 while the pulse is sent to the steering control motor 340, so as to offset the corresponding difference when the driving synchronizing wheel 334 rotates 90 degrees. Thus, the AGV rollers in this embodiment may be rotated in situ 90 degrees to ensure that the guide wheels 31 on the bottom of the base 30 still engage the bottom guide channels after steering.

When the AGV moves to a target location, such as a transport target location or a destination target location, the movement control module 302 sends a corresponding notification to the transport control module 303.

The conveyance control module 303 receives the identification and the target position of the conveyance target cargo transmitted from the task management module 305, and determines whether the current position is the conveyance target position or the destination target position based on the notification content when receiving the notification transmitted from the movement control module 302. And the electronic tag reader 3052 outside the lower surface of the base 30 reads the identification of the current position to determine whether the current position matches the target position in the transportation task, and if not, sends a corresponding message to the task management module 305, and the task management module 305 communicates with an upper computer to determine the problem. If the electronic tags are consistent, the electronic tag reader-writer 3051 arranged outside the upper surface of the base 30 reads the electronic tags of the goods (such as the mother turnover box 2), and when the electronic tags are determined to be consistent with the target goods (such as the target mother turnover box) in the carrying task, the jacking motor 350 is controlled to work, and the jacking rods 32 are jacked up to jack the goods. When the jack 32 is raised to a predetermined position, the goods are pushed away from the original placement position. When the AGV reaches the destination target position, the same identification and confirmation are performed, and then the jacking motor is controlled to work, and the jacking rod 32 is lowered to release the goods to the target position.

In one embodiment, a weight sensor (not shown) is further disposed on the AGV, and when the push rod 32 pushes up the load, the weight of the load can be sensed by the weight sensor, and the weight of the load is recorded by the task management module 305 and is uploaded to the upper computer.

In one embodiment, when the transportation environment is unstable, in order to accurately position the object when the object is stopped, the jacking motor 350 is controlled to control the positioning rod 39 to extend out from the bottom base 30, and after the accurate positioning, the jacking motor 350 is controlled to control the jacking rod 32 to ascend so as to transport the goods.

In one embodiment, the AGV also has various sensors for sensing distance and position, such as laser sensors, vision sensors, infrared sensors, etc.

In one embodiment, the AGV may further include a laser SLAM (synchronous positioning and mapping) or visual VSLAM system to assist the AGV in the tasks of path planning, autonomous exploration, navigation, etc. while transporting the load.

The AGV has various compact structures, for example, a part of the structure of the steering assembly, a part of the structure of the driving assembly and the rollers are integrated together, and the lifting structure of the ejector rods and the positioning rods is shared, so that the thickness of the AGV is greatly reduced, and the occupation of a three-dimensional space is reduced. AGV's thickness is little, and occupation space is little, and the operation is accurate, can be suitable for neotype stereoscopic warehouse well. The device can also work normally in wagons, planes and ships which shake and bump, and can work in a linkage and cooperation manner in various mobile warehouses and fixed-position warehouses of the same specification.

Embodiments of a sorting apparatus

Each parent turnover box 2 in the stereoscopic warehouse comprises a plurality of child turnover boxes 7, and the destinations of the goods in the child turnover boxes 7 may be the same or different. In order to improve the transportation efficiency, the invention sets a plurality of goods handing-over processes in the logistics process, thereby delivering a piece of goods from a delivery place to a destination. Therefore, during the distribution of goods, the target goods to be handed over need to be sorted out for each hand-over. Therefore, the invention provides a sorting robot and a sorting device, which are used for sorting goods in a three-dimensional warehouse, and an AGV in the three-dimensional warehouse is matched with the sorting robot to sort the goods in the next warehouse according to the flow direction of the goods in the next warehouse.

It should be understood by those skilled in the art that although the sub-container is used as an example, the sub-container may be replaced by an existing parcel for express delivery. In other words, the existing express packages can be contained in the mother transfer box. Correspondingly, the sorting robot of the sorting device can be replaced by a mechanical arm for sorting the existing express packages.

Embodiment of the sorting apparatus

Fig. 36A-36B are schematic views of a sorting apparatus applied to a stereoscopic warehouse according to an embodiment of the present invention. In the present embodiment, the sorting device 6 includes a support portion 61, a moving portion 62, and a sorting robot 5.

Fig. 36C-40C illustrate a sorting robot provided by an embodiment of the present invention. The sorting robot 5 provided by the present invention comprises a balance arm 50, a gripper module 51 and a motion driving part 52, wherein the balance arm 50 is used for keeping the moving process smooth. A gripper module 51 is attached to the end of the balance arm 50 for gripping goods. The motion driving unit 52 is connected to the balance arm 50, and drives the balance arm 50 to extend and retract.

Referring to fig. 37A, the balance arm 50 includes two or more arms 501 connected by a first joint 500. The one arm 501 includes at least an upper arm 503 and a lower arm 504 connected together by a second joint 502. For convenience of description, the ends of the upper arm 503 and the lower arm 504 connected by the second joint 502 are referred to as connected ends, and the other ends are referred to as free ends, so that each arm has two free ends, and the second free end of the first arm is connected to the first free end of the second arm by the first joint 500.

Taking the upper arm 503 as an example, it includes four parallel connecting rods 5031, a connecting block 5032 is provided at the free end, and two shafts 5033 are provided thereon, and two ends of each shaft are respectively connected to one connecting rod 5031. In order to reduce the distance between the two parallel and parallel connecting rods and thus reduce the space occupied by the balance arm when the balance arm is contracted, one end of the two parallel and parallel connecting rods is designed to be arc-shaped, and the arc-shaped ends of the two connecting rods are respectively located at the free end and the connecting end, so that the two connecting rods 5031 can be arranged together when the balance arm 50 is contracted, and the upper arm 503 and the lower arm 504 are embedded with each other when the balance arm is contracted, thereby achieving the purpose of reducing the space occupied by the balance arm. As shown in fig. 37B, two arms 501 connected by a first joint 500 are juxtaposed and adjacent, and in the contracted state, an upper arm 503 and a lower arm 504 movably connected by a second joint 502 are fitted to each other in the contracted state.

As shown in fig. 37C, the second joint 502 includes two connecting plates 5021 and a set of tie rods 5022. The two connecting rods of which the upper arms form an upper plane are connected through a connecting plate, and a shaft seat 5023 is arranged on the connecting plate. Similarly, the lower arm has the same shaft seat. A sliding rail 5024 is arranged on the connecting plate 5021. One end of the pull rod 5022 is fixed on the shaft seat 5023, and the other end is matched with the sliding rail 5024. When the lower arm 504 is opened downward under the control of the motion control unit, the upper arm 503 and the lower arm 504 move the pull rod 5022 in the sliding rail 5024, so that the upper arm 503 and the lower arm 504 can be contracted or expanded.

As shown in fig. 38A to 38C, the movement driving part 52 includes a driving case 520 in which a driving motor for controlling the arm and a wire winding mechanism are provided. In this embodiment there are two arms in common, so there are two sets of motors and their wire winding mechanisms, i.e. the two arms are controlled by means of the

wire ropes

521, 522 respectively. Referring to fig. 38A and 38B, the

wire ropes

521 and 522 led out from the driving box 520 are mounted on the first free end connecting block 5032a of the first arm through guide wheels, and the end of the wire rope 521 is connected to the second free end connecting block 5032B of the first arm. To guide the wire rope 522 to the second arm, the wire rope 522 led out from the drive box 520 is connected to the connecting block 5032d at the second free end of the second arm via a guide wheel fixed to the connecting block 5032b at the second free end of the first arm and the connecting block 5032c at the first free end of the second arm.

Referring to fig. 37B, 38C and 38A, in the contracted state of the balance arm 50 as shown in fig. 37B, the internal motor of the driving box 520 drives the wire winding mechanism of the second arm to release the wire rope, resulting in the state shown in fig. 38C; at this time, the wire winding mechanism of the second arm stops releasing the wire rope, and the wire winding mechanism of the first arm is driven to release the wire rope, so that the state shown in fig. 38A is obtained. Since the balance arm 50 in this embodiment can control the single arm action independently, it runs smoothly when extended and retracted. The design of the upper arm and the lower arm of the single arm can enable the height and the vertical stroke ratio to reach more than 1: 7.

Reference is now made to fig. 39A-39C, which are pictorial illustrations of a sorting robot gripper module in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention. In the present embodiment, the gripper module 51 includes a gripper body 510, a gripper, and an identification part 512. Wherein, the gripper body 510 is fixed on the connecting block 5032 at the free end of the lower arm of the balance arm. The grip body 510 is provided with a guide rail, and the grip has a plurality of grip portions 511, as shown in the figure, two grip portions 511 are provided in total, and the fixed ends of the grip portions 511 are provided on the guide rail through sliders. The opening and closing size of the grasping portion 511 can be adjusted by adjusting the position of the slider in the guide rail. In addition, the sliding of each gripping portion 511 may be individually controlled to accommodate the shape, size or position of different cargo gripping locations. The grasping portion 511 may grasp the goods in an adsorption mode and/or a mechanical mode. When the cargo is grabbed in the mechanical mode, the end structure of the grabbing portion 511 is correspondingly connected with the handle structure of the cargo. For example, in the present embodiment, the tip of the grasping portion 511 is provided in a concave structure. The handle on the sub-turnover box 7 is of a structure with a protruding outer edge and a concave middle part, which is called as a grabbing buckle 71, when the grabbing hand enters the concave part of the grabbing part of the sub-turnover box 7, the tail end of the grabbing part 511 is aligned with the grabbing buckle 71, the grabbing part 511 is controlled to move oppositely on the guide rail, so as to be buckled with the grabbing buckle 71, and when the balance arm 50 is contracted, the sub-turnover box 7 is grabbed.

The grasping unit may be of an adsorption type, for example, a vacuum adsorption type or an electromagnetic adsorption type. As to the specific structure of the suction type grasping portion, those skilled in the art can refer to the related art documents.

The recognition part 512 is provided on the gripper body 510 to recognize the sorted goods. According to the identification principle and the type of the identification tag of the sub-container 7, the identification part 512 can adopt technologies such as radio frequency identification, image identification, two-dimensional code identification and the like. In this embodiment, the identification unit 512 is an RFID reader/writer, and corresponds to the RFID identification tag of the child container 7. If the identification tag of the sub-container 7 is a two-dimensional code or a barcode, the identification unit 512 corresponds to a two-dimensional code/barcode reader/writer. In addition, the identification part 512 may also be an image identification unit, which includes a camera and an image identification subunit, where the camera collects an image of the goods or the goods identification tag, and the image identification subunit identifies the goods according to the collected image, or determines the distance from the current position to the goods.

Fig. 40A-40C are schematic views of a sorting robot gripper module according to another embodiment of the present invention. In this embodiment, the gripper module 51 further includes a damping pressing plate 513, which is movably connected to the gripper body 510 through a shaft, so that when the gripper grips the sorted goods, the space between the gripper and the sorted goods is engaged to prevent the goods from shaking. In order to fit the space between the hand grip and the sorted goods well, in this embodiment, the hand grip includes a plurality of, for example, 4, shock-absorbing pressing plates 513, one end of each shock-absorbing pressing plate is connected with the hand grip body 510 through a shaft and can rotate around the shaft, so that the shock-absorbing pressing plates 513 can be unfolded or folded to adapt to the sub-turnover boxes 7 with different specifications and sizes. As shown in fig. 40A, when the contraction prevention pressing plate 513 is completely contracted, it is completely contracted at the lower portion of the grip body 510. Alternatively, as shown in fig. 40C, the cushioning press plate 513 is unfolded to accommodate the sub-containers 7 having a large area. In order to achieve sufficient rigidity and damping elasticity, the damping pressing plate 513 comprises an upper layer and a lower layer, the upper layer is a rigid plate, and the lower layer is a damping elastic plate, so that the requirements of rigidity and damping elasticity are met.

In addition, the sorting robot further comprises a control unit which is respectively in signal connection with the motion driving part and the gripper module and is used for completing sorting of the target sub-turnover box by cooperating with the gripper module and the motion driving part according to the received sorting task. For example, the operation of an internal motor of the driving box 520 is controlled, and the extension and contraction of the balance arm are controlled by the extension and contraction of the wire rope. For another example, the opening and closing size of the grasping portion 511 can be changed by controlling the retraction of a driver of the grasping portion 511, such as a motor or a wire rope, and controlling the sliding of the grasping portion 511 on the guide rail. As well as, for example, the control of a cushioned platen, etc.

The sorting robot further includes various sensors (not shown in the figure), such as one or more positioning sensors, collision avoidance sensors, laser SLAM (Simultaneous positioning and mapping) systems or visual VSLAM systems, for assisting the sorting robot in the tasks of route planning, autonomous exploration, navigation, and the like when sorting goods.

Referring to fig. 36A-36B, the supporting portion 61 is connected to at least one sorting unit 60, the sorting unit 60 is equivalent to a storage unit, the bottom of the sorting unit is provided with a guiding slot 631 for moving an article moving device, such as an AGV, and the column is provided with a supporting block 612 for placing a storage device to be sorted, such as a mother container 2.

The moving part 62 includes a slide rail 621 and its driver 622 and a beam 623 and its driver 624. In the embodiment, the sliding rails 621 are fixed on the left and right sides of the top end of the supporting portion 61, in which the sliding rails 621 are nested multistage sliding rails, and each stage of sliding rails is provided with a driver 622 capable of driving the sliding rails to extend forward to expand the moving range of the sorting robot 5. Both ends of the cross beam 623 are respectively fixed on the slide rails 621, and the slide rails and the drivers 624 thereof are arranged on the cross beam 623. The sorting robot 5 is fixed on the slide rail, and the driver 624 drives the slide rail to move, so as to drive the sorting robot 5 to move in two directions of the x direction. The driver 622 moves the beam 623 in both y-directions, thereby moving the sorting robot 5 in both y-directions. A connecting and rotating mechanism is arranged at the top of the sorting robot 5, as shown in fig. 36C-36D, and includes a rotating shaft 632 and a driving motor 633, the rotating shaft 632 is connected with the cross beam 623 through a bracket, and the driving motor 633 is connected with the rotating shaft 632 through a synchronous belt, so as to drive the whole sorting robot 5 to rotate.

In this embodiment, the rail surfaces of the slide rails 621 face the side surfaces, and the rail surfaces of the two left and right slide rails 621 face each other. However, as one of ordinary skill in the art would appreciate, the track surfaces of the two sliding rails 621 may also face upward at the same time. Meanwhile, in the present embodiment, the track surface of the slide rail of the cross beam 623 faces downward, but may also stand up to face the side.

In addition, the moving part 62 in the present embodiment is provided on the top of the support part 61, and the support part 61 is fixed on the top of one sorting unit 60 (corresponding to one library site unit). The total height of the slide rail 621 of the support part 61 and the moving part 62 is less than or equal to one storage unit. The sorting robot 5 picks up the goods, such as the sub-containers 7, from the main containers 2 in one sorting unit, and the slide rails 621 move along with the moving part 62 to place the goods into the main containers 2 in the other sorting unit 60.

Fig. 41A-41H are schematic diagrams illustrating a sorting robot grasping a goods according to an embodiment of the present invention. The sorting operation flow of the sorting robot 5 is shown in fig. 42A to 42B. The sorting robot 5 is in a standby state, it is above the first sorting unit 60, wherein the first sorting unit 60 has the parent turnover box 2 placed therein, and the parent turnover box 2 has the child turnover box 7 placed therein (not shown in fig. 41A to 41C, see fig. 41E). As shown in fig. 41A, the sorting robot 5 is in a retracted, standby state.

A process of sorting the goods by the sorting device 6 is shown in fig. 42A-42B, and includes the following steps:

in step S6101, the balance arm is deployed, the gripper module 51 is lowered, and the lowering height is monitored. The motor inside the movement driving part 52 drives the wire winding mechanism to release the wire rope of the second arm, so that the lower arm of the second arm is extended downward, and the sorting robot 5 is in the state shown in fig. 41B (the wire rope is not shown, see fig. 38C or 36C). The motor inside the movement driving part 52 drives the wire winding mechanism to release the wire rope of the first arm, so that the lower arm of the first arm is extended downward, and the sorting robot 5 is in the state shown in fig. 41C (the wire rope is not shown, see fig. 38A). In the process of unfolding the balance arm, the sorting robot 5 may also be rotated to adjust the correspondence relationship with the sub-containers 7, as shown in fig. 41D.

During the lowering of the balancing arm 50, the distance to the sub-containers 7 is monitored by an identification unit built into the sorting robot 5, such as a camera, a laser SLAM system or a visual VSLAM system.

In step S6102, it is determined whether the gripper module 51 has reached a suitable height, for example, about 20 to 50mm from the top of the ion circulation box 7. If yes, step S6103 is executed, and if not, step S6101 is returned to.

Step S6103, the sorting robot 5 incorporates an RFID reader to read the RFID information of the target sub-container 7.

In step S6104, it is determined whether the target sub-container 7 is a designated target, and if so, in step S6105, the identity information of the sub-container is uploaded to the logistics control module system, and then step S6107 is executed. If not, step S6106 is executed.

In step S6106, the height and position of the sorting robot 5 are adjusted, and the process returns to step S6103 with another sub-circulation box as a target.

Step S6107, opening the damping pressing plate 513 to a proper angle according to the size of the target sub-container 7, which is not larger than the size of the sub-container.

In step S6108, the balance arm continues to descend and fine-tune the horizontal coordinate until the sensor senses that the gripping portion 511 and the claws 71 of the target sub-container 7 are concentric and reach the gripping height.

In step S6109, the grasping portion 511 grasps the grasping portion 71. When the grasping portion 511 and the clasps 71 of the target sub-container 7 are concentric and reach the grasping height, the grasping portion 511 is contracted to grasp the clasps 71. As shown in fig. 41E.

Step S6110, the sorting robot 5 has an internal RFID reader to update the RFID information of the parent turnover box 2, that is, the identity binding relationship between the target child turnover box 7 and the parent turnover box 2 is released, and the information is uploaded to the logistics control module of the cloud system.

Step S6111, the balance arm of the sorting robot 5 lifts the target sub-turnover box 7 to a proper height, for example, 2-5cm higher than the top of the mother turnover box 2. As shown in fig. 41F.

In step S6112, the sorting robot 5 moves horizontally to the second sorting unit. Wherein the second sorting unit is adjacent to the current first sorting unit in the y-direction. The driver 622 synchronously drives the two side slide rails 621 on the supporting portion to extend forward, and the cross beam 623 fixed with the slide rails drives the sorting robot 5 to extend forward, as shown in fig. 41G, until the second sorting unit is horizontally moved, as shown in fig. 41H.

In step S6113, the sorting robot 5 determines that the current position is above the second parent turnover box through the sensor.

In step S6114, the balance arm 51 of the sorting robot 5 descends into the second parent turnover box, and fine-tunes the horizontal coordinate, while monitoring the current position of the target child turnover box 7. In one embodiment, the sorting robot 5 may establish a 3D coordinate system in its sorting area, and determine that the target sub-tote 7 reaches the designated position where it should be put by monitoring the 3D coordinates of the target sub-tote 7.

Step S6115, determining whether the target child turnover box 7 reaches the designated position, if so, in step S6116, the grabbing part 511 releases the grabbing buckle, places the target child turnover box 7 at the designated position in the second parent turnover box, binds the identity relationship between the target child turnover box 7 and the second parent turnover box, and uploads the identity relationship to the logistics control module. If the target sub-circulation box 7 has not reached the specified position, the process returns to step S6114.

In step S6117, the balance arm retracts to return to the standby state.

Second embodiment of the sorting apparatus

In this embodiment, when the article moving device, such as an AGV, is above the storing device, that is, the storage unit is configured as in the second or third embodiment, the supporting portion of the sorting device may be disposed at the side of the sorting unit. The moving part drives the sorting robot to grab the sub-turnover box from the side face of the sorting unit. As shown in fig. 43, below the sorting unit 60a is a storage space for storing a storage device, such as a mother transfer box. The partition 63a is used as a traveling surface of the transferring device of the transferring space, and is provided with a guide groove 631a for the AGV to freely travel thereon. The support portion 61a is connected to the storage space of the sorting unit 60a from the side, two slide rails 621a are respectively provided at upper and lower sides of the side, and a sorting robot (not shown in the drawings) is connected to the slide rails 621a through a cross beam 623 a. The sorting robot is configured as in the first embodiment of the sorting apparatus, and the balance arm thereof can be extended in the x direction, extended into the sorting unit 60a, and can be slid along the slide rail 621a in the y direction, and moved to the side of the second sorting unit (not shown in the figure). The second sorting unit is adjacent to the sorting unit 60a in the y direction.

The sorting units 60a and the female transfer cases 2a in the second sorting unit may be open in the lateral direction. As shown in fig. 11, the side of the mother turnover box 2a is a door 20a capable of sliding in both the up and down directions, and the side thereof may be a whole plate, or may be a grid as shown in fig. 5A. When the parent container 2a of fig. 11 is placed in the sorting unit 60a of fig. 43, the door 20a is opened both upward and downward at the start of sorting so that the balance arm of the sorting robot can enter the parent container 2a, and the gripper body 510 of the gripper module 51 is rotated to be parallel to the top of the child container 7 so that the gripper is parallel to the gripper in the child container 7 to grip the gripper. The balance arm is contracted to drive the sub turnover box 7 to move out of the main turnover box 2 a. The driving rail 621a extends in the y direction to drive the sorting robot to move to the second sorting unit. The sorting process is the same as the first embodiment, and is not described herein again.

Fig. 44 is a functional block diagram of a sorting apparatus control system according to one embodiment of the present invention. In this embodiment, the sorting apparatus 6 may further include a sorting subsystem 66 for performing sorting tasks. The sorting subsystem 66 includes, among other things, a communication module 661, an identification module 662, and an information modification module 663 and a motion control module 664. The communication module 661 is configured to receive a sorting task, where the sorting task at least includes a target child container list, and the target child container list at least includes target child container identity information, originally bound first target parent container identity information, and second target parent container identity information for placing a target child container; the identification module 662 corresponds to the identity tags of the parent turnover box and the child turnover box, and when the identity tags are RFID tags, the identification module is an RFID reader-writer. The first target parent turnover box and the first target child turnover box are arranged in the sorting unit, and can be the same as the identification part of the sorting robot 5 and used for identifying whether the parent turnover box and the child turnover boxes in the sorting unit are the first target parent turnover box and the target child turnover box; when the target child turnover box is caught from the first target parent turnover box, the information modification module 663 releases the identity binding relationship between the target child turnover box and the first target parent turnover box; and when the target child turnover box is placed in the second target parent turnover box, establishing the identity binding relationship between the target child turnover box and the second target parent turnover box. The motion control module 664 is used for controlling the sorting robot 5 and the moving part 62 to complete the action flow required by one sorting task. One of the sorting processes is shown in fig. 41A-41H. And will not be described in detail herein.

The sorting robot provided by the invention is suitable for a stereoscopic warehouse, the occupied warehouse space is small, and the time and the place for sorting goods are not limited. The parallel arm structure of the sorting robot can keep the posture of the sub-turnover box stable during grabbing and carrying, and the deformable elastic damping pressing plates corresponding to the sub-turnover boxes of various models and sizes are further arranged, so that the sub-turnover box can be effectively prevented from shaking during carrying. The gripper module of the sorting robot can be designed into an adsorption type or a mechanical type, and can be matched with an intelligent identification part, such as a camera, an RFID (radio frequency identification device), a two-dimensional code card reader and other various sensors, so that the sub-turnover box can be accurately identified and grasped. The motion driving part in the sorting robot can rapidly and stably control the extension, contraction and movement of the robot, and the synchronous toothed belt adopted in the control process can realize the functions of low torque, miniaturization and accurate positioning of a transmission device.

As shown in fig. 45, the structure of the stereoscopic warehouse is schematically illustrated, in which the storage device, the moving device and the sorting device are built. The structure of the stereoscopic warehouse is as shown in the aforementioned stereoscopic warehouse structure embodiment, and the description is not repeated here. Goods in the warehouse are arranged in the sub turnover boxes 7, and the sub turnover boxes 7 are arranged in the main turnover box 2. The mother turnover box 2 is placed in the storage space in the storage position unit of the stereoscopic warehouse. The library bit unit has unique identity information, for example, a number is taken as identity information, which represents the position of the library bit in the stereoscopic warehouse, for example, the number C0F11001 represents the first library bit in the first column of the layer, C0F22001 represents the first library bit in the second column of the second layer, C0F34002 represents the second library bit in the fourth column of the third layer, and the like, wherein the first three characters represent the identity of the logistics warehouse. In order to obtain the identity information of the storage location unit, an electronic tag RFID or a two-dimensional code is used as the identity tag of the storage location unit, wherein the number information of each storage location unit is recorded. In the following description, RFID is taken as an example. Similarly, the parent container 2 and the child container 7 each have a unique identification, for example, numbering with letters, numbers, and the like. For example, the identity of the child container 7 is a300x180x180, and the identity of the parent container 2 is M500B700C 100. Therefore, the unique position information of a piece of goods in the whole logistics system can be determined by binding the identity relationship of the child turnover box, the parent turnover box and the specific storage location unit of the stereoscopic warehouse. Moreover, when any link is changed, such as the change of a mother turnover box, the change of a storage location unit, the change of a stereoscopic warehouse and the like, the binding relationship of the identities is changed in real time, so that the accurate real-time position information of the goods can be ensured. A small and ultrathin AGV3 in the stereoscopic warehouse is positioned in the article moving space of the warehouse location unit 1 and used for carrying the mother turnover box 2. According to the scale of the stereoscopic warehouse, sorting devices 6 with different numbers are dispersed in the stereoscopic warehouse, connected with adjacent warehouse location units and fused in the warehouse location units. The sorting device 6 comprises two sorting units 60 which are connected to other storage space units 1 in the stereoscopic warehouse. Sorting is completed by controlling the moving device in the warehouse, such as the AGV3 to carry the mother turnover box 2, and matching with the sorting device 6.

As will be appreciated by those skilled in the art, when the stereoscopic warehouse including the sub-containers, AGVs and sorting devices is connected with other components and structures, it can constitute a cabinet for express delivery at the end of logistics and other fixed-position warehouses.

Terminal express delivery cabinet of commodity circulation

46A-46B are schematic diagrams of a courier cabinet configuration, according to one embodiment of the invention. In this embodiment, the express delivery cabinet 10 includes a cabinet body 110, and at least one cabinet door 111, such as a folding door in the figure, or a door opened by a support rod or a rolling door, is disposed on the cabinet body 110. The cabinet 110 is a three-dimensional warehouse with a plurality of storage layers, which is composed of a plurality of storage units, and the number of the storage layers and the number of the storage units on each layer are determined according to specific needs. The warehouse location unit of the stereoscopic warehouse is provided with a child turnover box and a mother turnover box. One or more AGVs 3 are placed inside the stereoscopic warehouse according to scale for transporting parent containers. The lifting system is used for transporting goods among different storage layers. In the present embodiment, the lifting system is installed at the cabinet door 111. Wherein lift table 42 is movable up and down along the support columns to bring AGVs 3 thereon to different storage levels. Inside is also provided a sorting device 6.

In order to realize the docking with the outside, for example, the docking with a user, an express robot, various freight devices, and the like, the express delivery cabinet further includes a lifting docking rack, which includes a rail 120, and is installed at the cabinet door 111, and a slide rail 121 is provided thereon, and the slide rail 121 drives a docking plate 122. Abutment plate 122 serves as the running surface for AGV3, and has a running surface for running thereon and a guide groove for engaging with guide wheel 31. As shown, the left and right sides of the butt plate 122 are the running surfaces of the running wheels, and the middle is the guide groove.

In the embodiment, the lifting docking rack is opposite to the lifting system 4 in the three-dimensional warehouse, and the docking plate 122 can be docked with the lifting platform 42. In order to enable the docking plate 122 and the lifting platform 42 to be in accurate docking and facilitate the running of the AGV, a positioning sensor, such as a position switch, a photoelectric proximity device, etc., is arranged at a proper position of the docking plate 122 or the lifting platform 42, and when the docking plate 122 and the lifting platform are in accurate docking, the positioning sensor is triggered to send a signal, and the completion of the docking plate 122 and the lifting platform 42 can be determined according to the signal.

In addition to the side door 111, in one embodiment, a door 112 is included on the other side of the courier cabinet 10 for user interaction. As shown in fig. 47A to 47B, a cabinet door 112 is disposed on the other side of the cabinet body 110, for example, the other side opposite to the cabinet door 111, corresponding to each storage location unit, and the cabinet door 112 is locked by an electronic lock, and the opening and closing of the cabinet door 112 can be automatically controlled by a door driving mechanism. Fig. 47B is a schematic view of the cabinet door 112 when opened. The corresponding storage position unit is internally provided with a mother turnover box 2, and the mother turnover box 2 is internally provided with a son turnover box 7. The sub-containers 7 may be sub-containers provided for the delivery users, or may be sub-containers in which there are goods receivable by the receiving users.

In some embodiments, an unmanned aerial vehicle interface and cover plate 112 is also provided on the top of the express cabinet 10. The turnover box is used for receiving the sub turnover box sent by the unmanned aerial vehicle or providing the sub turnover box for the unmanned aerial vehicle.

As will be appreciated by those skilled in the art, when the stereoscopic warehouse including the parent-child turnover box, the AGV and the sorting device is combined with a vehicle, various cargo transporting devices for transporting cargos according to the present invention can be constructed.

One of the freight devices: mini truck

Figures 48A-48B are schematic illustrations of a micro-truck configuration according to one embodiment of the present invention. In this embodiment, the mini-truck 9a includes the stereoscopic warehouse 91 in the second stereoscopic warehouse embodiment, the parent turnover box 2 and the child turnover box 7 as the storage devices, and further includes AGVs 3 as the transfer devices, the sorting device 6, and the transportation 90. The vehicle 90 is a small cargo unit, forming a mini-truck.

The vehicle 90 includes a container support 93 and a containment structure 92, the containment structure 92 is connected with the container support 93 to form a container body having an inner space, and the stereoscopic warehouse 91 is disposed in the inner space of the container body.

The enclosure 92 includes one or more doors 94 having an area that is an integer multiple of the number of storage locations in the three-dimensional warehouse. In this embodiment, the entire rear enclosure of the cargo box is used as the door 94, and one or more support rods 95, such as an electric hydraulic support rod, are provided to open the door when the door bar is opened. The two ends of the supporting rod 95 are respectively connected to the box door 94 and the box bracket 93, and when the box door 94 is opened, the box door 94 can be supported and fixed.

In this embodiment, a lift docking device is also included, which includes a lift rail 961, a lift bracket 962, and a docking plate 963. The lift rails 961 are secured to the cargo box supports 93 in the box doors 94. The lifting bracket 962 is fittingly disposed in the lifting rail 961 and can be lifted up or lowered down along the rail 961. One end of the butt joint plate 963 is movably connected to the tail end of the lifting bracket 962, and the upper surface of the butt joint plate is a running surface of the article moving device. The docking plate 963 can be opened to the outside of the cabinet space when the door 94 is opened, as shown in fig. 48A, and can be retracted to close the door 94, as shown in fig. 48B.

In the present embodiment, the length of the docking plate 963 is adapted to the width of one storage unit, but it is also possible to adapt the width of the box door 94, so that the amount of exchange of goods can be increased when docking.

Referring to fig. 48A, a shock absorbing air bag 97 is further included between the cargo box support 93 of the cargo device and the body of the vehicle 90 in this embodiment to reduce shock during driving and docking.

The second freight device: urban circulating truck

Fig. 49A-49B are schematic views of a city recycling van in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention. In this embodiment, the vehicle 90 in the urban recycling van 9b is a medium or large freight device. The entire rear enclosure of the cargo box serves as a door 941, and the sides and part of the top of the enclosure as a flap door 942 can be opened upward as shown in fig. 49B. The present embodiment includes an X-Y drive platform 98 disposed at the bottom of the cargo box support 93 and including X-rails 981 and Y-rails 982. The X-Y drive stage 98 is driven by a drive mechanism and is slidable in the X and Y directions.

The stereoscopic warehouse 91 is fixed to the X-Y driving stage 98 and is movable with the movement of the X-Y driving stage 98. As shown in fig. 50A-50B, the stereoscopic warehouse 91 in the cargo unit 9B slides out with the X-Y driving platform 98.

The freight device also comprises a control system, and the control system of the freight device can have different forms and connection structures according to the butt joint and distribution conditions with the cloud system.

Freight device control system embodiment one

Fig. 51 is a schematic block diagram of a control system for a cargo unit according to an embodiment of the present invention. In this embodiment, the functional modules of the control system 99 for controlling the vehicle are located locally in the cargo transportation device, and include a communication module 990, a navigation module 991, and a docking control module 992. The control for cargo management, sorting, carrying and the like of the cargos in the warehouse is completed by a stereoscopic warehouse management system, and the stereoscopic warehouse management system consists of a local module or/and a cloud logistics control module.

The communication module 990 performs information interaction with the cloud system, and transmits data and information between the local and the cloud. The navigation module 991 determines a driving route of the vehicle according to the planned route; the driving route of the freight device can be planned and calculated by the cloud system and then sent to the freight device, and can also be calculated by a positioning device 993 in the freight device according to a docking point of the freight device obtained from the cloud. The positioning device 993 also obtains the real-time geographic location of the shipping device and sends the real-time geographic location to the cloud.

The docking control module 992 determines a docking mode according to the other cargo devices docked thereto, and controls the operation of the corresponding component according to the determined docking mode. As shown in fig. 52A, which is a functional block diagram of a docking control module according to an embodiment of the present invention, in this embodiment, a docking control module 992 includes a door control unit 9920 and a lift docking device control unit 9921. In one embodiment, the door is provided with an electronic lock 950 and a support rod driving device 951, for example, a driving motor of an electric hydraulic support rod and a hydraulic system thereof. The door control unit 9920 controls the door electronic lock 950 and the supporting rod driving device 951, thereby controlling the opening and closing of the door. The lifting docking device control unit 9921 is used for controlling the lifting, opening and retracting of the docking plate. In one embodiment, the lift carriage is provided with a drive 9620, such as a stepper motor or a servo motor, for controlling the raising and lowering of the lift carriage on the lift rail. The docking plate is provided with a corresponding driver 9630, the docking plate 963 is connected with the tail end of the lifting bracket 962 under the control of the docking plate driver 9630, for example, the docking plate 963 can be folded and arranged parallel to the lifting bracket 962 under the control of the rotation of a connecting shaft at the connection part through a motor, or the docking plate 963 is put down to enable the docking plate 963 and the lifting bracket 962 to be in a vertical state.

In order to ensure that the cargo device can be accurately docked with other cargo devices, the present embodiment further includes various positioning sensors, for example, a docking plate positioning sensor 9631 is disposed on the docking plate, when the docking plate 963 is docked with the storage location unit of the docked cargo device, the docking plate positioning sensor 9631 is triggered to send a signal after the docking plate 963 and the storage location unit are correctly docked, and whether the docking is completed or not and whether the docking is correct or not can be determined according to whether the signal is received or not.

The preset position of the butt-joint plate 963 is further provided with a lifting positioning sensor 8000, and when the bottom of the express robot 8 butted with the butt-joint plate reaches the preset position, the lifting positioning sensor 8000 is triggered to send a signal, so that the express robot can be confirmed to be completely butted with the butt-joint plate 963, and at the moment, the lifting support 962 can be safely started to lift the express robot 8 upwards, so that the running surface of the cargo box moving space of the express robot 8 is butted with a storage position unit in a three-dimensional warehouse. In order to determine whether the two storage space units are correctly docked, in one embodiment, a positioning sensor 1130 is disposed on the storage space unit of the cargo transportation device 9 for docking, and the storage space units of other cargo transportation devices and the storage space units in the stereoscopic warehouse are correctly docked, and then the storage space unit positioning sensor 1130 is triggered to send a signal. For example, when the express robot is lifted to a certain position, the driving surface of the container moving space of the express robot is in butt joint with the storage location unit of the freight device 9, the storage location unit positioning sensor 1130 may be triggered to send a signal, and the butt joint is accurate and completed according to the signal.

When the cargo transportation device is provided with an X-Y direction driving platform, the docking control module 992 further comprises an X-Y direction driving platform control unit 9922, in order to enable the X-Y direction driving platform to move along the X direction track 981 or the Y direction track 982 on the box body support 93, the X-Y direction driving platform is provided with an X direction driver 9810 and a Y direction driver 9820, such as a motor, an oil pressure driver and the like, and according to specific driver types, the X-Y direction driving platform control unit 9922 outputs corresponding driving signals to control the X-Y direction driving platform to move along the X direction track 981 or the Y direction track 982, and the moving amount is controllable.

The local module of the control system further comprises a damping airbag control module 994, which is used for adjusting the air pressure of each damping airbag when the control system is in butt joint with other freight devices or freight devices, so that the levelness of the stereoscopic warehouse can be adjusted, and the stereoscopic warehouses of the two freight devices can be accurately in butt joint.

In this embodiment, the management system of the stereoscopic warehouse includes a motion control system 162, a cargo management system 161, and a sorting system 64, and is mainly used for controlling the traveling and sorting device 6 of the AGV, and completing the delivery, warehousing, exchange, and the like of the cargo. In one embodiment, the motion control system 162 is located locally, and includes a travel control module 1621 for controlling AGVs and a lift control module 1622 for controlling a lift system, where the travel control module 1621 is an upper control module of the AGV3 and is mainly used for task management, vehicle driving, route planning management, traffic management, communication management, and other functional units of multiple AGVs in the warehouse.

The task management functional unit provides an execution environment of the AGV single machine. Scheduling the operation of a plurality of AGV according to the task priority and the starting time; various operations such as start, stop, cancel, etc. are provided for the AGV stand-alone. The vehicle driving function unit is responsible for collecting the AGV state, sends a request for allowing the traveling section to the traffic management function unit, and simultaneously issues the confirmation section to the AGV. And the route planning functional unit distributes and dispatches the AGV to execute the task according to the requirement of the cargo handling task, calculates the shortest walking path of the AGV according to the principle that the walking time of the AGV is shortest, and controls and commands the walking process of the AGV. And the traffic management functional unit provides measures for AGV mutual automatic avoidance according to the AGV running state and the AGV running path conditions in the warehouse.

The walking control module 1621 is in wireless communication with the AGV stand-alone system, and the walking control module 1621 is in communication with a plurality of AGV stand-alone systems in a polling mode; the walking control module 1621 may communicate with other upper computers, such as the cloud-end related logistics control module, in a TCP/IP manner. The AGV is provided with a single machine control device, and after receiving the transport task and the instruction thereof from the upper system walking control module 1621, the single machine control device is responsible for the functions of navigation, guidance, path selection, vehicle driving, steering, loading and unloading operation and the like of the single machine of the AGV so as to complete the transport task. Which includes a task management module 305, a movement control module 302, and a conveyance control module 303. For details, please refer to the AGV embodiment described above, and details thereof are not repeated herein.

Lift control module 1622 is used to control lift drive mechanism 163 of the lift system. The lifting platform driving mechanism 163 adopts a servo system, and the lifting control module 1622 sends driving information to the servo system according to the lifting stroke, so as to drive the lifting platform to reach the preset position. In which the servo system can be accurately stopped at a predetermined position in a normal state, however, the position reached by the elevating platform deviates from the original predetermined position due to an unstable state of the stereoscopic warehouse while moving. If the lifting platform deviates from the original preset position, the butt joint state of the lifting platform and the storage position unit is poor, the AGV is difficult to walk, and even the AGV is damaged. Thus, in one embodiment, more than one position sensor is provided on the support column at the position where each floor interfaces with the storage location unit, so that the lifting platform can be accurately stopped at a predetermined position. Further, the elevating platform incorporates a weight scale analysis system, and the magnitude of the output voltage current required to realize the speed and acceleration set for each elevating stroke is determined according to the weight of the load loaded on the elevating platform.

The cargo management system 161 and the sorting system 64 may be located in a cloud, for example, the sorting system 64 is a sorting control module in the cloud, and the cargo management system 161 is a cargo supervision module in the cloud. The cargo management system 161 is configured to maintain cargo information and equipment information in the stereoscopic warehouse 91, such as cargo order information, logistics information, binding relationships between the cargo and the child and mother containers, and binding relationships between the mother container and the warehouse location unit in the current warehouse; the system also comprises the AGV number and the identity information in the current library, the identity information and the position distribution information of the sorting device and the like.

Sorting system 64 communicates with sorting devices 6 and AGVs 3 via communication module 990 to dispatch sorting and handling tasks. The motion control module 1621 of the motion control system 162 serves as an upper control module for the AGVs 3 in the library, and performs task management, vehicle driving, route planning management, traffic management, communication management, and the like for the AGVs 3 according to the AGV transport tasks sent by the sorting system 64, so that each AGV3 completes a corresponding transport task. The sorting device 6 receives the sorting tasks to complete the sorting of the specified target sub-turnover boxes.

In one embodiment, as shown in fig. 52B, the sorting module 64 includes a goods statistics module 642 and a mission planning module 643, wherein the goods statistics module 642 analyzes address information of each parent container and its internal child containers in each of the shipping apparatuses according to the sorting addresses to determine target parent containers and target child containers. The task planning module 643 determines a corresponding task for each sorting device and each transferring device according to at least the distribution information of the target storage devices in the warehouse, the distribution information of the sorting devices, and the number and position information of the transferring devices. In one embodiment, the mission planning module 643 includes a sort mission unit 6431 and a transport mission unit 6432.

The sorting task unit 6431 obtains specification information of the target sub-containers according to the target sub-containers determined by the cargo statistics module 642, and determines paired target sub-containers for placing the sorted target sub-containers, so as to obtain a target sub-container list. The target sub-container list at least comprises target sub-container identity information, originally bound target parent container identity information, matched target parent container identity information where the target sub-containers are to be placed after sorting and corresponding storage location unit identity information. As shown in the following table:

TABLE 1

Target sub-turnover box	First target mother transfer box	First reservoir location unit	Second target mother transfer box	Second library site unit
					A300x180x180	M500B700C100	A-100-201-3001	N385B769F269	A-100-202-4002
……	……	……	……	……

For convenience of description, a target parent container in which the target child container is located is referred to as a first target parent container, and a target parent container in which the sorted target child container can be placed according to the specification of the target child container is referred to as a second target parent container.

The sorting task unit 6431 distributes equal sorting tasks to each sorting device according to the distribution of the first target mother turnover box, the second target mother turnover box and the sorting devices in the three-dimensional warehouse according to the principle of proximity. Or determining the sorting task according to the principle of least time required by the carrying process. The sorting of one target sub-container is referred to as a sorting task.

The conveying task unit 6432 is configured to assign a conveying task to each article transferring device in real time according to the distribution of the article transferring devices, the sorting devices, and the target parent turnover boxes. The carrying task refers to carrying a target mother turnover box to a sorting unit of the sorting device, or carrying a first target mother turnover box which is sorted in the sorting unit to a storage position unit of the first target mother turnover box, or carrying a second target mother turnover box which is sorted to an idle storage position unit of the delivery area. Therefore, the carrying task sent to the article moving device comprises the identity information of the mother turnover box, the identity information of the storage position unit where the mother turnover box is located and the identity information of the storage position unit where the mother turnover box is placed, wherein the storage position unit where the mother turnover box is placed can be a sorting unit, a common storage position unit or a storage position unit of a warehouse outlet area.

The first target mother turnover box and the second target mother turnover box required in sorting can be carried by one article moving device or two different article moving devices. The moving device can stop to wait for carrying after sorting after carrying, and can also carry and carry out other carrying operations.

The cargo management system 161 maintains the binding relationship between the child and parent containers in the warehouse and the binding relationship between the parent container and the warehouse location unit. For example, when the first target parent container is moved away from the first storage location unit, the binding relationship between the first target parent container and the first storage location unit is released. When the first target mother turnover box is placed to the sorting unit, the binding relation between the first target mother turnover box and the sorting unit is established. And when the first target mother turnover box is sorted and is moved away from the sorting unit, the binding relationship between the first target mother turnover box and the sorting unit is released. And in the same way, the same identity binding relationship is established and released for the second target parent turnover box.

Second embodiment of the control system for cargo transporting device

In the present embodiment, as shown in fig. 53, the cargo device control system includes a vehicle control module including the navigation module 991 and the docking control module 992 of the foregoing embodiments, the positioning device 993, and the shock-absorbing airbag control module 994, and a stereoscopic warehouse management system. The stereoscopic warehouse management system is communicated with the cloud control module and receives exchange tasks, wherein the exchange tasks comprise butt joint places, goods exchanged during butt joint and the like. The vehicle control module is connected with the stereoscopic warehouse management system, moves to the grounding point according to a planned route according to the docking point in the exchange task, and controls the box door, the lifting bracket, the docking plate, the X-Y direction driving platform or the damping air bag and the like in the vehicle to be docked with other freight devices at the docking point. The stereoscopic warehouse management system in the embodiment is located at the local freight device, mainly controls the AGVs 3 to carry goods during sorting, goods delivery and goods warehousing, and enables each AGV3 to run along an optimal path in cooperation with the lifting system 4 in the stereoscopic warehouse during the carrying process. The sorting system 64 in the stereoscopic warehouse management system is used as an upper computer of a sorting subsystem of the sorting device to determine a sorting task and a carrying task of an AGV during sorting. So that the sorting device 6 completes the sorting of the exchanged goods before the docking.

Terminal express delivery robot of commodity circulation

Fig. 54 is an overall structural view of an express robot according to an embodiment of the present invention. The express delivery robot 8 of this embodiment includes: base 80, cargo box 81, travel mechanism, and interaction mechanism 83. Referring to fig. 55 and 56, the base 80 includes a bottom case 800, a motor 86 for controlling opening and closing of a top cover 811 and a front cover 812 (see fig. 59A to 59D) of the cargo box 81, and an electric box 87 for integrating electric components, power supplies, and the like, which are housed in a component cover 801, and a timing belt 861 connected to an output shaft of the motor 86 is extended from both sides.

Referring to fig. 57-58, a container floor 810 is mounted above the bottom shell 800, the floor 810 being provided with a longitudinal guide slot 8100 for guiding the travel of a mover, such as an AGV, into the container 81. Two longitudinal side frames 811 are arranged on the bottom plate 810, supporting blocks 8110 facing the inside are arranged on each side frame column, and the supporting blocks 8110 on the four columns are used for supporting the mother turnover box, so that a storage layer is formed above the supporting blocks 8110, and an object moving layer is formed between the lower part of the supporting blocks 8110 and the bottom plate 810, so that a space is provided for the AGV to travel. Two side lugs 8111 are provided at both ends of the side frame 811 for providing mounting positions of the timing pulley and its axle. On the rear side of the cargo box floor 810 are posts 812 for connecting various types of communication cables from the bottom to the top interaction mechanism 83.

Fig. 59A-59D are schematic diagrams of cargo box cover assemblies according to one embodiment of the present invention. The cargo box in this embodiment includes a movable top cap 813 and a front cap 814, with a rear cap 815 that is fixed. Two side lugs 8111 are arranged at two ends of the side frame 811, and a synchronous belt wheel 816 and a wheel shaft thereof are fixedly arranged. The synchronous pulley 816 is connected with a motor in the base through a synchronous belt 816. The synchronous pulleys 816 on the two sides respectively correspond to a motor which is respectively used for controlling the opening and closing of the top cover 813 and the front cover 814.

In this embodiment, the traveling mechanism is roller assemblies 82 arranged at four corners of the base 80, and each roller assembly 82 independently corresponds to one driving assembly and one steering assembly, so that the traveling and steering of each roller assembly 82 can be independently controlled, and the express robot can realize all-wheel independent driving (AWD) and have multiple different traveling modes to adapt to traveling roads in various environments.

FIG. 60 is a schematic view of the drive assembly within the base. FIG. 61 is a schematic view of a roller assembly coupled to a drive assembly. In the present embodiment, the drive assembly 84 includes a drive motor 840 and a multi-stage transmission. Wherein, one-level drive mechanism in the multistage drive mechanism includes drive action wheel 842 and one-level synchronizing wheel 844, and the two passes through synchronous belt drive. The primary reversing mechanism connected between the drive motor 840 and the drive capstan 842 is shown in FIG. 62, and FIG. 62 is an enlarged view of the reversing mechanism shown in FIG. 61 with the pedestal removed at A. The end of the output shaft of the driving motor 840 is connected with a bevel gear 8401, the end of the wheel shaft 8421 of the driving drive wheel 842 is connected with a bevel gear 8402, and the two bevel gears are mutually matched to convert the radial power output by the driving motor 840 into axial power, namely power transmitted along the horizontal direction. The driving motor 840, the driving wheel 842 and the first-stage reversing mechanism are fixed inside the base 800 through a support 841.

Fig. 63-64 are schematic views of the drive mechanism with the bracket or the like removed from the drive assembly. As shown in fig. 63, in which a primary synchronizing wheel 844 in the primary transmission mechanism is connected with a secondary reversing mechanism 845, as shown by a circle part in the figure, the structure is similar to that of fig. 62, and a pair of bevel gears which are matched with each other are adopted to change axial power into radial power, namely, power transmitted in the horizontal direction is converted into vertical power. The second stage reverser 845 is followed by

actuators

846, 847, 848 in turn.

The roller assembly 82 includes two coaxially connected roller bodies 821, a roller synchronizing wheel 8211 is connected to the roller axle 8210, and the roller synchronizing wheel 8211 is the end of the transmission mechanism 848.

The power output by the driving motor 840 passes through the primary reversing mechanism to drive the driving wheel 842, and the driving wheel 842 drives the primary synchronizing wheel 844 through the synchronizing belt 843. The power transmitted by the primary synchronous belt 844 is reversed by the secondary reversing mechanism, the horizontal power transmitted by the primary transmission mechanism is converted into the vertical power, the power is transmitted to the roller synchronizing wheel 8211 by the

transmission mechanisms

846, 847 and 848 in sequence, and the roller synchronizing wheel 8211 drives the coaxial roller body 821 to rotate, so that the function of driving the roller body 821 to walk is realized.

Referring to fig. 64-66, a two-stage reversing mechanism 845 and a driving mechanism 846 are built into the bracket 845. The

transmission mechanisms

846, 847, 848 and the roller synchronizing wheel 8211 are arranged in the wheel frame 822. The head end of the wheel carrier 822 is fixed with the tail end of the bracket 845, and the tail end of the wheel carrier 822 is fixed with the roller wheel shaft 8210 through a bearing. The roller body 821 is disposed at both ends of the roller axle 8210.

FIG. 67 is an overall schematic view of a steering assembly within a base, according to one embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 68 is a schematic view of a roller assembly coupled to a steering assembly 85. Referring to fig. 63-66, the steering assembly 85 includes a steering motor 850 and a steering mechanism. The steering mechanism is fixed to the traveling mechanism, and includes a transmission mechanism for transmitting the steering power of the steering motor 850 to the steering mechanism. In this embodiment, the transmission mechanism includes a steering capstan 851 and a steering synchronizing wheel 852 located in the steering mechanism. In this embodiment, the steering driving wheel 851 drives the steering synchronizing wheel 852 to rotate by using a synchronizing belt 853. Since the direction of the output power of the steering motor 850 is radial, i.e. vertical to the bottom surface, and the steering mechanism requires horizontal power, a reversing mechanism is further included between the output shaft of the steering motor 850 and the steering driving wheel 851, and the structure of the reversing mechanism is as shown in fig. 62, and a pair of bevel gears which are matched with each other are adopted to change the axial power transmitted by the output shaft of the steering motor 850 into radial power, i.e. to change the transmission direction of the power from vertical to horizontal.

The steering synchronizing wheel 852 is connected with a bogie, see fig. 65, which mainly comprises a bogie 8531 and a wheel carrier 8532. The wheel carrier 8532 is matched and fixed with a bracket 8451 outside a secondary reversing mechanism of the driving assembly. Or the wheel carrier 8532 and the bracket 8451 as one part. The top of the wheel frame 8532 is a fixed surface, the top is provided with a connecting hole, such as a screw hole, the periphery is provided with a boss, and the steering synchronizing wheel 852 is fixed on the boss of the fixed surface of the wheel frame 8532. See fig. 64. The bottom of the bogie 8531 is fitted with the top of the wheel frame 8532 and is provided with coupling holes corresponding to the coupling holes of the fixed surface of the wheel frame 8532 to fix the bogie 8531 and the wheel frame 8532 together by a coupling member. The top of the bogie 8531 is fixed to the axle of the primary synchronizing wheel 844 of the drive assembly.

When steering motor 850 rotates, its output shaft is configured to output axial power. Axial power is converted into radial power through the bevel gear, a steering driving wheel shaft coaxial with the bevel gear drives a steering driving wheel 851 to rotate, the driving wheel 851 drives a steering synchronous wheel 852 to rotate through a synchronous belt, the steering synchronous wheel 852 drives a steering frame 8531 fixed with the steering synchronous wheel 852, the steering frame 8531 drives a wheel frame 8532, the wheel frame 8532 drives a support 8451, the support 8451 drives a roller wheel frame 822, and then the whole roller body 821 is driven to rotate together, so that the rolling direction of the roller body 381 is changed. Fig. 69 is a schematic view of fig. 68 rotated at an angle.

Because each roller assembly is matched with one set of driving assembly and one set of steering assembly, various walking modes can be realized through the independent control and matching of each roller assembly. For example, when the roller bodies of the four roller assemblies rotate forwards or backwards simultaneously, the express delivery robot can move forwards or backwards towards the walking direction. By controlling different rotating directions of the roller assembly, the body of the express robot can be fixed, if the express robot still faces the original walking direction, but the roller body under the base can rotate in situ. Rotate 45 degrees through control roller assembly simultaneously, can make express delivery robot's fuselage translation, still face original walking direction, but roller assembly's direction and original walking direction are the direction skew of certain contained angle (like 45 degrees). For example, the body of the express robot can be still fixed and still face the original walking direction by controlling the roller assembly and rotating 90 degrees at the same time, but the direction of the roller assembly and the original walking direction form a 90-degree included angle, namely, the express robot moves transversely at the moment.

The different walking modes are used for adapting to various conditions in the walking route. For example, when the original walking direction has an obstacle, the express delivery robot can change the forward straight line into the lateral movement towards the left or the right, and when the express delivery robot bypasses the obstacle, the express delivery robot returns to the original route to travel. In the whole walking process, the machine body does not need to be rotated, so that the shaking caused by rotating the machine body is reduced, and the walking stability of the express robot is ensured.

The interaction mechanism 83 is located above the cargo box 81, and its signal lines, power lines, etc. are connected to the electrical box of the base through the wiring channel in the column 812 provided at the rear side of the cargo box bottom plate 810. Interaction mechanism 83 includes a camera 831, a display 832, and a voice device, such as a speaker and microphone (not shown), integrated into display 832. Through the interaction mechanism 83, it is possible to interact with the user and monitor the cargo pick-and-place inside the cargo box during the interaction with the user.

In this embodiment, a mother turnover case 2 can be placed to the inside support of packing box of express delivery robot, certainly, also can increase packing box 81, sets up two positions in its inside for place two mother turnover cases 2, thereby can increase and get goods volume, delivery volume, and can get goods and go on with the delivery simultaneously. For example, a top cover which is controlled independently is provided corresponding to a mother turnover box in the container, and the top cover corresponds to a mother turnover box for taking out goods and a mother turnover box for delivering goods. When taking the goods, only opening the top cover of the corresponding mother turnover box; when the goods are delivered, only the top cover of the corresponding delivery mother turnover box is opened, so that the safety of the goods can be ensured.

Fig. 70 is a functional block diagram of a control device of the courier robot according to one embodiment of the present invention. The control device 88 includes a communication module 880, a task management module 881, a walking control module 882, and an interaction control module 883. The communication module 880 is configured to communicate with the cloud management system, and transmit information, data, and the like to each other. The task management module 881 is configured to receive the pick/deliver task and the docking information through the communication module 880, and send the corresponding pick/deliver task information to the cloud management system. The cloud management system maintains logistics information of the goods, wherein the logistics information comprises identity information of sub-containers loaded with the goods in the logistics process, identity information of mother containers loaded with the sub-containers and change occurrence time of the mother containers, identity information of express robots or freight devices transporting the goods and change time of the express robots or the freight devices.

The picking task received by the task management module 881 includes partial information in the order, such as: the information of the delivery user comprises a name, a telephone, a delivery address and the like, and also comprises information of the goods, such as the name and the size of the goods, and the sub-containers to be used. And when the cloud management system sends the goods taking task, whether the current express robot has a proper sub-turnover box which meets the specification or not is also determined. If not, the position of the sub-turnover box, such as a surrounding post house, a stereoscopic warehouse inside an express cabinet or a nearby passing freight device, is acquired, and the box taking position and the goods taking task are sent to the express robot together. The task management module 881 also collects information during the pickup process and sends the information to the cloud management system. For example, the relationship between the identities of the goods and the child turnover box, the identities of the child turnover box and the parent turnover box, and the identities of the parent turnover box and the express robot, and the like. The delivery task received by the task management module 881 includes order information of the goods, such as recipient information, such as recipient address, recipient identity information, etc.

The walking control module 882 is configured to control the driving motor and the steering motor to walk and/or steer according to a planned route according to a walking route. The walking route can be received from the cloud management system, or the walking route can be automatically calculated according to the target position and road condition information monitored by the laser navigation SLAM or visual navigation VSLAM system. Thus, in one embodiment, the control system further includes a geographic location module 884 to obtain geographic information between the current geographic location and the target locations to provide geographic location information for calculating the travel route. Meanwhile, the real-time geographical position and road condition information is reported to the cloud management system through the communication module 880.

The walking route comprises sidewalks for pedestrians, such as urban roads and bridges. In order to sense surroundings such as pedestrians, vehicles, traffic lights at intersections, etc. during walking, the control device further includes various sensors, such as various visual sensors, sound sensors, distance sensors, etc., and their respective corresponding processing units. The walking control module 882 is internally provided with walking rules and corresponding control modes, and adopts the corresponding control modes according to information acquired by the sensors in the walking process. Such as stopping, decelerating, avoiding, accelerating, increasing power, changing routes, etc. The camera and its image processing unit in the interactive mechanism can also be used as a video sensor, or another independent visual sensor composed of a pattern sensor and a light projector. The vision sensor can acquire the whole image information of the front and the periphery of the vehicle, and can determine whether an obstacle exists in the front, whether a traffic light exists in the front or not after the image information is processed. The sound sensor can distinguish abnormal sound, and the abnormal condition can be judged by matching with the vision sensor. The distance sensor is, for example, a laser ranging sensor, a photoelectric sensor, an infrared sensor, or the like, and can measure a distance to a target object or an obstacle. For example, in the traveling road, the front road can be judged to be an uphill slope through the vision sensor, and at the moment, each roller assembly needs to be adjusted, so that the express robot can safely walk on the slope. If the front obstacle is judged to be in front through the vision sensor, the size of the obstacle can be judged, and an avoidance measure is determined. For example, if the obstacle is only a pedestrian, the distance that the pedestrian can pass is made in advance. After the pedestrian passes through, the pedestrian returns to the original route. If the front obstacle occupies the entire road, the route is changed one block ahead.

The sound sensor can collect surrounding sound and judge whether a response is needed. For example, when sharp ground friction sound is collected, a traffic accident may be determined according to the tone, size, distance and direction of the sound, and the current accident may be determined by configuring the image collected by the visual sensor. And then the distance between the accident site and the accident site can be determined through a distance sensor, such as a laser range finder, and whether avoidance is needed or not is judged. The distance sensor, such as a laser distance measuring sensor, a photoelectric distance measuring sensor, etc., can detect objects far ahead or objects near.

For different road conditions, the walking control module 882 controls the output power of the driving motor or the steering motor to adapt to the frictional resistance of different roads. For example, when the electric vehicle runs on a road surface with large friction resistance, such as snow, uneven stone and the like, the output power of the motor is increased, and when the electric vehicle runs on a road surface with smooth ground, such as tiles, ice and the like, the output power of the motor is reduced, and the possibility of skidding with the center of gravity lost is reduced through the direction of the roller.

The interactive control module 883 is connected to the walking control module 882, the task management module 881 and the communication module 880, acquires the pickup/delivery task information and the docking task information from the task management module 881, and completes the docking of the pickup or delivery and the goods according to the pickup/delivery task docking task and the corresponding interactive scene.

Specifically, as shown in FIG. 71, a functional block diagram of an interaction control module according to one embodiment of the invention is shown. The interactive control module 883 includes an operator unit 8831 to open the cargo container as instructed, for example, in a pick/deliver scenario, to open the top cap 813 at the beginning, to close the top cap 813 at the end, and to lock the top cap 813 to secure the cargo. In the cargo docking scenario, the front cover 814 is opened at the beginning and the front cover 814 is closed at the end to secure the cargo. The operation indicator is used for indicating a target sub turnover box in the main turnover box by operating the laser prompter according to the indication of the user or activating the indicator of the sub turnover box to emit light or sound to indicate the user that the target sub turnover box is the target sub turnover box.

The interactive control module 883 further includes a voice unit 8832, which includes a voice module, a speaker and a microphone, for interacting with the shipper or the consignee, guiding the shipper to perform the shipment process, and guiding the consignee to perform the consignee process. For example, checking the identity of the shipper or recipient, checking the goods, prompting the shipper or recipient to view a demonstration video, giving a reminder when the shipper or recipient has an error in operation, and the like.

The interactive control module 883 also includes a video unit 8833, including an image capture device (e.g., camera 831) and a video output device (e.g., display screen 832). The camera 831 collects video images all the way during shipment and receipt and sends them to the cloud management system through the communication module 880. In addition, the condition in the mother turnover box can be collected through the camera 831 to monitor the operation of the delivery user or the receiving user. The video output device plays relevant videos such as greeting videos interacted with a delivery user or a receiving user, operation demonstration videos, logistics process demonstration videos and the like. Through the interaction with the user in the modes of voice and video, necessary information can be vividly output to the user and questions of the user can be answered.

Embodiments of a Logistics control System

The logistics control system in the invention comprises: a customer service system and a logistics control module. Fig. 72 is a schematic block diagram of the logistics control system. The logistics control system in this embodiment includes one or more customer service systems, and a plurality of logistics control modules with the same function or different functions.

As shown in fig. 73, the customer service system includes a customer service end and a customer service client. The client provides a user interface, and a user can input the information related to the goods to be sent out through the client in a text, picture, voice or video mode. For example, the recipient and the address thereof, the sender and the address, the type or name of the goods and special matters are input in a text mode, such as information indicating fragility, urgency, generality, express and the like, photos and videos of the goods can be uploaded to conveniently judge the size, the weight and the like, and a delivery mode is indicated, such as home pick-up, self-service delivery by a user and the like. The user confirms the transmission after inputting the information. The client generates a user logistics order and sends the user logistics order to the server, the server analyzes information required by the logistics control system, such as recipient addresses, fragile characteristics of goods and logistics levels, and sends the order information to the logistics control module. And the logistics control module performs corresponding control operations such as picking, transporting, dispatching and the like according to the order. The server side also receives goods circulation information from the related logistics control module, for example, information such as the scheduled transportation path, the freight device corresponding to each logistics chain, the current logistics chain, the corresponding freight device, the area where the logistics chain is located, and the recording of the weight sensors of the freight devices at all levels in the way, whether collision exists and the like, so that the user can know the circulation progress of the sent goods. The client can also provide related logistics information, such as fee inquiry, logistics order, real-time inquiry of goods state and the like.

The server side issues user logistics order information to more than one logistics control module, and one logistics control module processes the order, such as receiving and dispatching goods, transportation and docking and the like. When the user selects to pick up goods from home, the goods can be picked up by the express robot or the unmanned aerial vehicle, when the user selects to carry out self-service delivery, the available express cabinets can be recommended to the user, and the plurality of express cabinets recommended to the user are sorted according to the distance from the user, the moving time and the like.

A logistics control module in this embodiment may include a plurality of modules with different functions, as shown in fig. 74, and in one example embodiment includes a geographic information module and a route planning module.

The geographic information module is used for acquiring and maintaining the real-time geographic position of the freight device. The geographic information module comprises a geographic information system or is connected with the existing geographic information system through a special interface so as to acquire geographic position information. Correspondingly, various freight devices in the invention are provided with positioning devices, such as positioning systems like GPS and the like, which are used for determining real-time physical positions and sending the real-time geographic positions to the geographic information module, so that the real-time geographic positions of the freight devices can be obtained.

The route planning module determines a freight device for handing over the goods, a handing over place and corresponding logistics information according to the real-time geographic position and the driving capacity of the freight device, the geographic traffic information and the logistics information of the transported goods. In one embodiment, after the information is determined, a travel route to the point of transfer is also calculated for the shipping device to be transferred. Or in another embodiment, the travel route from the current location to the hand-off location is calculated by the positioning device in the freight device itself with reference to the real-time traffic information. In another embodiment, when determining the docking point and the docking freight device, the docking point and the freight device are determined by preferentially using the logistics information of the goods with high logistics level by referring to the logistics level of the goods; when the quantity of the goods in the butt joint exceeds the capability of the butt joint freight device, the goods with high logistics level are preferentially exchanged, so that the goods with high logistics level can be quickly and timely delivered.

The logistics control module further comprises a goods supervision module used for acquiring and maintaining logistics information of transported goods from the customer service system, wherein the logistics information comprises goods order information, such as consignees and addresses, contact ways and logistics levels, such as express and ordinary. The logistics information also comprises identity binding information and change information among the goods, the freight transport device, the storage location unit, the parent turnover box and the child turnover box. Through the binding relationship information, the current carrying capacity of the freight devices, such as the number of the storage space units in each freight device and the distribution of the storage space units in the stereoscopic warehouse, can be determined. The freight device for transporting the goods and the position of the freight device in the stereoscopic warehouse can be determined through the identity binding information between the parent turnover box and the child turnover box and the identity binding information between the parent turnover box and the warehouse location unit. The information is continuously changed along with the transportation process of the goods, and the logistics information of each sub-turnover box is recorded with the changed information in detail, so that the logistics information can be used for tracking the whole logistics process of the goods, giving an alarm when the goods leave the logistics system in the transportation process, and positioning logistics equipment when the goods leave according to the association relationship between the goods and the storage location unit.

The logistics control module also comprises a sorting control module, determines a corresponding sorting goods list according to a freight device for transferring goods, an express cabinet and other possible fixed position warehouses and a transfer place, distributes sorting tasks for the sorting devices in the stereoscopic warehouses built in the freight device, distributes carrying tasks for the moving devices, and enables the two devices to be matched to finish sorting of the goods before butt joint. The sorting control module can be positioned in logistics equipment with stereoscopic warehouses such as a freight device and the like, and also can be positioned at the cloud end.

In some embodiments, the present invention employs a decentralized control scheme. When the goods enter the logistics chain, the goods information is sent to each module. One or more modules control the freight devices in one area to complete the operations of receiving, transporting, butt-joint handover, sorting, delivering and the like of cargos. When one of the function modules fails, the other same function modules can take over the failed function module to realize the corresponding control function. When one freight device fails, the control module replaces the failed freight device by other freight devices through reasonable planning and calculation.

In some embodiments, the method of the present invention mainly includes the following steps: receiving and sending of goods, transportation of goods, and goods transfer and sorting in the goods transportation process.

In some embodiments, a transportable child-mother container is provided in the logistics system. When goods are collected, the goods are stored in the sub-turnover box. After goods enter the logistics system, the sub turnover boxes are stored in the main turnover box, and one or more sub turnover boxes are arranged in one main turnover box. The freight device is used as a mobile warehouse, a stereoscopic warehouse is arranged in the mobile warehouse, and the mobile warehouse comprises one or more warehouse location units. In the process of cargo transportation, the mother turnover box is stored in the storage position unit. Each freight device, the storage position unit, the sub-turnover box and the mother turnover box in each freight device are provided with unique identification marks, and in the logistics process, the binding relationship among the freight devices, the sub-turnover box and the mother turnover box is established or released according to the conditions of sorting, exchange and the like in the transportation process, so that accurate goods circulation information can be obtained.

In some embodiments, during the transportation process of the goods, the goods are transported by using multiple levels of freight devices within the respective transportation distance ranges, the goods are transferred from one freight device to another freight device according to the distribution positions and the logistics directions of the freight devices, and the transfer process is continuously repeated until the logistics destination is reached. Since the goods need to be transferred between different freight devices, the goods need to be sorted out of the original freight device before being transferred. The sorting of the invention takes place in the freight device in the course of the freight transport.

According to the flow direction of the goods, the goods are sent out from the delivery user to enter the logistics system, and the flow of the goods is ended according to the receiving of the end logistics equipment, the transferring of different freight devices in the middle and the dispatching of the end logistics equipment until the receiving user receives the goods.

The logistics process of the invention is described below starting from the end of the logistics system.

At the logistics end, according to different logistics devices at the end, a plurality of delivery and receiving modes are provided, for example, delivery and delivery are finished by an express robot and a delivery user in an interactive way; a delivery user utilizes the express cabinet and the unmanned aerial vehicle to finish delivery and receiving by self; and the express delivery personnel drive the mini-truck to finish delivery and delivery interactively with a delivery user. The following describes the different scenarios one by one:

scene one: the express robot gets the goods to the delivery user

Fig. 75 is a flowchart of an operation method of the express robot in picking up goods according to an embodiment of the present invention. The express delivery robot goods taking operation method provided by the invention comprises the following steps:

in step S81a, a mother container having a predetermined sub container built therein is loaded into the storage layer in the container. When the express delivery robot takes the goods and receives the goods taking task, the specification information of the sub turnover box required by the taken goods is also included. The cloud end can determine whether the express robot currently has a sub-container with a required specification, and if not, the cloud end sends an address for acquiring the sub-container to the express robot, such as a nearby fixed-position warehouse, an express cabinet, or other freight devices passing through the area. If the express robot currently has a sub container with the required specification, the step S82a is executed. If the parent turnover box in the express robot does not have the child turnover box meeting the specification, the child turnover box needs to be acquired at the designated address. When the child turnover box is obtained, the express robot exchanges the parent turnover box in the container and the child turnover box in the container with the parent turnover box at the exchange place and the corresponding child turnover box meeting the specification. Further, the express delivery robot can get a plurality of goods to a plurality of goods of getting the goods place once, therefore, when starting, has placed the sub-turnover case that corresponds a plurality of goods in its packing box.

And step S82a, the express delivery robot arrives at the goods taking place according to the planned route. In the process from the starting point to the goods taking point, the vehicle walks according to the planned route, and the walking mode can be adjusted according to the condition of the walking road surface. In the walking process, the surroundings are monitored to prevent collision and avoid obstacles in time. In one embodiment, to improve efficiency, the courier robot notifies the shipper of the first 10 minutes of arrival and the post arrival via phone/text message.

In step S83a, the shipping user is guided to complete the shipping flow. After interfacing with the shipping user, the following process is included, as shown in FIG. 76:

in step S831a, the express robot checks the user identity and the goods. And checking whether the butt-joint person and the goods conform to the information in the goods taking task or not according to the goods taking task information. Such as shipping user name, phone, item name, characteristics, etc.

In step S832a, after the information is checked, the courier robot opens the top container cover, prompting the user to find and open the child container. And meanwhile, an operation demonstration video of opening the sub-turnover box and putting goods is played on the display screen. If when having a plurality of sub-turnover boxes in the box of mother turnover, express delivery robot can come the suggestion user through different modes and open corresponding sub-turnover box. For example, a light-emitting indicator is arranged on the sub-turnover box, and the express robot activates the light-emitting indicator corresponding to the sub-turnover box to make the light-emitting indicator emit light and flash, or informs a receiving user of the number on the shell of the sub-turnover box through voice; or sending light spots to the corresponding sub-turnover boxes through a cursor indicator.

Step S833a, after the user correctly places the goods in the sub-container, closes, weighs, charges, and confirms delivery of the goods, the express robot locks the sub-container, establishes an identity binding relationship between the goods and the sub-container, and writes the binding relationship and the sub-container password in the electronic tag of the sub-container. And uploading the electronic tag information of the sub-turnover box and the confirmed delivery information to the cloud. And the cargo supervision module at the cloud end records the information into the logistics information of the cargo.

And step S84a, the express delivery robot arrives at the docking point according to the planned route, and the goods are transferred to the next-level logistics chain. After the express robot uploads the information of the shipment determined by the user, the delivery information including the docking location, the identity information of the freight device docked with the express robot and the planned route is obtained through cloud computing, and the delivery information is sent to the express robot. And the express delivery robot arrives at the docking point according to the planned route. When the freight device arrives, the front cover of the container is opened by the express robot, the AGV in the freight device enters the container of the express robot, the female turnover box is jacked up, and the parent turnover box is transported back to the freight device. After the mother turnover box is carried away, the express robot removes the identity binding relationship between the express robot and the mother turnover box and uploads the identity binding relationship to the cloud, so that the goods taking task is completed, and the butt joint and delivery are completed. And the cloud end records the change information of the identity binding information into the logistics information of the goods.

And after the freight device receives the mother turnover box, establishing the identity binding relationship between the freight device and the mother turnover box.

Scene two: express delivery robot sends goods to user of receiving goods

Figure 79 is a flow diagram of a courier robot delivery operation, according to one embodiment of the present disclosure. The delivery operation flow comprises the following steps:

step S80c, receiving the goods to be dispatched. After receiving the delivery task, the express delivery robot receives the goods to be delivered after delivering the primary turnover box to the butt-joint goods transport device during butt joint, and the goods are transported to the container of the express delivery robot by the AGV in the goods transport device in the secondary turnover box along with the primary turnover box.

And step S81c, the express delivery robot walks to a delivery place according to the cloud planning or the self-calculated walking route. In one embodiment, to improve efficiency, the courier robot notifies the consignee user by phone/text message 10 minutes before and after arrival.

Step S82c, and upon arrival at the delivery location, interacts with the receiving user to complete the delivery task. The delivery service system comprises an express delivery robot, a delivery user and a delivery service robot, wherein the delivery service robot is connected with the delivery service robot, and the delivery service robot is connected with the delivery service robot. If the goods receiving user still does not arrive within the preset time period, sending information to the cloud customer service system, and continuing waiting for a period of time under the requirement of the cloud customer service system, or storing the goods into a nearby express delivery cabinet, namely a first docking scene. In the process of delivering goods with a goods receiving user, the express delivery robot prompts the goods receiving user to find and open the sub-turnover box and take out the goods, the goods receiving user confirms the goods receiving and then covers the sub-turnover box and clicks a confirmation key of the display screen, and the goods delivery is completed. The express delivery robot collects videos of an interaction process in the interaction process with a goods receiving user, timely helps the goods receiving user to operate correctly, and finally uploads the collected videos to a cloud management system.

Scene three: express delivery robot simultaneously gets, delivers goods

The express delivery robot can also deliver goods simultaneously in the goods taking process. In a preferred embodiment, the container of the express robot includes two mother containers, one is a delivery mother container and one is a pick-up container, and each mother container may include more than one child containers. Each sub-circulation box corresponds to one task. When the express robot executes a plurality of tasks, a walking route of the express robot is designed according to a destination address in the tasks, a docking address during delivery and a current address of the express robot, and the walking route can be planned by a cloud management system or the express robot.

FIG. 80 is a flow diagram of a courier robot performing multiple tasks, according to one embodiment of the invention. The execution process comprises the following steps:

step S80d, the mobile terminal moves to the first execution point according to the planned route. The execution place is a goods taking place or a goods delivery place.

In step S81d, it is determined whether the pickup or delivery is performed at the current execution location, and if the pickup is performed at the current execution location, the pickup flow interacting with the delivery user is executed from step S831a in fig. 76, and the pickup task is completed. In the goods taking process, a top cover corresponding to the mother goods taking turnover box in the goods box is opened, and a child turnover box corresponding to the specification of the goods to be taken is placed in the top cover. If the delivery is made at the current execution site, step S82c in FIG. 79 is executed to complete the delivery task. In the goods delivery process, a top cover corresponding to the main goods delivery turnover box in the container is opened, and a sub turnover box filled with goods is placed in the container.

After the picking process and the delivery process are completed, step S82d is performed to determine whether there is any non-execution location, and if so, the process moves to a new execution location in step S83d, and then step S81d is performed. If there is no unexecuted spot, that is, all the picking and delivery tasks are completed, the express delivery robot moves to the docking point according to the planned route in step S84d, and after docking with the delivery device of the next logistics chain at the docking point in step S85d, the pick-up parent container and the delivery container (in this case, the child container inside is empty) are delivered to the delivery device. The freight transport device collects the goods sub-turnover boxes required to be delivered into one main turnover box, collects the sub-turnover boxes required by the goods taking of the express robot into the other main turnover box, and delivers the sub-turnover boxes to the express robot together. At this point, the express robot completes the previous multi-task execution and starts the next pick-up and delivery task execution.

In this embodiment, the express delivery robot is at a walking in-process, both can get goods and also can deliver goods, under the prerequisite of guaranteeing to get delivery efficiency, has reduced the useless work that the express delivery robot empty box removed, therefore the work efficiency of express delivery robot is higher.

Delivery and pickup embodiment adopting express delivery cabinet

Scene four: self-service delivery of goods by express cabinet is adopted to user

When the delivery user needs to deliver goods, if delivery from the express cabinet is selected, the delivery user can store the goods in the express cabinet to complete self-delivery. Specifically, the following steps are included as shown in fig. 81:

step S1000, a delivery user generates a logistics order including a name, an address and a contact way of a receiver through a customer service client, such as an APP (application) or an applet supported by a mobile phone; the name, address and contact of the shipper; logistics class (aviation express); size; information such as express cabinets selected for price keeping and delivery.

And S1001, after receiving the user order, the cloud system sends delivery information to the corresponding express cabinet. Including the detailed information of the order and the required identity of the sub-circulation box.

In step S1002, the express delivery cabinet 10 sorts the corresponding sub-containers into a parent container according to the required sub-container identities, and sends the sorted sub-containers to a storage location unit interacting with the user by the AGV3, where the storage location unit corresponds to the cabinet door 112, as shown in fig. 47B.

And step S1003, after the delivery user arrives at the express cabinet, the delivery user can interact with the express cabinet through the mobile phone client side to confirm identity information of the delivery user and the express cabinet.

In step S1004, after the identity information is confirmed to be correct, the express delivery cabinet 10 opens the user interaction cabinet door 112. And the delivery user opens the sub-turnover box under the prompt of the client, puts the goods into the sub-turnover box and puts the goods back to the express cabinet. Upon determining that the shipment is complete, the courier cabinet 10 closes the cabinet door 112.

Step S1005, the AGV inside the express delivery cabinet 10 reads the identity tag of the child turnover box 7, establishes the identity binding relationship between the goods and the child turnover box 7, and uploads the identity binding relationship between the child turnover box 7 and the current parent turnover box to the cloud, so as to wait for goods taking.

In a better embodiment, the height of the parent container (hereinafter referred to as the parent container for the cabinet) for receiving the goods of the delivery user is small, as shown in fig. 47B, so that the user can conveniently take the child container, and if the height of the parent container (hereinafter referred to as the parent container for the transportation) used in other transportation is different, the parent container with the small height can be left in the express cabinet 10 and is specially used for interaction with the user. Therefore, after the delivery customer has finished delivering the goods, the child containers with the goods therein need to be transferred to the transport parent container. The sorting unit of the sorting device can be conveyed to the cabinet mother turnover box by the AGV, and the cabinet mother turnover box is transferred into the transport mother turnover box by the sorting device.

Scene five: self-service goods receiving of express delivery cabinet is adopted to user

When the goods sent to the consignee are temporarily stored in the express cabinet 10 for various reasons, the consignee can finish receiving goods by self in the express cabinet 10. The goods receiving user can interact with the express delivery cabinet 10 through the client, after the identities are confirmed mutually, the sorting device in the express delivery cabinet 10 sorts the sub-turnover boxes 7 containing the goods of the user into the main turnover box 2 for the cabinet, the sub-turnover boxes are carried to the storage location unit 1 with the interaction of the user through the AGV3, and the corresponding cabinet doors 112 are opened. The user can know the password for opening the sub-turnover box 7 according to the information received by the mobile phone client, and open the sub-turnover box 7 to take away the goods at the prompt of the mobile phone client, such as video demonstration and the like. After the user returns the child container to the parent container for the cabinet and finishes taking the goods, the cabinet door 112 is closed.

When the user receives and delivers goods by self, the express cabinet is opened by a special cabinet door 112, of course, a cabinet door 111 when being butted with the express robot 8 or other goods delivery devices can be adopted, the main turnover box 2 is delivered out of the cabinet body through a lifting butt joint plate 122, if the user takes goods, the corresponding sub turnover box 7 with the goods is delivered out, and if the user delivers goods, the corresponding required sub turnover box 7 is delivered out.

Scene six: the user interacts with the unmanned aerial vehicle to take and deliver goods

The user may choose to pick up or receive goods from the drone when placing an order. When getting goods, the unmanned aerial vehicle carries the sub-turnover box with the corresponding specification to reach the user, and the user puts the goods into the sub-turnover box according to the indication, such as the demonstration video, the text explanation and the like of the voice device or the customer service client in the unmanned aerial vehicle. Unmanned aerial vehicle is provided with weighing transducer, and after the user finished packing, the charge of weighing, after the user paid, the flow of getting goods was ended, and this goods gets into logistics system. When the unmanned aerial vehicle dispatches goods, the interaction process is similar to that of the user and is not repeated here.

Scene seven: user interaction with a minivan

In this embodiment, the user may also interact with a mini-truck, driven or unmanned by the courier, to deliver or receive goods. When the mini-truck is unmanned, the mini-truck is provided with the interaction equipment, specifically, the interaction equipment of the express robot can be referred to, and the process is similar to the interaction process of the express robot and is not repeated.

The goods enter a logistics system through terminal logistics equipment such as an express robot, an unmanned aerial vehicle, an express cabinet or a mini truck, and the goods are transmitted in different freight devices. According to the types of the two freight devices during the transfer, the following docking scenarios are included:

A first docking scene: express delivery robot and express delivery cabinet butt joint

The express delivery robot can obtain the empty case with the purpose of express delivery cabinet butt joint, or will fail to deliver to the goods of consignee department and temporarily store in the express delivery cabinet, or take out the goods that need be delivered from the express delivery cabinet. Taking the empty box as an example, the docking process of the express robot and the express cabinet is described as follows:

when the express delivery robot 8 does not have a suitable sub-container at present, the express delivery robot can be obtained from a nearby express delivery cabinet, and the method specifically includes the following steps shown in fig. 77:

step S80b, the cloud system queries the express delivery cabinets and the traveling freight devices within the traveling range of the express delivery robot 8, and determines the positions where the express delivery robot 8 can acquire the required sub-containers according to the shortest acquisition time principle, in this embodiment, for example, the express delivery cabinet 10.

Step S81b, the cloud system sends a message for acquiring the child and parent containers to the express robot 8 and the determined express cabinet 10, where the information received by the express robot 8 includes the position of the express cabinet 10 and may also include a planned travel route. The information received by the express delivery cabinet 10 includes the identity of the sub-container and the identity of the express delivery robot, wherein the number of the required sub-containers can be one or more according to the goods taking requirement.

Step S82b, the express delivery robot 8 moves to the location of the express delivery cabinet 10 according to the planned route, and meanwhile, the express delivery cabinet 10 sorts the required child turnover boxes into a parent turnover box according to the received message and the matching of the AGV3 by its internal sorting device, and establishes the identity binding relationship between the parent turnover box and the child turnover boxes.

In step S83b, after the express delivery robot 8 arrives at the position of the express delivery cabinet 10, the identity of the express delivery robot and the express delivery cabinet 10 is mutually confirmed. As shown in fig. 78A.

In step S84b, after the two parties determine the identities, the express delivery cabinet 10 opens the cabinet door, lowers the docking plate 122, drives the slide rail 121 to lower the docking plate 122, and at the same time, the express delivery robot 8 opens the front cover of the cargo box to prepare for docking. As shown in fig. 78B.

Step S85b, the express robot 8 moves forward to make the docking plate 122 enter the bottom of the base, and when the lift sensor is triggered, it indicates that the docking plate 122 is docked correctly with the express robot 8, and then the slide rail 121 is driven to lift the express robot 8 together until the signal sent by the positioning sensor is received, which indicates that the driving surface of the moving space in the container of the express robot 8 is docked correctly with the driving surface on the lifting table 42. As shown in fig. 78C. Wherein, the lifting sensor can be arranged at a proper position under the base of the express robot 8, and also can be arranged at a proper position of the butt plate 122. The positioning sensor may be provided at a suitable position of the docking plate 122 or the lift table 42.

In step S86b, the AGV3 inside the courier cabinet 10 transports the parent container with the child container already placed therein to the container of the courier robot 8, and returns the parent container to the courier cabinet 10. If there is female turnover case inside the express delivery robot 8, then inside AGV3 of express delivery cabinet 10 earlier carries the inside female turnover case of express delivery robot 8 to express delivery cabinet 10 in, carries the packing box of express delivery robot 8 with the sub-turnover case that express delivery robot 8 needs together with a female turnover case again in.

In step S87b, the express delivery cabinet 10 drives the slide rail 121 to descend together with the express delivery robot 8.

In step S88b, the express delivery cabinet 10 is separated from the express delivery robot 8. After the express robot 8 lands, it moves backward and leaves the docking plate 122, and then closes the front cover, and at the same time, the express cabinet 10 retracts the docking plate 122 and rises to a certain height, and closes the cabinet door 111.

At this time, the express robot 8 successfully obtains the required container from the express cabinet 10.

When the express delivery robot delivers goods and cannot deliver the goods to a goods receiving user, or the goods are stored in the express delivery cabinet. When the express robot stores the goods to be dispatched together with the mother turnover box into the express cabinet, the binding change information of the mother turnover box is sent to the cloud management system, and the goods delivery task is completed. The cloud management system informs the receiver of goods taking in a telephone, a short message or a mail mode and the like. The process is similar to the process of emptying the box and is not described in detail herein. Similarly, the express delivery robot also can get the goods that need the delivery to the express delivery cabinet according to the instruction in high in the clouds, specifically with get the process of empty case similar, no longer give unnecessary details here.

Docking stationAnd (2) landscape II: express delivery robot and mini truck butt joint

Express delivery robot can transmit the goods of collecting from the user for minivan, also can receive the goods that need the delivery from minivan.

As shown in fig. 82A-82C, the docking of the mini-truck and the express delivery robot in this embodiment is schematically illustrated. When the mini-truck 9a is docked with the express robot 8, the door 94 is opened, and when the lifting bracket 962 of the lifting docking device descends to a preset position along the lifting rail 961, the docking plate 963 is opened. As shown in fig. 82A. The express robot 8 moves forwards, so that the butt joint plate 963 extends to the bottom of a container base of the express robot 8, after the position of the butt joint plate 963 is determined with the position of the container base, the lifting support 962 is controlled to ascend to a preset position along the lifting track 961, and the ascending is stopped after the traveling surface of the object moving space of the butt joint plate 963 of the container of the express robot 8 is in butt joint with the traveling surface at the bottom of the container position unit in the three-dimensional warehouse. At this time, the AGV3 inside the mini-truck 9a enters the container of the express robot 8 to transport the parent turnover box inside the mini-truck 9a to the mini-truck 9a, or transport the corresponding parent turnover box in the mini-truck 9a to the container of the express robot 8 as required.

A third docking scenario: express delivery robot and urban area circulation freight train butt joint

When conditions such as proper place and time conditions allow, the express delivery robot can also transfer goods collected by the user to the urban circulating truck and receive goods to be delivered from the urban circulating truck. This process is similar to docking of a mini-truck and will not be repeated here.

Similarly, the express delivery robot may also interface with an intercity freight device, such as a long or short haul truck, train, marine ship, etc. that is resting midway, as conditions such as appropriate location and time conditions permit.

As terminal logistics equipment, unmanned aerial vehicle can divide into large-scale unmanned aerial vehicle and unmanned aerial vehicle, and unmanned aerial vehicle only transports a sub-turnover case at every turn, a goods promptly. And large-scale unmanned aerial vehicle is inside to have a plurality of storehouse position units, can deposit a plurality of sub-turnover casees.

And C, docking a scene IV: unmanned aerial vehicle and express delivery cabinet butt joint

Unmanned aerial vehicle can deposit the goods of collecting from the user in the express delivery cabinet, or obtain the goods that need be dispatched from the express delivery cabinet.

Unmanned aerial vehicle is after collecting the goods from the user, according to high in the clouds calculation, can hand over the goods to other logistics equipment, like express delivery cabinet, minivan, urban area circulation freight train etc.. In this embodiment, the unmanned aerial vehicle deposits the goods to be delivered into the cabinet 10, or takes the goods to be taken out from the cabinet. When unmanned aerial vehicle reachd the express delivery cabinet 10 sky, with express delivery cabinet 10 communication, after confirming the identity each other, apron 113 at top unmanned aerial vehicle kneck is opened to express delivery cabinet 10. If the user deposits goods, then the elevating platform of the in-cabinet elevating system takes the mother turnover box 2 to move upwards and reach the unmanned aerial vehicle interface. The unmanned aerial vehicle puts down the sub-turnover box 7 with the goods into the main turnover box 2. When the unmanned aerial vehicle gets goods, the elevating platform takes the mother turnover box 2 with the built-in son turnover box 7 to move upwards and reach the unmanned aerial vehicle interface. Unmanned aerial vehicle snatchs sub-turnover case 7 from female turnover case 2. After finishing interacting with unmanned aerial vehicle, closing apron 113, the elevating platform takes female turnover case 2 to descend. Or, the cloud calculates that the unmanned aerial vehicle can send the goods in the express delivery cabinet to the goods receiving user, and the interaction process of the unmanned aerial vehicle and the express delivery cabinet is similar to the above process, and the description is not repeated here.

A fifth docking scene: butt joint of small unmanned aerial vehicle and fixed position warehouse

Figure 86 is a schematic diagram of a drone interfacing with a fixed location warehouse, in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention. In this embodiment, the fixed-position warehouse (or referred to as a first stereoscopic warehouse) 100 is provided with an unmanned aerial vehicle interface 106 at the top thereof, in addition to the door 105, and the interface corresponds to one or more warehouse location units. When the small-sized unmanned aerial vehicle is to place the sub-containers 7 in the first stereoscopic warehouse 100, the first stereoscopic warehouse 100 opens the cover plate at the interface to expose the corresponding storage location unit thereunder. The drone may hover over the interface or rest on the interface by resting on the interface perimeter detents 107 via a stand. The fixed position is good, the small unmanned aerial vehicle puts the sub-turnover box into the storage position unit at the interface through the mechanical gripper and the like, and meanwhile, the identity binding relationship between the sub-turnover box and the unmanned aerial vehicle is removed. If the goods in the first stereoscopic warehouse 100 are to be transferred to the small unmanned aerial vehicle, the sub turnover box needing to be carried by the small unmanned aerial vehicle is placed in the storage position unit at the interface, the small unmanned aerial vehicle identifies the sub turnover box through an RFID reader-writer and the like, the sub turnover box is grabbed and taken away through a mechanical gripper and the like, meanwhile, the identity binding relationship between the sub turnover box and the storage position unit is removed, and the identity binding relationship between the sub turnover box and the unmanned aerial vehicle is established.

A docking scene six: docking of large unmanned aerial vehicle with fixed position warehouse

The large unmanned aerial vehicle is provided with a storage space similar to a stereoscopic warehouse, and the large unmanned aerial vehicle comprises a lift. Docking to the ground, or other stereoscopic warehouse, includes two ways.

First, docking is performed through the drone interface 106 in fig. 86. For example, a large drone may hover over the interface, or may be parked over the interface by a cradle resting on interface perimeter detents 107. After the position is determined, the large unmanned aerial vehicle puts down the elevator to be in butt joint with the interface, so that the goods are delivered and stored and exchanged.

Secondly, the large unmanned aerial vehicle hovers or falls on the ground on the side face of the stereoscopic warehouse, and is in butt joint with the stereoscopic warehouse through a butt joint plate or a butt joint pipeline, so that the goods are delivered and stored and exchanged.

A docking scene seven: unmanned aerial vehicle interacting with a freight device

Unmanned aerial vehicle also can be mutual with freight devices such as minivan, urban area circulation freight train, deposit or take out the goods. Minivan, urban circulation freight train can set up the unmanned aerial vehicle interface, unmanned aerial vehicle interface in express delivery cabinet or the fixed position warehouse for example. Different with the interaction of express delivery cabinet, fixed position warehouse is that unmanned aerial vehicle when interactive with mobilizable logistics equipment such as minivan, urban area circulation freight train, mobilizable freight transportation device need not stop, when the two keeps the same speed, can deposit the sub-turnover case that unmanned aerial vehicle carried in the freight transportation device from the unmanned aerial vehicle interface of freight transportation device, perhaps extract the goods from the freight transportation device.

And eighth butt joint scene: dock of mini-truck with fixed position warehouse

Figure 83 is a schematic illustration of a mini-van interfacing with a fixed location warehouse, in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention. When the mini-truck 9a is docked in a fixed position warehouse (e.g., a courier cabinet), the mini-truck 9a is moved into position with its doors facing each other and the door 94 and door 111 are opened. The fixed position warehouse door 105 is opened, and the lifting bracket 962 of the lifting docking device of the mini-van 9a lifts the docking plate 963 to a preset position along the lifting rail 961, and opens the docking plate 963. The wagon 9a adjusts the position and the damping air bag, so that the butt plate 963 is accurately butted with the lifting platform 42 or the warehouse location unit of the fixed-position warehouse. At this time, the AGV3 inside the mini truck 9a enters the fixed position warehouse to transport the parent turnover box containing the child turnover box of the goods to be delivered inside the mini truck 9a to the mini truck 9a, or transport the child turnover box and the parent turnover box of the mini truck 9a, which need to be received by the user by oneself, to the fixed position warehouse as required.

A docking scenario nine: the mini-truck is butted with the urban circulating truck

Figure 84 is a schematic illustration of a pickup truck docking with a city recycling truck, in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention. Since the mini-truck 9a is a small freight device and the height thereof is smaller than that of the urban circulating truck 9b, the stereoscopic warehouse inside the mini-truck cannot be directly butted with the stereoscopic warehouse in the urban circulating truck 9 b. After the doors of the mini-truck 9a and the mini-truck are opened, the lifting bracket in the butt joint device in the mini-truck 9a ascends, and the butt joint plate is put down, so that the butt joint plate is completely butted with the running surface of the bottom surface of the storage location unit in the urban circulating truck 9 b.

Ten docking scenes: mini-truck and mini-truck butt joint

Because the transport distance of the mini-truck is short, when goods are transferred, the goods can be transferred to other mini-trucks when the goods cannot be transferred to the circulating freight train in the urban area in time.

Eleventh docking scene: city (R)The district circulating truck is butted with the urban circulating truck

Fig. 85 is a schematic illustration of the docking of two urban recycle trucks 9 b. In this embodiment, after the vehicles of the two urban recycling trucks 9b adjust the vehicle bodies to stop, the opposite wing doors 942 are opened in sequence, and then the horizontal and alignment heights are adjusted. In the embodiment, the damping air bags are arranged between the box body frame and the vehicle body of the urban circulating truck 9b, and the level can be conveniently and quickly adjusted by adjusting the air pressure of each air bag. However, the X-Y driving platform is started to drive the whole stereoscopic warehouse 91 to slide out to the side, and when the two stereoscopic warehouses are butted and positioned, the sliding is stopped, so that a unified stereoscopic warehouse is formed.

A docking scene twelve: urban circulating truck and fixed position warehouse

As with the docking of a mini-truck to a fixed-location warehouse, the description is not repeated here.

A docking scenario thirteen: the urban circulating truck is butted with other freight devices

The three-dimensional warehouse is arranged on other freight devices, such as a freight train, a freight airplane and a marine freight ship, when the urban circulating trucks are butted with the urban circulating trucks, a mode of butting two urban circulating trucks in the eleventh scene can be adopted according to the field condition, and the urban circulating trucks drive the X-Y driving platform to move out the three-dimensional warehouse and directly butt with the three-dimensional warehouse in other freight devices. Alternatively, these freight devices open their docking plate 300 and use a lifting mechanism to raise or lower them into position for accurate docking with the urban recycle wagon. In this embodiment, it is needless to say that the two stereoscopic warehouses may be butted by a pipeline having a bottom surface serving as a butt plate, so that the warehouses may be loaded or unloaded without being affected by weather or climate.

Positioning sensors are arranged on the various logistics warehouses or the butt-joint plates, and whether the butt-joint is accurate or not is determined according to the positioning sensors.

When the two logistics devices are in butt joint, the goods are delivered out of the warehouse, put in the warehouse and exchanged. The warehouse structure shown in fig. 87 is taken as an example to explain the cargo delivery, storage, and exchange processes.

Embodiment one of cargo warehousing process

Fig. 87 is a schematic view of the docking of the stereoscopic warehouse with the shipping apparatus according to one embodiment of the present invention. Taking fig. 87 as an example, the cargo warehousing process will be described, where in fig. 87, the first stereoscopic warehouse 100 is a fixed-position warehouse, the second stereoscopic warehouse 200 is a stereoscopic warehouse in one cargo device, and no vehicle is shown in fig. 87. As shown in fig. 88, the cargo warehousing process includes the following steps:

In step S9101, the cargo device travels to the side of the first stereoscopic warehouse 100, and both sides open the doors. The first stereoscopic warehouse 100 may be a fixed logistics warehouse.

Step S9102, the cargo device is docked with the first stereoscopic warehouse 100. As shown in fig. 87, the storage space unit 20 inside the small-sized second stereoscopic warehouse 200 in the cargo device has the same specification as the storage space unit 10 in the first stereoscopic warehouse 100. When the

doors

105, 205 of both are open, the second stereoscopic warehouse 200 in the freight device can be directly docked door-to-door with the fixed first stereoscopic warehouse 100, as conditions permit. For example, by adjusting the angle of the freight device to be parallel and adjacent to the fixed first stereoscopic warehouse 100 and then adjusting the height and level of the second stereoscopic warehouse 200 in the freight device, in one embodiment, by adjusting the shock-absorbing air bags installed on the vehicle, for example, adjusting the air pressure of each air bag, the level can be conveniently and quickly adjusted, so that the door 205 of the second stereoscopic warehouse 200 is completely butted with the door 105 in the fixed first stereoscopic warehouse 100. In addition, if the door 105 in the fixed first stereoscopic warehouse 100 is large, the door 205 of the second stereoscopic warehouse 200 is small, and the door 105 of the first stereoscopic warehouse 100 is large, it is possible to reveal multiple rows and multiple floors of bay units when it is opened. When the small-sized second stereoscopic warehouse 200 in the cargo device is docked, the second stereoscopic warehouse can be docked at any row and any layer.

And triggering the positioning sensors when the two stereoscopic warehouses are completely butted, indicating that the butting is completed after the local modules in the stereoscopic warehouses receive signals of the positioning sensors, and sending the information of completing the butting of the stereoscopic warehouses to the cloud logistics control module through the communication module. And the cloud logistics control module sends a transportation instruction to the AGV to carry the goods. And determining the number of the AGV for conveying according to the number of the warehousing storage devices of the second stereoscopic warehouse 200 in the freight device, the number of the warehouse location units of the butt joint surfaces and the number of the currently available AGV. In the present embodiment, it is assumed that only one parent container of the transport apparatus is stored in the first stereoscopic warehouse 100, and thus only one AGV is required. When the AGV is determined, an idle AGV is selected first, and when the AGV does not exist, the task of the AGV which is working is interrupted, so that the AGV carries the warehousing storage device.

Step S9103, determining whether there is an available AGV in the two warehouses, and if there is an available AGV230 in the second stereoscopic warehouse 200 or an available AGV130 in the first stereoscopic warehouse 100, in step S9104, the cloud logistics control module sends a transport instruction to the available AGV23 or the AGV 130. And then step S9108 is executed.

If there is no AGV in both warehouses, it is determined at step S9105 whether there is a spare AGV, such as one equipped inside the first stereoscopic warehouse 100 or in the freight device.

If there is a spare AGV, a transport instruction is sent to the spare AGV at step S9106, and then step S9018 is executed. If there is no spare AGV, the task of one AGV in the first stereoscopic warehouse 100 is interrupted and a transport instruction is sent thereto in step S9107.

In step S9108, the transporting AGV enters the storage unit 20 of the mother turnover box 220 to be transported. If the transporting AGV is the AGV130 in the first stereoscopic warehouse 100, since the floors of the bay units of the two warehouses are butted and communicated with each other after the doors of the two warehouses are butted, the AGV130 can travel to the bay unit 20 in the second stereoscopic warehouse 200.

Step S9109, the AGV is carried to jack up the mother turnover box 220, the RFID information of the mother turnover box 220 is read, the bound storage location unit number is changed into a transportation state, and the RFID information of the mother turnover box 220 is sent to the cloud logistics control module.

In step S9110, the transporting AGV pushes the parent container 220 to enter one of the storage units in the first stereoscopic warehouse 100. Since only one parent turnover box is put in storage at this time, the parent turnover box is only carried into any one of the free storage space units in the first stereoscopic warehouse 100. If a plurality of mother turnover boxes are put in storage, the placement positions and the sequence of the mother turnover boxes need to be determined according to the number of the mother turnover boxes, for example, the mother turnover box needing to be carried firstly is put into a storage position unit far away from the bin gate 105, and the storage position unit near the bin gate 105 is reserved for the mother turnover boxes which are put in storage subsequently. If a plurality of transporting AGVs and a plurality of parent turnover boxes which are put in storage exist, the cloud can also calculate walking routes and mutual matching modes when the AGVs are transported, the transporting scheme which consumes the shortest time for transporting is obtained, and a plurality of AGVs are controlled to finish the storage tasks of the parent turnover boxes according to the scheme.

Step S9111, the transport AGV reads the RFID information of the storage unit and acquires a serial number.

Step S9112, when the transport AGV releases the mother turnover box 220 to the stock position unit, the serial number of the stock position unit is written into the RFID information of the mother turnover box 220, the binding of the mother turnover box 220 and the stock position unit is completed, and the rewritten RFID information of the mother turnover box 220 is sent to the cloud logistics control module.

Step S9113, determine whether the transporting AGV is an AGV in the first stereoscopic warehouse 100, and if so, wait for receiving a new task in step S9114. If not, it is determined in step S9115 whether the transporting AGV is a standby AGV, and if so, it returns to the original position in step S9116. If not, it is explained that the transporting AGV is an AGV in the cargo conveyance device, the AGV returns to the cargo conveyance device in step S9117.

And S9118, closing the doors of the two warehouse parts to finish warehousing the goods. If the butt joint plate exists, the butt joint plate is firstly retracted, and then the bin door is closed.

According to the process, the AGV can be flexibly selected according to the current condition during warehousing, the final purpose is to finish warehousing of the goods as soon as possible, and the current other tasks are not interfered as much as possible when the purpose is achieved.

Second embodiment of cargo warehousing process

When a plurality of mother turnover boxes need to be put in storage, the method further comprises the step of determining the number of the transporting AGVs capable of being used for transporting. The cloud logistics control module determines the number of AGV capable of being used for carrying according to the current task amount of the two stereoscopic warehouses. When no goods are delivered to and stored in the three-dimensional AGV, the task of the three-dimensional AGV is to match the sorting device 6 to sort the goods in the three-dimensional warehouse in corresponding grades. Specifically, the cloud logistics control module controls the AGV and the sorting machine device 6 in the three-dimensional warehouse to sort the next goods out of the warehouse according to the flow direction of the next goods out of the warehouse. And the AGV carries the target mother turnover box to a sorting robot, and sorts the target mother turnover box by the sorting robot. After the sorting is completed, the AGV carries the sorted mother turnover boxes which are discharged from the warehouse next time to the area near the warehouse door or the designated area. For the freight device, after the freight device is docked with the first stereoscopic warehouse 100 to transfer goods, the next place is needed to transfer the goods, and the AGV and the sorting robot inside the freight device need to sort the goods to be unloaded next time.

The cloud logistics control module determines available AGV data of the current transportation according to time (such as delivery time) required for next delivery of the goods in the first stereoscopic warehouse 100 and sorting time required for delivery of the goods. Similarly, the cloud logistics control module determines the number of the AGV available for the transportation according to the transportation time of the freight device on the road when the freight device transfers the goods to the next butt joint place and the sorting time of the goods to be transferred in the sorting mode.

In addition, spare AGVs are usually reserved in the fixed warehouses to prevent the rapid delivery of the goods from being completed due to the excessive amount of tasks in each warehouse. Thus, the spare AGVs may also be included in the statistics of available AGVs, resulting in a total number of available AGVs.

After the number of the available AGVs is determined, the cloud logistics control module determines the single maximum conveying amount according to the current warehousing amount, the corresponding warehouse location unit number of the butt joint face after the warehouse door is opened, and the number of the available transporting AGVs so as to finish warehousing of the goods with the maximum efficiency. As shown in fig. 87, when the first stereoscopic warehouse 100 and the second stereoscopic warehouse 200 are butted by using the door-to-door method, the butting surface has two rows of storage location units, i.e., upper and lower layers and left and right rows, so that 4 warehoused mother turnover boxes can be transported at a time according to the number of the storage location units of the butting surface. And then, combining the current total warehousing quantity and the number of available AGVs, for example, the current total warehousing quantity is 10, the first stereoscopic warehouse 100 has 4 AGVs, and the second stereoscopic warehouse 200 of the freight device has 2 AGVs, so that there are 6 available AGVs in total, and thus, the maximum transportation quantity per time can be 4 warehousing mother turnover boxes.

Before the transportation starts, the cloud logistics control module sends a list of the warehousing mother turnover boxes in the second stereoscopic warehouse 200, which need to be transported into the first stereoscopic warehouse 100, to each available AGV. And the warehousing mother turnover box list records the identity information and the state of each warehousing mother turnover box. As shown in table 2 below:

Table 2: inventory of warehousing mother turnover box

Identity tag	Status of state	Total weight of goods
			A-100-201-300001	N (non-transport)	xxxg
A-100-201-300002	Moving (Moving)	xxxxg
			A-100-201-300003	Y (carried)	xxxg
……	……	……

And a warehousing mother turnover box list is stored in each transporting AGV. When the AGV enters the storage space, the warehousing mother turnover box to be moved out is identified according to the warehousing mother turnover box list, when one warehousing mother turnover box is carried, a message is sent to the cloud logistics control module, and the cloud logistics control module updates the warehousing mother turnover box list in each available AGV.

Fig. 89 is a schematic flow chart of the AGV transporting the parent turnover box according to an embodiment of the present invention;

and step S9210, the cloud logistics control module sends a warehousing mother turnover box list to the AGV.

And step S9200, the transporting AGV receives the warehousing mother turnover box list, stores the warehousing mother turnover box list locally, and updates and maintains the warehousing mother turnover box list according to the updating message sent by the cloud logistics control module.

And step S9201, the AGV is carried to enter a stereoscopic warehouse. The handling AGV is the AGV130 entering the first stereoscopic warehouse 100, and may also be the AGV230 in the second stereoscopic warehouse 200, or a backup AGV.

Step S9202, the transporting AGV reads the identity tag of the parent container 220 that the transporting AGV encounters, and obtains the identity information of the parent container 220 therefrom.

Step S9203, it is determined whether the parent container 220 is in the warehousing parent container list and whether the status is not transported, and if yes, step S9204 is executed. If not, returning to the step S9202 to read the identity label of another mother turnover box.

In step S9204, the parent container 220 is jacked up, and the information of the stock location unit in the label information of the parent container 220 is rewritten to be in a moving state, that is, the binding relationship between the parent container 220 and the currently-described second stock location unit is released.

Step S9205, the transporting AGV sends the modified identity label information of the mother turnover box 220 back to the cloud logistics control module, namely sends the unbinding message to the cloud logistics control module.

And step S9211, the cloud logistics control module records the current state of the warehousing mother turnover box and updates the warehousing mother turnover box list.

And step S9212, the cloud logistics control module sends the updated warehousing mother turnover box list to all available AGVs.

In step S9206, the transporting AGV pushes the parent turnover box 220 to return to the first stereoscopic warehouse 100, and places the first stereoscopic warehouse in a first warehouse location unit.

Step S9207, the transporting AGV writes the identity information of the first storage location unit into the identity label information of the mother turnover box 220, and binds the mother turnover box 220 and the identity information of the first storage location unit.

Step S9208, the transporting AGV sends the bound identity information of the mother turnover box 220 to a cloud logistics control module.

Step S9213, the cloud logistics control module records the new binding relationship of the parent turnover box 220, and updates the warehousing parent turnover box list.

And step S9214, the cloud logistics control module sends the updated warehousing mother turnover box list to all available AGVs.

According to the process, in the warehousing process, a constantly-changing warehousing mother turnover box list for recording the state of the warehousing mother turnover box is maintained in all the transporting AGV, so that each transporting AGV can be ensured to find the correct warehousing mother turnover box.

Regarding the position of the second storage location unit for storing the warehousing mother turnover box in the first stereoscopic warehouse 100, generally, under the control of the cloud logistics control module, the first stereoscopic warehouse 100 is close to the warehouse door, and the area for receiving the goods is kept in an idle state, so that the warehousing mother turnover box can be quickly received. In one embodiment, the transporting AGVs randomly place the warehoused mother turnover boxes at the innermost end of the idle area to make the area at the outer end free for the mother turnover boxes which are warehoused later. For example, when a transporting AGV enters the first stereoscopic warehouse 100, it is queried whether there are idle warehouse location units around its current location, and when there is a parent container in the current warehouse location unit, it moves left or right, and places the parent container in the warehouse to the end of the current direction. And then returns to the second stereoscopic warehouse 200 of the freight device to carry the next warehousing mother turnover box. Each transport AGV can all place the female turnover case of warehouse entry according to same placing principle.

In another embodiment, the cloud logistics control module may divide a warehousing area for the warehousing operation according to the number of the warehousing mother containers, and the positions and the number of the idle warehousing bit units in the first stereoscopic warehouse 100. And the transporting AGV sequentially places the warehousing mother turnover boxes in the warehousing area.

Cargo delivery process embodiment

The invention also provides a process when goods are to be delivered out of the warehouse. As shown in fig. 90.

In step S9300, when the freight device arrives, the freight device travels to the side of the first stereoscopic warehouse 100, and both sides open the doors.

In step S9301, the cargo device is docked with the first stereoscopic warehouse 100. The butt joint is the same as the butt joint in the warehouse entry, and can adopt door-to-door butt joint, or adopt one or more butt joint plates and butt joint pipelines for butt joint.

In step S9302, available AGVs are determined.

Step S9303, the transporting AGVs transport the ex-warehouse parent turnover box 120, and release the binding relationship between the ex-warehouse parent turnover box and the current first warehouse location unit 10. And sending the unbinding message to a cloud logistics control module.

In step S9304, the transporting AGV transports the outgoing parent turnover box to one second storage location unit 20 in the second stereoscopic warehouse 200 in the cargo transportation device.

Step S9305, establishing a binding relationship between the ex-warehouse parent transport container and the second warehouse location unit 20, and sending the binding relationship to the logistics control module at the cloud.

The ex-warehouse process and the related details are similar to the in-warehouse process, and the description thereof is not repeated.

When goods need to be exchanged between two stereoscopic warehouses, for example, a part of goods in the first stereoscopic warehouse needs to be transported to the second stereoscopic warehouse, and a part of goods in the second stereoscopic warehouse needs to be transported to the first stereoscopic warehouse at the same time, the warehousing and ex-warehouse processes are included, and the warehousing and ex-warehouse processes are performed at the same time. In this embodiment, the cloud logistics control module maintains two tables: warehousing lists and ex-warehouse lists. And after determining the available AGVs through calculation, sending the two tables to the available AGVs. And driving available AGVs in the two libraries to carry the ex-warehouse mother turnover box of the library to the opposite side, carrying the ex-warehouse mother turnover box from the opposite side back to the in-warehouse mother turnover box, and maintaining the two tables in real time by the cloud logistics control module in the carrying process.

In order to improve the goods exchange efficiency, the positions of the goods in the warehouse and the carrying routes of the AGV in the exchange process can be planned.

First embodiment of cargo handling process between stereoscopic warehouses

Fig. 91 is a flow chart of transferring a parent container to a designated stock location unit according to another embodiment of the present invention. In this embodiment, the cloud logistics control module determines, for each available AGV, the parent container taken by the AGV and the storage location unit to be placed in real time according to the current positions of the first and second parent containers and the first and second storage location units. Therefore, in this embodiment, the cloud logistics control module maintains the parent turnover box lists of the first and second warehouses and the outgoing and incoming position lists in real time, and according to the outgoing and incoming conditions of the two current warehouses, firstly sends the identity information of the parent turnover box to be transported to each AGV, when the AGV transports the parent turnover box from the first stereoscopic warehouse to the second stereoscopic warehouse, the cloud logistics control module determines the position unit to be placed according to the position unit and the transport busy condition of the current first stereoscopic warehouse, and sends the position unit identity information to the AGV, and the AGV places the parent turnover box to the specified position unit according to the specified position unit identity information. In order to avoid redundant description, the steps of unbinding and binding the identity relationship between the parent container and the library location unit and updating the list are omitted in the following description. In this embodiment, the process of transporting a parent turnover box to the designated storage location unit includes the following steps:

Step 9401, the cloud logistics control module sends identity information of a first parent turnover box to be carried to a first AGV in the first stereoscopic warehouse. Wherein, the first mother turnover box is a mother turnover box which is closest to the first AGV.

In step 9402, the first AGV transports the first parent container to the second stereoscopic warehouse according to the received message.

And 9403, determining a placeable second storage location unit by the cloud logistics control module according to the state and the carrying condition of the current second storage location unit, and sending the information of the second storage location unit to the first AGV.

Step 9404, the first AGV places the first parent container to the designated second storage location unit according to the received second storage location unit information.

And repeating the steps until all the mother turnover boxes are transported.

Second embodiment of the process for exchanging goods among stereoscopic warehouses

Fig. 92 is a flowchart of the exchange of goods between warehouses according to one embodiment of the present invention. In this embodiment, two stereoscopic warehouse will be respectively warehouse door near region divide into the district of leaving warehouse and the district of entering warehouse, and the position list of leaving warehouse and the position list of entering warehouse that correspond are kept and maintained to high in the clouds logistics control module group. In the present embodiment, the transport processes of AGVs in the first stereoscopic warehouse 100 and the second stereoscopic warehouse are the same, and here, a description will be given by taking one first AGV in one first stereoscopic warehouse 100 as an example, where a parent transport container in the first stereoscopic warehouse 100 is referred to as a first parent transport container, and a parent transport container in the second stereoscopic warehouse 200 is referred to as a second parent transport container.

And step S9500, the cloud logistics control module sends the first and second warehouse parent turnover box lists and the warehouse-out and warehouse-in position lists to all available AGVs.

In step S9501, each available AGV stores and maintains the plurality of manifests.

In step S9502, the first AGV transports one first parent turnover box in the first stereoscopic warehouse 100 to the second stereoscopic warehouse. Still including unbinding the relation of binding of first mother turnover case and former first storehouse position unit to send it to high in the clouds commodity circulation control module group, high in the clouds commodity circulation control module group changes this first mother turnover case state in first mother turnover case list for the mobile state. And updating the first mother turnover box list in all the AGVs by adopting the updating information.

Step S9503, the first AGV identifies the second warehousing area of the second stereoscopic warehouse, for example, reads the identity tag of the free warehouse location unit in the warehouse, and compares the locally stored second warehousing location list of the second stereoscopic warehouse, thereby finding the second warehousing area.

And S9504, placing the first mother turnover box into a second storage location unit in a second storage area, binding the identity relationship between the first mother turnover box and the second storage location unit, and sending the identity relationship to the cloud logistics control module. And the cloud logistics control module updates the first mother turnover box list and the second warehousing location list according to the information, and updates the local lists of all the AGVs by adopting the updated information.

In step S9505, the first AGV determines whether or not there is a second parent container that has not been transported, and if so, performs step S9507, and if the second parent container has been transported, returns to the first stereoscopic warehouse in step S9506.

In step S9507, a second ex-warehouse area is identified.

Step S9508, the first AGV transports the second parent turnover box from the second delivery area to the first storage area of the first stereoscopic warehouse. When the second mother turnover box is moved away from the second storage position unit, the binding relationship between the second mother turnover box and the second storage position unit is unbound, and when the second mother turnover box is placed in the first storage position unit of the first storage area, the identity relationship between the second mother turnover box and the first storage position unit is bound. And the cloud logistics control module updates the change information brought by the unbinding and binding relations and updates a plurality of lists in all the AGVs.

And step S9509, the first AGV judges whether the first mother turnover box is not conveyed completely, if so, the step S9502 is returned, and if the first mother turnover box is conveyed completely, the goods exchange process is ended.

In this embodiment, through dividing warehouse entry area and warehouse exit area, can make the AGV clear at the transport, when placing female turnover case target.

In the above embodiments, the cloud logistics control module is adopted, but it should be understood by those skilled in the art that a local management system may also be provided, that is, each stereoscopic warehouse may include a local management system, and data, messages and the like may be exchanged through the communication module, so that the processes in the above embodiments may also be completed.

Sorting during the transport of goods

The logistics system provided by the invention does not need a sorting center in a fixed place, does not need to unload goods from the transportation process to the sorting center for sorting and then continuously transporting, and places the sorting device into a stereoscopic warehouse of the goods transportation device for sorting in the goods transportation process. In one embodiment, as shown in fig. 93A to 93D, the stereoscopic warehouse goods sorting method includes:

and S620, determining the current sorting address information according to the logistics transportation information. For example, a logistics place where goods need to be sorted out when the three-dimensional warehouse is docked next time is determined according to the current position of the three-dimensional warehouse and the logistics direction of a freight device docked with the three-dimensional warehouse, and the logistics place can be geographical position information or an administrative area determined according to the geographical position information.

And step S621, analyzing the address information of each sub-turnover box in the stereoscopic warehouse and the parent turnover box where the sub-turnover box is located according to the sorting address information to determine a target parent turnover box and a target sub-turnover box. In this step, by analyzing the address information of the sub-containers and comparing the address information with the determined sorting address, a target sub-container to be sorted can be determined, and according to the binding relationship between the sub-container and the parent container, a target parent container (hereinafter referred to as a first target parent container) in which the target sub-container is located and a first storage location unit in which the target parent container is located can be determined, so that the distribution condition of the first target parent container in the warehouse is determined. And determining a second target parent turnover box for storing the sorted target child turnover boxes by inquiring the conditions of the child turnover boxes arranged in the parent turnover box according to the specification information of the child turnover boxes. In one embodiment, some empty mother turnover boxes can be placed in the warehouse to be used as second target mother turnover boxes during sorting, so that the sorting efficiency can be improved. According to the binding relationship between the mother turnover box and the storage location unit, the position of the second storage location unit can be known after the second target mother turnover box is determined, so that the distribution condition of the second target mother turnover box in the warehouse is determined. In order to supervise the sorting process, the above information is formed into a target sub-container for recording information related thereto, as shown in table 1.

Step S622, determining a corresponding sorting task for each sorting device and a corresponding carrying task for each transferring device according to the target parent turnover box distribution information, the sorting device distribution information, and the number and position information of the transferring devices in the library. In order to improve the sorting efficiency, a near principle is generally adopted, that is, a target parent container near the sorting device is distributed to the sorting device by taking the sorting device as a center. Or considering that two target parent turnover boxes need to be conveyed in the sorting process corresponding to one target child turnover box, calculating the time required for conveying the two target parent turnover boxes to each sorting device according to the positions of the two target parent turnover boxes and the positions of the sorting devices, and distributing the tasks of the sorted target child turnover boxes to the sorting devices with the minimum required time. According to the method described above, each sorting device is assigned a respective sorting assignment. In one embodiment, each sorting device generates a sort list including the target child containers, the corresponding first target parent container and the second target parent container.

And after the first target mother turnover box, the second target mother turnover box and the corresponding sorting devices are determined, distributing corresponding carrying tasks for the object moving devices according to the distribution condition of the object moving devices. When the number of the transferring devices is small, the first target mother turnover box and the second target mother turnover box can be conveyed by one transferring device for two times. When the number of the transferring devices is large, the first and second target mother transport containers may be transported by the two transferring devices. After the first and second target mother turnover boxes are conveyed to the sorting units of the sorting device, the AGV can stop, wait for the completion of sorting, move the first and second target mother turnover boxes away from the sorting units, and also can receive new conveying tasks after being conveyed to the sorting units of the sorting device. And when the first target parent turnover box and the second target parent turnover box are carried, the object moving device also executes establishment and release of the identity binding relationship between the parent turnover box and the storage location unit.

In step S623, the AGV transports the first and second target parent containers to the first and second sorting units of the sorting apparatus.

In step S624, the sorting device sorts the target sub-containers from the first target parent container to the second target parent container.

After the sorting is finished once, corresponding processing is carried out according to the conditions of the first target parent turnover box and the second target parent turnover box, for example, if the first target parent turnover box still has a target child turnover box, and the second target parent turnover box has a corresponding position, the sorting is continued. As shown in fig. 93B.

Step S625, determining whether there is any new target sub-container not sorted in the first target parent container, if yes, executing step S6251, and if not, executing step S626 in fig. 93C.

In step S6251, it is determined whether the second target parent turnover box has a position corresponding to the new target child turnover box, and if so, the process returns to step S624 to continue sorting in the two original first and second target parent turnover boxes. If not, step S6252 is performed.

In step S6252, it is determined whether or not the original second target parent container is already the target child container, and if so, in step S6253, the original second target parent container is transported to the delivery area, and then step S6254 is executed. If the original second target parent container is not all the target child containers, that is, there are other non-target child containers, the second target parent container is updated in step S6254, that is, the original second target parent container is moved away, the new parent container having the new target child container position therein is conveyed as the second target parent container, and then step S624 is executed. And sorting between the original first target mother turnover box and the new second target mother turnover box.

If the first target parent turnover box is a new target child turnover box without unsorted objects, that is, the first target parent turnover box is sorted, in order to reduce the number of times of transportation and improve the sorting efficiency, the process shown in fig. 93C is further included.

In step S626, it is determined whether there is a new target child container in the original first target parent container, and if not, step S627 is executed in fig. 93D, and if so, step S6261 is executed.

Step 6261, determining whether there is a corresponding new target child turnover box in the original second target parent turnover box, if yes, executing step 6265, if not, executing step 6262.

Step S6262, determining whether the original second target parent turnover box is the target child turnover box, if yes, in step S6263, transporting the original second target parent turnover box to the warehouse-out area, and then executing step S6264, and if there is a non-target child turnover box in the original second target parent turnover box, executing step S6264.

In step S6264, the second target parent container is updated, that is, the original second target parent container is removed, a new parent container having the new target child container therein is transported, and then step S6265 is performed.

Step S6265, the identities of the current first target parent turnover box and the new second target parent turnover box are changed, that is, the original outward sorted first target parent turnover box is converted into the second target parent turnover box for receiving the target child turnover box, the current parent turnover box with the target child turnover box is used as the first target parent turnover box for the outward sorted target child turnover box, and then step S624 is executed to sort.

In fig. 93D, the original first target parent container has neither the target child container nor the position for placing the target child container, and therefore, in step S627, it is determined whether there is any target child container to be sorted, and if not, the sorting is completed this time, and the sorting process is ended. If yes, the situation of the current original second target parent container needs to be checked, that is, step S628 is executed.

In step S628, it is determined whether there is a new target sub-container in the original second target mother container, and if there is a new target sub-container, in step S6281, the first target mother container is updated, that is, the original sorted first target mother container is moved away, and then the mother container matched with the new target sub-container in the current second target mother container is moved away, and then step S624 is executed to sort the new target sub-container. If the original second target parent turnover box does not have the position of the new target child turnover box, step S629 is executed.

Step S629 determines whether there is a new target child turnover box in the original second target parent turnover box, if not, step S6291 updates the current two first and second target parent turnover boxes, and then step S624 is executed to sort. If the original second target parent turnover box has the new target child turnover box, step S630 is executed.

And step S630, replacing the original second target mother turnover box with the first target mother turnover box.

In step S631, the original first target parent container is transported, and the new parent container is transported as the second target parent container, and then step S624 is executed to sort.

The sorting device is used for identifying whether the current primary turnover box of the first sorting unit is the first target primary turnover box to be sorted or not in the sorting process, and identifying and judging whether the current primary turnover box of the first sorting unit is the second target primary turnover box or not when the target secondary turnover box is placed into the current primary turnover box of the second sorting unit, so that the sorting error can be prevented.

The sorting device also needs to modify the binding relationship between the child turnover box and the parent turnover box in the sorting process, for example, when the target child turnover box is taken out from the first target parent turnover box, the binding relationship between the target child turnover box and the first target parent turnover box is removed, and when the target child turnover box is put into the second target parent turnover box, the binding relationship between the target child turnover box and the second target parent turnover box is established.

Before the second target parent turnover box filled with the target child turnover box is conveyed to the warehouse-out area, a storage unit list for storing the second target parent turnover box which is sorted is determined according to the distribution of the free warehouse unit in the warehouse. And preferentially determining the free warehouse bit units in the warehouse-out area as the storage warehouse bit units for storing the second target parent turnover boxes which are sorted. When the AGV carries a carrying task of a second target parent round having filled the target child round, the AGV carries the second target parent round to a designated storage unit. Since the goods are preferentially placed in the delivery area, the delivery of the goods can be quickly completed when the goods are in butt joint with other stereoscopic warehouses and freight devices.

The method of the present invention for mid-stream transfer type distribution is described in detail below with reference to specific examples.

Scene: beijing A women shengxian A shengxiang an china box of china, selected the special fast logistics level of aviation.Referring to fig. 94, the logistics flow path includes the following steps:

in step S1, a logistics order is generated. Comprising the steps shown in fig. 95:

step S11, the A lady generates a logistics order including the name, address and contact information of the receiver through a customer service client, such as APP or small program supported by a mobile phone; the name, address and contact of the shipper; logistics class (aviation express); size; and the customer service client generates a two-dimensional code according to the information, and sends the two-dimensional code to the server. This process took approximately 2 minutes.

And step S12, after receiving the two-dimensional code, the server analyzes the two-dimensional code to obtain order information, stores the order information into a database, and informs each logistics control module at the cloud.

And step S13, determining a related logistics control module according to the goods taking place.

Step S14, the logistics control module determines an express robot for picking up goods according to the location of picking up goods, the time for reserving picking up goods, the current traffic situation, the distribution and workload of the express robots in the area, for example, the number is R005569, determines the sub-containers according to the goods information in the order, that is, the identifiers of the sub-containers are determined, for example, a300x180x180, and generates a task of picking up goods to allocate to the determined express robot R005569.

And step S2, taking the goods. Comprising the steps shown in fig. 96:

in step S21, the express robot R005569 carries the designated sub-container according to the received information in the pick-up task, and arrives at the pick-up location L1 according to the designated route or the route calculated by its own geographic information system. Wherein, preferably, the express delivery robot R005569 informs A ladies 10 minutes before arrival and by telephone/short message after arrival.

Step S22, the shipper' S identity is verified and loaded. After the mobile phone and the identity of the lady A are verified, the top cover of the container is opened, the lady A is guided by voice or video to open the appointed sub-container A300x180x180, the simply wrapped porcelain is put in, and the container opening password is covered and set.

Step S23, weighing and charging. The express delivery robot R005569 calculates the cost according to the weighing information and informs the cost through voice and a display screen, and after the ladies A agree, the goods taking is completed through voice confirmation or clicking a confirmation key of the display screen. Express delivery robot R005569 will with A ms's interactive process whole journey video of getting goods upload to the high in the clouds, save in the database for fetch when the problem appears and look over. The express delivery robot R005569 takes about 3 minutes to take goods with the user interaction. After the goods are taken, the goods enter the logistics system, and the goods delivery is started, namely 10 a.m.: 00.

At the moment, the child turnover box containing the A lady goods is located in a mother turnover box M500B700C100 in a container of an express robot R005569, the express robot R005569 establishes the identity binding relationship between the lady goods and the child turnover box A300x180x180, establishes the identity binding relationship between the child turnover box A300x180x180 and the mother turnover box M500B700C100, and associates the identity of the express robot R005569.

In the following cargo exchange process, after the child container a300x180x180 is separated from the parent container M500B700C100, the identity binding relationship between the child container a and the parent container is released, and the identity binding relationship between the child container a300x180x180 and the new parent container is established. When the freight device changes, the identity relationship between the parent turnover box and the freight device also needs to be bound again, and all the change messages are recorded in the identity tags of the child turnover boxes and are simultaneously uploaded to the cloud goods monitoring module. In the following process, changes to the relationship are not described again for the sake of simplifying the description.

And step S3, transporting goods. Specifically, the steps shown in FIGS. 97A-97B are included:

step S31, after the goods are taken, the cloud logistics control module determines a location L2 and a shipping device for first docking the goods according to the current location L1 (the current location is the location of the shipment issue point, i.e., the location where the goods are taken in agreement with ladies a), the logistics direction of the goods, the distribution of other shipping devices in the area, and the transportation direction of the express robot R005569. For example, it is determined that a minivan a0101 docks with a courier robot R005569. Because the user selects the air express, the logistics control module inquires the latest freight flight to the destination of the airport and determines the reasonable time for the arrival of the goods at the airport to board. In the subsequent determination of the cargo device, the airport direction and boarding time are used as determination information.

In step S32, the express delivery robot R005569 arrives at the docking designated location L2 according to a designated route or a self-calculated route, and merges with the minivan a 0101. For example, a distance of 0.5km, taking 10 minutes.

Step S33, the transfer device of the stereoscopic warehouse in the minivan A0101, such as an AGV, carries the mother turnover box in the express robot R005569 container to the stereoscopic warehouse of the minivan A0101. If the goods to be dispatched are in the mini-truck A0101, the parent turnover box to be dispatched is conveyed to the container of the express robot R005569. This process takes about 5 minutes. At this point, the pick-up task of the courier robot R005569 is completed, and a new dispatch task is started. At this time, the express robot R005569 is an upper logistics chain and the minivan a0101 is a lower logistics chain in terms of the logistics direction.

Step S34, the cloud logistics control module determines the freight device (such as urban area circulating truck B011) and the docking location L3 (and the driving route) of the lower logistics chain docked with the mini truck A0101 according to the current position L2 of the mini truck A0101, the logistics direction and boarding time of the freight airport, the distribution conditions and the current transportation direction of other freight devices in the area, such as other mini trucks and urban area circulating trucks, and sends the information to the mini truck A0101 and the urban area circulating truck B011.

Step S35, the cloud sorting control module determines two vehicle sorting goods lists according to goods information and sorting addresses of stereoscopic warehouses inside the mini-truck A0101 and the urban circulating truck B011, and the two vehicle sorting goods lists are respectively sent to the stereoscopic warehouse in the mini-truck A0101 and the stereoscopic warehouse in the urban circulating truck B011.

In step S36, the minivan a0101 and the urban area circulating van B011 travel to the docking point L3 according to the designated or self-calculated travel route, respectively. In the driving process, sorting devices in built-in stereoscopic warehouses of the mini-truck A0101 and the urban circulating truck B011 sort the sub-containers according to the received sorted goods list so as to sort the goods needing to be exchanged before meeting. For the goods just received for A lady, the sorting is primary sorting. Since there are other goods on the mini-van a0101, depending on the direction of the flow, it may be necessary to transfer to the urban recycle van B011 at the docking point L3, and for these goods, there may be primary goods (e.g., goods transferred from other delivery robots) or secondary or tertiary sorting of goods, e.g., goods transferred from other mini-vans or more urban recycle vans. For a mini-truck A0101, the distance of moving to the merging place according to the cloud-end planned path is 2km, and the time is about 10 minutes.

In step S37, after the minivan a0101 and the urban area circulating van B011 dock at the docking point L3, they exchange their cargoes. It took about 5 minutes.

Step S38, the cloud logistics control module determines a driving route of the urban circulating truck B011 and goods needing to board at the airport according to the current position L3 of the urban circulating truck B011 and the position of the airport. In this case, it is possible to determine whether or not the intermediate journey from the position L3 to the airport can be exchanged with another cargo device with reference to the cargo boarding time.

Step S39, the urban circulating truck B011 drives to the airport according to the planned route, and the sub-turnover boxes needing to be boarded are sorted in the driving process, which can be called zone-level sorting. If time is available, other cargo devices, such as a mini-truck or a courier robot, may be received on the road. The distance from location L3 and the airport was 40km, taking about 60 minutes.

Step S310, after the urban circulating truck B011 is in butt joint with the freight airplane, the mother turnover box is conveyed to the stereoscopic warehouse of the freight airplane by a moving device in the stereoscopic warehouse, such as an AGV, and the time is about 30 minutes.

Step S311, the freight airplane takes off from Beijing, and the sorting robot sorts the sub-turnover boxes in the market grade in the flying process, namely, sorts out the goods going to different cities, which is called market grade sorting.

Step S312, the cloud logistics control module determines a plurality of urban area circulating trucks to be docked according to the landing time of the airplane, the next takeoff destination of the airplane, and the destination of the cargo transported in the airplane, wherein the urban area circulating trucks include urban area circulating truck B708 of the city to which the article shipped by the ladies a will go, routes are planned for the plurality of urban area circulating trucks, and the routes are sent to the corresponding urban area circulating trucks.

And step S313, the cargo airplane lands the Shenzhen airport for about 220 minutes (12: 00 takeoff → 15:40 landing), and is butted with a plurality of urban circulating trucks including an urban circulating truck B708 to exchange mother turnover boxes. It took about 30 minutes.

Step S314, the cloud customer service system informs Shenzhen A of the approximate receiving time through a telephone or a short message, and meanwhile, the cloud line planning module plans a delivery path. For example, according to the destination of the goods and the distribution of the freight devices in the current urban area and the flow direction of the goods, the freight device which is determined to be docked with the urban circulating truck B708 and the location L4, such as a mini truck A5603, are determined.

In step S315, the urban circulating truck B708 performs zone-level sorting on the sub-turnaround boxes during the moving process. Meanwhile, the mini-truck A5603 performs zone-level sorting on the sub-turnover boxes in the moving process. Assuming location L4 is 40km from the airport, the time taken for urban recycle truck B708 to reach docking location L4 is 60 minutes.

In step S316, after the urban circulating truck B708 is docked with the mini truck a5603, the cargo exchange is performed. It took about 5 minutes.

In step S317, the cloud circuit planning module determines the express robot R110020 and the docking point L5 docked with the minivan a5603 according to the cargo destination and the distribution and operation conditions of the express robots in the region.

Step S318, the minivan a5603 moves to the docking location L5, and final sorting is performed during the movement, that is, the goods sent by ladies a are sorted out. The minivan a5603 reached the docking point L5, and traveled for 2km for 10 minutes.

Step S319, the mini-truck A5603 is converged with the express robot R110020, and the parent turnover box with the A lady goods placed therein is transferred to the express robot R110020. It took about 5 minutes. If the express robot R110020 also has goods to be transferred to the mini-truck A5603, the goods of the express robot R110020 are firstly carried to the mini-truck A5603, and then the main turnover box with the goods of the A ladies is transferred to the express robot.

And step S4, dispatching. The cloud service system determines a goods delivery place according to the communication with mr. a, or the cloud service system determines a delivery place L6 according to the order address or the goods storage cabinet in the order address area. In this embodiment, the place designated by mr. a is taken as an example. Specifically, the steps shown in fig. 98 are included:

In step S41, the express delivery robot R110020 moves to the delivery location L6 according to the cloud plan or the self-calculated path. For example, a distance of 1km, taking 30 minutes.

In step S42, the express robot R110020 calls/notifies mr a in the first 10 minutes and the last time of arrival. And when the customer arrives at the location L6, waiting for a preset time, if the preset time is exceeded, asking for the cloud customer service system, prolonging the waiting time or placing the customer service system in a nearby express cabinet (a small three-dimensional warehouse with the same specification) and uploading the change information to the customer service system. The customer service system informs the A of the delivery of the first-generation in the modes of telephone, short message or mail and the like.

And step S43, the Mr. A arrives within the longest waiting time, and the express robot R110020 automatically opens the cargo box cover after verifying the mobile phone and the identity of the Mr. A.

And step S44, the express robot R110020 voice guides Mr. A to open the sub-circulation box, take out the porcelain, cover the sub-circulation box after the porcelain is confirmed to be intact and click a confirmation key of a display screen, and the dispatching is finished. Express delivery robot R110020 is uploaded the cloud in the whole video with mr A's interactive process, and this process takes about 3 minutes.

Measured in the manner of this example, this logistics transportation spans over half of china, is about 2000 kilometers throughout, and takes only about 480 minutes (8 hours, excluding dispatch waiting time). If the shipment was at 10 am, it could be delivered at 18 pm. Compare in current logistics system, the transportation effect has promoted several times.

In this embodiment, the target cargo needs to move between two cities, and in this embodiment, a cargo airplane is selected, but railway transportation or long-distance truck transportation may also be selected. Because different freight devices have different time and cost, the system determines different logistics levels according to the freight devices, the time and the cost for the users to select. For example, the shortest time, but the highest cost, of the cargo plane can satisfy the users who have high time-consuming requirements, but not limited to the cost, and for most users, the time-consuming of the cargo is not important, so that the common level can be selected first, and the corresponding cargo device used in the logistics system may be rail transportation or long-distance truck transportation. Therefore, the invention can meet various user requirements.

In addition, in the above embodiment, during the transportation process of step S3, the freight transportation devices and docking points of each logistics chain level to be docked are calculated at the beginning of transportation, and then are continuously corrected during the real-time transportation process to cope with the changes caused by the emergency. For example, when the express robot finishes taking the goods, the route planning module in the cloud calculates various freight devices, transportation directions and current traffic conditions thereof from the location L1 where the express robot is located to the airport along the way according to the currently determined docking point-airport and the determined time of the target goods, so as to determine a plurality of docking locations and docking freight devices required from the location L1 where the express robot is located to the airport. After the docking is realized at one docking point, a plurality of docking points and docking freight devices required from the current point to the airport are calculated again, if the docking points and the docking freight devices are not consistent, the result of the latest calculation is taken as the standard, namely the initial route scheme is corrected by the calculation.

The logistic chain in this example is briefly described as follows:

client → express robot → mini truck → urban area recycle truck → freight airplane → urban area recycle truck → mini truck → express robot → client.

In the above logistics chain, the docking condition of the multi-stage freight devices in the city is as follows: the first-level freight device express robot is in butt joint with the second-level freight device mini truck, and the second-level freight device mini truck is in butt joint with the third-level urban area circulating truck. However, this process is only an example, and the docking process may also be a process in which the first-level freight device and the express robot dock the third-level urban circulation freight car, and if an intercity freight device such as a train or an automobile that needs to be parked in the middle is used in an intercity, as long as the logistics directions of the two are consistent, and the time and the place are matched, various freight devices in the city may also be directly docked with the intercity freight device. Therefore, the logistics system is more flexible in goods transportation and higher in efficiency.

Logistics system and method for reducing sorting time

As illustrated in the various embodiments described above, the present invention provides a logistics system for reducing sorting time, the logistics system including a plurality of first means for shipping, a plurality of second means for shipping, and optionally one or more fixed-location warehouses; the first shipping device is configured to transfer goods with the second shipping device and/or the fixed-location warehouse; the first freight device comprises a goods sorting system which is configured to sort goods in the first freight device during operation of the first freight device. With reference to the foregoing embodiments, the first cargo device may include various cargo devices of the foregoing embodiments, such as a mini-truck, a city recycling truck, and the like. Due to the fact that the stereoscopic warehouse is provided with the goods sorting system, the goods to be transferred can be sorted out before the stereoscopic warehouse is docked with the second freight device or the fixed-position warehouse. The goods are sorted in the transportation process, but the goods need to be sorted in a fixed area of a fixed warehouse and a sorting center and then enter the transportation state as in the prior art, so that the retention time of the goods in the sorting center of the conventional logistics system is saved. In addition, when the goods are sorted, the goods which need to be transferred during butt joint only need to be sorted, and large-scale sorting is not needed as in the prior art, so that the sorting time is short, and the pertinence is strong.

The cargo sorting system of the present invention is configured to aggregate cargo to be transferred to a second shipping device and/or a fixed-location warehouse. I.e., to change the location of the cargo to be transferred to be proximate to the area where it is docked with the second cargo device and/or the fixed-location warehouse. For example, the warehouse-out area and the warehouse-in area are arranged in the area near the warehouse door, and the moving track control of the object moving device is configured, so that the goods transfer efficiency during butt joint is improved.

In a sorting center or a warehouse in the prior art, an independent goods sorting area is arranged, goods are transported to the sorting area for sorting and then transported to different areas for storage. The first freight device of the invention does not, however, require such a sorting area. As shown in fig. 45, the first shipping device includes a stereoscopic warehouse including a plurality of stacked bay units, with the cargo sorting system occupying a portion of the bay units, such as two or four stacked bay units. The storage location unit of the stereoscopic warehouse can accommodate a first turnover box, such as the mother turnover box 2 of the previous embodiment, and the storage location unit occupied by the first turnover box can be changed through the object moving device of the stereoscopic warehouse. The first turnaround box is configured to accommodate a plurality of second turnaround boxes, such as the sub-turnaround boxes 7 in the previous embodiment, and the second turnaround boxes are configured to accommodate goods, or goods can be accommodated directly, and the packages of the goods are the same as those in the prior art, and the labels are provided on the packages. The goods sorting system of the present invention distributes the second turnaround box or goods into different first turnaround boxes.

In one embodiment, the second shipping device in the system may be a mini-van or a local loop van, and the fixed-location warehouse may be the courier cabinet 10 shown in fig. 46A-46B or the fixed logistics warehouse shown in fig. 83 and 86, which also includes a cargo sorting system. Like the first shipping device, the second shipping device and the fixed-location warehouse do not include a separate cargo sorting area. The second shipping device and the fixed-location warehouse include a stereoscopic warehouse including a plurality of stacked bay units, a portion of which are occupied by the cargo sortation system.

The first cargo device and the second cargo device may interface with each other or with a fixed-location warehouse and transfer cargo during transportation, depending on the configuration. As shown in fig. 83, the transfer of goods for docking between the shipping apparatus and the fixed-location warehouse; as shown in fig. 84, cargo is transferred for docking between two different types of cargo devices; as shown at 85, for transferring cargo between two cargo devices of the same type in a butt joint. In the docking between the freight devices or between the freight devices and the fixed-position warehouses, in one docking manner, the respective stereoscopic warehouses are directly docked to form a unified stereoscopic warehouse, for example, when two urban circulating trucks 9b shown in fig. 85 are docked, the respective stereoscopic warehouses can be slid out of the box body to be docked to form a unified stereoscopic warehouse by driving the respective X-Y driving platforms, or the two stereoscopic warehouses can be connected by using the respective docking plates, for example, as shown in fig. 84.

In another embodiment, the moving object supporting structures of the stereoscopic warehouses of the freight device and the fixed-position warehouse are directly or indirectly butted when the freight device is butted, or the freight device is butted with the fixed-position warehouse, so that goods can be transferred. In the above embodiment, when two local circulation trucks 9b are docked and two warehouses are directly docked, the moving object support structures of the stereoscopic warehouse, such as the running surfaces of the AGVs, are directly docked together. For another example, when the mini-truck 9a is docked with the city cycle truck 9b, the docking plate of the mini-truck 9a needs to be connected between the AGV running surface of the bay unit of the mini-truck 9a and the AGV running surface of the bay unit of the city cycle truck 9b, so as to connect the bay unit of the mini-truck 9a and the bay unit of the city cycle truck 9b, and the AGVs can go between the mini-truck 9a and the city cycle truck 9 b.

In order to guide the object moving device to travel along the correct route during docking, the object moving guide devices of the object moving spaces of the two stereoscopic warehouses are directly docked during docking, for example, when the object moving guide devices adopt mechanical structures, such as the guide grooves 1131 in fig. 1 and the guide rails 1121b in fig. 9 in the foregoing embodiment. When the two stereoscopic warehouses are directly butted, the object moving guide devices arranged in the object moving space can be butted together through the positioning sensor of the device in a proper position, for example, the guide grooves 1131 of the warehouse units directly butted by the two stereoscopic warehouses are accurately butted together. Similarly, if the article-moving guiding device is of an electromagnetic type, a laser type, an infrared type, an ultrasonic type, a UWB type, or an optical type structure, the article-moving guiding devices of the storage location units directly butted with the two stereoscopic warehouses must be accurately butted together, so that the moving device can travel along a correct route when moving on the article-moving supporting structure, and accidents such as deviation and collision are avoided. Similarly, when two stereoscopic warehouses are indirectly butted, such as the butt plate of the mini-truck 9a is butted, the same object moving guide device is arranged on the butt plate, so that when two freight transport devices are butted through the butt plate, the moving device can correctly transfer goods between the two stereoscopic warehouses through the butt plate without deviation and collision.

When goods are transferred after being docked, the goods are transferred by utilizing all or part of the respective moving devices according to the actual conditions in the two three-dimensional warehouses, and the transfer method is as in the various processes of warehousing, ex-warehouse and exchanging the goods during docking in the embodiment. As can be seen from the above-mentioned embodiments and descriptions of docking, the docking between the cargo devices or between the cargo devices and the fixed-location warehouse can be accomplished by itself, and no docking point providing device is required to assist in docking and cargo transfer.

The present invention also provides a logistics method for reducing sorting time, as shown in fig. 99, which is a logistics method for reducing sorting time according to an embodiment of the present invention, and comprises the following steps:

step S1b, the first cargo device transports the cargo according to the plan. The mini-truck 9a and the urban recycling truck 9b in the above-described embodiment transport the cargo along the cloud-planned route within their respective transport distances.

And step S2b, judging whether the goods need to be butt-jointed and delivered. For example, the cloud logistics control module determines which shipping devices are in butt joint or which shipping devices are in butt joint with which fixed-position warehouses according to the logistics direction of the goods, the distribution of the shipping devices and the current transportation direction, and determines the butt joint location. And the first freight device determines whether the connection is required according to the information sent by the cloud. If docking is required, step S3b is performed, and if docking is not required, step S1b is continued.

And step S3b, the first cargo device determines the cargo to be sorted according to the docking information of the cloud end, and sorts the cargo to be transferred during docking on the way. For example, the cargoes are first identified and then shipped to an area proximate to the docking logistics equipment when docked. In one embodiment, the shipping apparatus includes a stereoscopic warehouse comprised of a plurality of stacked bay units, with the goods being located in second (child) totes located in first (parent) totes, and the second totes in one first tote being sorted to another as needed and transported by a transfer device, such as an AGV, to an out-of-warehouse area near the gate. In another embodiment, the packaging of the goods is of the current conventional type, the first turnaround box contains a plurality of goods, and the goods are sorted into different first turnaround boxes during sorting.

Step S4b, the first shipping device docks with a second shipping device or a fixed-location warehouse at a docking location. According to the structure of the two storehouses, the two storehouses are directly butted into a unified storehouse, or the two storehouses are indirectly butted by connecting devices such as a butt plate and the like. Please refer to the above various docking embodiments.

Step S5b, the cargo to be transferred in the first cargo device is transported to a second cargo device or a fixed-position warehouse in butt joint with the first cargo device, or the cargo in the second cargo device is transported to the first cargo device according to the requirement. For details, refer to the description of the ex-warehouse and in-warehouse method flow.

Step S6b, determining whether all the goods to be transferred have been transported, if so, then in step S7b the first cargo device continues its transportation process and in step S2b determines whether the next docking is to be performed. If the conveyance has not been completed, the flow returns to step S5 b.

And the first freight device is continuously butted with the second freight device or the fixed-position warehouse and transfers goods according to the control and planning of the cloud in the process of freight transportation. When the goods are butted, the goods in the goods can be transmitted out, and the goods transmitted from the second freight device or the fixed position warehouse can also be received, so that after the goods enter the logistics system, no special reason exists, and the goods are always circulated and transmitted in each freight device. The freight transport device finishes sorting by utilizing the transportation time, so the logistics system and the method provided by the invention do not occupy the logistics time during sorting, and omit the sorting time in a plurality of and multistage fixed sorting centers in the conventional logistics mode, therefore, the logistics system provided by the invention can effectively improve the logistics efficiency.

The above embodiments are provided only for illustrating the present invention and not for limiting the present invention, and those skilled in the art can make various changes and modifications without departing from the scope of the present invention, and therefore, all equivalent technical solutions should fall within the scope of the present invention.

Claims

1. A logistics system for reducing sorting time, comprising:

a plurality of first cargo devices; and

a plurality of second cargo devices;

wherein the first cargo device is configured to transfer cargo with the second cargo device; wherein the first shipping device comprises a cargo sorting system configured to sort the cargo in the first shipping device during operation of the first shipping device;

the first freight device comprises a stereoscopic warehouse which comprises a plurality of stacked warehouse location units, and the goods sorting system occupies part of the warehouse location units; the storage location unit of the stereoscopic warehouse is configured to accommodate a first transfer box, and the first transfer box is configured to change the storage location unit occupied by the first transfer box through a moving device of the stereoscopic warehouse; the first turnaround box is configured to accommodate a plurality of second turnaround boxes configured to accommodate goods, wherein the goods sortation system is to allocate the second turnaround boxes to different first turnaround boxes.

2. The logistics system of claim 1, further comprising one or more fixed-location warehouses configured to interface with the first and/or second shipping devices to transfer cargo.

3. The logistics system of claim 2, wherein the cargo sorting system is configured to group the cargo to be transferred to the second shipping device and/or the fixed-location warehouse.

4. The logistics system of claim 2, wherein the cargo sorting system is configured to relocate and bring the cargo to be transferred to the second shipping device and/or the fixed-location warehouse proximate to an area with the second shipping device and/or the fixed-location warehouse.

5. The logistics system of claim 1 wherein the first shipping apparatus does not include a separate cargo sorting area.

6. The logistics system of claim 2 wherein the second shipping apparatus and/or the fixed-location warehouse comprises a cargo sorting system.

7. The logistics system of claim 6 wherein the second shipping apparatus and/or the fixed-location warehouse do not include a separate cargo sorting area.

8. The logistics system of claim 6 wherein the second shipping device and/or the fixed location warehouse comprises a stereoscopic warehouse comprising a plurality of stacked bay units, wherein the cargo sorting system occupies a portion of the bay units.

9. The logistics system of claim 2, wherein the first shipping apparatus and the second shipping apparatus are capable of docking and transferring cargo at a location other than the fixed-location warehouse.

10. The logistics system of claim 9 wherein the docking between the means for freight comprises direct docking of stereoscopic warehouses on the means for freight to form a unified stereoscopic warehouse; the butt joint between the freight device and the fixed position warehouse comprises the step that the stereoscopic warehouse on the freight device and the stereoscopic warehouse of the fixed position warehouse are directly butted to form a unified stereoscopic warehouse.

11. The logistics system of claim 8 wherein the docking between the means for freight comprises direct or indirect docking of a mobile support structure of a stereoscopic warehouse on the means for freight to enable transfer of goods; the docking between the freight device and the fixed-position warehouse comprises the direct or indirect docking of the stereoscopic warehouse on the freight device and the moving object supporting structure of the stereoscopic warehouse of the fixed-position warehouse so as to transfer goods.

12. The logistics system of claim 8 wherein the docking between the means for freight comprises direct or indirect docking of a transfer guide of a stereoscopic warehouse on the means for freight to enable transfer of goods; the butt joint between the freight device and the fixed-position warehouse comprises the direct or indirect butt joint of the stereoscopic warehouse on the freight device and the object moving guide device of the stereoscopic warehouse of the fixed-position warehouse so as to transfer goods.

13. The logistics system of claim 2, wherein at least some of the plurality of cargo devices and/or the fixed-location warehouse are configured to effect cargo transfer using respective all or some of the plurality of cargo devices.

14. A logistics method for reducing sorting time, comprising:

transporting the cargo using the first cargo device; and

the first freight device transfers goods with the second freight device and/or the fixed-position warehouse;

during the operation of the first freight device, sorting goods in the first freight device;

15. The logistics method of claim 14, further comprising: the goods to be transferred to the second shipping device and/or the fixed-location warehouse are grouped.

16. The logistics method of claim 14, further comprising: the cargo to be transferred to the second shipping device and/or the fixed-location warehouse is relocated and brought into proximity with the second shipping device and/or the fixed-location warehouse.

17. The logistics method of claim 14, further comprising: the goods of the second freight device are sorted during the transportation process of the second freight device.

18. The logistics method of claim 14 or 17, wherein the stereoscopic warehouse in the first and second shipping devices comprises a plurality of stacked bay units configured to accommodate a first tote configured to accommodate one or more goods or one or more second totes configured to accommodate goods; the first and/or second transport device distributes the goods or the second turnaround boxes to different first turnaround boxes during sorting.