Mobile robot intelligent checking device

Abstract

The invention provides an intelligent checking device for a mobile robot. According to the invention, the idle four-direction shuttle vehicle in the storage system carries the mobile robot intelligent checking device to shuttle between the rails of the three-dimensional storage system, and the network interaction system in the device receives the checking task issued by the warehouse control system in the three-dimensional storage system. And the checking device is moved to a corresponding scanning position through the four-way shuttle vehicle. And then, carrying out radio frequency interaction scanning on the goods in the three-dimensional goods shelf in a corresponding area, and checking whether the goods information stored in the warehousing system management end has errors or not through information fed back by the RFID tag on the goods or the goods storage device. Therefore, the storage condition of the goods in the warehousing system can be checked and updated in real time through the traversal process of the inventory device, the error of the storage position of the goods can be found in time and corrected, and the real-time state of the goods in the warehouse can be checked dynamically.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The present application relates to the technical field of intelligent warehousing equipment, and more specifically to a mobile robot intelligent inventory counting device. Background Art

[0002] In the existing warehousing system, the monitoring of materials mainly relies on the material in and out information entered at the entrance and exit. The actual storage location of various materials in the storage system generally requires manual inspection to be effectively verified. For storage spaces with complex storage conditions and dense storage of materials, the existing inspection and inventory methods are inefficient and cannot effectively identify materials on the top floor or in blind spots of monitoring. Once the four-way shuttle in the storage system operates abnormally and stores materials in the wrong location, the actual extraction of materials will be uncontrollable during pickup, causing congestion in the throughput process, and it will be difficult to correct the storage location of the incorrectly stored materials in a timely manner. Summary of the invention

[0003] In view of the shortcomings of the prior art, the present application provides a mobile robot intelligent inventory device. The device of the present application is driven by a four-way shuttle in an intelligent warehousing system, and performs traversal inspections in the storage space. It can flexibly check and verify various materials in the storage space, and realize dynamic inventory of the real-time status of the materials in the storage space. The present application specifically adopts the following technical solutions.

[0004] First, to achieve the above-mentioned purpose, a mobile robot intelligent inventory device is proposed, which is carried by a four-way shuttle vehicle and shuttles between the tracks of the three-dimensional storage system. The mobile robot intelligent inventory device includes: an inventory unit base, whose outer peripheral dimensions are consistent with the cargo storage unit of the three-dimensional storage system, and is carried by the four-way shuttle vehicle running in the three-dimensional storage system; an inventory unit housing, which is fixed to the inventory unit base and has an internal storage space, in which are arranged: a control system and an RFID interaction system, a power management system and a network interaction system interactively connected to the control system; the control system is used to control: the network interaction system Receive the inventory task issued by the warehouse control system (WCS) in the three-dimensional storage system, determine the storage location for the goods to be counted and the type of goods corresponding to the storage location according to the inventory task instructions, and drive the four-way shuttle to transfer the intelligent inventory device to the vicinity of the storage location; the RFID interaction system interacts and identifies the RFID tags corresponding to the goods near the intelligent inventory device, determines the type of goods to feed back to the management end through the network interaction system; the power management system supplies power to the control system, the FID interaction system, and the network interaction system, and triggers the four-way shuttle to run to the charging pile position in the three-dimensional storage system for charging when the power reserve is insufficient.

[0005] Optionally, a mobile robot intelligent inventory device as described above, wherein the mobile robot intelligent inventory device and a four-way shuttle vehicle interact and communicate with each other through a network interaction system or an independently paired Bluetooth module, and the actual position coordinates of the mobile robot intelligent inventory device are determined by the positioning data of the four-way shuttle vehicle.

[0006] Optionally, a mobile robot intelligent inventory device as described in any of the above, wherein the RFID interaction system includes: an RFID antenna, which is arranged on the top of the inventory unit housing, and is used to send RFID radio frequency signals to the RFID tag corresponding to the goods and receive the identification signal fed back therefrom; an RFID reader / writer, which is communicatively connected to the RFID antenna, and is used to read and write the transceiver signals of the RFID antenna to obtain the identification information of the RFID tag corresponding to the goods.

[0007] Optionally, a mobile robot intelligent inventory device as described in any of the above, wherein the inventory unit base is provided with support columns at the four bottom corners, and in the storage state, the inner edge of each support column is located on the inner side of the track of the three-dimensional storage system, and the outer edge of each support column is located on the outer side of the track of the three-dimensional storage system; the bottom of the inventory unit base is also provided with fork plate supports between the support columns, and the spacing width between the fork plate supports and the support columns is not less than the width of the four-way shuttle vehicle lifting bracket.

[0008] Optionally, a mobile robot intelligent inventory device as described in any of the above, wherein the power management system includes: a battery, which is integrated at the bottom of the inventory unit housing and is used to supply power to the control system, the FID interaction system, and the network interaction system; a charging brush plate and a brush block, which are fixedly arranged at the bottom of the inventory unit base, and the charging brush plate and brush block protrude from the outer peripheral edge of the inventory unit base; the charging pile, which is fixedly installed on the top of the track of the three-dimensional storage system, and the charging brush plate and brush block are driven by a four-way shuttle vehicle and docked and inserted into the charging pile for charging.

[0009] Optionally, in any of the mobile robot intelligent inventory counting devices described above, the network interaction system is connected to the warehouse control system (WCS) through the network signal antenna and the CPE network receiver arranged at the top of the inventory unit housing, triggering the control system to perform the following steps according to the inventory counting task issued by the warehouse control system (WCS): querying the management end of the storage system to determine the corresponding storage location according to the cargo information corresponding to the inventory counting task, or determining the storage area to be scanned according to the inventory counting task; querying the current real-time coordinate position of the four-way shuttle, planning the route to the corresponding storage location, and triggering the four-way shuttle to run according to the route through the network; during the operation, the following steps are synchronously performed according to a fixed cycle: querying the current real-time coordinate position of the four-way shuttle, and determining the interaction area corresponding to the RFID antenna according to the running direction of the vehicle body, querying the cargo information corresponding to the interaction area in the management end, comparing the queried information with the identification information of the cargo obtained by the RFID reader, and recording the current real-time coordinate position of the four-way shuttle and its interaction area when a mismatch is found, and reporting an error to the management end of the storage system.

[0010] Optionally, the mobile robot intelligent inventory device as described in any of the above, wherein the interaction area corresponding to the RFID antenna is: a spherical fan-shaped area determined by the real-time coordinate position currently corresponding to the RFID antenna as the center and the effective interaction distance of the RFID antenna as the radius, and the storage positions contained in the spherical fan-shaped area are calculated to determine the interaction area corresponding to the RFID antenna.

[0011] Optionally, a mobile robot intelligent inventory counting device as described above, wherein, after an error is reported, the error boundary is determined based on the error conditions in at least three layers above and below the error location, and the trigger system drives a four-way shuttle vehicle to retrieve the goods stored in the storage bin at the center of the error boundary for manual confirmation.

[0012] Optionally, in any of the mobile robot intelligent inventory counting devices described above, the control system is a PLC controller. Beneficial Effects

[0013] The mobile robot intelligent inventory counting device provided by the present application utilizes the idle four-way shuttle vehicle in the storage system to carry the mobile robot intelligent inventory counting device and shuttle between the tracks of the three-dimensional storage system. The network interaction system in the device receives the inventory counting tasks issued by the warehouse control system in the three-dimensional storage system, and the four-way shuttle vehicle moves the inventory counting device to the corresponding scanning position. Then, the goods in the three-dimensional shelves are subjected to radio frequency interactive scanning in the corresponding area, and the information fed back by the RFID tags on the goods or the goods storage device is used to verify whether there are errors in the goods information stored by the storage system management end. Therefore, the present application can verify and update the storage status of the goods in the storage system in real time through the traversal process of the inventory counting device, timely discover errors in the storage location of the goods, and correct them, so as to realize dynamic inventory of the real-time status of the materials in the warehouse.

[0015] Other features and advantages of the present application will be set forth in the following description, and in part will become apparent from the description, or may be understood by practicing the present application. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0016] The accompanying drawings are used to provide a further understanding of the present application and constitute a part of the specification. Together with the embodiments of the present application, they are used to explain the present application and do not constitute a limitation of the present application. In the accompanying drawings: Figure 1 is a schematic diagram of the mobile robot intelligent inventory counting device of the present application; Figure 2 It is a schematic diagram of the operation mode of the mobile robot intelligent inventory counting device of the present application in a storage space; Figure 3 It is a schematic diagram of the RFID interactive signal receiving and sending range and error reporting position in this application.

[0017] In the figure, 1 represents the inventory unit housing; 10 represents the inventory unit base; 2 represents the RFID reader; 3 represents the RFID antenna; 4 represents the CPE network receiver; 5 represents the network signal antenna; 6 represents the battery; 7 represents the charging brush plate and brush block; 8 represents the charging pile; and 9 represents the PLC controller. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0018] In order to make the purpose and technical solution of the embodiment of the present application clearer, the technical solution of the embodiment of the present application will be clearly and completely described in conjunction with the drawings of the embodiment of the present application. Obviously, the described embodiment is a part of the embodiment of the present application, not all of the embodiments. Based on the described embodiment of the present application, all other embodiments obtained by ordinary technicians in this field without creative work are within the scope of protection of this application.

[0019] It will be understood by those skilled in the art that, unless otherwise defined, all terms (including technical and scientific terms) used herein have the same meaning as generally understood by those skilled in the art to which this application belongs. It should also be understood that terms such as those defined in common dictionaries should be understood to have meanings consistent with the meanings in the context of the prior art, and will not be interpreted with idealized or overly formal meanings unless defined as herein.

[0020] The meaning of "and / or" described in this application means that the situations where each exists alone or both exist at the same time are included.

[0021] The meaning of "inside" and "outside" in this application refers to the direction pointing to the inside of the inventory counting unit as inside, and the opposite direction as outside, relative to the inventory counting device itself; it is not a specific limitation on the device mechanism of this application.

[0022] The meaning of "left and right" in this application refers to that when the user is facing the direction of travel of the four-way shuttle, the user's left is left and the user's right is right, rather than a specific limitation on the device mechanism of this application.

[0023] The term “connection” as used in this application may mean a direct connection between components or an indirect connection between components via other components.

[0024] The meaning of "up" and "down" mentioned in this application refers to that when the user is facing the forward direction of the four-way shuttle, the direction from the track of the four-way shuttle to the RFID antenna installation position is up, and vice versa, rather than a specific limitation on the device mechanism of this application.

[0025] Figure 1 A mobile robot intelligent inventory device according to the present application includes: an inventory unit base 10, an inventory unit housing 1, and a control system arranged therein, an RFID interaction system interactively connected to the control system, an electric energy management system, and a network interaction system. The inventory device is carried by a four-way shuttle vehicle and shuttles between the tracks of the three-dimensional storage system. During operation, the network interaction system is used to receive the inventory tasks issued by the warehouse control system WCS in the three-dimensional storage system, and the storage location for the goods to be counted and the type of goods corresponding to the storage location are determined according to the inventory task instructions, and the four-way shuttle vehicle is driven to transfer the intelligent inventory device to the vicinity of the storage location; then the RFID interaction system is used to interact and identify the RFID tags corresponding to the goods near the intelligent inventory device, and the type of goods targeted is determined to be fed back to the management end through the network interaction system.

[0026] The outer circumference size of the inventory unit base 10 of the mobile robot intelligent inventory device can be set to be consistent with the cargo storage unit of the three-dimensional storage system, and is carried by the four-way shuttle 11 running in the three-dimensional storage system; The inventory unit housing 1 is fixed on the inventory unit base 10 and has an internal accommodation space, in which the control system and the RFID interaction system, the power management system and the network interaction system interactively connected with the control system are arranged: The system is also provided with an energy management system consisting of a battery 6 and a charging brush plate and brush block 7 to supply power to the control system, the FID interaction system, and the network interaction system, and triggers the four-way shuttle vehicle to run to the charging pile 8 in the three-dimensional storage system for charging when the energy reserve is insufficient.

[0027] Specific reference Figure 2 The base 10 of the inventory unit has support columns at its bottom four corners, and the inner edge of each support column is located inside the track of the three-dimensional storage system in the storage state, and the outer edge of each support column is located outside the track of the three-dimensional storage system; A fork plate support is also provided at the bottom of the inventory unit base 10 between the support columns, and the spacing width between the fork plate support and the support columns is not less than the width of the four-way shuttle vehicle lifting bracket.

[0028] In the power management system of the inventory device: A battery 6, which is integrated at the bottom of the inventory unit housing 1 and is used to supply power to the control system, the FID interaction system, and the network interaction system; A charging brush plate brush block 7, which is fixedly arranged at the bottom of the inventory unit base 10, and the charging brush plate brush block 7 protrudes from the outer peripheral edge of the inventory unit base 10; The charging pile 8 is fixedly installed on the top of the track of the three-dimensional storage system, and the charging brush plate brush block 7 is driven by a four-way shuttle vehicle and docked and inserted into the charging pile for charging.

[0029] Therefore, during the operation of the inventory counting device, the mobile robot intelligent inventory counting device can obtain the positioning data of the four-way shuttle vehicle through network interaction or independent paired Bluetooth module interaction communication with the four-way shuttle vehicle to determine the actual position coordinates of the mobile robot intelligent inventory counting device. Based on the coordinates and the interactive data of the goods by the RFID interactive system, the category of the goods near the coordinate position can be detected.

[0030] Specifically, in the inventory counting device of the present application, the RFID antenna 3 disposed on the top of the inventory counting unit housing 1 is used to send an RFID radio frequency signal to the RFID tag corresponding to the goods and receive the identification signal fed back by the RFID tag; Then, the RFID reader / writer 2 which is in communication connection with the RFID antenna 3 reads and writes the transceiver signal of the RFID antenna to obtain the identification information of the RFID tag corresponding to the goods.

[0031] Therefore, when the intelligent inventory counting device is connected to the warehouse control system WCS through the network signal antenna 5 and the CPE network receiver 4 arranged at the top of the inventory counting unit housing 1, the control system composed of the PLC controller 9 can be triggered according to the instructions of the WCS to perform the following steps according to the inventory counting task issued by the warehouse control system WCS: According to the cargo information corresponding to the inventory task, the management end of the warehousing system is queried to determine the corresponding storage location, or the storage area that needs to be scanned is determined according to the inventory task; Query the current real-time coordinate position of the four-way shuttle, plan the route to the corresponding storage location, and trigger the four-way shuttle to run according to the route through the network; During operation, the following steps are executed synchronously at a fixed cycle: The real-time coordinate position of the four-way shuttle vehicle is queried, and the interaction area corresponding to the RFID antenna 3 is determined according to the running direction of the vehicle body, for example, a spherical sector area determined by taking the real-time coordinate position corresponding to the RFID antenna 3 as the center and the effective interaction distance of the RFID antenna 3 as the radius. The storage bins contained in the spherical sector area are determined as the interaction area corresponding to the RFID antenna 3. Thus, the cargo information corresponding to the interaction area in the management end is queried according to the interaction area, and the queried information is compared with the identification information of the cargo obtained by the RFID reader 2. When a mismatch is found, the real-time coordinate position of the four-way shuttle vehicle and its interaction area can be recorded according to the following steps to report an error to the management end of the warehousing system.

[0032] Since the radiation range of the RFID tags received by the RFID antenna includes several storage locations on the upper and lower layers of the three-dimensional storage shelves. In order to determine the specific location of the error signal mixed therein, the system of the present application will update the running path of the four-way shuttle through the network after receiving the error report, so that it continues to patrol within a range of at least three layers above and below the error report location to determine the error situation of at least three layers above and below. Since the detection range of the RFID antenna remains consistent during the traversal of the upper and lower layers, the error report can be detected around the storage unit where the error is actually stored. Therefore, with reference to Figure 3 After the error is reported, the present application can directly enclose each detection position into a circle according to the running position of the four-way shuttle when the error is reported to determine the error boundary, and the storage position at the geometric center of the circular boundary is the actual location where the storage error occurred. Thus, the system can be triggered to drive the four-way shuttle to retrieve the goods stored in the storage position at the center of the error boundary for manual confirmation.

[0033] The above is only an implementation method of the present application, and its description is relatively specific and detailed, but it cannot be understood as limiting the scope of the patent of the present application. It should be pointed out that for ordinary technicians in this field, several variations and improvements can be made without departing from the concept of the present application, which all belong to the protection scope of the present application.

Claims

1. A mobile robot intelligent inventory device, characterized in that: The mobile robot intelligent inventory counting device is carried by a four-way shuttle vehicle and shuttles between the tracks of the three-dimensional storage system. The mobile robot intelligent inventory counting device includes: The inventory unit base (10) has an outer circumferential size that is consistent with the cargo storage unit of the three-dimensional storage system, and is carried by a four-way shuttle vehicle (11) running in the three-dimensional storage system; An inventory unit housing (1) is fixed on the inventory unit base (10) and has an internal storage space, wherein the internal storage space is provided with: a control system and an RFID interaction system, an electric energy management system and a network interaction system interactively connected to the control system; The control system is used to control: The network interactive system receives the inventory task issued by the warehouse control system in the three-dimensional warehousing system, determines the storage location for the goods to be counted and the type of goods corresponding to the storage location according to the inventory task instruction, and drives the four-way shuttle to transfer the intelligent inventory device to the vicinity of the storage location; The RFID interaction system interacts and identifies the RFID tags corresponding to the goods near the intelligent inventory counting device, determines the type of goods targeted and feeds back to the management end through the network interaction system; The power management system supplies power to the control system, the FID interaction system, and the network interaction system, and triggers the four-way shuttle vehicle to run to the charging pile (8) in the three-dimensional storage system for charging when the power reserve is insufficient.

2. The mobile robot intelligent inventory counting device according to claim 1, characterized in that: The mobile robot intelligent inventory counting device and the four-way shuttle vehicle interact and communicate with each other through a network interactive system or an independently paired Bluetooth module, and the actual position coordinates of the mobile robot intelligent inventory counting device are determined by the positioning data of the four-way shuttle vehicle.

3. The mobile robot intelligent inventory counting device according to claim 1-2, characterized in that: The RFID interaction system comprises: An RFID antenna (3) is arranged on the top of the inventory unit housing (1) and is used to send an RFID radio frequency signal to the RFID tag corresponding to the goods and receive the identification signal fed back by the RFID tag; The RFID reader (2) is communicatively connected to the RFID antenna (3) and is used to read and write the transceiver signals of the RFID antenna to obtain the identification information of the RFID tag corresponding to the goods.

4. The mobile robot intelligent inventory counting device according to any one of claims 1 to 3, characterized in that: The inventory unit base (10) has support columns at four corners of its bottom, and in the storage state, the inner edge of each support column is located inside the track of the three-dimensional storage system, and the outer edge of each support column is located outside the track of the three-dimensional storage system; The bottom of the inventory unit base (10) is also provided with a fork plate support between the support columns, and the spacing width between the fork plate support and the support columns is not less than the width of the four-way shuttle vehicle lifting bracket.

5. The mobile robot intelligent inventory counting device according to claim 4, characterized in that: The electric energy management system comprises: A battery (6) is integrated at the bottom of the inventory unit housing (1) and is used to supply power to the control system, the FID interaction system, and the network interaction system; A charging brush plate brush block (7) is fixedly arranged at the bottom of the inventory unit base (10), and the charging brush plate brush block (7) protrudes from the outer peripheral edge of the inventory unit base (10); The charging pile (8) is fixedly mounted on the top of the track of the three-dimensional storage system, and the charging brush plate brush block (7) is driven by a four-way shuttle vehicle to dock and insert into the charging pile for charging.

6. The mobile robot intelligent inventory counting device according to claims 1-5, characterized in that: The network interaction system is connected to the warehouse control system through a network signal antenna (5) arranged at the top of the inventory unit housing (1) and a CPE network receiver (4), triggering the control system to execute the following steps according to the inventory task issued by the warehouse control system: According to the cargo information corresponding to the inventory task, the management end of the warehousing system is queried to determine the corresponding storage location, or the storage area that needs to be scanned is determined according to the inventory task; Query the current real-time coordinate position of the four-way shuttle, plan the route to the corresponding storage location, and trigger the four-way shuttle to run according to the route through the network; During operation, the following steps are executed synchronously at a fixed cycle: The real-time coordinate position of the four-way shuttle vehicle is queried, and the interaction area corresponding to the RFID antenna (3) is determined according to the running direction of the vehicle body. The cargo information corresponding to the interaction area is queried in the management end, and the queried information is compared with the identification information of the cargo obtained by the RFID reader (2). When a mismatch is found, the real-time coordinate position of the four-way shuttle vehicle and its interaction area are recorded and an error is reported to the management end of the warehouse system.

7. The mobile robot intelligent inventory counting device according to claim 6, characterized in that: The interaction area corresponding to the RFID antenna (3) is a spherical sector area determined by taking the real-time coordinate position currently corresponding to the RFID antenna (3) as the center and the effective interaction distance of the RFID antenna (3) as the radius, and the interaction area corresponding to the RFID antenna (3) is determined by calculating the storage positions contained in the spherical sector area.

8. The mobile robot intelligent inventory counting device as described in claims 6-7, characterized in that: After the error is reported, the error boundary is determined based on the error reporting conditions of at least three layers above and below the error reporting location, and the trigger system drives the four-way shuttle to retrieve the goods stored in the storage bin at the center of the error reporting boundary for manual confirmation.

9. The mobile robot intelligent inventory counting device according to claims 1-8, characterized in that: The control system is a PLC controller (9).

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