Logistics AGV operation control OTA upgrading method

Abstract

The invention provides a logistics AGV operation and control OTA upgrading method, which comprises the steps that S1, a new version AGV software package is uploaded through a cloud end, and an RCS server receives update of the new version AGV software package and requests to download the new version AGV software package; s2, the AGV equipment is started, the main controller sends a request for checking the version of the AGV software package from the RCS server, if a new version of the AGV software package does not exist, no response is made, and otherwise, the new version of the AGV software package is downloaded from the RCS server; and S3, the main controller analyzes the new version software package, and sends and writes the analyzed new software package into a motion controller. The main controller and the motion controller of the AGV equipment are independent, the motion controller is independently upgraded under the condition that the main controller is not upgraded, modular management is better conducted on the whole software architecture of the logistics AGV, when only the motion controller is upgraded, if a fault occurs, the motion controller can be recovered through the main controller, and the reliability of the logistics AGV equipment is improved. Returning to a factory is not needed, and the production efficiency is improved.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The present invention relates to the technical field of AGV equipment, and in particular to a method for OTA upgrade of logistics AGV operation control. Background Art

[0002] With the development of the logistics industry, smart logistics is gaining increasing attention within the sector, and AGVs have become a favorite within the industry. They are primarily used for material handling, production lines and assembly, inventory management, automated sorting, automated guidance, data collection and analysis, and more. Current logistics AGVs are no longer traditional, with factory-installed software that remains unchanged. Software-defined logistics AGVs are an unstoppable trend. Throughout their lifecycle, the AGV's internal software is continuously updated based on business scenarios, making over-the-air (OTA) functionality essential.

[0003] Most of the logistics AGVs currently on the market combine the main controller and motion controller into one, which are upgraded uniformly during OTA upgrades. The motion controller is not driven to be upgraded separately via OTA, which cannot achieve the effect of upgrading the motion controller separately. When the entire system is upgraded together and a fault occurs, it needs to be returned to the factory for repair, which affects the working efficiency of the AGV. Summary of the Invention

[0004] In response to the problem of untimeliness in the existing technology, the present invention provides a method for OTA upgrade of logistics AGV operation control to solve the technical problem in the existing technology that a large number of AGVs need to be manually configured, which wastes manpower and material resources.

[0005] The present invention provides a method for OTA upgrade of logistics AGV operation control, using an AGV device including a main controller and a motion controller, including:

[0006] S1. Upload the new AGV software package through the cloud. The RCS server receives the new AGV software package update and requests download.

[0007] S2 boot the AGV device, the main controller sends a request to check the version of the AGV software package from the RCS server, if there is no new version of the AGV software package does not respond, otherwise download the new version of the AGV software package from the RCS server;

[0008] S3. The main controller parses the new version of the software package, and sends and writes the parsed new software package to the motion controller.

[0009] Optionally, the main controller splits the new version software package into at least a frame header, a total number of frames, a frame sequence number, a frame length, data, and a CRC16 checksum;

[0010] Each frame must include a frame header; the total number of frames indicates the total number of frame data sent by the new version of the software package; the frame sequence number indicates the sequence number of each frame data; the frame length indicates the total length of the frame data, which includes the frame header and CRC16 checksum fields; and the data includes the decomposed data of the new version of the software package.

[0011] Optionally, the motion controller includes:

[0012] The motion controller includes at least a UserBoot partition, a Setting partition, an APP partition, and a Download partition;

[0013] The UserBoot partition is used to boot the user program, which is used to check the update and upgrade flag of the user data area and to copy the program in the DownLoad partition to the APP partition; the Setting partition is used to store the parameter flags for upgrading the new version of the AGV software package; the APP partition is used to store the program code of the new version of the AGV software package; and the DownLoad partition is used to store the firmware of the new version of the AGV software package downloaded from the main controller.

[0014] Optionally, the main controller parses the new version of the software package, and sends and writes the parsed new software package to the motion controller, including:

[0015] The main controller divides the new version of the software package into total frames and data according to data size and bytes, marks each frame of the total frames with a frame number, and the frame length of each frame includes a frame header and CRC16 check field, and sends the total number of frames, data, frame number, frame length and CRC16 check to the motion controller for verification. If the verification fails, it prompts that the verification failed. Otherwise, the data of the new version of the software package is written into the DownLoad partition according to the number of total frames.

[0016] Optionally, after the parsed new software package is sent and written to the motion controller, the following steps are included:

[0017] After the new version of the software package is written, the motion controller restarts. After restarting, the UserBoot partition is run to detect whether there is an update upgrade flag. If there is, the data of the DownLoad partition is copied to the APP partition, and the APP partition is run to exit the UserBoot partition. Otherwise, the UserBoot partition is directly closed and jumped to the APP partition and run.

[0018] Compared with existing detection technologies, the present invention has the following beneficial effects:

[0019] The present invention separates the main controller and motion controller of the AGV equipment, thereby realizing the upgrade of the motion controller alone without upgrading the main controller. This allows for better modular management of the entire software architecture of the logistics AGV. When only the motion controller is upgraded, if a fault occurs, the motion controller can be restored through the main controller without returning to the factory, thereby improving production efficiency. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0020] The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated in and constitute a part of this specification, illustrate embodiments consistent with the invention and, together with the description, serve to explain the principles of the invention.

[0021] In order to more clearly illustrate the embodiments of the present invention or the technical solutions in the prior art, the following briefly introduces the drawings required for use in the embodiments or the description of the prior art. Obviously, for ordinary technicians in this field, other drawings can be obtained based on these drawings without paying any creative labor.

[0022] Figure 1 Schematic diagram of the method flow of the present invention;

[0023] Figure 2 This is a framework diagram of the motion controller OTA upgrade system in the present invention;

[0024] Figure 3 Detailed flowchart of OTA upgrade in the present invention. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0025] In order to make the purpose, technical solutions and advantages of the embodiments of the present application clearer, the technical solutions in the embodiments of the present application will be clearly and completely described below in conjunction with the drawings in the embodiments of the present application. Obviously, the described embodiments are part of the embodiments of the present application, not all of the embodiments. Based on the embodiments in the present application, all other implementation cases obtained by ordinary technicians in this field without making creative work are within the scope of protection of this application. The functional units with the same labels in the examples of the present invention have the same and similar structures and functions.

[0026] See also Figure 1 The present invention provides a method for OTA upgrade of logistics AGV operation control, using an AGV device including a main controller and a motion controller, including:

[0027] S1. Upload the new AGV software package through the cloud. The RCS server receives the new AGV software package update and requests download.

[0028] S2 boot the AGV device, the main controller sends a request to check the version of the AGV software package from the RCS server, if there is no new version of the AGV software package does not respond, otherwise download the new version of the AGV software package from the RCS server;

[0029] S3. The main controller parses the new version of the software package, and sends and writes the parsed new software package to the motion controller.

[0030] In this embodiment, S1. A new version of the AGV software package is uploaded through the cloud, and the RCS server receives the new version of the AGV software package update and requests download.

[0031] First, the main controller communicates with the motion controller through UDP and parses the data of the new version of the software package, as shown in the following table:

[0032]

[0033]

[0034] Secondly, the motion controller needs to be classified into at least UserBoot partition, Setting partition, APP partition and Download partition according to different functions. The internal FLASH partition table of the motion controller is represented as follows:

[0035]

[0036] See also Figure 2 ,Then you first need to upload the new version of the AGV software package to the cloud. After the RCS server discovers the new version of the AGV software package, it requests and downloads it from the cloud.

[0037] S2. When the AGV device is turned on, the main controller sends a request to check the version of the AGV software package from the RCS server. If there is no new version of the AGV software package, no response is made. Otherwise, the new version of the AGV software package is downloaded from the RCS server.

[0038] When the AGV device is turned on, the main controller will first request the RCS server to check the version of the AGV software package. If a new version of the AGV software package is found, the main controller will download the new version of the AGV software package from the RCS server. Otherwise, no response will be made.

[0039] S3. The main controller parses the new version of the software package, and sends and writes the parsed new software package to the motion controller.

[0040] See also Figure 3The main controller divides the new version software package into total frames and data according to data size and bytes, marks each frame of the total frames with a frame number, and the frame length of each frame includes a frame header and CRC16 check field, and sends the total frame number, data, frame number, frame length and CRC16 check to the motion controller for verification. If the verification fails, it prompts that the verification failed. Otherwise, the data of the new version software package is written into the DownLoad partition according to the number of total frames.

[0041] For example, the program file of the new version of the AGV software package currently downloaded by the main controller is about 100KB (102400Byte) in total, which is divided into 102400 / 128=800 frames, each frame is 128Byte. The main controller will record the total number of frames 800, the current frame and frame number, and the CRC16 check code. If the motion controller passes the check, it will write the current 128Byte data to the Download partition of the motion controller. This will be done 800 times in total until the entire program is written to the Download partition.

[0042] And when the writing is completed, the motion controller will restart, restart the running UserBoot partition, and detect the update flag. If there is a new program, the Download program will be copied to the APP area and jump to the APP to run. UserBoot will exit. If the judgment flag shows that there is no new program, UserBoot will jump directly to the APP program to run.

[0043] The present invention separates the main controller and motion controller of the AGV equipment, thereby realizing the upgrade of the motion controller alone without upgrading the main controller. This allows for better modular management of the entire software architecture of the logistics AGV. When only the motion controller is upgraded, if a fault occurs, the motion controller can be restored through the main controller without returning to the factory, thereby improving production efficiency.

[0044] It should be noted that, in this document, relational terms such as "first" and "second" are used only to distinguish one entity or operation from another entity or operation, and do not necessarily require or imply any actual relationship or order between these entities or operations. Moreover, the terms "comprises," "comprising," or any other variations thereof are intended to cover non-exclusive inclusion, so that a process, method, article, or device comprising a series of elements includes not only those elements, but also other elements not explicitly listed, or elements inherent to such process, method, article, or device. In the absence of further limitations, an element defined by the phrase "comprising a ..." does not exclude the presence of other identical elements in the process, method, article, or device comprising the element.

[0045] The foregoing description is intended only to provide specific embodiments of the present invention, which will enable those skilled in the art to understand and implement the present invention. Various modifications to these embodiments will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art, and the general principles defined herein may be implemented in other embodiments without departing from the spirit or scope of the present invention. Therefore, the present invention is not intended to be limited to the embodiments shown herein, but is intended to be accorded the widest scope consistent with the principles and novel features claimed herein.

Claims

1. A method for OTA upgrade of logistics AGV operation control, using AGV equipment including a main controller and a motion controller, characterized in that: include: S1. Upload the new AGV software package through the cloud. The RCS server receives the new AGV software package update and requests download. S2 boot the AGV device, the main controller sends a request to check the version of the AGV software package from the RCS server, if there is no new version of the AGV software package does not respond, otherwise download the new version of the AGV software package from the RCS server; S3. The main controller parses the new version of the software package, and sends and writes the parsed new software package to the motion controller.

2. The method for OTA upgrade of logistics AGV operation control according to claim 1, characterized in that: The main controller includes: The main controller splits the new version software package into at least a frame header, a total number of frames, a frame sequence number, a frame length, data, and a CRC16 checksum; Each frame must include a frame header; the total number of frames indicates the total number of frame data sent by the new version of the software package; the frame sequence number indicates the sequence number of each frame data; the frame length indicates the total length of the frame data, which includes the frame header and CRC16 checksum fields; and the data includes the data after the new version of the software package is decomposed.

3. The method for OTA upgrade of logistics AGV operation control according to claim 2, characterized in that: The motion controller comprises: The motion controller includes at least a UserBoot partition, a Setting partition, an APP partition, and a Download partition; Among them, the UserBoot partition is used to boot the user program, which is used to check the update and upgrade flag of the user data area and to copy the program in the DownLoad partition to the APP partition; the Setting partition is used to store the parameter flags for upgrading the new version of the AGV software package; the APP partition is used to store the program code of the new version of the AGV software package; the DownLoad partition is used to store the firmware of the new version of the AGV software package downloaded from the main controller.

4. The method for OTA upgrade of logistics AGV operation control according to claim 3, characterized in that: The main controller parses the new version of the software package, and sends and writes the parsed new software package to the motion controller, including: The main controller divides the new version of the software package into total frames and data according to data size and bytes, marks each frame of the total frames with a frame number, and the frame length of each frame includes a frame header and CRC16 check field, and sends the total number of frames, data, frame number, frame length and CRC16 check to the motion controller for verification. If the verification fails, it prompts that the verification failed. Otherwise, the data of the new version of the software package is written into the DownLoad partition according to the number of total frames.

5. The method for OTA upgrade of logistics AGV operation control according to claim 4, characterized in that: After sending and writing the parsed new software package to the motion controller, it includes: After the new version of the software package is written, the motion controller restarts. After restarting, the UserBoot partition is run to detect whether there is an update upgrade flag. If there is, the data of the DownLoad partition is copied to the APP partition, and the APP partition is run to exit the UserBoot partition. Otherwise, the UserBoot partition is directly closed and jumped to the APP partition and run.

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