A method and system for calculating the inbound and outbound capacity of a stereoscopic warehouse stacker

Abstract

The present disclosure provides a method and system for calculating the inbound and outbound capabilities of a stereoscopic warehouse stacker, including establishing a coordinate position table for each rack; randomly generating multiple tasks, where all generated tasks need to include outbound / inbound tasks for all types of materials; obtaining the basic parameters of the rack and the stacker; generating an initial state table of the rack according to the tray situation of the rack; comprehensively considering the coordinate position table, the basic parameters, and the initial state table of the rack, sequentially executing all randomly generated tasks and calculating the required time, and determining the calculation of the inbound and outbound capabilities of the stacker according to the calculation results. The present disclosure can determine the inbound and outbound capabilities during the design of a stereoscopic warehouse and the selection of a stacker, and thus provide a reference for the production line design.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The present disclosure belongs to the technical field of in-out warehouse management of three-dimensional warehouses, and particularly relates to a method and system for calculating the in-out capabilities of a stacker crane in a three-dimensional warehouse. Background Art

[0002] The statements in this part merely provide background technical information related to the present disclosure and do not necessarily constitute prior art.

[0003] In the process of production line design, a three-dimensional warehouse is an essential part. Whether the stacker crane can meet the requirements of the production cycle is a crucial factor in whether the entire production line design can meet the expected requirements. Therefore, at the beginning of production line design, the in-out capabilities of the stacker crane should be accurately estimated based on the parameters of the stacker crane, which can play a reference role in stacker crane selection and three-dimensional warehouse design.

[0004] Illustrated with the following scenario: Suppose a production line has four stations, and the production line beat is 1 h (that is, among the four stations, the longest operation time of a single station does not exceed 1 h). To meet the operation requirements of the stations, the stacker crane must timely send the corresponding materials required by each station in the warehouse (the actual state is that the pallet carries the materials and is sent out together, and the pallet plays the role of a carrier during the material transfer process) to the discharge port, and then the conveyor line sends the materials + pallet to the designated station; at the same time, the material center will deliver the materials required for subsequent production to the warehouse every day. At this time, the stacker crane sends the empty pallet to the inlet, and after the materials are placed on the pallet, the stacker crane forks them to a certain rack position in the warehouse. That is, the stacker crane has the following working scenarios: When the production line has a production task requirement, the stacker crane is required to send the corresponding materials + pallet to the discharge port; after the operation task of a certain station on the production line is completed, the conveyor line sends the empty pallet back to the discharge port, and the stacker crane puts the empty pallet back into the warehouse; when the material center has a material warehousing requirement, the stacker crane is required to send the empty pallet to the inlet; after the material distribution is completed, the stacker crane is required to put the materials + pallet back into the warehouse. There are many scenarios, and the calculation results of the existing calculation methods are not accurate, and the calculation process is also relatively complex.

[0005] During production line design, production capacity (the output quantity of products within a specified time) is one of the most critical parameters. The production capacity quantity means the number of times the stacker crane has to work repeatedly in the above several working scenarios. Therefore, the accurate calculation of the in-out capabilities of the stacker crane is directly related to the production line capacity. It is necessary to evaluate the working capabilities of the stacker crane at the beginning of production line design, and then make a correct selection. Summary of the Invention

[0006] To solve the above problems, the present disclosure proposes a method and system for calculating the in-out capabilities of a stacker crane in a three-dimensional warehouse. The present disclosure can determine the in-out capabilities of the stacker crane during the design of the three-dimensional warehouse and the selection of the stacker crane, and then provide a reference for production line design.

[0007] According to some embodiments, the present disclosure adopts the following technical solutions:

[0008] A method for calculating the inbound and outbound capabilities of a three-dimensional warehouse stacker, comprising the following steps:

[0009] Establish a coordinate position table for each rack;

[0010] Randomly generate a plurality of tasks, and all generated tasks need to include outbound / inbound tasks for all types of materials;

[0011] Obtain the basic parameters of the rack and the stacker;

[0012] Generate an initial state table for the rack according to the rack tray situation;

[0013] Based on the coordinate position table, basic parameters, and the initial state table of the rack, sequentially execute all randomly generated tasks and calculate the required time, and determine the calculation of the inbound and outbound capabilities of the stacker according to the calculation results.

[0014] As an alternative implementation, the specific process of establishing the coordinate position table for each rack includes setting the origin and coordinates, and determining the coordinate positions of each rack, as well as the coordinate positions of the discharge port and the inlet port, based on the horizontal spacing, quantity, vertical spacing, and quantity of each rack.

[0015] As an alternative implementation, the basic parameters include the translation speed, translation acceleration, lifting speed, lifting acceleration of the stacker, the time required for the telescopic fork to pick up, the total number of racks, the number of tasks, and the number of tasks for each type of material.

[0016] As an alternative implementation, in the random tasks, the probabilities of outbound and inbound are the same.

[0017] As an alternative implementation, in the random tasks, the position of the inbound port for inbound is randomly generated.

[0018] As an alternative implementation, the rack tray situation includes no tray on the rack, an empty tray on the rack, and a tray with materials on the rack, which are represented by different status values respectively.

[0019] As an alternative implementation, the specific process of sequentially executing all randomly generated tasks includes, if the current random task is an outbound task, randomly selecting one of the racks with trays having materials indicated by all status values, moving the stacker from the current position to the rack, taking out the tray and sending it to the discharge port, grasping an empty tray from the discharge port, and placing it nearby on the rack with a status value indicating no tray on the rack, recording the required time for this task, and executing the next task.

[0020] As an alternative embodiment, the specific process of sequentially executing all randomly generated tasks includes that if the current task is an inbound task, randomly select an empty pallet that is the closest to the discharge port from one of the feeding ports, the stacker moves from the current position to the rack, takes out the pallet and sends it to the feeding port, the stacker sends the pallet back to the rack, records the completion time of the task, and executes the next task.

[0021] As an alternative embodiment, the specific process of calculating the required time includes adding up the completion times of all tasks and calculating the average time used.

[0022] A system for calculating the inbound and outbound capabilities of a three-dimensional warehouse stacker includes:

[0023] A coordinate determination module configured to establish a coordinate position table for each rack;

[0024] A random task generation module configured to randomly generate multiple tasks, and all generated tasks need to include outbound / inbound tasks for all types of materials;

[0025] A parameter acquisition module configured to acquire the basic parameters of the rack and the stacker;

[0026] A rack status generation module configured to generate an initial rack status table according to the pallet situation of the rack;

[0027] A calculation module configured to comprehensively consider the coordinate position table, the basic parameters, and the initial rack status table, sequentially execute all randomly generated tasks and calculate the required time, and determine the calculation of the inbound and outbound capabilities of the stacker according to the calculation results.

[0028] Compared with the prior art, the beneficial effects of the present disclosure are:

[0029] The present disclosure fully considers the randomness of the inbound and outbound tasks of the warehouse stacker, and the calculated task time has typical representativeness. On the basis of ensuring that all types of racks are available and the total number of tasks is reasonable, the accuracy of the calculation is guaranteed.

[0030] The present disclosure can further optimize the position settings of the discharge port and the feeding port of the three-dimensional warehouse according to the calculation results, which is beneficial to determining its inbound and outbound capabilities when designing the three-dimensional warehouse and selecting the stacker type, and further providing a reference for the production line design.

[0031] To make the above objects, features, and advantages of the present disclosure more obvious and understandable, the following specifically enumerates preferred embodiments and, in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, makes a detailed description as follows. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0032] The accompanying drawings forming a part of this disclosure are used to provide a further understanding of the disclosure. The schematic embodiments and descriptions thereof of the disclosure are used to explain the disclosure and do not constitute an improper limitation of the disclosure.

[0033] Figure 1 It is a schematic diagram of the distribution of warehouse racks in this embodiment;

[0034] Figure 2 It is a schematic diagram of the sequential execution process in this embodiment;

[0035] Figure 3 It is a schematic diagram of the calculation result in this embodiment. Detailed implementation manners

[0036] The disclosure will be further described below in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and embodiments.

[0037] It should be noted that the following detailed description is exemplary and is intended to provide further explanation of the disclosure. Unless otherwise specified, all technical and scientific terms used herein have the same meaning as commonly understood by those of ordinary skill in the technical field to which this disclosure belongs.

[0038] It should be noted that the terms used herein are only for describing specific implementation manners and are not intended to limit the exemplary embodiments according to this disclosure. As used herein, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise, the singular form is also intended to include the plural form. In addition, it should be understood that when the terms "comprising" and / or "including" are used in this specification, they indicate the presence of features, steps, operations, devices, components, and / or combinations thereof.

[0039] In this disclosure, terms such as "upper", "lower", "left", "right", "front", "rear", "vertical", "horizontal", "side", "bottom", etc. indicate the orientation or positional relationship based on the orientation or positional relationship shown in the accompanying drawings. They are only relational terms determined for the convenience of describing the structural relationship of each component or element of this disclosure and do not specifically refer to any component or element in this disclosure and should not be construed as a limitation of this disclosure.

[0040] Embodiment 1

[0041] This embodiment is described by taking the application scenario as shown in Figure 1 as an example. However, it should be noted that the technical solutions provided by this disclosure are not limited to this scenario only, and other scenarios are also applicable.

[0042] As shown in Figure 1 the warehouse racks are divided into three types: A, B, and C, and there are 3 inlet ports and one outlet port in total. The horizontal spacing of each rack is denoted as h, and there are p racks in the horizontal direction; the vertical spacing is denoted as v, and there are q racks in the vertical direction.

[0043] All of the above parameters are positive integers.

[0044] A method for calculating the inbound and outbound capacity of a stacker crane in a three-dimensional warehouse, comprising the following steps:

[0045] Establish a coordinate position table for each rack;

[0046] Taking the B-type rack as an example, the coordinate positions of each rack are shown in Table 1. The positions of the A-type and C-type racks are the same by analogy.

[0047] Table 1 Coordinate Positions of B-Type Racks

[0048]

[0049] Obtain or set the basic parameters of the racks and the stacker crane;

[0050] In this embodiment, as shown in Table 2.

[0051] Table 2 Basic Parameters

[0052]

[0053] Randomly generate multiple tasks, and all generated tasks need to include outbound / inbound tasks for all types of materials;

[0054] In this embodiment, randomly generate N tasks, where there are i tasks for A-type materials, j tasks for B-type materials, and k tasks for C-type materials, satisfying

[0055] i + j + k = N

[0056] For each task, whether it is outbound or inbound is random, that is, there is a 50% probability of outbound and a 50% probability of inbound;

[0057] When a task is inbound, the position of the inbound port for generating this task is also random;

[0058] The numbers of i, j, and k are also random, but satisfy that the sum of the three is always N, and N ≤ M / 3 (this condition mainly considers the extreme case when two of i, j, and k are 0).

[0059] Generate an initial state table for the racks according to the tray conditions of the racks;

[0060] Each rack state can have three states, and initially each is set to account for about 1 / 3:

[0061] 1) -1 — indicates that there is no tray on the rack, that is, an empty tray can be placed in this position after returning;

[0062] 2) 0 — indicates that there is an empty tray on the rack, that is, this empty tray can be transferred to the feeding port, loaded with materials, and then stored in place on this rack;

[0063] 3) 1 indicates that there is a tray for storing materials on the rack, that is, the tray can be transferred to the discharge port.

[0064] As Figure 2 shown, by comprehensively considering the above coordinate position table, basic parameters and the initial state table of the rack, all randomly generated tasks are sequentially executed and the required time is calculated. According to the calculation results, the calculation of the in-out capacity of the stacker is determined.

[0065] If the current task is an inbound task, randomly select an empty tray that is closest to the discharge port from one of the feeding ports. The stacker moves from the current position to the rack, takes out the tray and sends it to the feeding port, and then the stacker sends the tray back to the rack. Record the completion time of this task and execute the next task.

[0066] In this embodiment, the initial position of the stacker is at the origin;

[0067] After the stacker finishes executing each request, it stays at the current position and waits for the next task request.

[0068] Accumulate the completion times of all the above tasks and calculate the average time used, then the calculation result of the in-out capacity can be obtained, as Figure 3 shown.

[0069] Although the specific implementation manners of the present disclosure have been described above in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, it is not a limitation to the protection scope of the present disclosure. Those skilled in the art should understand that based on the technical solutions of the present disclosure, various modifications or deformations that can be made without creative efforts by those skilled in the art are still within the protection scope of the present disclosure.

Claims

1. A method for calculating the inbound and outbound capacity of a three-dimensional warehouse stacker, characterized in that It includes the following steps: Establish a coordinate position table for each rack; Randomly generate multiple tasks, and all generated tasks need to include outbound / inbound tasks for all types of materials; Obtain the basic parameters of the rack and the stacker; Generate an initial state table for the rack according to the tray situation of the rack; Based on the coordinate position table, basic parameters, and the initial state table of the rack, sequentially execute all randomly generated tasks and calculate the required time, and determine the calculation of the inbound / outbound capacity of the stacker according to the calculation result; In the random tasks, the inbound position is randomly generated; The specific process of sequentially executing all randomly generated tasks includes that if the current random task is an outbound task, randomly select one of all the racks with the status value indicating that there is a tray containing materials on the rack, the stacker moves from the current position to the rack, takes out the tray and sends it to the discharge port, grabs an empty tray from the discharge port, and places it nearby on the rack with the status value indicating that there is no tray on the rack, record the required time for this task, and execute the next task; In the random tasks, the probabilities of outbound and inbound are the same; The tray situation of the rack includes that there is no tray on the rack, there is an empty tray on the rack, and there is a tray containing materials on the rack, which are represented by different status values respectively; The specific process of sequentially executing all randomly generated tasks includes that if the current task is an inbound task, randomly select an empty tray closest to a certain one of the infeed ports, the stacker moves from the current position to the rack, takes out the tray and sends it to the infeed port, and the stacker sends the tray back to the rack, record the completion time of this task, and execute the next task.

2. The method for calculating the inbound and outbound capacity of a three-dimensional warehouse stacker according to claim 1, characterized in that The specific process of establishing a coordinate position table for each rack includes setting the origin and coordinates, and determining the coordinate positions of each rack, as well as the coordinate positions of the discharge port and the infeed port according to the horizontal spacing, quantity, vertical spacing, and quantity of each rack.

3. The method for calculating the inbound and outbound capacity of a three-dimensional warehouse stacker according to claim 1, characterized in that, The basic parameters include the translation speed, translation acceleration, lifting speed, lifting acceleration, and the time required for the telescopic fork to pick, the total number of racks, the number of tasks, and the number of tasks for each type of material.

4. The method for calculating the inbound and outbound capacity of a three-dimensional warehouse stacker according to claim 1, characterized in that, The specific process of calculating the required time includes accumulating the completion times of all tasks and calculating the average time used.

5. A system for calculating the inbound and outbound capacity of a stereoscopic warehouse stacker, based on the method for calculating the inbound and outbound capacity of a stereoscopic warehouse stacker according to any one of claims 1-4, characterized in that, It includes: A coordinate determination module configured to establish a coordinate position table for each rack; A random task generation module configured to randomly generate multiple tasks, and all generated tasks need to include outbound / inbound tasks for all types of materials; A parameter acquisition module configured to obtain the basic parameters of the rack and the stacker; A rack state generation module configured to generate an initial state table for the rack according to the tray situation of the rack; A calculation module configured to, based on the coordinate position table, basic parameters, and the initial state table of the rack, sequentially execute all randomly generated tasks and calculate the required time, and determine the calculation of the inbound / outbound capacity of the stacker according to the calculation result.

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