An unmanned carrier vehicle driving control system for intelligent warehousing

Abstract

The present invention provides an unmanned carrier vehicle driving control system for intelligent warehousing, which includes a wireless virtual guide rail and a control device. The wireless virtual guide rail includes a plurality of communication nodes deployed in the intelligent warehousing, and is used for wirelessly positioning the unmanned carrier vehicle to obtain position information; the control device plans a driving route for the unmanned carrier vehicle based on the position information; the communication nodes obtain the driving routes of the corresponding unmanned carrier vehicles and feedback them to the corresponding unmanned carrier vehicles to control their driving; each communication node is configured to: perform wireless short-range communication with one or more unmanned carrier vehicles entering the communication range of this communication node, and according to the number of unmanned carrier vehicles currently accessing this communication node, specify the communication time slots of each unmanned carrier vehicle and generate corresponding listening control packets, and send the listening control packets to the corresponding unmanned carrier vehicles to instruct the unmanned carrier vehicles to turn on listening in the specified communication time slots to interact with the communication nodes, and turn off listening in the remaining communication time slots.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The present invention relates to the fields of intelligent warehousing and industrial Internet, and particularly to a driving control system for an automated guided vehicle in intelligent warehousing. Background Art

[0002] Intelligent warehousing is a warehousing management concept that realizes automated operations such as inspection and release, storage, sorting, goods allocation, distribution, and statistics of goods in and out of the warehouse through technologies such as informatization, Internet of Things, and mechatronics, thereby reducing warehousing costs, improving operation efficiency, and enhancing warehousing management capabilities.

[0003] In the existing intelligent warehousing environment, automated guided vehicles are often used to complete operations such as goods warehousing, stock relocation, and goods out of the warehouse. Although the unified network of the entire workshop in warehousing has been realized, there are problems such as uneven levels of industrial equipment intelligence in logistics technologies in intelligent warehousing. Existing technologies generally use preset electromagnetic tracks to set up their travel routes, that is, the electromagnetic tracks are pasted on the floor, and the automated guided vehicle moves or operates according to the information brought by the electromagnetic tracks. The flexibility of the automated guided vehicle in moving and operating is very limited. In addition, through technologies such as image recognition and SLAM, the vehicle can automatically avoid obstacles and complete operations. This requires the automated guided vehicle to perform real-time perception of the complex and changeable road environment around it during driving. Therefore, the automated guided vehicle needs to perform intelligent recognition and analysis by itself, but it has problems such as limited computing power, high cost, and high power consumption.

[0004] Therefore, in the prior art, the corresponding calculation and analysis are performed through the interaction between the automated guided vehicle and the communication node, and the network equipment in the warehouse is used to analyze it and plan the route to control the driving of the automated guided vehicle. However, when multiple automated guided vehicles communicate with the communication node, the existing distributed and competitive communication methods based on WiFi, Bluetooth, etc. will cause data link conflicts, greatly reducing the data transmission delay, and unable to ensure that the automated guided vehicle travels along the driving route in real time and accurately, which is not conducive to the precision and automation of warehousing operations and the production efficiency is low.

[0005] Therefore, there is an urgent need to provide a system that realizes the intelligence of the entire warehousing area to support tasks such as the driving and obstacle avoidance of automated guided vehicles in real time, and to achieve high-quality and reliable control of the automated guided vehicle to automatically and accurately complete operations such as goods warehousing, stock relocation, and goods out of the warehouse, and improve production efficiency. Summary of the Invention

[0006] Therefore, the purpose of the present invention is to overcome the above-mentioned defects of the prior art and provide a driving control system for an automated guided vehicle in intelligent warehousing.

[0007] The purpose of the present invention is achieved by the following technical solutions:

[0008] According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided an unmanned carrier vehicle driving control system for intelligent warehousing, including a wireless virtual guide rail and a control device. The wireless virtual guide rail includes a plurality of communication nodes deployed in the intelligent warehousing for wirelessly positioning the unmanned carrier vehicle to obtain position information. Each communication node is configured to: perform wireless short-range communication with one or more unmanned carrier vehicles entering the communication range of this communication node, specify the communication time slots of each unmanned carrier vehicle and generate corresponding listening control packets, and send the listening control packets to the corresponding unmanned carrier vehicles to instruct the corresponding unmanned carrier vehicles to turn on listening in the specified communication time slots to interact with the communication nodes and turn off listening in non-specified communication time slots. The control device is configured to: plan a driving route for the unmanned carrier vehicle based on the position information of the unmanned carrier vehicle. The communication node is further configured to: obtain the driving route planned by the control device for the corresponding unmanned carrier vehicle and feedback it to the corresponding unmanned carrier vehicle to control its driving.

[0009] In some embodiments of the present invention, the communication node performing wireless short-range communication with the unmanned carrier vehicle, specifying the communication time slots of each unmanned carrier vehicle and generating corresponding listening control packets includes: specifying the communication time slots of the corresponding unmanned carrier vehicle and generating corresponding listening control packets according to the number of unmanned carrier vehicles currently accessing this communication node. Among them, the wireless short-range communication is based on a plurality of short wireless frames of a superframe for communication. Each short wireless frame includes a first half frame for uplink transmission, a switching interval, and a second half frame for downlink transmission, or includes a first half frame for downlink transmission, a switching interval, and a second half frame for uplink transmission. The switching interval is used for switching between uplink transmission and downlink transmission. The first half frame or the second half frame of the uplink transmission includes one or more uplink subframes for transmitting data from the unmanned carrier vehicle to the communication node, and the first half frame or the second half frame of the downlink transmission includes one or more downlink subframes for transmitting data from the communication node to the unmanned carrier vehicle.

[0010] In some embodiments of the present invention, the control device is further configured to count the data volume ratio of uplink transmission and downlink transmission, and based on the ratio, select a short wireless frame with a corresponding number ratio of uplink subframes and downlink subframes.

[0011] In some embodiments of the present invention, the plurality of communication nodes are deployed at intervals on the sections in the intelligent warehousing and on the shelves in the intelligent warehousing. The unmanned carrier vehicle includes a plurality of communication tags for determining its contour information. The position information of the unmanned carrier vehicle includes the two-dimensional position and the three-dimensional position of each communication tag. Among them, the two-dimensional position is obtained by wirelessly positioning the communication tags of the unmanned carrier vehicle by a plurality of communication nodes on the section, and the three-dimensional position is obtained by wirelessly positioning the plurality of communication tags of the unmanned carrier vehicle by a plurality of communication nodes on the section and the communication nodes on the shelf. The contour information of the unmanned carrier vehicle is obtained according to the three-dimensional positions of the plurality of communication tags.

[0012] In some embodiments of the present invention, the automated guided vehicle further includes goods, and a plurality of communication tags for determining the contour information thereof are attached to the goods; the method for determining the overall contour information of the automated guided vehicle and its goods includes: wirelessly positioning the plurality of communication tags of the goods based on a plurality of communication nodes on the road section and the communication nodes on the shelf to obtain the three-dimensional positions of the respective communication tags of the goods; and obtaining the overall contour information according to the contour information of the automated guided vehicle and the three-dimensional positions of the respective communication tags of the goods.

[0013] In some embodiments of the present invention, the communication information for the communication node to perform wireless short-range communication with the corresponding communication tag includes the unique identifier of the communication node, the time, the unique identifier of the communication tag, and the distance between the communication node and the communication tag; the communication node is configured to: obtain the two-dimensional position of the corresponding communication tag of the automated guided vehicle through a trilateration positioning algorithm based on the distances between three communication nodes on the road section and the corresponding communication tags of the automated guided vehicle respectively; and calculate the three-dimensional position of the corresponding communication tag based on the distances between three communication nodes on the road section and the communication nodes on the shelf and the corresponding communication tag.

[0014] In some embodiments of the present invention, the steps for the communication node to obtain the driving route planned by the control device for it and feed it back to the corresponding automated guided vehicle to control its driving include: the communication node obtains the driving route of the automated guided vehicle, and the driving route includes a number of target two-dimensional positions planned based on the current two-dimensional position and the destination position of the automated guided vehicle and the time corresponding to reaching the target two-dimensional position; according to the number of target two-dimensional positions, controlling the automated guided vehicle to drive to the corresponding target two-dimensional position, and adjusting the driving speed and driving route of the automated guided vehicle based on calculating the current driving speed of the automated guided vehicle and the distance offset between the two-dimensional position and the target two-dimensional position corresponding to the time.

[0015] In some embodiments of the present invention, the driving route includes a driving direction, and the steps for controlling the driving direction of the automated guided vehicle according to the driving direction include: obtaining the current driving direction based on the three-dimensional positions of a plurality of communication tags of the automated guided vehicle; calculating the vector difference between the current driving direction and the path direction specified in the driving route; and adjusting the driving direction of the automated guided vehicle according to the vector difference to control the automated guided vehicle to drive in the path direction specified in the driving route.

[0016] In some embodiments of the present invention, the contour information of all fixed devices in the intelligent warehouse is stored in the control device; based on the contour information of the automated guided vehicle or the overall contour information of the automated guided vehicle and the goods thereon and the contour information of the fixed device, the automated guided vehicle is controlled to maintain a distance from the fixed device in the intelligent warehouse.

[0017] In some embodiments of the present invention, the multiple communication nodes on the section include transponders for obtaining the two-dimensional position of the automated guided vehicle (AGV) by electromagnetic induction; and calibrating the two-dimensional position obtained by wireless positioning according to the two-dimensional position obtained by the transponder.

[0018] Compared with the prior art, the advantages of the present invention are as follows:

[0019] 1. In the system of the present invention, real-time wireless positioning of the AGV is performed through a wireless virtual guide rail to obtain position information. The control device plans a driving route for the AGV in real time on demand according to the position information of the AGV. At the same time, according to the number of AGVs currently accessing this communication node, the communication node correspondingly listens for control packets and sends them to the corresponding AGVs to instruct the corresponding AGVs to turn on listening in a specified communication time slot to interact with the communication node, and turn off listening in a non-specified communication time slot to reduce power consumption. When multiple AGVs communicate with the same communication node, through a centralized and non-competitive listening method, data link conflicts caused by a distributed and competitive listening method are avoided, the data transmission delay is greatly reduced, high-quality communication between the AGV and the communication node is realized, ensuring that the AGV travels along the driving route in real time and accurately, and automatically and accurately completes operations such as goods warehousing, stock transfer, and outbound, maximizing production efficiency.

[0020] 2. The wireless short-distance communication in the system of the present invention is based on multiple short wireless frames of a superframe for communication. Each short wireless frame includes a first half frame, a switching interval, and a second half frame. The first half frame is composed of multiple subframes of the same type, and the second half frame is also composed of multiple subframes of the same type. Therefore, only a switching interval needs to be set between the first half frame and the second half frame, avoiding problems such as low efficiency and high cost caused by frequent switching required for multiple interleavings of different subframes. At the same time, the short wireless frame with a short duration realizes low-latency communication between the communication node and the AGV.

[0021] 3. The communication nodes in the system of the present invention are also deployed on the shelves. Combining with the communication nodes on the section to position each part of the AGV, the three-dimensional positions of multiple parts of the AGV are obtained. The current driving direction of the AGV is obtained through the three-dimensional positions of multiple parts and can be adjusted in a timely manner according to the path direction of the planned driving route. In addition, the contour information of the AGV is obtained based on its three-dimensional position, and each part of the goods on the AGV is positioned to obtain the overall contour information of the AGV and the goods. Combining with the contour information of the fixed equipment in the warehouse pre-stored by the control device, collisions between AGVs and collisions between the AGV and some equipment set at high positions or surrounding equipment are avoided, and a good obstacle avoidance effect is achieved. Description of the Drawings

[0022] The following further describes the embodiments of the present invention with reference to the accompanying drawings, where:

[0023] Figure 1 Schematic diagram of information interaction between a communication node and two automated guided vehicles in an intelligent warehouse according to an embodiment of the present invention based on listening to control packets;

[0024] Figure 2 Schematic diagram of the structure of a short wireless frame based on an extended cyclic prefix configuration according to an embodiment of the present invention;

[0025] Figure 3 Schematic diagram of communication between multiple communication nodes of a wireless virtual guide rail of an intelligent warehouse and an automated guided vehicle according to an embodiment of the present invention;

[0026] Figure 4 Schematic diagram of the current driving direction and the planned driving direction of an automated guided vehicle according to an embodiment of the present invention;

[0027] Figure 5 Schematic diagram of a driving control system of an automated guided vehicle in an intelligent warehouse according to an embodiment of the present invention. Detailed implementation manners

[0028] In order to make the objectives, technical solutions and advantages of the present invention clearer and more understandable, the present invention will be further described in detail below through specific embodiments with reference to the accompanying drawings. It should be understood that the specific embodiments described herein are only used to explain the present invention and are not used to limit the present invention.

[0029] As mentioned in the background art section, in the existing intelligent warehouse environment, automated guided vehicles are mainly relied on to complete operations such as goods warehousing, inventory transfer, and goods outbound. However, in the intelligent warehouse logistics technology, the intelligent levels of industrial equipment are uneven. Therefore, it is necessary for automated guided vehicles to perform intelligent identification and analysis by themselves, but there are problems such as limited computing power, high cost, and high power consumption. Although the corresponding calculation and analysis can be performed through the interaction between the automated guided vehicle and the communication node, and the network equipment in the warehouse is used to analyze it and plan the route to control the driving of the automated guided vehicle. However, when multiple automated guided vehicles communicate with the communication node, the existing distributed and competitive communication methods such as WiFi and Bluetooth will cause data link conflicts, greatly reducing the data transmission delay, and it is impossible to ensure that the automated guided vehicle travels along the driving route in real time and accurately, which is not conducive to the precision and automation of warehouse operations and the production efficiency is low.

[0030] Through the above research, according to an embodiment of the present invention, the present invention provides a driving control system for an unmanned transport vehicle in intelligent warehousing, including a wireless virtual guide rail and a control device. The wireless virtual guide rail includes a plurality of communication nodes deployed in the intelligent warehousing for wirelessly positioning the unmanned transport vehicle to obtain position information. The control device plans a driving route for the unmanned transport vehicle based on the position information of the unmanned transport vehicle. The communication node acquires the planned driving route of the corresponding unmanned transport vehicle and feeds it back to the corresponding unmanned transport vehicle to control its driving.

[0031] Further, each communication node is configured to: perform wireless short-range communication with one or more unmanned transport vehicles entering the communication range of this communication node, and according to the number of unmanned transport vehicles currently accessing this communication node, specify the communication time slots of each unmanned transport vehicle and generate corresponding listening control packets, and send the listening control packets to the corresponding unmanned transport vehicles to instruct the corresponding unmanned transport vehicles to turn on listening in the specified communication time slots to interact with the communication node, and turn off listening in non-specified communication time slots. In intelligent warehousing, the access mode of wireless short-range communication is centralized and non-competitive, supporting a large number of unmanned transport vehicles to access the communication node simultaneously, meeting the requirement of "working immediately after power-on"; during the period when the communication node does not send information to the corresponding unmanned transport vehicle, the unmanned transport vehicle can temporarily turn off listening to reduce power consumption.

[0032] To better understand the present invention, the following specifically describes the system with reference to specific embodiments.

[0033] First, the communication nodes of the wireless virtual guide rail and the corresponding wireless short-range communication method are described. According to an embodiment of the present invention, the arrangement of the plurality of communication nodes of the wireless virtual guide rail for communication is as follows:

[0034] The plurality of communication nodes are arranged at intervals on all sections in the intelligent warehousing, and each communication node on the section includes a wireless short-range communication module and a transponder for two-way wireless communication with the unmanned transport vehicle; and are arranged on a plurality of shelves in the intelligent warehousing at a predetermined height, and each communication node on the shelf includes a wireless short-range communication module for two-way wireless communication with the unmanned transport vehicle. Different communication nodes can be distinguished by different node identifiers and the height of the communication node is recorded. For example, the node identifier of the communication node on the section for forming the wireless virtual guide rail is set to 0 and the height is set to 0; the node identifier of the communication node for marking the shelf is set to 1, and the height of the communication node is set according to the measured height, such as height h.

[0035] According to an embodiment of the present invention, each communication node performs wireless short-range communication with one or more automated guided vehicles (AGVs) that enter the communication range of the communication node, specifies communication time slots for each AGV according to the number of AGVs currently accessing the communication node, generates corresponding listening control packets, and sends the listening control packets to the corresponding AGVs to instruct the corresponding AGVs to interact with the communication node as specified. Refer to Figure 1 , for example, when two AGVs access the communication node simultaneously, the two AGVs are represented by T Node 1 and T Node 2 respectively, and the communication node is represented by G Node. Each AGV will receive the corresponding listening control packet sent by the communication node. Taking a time slot as the minimum time unit for listening, Figure 1 one square in [the figure] represents one time slot. G Node receives data in the 1st, 4th, 7th, and 10th time slots, and sends data in the remaining time slots. T Node 1 listens for the data sent by G Node in the predetermined 2nd, 5th, and 8th time slots, and sends information to G Node in the 4th and 10th time slots. At the same time, it turns off listening during the remaining time to reduce power consumption. T Node 2 listens for the data sent by G Node in the predetermined 3rd, 6th, and 9th time slots, and sends information to G Node in the 1st and 7th time slots. At the same time, it turns off listening during the remaining time to reduce power consumption. When multiple AGVs communicate with the same communication node, through this centralized and non-competitive listening method, data link conflicts caused by the distributed and competitive listening method are avoided, and the data transmission delay is greatly reduced. Multiple AGVs listen for the information sent by the communication node in an orderly manner and send information to the communication node in an orderly manner.

[0036] According to an embodiment of the present invention, the wireless short-range communication is carried out based on multiple short wireless frames of a superframe. Each short wireless frame includes a first half frame for uplink transmission, a switching interval, and a second half frame for downlink transmission, or includes a first half frame for downlink transmission, a switching interval, and a second half frame for uplink transmission. The switching interval is used for switching between uplink transmission and downlink transmission. The first half frame or the second half frame of the uplink transmission includes one or more uplink subframes for transmitting data from the AGV to the communication node, and the first half frame or the second half frame of the downlink transmission includes one or more downlink subframes for transmitting data from the communication node to the AGV.

[0037] According to an embodiment of the present invention, each superframe contains 48 short wireless frames. The duration of each superframe is 1 ms, and the duration of each short wireless frame is 20.833 μs. Since both downlink transmission and uplink transmission can be configured within a short wireless frame, the one-way data transmission delay of the physical layer can be no greater than 20.833 μs, and the transmission delay is small. In addition, the frame structure becomes shorter, the information in each frame is less, the code length will be shortened, and the corresponding encoding, framing, and decoding times will be reduced.

[0038] According to an embodiment of the present invention, the short wireless frame includes two types: a short wireless frame configured based on a normal cyclic prefix and a short wireless frame configured based on an extended cyclic prefix. Each short wireless frame includes the first half frame for uplink transmission, a switching interval, and the second half frame for downlink transmission, or each short wireless frame includes the first half frame for downlink transmission, a switching interval, and the second half frame for uplink transmission. The downlink subframes of the first half frame or the second half frame for downlink transmission are represented by symbol G, and the downlink subframes of the first half frame or the second half frame for uplink transmission are represented by symbol T. Specifically, the short wireless frame configured based on the normal cyclic prefix has 8 subframes. The specific ratio of G subframes and T subframes can be as shown in Table 1 below, supporting 14 G / T subframe ratios.

[0039] Table 1: Ratio of G / T Subframes of Short Wireless Frame Configured Based on Normal Cyclic Prefix

[0040]

[0041]

[0042] Based on Table 1 above, for example, the first type of short wireless frame includes the first half frame for downlink transmission composed of the first 7 downlink subframes, a switching interval for switching between the 7th downlink subframe and the 8th uplink subframe, and the second half frame for uplink transmission composed of the 8th uplink subframe; the second type of short wireless frame includes the first half frame for downlink transmission composed of the first 6 downlink subframes, a switching interval for switching between the 6th downlink subframe and the 7th uplink subframe, and the second half frame for uplink transmission composed of the 7th and 8th uplink subframes. In this way, 14 short wireless frames can be formed.

[0043] The short wireless frame configured based on the extended cyclic prefix has 7 subframes. The specific ratio of G subframes and T subframes can be as shown in Table 2 below, supporting 12 G / T subframe ratios.

[0044] Table 2: Ratio of G / T Subframes of Short Wireless Frame Configured Based on Extended Cyclic Prefix

[0045]

[0046]

[0047] Based on Table 2 above, for example, the first type of short wireless frame includes the first half frame for downlink transmission composed of the first 6 downlink subframes, a switching interval for switching between the 6th downlink subframe and the 7th uplink subframe, and the second half frame for uplink transmission composed of the 7th uplink subframe; the 7th type of short wireless frame includes the first half frame for uplink transmission composed of the first uplink subframe, a switching interval for switching between the first uplink subframe and the second downlink subframe, and the second half frame for downlink transmission composed of 6 downlink subframes from the second to the seventh. In this way, 12 selectable short wireless frames can be formed.

[0048] According to an embodiment of the present invention, referring to Figure 2 , which is a specific structure of a short wireless frame based on an extended cyclic prefix configuration, representing the 3rd subframe ratio mode in Table 2 above. SG#0 is the symbol resource for overhead symbol G or symbol T, GAP is the switching interval between uplink transmission and downlink transmission. Each subframe ratio mode corresponds to a short wireless frame of a structure, and SG#0 and GAP are set between subframes G and T of each short wireless frame of a structure, and GAP is also set after the last subframe.

[0049] According to an embodiment of the present invention, the control device is further configured to count the data volume ratio between uplink transmission and downlink transmission, and based on the ratio, select a short wireless frame with a corresponding ratio of the number of uplink subframes to downlink subframes. When the data transmission volume from the communication node to the automated guided vehicle is large, select a short wireless frame with more G subframes and fewer T subframes; when the data transmission volume from the automated guided vehicle to the communication node is large, select a short wireless frame with fewer G subframes and more T subframes.

[0050] Based on the above, the communication node and the corresponding automated guided vehicle perform wireless short-distance communication, and the automated guided vehicle and the communication node perform efficient interaction to obtain the corresponding planned driving route, so as to more accurately control the unmanned vehicle.

[0051] In some application scenarios, the shape of the shelves in intelligent warehousing may change, or some prominent goods stored in the shelves may cause contour changes, and the size change of the goods carried by the automated guided vehicle may also cause collisions in some places. Therefore, in order to avoid manually adjusting the running trajectory of the automated guided vehicle each time, it is possible to consider identifying the contour information of these devices and planning a driving route that automatically avoids collisions during path planning. So that the automated guided vehicle can drive according to the corresponding driving route to avoid collisions between the automated guided vehicle and other devices in the warehouse and collisions with other automated guided vehicles, and safely reach the destination position. Specifically, the method for planning the driving route includes: measuring the distances between the automated guided vehicle and multiple communication nodes through wireless short-distance communication to achieve positioning of the automated guided vehicle, obtaining its two-dimensional position and multiple three-dimensional positions, and forming its contour information based on the multiple three-dimensional positions; planning a collision-avoiding driving route based on the contour information of the automated guided vehicle, the contour information of the pre-stored fixed warehouse equipment, and the two-dimensional position and destination position of the automated guided vehicle.

[0052] According to an embodiment of the present invention, the method for obtaining the contour information and two-dimensional position of the automated guided vehicle includes: multiple communication tags for determining its position information and contour information are provided on the automated guided vehicle. According to an embodiment of the present invention, the communication tags can adopt the same structural form as the communication nodes and are partitioned by different identifiers. Among them, the communication tags are fixed on the corresponding parts of the automated guided vehicle and are provided with communication modules for realizing the function of positioning the corresponding parts of the automated guided vehicle. The way to realize this function is: the communication modules in the communication tags communicate with the communication nodes through wireless short-range communication, and calculate the position information of the corresponding parts of the automated guided vehicle for each communication tag. For example, the tag identifiers of multiple communication tags for determining the position information and contour information of the automated guided vehicle are set to 2. Among them, multiple communication tags are respectively distributed at the center of the bottom of the automated guided vehicle, above the head, above the tail, and on both sides of the vehicle, and can all be used for wireless short-range communication with multiple communication nodes of the wireless virtual guide rail. The communication information includes the unique identifier of the communication node, time, the unique identifier of the communication tag, and the distance between the communication node and the communication tag; the position information of the automated guided vehicle includes the two-dimensional position and three-dimensional position of each communication tag. Among them, the two-dimensional position is obtained by wirelessly positioning the communication tags of the automated guided vehicle by multiple communication nodes on the road section, and the three-dimensional position is obtained by wirelessly positioning multiple communication tags of the automated guided vehicle by multiple communication nodes on the road section and communication nodes on the shelf; the three-dimensional positions of multiple communication tags are connected to each other in a corresponding manner to form the contour information of an automated guided vehicle.

[0053] According to an embodiment of the present invention, the specific calculation process of the corresponding two-dimensional position and three-dimensional position includes: the communication node obtains the two-dimensional position of the corresponding communication tag of the automated guided vehicle through the trilateration positioning algorithm based on the distances between three communication nodes on the road section and the corresponding communication tag of the automated guided vehicle respectively; and calculates the three-dimensional position of the corresponding communication tag based on the distances between three communication nodes on the road section and communication nodes on the shelf and the corresponding communication tag. Among them, the two-dimensional position is represented by coordinates (x, y), indicating its position on the road section, and the three-dimensional position is represented by coordinates (x, y, h), indicating its position on the road section and the height relative to this position.

[0054] According to an embodiment of the present invention, for example, taking the two-dimensional position of the communication tag at the center of the bottom of the automated guided vehicle as the two-dimensional position of the automated guided vehicle, a driving route is planned based on this two-dimensional position and the destination position. Among them, the way to obtain the two-dimensional position of the communication tag at the center of the bottom is: based on the distances between three communication nodes on the road section and the communication tag at the center of the bottom of the automated guided vehicle respectively, the two-dimensional position of the automated guided vehicle is obtained through the trilateration positioning algorithm, as Figure 3 shown, the distances between the three communication nodes and the communication tag at the center of the bottom of the automated guided vehicle are respectively r1 and r 2 and r 3 , respectively with three communication nodes as the centers and the distances as the radii to draw three circles, and the intersection coordinates are the two-dimensional position (x 0 , y 0 ) of the automated guided vehicle, which is represented by the following system of equations (1).

[0055]

[0056] Among them, (x 1 , y 1 ), (x 2 , y 2 ) and (x 3 , y 3 ) are the two-dimensional position coordinates of the three communication nodes respectively. Based on the above system of equations, the two-dimensional position of the center of the bottom of the automated guided vehicle can be solved, and a driving route can be planned based on this two-dimensional position and the destination position. Correspondingly, according to other embodiments of the present invention, the two-dimensional position of the communication tag above the head or the tail of the automated guided vehicle can also be used as the two-dimensional position of the automated guided vehicle, and a driving route for the automated guided vehicle can be planned based on the corresponding two-dimensional position and the destination position.

[0057] According to an embodiment of the present invention, the corresponding three-dimensional position calculation includes: based on the distances between three communication nodes on the road section and the corresponding communication tags of the automated guided vehicle respectively, and the distance between a communication node on the shelf and the corresponding communication tag of the automated guided vehicle, four equations are established to calculate the three-dimensional position of the corresponding communication tag of the automated guided vehicle. For example, the three-dimensional position of the communication tag above the head of the automated guided vehicle is obtained by using the distances r 1 , r 2 and r 3 between three communication nodes on the road section and the communication tag above the head of the automated guided vehicle respectively, and the distance r 4 between a communication node on the shelf and the communication tag above the head of the automated guided vehicle. Respectively with four communication nodes as the centers and the distances as the radii to draw four circles, and the intersection point is the three-dimensional position (x 0 , y 0 , h 0 ) of the communication tag above the head of the automated guided vehicle, which is represented by the following system of equations (2).

[0058]

[0059] Among them, (x 1 , y 1 , h 1 ), (x 2 , y 2 , h 2 ) and (x 3, y 3 , h 3 ) are the two-dimensional position coordinates of three communication nodes on the road section, and the height is set to 0, that is, h 1 = h 2 = h 3 = 0, (x 4 , y 4 , h 4 ) is the three-dimensional position coordinate of a communication node on the shelf. Based on the above equations, the three-dimensional position information (x 0 , y 0 , h 0 ) of the communication tag above the head of the automated guided vehicle can be solved. Among them, h 0 represents the height from the ground. In a similar way, the three-dimensional position information of the positions above the head, above the tail, and on both sides of the automated guided vehicle is connected to each other in a corresponding manner to form the contour information of the corresponding automated guided vehicle.

[0060] Since the automated guided vehicle is mainly used for transporting goods and carrying out the inbound and outbound of goods, it is also necessary to determine the contour of the goods on it to obtain the overall contour information of the automated guided vehicle and the goods. In addition, the control device wirelessly communicates with the corresponding communication tags through multiple communication nodes to detect the movement route and position of the corresponding goods, calculate the similarity between the movement route and position of the corresponding goods and the movement route and position of the corresponding automated guided vehicle, and associate the communication tags on the automated guided vehicle with the communication tags of the goods that meet the requirement of similarity. Based on all the mutually associated communication tags, the overall contour information of the automated guided vehicle and the goods is obtained. It should be understood that if the similarity between the movement route and position of the goods and the automated guided vehicle meets the requirement, it means that the goods are carried by the automated guided vehicle. According to an embodiment of the present invention, when there are goods on the automated guided vehicle, the goods include multiple communication tags for determining their contour information. Among them, the communication tags are fixed on the corresponding parts of the goods. For example, multiple communication tags can be respectively fixed at the corresponding positions on the surface of the goods, and are provided with a communication module, which is mainly used to realize the function of positioning the corresponding parts of the goods. The way to realize this function is: the communication module in the communication tag communicates with the communication node by using wireless short-range communication, and calculates the position information of the corresponding parts of each communication tag of the goods. For example, the communication tag flag of multiple communication tags for determining the contour information of the goods is set to 3. Among them, the method for determining the overall contour information of the automated guided vehicle and its goods includes: wirelessly positioning multiple communication tags of the goods based on multiple communication nodes on the road section and the communication node on the shelf, and the calculation method is similar to the equation group (2) to obtain the three-dimensional positions of each communication tag of the goods; obtaining the overall contour information according to the contour information of the automated guided vehicle and the three-dimensional positions of each communication tag of the goods.

[0061] According to an embodiment of the present invention, the control device plans a driving route for the automated guided vehicle (AGV) based on the two-dimensional position of the AGV and the destination position it needs to reach. Meanwhile, the contour information of all fixed devices in the intelligent warehouse is stored in the control device. By combining the contour information of the AGV, or the overall contour information of the AGV and the goods on it, with the contour information of the fixed devices, a driving route is planned for the AGV in a collision-avoidable situation. The communication node obtains the driving route planned by the control device for it and feeds it back to the corresponding AGV to control the AGV to drive according to this driving route, so as to maintain a distance from the fixed devices in the intelligent warehouse and other device objects in the intelligent warehouse, and avoid collisions between AGVs and collisions between the AGV and some devices set at high places or surrounding devices.

[0062] According to an embodiment of the present invention, the steps for the communication node to obtain the driving route planned by the control device for it and feed it back to the corresponding AGV to control its driving include:

[0063] The communication node obtains the driving route, which includes several target two-dimensional positions planned based on the current two-dimensional position and the destination position of the AGV and the time corresponding to the target two-dimensional positions; according to the several target two-dimensional positions, the AGV is controlled to drive to the corresponding target two-dimensional positions, and based on calculating the current driving speed of the AGV and the distance offset between the two-dimensional position and the target two-dimensional position corresponding to the time, the driving speed and driving route of the AGV are adjusted. The AGV drives according to a series of received target two-dimensional positions until it stops driving when it reaches the destination position.

[0064] According to an embodiment of the present invention, for example, the time point when the AGV passes through the previous target two-dimensional position (x1, y1) is t1, and the time point when it reaches the current two-dimensional position (x2, y2) is t2. The driving speed of the AGV is calculated based on the previous target two-dimensional position, the current two-dimensional position, and the time difference between the two; according to the time point t2 corresponding to the current two-dimensional position (x2, y2) it reaches, and the target two-dimensional position (x3, y3) that should be reached at the corresponding time point t2, the distance offset between the current two-dimensional position (x2, y2) and the target two-dimensional position (x3, y3) is calculated, and the driving speed and driving route of the AGV are adjusted according to the driving speed of the AGV and the distance offset. Among them, the AGV is a transport vehicle with safety protection and various transfer functions, a driverless transport vehicle in industrial applications, powered by a rechargeable battery; at the same time, it can drive along the planned driving route, has the ability to perform wireless short-distance communication with the communication node, can interact reliably with the surrounding communication nodes, obtain the driving route, drive along the virtual driving route on the planned driving route, and adjust the driving speed and direction according to the position information in combination with the planned driving route.

[0065] According to an embodiment of the present invention, the planned driving route includes a driving direction. The step of controlling the driving direction of the automated guided vehicle according to the driving direction includes: obtaining the current driving direction based on the three-dimensional positions of multiple communication tags of the automated guided vehicle; according to the vector difference between the current driving direction and the path direction specified in the driving route; adjusting the driving direction of the automated guided vehicle based on the vector difference, and controlling the automated guided vehicle to drive in the path direction specified in the driving route.

[0066] According to an embodiment of the present invention, referring to Figure 4 , for example, taking the bottom of the automated guided vehicle as its current two-dimensional position. When the center of the bottom of the automated guided vehicle passes through a target two-dimensional position, at the target two-dimensional position on the planned driving route that has been reached, the current actual forward direction a is obtained through the three-dimensional position of the tail and the three-dimensional position of the head. Combining the currently reached target two-dimensional position and the next target two-dimensional position to be reached to obtain a path direction a* of the planned driving route, calculating the vector difference between the two directions, and controlling the steering direction and steering angle according to the vector difference. That is, the automated guided vehicle adjusts the steering wheel to turn left by an angle θ according to the vector difference to reduce the vector difference, so that the vehicle travels along the planned path direction a*, thereby avoiding the problem that the automated guided vehicle deviates too much from the driving route and requires re-planning of its driving route, resulting in low resource utilization and low efficiency.

[0067] According to an embodiment of the present invention, the multiple communication nodes on the section include transponders for obtaining the two-dimensional position of the automated guided vehicle by electromagnetic induction; calibrating the two-dimensional position obtained by wireless positioning according to the two-dimensional position obtained by the transponder. Since the communication nodes on the section have the function of transponders, once installed on the storage section, their positions are known and completely accurate. When the automated guided vehicle passes by the transponder of the ground communication node, through the electromagnetic induction method, the transponder transmits the stored position data to each communication tag on the automated guided vehicle by electromagnetic induction. The accurate two-dimensional positions of each communication tag are directly obtained, and the two-dimensional position obtained by wireless positioning is replaced with this accurate two-dimensional position to achieve calibration. For example, when the communication tag above the head passes above the corresponding communication node, both x and y in the three-dimensional position (x, y, h) of the communication tag have been directly obtained with high precision, and h is calculated based on the obtained x and y to achieve calibration.

[0068] According to an embodiment of the present invention, referring to Figure 5, the driving control system of the automated guided vehicle can include a wireless virtual guide rail and a control device. Multiple communication nodes on the wireless virtual guide rail communicate with the automated guided vehicle through wireless short-range communication. Among them, the control device includes a super base station and a general controller. The super base station is connected to multiple communication nodes of the wireless virtual guide rail through optical fibers, and is used for centralized storage of the communication information when all communication nodes interact with the automated guided vehicle and the contour information of each device in the warehouse. At the same time, it is also used to provide a 5G network to achieve full coverage of the 5G network in the intelligent warehouse; the general controller calculates the position information and its contour information of the automated guided vehicle based on the communication information with the automated guided vehicle stored in the super base station and the distance in the communication information between multiple communication nodes and the automated guided vehicle to achieve multi-node cooperative positioning. Based on the position information of all automated guided vehicles, it plans a driving route for the automated guided vehicle, and sends the driving route to the wireless virtual guide rail through the super base station, and controls the automated guided vehicle to drive according to the driving route through multiple communication nodes of the wireless virtual guide rail.

[0069] It should be noted that although the above steps are described in a specific order, it does not mean that the steps must be executed in the above specific order. In fact, some of these steps can be executed concurrently or even in a different order, as long as the required functions can be achieved.

[0070] The present invention can be a system, a method, and / or a computer program product. The computer program product can include a computer-readable storage medium having thereon computer-readable program instructions for causing a processor to implement various aspects of the present invention.

[0071] The computer-readable storage medium can be a tangible device that holds and stores instructions for use by an instruction execution device. The computer-readable storage medium can include, for example, but is not limited to, an electrical storage device, a magnetic storage device, an optical storage device, an electromagnetic storage device, a semiconductor storage device, or any suitable combination of the foregoing. More specific examples (non-exhaustive list) of the computer-readable storage medium include: a portable computer disk, a hard disk, a random access memory (RAM), a read-only memory (ROM), an erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM or flash memory), a static random access memory (SRAM), a portable compact disk read-only memory (CD-ROM), a digital versatile disk (DVD), a memory stick, a floppy disk, a mechanically encoded device, such as a punched card or raised structures in grooves storing instructions thereon, and any suitable combination of the foregoing.

[0072] The embodiments of the present invention have been described above. The above description is exemplary and not exhaustive, and is also not limited to the disclosed embodiments. Many modifications and variations are obvious to those of ordinary skill in the art without departing from the scope and spirit of the described embodiments. The choice of terms used herein is intended to best explain the principles of the embodiments, practical applications, or improvements to technologies in the market, or to enable other ordinary skilled persons in the art to understand the embodiments disclosed herein.

Claims

1. An unmanned transport vehicle driving control system for intelligent warehousing, comprising a wireless virtual guide rail and a control device, characterized in that, the wireless virtual guide rail includes a plurality of communication nodes deployed in the intelligent warehousing for wirelessly positioning the unmanned transport vehicle to obtain position information; each communication node is configured to: perform wireless short-range communication with one or more unmanned transport vehicles entering the communication range of this communication node, specify the communication time slots of each unmanned transport vehicle and generate corresponding listening control packets, and send the listening control packets to the corresponding unmanned transport vehicles to instruct the corresponding unmanned transport vehicles to turn on listening in the specified communication time slots to interact with the communication nodes and turn off listening in non-specified communication time slots; the control device is configured to: plan a driving route for the unmanned transport vehicle based on the position information of the unmanned transport vehicle; the communication node is further configured to: obtain the driving route planned by the control device for the corresponding unmanned transport vehicle and feedback it to the corresponding unmanned transport vehicle to control its driving; wherein, the plurality of communication nodes are deployed at intervals on the sections in the intelligent warehousing and on the shelves in the intelligent warehousing, and the unmanned transport vehicle includes a plurality of communication tags for determining its contour information; the contour information of the unmanned transport vehicle is obtained based on the three-dimensional positions of the plurality of communication tags; the unmanned transport vehicle further includes goods, and a plurality of communication tags for determining the contour information of the goods are attached to the goods, and the overall contour information of the unmanned transport vehicle and its goods is obtained based on the contour information of the unmanned transport vehicle and the three-dimensional positions of the respective communication tags of the goods; the method for determining the overall contour information of the unmanned transport vehicle and its goods includes: using the control device to detect the movement route and position of the goods, calculating the similarity between the movement route and position of the goods and the movement route and position of the corresponding unmanned transport vehicle, correlating each communication tag on the unmanned transport vehicle with the corresponding communication tag of the goods whose similarity meets the requirements, and obtaining the overall contour information of the corresponding unmanned transport vehicle and its goods based on all the correlated communication tags; wherein, the three-dimensional position of the communication tag is obtained by wirelessly positioning the communication tag based on a plurality of communication nodes on the section and the communication nodes on the shelf, and the three-dimensional position indicates the position of the communication tag on the section and the height relative to this position.

2. The system according to claim 1, characterized in that, when the communication node performs wireless short-range communication with the unmanned transport vehicle, specifying the communication time slots of each unmanned transport vehicle and generating the corresponding listening control packets includes: specifying the communication time slots of the corresponding unmanned transport vehicle and generating the corresponding listening control packets according to the number of unmanned transport vehicles currently accessing this communication node; wherein, the wireless short-range communication is based on a plurality of short wireless frames of a superframe for communication, and each short wireless frame includes a first half frame for uplink transmission, a switching interval, and a second half frame for downlink transmission, or includes a first half frame for downlink transmission, a switching interval, and a second half frame for uplink transmission, and the switching interval is used for switching between uplink transmission and downlink transmission; the first half frame or the second half frame of the uplink transmission includes one or more uplink subframes for transmitting data from the unmanned transport vehicle to the communication node, and the first half frame or the second half frame of the downlink transmission includes one or more downlink subframes for transmitting data from the communication node to the unmanned transport vehicle.

3. The system according to claim 2, wherein, the control device is further configured to count the data volume ratio of the uplink transmission and the downlink transmission, and select a short wireless frame with a corresponding number ratio of uplink subframes and downlink subframes based on the ratio.

4. The system according to claim 1, wherein, the position information of the automated guided vehicle includes the two-dimensional position and the three-dimensional position of each communication tag. The two-dimensional position is obtained by wirelessly positioning the communication tag of the automated guided vehicle by multiple communication nodes on the road section, and the three-dimensional position is obtained by wirelessly positioning multiple communication tags of the automated guided vehicle by multiple communication nodes on the road section and communication nodes on the shelf.

5. The system according to claim 4, wherein, the overall contour information determination method includes: wirelessly positioning multiple communication tags of the goods by multiple communication nodes on the road section and communication nodes on the shelf to obtain the three-dimensional positions of each communication tag of the goods; obtaining the overall contour information according to the contour information of the automated guided vehicle and the three-dimensional positions of each communication tag of the goods.

6. The system according to claim 4 or 5, wherein, the communication information for the wireless short-range communication between the communication node and the corresponding communication tag includes the unique identifier of the communication node, the time, the unique identifier of the communication tag, and the distance between the communication node and the communication tag; the communication node is configured to: obtain the two-dimensional position of the corresponding communication tag of the automated guided vehicle by the trilateration positioning algorithm based on the distances between three communication nodes on the road section and the corresponding communication tags of the automated guided vehicle respectively; and calculate the three-dimensional position of the corresponding communication tag based on the distances between three communication nodes on the road section and communication nodes on the shelf and the corresponding communication tag.

7. The system according to claim 4, wherein, the steps for the communication node to obtain the driving route planned by the control device for it and feed it back to the corresponding automated guided vehicle to control its driving include: the communication node obtains the driving route of the automated guided vehicle, and the driving route includes several target two-dimensional positions planned based on the current two-dimensional position and the destination position of the automated guided vehicle and the time corresponding to reaching the target two-dimensional position; according to the several target two-dimensional positions, controlling the automated guided vehicle to drive to the corresponding target two-dimensional position, and adjusting the driving speed and driving route of the automated guided vehicle based on calculating the current driving speed of the automated guided vehicle and the distance offset between the two-dimensional position and the target two-dimensional position corresponding to the time.

8. The system according to claim 4, wherein, the driving route includes a driving direction, and the steps for controlling the driving direction of the automated guided vehicle according to the driving direction include: obtaining the current driving direction based on the three-dimensional positions of multiple communication tags of the automated guided vehicle; calculating the vector difference between the current driving direction and the path direction specified in the driving route; adjusting the driving direction of the automated guided vehicle according to the vector difference, and controlling the automated guided vehicle to drive in the path direction specified in the driving route.

9. The system according to claim 4 or 5, wherein, the control device stores the contour information of all fixed devices in the intelligent warehouse; Based on the contour information of the automated guided vehicle or the overall contour information of the automated guided vehicle and the goods thereon and the contour information of the fixed equipment, control the automated guided vehicle to maintain a distance from the fixed equipment in the intelligent warehouse.

10. The system according to claim 4, wherein, the multiple communication nodes on the section include transponders for obtaining the two-dimensional position of the automated guided vehicle by electromagnetic induction; and calibrating the two-dimensional position obtained by wireless positioning according to the two-dimensional position obtained by the transponder.

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