A task allocation system and task allocation method

Abstract

This specification discloses a task allocation system and a task allocation method. The control center can obtain each pending task, and then, for each pending task, according to the task type and / or task related information of the pending task, determine at least one task associated with the pending task from other pending tasks as the associated task corresponding to the pending task, and use the pending task and the associated task corresponding to the pending task as an associated task set. Then, according to the attribute information corresponding to each workstation, select the workstation matching the associated task set as the target workstation, and assign the associated task set to the target workstation for task execution. Thereby, the task execution efficiency can be improved to a certain extent.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The present specification relates to the field of warehousing technology, and in particular to a task allocation system and a task allocation method. Background Art

[0002] With the rapid development of information technology, the warehousing and logistics industry can move goods in warehouses through intelligent handling equipment, greatly saving human resources.

[0003] In actual applications, the workstations in the warehouse can receive various types of tasks, such as picking tasks, shelving tasks, inventory tasks, etc. In picking tasks, the goods that need to be shipped out need to be selected from the shelves to ship out the goods. In shelving tasks, the incoming goods need to be placed on the shelves. In inventory tasks, the goods on the shelves need to be checked. When a task is assigned to a workstation, the handling equipment can transport the shelves (or goods) involved in the task to the workstation so that the workstation can execute the received task.

[0004] In the prior art, after each task is assigned to a workstation, the workstation can only process other tasks after completing one type of task. In other words, a workstation can only process one type of task within a period of time. For example, if workstation A needs to process 500 picking tasks and 300 inventory tasks, it needs to complete 500 picking tasks before it can start the inventory tasks. In this way, when different types of tasks involve goods in the same shelf or involve the same goods, the workstation needs to process these tasks in different time periods, and the handling equipment also needs to repeatedly carry goods or shelves, thereby reducing the efficiency of task execution in the warehouse.

[0005] Therefore, how to improve the efficiency of task execution is an urgent problem to be solved. Summary of the invention

[0006] This specification provides a task allocation system and a task allocation method to partially solve the above problems existing in the prior art.

[0007] This manual adopts the following technical solutions:

[0008] This specification provides a task allocation system, including: at least one control center, at least one handling device, and several workstations;

[0009] The control center is configured to obtain each pending task, and for each pending task, according to the task type and / or task-related information of the pending task, determine at least one task associated with the pending task from other pending tasks as the associated task corresponding to the pending task, and use the pending task and the associated tasks corresponding to the pending task as an associated task set, select a workstation matching the associated task set as a target workstation according to the attribute information corresponding to each workstation, select a handling device, and send a cargo handling instruction corresponding to the associated task set to the selected handling device, and assign the associated task set to the target workstation for task execution;

[0010] The transport device is configured to receive the cargo transport instruction sent by the control center, and transport the cargo involved in the associated task set to the target workstation according to the cargo transport instruction;

[0011] The workstation is configured to receive the associated task set assigned by the control center and execute tasks on the associated task set.

[0012] Optionally, the task-related information includes: container information of an inventory container involved in the task to be processed, at least one of cargo attributes of cargo involved in the task to be processed, and the inventory container is used to store cargo.

[0013] Optionally, the control center is also configured to determine, based on the container information of the inventory container involved in the task to be processed and the container information of the inventory containers involved in other tasks to be processed, a task that is consistent with the inventory container involved in the task to be processed from other tasks to be processed as an associated task corresponding to the task to be processed.

[0014] Optionally, the control center is further configured to determine, from the other tasks to be processed, a task that is adapted to the cargo attributes of the cargo involved in the task to be processed, based on the pre-saved adaptation relationship between the cargo attributes, as an associated task corresponding to the task to be processed.

[0015] Optionally, the control center is further configured to determine, according to the pre-saved adaptation relationship between the task types, a task that is adapted to the task type of the task to be processed from the other tasks to be processed as an associated task corresponding to the task to be processed.

[0016] Optionally, the control center is further configured to allocate the associated task set to the target workstation according to the determined task execution order of each to-be-processed task in the associated task set;

[0017] The workstation is also configured to execute each to-be-processed task in the associated task set according to the task execution order.

[0018] Optionally, the control center is further configured to determine a task execution order for executing each to-be-processed task in the associated task set according to a preset execution priority corresponding to each task type.

[0019] Optionally, the control center is further configured to determine a task execution order for executing each task in the associated task set according to a sequence of task deadlines corresponding to each to-be-processed task in the associated task set.

[0020] Optionally, the attribute information corresponding to the workstation includes: a task processing rate corresponding to the workstation;

[0021] The control center is also configured to select a workstation that matches the associated task set as a target workstation based on the task processing rate corresponding to each workstation and the task deadline of each pending task in the associated task set. For each pending task in the associated task set, the shorter the duration between the task deadline of the pending task and the current time, the faster the task processing rate of the selected workstation should be.

[0022] Optionally, the control center is further configured to readjust the pending tasks included in the associated task set and / or the task execution order of the pending tasks in the associated task set if it monitors that the task deadline corresponding to the pending tasks included in the associated task set has changed.

[0023] This specification provides a task allocation method, including:

[0024] Get each pending task;

[0025] For each task to be processed, according to the task type and / or task related information of the task to be processed, at least one task associated with the task to be processed is determined from other tasks to be processed as an associated task corresponding to the task to be processed, and the task to be processed and the associated tasks corresponding to the task to be processed are taken as an associated task set;

[0026] According to the attribute information corresponding to each workstation, a workstation matching the associated task set is selected as a target workstation;

[0027] The associated task set is assigned to the target workstation for task execution, and a handling device is selected, and a cargo handling instruction corresponding to the associated task set is sent to the selected handling device, so that the selected handling equipment transports the cargo involved in the associated task set to the target workstation according to the cargo handling instruction.

[0028] Optionally, the task-related information includes: container information of an inventory container involved in the task to be processed, at least one of cargo attributes of cargo involved in the task to be processed, and the inventory container is used to store cargo.

[0029] Optionally, according to the task type and / or task related information of the task to be processed, at least one task associated with the task to be processed is determined from other tasks to be processed as an associated task corresponding to the task to be processed, specifically including:

[0030] According to the container information of the inventory container involved in the pending task and the container information of the inventory containers involved in other pending tasks, a task consistent with the inventory container involved in the pending task is determined from other pending tasks as an associated task corresponding to the pending task.

[0031] Optionally, according to the task type and / or task related information of the task to be processed, at least one task associated with the task to be processed is determined from other tasks to be processed as an associated task corresponding to the task to be processed, specifically including:

[0032] According to the pre-saved adaptation relationship between the attributes of the goods, a task that is adapted to the attributes of the goods involved in the task to be processed is determined from the other tasks to be processed as an associated task corresponding to the task to be processed.

[0033] Optionally, according to the task type and / or task related information of the task to be processed, at least one task associated with the task to be processed is determined from other tasks to be processed as an associated task corresponding to the task to be processed, specifically including:

[0034] According to the pre-saved adaptation relationship between the task types, a task that is adapted to the task type of the task to be processed is determined from the other tasks to be processed as an associated task corresponding to the task to be processed.

[0035] Optionally, allocating the associated task set to the target workstation for task execution specifically includes:

[0036] According to the determined task execution order of each to-be-processed task in the associated task set, the associated task set is allocated to the target workstation, so that the target workstation executes each to-be-processed task in the associated task set according to the task execution order.

[0037] Optionally, determining the task execution order of each to-be-processed task in the associated task set specifically includes:

[0038] The task execution order of each to-be-processed task in the associated task set is determined according to the preset execution priority corresponding to each task type.

[0039] Optionally, determining the task execution order of each to-be-processed task in the associated task set specifically includes:

[0040] The task execution order of each to-be-processed task in the associated task set is determined according to the order of task deadlines corresponding to each to-be-processed task in the associated task set.

[0041] Optionally, the attribute information corresponding to the workstation includes: a task processing rate corresponding to the workstation;

[0042] According to the attribute information corresponding to each workstation, a workstation matching the associated task set is selected as a target workstation, specifically including:

[0043] According to the task processing rate corresponding to each workstation and the task deadline of each pending task in the associated task set, a workstation matching the associated task set is selected as the target workstation. For each pending task in the associated task set, the shorter the task deadline of the pending task is from the current time, the faster the task processing rate of the selected workstation should be.

[0044] Optionally, the method further comprises:

[0045] If it is monitored that the task deadline corresponding to the pending tasks included in the associated task set has changed, the pending tasks included in the associated task set and / or the task execution order of the pending tasks in the associated task set are readjusted.

[0046] At least one of the above technical solutions adopted in this specification can achieve the following beneficial effects:

[0047] In the task allocation system and task allocation method provided in this specification, the control center can obtain each pending task, and then, for each pending task, according to the task type and / or task related information of the pending task, determine at least one task associated with the pending task from other pending tasks as the associated task corresponding to the pending task, and use the pending task and the associated task corresponding to the pending task as an associated task set. Then, according to the attribute information corresponding to each workstation, select the workstation matching the associated task set as the target workstation, and assign the associated task set to the target workstation for task execution.

[0048] It can be seen from the above method that the system can merge several related tasks into an associated task set and assign them to a workstation. The workstation can execute each task included in the associated task set in turn. The task types of the tasks included in the associated task set can be different. In the prior art, a workstation can only complete tasks of a certain task type before continuing to execute tasks of other task types. Therefore, compared with the prior art, the present method can enable the workstation to execute related tasks of different task types together. Therefore, the present method can improve the task execution efficiency to a certain extent. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0049] The drawings described herein are used to provide a further understanding of this specification and constitute a part of this specification. The illustrative embodiments and descriptions of this specification are used to explain this specification and do not constitute an improper limitation on this specification. In the drawings:

[0050] Figure 1 A schematic diagram of a task allocation system in this specification;

[0051] Figure 2 A flowchart of a task allocation method in this specification;

[0052] Figure 3 A schematic diagram of the task execution order of each task to be processed in an associated task set provided in this specification;

[0053] Figure 4 A flowchart for determining and allocating associated task sets provided in this specification. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0054] In order to make the purpose, technical solutions and advantages of this specification more clear, the technical solutions of this specification will be clearly and completely described below in combination with the specific embodiments of this specification and the corresponding drawings. Obviously, the described embodiments are only part of the embodiments of this specification, not all of them. Based on the embodiments in this specification, all other embodiments obtained by ordinary technicians in this field without creative work are within the scope of protection of this specification.

[0055] The technical solutions provided by the embodiments of this specification are described in detail below in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

[0056] This specification provides a task allocation system, which includes at least one control center and several workstations, such as Figure 1 shown.

[0057] Figure 1 A schematic diagram of a task allocation system provided in this specification.

[0058] from Figure 1 As can be seen in the figure, there are several workstations in the task allocation system. The control center can allocate tasks to a certain workstation and notify the handling equipment to move the inventory container or goods involved in the task assigned to the workstation to the workstation. After the handling equipment moves the inventory container to the workstation, the workstation can perform the task according to the assigned task. The inventory container mentioned here can refer to a container that can store goods (such as a shelf, a cargo box, etc.).

[0059] For example, suppose the control center assigns a picking task to workstation A (a picking task is the task of taking out goods from an inventory container and shipping the goods out of the warehouse). When the shelves (or other inventory containers) involved in the picking task are transported to workstation A by the handling equipment selected by the control center, the staff in workstation A can take out the goods involved in the picking task from the shelves to facilitate the subsequent shipment of the goods.

[0060] Of course, in actual applications, after a task is assigned to a workstation, the goods involved in the task can also be taken out from the inventory container involved in the task through handling equipment, and these goods can be transported to the workstation so that the workstation can execute the task, and the position of the inventory container itself does not need to change.

[0061] Figure 1 The specific form of the control center can be various, for example, it can be a terminal device such as a computer, or it can be a server with higher computing power. Furthermore, the control center used to control the handling equipment can be one or multiple control centers, that is, multiple control centers coordinately control multiple handling equipment to adjust the position of the inventory container.

[0062] There may be many specific forms of the transport equipment used to transport the inventory container, such as a transport equipment that lifts up the inventory container after reaching the bottom of the inventory container, thereby transporting the inventory container; a transport equipment that is provided with a fork, after reaching the location of the inventory container, the transport equipment can extend the fork, and then use the fork to drag the entire inventory container to another location. Similarly, this specification does not limit the specific form of the transport equipment.

[0063] The task allocation system is briefly described above. The task allocation method provided in this specification will be described in detail below with the control center as the execution subject.

[0064] Figure 2 The following is a flowchart of a task allocation method in this specification, which specifically includes the following steps:

[0065] S201: Obtain each task to be processed.

[0066] S202: For each pending task, based on the task type and / or task-related information of the pending task, determine at least one task associated with the pending task from other pending tasks as the associated task corresponding to the pending task, and take the pending task and the associated tasks corresponding to the pending task as an associated task set.

[0067] In actual applications, many tasks will be generated in the task allocation system, such as picking tasks, inventory tasks, tally tasks, etc. These tasks need to be assigned to workstations, and the workstations can execute the received tasks. Among them, in the picking task, it is necessary to select the goods that need to be shipped out from the shelves (or other inventory containers) to ship the goods out of the warehouse, and the inventory task needs to check the goods in the shelves, and the tally task needs to clean the shelves with a small amount of goods, take out the goods in the shelves and store them in other shelves. These tasks all need to be executed by workstations. Therefore, the control center can obtain the various pending tasks that need to be processed by the workstations, and these pending tasks need to be assigned to the workstations so that the workstations can execute these pending tasks.

[0068] After the control center obtains each pending task, it can determine, for each pending task, at least one task associated with the pending task from other pending tasks according to the task type and / or task-related information of the pending task, as the associated task corresponding to the pending task, and take the pending task and the associated tasks corresponding to the pending task as an associated task set. In other words, the control center can determine a number of tasks that can be processed together with the pending task, and merge these tasks with the pending task into a task set (i.e., an associated task set).

[0069] There may be multiple types of tasks for the tasks to be processed mentioned above, such as the picking tasks, inventory tasks, tallying tasks, etc. mentioned above. The task-related information mentioned above may include the container information of the inventory containers involved in the tasks to be processed, the cargo attributes of the goods involved in the tasks to be processed, and the cargo information of the goods involved in the tasks to be processed. Among them, through the container information of the inventory containers involved in the tasks to be processed, it can be determined which inventory container's cargo needs to be processed in the tasks to be processed. The cargo attributes mentioned here can represent the characteristics of the cargo in multiple dimensions. For example, "food", "daily necessities", etc. are used to indicate the type of cargo; for another example, "external medicine", "oral medicine", etc. are used to indicate the purpose of the cargo.

[0070] The control center can determine the tasks associated with the pending task based on one or more of the above-mentioned task-related information as the associated tasks corresponding to the pending task. Specifically, the control center can determine the tasks consistent with the inventory container involved in the pending task from other pending tasks based on the container information of the inventory container involved in the pending task and the container information of the inventory container involved in other pending tasks as the associated tasks corresponding to the pending task. This method is to associate the pending tasks consistent with the inventory container together based on the dimension of the inventory container. By determining the associated tasks corresponding to the pending task through the dimension of the inventory container, the workstation can execute the pending tasks involving the same inventory container together. In this way, the handling equipment only needs to carry the inventory container once (that is, to carry the inventory container to the workstation), and the workstation can execute multiple pending tasks involving the inventory container together, thereby improving the handling efficiency of the handling equipment.

[0071] Of course, the control center can also determine the task that is compatible with the cargo attribute of the cargo involved in the pending task from other pending tasks according to the pre-saved adaptation relationship between the cargo attributes, as the associated task corresponding to the pending task. The adaptation relationship between the cargo attributes mentioned here can be set according to actual needs. The adaptation relationship between two cargo attributes is used to indicate whether the tasks involving the cargo attributes of the two cargo attributes can be processed together.

[0072] For example, assuming that the adaptation relationship between the cargo attribute A and the cargo attribute B is "adaptive", if there is a picking task for cargo a with cargo attribute A and a tallying task for cargo b with cargo attribute B, the staff can handle the picking task for cargo a and the tallying task for cargo b together. If the adaptation relationship between the cargo attribute A and the cargo attribute B is "incompatible", the staff cannot handle the picking task for cargo a and the tallying task for cargo b at the same time.

[0073] Based on this, the control center determines the tasks associated with the pending tasks based on the dimension of the cargo attributes of the goods involved in the pending tasks. That is to say, if the cargo attributes of the goods involved in the two tasks are compatible, the two tasks can be associated together. Correspondingly, in the subsequent process, the associated tasks can be assigned to the same workstation, and the workstation can process these associated tasks together. For example, assuming that the adaptation relationship between the "food" attribute and the "daily necessities" attribute is incompatible, then if the goods involved in the pending task a are of the "food" attribute, and the goods involved in the pending task b are of the "daily necessities" attribute, the pending task a and the pending task b cannot be processed together, that is, the pending task a and the pending task b should not be associated.

[0074] In addition to the above methods, the control center can also, based on the cargo information of the cargo involved in the pending task, use the tasks in other pending tasks that are consistent with the cargo involved in the pending task as the associated tasks corresponding to the pending task. For example, assuming that a tally task involves cargo A and a picking task also involves cargo A, it can be seen that the two tasks involve the same cargo, then the control center can use the picking task as an associated task associated with the tally task, and use the picking task and the tally task as an associated task set.

[0075] In addition to determining the associated tasks corresponding to the pending task based on task-related information, the control center can also determine the associated tasks corresponding to the pending task based on the task type of the pending task. Specifically, the control center can determine the tasks that are compatible with the task type of the pending task from other pending tasks based on the pre-saved adaptation relationship between the task types, as the associated tasks corresponding to the pending task. The adaptation relationship between the task types mentioned here can be set according to actual needs.

[0076] For example, the picking task requires taking the goods out of the inventory container, while the inventory task only needs to check the goods in the inventory container and does not require too much operation by the staff. In this case, the adaptation relationship between the picking task and the inventory task can be set to "adaptive". Both the picking task and the shelving task require certain operations by the staff, so the adaptation relationship between the picking task and the shelving task can be set to "incompatible". When it is necessary to determine the associated tasks of the pending tasks belonging to the picking task, other pending tasks belonging to the inventory task can be used as the associated tasks of the pending task, while other pending tasks belonging to the shelving task should not be used as the associated tasks of the pending task.

[0077] In this specification, the control center can combine the above-mentioned multiple dimensions for determining the associated tasks of the pending task to determine the associated tasks. For example, the control center can determine other pending tasks that are consistent with the inventory container involved in the pending task and the task type of the pending task based on the container information of the inventory container involved in the pending task and the task type of the pending task as the associated tasks corresponding to the pending task. For another example, the control center can also determine other pending tasks that are consistent with the inventory container involved in the pending task and the cargo attributes of the cargo involved in the pending task as the associated tasks corresponding to the pending task based on the container information of the inventory container involved in the pending task and the cargo attributes of the cargo involved in the pending task.

[0078] It should be noted that, in addition to directly determining the associated tasks corresponding to the pending task, the control center can also determine the correlation between other pending tasks and the pending task, and determine the associated tasks corresponding to the pending task in other pending tasks based on the correlation between other pending tasks and the pending task. Among them, the control center can determine the correlation in a variety of ways. For example, the control center can determine the correlation between other pending tasks and the pending task based on the container information of the inventory container involved in the pending task. The correlation between tasks involving the same inventory container is higher, and the correlation between tasks involving different inventory containers is lower. For another example, the control center can also determine the correlation between other pending tasks and the pending task based on the task type of the pending task. The correlation between tasks with matching task types is higher, and the correlation between tasks with incompatible task types is lower.

[0079] After the control center determines the correlation between other pending tasks and the pending task, it can sort the other pending tasks in descending order of correlation, and use the other pending tasks before the set ranking as the corresponding associated tasks of the pending task. Of course, the control center can also use other pending tasks with a correlation not less than a set value as the corresponding associated tasks of the pending task.

[0080] S203: According to the attribute information corresponding to each workstation, a workstation matching the associated task set is selected as a target workstation.

[0081] S204: Allocate the associated task set to the target workstation for task execution, select handling equipment, and send cargo handling instructions corresponding to the associated task set to the selected handling equipment, so that the selected handling equipment can transport the cargo involved in the associated task set to the target workstation according to the cargo handling instructions.

[0082] After the control center determines the associated task set, it can select the workstation that matches the associated task set as the target workstation according to the attribute information corresponding to each workstation. Then, the control center can assign the associated task set to the target workstation so that the target workstation can execute the task of the associated task set.

[0083] The attribute information corresponding to each workstation mentioned here may include various information, such as the location of the workstation and the task processing rate corresponding to the workstation. Then, the control center may select the target workstation in various ways according to the attribute information corresponding to each workstation.

[0084] Specifically, the control center can select a workstation that matches the associated task set as the target workstation based on the task processing rate corresponding to each workstation and the task deadline of each pending task in the associated task set. For each pending task in the associated task set, the shorter the duration between the task deadline of the pending task and the current time, the faster the task processing rate of the selected workstation should be.

[0085] The task deadline mentioned here refers to the time when the pending tasks are required to be completed. In other words, if the task deadline of a pending task in the associated task set is very early, it is necessary to select a workstation with a faster task processing rate as the target workstation so that the target workstation can complete the pending tasks contained in the associated task set as soon as possible. If the task deadlines of the pending tasks contained in the associated task set are all late, the control center can assign the associated task set to the workstation with a slower task processing rate.

[0086] Of course, the control center can also determine, based on the location of each workstation, a workstation whose distance from the location where the inventory containers involved in the tasks to be processed in the associated task set are stored in the warehouse is no more than a set distance, as the target workstation. In this way, it can be ensured that the distance from the inventory containers involved in the tasks to be processed in the associated task set to the workstation by the handling equipment will not be too far, thereby ensuring the handling efficiency of the handling equipment. The set distance mentioned here can be set according to actual conditions.

[0087] After the control center determines the target workstation that matches the associated task set, it can allocate the associated task set to the target workstation according to the determined task execution order of each pending task in the associated task set, so that the target workstation executes each pending task in the associated task set according to the task execution order.

[0088] There are multiple ways to determine the task execution order of each pending task in the associated task set. The control center can determine the task execution order of each pending task in the associated task set according to the order of the task deadlines corresponding to each pending task in the associated task set. That is, the control center can arrange the pending tasks with earlier task deadlines in front and arrange the pending tasks with later task deadlines in the back, so as to determine the task execution order for executing each pending task in the associated task set, such as Figure 3 shown.

[0089] Figure 3 This is a schematic diagram of the task execution order of each to-be-processed task in an associated task set provided in this specification.

[0090] from Figure 3It can be seen that the associated task set includes the picking task e with a task deadline of 4 o'clock, the picking task f with a task deadline of 4:30, the tallying task r with a task deadline of 6 o'clock, and the inventory task g with a task deadline of 5 o'clock. Then, according to the order of the task deadlines of these tasks in the associated task set, the control center can determine the task execution order as: picking task e, picking task f, inventory task g and tallying task r. After the control center assigns the associated task set to the target workstation, the target workstation will first execute the picking task e, then the picking task f, then the inventory task g, and finally the tallying task r.

[0091] Of course, the control center can also determine the task execution order of each pending task in the associated task set according to the preset execution priority corresponding to each task type. The execution priority corresponding to each task type can be set according to actual needs. The higher the execution priority corresponding to the task type, the sooner the pending tasks of this task type will be executed first. The lower the execution priority corresponding to the task type, the later the pending tasks of this task type will be executed.

[0092] In addition to the above methods, the control center can also determine the task execution order of each pending task in the associated task set by combining the execution priority corresponding to each task type and the task deadline of each pending task in the associated task set. Specifically, the control center can first sort each pending task according to the order of the task deadline of each pending task. When there are pending tasks with the same task deadline, the control center can determine the execution order of these pending tasks according to the priority of the task type.

[0093] The control center determines the above-mentioned task execution order and allocates the associated task set to the target workstation according to the task execution order, which can ensure that the target workstation reasonably completes each pending task according to the task execution order. Among them, the time when the control center determines the task execution order is not unique. The control center can directly determine the task execution order when determining the associated task set, or determine the task execution order after determining the target workstation, and then allocate the associated task set to the workstation according to the task execution order.

[0094] In this specification, after the control center determines the target workstation, it can select a handling device and send a cargo handling instruction corresponding to the associated task set to the selected handling device. After receiving the handling instruction, the handling device selected by the control center can carry the cargo involved in the associated task set to the target workstation according to the cargo handling instruction. There are many ways for the control center to select the handling device.

[0095] For example, the control center can determine the transport equipment that is closest to the inventory container corresponding to the associated task set as the selected transport equipment, and use the transport equipment to transport the inventory container corresponding to the associated task set to the target workstation. For another example, the control center can select a transport equipment with sufficient power, and use the transport equipment to transport the inventory container corresponding to the associated task set to the target workstation. The control center or the selected transport equipment can perform path planning based on the container position of the inventory container corresponding to the associated task set and the position of the target workstation, so that the transport equipment can transport the inventory container to the target workstation according to the planned path. The method used for path planning can be a conventional path planning method, and this specification does not limit the specific path planning method.

[0096] It should be noted that if the control center detects that the task deadlines corresponding to the pending tasks included in the associated task set have changed, the pending tasks included in the associated task set and / or the task execution order of the pending tasks in the associated task set can be readjusted. Among them, if the task deadline of a certain pending task in the associated task set is suddenly advanced, the control center can remove other pending tasks from the associated task set. In this way, the control center can give priority to allocating pending tasks with advanced task deadlines to workstations, so that these pending tasks can be executed first. Of course, the control center can also adjust the execution order of each pending task in the associated task set so that pending tasks with advanced task deadlines can be executed first.

[0097] In addition, if the quantity of goods that have changed in the inventory container involved in the pending task in the associated task set is not less than the specified quantity, the specified task can be added to the associated task set, and the control center can enable the workstation to execute the specified task together with the pending task in the associated task set. The specified task mentioned here can be set according to the actual situation. The specified task can be an inventory task, a tally task, etc., and the specified quantity can be the number of goods remaining in the inventory container before the quantity of goods changes. For example, there is a shelf task 1 involving shelf A, and the control center monitors that the number of goods that have changed in the shelf A is 11 (the number of goods remaining in the inventory container before the quantity of goods changes is 10). Originally, there were only 10 goods left in the inventory container, but 11 goods in the inventory container have changed. Therefore, the goods in shelf A can be checked, and the control center can add the inventory task for shelf A to the associated task set containing the shelf task 1.

[0098] The above is a detailed description of the task allocation method provided in this specification. The following is a complete description of the process in which the control center determines the associated task set and allocates it to each workstation.

[0099] Figure 4 A flowchart for determining and allocating associated task sets provided in this specification.

[0100] from Figure 4 It can be seen that after the control center determines each pending task, it can determine each associated task set. Assuming that it is pre-set that tasks of certain task types can be processed together, that is, only the associated task sets are determined among the tasks of these task types (for example, it is set that picking tasks, shelving tasks, and tally tasks can be processed together), the control center can first determine the pending tasks of these task types (determine the pending tasks belonging to picking tasks, shelving tasks, and tally tasks), and then for each pending task of these task types, determine the associated tasks associated with the pending task, thereby determining each associated task set.

[0101] If the control center does not determine that a certain pending task has an associated task, the pending task itself constitutes an associated task set. After the control center determines each associated task set, it can determine the task execution order corresponding to each pending task in the associated task set for each associated task set, and assign each associated task to the corresponding workstation according to the task execution order. After receiving the associated task set, the workstation can execute each pending task in sequence according to the task execution order corresponding to each pending task in the associated task set.

[0102] It can be seen from the above method that the task allocation method provided in this specification can merge several related tasks into an associated task set and assign them to a workstation. The workstation can execute each task included in the associated task set in turn. The task types of the tasks included in the associated task set can be different. In the prior art, a workstation can only complete tasks of a certain task type before continuing to execute tasks of other task types. Therefore, compared with the prior art, the present method can enable the workstation to execute related tasks of different task types together. Therefore, the present method can improve the task execution efficiency to a certain extent.

[0103] Each embodiment in this specification is described in a progressive manner, and the same or similar parts between the embodiments can be referred to each other, and each embodiment focuses on the differences from other embodiments. In particular, for the system embodiment, since it is basically similar to the method embodiment, the description is relatively simple, and the relevant parts can be referred to the partial description of the method embodiment.

[0104] The above description is only an embodiment of the present specification and is not intended to limit the present specification. For those skilled in the art, the present specification may have various changes and variations. Any modification, equivalent replacement, improvement, etc. made within the spirit and principle of the present specification shall be included in the scope of the claims of the present specification.

Claims

1. A task allocation system, characterized in that: include: At least one control center, at least one handling device, and several workstations; The control center is configured to obtain each pending task, and for each pending task, according to the task type and / or task related information of the pending task, determine at least one task associated with the pending task from other pending tasks as the associated task corresponding to the pending task, and use the pending task and the associated task corresponding to the pending task as an associated task set, select a workstation matching the associated task set as a target workstation according to the attribute information corresponding to each workstation, select a handling device, and send the cargo handling instruction corresponding to the associated task set to the selected handling device, and assign the associated task set to the target workstation for task execution, wherein the attribute information corresponding to the workstation includes: a task processing rate corresponding to the workstation, and the control center selects a workstation matching the associated task set according to the task processing rate corresponding to each workstation and the task deadline of each pending task in the associated task set, and for each pending task in the associated task set, if the duration from the task deadline of the pending task to the current time is shorter, the task processing rate of the selected workstation should be faster; The transport device is configured to receive the cargo transport instruction sent by the control center, and transport the cargo involved in the associated task set to the target workstation according to the cargo transport instruction; The workstation is configured to receive the associated task set assigned by the control center and execute tasks on the associated task set.

2. The system according to claim 1, characterized in that The task-related information includes: container information of an inventory container involved in the task to be processed, and at least one of cargo attributes of the cargo involved in the task to be processed, wherein the inventory container is used to store cargo.

3. The system according to claim 2, characterized in that The control center is also configured to, based on the container information of the inventory container involved in the task to be processed and the container information of the inventory containers involved in other tasks to be processed, determine a task consistent with the inventory container involved in the task to be processed from other tasks to be processed as an associated task corresponding to the task to be processed.

4. The system according to claim 2, characterized in that The control center is also configured to determine, from the other pending tasks, tasks that are compatible with the cargo attributes of the cargo involved in the pending task, as associated tasks corresponding to the pending task, based on the pre-saved adaptation relationship between the cargo attributes.

5. The system according to claim 1, wherein: The control center is further configured to determine, according to the pre-saved adaptation relationship between the task types, a task that is adapted to the task type of the task to be processed from the other tasks to be processed as an associated task corresponding to the task to be processed.

6. The system according to claim 1, characterized in that The control center is further configured to allocate the associated task set to the target workstation according to the determined task execution order of each to-be-processed task in the associated task set; The workstation is also configured to execute each to-be-processed task in the associated task set according to the task execution order.

7. The system according to claim 6, characterized in that The control center is further configured to determine a task execution order for executing each to-be-processed task in the associated task set according to a preset execution priority corresponding to each task type.

8. The system according to claim 6 or 7, characterized in that The control center is further configured to determine a task execution order for executing each task in the associated task set according to a sequence of task deadlines corresponding to each to-be-processed task in the associated task set.

9. The system according to claim 7, characterized in that The control center is also configured to readjust the tasks to be processed contained in the associated task set and / or the task execution order of the tasks to be processed in the associated task set if it monitors that the task deadline corresponding to the tasks to be processed contained in the associated task set has changed.

10. A task allocation method, characterized in that: include: Get each pending task; For each task to be processed, according to the task type and / or task related information of the task to be processed, at least one task associated with the task to be processed is determined from other tasks to be processed as an associated task corresponding to the task to be processed, and the task to be processed and the associated tasks corresponding to the task to be processed are taken as an associated task set; According to the attribute information corresponding to each workstation, a workstation matching the associated task set is selected as the target workstation, wherein the attribute information corresponding to the workstation includes: the task processing rate corresponding to the workstation, according to the task processing rate corresponding to each workstation and the task deadline of each pending task in the associated task set, a workstation matching the associated task set is selected, and for each pending task in the associated task set, the shorter the duration from the task deadline of the pending task to the current time, the faster the task processing rate of the selected workstation should be; The associated task set is assigned to the target workstation for task execution, and a handling device is selected, and a cargo handling instruction corresponding to the associated task set is sent to the selected handling device, so that the selected handling equipment transports the cargo involved in the associated task set to the target workstation according to the cargo handling instruction.

11. The method according to claim 10, characterized in that The task-related information includes: container information of an inventory container involved in the task to be processed, and at least one of cargo attributes of the cargo involved in the task to be processed, wherein the inventory container is used to store cargo.

12. The method according to claim 11, characterized in that According to the task type and / or task related information of the task to be processed, at least one task associated with the task to be processed is determined from other tasks to be processed as an associated task corresponding to the task to be processed, specifically including: According to the container information of the inventory container involved in the pending task and the container information of the inventory containers involved in other pending tasks, a task consistent with the inventory container involved in the pending task is determined from other pending tasks as an associated task corresponding to the pending task.

13. The method according to claim 11, characterized in that According to the task type and / or task related information of the task to be processed, at least one task associated with the task to be processed is determined from other tasks to be processed as an associated task corresponding to the task to be processed, specifically including: According to the pre-saved adaptation relationship between the attributes of the goods, a task that is adapted to the attributes of the goods involved in the task to be processed is determined from the other tasks to be processed as an associated task corresponding to the task to be processed.

14. The method according to claim 10, characterized in that According to the task type and / or task related information of the task to be processed, at least one task associated with the task to be processed is determined from other tasks to be processed as an associated task corresponding to the task to be processed, specifically including: According to the pre-saved adaptation relationship between the task types, a task that is adapted to the task type of the task to be processed is determined from the other tasks to be processed as an associated task corresponding to the task to be processed.

15. The method according to claim 10, characterized in that Allocating the associated task set to the target workstation for task execution specifically includes: According to the determined task execution order of each to-be-processed task in the associated task set, the associated task set is allocated to the target workstation, so that the target workstation executes each to-be-processed task in the associated task set according to the task execution order.

16. The method according to claim 15, characterized in that Determining the task execution order of each to-be-processed task in the associated task set specifically includes: The task execution order of each to-be-processed task in the associated task set is determined according to the preset execution priority corresponding to each task type.

17. The method according to claim 15 or 16, characterized in that Determining the task execution order of each to-be-processed task in the associated task set specifically includes: The task execution order of each to-be-processed task in the associated task set is determined according to the order of task deadlines corresponding to each to-be-processed task in the associated task set.

18. The method according to claim 17, characterized in that The attribute information corresponding to the workstation includes: the task processing rate corresponding to the workstation; According to the attribute information corresponding to each workstation, a workstation matching the associated task set is selected as a target workstation, specifically including: According to the task processing rate corresponding to each workstation and the task deadline of each pending task in the associated task set, a workstation matching the associated task set is selected as the target workstation. For each pending task in the associated task set, the shorter the task deadline of the pending task is from the current time, the faster the task processing rate of the selected workstation should be.

19. The method according to claim 16, characterized in that The method further comprises: If it is monitored that the task deadline corresponding to the pending tasks included in the associated task set has changed, the pending tasks included in the associated task set and / or the task execution order of the pending tasks in the associated task set are readjusted.

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