Equipment scheduling method, device and electronic equipment

Abstract

The disclosed embodiments provide a method, device and electronic device for equipment scheduling, which relate to the field of intelligent warehousing. The method includes: dividing the handling area into multiple sub-areas, wherein each sub-area includes at least two lanes, and at least two lanes are connected by a lane change channel; determining the scheduling mode of the handling equipment in the multiple sub-areas based on at least one of the task information, handling equipment information, charging pile information and cargo box information in the multiple sub-areas; scheduling the handling equipment based on the scheduling mode, wherein the scheduled handling equipment is used to go to the charging pile for charging, or to go to a lane or sub-area other than the lane or sub-area where the scheduled handling equipment is located to perform tasks. It is possible to determine the optimal way to schedule the handling equipment according to the location of the handling equipment, reduce the scheduling cost of the handling equipment, achieve the balance of handling tasks, and improve the utilization rate of the handling equipment.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The embodiments of the present disclosure relate to the field of intelligent warehousing technology, and more particularly to an equipment scheduling method, device, and electronic equipment. Background Art

[0002] In warehouse management, when scheduling robots, when the scheduled robot passes through the task path of other robots, it may cause other robots that are working normally to switch lanes or stop to avoid the scheduled robot. The avoiding robot will continue to affect other robots, resulting in reduced efficiency of the robots. Summary of the invention

[0003] The embodiments of the present disclosure provide a device scheduling method, apparatus, and electronic device. The embodiments of the present disclosure disclose the following technical solutions:

[0004] A first aspect of an embodiment of the present disclosure provides an equipment scheduling method, the method comprising: dividing a handling area into multiple sub-areas, wherein each sub-area includes at least two lanes, and at least two lanes are connected by a lane change channel; based on at least one of task information, handling equipment information, charging pile information, and cargo box information in the multiple sub-areas, determining a scheduling method for handling equipment in the multiple sub-areas; based on the scheduling method, scheduling the handling equipment, wherein the scheduled handling equipment is used to go to the charging pile for charging, or to go to a lane or sub-area other than the lane or sub-area where the scheduled handling equipment is located to perform a task.

[0005] In some embodiments, the transport area is divided into multiple sub-areas, including: determining the number of charging piles in the transport area according to a first preset ratio and the total number of transport equipment in the transport area, the first preset ratio being the ratio between the charging piles and the number of transport equipment supported by the charging piles; determining the number of multiple sub-areas and the number of transport equipment allocated in each sub-area according to the number of charging piles.

[0006] In some embodiments, the transport area is divided into multiple sub-areas, including: dividing the transport area according to the total number of transport equipment in the transport area and the total number of aisles between shelves in the transport area, wherein the number of the multiple sub-areas is greater than or equal to the total number of transport equipment.

[0007] In some embodiments, based on at least one of the task information, handling equipment information, charging pile information, and cargo box information in multiple sub-areas, a scheduling method for handling equipment in multiple sub-areas is determined, including at least one of the following: for a first sub-area in multiple sub-areas, according to the cargo box information in the first sub-area, the priority of the cargo box hit in the first sub-area is determined, and according to the priority of the cargo box hit in the first sub-area, the scheduling method for handling equipment between different lanes in the first sub-area is determined; for a first sub-area and a second sub-area in multiple sub-areas, according to the task information and handling equipment information in the first sub-area and the second sub-area, the scheduling method for handling equipment between the first sub-area and the second sub-area is determined.

[0008] In some embodiments, a scheduling method of handling equipment between different lanes in the first sub-area is determined based on the priority of the cargo boxes hit in the first sub-area, including: determining multiple candidate lanes from multiple lanes in the first sub-area based on the priority of the cargo boxes hit in the first sub-area; if handling equipment exists in each of the multiple candidate lanes, the handling equipment in the first area is not rescheduled; if handling equipment does not exist in at least one of the multiple candidate lanes, determining a scheduling method of the handling equipment between the multiple candidate lanes.

[0009] In some embodiments, based on the priorities of the cartons hitting the first sub-area, multiple candidate lanes are determined from multiple lanes in the first sub-area, including: determining, for the first lane in the first sub-area, the sum of the priorities of the cartons hitting the first lane; determining, based on the cartons information, the ratio of the cartons to be shipped out on the first storage position of the shelf corresponding to the first lane to the total number of cartons in the first lane; determining the grade value of the first lane based on the sum and the ratio; and determining multiple candidate lanes based on the grade values ​​of all lanes in the first sub-area.

[0010] In some embodiments, when there is no handling equipment in at least one of multiple candidate lanes, determining a scheduling method for the handling equipment among the multiple candidate lanes includes: determining the number of at least one candidate lane where there is no handling equipment based on the handling equipment information; when the number is equal to 1, determining the scheduling method to schedule the handling equipment of the first candidate lane to the second candidate lane, there is handling equipment in the first candidate lane, there is no handling equipment in the second candidate lane, and the grade value of the first candidate lane is the lowest among the candidate lanes other than the second candidate lane; when the number is greater than 1, determining the scheduling method to schedule the handling equipment of the first candidate lane to the second candidate lane, there is handling equipment in the first candidate lane, and the grade value of the first candidate lane is the lowest among the candidate lanes with handling equipment, and the second candidate lane is any candidate lane where there is no handling equipment, or the grade value of the second candidate lane is the highest among the candidate lanes where there is no handling equipment.

[0011] In some embodiments, a scheduling method of handling equipment between the first sub-area and the second sub-area is determined based on task information and handling equipment information in the first sub-area and the second sub-area, including: determining the number of tasks to be performed, the total number of handling equipment and the number of handling equipment in an idle state in each sub-area based on the task information and handling equipment information in each sub-area; determining the scheduling level of each sub-area based on the number of tasks to be performed and the total number of handling equipment; determining at least one neighboring area of ​​the first sub-area, and determining the neighboring level of each neighboring area relative to the first sub-area; when the number of tasks to be performed in the first sub-area is greater than or equal to a preset threshold and there are handling equipment in an idle state in at least one third sub-area, determining the scheduling cost of at least one third sub-area relative to the first sub-area based on the neighboring level; determining the second sub-area from at least one third sub-area based on the scheduling cost and the scheduling level, and determining the scheduling method to schedule the handling equipment in the second sub-area to the first sub-area.

[0012] In some embodiments, at least one neighboring area of ​​the first sub-area is determined, and the adjacency level of each neighboring area relative to the first sub-area is determined, including: determining the adjacency level of the first neighboring area to be a first level, the first neighboring area is spatially adjacent to the first sub-area and shares the same lane change channel; determining the adjacency level of the second neighboring area to be a second level, the second neighboring area is spatially adjacent to the first sub-area and does not share the same lane change channel, and the second level is lower than the first level.

[0013] In some embodiments, the scheduling cost of at least one third sub-region relative to the first sub-region is determined based on the proximity level, including: determining whether each third sub-region is a neighboring area of ​​the first sub-region; in the case where the third sub-region is a neighboring area of ​​the first sub-region, if the proximity level of the third sub-region is the first level, determining the scheduling cost of the third sub-region to be the first cost; if the proximity level of the third sub-region is the second level, determining the scheduling cost of the third sub-region to be the first cost plus a preset step size; in the case where the third sub-region is not a neighboring area of ​​the first sub-region, determining the scheduling cost of the third sub-region based on the number of areas spanned between the third sub-region and the first sub-region, the proximity level between the third sub-region and the spanned areas, and the preset step size.

[0014] In some embodiments, a second sub-region is determined from at least one third sub-region based on a scheduling cost and a scheduling level, including: determining a support coefficient of each third sub-region based on the scheduling cost and the scheduling level; and determining a third sub-region whose support coefficient meets a preset condition as a second sub-region.

[0015] In some embodiments, the method also includes: determining the number of scheduling areas based on a second preset ratio and the total number of sub-areas in the handling area, the second preset ratio being the ratio of the number of sub-areas that can be adjusted to execute a scheduled task to the total number of sub-areas; determining whether the first sub-area is an area to be supported based on the scheduling level; if the first sub-area is an area to be supported, scheduling handling equipment for the first sub-area under the restriction of the number of scheduling areas.

[0016] In some embodiments, determining a scheduling method for handling equipment between a first sub-area and a second sub-area includes: determining a scheduling cycle, performing a scheduling once in each scheduling cycle; in a second scheduling, eliminating the sub-area supported in the first scheduling, and determining an area to be supported in the second scheduling.

[0017] In some embodiments, the method further includes: configuring charging piles for multiple sub-areas, wherein each sub-area is configured with a charging pile, and the charging pile is configured at the lane change channel in each sub-area, or, at least two sub-areas sharing a lane change channel are configured with at least two charging piles, and the at least two charging piles are located at one end of the lane change channel shared by at least two sub-areas.

[0018] In some embodiments, based on at least one of the task information, handling equipment information, charging pile information, and cargo box information in multiple sub-areas, a scheduling method for handling equipment in multiple sub-areas is determined, including: determining the power level of a first handling equipment and the sub-area to which the first handling equipment belongs according to the handling equipment information; when the power level of the first handling equipment meets the charging conditions, determining whether the first charging pile corresponding to the sub-area to which the first handling equipment belongs is idle according to the charging pile information; when the first charging pile is idle, determining the scheduling method for the handling equipment to control the first handling equipment to charge at the first charging pile; when the first charging pile is not idle, determining the second charging pile, and determining the scheduling method for the handling equipment to control the first handling equipment to charge at the second charging pile.

[0019] In some embodiments, when the first charging pile is not idle, determining the second charging pile includes: when the first charging pile is not idle, determining the charging cost of at least one candidate charging pile; and determining the second charging pile based on the charging cost of at least one candidate charging pile.

[0020] In some embodiments, determining the charging cost of at least one candidate charging pile includes: for a first candidate charging pile among the at least one candidate charging pile, determining, based on the charging pile information and the handling equipment information, the sub-area to which the first candidate charging pile belongs, the idle state of the first candidate charging pile, the power of the handling equipment being charged in each candidate charging pile, and the proximity between the sub-area to which the first candidate charging pile belongs and the sub-area to which the first handling equipment belongs; determining the charging cost of the first candidate charging pile based on the idle state of the first candidate charging pile, the power of the handling equipment being charged in each candidate charging pile, and the proximity between the sub-area to which the first candidate charging pile belongs and the sub-area to which the first handling equipment belongs.

[0021] A second aspect of an embodiment of the present disclosure provides an equipment scheduling device, including: a first processing unit, used to divide a handling area into multiple sub-areas, wherein each sub-area includes at least two lanes, and at least two lanes are connected by a lane change channel; a second processing unit, used to determine a scheduling method for handling equipment in multiple sub-areas based on at least one of task information, handling equipment information, charging pile information, and cargo box information in the multiple sub-areas; and a third processing unit, used to schedule the handling equipment based on the scheduling method, wherein the scheduled handling equipment is used to go to the charging pile for charging, or to go to a lane or sub-area other than the lane or sub-area where the scheduled handling equipment is located to perform a task.

[0022] A third aspect of an embodiment of the present disclosure provides an electronic device, comprising: a processor and a memory, the memory being used to store computer-executable instructions; and the processor being used to read instructions from the memory and execute the instructions to implement the method in any one of the implementation modes of the aforementioned first aspect.

[0023] A fourth aspect of an embodiment of the present disclosure provides a computer-readable storage medium, in which computer instructions are stored, and the computer instructions are configured to cause the computer to execute the method in any implementation manner in the aforementioned first aspect.

[0024] A fifth aspect of an embodiment of the present disclosure provides a computer program product, which includes a computer program stored on a computer-readable storage medium, and the computer program includes program instructions. When the program instructions are executed by a computer, the computer executes the method in any one of the implementation methods of the first aspect above.

[0025] The equipment scheduling method, device and electronic device provided by the embodiments of the present disclosure can partition the warehouse area and determine the scheduling cost according to the location of the handling equipment, so as to select the optimal scheduling method to schedule the handling equipment, thereby avoiding interference with other equipment when scheduling the handling equipment and affecting the efficiency of the handling equipment. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0026] Figure 1 A schematic diagram of a warehousing system 100 provided in an embodiment of the present disclosure is shown;

[0027] Figure 2 A schematic diagram of a process flow of a device scheduling method proposed in an embodiment of the present disclosure;

[0028] Figure 3 A schematic diagram of a process flow of a device scheduling method proposed in an embodiment of the present disclosure;

[0029] Figure 4 A schematic diagram of a process flow of a device scheduling method proposed in an embodiment of the present disclosure;

[0030] Figure 5a A schematic diagram of a charging pile configuration proposed in an embodiment of the present disclosure;

[0031] Figure 5b A schematic diagram of a partition proposed in an embodiment of the present disclosure;

[0032] Figure 5c A schematic diagram of a lane in a partition proposed in an embodiment of the present disclosure;

[0033] Figure 5d A schematic diagram of a cross-partition support method proposed in an embodiment of the present disclosure;

[0034] Figure 6 A schematic diagram of the structure of a device scheduling apparatus 600 proposed in an embodiment of the present disclosure;

[0035] Figure 7is a schematic structural diagram of an electronic device 700 for implementing the above method according to an exemplary embodiment. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0036] Many specific details are described in the following description to facilitate a full understanding of the present disclosure. However, the present disclosure can be implemented in many other ways than those described herein, and those skilled in the art can make similar generalizations without violating the connotation of the present disclosure, so the present disclosure is not limited by the specific implementation disclosed below.

[0037] The terms used in one or more embodiments of the present disclosure are only for the purpose of describing specific embodiments, and are not intended to limit one or more embodiments of the present disclosure. The singular forms of "a", "said" and "the" used in one or more embodiments of the present disclosure and the appended claims are also intended to include plural forms, unless the context clearly indicates other meanings. It should also be understood that the term "and / or" used in one or more embodiments of the present disclosure refers to and includes any or all possible combinations of one or more associated listed items.

[0038] It should be understood that although the terms first, second, etc. may be used to describe various information in one or more embodiments of the present disclosure, these information should not be limited to these terms. These terms are only used to distinguish the same type of information from each other. For example, without departing from the scope of one or more embodiments of the present disclosure, the first may also be referred to as the second, and similarly, the second may also be referred to as the first. Depending on the context, the word "if" as used herein may be interpreted as "at the time of" or "when" or "in response to determining".

[0039] In the present disclosure, an equipment scheduling method is provided. The present disclosure also relates to an equipment scheduling device, a warehousing system, a computing device, a computer program product, and a computer-readable storage medium, which are described in detail one by one in the following embodiments.

[0040] The following describes the solutions of the embodiments of the present disclosure in combination with examples.

[0041] In warehouse management, the number of lanes in the warehouse area is usually greater than the number of robots. Therefore, there are often no robots working in some lanes, and robots need to be regularly dispatched to different lanes to perform tasks. The current scheduling method uses timed tasks to globally search for relatively idle robots to provide support in lanes with more tasks. However, if a robot that is far away is dispatched for support, it is very easy to cross the lane partitions of other robots during the support process, causing the normally working robot to switch lanes or stop to avoid the supporting robot. The avoiding robot will continue to affect other robots, resulting in reduced robot efficiency.

[0042] Also, with the current robot charging solution, when a robot needs to be charged, it also needs to cross the lane partitions of other robots, causing the same disturbance problem.

[0043] In view of the above problems, an embodiment of the present disclosure proposes an equipment scheduling method, which can select the optimal scheduling method to schedule the transport equipment, thereby avoiding interference with other equipment when scheduling the transport equipment and affecting the efficiency of the transport equipment.

[0044] In some embodiments, the method of the present solution can be executed by an electronic device, and the electronic device can be deployed with a Robot Management System (RMS). The handling equipment can be a device for handling goods or cargo boxes, etc., or a device for picking up and placing goods or cargo boxes, etc. For example, the equipment for handling goods can be a handling robot.

[0045] Optionally, the method of this solution can be applied to a storage system 100, such as Figure 1 As shown, a warehousing system proposed by the solution of the present disclosure is provided, wherein the warehousing system includes a management system 10 and a handling device 20. The management system may be, for example, a robot management system RMS. The management system may determine an optimal scheduling method and schedule the handling robot to perform a task according to the optimal scheduling method.

[0046] For example, the electronic device may be a terminal device or a server. For example, when the electronic device is a terminal device, the electronic device may include various personal computers, laptops, smart phones, tablet computers, and portable wearable devices. When the electronic device is a server, the electronic device may be an independent server or a server cluster composed of multiple servers, which is not limited in the embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0047] In some embodiments, the handling equipment may be a robot for handling goods and / or cargo boxes. The robot may be, for example, a material box robot (e.g., an RS robot), or a lurking robot (e.g., a P40 robot), or a robot that is powered and moved by a busbar, or a pole climbing robot, etc. Optionally, the warehousing system may also include at least one shelf, and the handling equipment is used to pick up and place goods and / or cargo boxes on the shelf (which may be a fixed shelf). Optionally, when the handling equipment is an RS robot, the handling equipment may pick up and place goods and / or cargo boxes on high-level shelves or cache locations. When the handling equipment is a P40 robot, the handling equipment may pick up and place goods and / or cargo boxes on cache locations on the shelf.

[0048] Optionally, the shelf can be used to store at least one of the following: goods, carriers and containers, and the carriers or containers may include cargo boxes (such as material boxes, cartons, etc.) and / or support parts. Among them, the support part can be used to store goods or cargo boxes, and the support part can be, for example, a pallet, and the cargo box is used to store goods. Optionally, the shelf can also store goods, and the goods may include a first commodity and a second commodity, wherein the first commodity may be a commodity stored inside the cargo box and then placed on the mobile shelf, and the second commodity may be a commodity directly placed on the mobile shelf. For example, the first commodity may be a fragile or small commodity, and the second commodity may be a commodity with high sales volume or large volume, or the second commodity may also be a hanging commodity.

[0049] For example, a shelf may include multiple storage units (i.e., cargo locations), each of which may contain one or more cargoes. The transport assembly on the transport device may move in the vertical direction so that the position of the transport assembly is horizontally opposite to any storage unit, and the transport assembly is used to place or remove target cargoes on the storage unit of the shelf. The transport assembly may be equipped with a pick-and-place mechanism, such as an insertion mechanism (e.g., a fork) or a suction mechanism (e.g., a suction cup), to realize the function of picking up and placing cargo boxes.

[0050] Figure 2 A schematic diagram of a device scheduling method proposed in an embodiment of the present disclosure is shown in FIG. Figure 2 As shown, the method comprises the following steps:

[0051] Step 201, dividing the transport area into multiple sub-areas.

[0052] In some embodiments, optionally, the transport area can be the area through which the transport equipment transports goods. Optionally, the transport area can include multiple shelves. There can be aisles between the shelves for the robot to move to the target shelf to pick up and place goods. Optionally, there can also be lane change aisles for the robot to switch lanes.

[0053] In some embodiments, the handling area can be divided into multiple sub-areas, each of which includes at least two lanes, and at least two lanes are connected by a lane change channel. Each sub-area can include multiple shelves, and each sub-area can be equipped with at least one handling equipment for performing handling tasks within the sub-area.

[0054] Specifically, the handling area is divided into multiple sub-areas, including: determining the number of charging piles in the handling area according to a first preset ratio and the total number of handling equipment in the handling area, the first preset ratio being the ratio between the charging piles and the number of handling equipment supported by the charging piles; determining the number of multiple sub-areas and the number of handling equipment allocated in each sub-area according to the number of charging piles.

[0055] In other words, the number of required charging piles can be determined based on the preset ratio and the total number of handling equipment in the handling area. For example, when the preset ratio is 1:8 for the number of charging piles to the number of handling equipment, and there are 8 handling equipment in the handling area, 1 charging pile can be configured for the 8 handling equipment. At this time, if there are 30 robots in the handling area, 4 charging piles can be configured for the handling area to avoid multiple robots occupying the charging piles and affecting task execution.

[0056] Optionally, the charging piles can be placed near the lane change lanes. Optionally, the number of divided sub-areas can be determined according to the number of charging piles. For example, when there are 4 charging piles, the handling area can be divided into 4 sub-areas, and a charging pile can be placed in each sub-area, that is, the charging piles can be placed near the lane change lanes in each sub-area, which can facilitate the handling equipment to go to the charging piles from different lanes for charging. Optionally, after determining the number of sub-areas, the handling equipment can be evenly placed in multiple sub-areas. Optionally, when the handling equipment cannot be evenly distributed, the number of handling equipment initially placed in each sub-area can be determined based on the order volume or experience value of the sub-area, and this is not limited by the present disclosure.

[0057] In some embodiments, the transport area is divided into multiple sub-areas, including: dividing the transport area according to the total number of transport equipment in the transport area and the total number of aisles between shelves in the transport area, wherein the number of the multiple sub-areas is greater than or equal to the total number of transport equipment.

[0058] In other words, the number of sub-areas can be determined based on the total number of handling equipment and the total number of aisles between the shelves in the handling area. For example, the number of sub-areas can be determined to be equal to the total number of handling equipment. In this case, one handling equipment can be initially placed in each sub-area, that is, one handling equipment can be responsible for the tasks of one sub-area; or, the number of sub-areas can be determined to be equal to the number of aisles. In this case, if the number of aisles is greater than the number of handling equipment, resulting in some aisles having no handling equipment available, the number of additional handling equipment can be increased, or one handling equipment can be responsible for the tasks of at least one aisle, and so on. This disclosure is not limited to this.

[0059] Step 202, based on at least one of the task information, handling equipment information, charging pile information, and cargo box information in the multiple sub-areas, determine the scheduling method of the handling equipment in the multiple sub-areas.

[0060] In some embodiments, after dividing the sub-areas and arranging the robots in each sub-area, the handling equipment in each sub-area can be scheduled in real time according to the task status of each sub-area to achieve balanced handling of tasks in the area.

[0061] In some embodiments, optionally, the tasks of each sub-area can be balanced. For example, a sub-area may include multiple lanes, and the task status of each lane can be determined. When it is determined that a lane needs support, the handling equipment of other lanes in the sub-area can be dispatched for support. That is, the handling equipment of other lanes can be dispatched to the lane that needs support to perform tasks, which can improve the task processing efficiency of the lane and achieve task balance within the sub-area.

[0062] In some embodiments, the tasks of the entire handling area can be balanced optionally. That is, when there are many tasks in a sub-area, handling equipment can be dispatched from other areas to provide support to the sub-area. That is, handling equipment can be dispatched from other sub-areas to perform tasks in the sub-area that needs support. This can improve the task processing efficiency of the sub-area and achieve task balance in the handling area.

[0063] In some embodiments, scheduling the transport equipment in the transport area may also include scheduling the transport equipment in the transport area to go to the charging pile for charging. Optionally, the transport equipment may be preferentially scheduled to go to the charging pile placed in the sub-area for charging, or the transport equipment may be scheduled to go to the charging pile placed in other sub-areas for charging. This may balance the charging tasks of the transport equipment and avoid occupying the charging pile, or avoid problems such as low task efficiency due to the transport equipment being unable to charge in time.

[0064] In some embodiments, the dispatching mode of the transport equipment in the multiple sub-areas can be determined based on at least one of the task information, transport equipment information, charging pile information, and cargo box information in the multiple sub-areas, wherein the task information may include, for example, the number of tasks to be executed, the priority of the task, the urgency of the task, the time when the task is issued, etc.; the transport equipment information may include, for example, the type of transport equipment, the state of the transport equipment (such as working state and idle state), the power of the transport equipment, the sub-area to which the transport equipment belongs, the location of the transport equipment, etc.; the charging pile information may include, for example, the charging pile signal, the number of transport equipment being charged by the charging pile, the sub-area to which the charging pile belongs, etc.; the cargo box information may include, for example, whether the cargo box is hit, the priority of the hit cargo box, the type of cargo position where the cargo box is located, etc. Optionally, other information may also be included, which is not limited by the present disclosure.

[0065] In some embodiments, optionally, the optimal scheduling method can be determined based on the cost of scheduling the handling equipment. For example, when scheduling the handling equipment for support, the cost of scheduling each handling equipment for support can be determined, and the handling equipment with the lowest scheduling cost can be determined as the handling equipment for support, that is, the handling equipment with the lowest scheduling cost can be selected for support; or, when the handling equipment needs to be charged, the scheduling cost of scheduling the handling equipment to go to different charging piles can be determined, and the scheduling method with the lowest scheduling cost can be determined, that is, the scheduling method with the lowest scheduling cost when the handling equipment is scheduled for charging can be determined, for example, it can be determined which charging pile the scheduling robot needs to go to for charging, and it can also be determined which path the scheduling robot takes to go to the charging pile for charging with the lowest cost, etc. In some embodiments, optionally, the scheduling cost can be determined based on the location of the handling equipment (for example, the sub-area where the handling equipment is located), the power of the handling equipment, the power of the charging pile, the location of the charging pile, etc. After determining the optimal scheduling method based on the scheduling cost, a scheduling instruction is issued to the handling equipment for scheduling the handling equipment.

[0066] Step 203, scheduling the transport equipment based on the scheduling method.

[0067] In some embodiments, the dispatched transport equipment is used to go to a charging station for charging, or to go to a lane or sub-area other than the lane or sub-area where the dispatched transport equipment is located to perform a task.

[0068] In other words, the transport equipment can be dispatched for charging, or dispatched to other lanes or sub-areas for support, so as to achieve a balance of tasks to be performed. Optionally, the transport equipment can be dispatched between different lanes in a single sub-area, or between different sub-areas.

[0069] In summary, the above-mentioned embodiments of the present disclosure can divide the handling area into sub-areas, and determine the scheduling cost according to the task status, handling equipment, etc. in the sub-area. The optimal scheduling method is determined by the scheduling cost to schedule the handling equipment. It is possible to achieve the balance of tasks in the handling area with a smaller scheduling cost, and avoid robot conflicts affecting work efficiency.

[0070] Figure 3 A schematic diagram of a device scheduling method proposed in an embodiment of the present disclosure is shown in FIG. Figure 3 As shown, the method also includes the following steps:

[0071] Step 301, for a first sub-area among multiple sub-areas, based on the cargo box information in the first sub-area, determine the priority of the cargo boxes hit in the first sub-area, and determine the dispatching method of the handling equipment between different lanes in the first sub-area based on the priority of the cargo boxes hit in the first sub-area. In some embodiments, optionally, an analysis can be performed for each sub-area to determine whether there is a lane that needs support in the sub-area. When a lane needs support, a robot for support can be determined from other lanes in the sub-area, and the robot for support can be dispatched to move to the lane to perform the task.

[0072] In some embodiments, for a first sub-area among multiple sub-areas, the priority of the cargo boxes hit in the first sub-area is determined based on the cargo box information in the first sub-area, and the scheduling method of the handling equipment between different lanes in the first sub-area is determined based on the priority of the cargo boxes hit in the first sub-area.

[0073] In some embodiments, for a first sub-region among multiple sub-regions, according to the priority of the cargo boxes hit in the first sub-region, the dispatching of handling equipment between different lanes in the first sub-region includes: determining multiple candidate lanes from multiple lanes in the first sub-region according to the priority of the cargo boxes hit in the first sub-region; when there is handling equipment in each of the multiple candidate lanes, not rescheduling the handling equipment in the first region; when there is no handling equipment in at least one of the multiple candidate lanes, determining the dispatching method of the handling equipment between the multiple candidate lanes. That is, when there is no handling equipment in at least one of the multiple candidate lanes, the handling equipment can be dispatched between the multiple candidate lanes.

[0074] In some embodiments, according to the priorities of the cargo boxes hit in the first sub-area, multiple candidate lanes are determined from multiple lanes in the first sub-area, including: for the first lane in the first sub-area, determining the sum of the priorities of the cargo boxes hit in the first lane; according to the cargo box information, determining the ratio of the cargo boxes to be shipped out on the first cargo position of the shelf corresponding to the first lane to the total number of cargo boxes in the first lane; according to the sum and the ratio, determining the grade value of the first lane; according to the grade values ​​of all lanes in the first sub-area, determining multiple candidate lanes. The first lane can be any lane in the first sub-area, and the first cargo position can be a cache position.

[0075] In some embodiments, when there is no handling equipment in at least one of multiple candidate lanes, determining a scheduling method for the handling equipment among the multiple candidate lanes includes: determining the number of at least one candidate lane where there is no handling equipment based on the handling equipment information; when the number is equal to 1, determining the scheduling method to schedule the handling equipment of the first candidate lane to the second candidate lane, there is handling equipment in the first candidate lane, there is no handling equipment in the second candidate lane, and the grade value of the first candidate lane is the lowest among the candidate lanes other than the second candidate lane; when the number is greater than 1, determining the scheduling method to schedule the handling equipment of the first candidate lane to the second candidate lane, there is handling equipment in the first candidate lane, and the grade value of the first candidate lane is the lowest among the candidate lanes with handling equipment, and the second candidate lane is any candidate lane where there is no handling equipment, or the grade value of the second candidate lane is the highest among the candidate lanes where there is no handling equipment.

[0076] In the above embodiment, the hit cargo box may be a cargo box that needs to be transported by a transport device. For example, the cargo box that needs to be transported by a transport device may be determined based on the information contained in the order, i.e., the hit cargo box. Optionally, different orders may have different urgency levels. In this case, the priority of the hit cargo box may be determined based on the urgency level of the order. For example, the higher the urgency level of the order, the higher the priority level of the corresponding cargo box. For example, the longest delivery time may be set for each order. The order with the shortest delivery time has a higher priority level for the corresponding cargo box handling task.

[0077] In some embodiments, the priority of the container can also be determined according to the time when the container is hit. For example, the priority of the container can be increased as time increases, which can avoid a long task execution time. Among them, the time when the container is hit is related to the order delivery time. Therefore, the priority of the container can be determined according to the order delivery time. For example, the earlier the order delivery time, the higher the corresponding container priority.

[0078] Optionally, the lanes that need support can be determined based on the priority of the cargo boxes. For example, when there are many cargo boxes with high priority in the lane, that is, when there are many high-priority handling tasks in the lane, robots in other lanes can be dispatched to support the tasks in the lane. Specifically, the lanes that need support can be determined based on the number of cargo boxes on the cache positions on the shelves in the lanes, and their priorities. The cache positions on the shelves can be used to store cargo boxes to be shipped out of the warehouse, that is, cargo boxes that require handling equipment to be transported. Therefore, when there are many cargo boxes on the shelf cache positions, there are more high-priority tasks in the lane.

[0079] For example, for each lane in the first sub-area, the priority of all cargo boxes that need to be moved in the lane can be determined, and the priority values ​​of all cargo boxes that need to be moved are summed to obtain the priority value M of the lane. The proportion of cargo boxes to be shipped out of the cache position can be expressed as the N value, where the proportion of cargo boxes to be shipped out of the warehouse can be the ratio of cargo boxes to be shipped out of the first storage position of the shelf corresponding to the first lane to the total number of cargo boxes in the first lane, that is, it can be the ratio of cargo boxes on the cache position to the total number of cargo boxes in the lane. According to M and N, the level value K can be determined. The K value can be used to indicate the urgency of the support required for the lane, that is, the higher the K value, the more the corresponding lane needs support, that is, the more urgent the task in the corresponding lane is. Optionally, after determining the K value corresponding to each lane, the K values ​​of the lanes contained in the first sub-area can be sorted, wherein the lanes with the highest sorting can be determined as candidate lanes, wherein the number of candidate lanes can be determined according to a preset ratio or a preset number, etc., which is not limited by the present disclosure.

[0080] When there is no handling equipment in the lanes with a higher ranking (i.e., a larger K value), the corresponding candidate lanes can be determined as the lanes that need support. For example, the first sub-area contains 6 lanes, and when there are handling equipment in the top 4 lanes ranked by K value, there are no lanes that need support in the first sub-area. When there is at least one lane without handling equipment among the top 4 lanes ranked by K value, there are lanes that need support in the first sub-area, that is, lanes with higher K values ​​and no handling equipment are the lanes that need support. Optionally, the number of lanes that need support can be multiple. When it is determined that there are multiple lanes that need support at one time, handling equipment can be dispatched to support only one lane. For example, handling equipment can be preferentially dispatched to support lanes with higher K values, or, when the K values ​​are the same, one lane can be randomly supported.

[0081] In some embodiments, optionally, the transport equipment used for support can be determined based on the scheduling cost. For example, the scheduling cost can be the above-mentioned K value, that is, for the support scheduling in the first sub-area, the scheduling cost can be determined according to the priority of the task in each lane. When the K value is small, the loss of scheduling the transport equipment in the lane for support is small. Therefore, it can be determined that the transport equipment in the lane with the smallest scheduling cost K value is moved to the lane that needs support to perform the task.

[0082] In some embodiments, optionally, the tasks in the first sub-area can be periodically balanced, that is, the lanes that need support can be periodically determined. For example, the period for executing balancing can be determined based on the dynamic partition automatic balancing parameter. For example, the dynamic partition automatic balancing parameter can be 300 seconds, that is, the task priority of each lane in the first sub-area needs to be determined every 300 seconds. When there are lanes that need support, the corresponding handling equipment is dispatched according to the K value.

[0083] Step 302 , for a first sub-region and a second sub-region among the plurality of sub-regions, determining a scheduling method of transport equipment between the first sub-region and the second sub-region according to task information and transport equipment information in the first sub-region and the second sub-region.

[0084] In some embodiments, optionally, the tasks of the entire handling area can be balanced, optionally, the task status of each sub-area in the handling area can be determined, and the sub-area that needs support can be determined. At this time, the handling equipment of other sub-areas can be dispatched to support the tasks in the sub-area.

[0085] In some embodiments, for a first sub-area and a second sub-area among the multiple sub-areas, a scheduling method of transport equipment between the first sub-area and the second sub-area is determined based on task information and transport equipment information in the first sub-area and the second sub-area.

[0086] In some embodiments, for a first sub-area and a second sub-area among multiple sub-areas, a scheduling method of the handling equipment between the first sub-area and the second sub-area is determined based on the task information and the handling equipment information in the first sub-area and the second sub-area, including: determining the number of tasks to be performed, the total number of handling equipment and the number of handling equipment in an idle state in each sub-area based on the task information and the handling equipment information in each sub-area; determining the scheduling level of each sub-area based on the number of tasks to be performed and the total number of handling equipment; determining at least one neighboring area of ​​the first sub-area, and determining the neighboring level of each neighboring area relative to the first sub-area; when the number of tasks to be performed in the first sub-area is greater than or equal to a preset threshold and there are handling equipment in an idle state in at least one third sub-area, determining the scheduling cost of at least one third sub-area relative to the first sub-area based on the neighboring level; determining the second sub-area from at least one third sub-area based on the scheduling cost and the scheduling level, and determining the scheduling method to schedule the handling equipment in the second sub-area to the first sub-area.

[0087] Among them, the scheduling level can be used to indicate the urgency of the support required for the sub-area. Optionally, the scheduling level can be represented by P. Optionally, P = task volume in the sub-area / number of handling equipment in the sub-area, that is, the scheduling level P can be used to indicate the average task volume of each handling equipment in the sub-area. Therefore, when the task volume of each handling equipment is large, the sub-area needs support. Among them, the number of handling equipment in the sub-area is the total number of handling equipment in the sub-area, which may include handling equipment that is performing handling tasks and handling equipment that is charging.

[0088] Among them, the adjacency level can be used to indicate the positional relationship between sub-areas. For example, the adjacency level can include strong adjacency and weak adjacency. Strong adjacency can be an area that a transport device can reach without passing through the partitions of other transport devices. Weak adjacency is an area that a transport device needs to pass through the partitions of other transport devices to reach. For example, when the first sub-area and the second sub-area are strongly adjacent, the transport equipment in the first sub-area only needs to switch lanes through the lane change channel to reach the second sub-area. For another example, when the first sub-area and the second sub-area are weakly adjacent, the transport equipment in the first sub-area needs to pass through the lanes where other transport equipment is located to move to the second sub-area.

[0089] In some embodiments, the transport equipment in an idle state may include transport equipment that has not been assigned a task (a transport equipment that has not yet executed a task, a transport equipment whose task queue list is empty, etc.), a transport equipment that is being charged (a transport equipment that is being charged at a charging station, or a transport equipment that is low on power and is about to go to a charging station to charge), etc. In other words, when a sub-area needs support, transport equipment in an idle state can be determined from other sub-areas to support the tasks of the sub-area.

[0090] In some embodiments, at least one neighboring area of ​​the first sub-area is determined, and the adjacency level of each neighboring area relative to the first sub-area is determined, including: determining the adjacency level of the first neighboring area to be a first level, the first neighboring area is spatially adjacent to the first sub-area and shares the same lane change channel; determining the adjacency level of the second neighboring area to be a second level, the second neighboring area is spatially adjacent to the first sub-area and does not share the same lane change channel, and the second level is lower than the first level.

[0091] In some embodiments, the neighbor level of each neighboring area of ​​the first sub-area relative to the first sub-area may be determined. Optionally, the first level of neighbor level may be a strong neighbor, and the second level of neighbor level may be a weak neighbor.

[0092] In some embodiments, the scheduling cost of at least one third sub-region relative to the first sub-region is determined based on the proximity level, including: determining whether each third sub-region is a neighboring area of ​​the first sub-region; in the case where the third sub-region is a neighboring area of ​​the first sub-region, if the proximity level of the third sub-region is the first level, determining the scheduling cost of the third sub-region to be the first cost; if the proximity level of the third sub-region is the second level, determining the scheduling cost of the third sub-region to be the first cost plus a preset step size; in the case where the third sub-region is not a neighboring area of ​​the first sub-region, determining the scheduling cost of the third sub-region based on the number of areas spanned between the third sub-region and the first sub-region, the proximity level between the third sub-region and the spanned areas, and the preset step size.

[0093] In some embodiments, a second sub-region is determined from at least one third sub-region based on a scheduling cost and a scheduling level, including: determining a support coefficient of each third sub-region based on the scheduling cost and the scheduling level; and determining a third sub-region whose support coefficient meets a preset condition as a second sub-region.

[0094] In some embodiments, the method also includes: determining the number of scheduling areas based on a second preset ratio and the total number of sub-areas in the handling area, the second preset ratio being the ratio of the number of sub-areas that can be adjusted to execute a scheduled task to the total number of sub-areas; determining whether the first sub-area is an area to be supported based on the scheduling level; if the first sub-area is an area to be supported, scheduling handling equipment for the first sub-area under the restriction of the number of scheduling areas.

[0095] In some embodiments, determining the scheduling method of the handling equipment between the first sub-area and the second sub-area includes: determining a scheduling cycle and performing a scheduling in each scheduling cycle; in the second scheduling, eliminating the sub-area supported in the first scheduling, and determining the area to be supported in the second scheduling.

[0096] In the above embodiment, after determining the scheduling level, the sub-area that needs support can be determined according to the scheduling level. Optionally, the sub-area that needs support can be determined periodically to achieve balancing of tasks in the transport area. For example, the period for executing balancing can be determined according to the dynamic partition automatic balancing parameter. For example, the dynamic partition automatic balancing parameter can be 300 seconds, that is, the scheduling level of each sub-area needs to be determined every 300 seconds. When there is a sub-area that needs support, the transport equipment used for support is determined according to the scheduling cost.

[0097] In some embodiments, one transport device can be dispatched for support each time, but multiple sub-areas that need support can be determined in each cycle. Optionally, the number of dispatched areas can be determined in each cycle, and the number of dispatched areas can be the total number of sub-areas × preset ratio, and rounded up (ceil). For example, when the preset ratio is 20% and the total number of sub-areas is 8, two task balancing can be performed in each cycle, that is, two sub-areas are supported in each cycle. In each task balancing, the sub-area with the largest dispatch level P value can be determined as the sub-area that needs support. Optionally, after the first balancing is completed, the sub-area that was supported in the last balancing can be eliminated. For example, the transport area includes 8 sub-areas in total. In the first balancing, the transport device can be dispatched to support the sub-area with the highest dispatch level. In the second task balancing, the sub-area that was supported in the previous round needs to be proposed. Therefore, in the second task balancing, the dispatch levels of 7 sub-areas can be determined, and the sub-area with the highest dispatch level among the 7 sub-areas can be determined as the sub-area that needs support.

[0098] Optionally, after determining the sub-region that needs support, the degree of proximity between other sub-regions and the sub-region that needs support can be determined, and the scheduling cost for scheduling the handling equipment in different sub-regions for support can be determined based on the degree of proximity. Optionally, different degrees of proximity may correspond to different scheduling costs. For example, the scheduling cost for each crossing of a strongly adjacent sub-region is 5, the scheduling cost for crossing of a weakly adjacent sub-region is 10, and the scheduling cost between non-adjacent sub-regions is 9999. The scheduling cost required for the path passed by the handling equipment in different sub-regions when moving to the sub-region that needs support can be determined.

[0099] Specifically, the cost corresponding to the sub-area crossed by the transport equipment path can be determined, and the support coefficient can be determined based on the scheduling cost, wherein the support coefficient is used to indicate the cost when the transport equipment in the third sub-area moves to the sub-area that needs support. For example, when sub-area 1, sub-area 2, and sub-area 3 are distributed in parallel and the three sub-areas are connected by lane switching channels, that is, the three sub-areas are in a strong adjacent position relationship with each other, when sub-area 1 needs support, the support coefficient S=P2*1.05 for scheduling the transport equipment from sub-area 2 to go to sub-area 1 for support, and the support coefficient S=P3*1.1 for scheduling the transport equipment from sub-area 3 to go to sub-area 1 for support, wherein P2 is the scheduling level of sub-area 2, and P3 is the scheduling level of sub-area 3. When the transport equipment in sub-area 2 moves to sub-area 1, it passes through sub-area 2, so the scheduling cost is 5. When the transport equipment in sub-area 3 moves to sub-area 1, it passes through sub-area 2 and 3, so the scheduling cost is 10.

[0100] In some embodiments, the larger the support coefficient is, the higher the cost of the transport equipment in the sub-area for support may be. Optionally, the transport equipment in an idle state in the sub-area with the smallest support coefficient may be determined as the transport equipment used for support; or, when there is no idle transport equipment in the sub-area with the smallest support coefficient, the transport equipment that is about to complete the task may be dispatched to move to the sub-area in need of support for support; or, when there is no idle transport equipment in the sub-area with the smallest support coefficient, the transport equipment in an idle state may be determined as the equipment used for support from multiple sub-areas with smaller support coefficients.

[0101] In some embodiments, after the transport equipment to be supported is determined, a dispatch instruction may be sent to the transport equipment to dispatch the transport equipment to move to the sub-area that needs support to perform the transport task.

[0102] In summary, the above-mentioned embodiments of the present disclosure can realize lane support within a region and lane support across regions, can realize task balance in the transport area, avoid affecting task progress, and can improve the utilization rate of transport equipment and improve task processing efficiency.

[0103] Figure 4 A schematic diagram of a device scheduling method proposed in an embodiment of the present disclosure is shown in FIG. Figure 4 As shown, the method comprises the following steps:

[0104] Step 401: determine the power of a first transport device and the sub-area to which the first transport device belongs according to the transport device information.

[0105] In some embodiments, optionally, charging piles can be configured for multiple sub-areas, wherein each sub-area is configured with one charging pile, and the charging pile is configured at the lane change channel in each sub-area, or, at least two sub-areas sharing a lane change channel are configured with at least two charging piles, and at least two charging piles are located at one end of the lane change channel shared by at least two sub-areas.

[0106] In some embodiments, the power level of the first transport device can be determined. When the first transport device needs to be charged, the sub-area to which the first transport device belongs can be determined, which can facilitate determining the status of the charging pile in the sub-area to which the first transport device belongs.

[0107] Step 402 : When the power of the first transport device meets the charging condition, it is determined whether the first charging pile corresponding to the sub-area to which the first transport device belongs is idle according to the charging pile information.

[0108] In some embodiments, the charging condition may be, for example, that the power level is lower than a preset threshold, that is, when the power level of the first transport device is low, it can be determined whether the first charging pile corresponding to the sub-area to which the first transport device belongs is idle, that is, it can be determined whether other transport devices are using the charging pile.

[0109] Step 403 , when the first charging pile is idle, determining a scheduling method of the transporting device to control the first transporting device to charge at the first charging pile.

[0110] In some embodiments, when the first charging pile is idle, the first transport equipment can be directly scheduled to charge at the first charging pile. Since the charging pile is placed near the lane change channel in the sub-area, when the first transport equipment moves to the first charging pile for charging, it does not need to pass through the area of ​​other transport equipment, thereby avoiding interference with other transport equipment.

[0111] Step 404, when the first charging pile is not idle, determine the second charging pile, and determine the scheduling method of the transporting equipment to control the first transporting equipment to charge at the second charging pile.

[0112] In some embodiments, when the first charging pile is not idle, determining the second charging pile includes: when the first charging pile is not idle, determining the charging cost of at least one candidate charging pile; and determining the second charging pile based on the charging cost of at least one candidate charging pile.

[0113] Among them, the charging cost may be the cost of scheduling the first handling equipment to move to the candidate charging pile for charging. Specifically, determining the charging cost of at least one candidate charging pile includes: for a first candidate charging pile among at least one candidate charging pile, determining the sub-area to which the first candidate charging pile belongs, the idle state of the first candidate charging pile, the power of the handling equipment being charged in each candidate charging pile, and the proximity between the sub-area to which the first candidate charging pile belongs and the sub-area to which the first handling equipment belongs based on the charging pile information and the handling equipment information; determining the charging cost of the first candidate charging pile based on the idle state of the first candidate charging pile, the power of the handling equipment being charged in each candidate charging pile, and the proximity between the sub-area to which the first candidate charging pile belongs and the sub-area to which the first handling equipment belongs.

[0114] In other words, when the first charging pile is not idle and the battery level of the first handling equipment is low, the second charging pile can be determined to be used for charging, wherein the second charging pile can be the same charging pile as the first charging pile, that is, when there is a handling equipment being charged at the first charging pile, the first handling equipment can occupy the first charging pile. For example, when the battery level of the handling equipment being charged at the first charging pile is high, charging can be temporarily suspended and the charging pile can charge the first handling equipment; or, optionally, the second charging pile can be an idle charging pile in other sub-areas; or, optionally, the second charging pile can be a working charging pile in other sub-areas, that is, the first handling equipment can go to other sub-areas to occupy the charging pile.

[0115] In some embodiments, the charging cost can be determined based on the positional relationship between the sub-areas, the power level of the preempted transport equipment, etc., and the second charging pile can be determined based on the charging cost. For example, when the power level of the preempted transport equipment is higher than 40%, the preemption cost across each strongly adjacent sub-area is 5, the preemption cost across a weakly adjacent sub-area is 20, and the preemption cost between non-adjacent sub-areas is 9999. If the power level of the preempted transport equipment is lower than 40%, the preemption cost is 999; if the preempted charging pile is idle at this time, the preemption cost is -10, and the charging cost Q value can be determined based on the above preemption cost.

[0116] Optionally, the charging path cost can be determined according to the sub-area through which the first transport device is scheduled to go to each charging pile, the preemption cost can be determined according to the power of the preempted transport device, and the preemption cost can be determined according to the state of the charging device. The above determined costs can be added together to obtain the charging cost Q value. Specifically, the higher the Q value, the greater the cost of scheduling the first transport device to go to the charging pile for charging. Therefore, it can be determined that the charging pile with the smallest Q value is the charging pile used for charging the first transport device, that is, the second charging pile.

[0117] In some embodiments, after the second charging pile is determined, a dispatch instruction may be issued to the first transport device to dispatch the first transport device to go to the charging pile for charging.

[0118] In summary, the above-mentioned embodiments of the present disclosure can determine the optimal way to schedule the first transport device to charge according to the charging cost when the power of the first transport device is low, so as to avoid the charging of the first transport device affecting the charging of other transport devices, or interfering with other working transport devices, thereby preventing the efficiency from being reduced.

[0119] The following is a specific implementation method of an RS partition support and charging method provided by an embodiment of the present disclosure. The method of this scheme proposes the concept of robot partition control, binds lanes, robots, and charging piles through the partition function, and determines the preferred support robots and charging piles by calculating the cost of cross-partition support and the cost of charging. This can ensure a high robot utilization rate and at the same time achieve priority scheduling of support and charging within the partition, thereby reducing the frequency of crossing other robot lane partitions during the support and charging process, and improving the overall scheduling efficiency.

[0120] In order to reduce the problem of mutual disturbance caused by the robots crossing multiple lane partitions during the charging process, the method of this solution disperses the robot charging piles in the shelf area. Specifically, the charging piles are set near the robot lane change channel in the shelf area, such as Figure 5a shown.

[0121] Among them, the white channel is the robot lane-changing channel, and the boxes near the white channel are the robot charging piles. The charging piles are designed to be dispersed in the shelf area and next to the robot lane-changing channel.

[0122] The number of charging piles can be determined according to the number of robots in the warehouse. The charging piles can be set at a ratio of 1:8 between charging piles and robots. For example, when there are 64 robots in the warehouse, 8 charging piles can be set as shown in the figure above. Furthermore, after the charging piles are dispersedly set in the shelf area, the shelf area can be divided according to the setting of the charging piles, such as Figure 5b shown.

[0123] like Figure 5b As shown in the figure, each arrow represents a lane partition. The lane is divided into multiple robot blocks according to the location of the charging pile. Figure 5b Divided into 1 to 8 blocks, each block has 1 charging station. That is, each block can be set up with a charging station, and when there are 64 robots in the warehouse, each block can be performed by 8 robots.

[0124] Furthermore, in the adjacent partition parameters, the prefixes A and B can be used to divide them into strong adjacent and weak adjacent. Strong adjacent: As shown in the figure above, between partitions 1 and 2, the robot only needs to pass through the lane change channel to reach the lane in partition 2 from the lane in partition 1; if the adjacent partition is Figure 5b Between blocks 1 and 5 in the , the robot goes from lane 1 to lane 2, and some robots need to cross the partitions of other robots to reach. Then, for Figure 6 The adjacent partitions of block 1 are filled in as A2, B5; the adjacent partitions of block 2 are filled in as A1, A3, B6.

[0125] The method of this scheme can determine the supporting robots and the charging piles for charging the robots based on the above-mentioned partitioning scheme, which can avoid the problem of reduced efficiency caused by conflicts between robots and the problem of excessive robot scheduling costs.

[0126] The specific content of this method is as follows.

[0127] RMS determines whether the robot needs to be scheduled; when the robot scheduling conditions are met, it determines the robot scheduling cost; determines the scheduling plan based on the robot scheduling cost, and schedules the robot according to the scheduling plan.

[0128] Among them, the dispatching operation can be the dispatching robot for support, such as lane support within a zone, lane support across zones, or the dispatching operation can be the dispatching robot for charging.

[0129] Lane support within a partition can balance the tasks within the partition, and the robots within the partition can be dispatched to support the lanes within the partition, such as Figure 5c As shown, the specific solutions include:

[0130] The status of each lane in the partition is monitored regularly, and whether the lane needs support is determined based on the status of the lane. When support is needed, a support robot can be determined from other lanes in the partition based on the scheduling cost, and the support robot can be scheduled to support the lane. The timing time can be determined based on the dynamic partition automatic balancing parameters. For example, the dynamic partition automatic balancing parameters can be set to 300s.

[0131] like Figure 5cAs shown, there are 6 lanes in block 1. Assume that there are 4 robots in block 1 at this time, and perform a scheduled task every 300 seconds. The priority of all task boxes in each lane in the partition is summed to obtain the M value, the proportion of boxes to be shipped out in the cache is N value, K value = M*(1-N), and the K values ​​are sorted. If there are robots in the 4 lanes with the highest K values ​​at this time, no adjustment is made (that is, the left and right lanes in the partition do not need support); if there are no robots in the lanes with the first 4 K values ​​at this time, the robot in the lane with the lowest K value with a robot is determined as a support robot, and is dispatched to the lane with the highest k value without a robot for support. Optionally, only one robot is dispatched for support at a time.

[0132] That is, when issuing a handling task to the robot, the priority of the task container can be determined based on the urgency of the order, the time when the order is issued, etc. Optionally, the priority of the task container can increase with the increase of waiting time. According to the priority of the task container and the proportion of containers to be shipped out of the cache, the K value can be determined. The K value can be used to indicate the degree to which the robot in the lane needs support. Therefore, when the K value is high, there are more tasks in the lane, and the tasks are more urgent and need support; the lower the K value, the lower the cost of dispatching the robot in the lane for support, so the robot in the lane with the lowest K value can be determined as a support robot.

[0133] Cross-zone lane support can balance the tasks of different zones in the entire warehouse. When one zone needs support, robots from other zones can be dispatched to provide support. Figure 5d As shown, the specific solutions include:

[0134] The status of each partition is determined regularly, and whether support is needed for the partition is determined based on the status of the partition. When support is needed, support robots can be determined from other partitions based on the scheduling cost, and the support robots can be scheduled to support the lane tasks. The timing time can be determined based on the dynamic partition automatic balancing parameters. For example, the dynamic partition automatic balancing parameters can be set to 300s.

[0135] like Figure 5d As shown, there are 8 partitions with 59 lanes in total. Assume that there are 35 robots in the warehouse and a scheduled task is performed every 300 seconds. The number of robot tasks / number of robots in each block (including robots being charged in the partition) is calculated to get the P value. The partition is adjusted by ceil (20% * number of blocks) each time. In this scenario, 2 blocks are balanced each time. At this time, the 8 partitions are sorted according to the P value.

[0136] The first equilibrium: To find robot support for the partition with the largest P value, you can look for it in adjacent blocks. Strongly adjacent blocks and weakly adjacent blocks have different support costs. The support cost across each strongly adjacent block is 5, the support cost across a weakly adjacent block is 10, and the support cost between non-adjacent blocks is 9999. By calculating the P value and support cost of the block, the scheduling cost S value is obtained.

[0137] Get the scheduling cost of each partition robot, for example:

[0138]

[0139]

[0140] In the above example, partition 1 has the largest P value, and partition 1 needs support. The scheduling cost S of each partition's robot scheduling to support partition 1 can be determined, and the S values ​​can be queued. The robot in the partition with the smallest S value and the one closest to partition 1 in Manhattan distance can be scheduled as the support robot.

[0141] Second balancing: Eliminate the partitions that were supported in the previous round, recalculate the P value based on the number of robots after the first balancing, and support in the same way as above.

[0142] The scheduling cost of scheduling the robot to charge can be determined according to the preemption cost of the robot preempting the charging pile when the robot's power reaches low power. For example, when the power of the preempted robot is higher than 40%, the preemption cost for each strong adjacent block is 5, the preemption cost for each weak adjacent block is 20, and the preemption cost between non-adjacent blocks is 9999. If the power of the preempted robot is lower than 40%, the preemption cost is 999; if the preempted charging pile is idle at this time, the preemption cost is -10. The scheduling cost Q value can be determined based on the above preemption cost.

[0143] Specifically, as shown in the figure above, assuming that robot 001 in partition 1 is low on power, the scheduling cost Q for robot 001 to seize the charging piles in each partition is as follows.

[0144] Partition Robot power in the charging station Scheduling cost Q 1 35 9999 2 50 5 3 70 5*2＝10 4 idle 5*3-10＝5 5 45 20 6 idle 5+20-10＝15 … … …

[0145] The above scheduling cost Q values ​​are sorted, and the robot is scheduled to use the charging pile with the smallest Q value for charging. In the above example, the power of the robot in the charging pile is an example value, which indicates the power of the robot currently using the charging pile for charging.

[0146] In summary, the above-mentioned embodiments of the present disclosure divide the warehouse area into different partitions, and select the robot with the smallest scheduling cost for support for the partition that needs support according to the positional relationship between the partitions and the task status of each partition. This can achieve timely balanced distribution of robots in the warehouse, improve task processing efficiency, and avoid interference with other robots and reduced efficiency when balancing the distribution of robots. The charging piles are dispersed near the lane change channels, and the cost of scheduling the robot to charge is determined by the preemption cost. This can determine the optimal way for the scheduling robot to charge.

[0147] Figure 6 A schematic diagram of the structure of a device scheduling apparatus 600 proposed in an embodiment of the present disclosure is shown in FIG. Figure 6 As shown, the device includes: a first processing unit 610, which is used to divide the handling area into multiple sub-areas, wherein each sub-area includes at least two lanes, and at least two lanes are connected by a lane change channel; a second processing unit 620, which is used to determine the scheduling method of the handling equipment in the multiple sub-areas based on at least one of the task information, handling equipment information, charging pile information, and cargo box information in the multiple sub-areas; a third processing unit 630, which is used to schedule the handling equipment based on the scheduling method, wherein the scheduled handling equipment is used to go to the charging pile for charging, or to go to a lane or sub-area other than the lane or sub-area where the scheduled handling equipment is located to perform a task.

[0148] In some embodiments, the first processing unit is also used to determine the number of charging piles in the handling area based on a first preset ratio and the total number of handling equipment in the handling area, where the first preset ratio is the ratio between the charging piles and the number of handling equipment that can be charged by the charging piles; based on the number of charging piles, determine the number of multiple sub-areas and the number of handling equipment allocated in each sub-area.

[0149] In some embodiments, the first processing unit is further used to divide the transport area into regions according to the total number of transport equipment in the transport area and the total number of aisles between shelves in the transport area, wherein the number of multiple sub-regions is greater than or equal to the total number of transport equipment.

[0150] In some embodiments, the second processing unit is also used to determine, for a first sub-area among multiple sub-areas, the priority of a cargo box hit in the first sub-area based on the cargo box information in the first sub-area, and determine a scheduling method for handling equipment between different lanes in the first sub-area based on the priority of the cargo box hit in the first sub-area; for a first sub-area and a second sub-area among multiple sub-areas, determine a scheduling method for handling equipment between the first sub-area and the second sub-area based on the task information and handling equipment information in the first sub-area and the second sub-area.

[0151] In some embodiments, the second processing unit is also used to determine multiple candidate lanes from multiple lanes in the first sub-area based on the priority of the cargo boxes hit in the first sub-area; when there is handling equipment in each of the multiple candidate lanes, the handling equipment in the first area is not rescheduled; when there is no handling equipment in at least one of the multiple candidate lanes, determine the scheduling method of the handling equipment between the multiple candidate lanes.

[0152] In some embodiments, the second processing unit is also used to determine, for the first lane in the first sub-area, the sum of the priorities of the cartons hitting the first lane; determine, based on the cartons information, the ratio of the cartons to be shipped out of the first storage position on the shelf corresponding to the first lane to the total number of cartons in the first lane; determine the grade value of the first lane based on the sum and the ratio; and determine multiple candidate lanes based on the grade values ​​of all lanes in the first sub-area.

[0153] In some embodiments, the second processing unit is also used to determine the number of at least one candidate lane where there is no handling equipment based on the handling equipment information; when the number is equal to 1, the scheduling method is determined to be to schedule the handling equipment of the first candidate lane to the second candidate lane, there is handling equipment in the first candidate lane, there is no handling equipment in the second candidate lane, and the grade value of the first candidate lane is the lowest among the candidate lanes other than the second candidate lane; when the number is greater than 1, the scheduling method is determined to be to schedule the handling equipment of the first candidate lane to the second candidate lane, there is handling equipment in the first candidate lane, and the grade value of the first candidate lane is the lowest among the candidate lanes with handling equipment, and the second candidate lane is any candidate lane where there is no handling equipment, or the grade value of the second candidate lane is the highest among the candidate lanes where there is no handling equipment.

[0154] In some embodiments, the second processing unit is also used to determine the number of tasks to be performed, the total number of handling equipment, and the number of handling equipment in an idle state in each sub-area based on the task information and handling equipment information in each sub-area; determine the scheduling level of each sub-area based on the number of tasks to be performed and the total number of handling equipment; determine at least one neighboring area of ​​the first sub-area, and determine the neighboring level of each neighboring area relative to the first sub-area; when the number of tasks to be performed in the first sub-area is greater than or equal to a preset threshold and there are handling equipment in an idle state in at least one third sub-area, determine the scheduling cost of at least one third sub-area relative to the first sub-area based on the neighboring level; determine the second sub-area from the at least one third sub-area based on the scheduling cost and the scheduling level, and determine the scheduling method to schedule the handling equipment in the second sub-area to the first sub-area.

[0155] In some embodiments, the second processing unit is also used to determine that the neighboring level of the first neighboring area is the first level, the first neighboring area is spatially adjacent to the first sub-area and shares the same lane change channel; determine that the neighboring level of the second neighboring area is the second level, the second neighboring area is spatially adjacent to the first sub-area and does not share the same lane change channel, and the second level is lower than the first level.

[0156] In some embodiments, the second processing unit is also used to determine whether each third sub-region is a neighboring region of the first sub-region; in the case where the third sub-region is a neighboring region of the first sub-region, if the neighboring level of the third sub-region is the first level, the scheduling cost of the third sub-region is determined to be the first cost; if the neighboring level of the third sub-region is the second level, the scheduling cost of the third sub-region is determined to be the first cost plus a preset step size; in the case where the third sub-region is not a neighboring region of the first sub-region, the scheduling cost of the third sub-region is determined based on the number of regions spanned between the third sub-region and the first sub-region, the neighboring level between the third sub-region and the spanned regions, and the preset step size.

[0157] In some embodiments, the second processing unit is further used to determine the support coefficient of each third sub-region according to the scheduling cost and the scheduling level; and determine the third sub-region whose support coefficient meets the preset conditions as the second sub-region.

[0158] In some embodiments, the second processing unit is also used to determine the number of scheduling areas based on a second preset ratio and the total number of sub-areas in the handling area, where the second preset ratio is the ratio of the number of sub-areas that can be adjusted to execute a scheduled task to the total number of sub-areas; determine whether the first sub-area is an area to be supported based on the scheduling level; if the first sub-area is an area to be supported, schedule handling equipment for the first sub-area under the restriction of the number of scheduling areas.

[0159] In some embodiments, the second processing unit is further used to determine a scheduling cycle, and perform a scheduling in each scheduling cycle; in the second scheduling, the sub-area supported in the first scheduling is eliminated, and the area to be supported in the second scheduling is determined.

[0160] In some embodiments, the method further includes: configuring charging piles for multiple sub-areas, wherein each sub-area is configured with a charging pile, and the charging pile is configured at the lane change channel in each sub-area, or, at least two sub-areas sharing a lane change channel are configured with at least two charging piles, and the at least two charging piles are located at one end of the lane change channel shared by at least two sub-areas.

[0161] In some embodiments, the second processing unit is also used to determine the power level of the first transport equipment and the sub-area to which the first transport equipment belongs based on the transport equipment information; when the power level of the first transport equipment meets the charging conditions, determine whether the first charging pile corresponding to the sub-area to which the first transport equipment belongs is idle based on the charging pile information; when the first charging pile is idle, determine the scheduling method of the transport equipment to control the first transport equipment to charge at the first charging pile; when the first charging pile is not idle, determine the second charging pile, and determine the scheduling method of the transport equipment to control the first transport equipment to charge at the second charging pile.

[0162] In some embodiments, the second processing unit is further used to determine the charging cost of at least one candidate charging pile when the first charging pile is not idle; and determine the second charging pile based on the charging cost of the at least one candidate charging pile.

[0163] In some embodiments, the second processing unit is also used to determine, for a first candidate charging pile among at least one candidate charging pile, the sub-area to which the first candidate charging pile belongs, the idle state of the first candidate charging pile, the power of the handling equipment being charged in each candidate charging pile, and the proximity between the sub-area to which the first candidate charging pile belongs and the sub-area to which the first handling equipment belongs; determine the charging cost of the first candidate charging pile based on the idle state of the first candidate charging pile, the power of the handling equipment being charged in each candidate charging pile, and the proximity between the sub-area to which the first candidate charging pile belongs and the sub-area to which the first handling equipment belongs.

[0164] The present disclosure also provides a storage system, such as Figure 1 It is a schematic diagram of the structure of the storage system 100, which includes: a management system 10 and a handling device 20, wherein the management system may be, for example, a robot management system.

[0165] Figure 7 A schematic diagram of an electronic device provided in an embodiment of the present disclosure. In some embodiments, the electronic device includes one or more processors and a memory. The memory is configured to store one or more programs. When the one or more programs are executed by the one or more processors, the one or more processors implement the method in the above embodiment. Figure 7 As shown, the electronic device 700 includes: a processor (processor) 701 and a memory 702. Exemplarily, the electronic device 700 may also include: a communication interface (Communications Interface) 703 and a communication bus 704.

[0166] The processor 701, the memory 702 and the communication interface 703 communicate with each other via a communication bus 704. The communication interface 703 is used to communicate with other devices such as a client or a network element of another server.

[0167] In some embodiments, the processor 701 is used to execute a program 705, and specifically can execute the above-mentioned, and specifically can execute the relevant steps in the above-mentioned method embodiment. Exemplarily, the program 705 may include a program code, and the program code includes a computer executable instruction.

[0168] Exemplarily, the processor 701 may be a central processing unit (CPU), or an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC), or one or more integrated circuits configured to implement the embodiments of the present disclosure. The electronic device 700 may include one or more processors, which may be processors of the same type, such as one or more CPUs, or processors of different types, such as one or more CPUs and one or more ASICs.

[0169] In some embodiments, the memory 702 is used to store the program 705. The memory 702 may include a high-speed RAM memory, and may also include a non-volatile memory (NVM), such as at least one disk memory.

[0170] The program 705 can be specifically called by the processor 701 to enable the electronic device 700 to execute the method shown in any of the above embodiments.

[0171] An embodiment of the present disclosure provides a computer-readable storage medium, which stores at least one executable instruction. When the executable instruction is executed on an electronic device 700, the electronic device 700 executes the method in the above embodiment.

[0172] For example, the computer readable storage medium can be a read-only memory (ROM), a random access memory (RAM), a compact disc (CD-ROM), a magnetic tape, a floppy disk, an optical data storage device, etc.

[0173] The beneficial effects that can be achieved by the handling device, storage system, electronic device and computer-readable storage medium provided by the embodiments of the present disclosure can be referred to the beneficial effects in the corresponding methods provided above, and will not be repeated here.

[0174] The embodiments of the present disclosure further provide a computer program product, including a computer program, which executes the method described in the above embodiments of the present disclosure when a processor is used.

[0175] It should be noted that the terms "first", "second", etc. in the specification and claims of the present disclosure and the above-mentioned drawings are used to distinguish similar objects, and are not necessarily used to describe a specific order or sequence. It should be understood that the data used in this way can be interchanged where appropriate, so that the embodiments of the present disclosure described herein can be implemented in an order other than those illustrated or described herein. The embodiments described in the following exemplary embodiments do not represent all embodiments consistent with the present disclosure. Instead, they are merely examples of devices and methods consistent with some aspects of the present disclosure as detailed in the appended claims.

[0176] In the description of this specification, the description with reference to the terms "one embodiment", "some embodiments", "illustrative embodiments", "examples", "specific examples" or "some examples" etc. means that the specific features, structures, materials or characteristics described in conjunction with the embodiments or examples are included in at least one embodiment or example of the present disclosure. In this specification, the schematic representations of the above terms do not necessarily refer to the same embodiment or example. Moreover, the specific features, structures, materials or characteristics described may be combined in any one or more embodiments or examples in a suitable manner.

[0177] Any process or method description in a flowchart or otherwise described herein may be understood to represent a module, segment or portion of code that includes one or more executable instructions for implementing the steps of a specific logical function or process, and the scope of the preferred embodiments of the present disclosure includes alternative implementations in which functions may not be performed in the order shown or discussed, including performing functions in a substantially simultaneous manner or in the reverse order depending on the functions involved, which should be understood by those skilled in the art to which the embodiments of the present disclosure belong.

[0178] The logic and / or steps represented in the flowchart or otherwise described herein, for example, can be considered as an ordered list of executable instructions for implementing logical functions, and can be embodied in any computer-readable medium for use by an instruction execution system, device or apparatus (such as a computer-based system, a system including a processing module, or other system that can fetch instructions from an instruction execution system, device or apparatus and execute instructions), or in combination with these instruction execution systems, devices or apparatuses. For the purposes of this specification, "computer-readable medium" can be any device that can contain, store, communicate, propagate or transmit a program for use by an instruction execution system, device or apparatus, or in combination with these instruction execution systems, devices or apparatuses. More specific examples of computer-readable media (a non-exhaustive list) include the following: an electrical connection with one or more wires (control method), a portable computer disk box (magnetic device), a random access memory (RAM), a read-only memory (ROM), an erasable and programmable read-only memory (EPROM or flash memory), a fiber optic device, and a portable compact disk read-only memory (CDROM). In addition, the computer-readable medium may even be paper or other suitable medium on which the program is printed, since the program may be obtained electronically, for example, by optically scanning the paper or other medium and then editing, interpreting or otherwise processing in a suitable manner if necessary, and then stored in a computer memory.

[0179] It should be understood that the various parts of the embodiments of the present disclosure can be implemented by hardware, software, firmware or a combination thereof. In the above embodiments, multiple steps or methods can be implemented by software or firmware stored in a memory and executed by a suitable instruction execution system. For example, if implemented by hardware, as in another embodiment, it can be implemented by any one of the following technologies known in the art or their combination: a discrete logic circuit having a logic gate circuit for implementing a logic function for a data signal, a dedicated integrated circuit having a suitable combination of logic gate circuits, a programmable gate array (PGA), a field programmable gate array (FPGA), etc.

[0180] A person skilled in the art may understand that all or part of the steps in the method for implementing the above-mentioned embodiment may be completed by instructing related hardware through a program, and the program may be stored in a computer-readable storage medium, which, when executed, includes one or a combination of the steps of the method embodiment.

[0181] In addition, each functional unit in each embodiment of the present disclosure may be integrated into a processing module, or each unit may exist physically separately, or two or more units may be integrated into one module. The above-mentioned integrated module may be implemented in the form of hardware or in the form of a software functional module. If the integrated module is implemented in the form of a software functional module and sold or used as an independent product, it may also be stored in a computer-readable storage medium. The above-mentioned storage medium may be a read-only memory, a disk or an optical disk, etc.

[0182] Although the embodiments of the present disclosure have been shown and described above, it is to be understood that the above embodiments are exemplary and are not to be construed as limitations of the present disclosure. A person skilled in the art may change, modify, substitute and vary the above embodiments within the scope of the present disclosure.

Claims

1. A device scheduling method, characterized in that: include: Dividing the transport area into multiple sub-areas, wherein each sub-area includes at least two lanes, and the at least two lanes are connected by a lane-changing passage; Determine a scheduling method for the transport equipment in the multiple sub-areas based on at least one of the task information, the transport equipment information, the charging pile information, and the cargo box information in the multiple sub-areas; Based on the scheduling method, the transporting equipment is scheduled, wherein the scheduled transporting equipment is used to go to a charging pile for charging, or is used to go to a lane or sub-area other than the lane or sub-area where the scheduled transporting equipment is located to perform a task.

2. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that The transport area is divided into multiple sub-areas, including: Determining the number of charging piles in the transport area according to a first preset ratio and the total number of transport equipment in the transport area, wherein the first preset ratio is the ratio between the charging piles and the number of transport equipment supported by the charging piles; The number of the plurality of sub-areas and the number of handling equipment allocated in each sub-area are determined according to the number of the charging piles.

3. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that The transport area is divided into multiple sub-areas, including: The transport area is divided into regions according to the total number of transport devices in the transport area and the total number of lanes between shelves in the transport area, wherein the number of the multiple sub-regions is greater than or equal to the total number of transport devices.

4. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 3, characterized in that The determining, based on at least one of the task information, handling equipment information, charging pile information, and cargo box information in the multiple sub-areas, a scheduling method for handling equipment in the multiple sub-areas includes at least one of the following: For a first sub-area among the multiple sub-areas, determining a priority of a cargo box hit in the first sub-area according to cargo box information in the first sub-area, and determining a scheduling method of the handling equipment between different lanes in the first sub-area according to the priority of the cargo box hit in the first sub-area; For a first sub-region and a second sub-region among the multiple sub-regions, a scheduling method of the transport equipment between the first sub-region and the second sub-region is determined according to task information and transport equipment information in the first sub-region and the second sub-region.

5. The method according to claim 4, characterized in that The step of determining the dispatching mode of the handling equipment between different lanes in the first sub-area according to the priority of the cargo boxes hit in the first sub-area includes: determining a plurality of candidate lanes from a plurality of lanes in the first sub-area according to the priority of the cargo boxes hit in the first sub-area; In the case where there is a transport device in each of the plurality of candidate lanes, the transport device in the first area is not rescheduled; In the case that there is no transport equipment in at least one of the plurality of candidate lanes, a scheduling method of the transport equipment among the plurality of candidate lanes is determined.

6. The method according to claim 5, characterized in that The determining of a plurality of candidate lanes from a plurality of lanes in the first sub-area according to the priority of the cargo box hit in the first sub-area comprises: For a first lane in the first sub-area, determining a sum of priorities of cargo boxes hitting the first lane; Determine, based on the cargo box information, a ratio of the cargo boxes to be shipped out of the first cargo position of the shelf corresponding to the first lane to the total number of cargo boxes in the first lane; Determining a grade value of the first lane according to the sum and the ratio; The plurality of candidate lanes are determined according to the level values ​​of all lanes in the first sub-area.

7. The method according to claim 5, characterized in that In the case where there is no transport equipment in at least one of the plurality of candidate lanes, determining a scheduling method of the transport equipment between the plurality of candidate lanes includes: Determining, based on the transport equipment information, the number of at least one candidate lane where no transport equipment exists; When the number is equal to 1, determining the scheduling mode is to schedule the transport equipment of the first candidate lane to the second candidate lane, there is a transport equipment in the first candidate lane, there is no transport equipment in the second candidate lane, and the grade value of the first candidate lane is the lowest among the other candidate lanes except the second candidate lane; When the number is greater than 1, the scheduling method is determined to schedule the transport equipment of the first candidate lane to the second candidate lane, there is transport equipment in the first candidate lane, and the level value of the first candidate lane is the lowest among the candidate lanes with transport equipment, and the second candidate lane is any candidate lane where there is no transport equipment, or the level value of the second candidate lane is the highest among the candidate lanes where there is no transport equipment.

8. The method according to claim 4, characterized in that The determining, according to the task information and the transport equipment information in the first sub-area and the second sub-area, a scheduling method of the transport equipment between the first sub-area and the second sub-area includes: Determine the number of tasks to be performed, the total number of transport equipment, and the number of transport equipment in an idle state in each sub-area according to the task information and transport equipment information in each sub-area; determine the scheduling level of each sub-area according to the number of tasks to be performed and the total number of transport equipment; Determine at least one neighboring area of ​​the first sub-area, and determine a neighboring level of each neighboring area relative to the first sub-area; When the number of tasks to be executed in the first sub-area is greater than or equal to a preset threshold and there is an idle handling device in at least one third sub-area, determining a scheduling cost of the at least one third sub-area relative to the first sub-area according to the adjacent level; According to the scheduling cost and the scheduling level, the second sub-area is determined from the at least one third sub-area, and the scheduling method is determined to schedule the transport equipment in the second sub-area to the first sub-area.

9. The method according to claim 8, characterized in that The determining at least one neighboring area of ​​the first sub-area and determining a neighboring level of each neighboring area relative to the first sub-area includes: Determine that the neighboring level of a first neighboring area is the first level, the first neighboring area is spatially adjacent to the first sub-area and shares the same lane-changing channel; The adjacent level of the second adjacent area is determined to be the second level. The second adjacent area is spatially adjacent to the first sub-area and does not share the same lane-changing channel. The second level is lower than the first level.

10. The method according to claim 8, characterized in that The determining, according to the neighboring level, a scheduling cost of the at least one third sub-area relative to the first sub-area includes: Determining whether each third sub-region is a neighboring region of the first sub-region; In the case where the third sub-region is a neighboring area of ​​the first sub-region, if the neighboring level of the third sub-region is the first level, the scheduling cost of the third sub-region is determined to be the first cost; if the neighboring level of the third sub-region is the second level, the scheduling cost of the third sub-region is determined to be the first cost plus a preset step size; In the case that the third sub-region is not a neighboring area of ​​the first sub-region, the scheduling cost of the third sub-region is determined according to the number of areas spanned between the third sub-region and the first sub-region, the proximity level between the third sub-region and the spanned areas, and the preset step size.

11. The method according to claim 10, characterized in that The determining the second sub-area from the at least one third sub-area according to the scheduling cost and the scheduling level includes: Determining a support coefficient of each third sub-region according to the scheduling cost and the scheduling level; The third sub-region whose support coefficient meets the preset condition is determined as the second sub-region.

12. The method according to claim 8, characterized in that The method further comprises: Determining the number of scheduling areas according to a second preset ratio and the total number of sub-areas in the transport area, wherein the second preset ratio is a ratio of the number of sub-areas that can be adjusted for executing a scheduled task to the total number of sub-areas; Determining whether the first sub-area is an area to be supported according to the scheduling level; When the first sub-area is an area to be supported, the transport equipment is scheduled for the first sub-area under the limitation of the number of the scheduling areas.

13. The method according to claim 4, characterized in that The determining of the scheduling mode of the transport equipment between the first sub-area and the second sub-area includes: Determine the scheduling cycle and perform scheduling once in each scheduling cycle; In the second scheduling, the sub-areas supported in the first scheduling are eliminated, and the areas to be supported in the second scheduling are determined.

14. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that The method further comprises: Charging piles are configured for the multiple sub-areas, wherein each sub-area is configured with a charging pile, and the charging pile is configured at the lane change channel in each sub-area, or at least two sub-areas that share a lane change channel are configured with at least two charging piles, and the at least two charging piles are located at one end of the lane change channel shared by the at least two sub-areas.

15. The method according to claim 14, characterized in that The determining, based on at least one of the task information, the handling equipment information, the charging pile information, and the cargo box information in the multiple sub-areas, a scheduling method for the handling equipment in the multiple sub-areas includes: Determine the power of the first transport equipment and the sub-area to which the first transport equipment belongs according to the transport equipment information; When the power of the first transport device meets the charging condition, determining whether the first charging pile corresponding to the sub-area to which the first transport device belongs is idle according to the charging pile information; When the first charging pile is idle, determining the scheduling mode of the transporting device is to control the first transporting device to charge at the first charging pile; In the case that the first charging pile is not idle, a second charging pile is determined, and a scheduling method of the transporting device is determined to control the first transporting device to charge at the second charging pile.

16. The method according to claim 15, characterized in that The step of determining a second charging pile when the first charging pile is not idle includes: When the first charging pile is not idle, determining a charging cost of at least one candidate charging pile; The second charging pile is determined according to the charging cost of the at least one candidate charging pile.

17. The method according to claim 16, characterized in that The determining of the charging cost of at least one candidate charging pile includes: For a first candidate charging pile among the at least one candidate charging pile, determining, according to the charging pile information and the handling equipment information, the sub-area to which the first candidate charging pile belongs, the idle state of the first candidate charging pile, the power of the handling equipment being charged in each candidate charging pile, and the adjacent situation between the sub-area to which the first candidate charging pile belongs and the sub-area to which the first handling equipment belongs; The charging cost of the first candidate charging pile is determined according to the idle state of the first candidate charging pile, the power of the transport equipment being charged in each candidate charging pile, and the proximity between the sub-area to which the first candidate charging pile belongs and the sub-area to which the first transport equipment belongs.

18. A device scheduling apparatus, characterized in that: include: A first processing unit is used to divide the handling area into multiple sub-areas, wherein each sub-area includes at least two lanes, and the at least two lanes are connected by a lane-changing passage; A second processing unit is used to determine a scheduling method of the transport equipment in the multiple sub-areas based on at least one of the task information, the transport equipment information, the charging pile information, and the cargo box information in the multiple sub-areas; The third processing unit is used to schedule the transporting equipment based on the scheduling method, wherein the scheduled transporting equipment is used to go to the charging pile for charging, or to go to the lane or sub-area other than the lane or sub-area where the scheduled transporting equipment is located to perform a task.

19. An electronic device comprising: processor and memory, wherein The memory is used to store computer executable instructions; The processor is configured to read the instruction from the memory and execute the instruction to implement the method according to any one of claims 1 to 17.

20. A computer-readable storage medium, wherein: The storage medium stores computer program instructions, and when a computer reads the instructions, the method according to any one of claims 1 to 17 is executed.

21. A computer program product comprising a computer program, wherein: When the computer program is executed by a processor, the method according to any one of claims 1 to 17 is implemented.

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