Article transfer method and device, electronic equipment and storage medium

Abstract

The invention provides an article transfer method and device, electronic equipment and a storage medium, and relates to the technical field of industrial production process design. The method comprises the steps that under the condition that an article placing position moves to an acquired position corresponding to an article acquirer, if it is determined that the article acquirer has an article in the article placing position corresponding to the article acquirer on a conveying track, the article acquirer acquires the article in the corresponding article placing position, and the acquired article is obtained; and in response to the obtained articles obtained by all the article obtaining devices corresponding to the conveying track, all the obtained articles are put into the article bearing trays. Through an automatic mode, article position transfer is achieved, full-automatic obtaining and tray loading processes are achieved, manual intervention is reduced, and especially under the condition that the articles are fragile articles, the article falling process in the general sorting and concentrating process can be avoided through the article obtaining device.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] This disclosure relates to the field of industrial production process design technology, and in particular to a method, apparatus, electronic device, and storage medium for transferring articles. Background Technology

[0002] In industrial production, after sorting, some items may be removed from their target category, leaving empty storage spaces and resulting in an irregular, disordered arrangement of the remaining items. Products arranged in this way are often unusable for subsequent industrial production and require backfilling.

[0003] In related technologies, empty spaces are often backfilled manually, which is inefficient. Furthermore, manual relocation carries the risk of damaging the product. Summary of the Invention

[0004] In view of this, the purpose of this disclosure is to provide a method, apparatus, electronic device and storage medium for transferring articles, which can specifically solve existing problems.

[0005] Based on the above objectives, in a first aspect, this disclosure proposes a method for transferring items, applied to an item transfer system. The item transfer system includes an item acquirer, an item conveying track, and an item receiving tray. The conveying track is used to move item placement positions. The method includes: when the item placement position moves to the acquisition position corresponding to the item acquirer, if it is determined that there is an item at the item placement position corresponding to the item acquirer on the conveying track, the item acquirer acquires the item at the corresponding item placement position to obtain the acquired item; in response to each item acquirer corresponding to the conveying track obtaining the acquired item, each acquired item is placed into the item receiving tray.

[0006] Secondly, a transfer device for items is also provided, applied to an item transfer system. The item transfer system includes an item picker, an item conveying track, and an item receiving tray. The conveying track is used to move the item placement position. The device includes: a picking unit configured to, when the item placement position moves to the picking position corresponding to the item picker, if it is determined that there is an item at the item placement position corresponding to the item picker on the conveying track, pick up the item at the corresponding item placement position to obtain the picked item; and a stacking unit configured to, in response to each item picker corresponding to the conveying track obtaining the picked item, place each picked item into the item receiving tray.

[0007] Thirdly, an electronic device is also provided, including a memory, a processor, and a computer program stored in the memory and executable on the processor, the processor running the computer program to implement the method of the first aspect.

[0008] Fourthly, a computer-readable storage medium is also provided, on which a computer program is stored, the computer program being executed by a processor to implement the method described in any one of the first aspects.

[0009] Fifthly, a computer program product is also provided, comprising a computer program that is executed by a processor to implement the method described in any one of the first aspects.

[0010] In summary, this disclosure offers at least the following advantages: It automates the transfer of items, enabling a fully automated retrieval and traying process, reducing manual intervention. Especially when items are fragile, the item retrieval device prevents items from falling during the typical sorting and consolidation process. Furthermore, even when items are irregularly and disorganized, it can accurately retrieve items from designated placement positions, avoiding ineffective retrieval of items from empty spaces. Attached Figure Description

[0011] In the accompanying drawings, unless otherwise specified, the same reference numerals throughout the various drawings denote the same or similar parts or elements. These drawings are not necessarily drawn to scale. It should be understood that these drawings depict only some embodiments disclosed in this disclosure and should not be construed as limiting the scope of this disclosure.

[0012] Figure 1 A flowchart of a method for transferring articles according to an embodiment of the present disclosure is shown; Figure 2a A schematic diagram of an article transfer system according to an embodiment of the present disclosure is shown; Figure 2b Another schematic diagram of an article transfer system according to an embodiment of the present disclosure is shown; Figure 3 A schematic diagram of an article transfer device according to an embodiment of the present disclosure is shown; Figure 4 A schematic diagram of the structure of an electronic device provided in an embodiment of the present disclosure is shown; Figure 5 A schematic diagram of a storage medium provided according to an embodiment of the present disclosure is shown. Detailed Implementation

[0013] The present disclosure will now be described in further detail with reference to the accompanying drawings and embodiments. It should be understood that the specific embodiments described herein are for illustrative purposes only and are not intended to limit the invention. Furthermore, it should be noted that, for ease of description, only the parts relevant to the invention are shown in the accompanying drawings.

[0014] It should be noted that, unless otherwise specified, the embodiments and features described in this disclosure can be combined with each other. This disclosure will now be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings and embodiments.

[0015] Figure 1 This disclosure illustrates a method for transferring items, applied to an item transfer system. The item transfer system includes an item handler, an item conveying track, and an item receiving tray. The conveying track is used to move the item placement position. In an embodiment of this disclosure, the method includes: Step S101: When the item placement position moves to the acquisition position corresponding to the item acquirer, if it is determined that there is an item at the item placement position corresponding to the item acquirer on the conveying track, the item acquirer acquires the item at the corresponding item placement position and obtains the acquired item.

[0016] In this embodiment, the item placement position can be fixed to the conveyor track or connected to the conveyor track in other ways. The conveyor track can be a belt system, and it can be a single conveyor track or multiple conveyor tracks running in parallel in both time and space. The acquired position refers to the position from which the item acquirer can acquire the item. For example, the acquired position is on the conveyor track and directly below the item acquisition position.

[0017] The item picker can retrieve items from their corresponding item slots. When an item is to be retrieved, the item picker can be positioned above or to the side of the corresponding item slot.

[0018] Specifically, the determination of the item acquisition device here is that there is an item in the item placement position corresponding to the conveyor track. This can be either that there is an item, or that the target item must be present.

[0019] The items are gathered by the conveyor belt to the vicinity of the conveyor track, and then placed into the item placement positions by robotic arms or other gripping devices.

[0020] In some cases, an item transfer system may include a conveying device comprising multiple parallel conveyor tracks.

[0021] Step S102: In response to each item acquirer corresponding to the conveying track obtaining the acquired item, each acquired item is placed into the item receiving tray.

[0022] In this embodiment, each conveyor track has one or more corresponding item collectors. If all of these item collectors have collected items, they can be placed into the item receiving tray.

[0023] For example, a conveyor track corresponds to a row or column of item grabbers, and there can be up to 6 item grabbers. Each of these 6 item grabbers may grab items at different times; as long as an item appears directly below the item grabber, that item grabber can grab it. If all the item grabbers grab items, they can be placed into the item receiving tray to fill the tray.

[0024] This embodiment combines multiple similar items that are not full into a new tray, which can improve space utilization efficiency.

[0025] This disclosure enables automated transfer of items, thereby achieving a fully automated retrieval and traying process, reducing manual intervention. Especially when items are fragile, the item retrieval device prevents items from falling during typical sorting and consolidation processes. Furthermore, even when items are arranged irregularly and disorderly, it can accurately retrieve items from their designated positions, avoiding ineffective retrieval of items from empty spaces.

[0026] In some optional implementations of any embodiment of this disclosure, the number of conveying tracks is multiple, each conveying track is driven by an independent motor, each conveying track corresponds to a set of item pickers, and a set of item pickers includes at least two item pickers; the method further includes: receiving the detection result of the detection device on each item placement position, the detection result being used to indicate whether there is an item in each item placement position; if the detection result indicates that there is an item, the item picker picks up the item in the item placement position; if it is determined that there is an item in the item placement position driven by the conveying track, then the item picker picks up the item in the corresponding item placement position, including: for each item placement position driven by the conveying track, if there is an item in the item placement position, then the item picker corresponding to the item placement position picks up the item in the item placement position.

[0027] The number of gripping mechanisms in a row in the first direction is equal to the number of the first item placement positions in that row.

[0028] The position of each item placement slot on the conveyor track is fixed, and the position of each item collector is also fixed while waiting to be retrieved. Therefore, based on the movement of the conveyor track and the detection results, the current position of each item placement slot can be determined, thereby confirming whether there is an item in the item placement slot below each item collector.

[0029] Before an item is transported to its pickup location, such as before the item placement position is connected to the transport track or before the item is placed in the item placement position on the transport track, the detection device has already detected the item placement position. Specifically, it detects whether there is an item in the pickup location corresponding to each item pickup device.

[0030] Optionally, the step of determining that there is an item at the item placement position driven by the item collector on the conveyor track includes: responding to the conveyor track moving a preset number of displacement units, if it is determined that there is an item at the item placement position driven by the item collector on the conveyor track, wherein the displacement unit is the distance between adjacent item placement positions, and the preset number is less than the number of item collectors in the group of item collectors.

[0031] In some cases, the preset quantity can be 1 or 2. Every time the conveyor track moves a preset number of displacement units, if it is determined that there is an item at the item placement position moved by the conveyor track, the item picker picks up the item at the corresponding item placement position, thus obtaining the picked-up item.

[0032] In some optional implementations of any embodiment of this disclosure, the lowest end of the item collector is provided with a suction cup, and a liftable rod is connected above the suction cup, which is connected to the top of the item collector; the step of the item collector acquiring the item from the corresponding item placement position if an item exists includes: if an item exists, the liftable rod of the item collector drives the suction cup to descend, and the suction cup adsorbs the item from the target item placement position to acquire the item.

[0033] In some optional implementations of any embodiment of this disclosure, the conveying track includes multiple parallel conveying tracks, each conveying track being independent of the other conveying tracks, the items on the conveying track being arranged in a continuous matrix, the items on the conveying track being arranged in a random order, and the positions on the item receiving tray being arranged in a matrix.

[0034] There are some item slots that are empty, and the items on the teleportation track are usually not full when they are waiting to be acquired, and are arranged randomly.

[0035] In some optional implementations of any embodiment of this disclosure, the posture of the item on the item placement position is the target posture, and the posture of the item receiving the item on the tray is the target posture.

[0036] Items are positioned in the target orientation on the conveyor track and are also positioned in the same orientation on the receiving tray. For example, if the item is an egg, the target orientation is with the larger end (air cell end) facing up and the smaller end facing down. The egg will be positioned with the larger end facing up on the conveyor track and will also be positioned with the larger end facing up on the receiving tray.

[0037] In some optional implementations of any embodiment of this disclosure, there is a horizontal grabber track above the item grabber, and the item grabber can move between the item placement position and the item receiving tray position on the grabber track; before placing each grabbed item into the item receiving tray, the method further includes: the item grabber moves from above the item placement position to above the item receiving tray via the grabber track.

[0038] In some optional implementations of any embodiment of this disclosure, the item placement positions on the conveying track include at least two categories of items; the conveying track includes multiple parallel conveying tracks, all of which move together; the step of the item collector acquiring the item at the corresponding item placement position on the conveying track if it is determined that there is an item at the item placement position, and that the item collector is an item of the first category, includes: if it is determined that there is an item at the item placement position and that it is an item of the first category, then the item collector acquires the item at the corresponding item placement position; the step of placing each acquired item into the item receiving tray includes: placing each acquired item into the item receiving tray corresponding to the first category of items.

[0039] The items here can be of various kinds, such as eggs. Eggs of one sex can represent a product category. Specifically, the items placed on the item display area can be products of the same or different categories (i.e., including first-category items and second-category items), such as including only male eggs or female eggs, or including both male and female eggs.

[0040] In some optional implementations of any embodiment of this disclosure, the method further includes: if it is determined that the item on the item placement position is a second type of item, then the item acquirer acquires the item on the corresponding item placement position to obtain the acquired item; in response to each item acquirer corresponding to the conveying track obtaining the acquired item, each acquired item is placed into the item receiving tray corresponding to the second type of item.

[0041] In these implementations, after obtaining the first category of items, the second category of items can be obtained in a targeted manner. In this way, all items on the filled item receiving tray will be of the second category.

[0042] In some optional implementations of any embodiment of this disclosure, the method further includes: receiving detection results from a detection device for each item placement position, the detection results indicating the category of the item in each item placement position, the category including the first category of items or the second category of items; if the detection result indicates either the first category of items or the second category of items, the item acquirer acquires the item in that item placement position.

[0043] Before items are placed on the item placement area of ​​the conveyor track, the detection device can detect the items to determine the category of each item. The controller can receive the detection result, and then control the item grabber corresponding to the specific category of items (such as category one or category two items) to retrieve the items based on the item category indicated by the detection result.

[0044] The position of each item placement spot on the conveyor track is fixed. Therefore, based on the movement of the conveyor track and the detection results, it can be determined whether an item is placed in the item placement spot, or the type of item.

[0045] In some optional implementations of any embodiment of this disclosure, the item grabber includes a first group of item grabbers and a second group of item grabbers. Each group of grabbing mechanisms includes multiple rows of grabbing mechanisms in the first direction. The number of rows of item grabbers, the number of grabber tracks, and the number of conveying tracks in each group of item grabbers are the same. The track of an item grabber in any group of item grabbers is on the extension line of the track of another group of item grabbers. The step of grabbing the item in the corresponding item placement position if it is determined that the item in the item placement position is a first category item includes: for each item grabber in the first group of item grabbers, if it is determined that the item placement position corresponding to the item grabber on the conveying track contains a first category item, then the item grabber grabs the item in the corresponding item placement position. After obtaining the grabbed item, the method further includes: in response to the conveying track moving a preset number of displacement units, for each item grabber in the second group of item grabbers, if it is determined that the item placement position corresponding to the item grabber on the conveying track contains a first category item, then the item grabber grabs the item in the corresponding item placement position. The preset number is less than the number of item grabbers corresponding to one conveying track.

[0046] In some optional implementations of any embodiment of this disclosure, the head of the conveyor track is parallel to the tail of the conveyor belt of the item sorting device, and the distance between the head and the tail is less than a preset distance.

[0047] In these implementations, the distance between the head of the conveyor track and the tail of the conveyor belt is relatively small, which can help improve the efficiency of transferring items from the conveyor belt to the conveyor track and further automate the transfer of items.

[0048] In some optional implementations of any embodiment of this disclosure, the transfer system further includes a robotic arm for transferring items from an item placement position at the tail of the conveyor belt to an item placement position on the transfer track.

[0049] These methods can be implemented by using robotic arms to quickly transfer items on conveyor belts.

[0050] This disclosure also provides a schematic diagram of an item transfer system. For example... Figure 2a As shown, the top part of the image is the item collector. The middle part is a top view of the item placement areas, where the circular areas represent the item placement areas containing items. The bottom part is a top view of the conveyor track and the item placement areas it moves.

[0051] This disclosure also provides a schematic diagram of an article transfer system in an article processing method according to an embodiment of this disclosure. For example... Figure 2b As shown, Figure 2b The diagram shows two sets of item grabbers, each set consisting of seven rows of item grabbers. Once the suction cups (yellow objects in the diagram) of each item grabber in a row have picked up an item, such as the blue ball in the diagram, that row of item grabbers can move horizontally above the corresponding item receiving tray to fill the tray. After a tray is filled, a complete product matrix is ​​obtained, as shown below. Figure 2b The two product matrices are located in the upper left and upper right corners.

[0052] This disclosure also provides another method for transferring items. This method includes: 1. Initial collection of items to be filled: After sorting, male or female eggs are gathered into a parallel belt system via a conveyor belt (transfer track). The belt system has fixed placement positions, i.e., trays or pallets, on which items are placed by robotic arms or gripping devices in a disordered distribution.

[0053] 2. Independent belt drive and regular arrangement: Each pulley is driven by an independent motor, and the belt moves slowly forward to the gripping position. At this time, each belt's support position contains only 0 to N items (not consecutive), and multiple belts can be gradually aligned to allow up to 6 items on each conveyor belt to be ready for gripping.

[0054] 3. Suction cup gripping mechanism: Above the end of the conveyor belt is a suction cup module, also known as an item grabber, that can move left and right. There are a total of 6 suction cups (for a 6-column tray structure). The suction cups can descend and grab the trays with items in the current row one by one. After grabbing, they move to the target tray, which is the item receiving tray.

[0055] 4. Row-level filling tray: After grabbing 6 items, fill them into the first row of the empty tray in a row of 1x6 columns. Repeat the grabbing and filling process until the entire tray is filled (e.g., 7 rows). The system automatically records any remaining unfilled items and repeats the process for the next round of tray filling.

[0056] The suction cups mentioned above can be double-layered.

[0057] This disclosure provides an article transfer device for performing the article transfer method described in the above embodiments, such as... Figure 3 As shown, the device is applied to an item transfer system, which includes an item picker, an item conveying track, and an item receiving tray. The device 300 includes: a picking unit 301, configured to, when the item placement position driven by the conveying track is located at the picking position corresponding to the item picker, if it is determined that there is an item at the item placement position driven by the conveying track, the item picker picks the item at the corresponding item placement position to obtain the picked item; and a stacking unit 302, configured to, in response to each item picker corresponding to the conveying track obtaining the picked item, place each picked item into the item receiving tray.

[0058] The article transfer device provided in the above embodiments of this disclosure and the article transfer method provided in the embodiments of this disclosure are based on the same inventive concept and have the same beneficial effects as the methods adopted, run or implemented by the applications stored therein.

[0059] This disclosure also provides an electronic device corresponding to the article transfer method provided in the foregoing embodiments, for executing the article transfer method described above. This disclosure is not limiting.

[0060] Please refer to Figure 4 This illustrates a schematic diagram of an electronic device provided by some embodiments of the present disclosure. For example... Figure 4As shown, the electronic device 40 includes: a processor 400, a memory 401, a bus 402, and a communication interface 403. The processor 400, the communication interface 403, and the memory 401 are connected via the bus 402. The memory 401 stores a computer program that can run on the processor 400. When the processor 400 runs the computer program, it executes the method provided in any of the foregoing embodiments of this disclosure.

[0061] The memory 401 may include high-speed random access memory (RAM) or non-volatile memory, such as at least one disk storage device. Communication between this system network element and at least one other network element is achieved through at least one communication interface 403 (which can be wired or wireless), such as the Internet, wide area network, local area network, or metropolitan area network.

[0062] Bus 402 can be an ISA bus, PCI bus, or EISA bus, etc. The bus can be divided into an address bus, a data bus, a control bus, etc. The memory 401 is used to store programs. After receiving an execution instruction, the processor 400 executes the program. The article transfer method disclosed in any of the foregoing embodiments of this disclosure can be applied to the processor 400, or implemented by the processor 400.

[0063] The processor 400 may be an integrated circuit chip with signal processing capabilities. In implementation, each step of the above method can be completed by the integrated logic circuitry in the hardware of the processor 400 or by instructions in software form. The processor 400 may be a general-purpose processor, including a central processing unit (CPU), a network processor (NP), etc.; it may also be a digital signal processor (DSP), an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC), an off-the-shelf programmable gate array (FPGA), or other programmable logic devices, discrete gate or transistor logic devices, or discrete hardware components. It can implement or execute the methods, steps, and logic block diagrams disclosed in the embodiments of this disclosure. The general-purpose processor may be a microprocessor or any conventional processor. The steps of the methods disclosed in the embodiments of this disclosure can be directly embodied in the execution of a hardware decoding processor, or executed by a combination of hardware and software modules in the decoding processor. The software modules may reside in random access memory, flash memory, read-only memory, programmable read-only memory, electrically erasable programmable memory, registers, or other mature storage media in the art. The storage medium is located in memory 401. The processor 400 reads the information in memory 401 and, in conjunction with its hardware, completes the steps of the above method.

[0064] The electronic device provided in this disclosure and the article transfer method provided in this disclosure are based on the same inventive concept and have the same beneficial effects as the methods they employ, operate, or implement.

[0065] This disclosure also provides a computer-readable storage medium corresponding to the article transfer method provided in the foregoing embodiments. Please refer to... Figure 5 The computer-readable storage medium shown is an optical disc 50, on which a computer program (i.e., a program product) is stored. When the computer program is run by a processor, it executes the article transfer method provided in any of the foregoing embodiments.

[0066] It should be noted that examples of the computer-readable storage medium may also include, but are not limited to, phase-change memory (PRAM), static random access memory (SRAM), dynamic random access memory (DRAM), other types of random access memory (RAM), read-only memory (ROM), electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), flash memory or other optical and magnetic storage media, which will not be elaborated here.

[0067] The computer-readable storage medium provided in the above embodiments of this disclosure and the article transfer method provided in the embodiments of this disclosure are based on the same inventive concept and have the same beneficial effects as the methods adopted, run or implemented by the applications stored therein.

[0068] It should be noted that: In the foregoing text, the terms "comprising," "including," or any other variations thereof are intended to cover a non-exclusive inclusion, such that a process, method, article, or apparatus that comprises a list of elements includes not only those elements but also other elements not expressly listed, or elements inherent to such a process, method, article, or apparatus. Without further limitation, an element defined by the phrase "comprising one..." does not exclude the presence of other identical elements in the process, method, article, or apparatus that includes that element. Furthermore, it should be noted that the scope of the methods and apparatuses in this disclosure is not limited to performing functions in the order shown or discussed, but may also include performing functions substantially simultaneously or in the reverse order, depending on the functions involved. For example, the described methods may be performed in a different order than described, and various steps may be added, omitted, or combined. Additionally, features described with reference to certain examples may be combined in other examples.

[0069] Through the above description of the embodiments, those skilled in the art can clearly understand that the methods of the above embodiments can be implemented by means of software plus necessary general-purpose hardware platforms. Of course, they can also be implemented by hardware, but in many cases the former is a better implementation method. Based on this understanding, the technical solution of this disclosure, in essence, or the part that contributes to the prior art, can be embodied in the form of a software product. This computer software product is stored in a storage medium (such as ROM / RAM, magnetic disk, optical disk), and includes several instructions to cause a terminal (which may be a mobile phone, computer, server, air conditioner, or network device, etc.) to execute the methods described in the various embodiments of this disclosure.

[0070] The embodiments of this disclosure have been described above with reference to the accompanying drawings. These are merely specific implementations of this disclosure, but this disclosure is not limited to the specific implementations described above. The specific implementations described above are merely illustrative and not restrictive. Those skilled in the art can make many other forms under the guidance of this disclosure without departing from the spirit and scope of the claims, and all of these forms are within the protection scope of this disclosure.

Claims

1. A method for transferring articles, characterized in that, An item transfer system is applied, comprising an item handler, an item conveying device, and an item receiving tray. The conveying device includes a conveying track for moving the item placement position. The method includes: When the item placement position moves to the acquisition position corresponding to the item acquirer, if it is determined that there is an item at the item placement position corresponding to the item acquirer on the conveyor track, the item acquirer acquires the item at the corresponding item placement position and obtains the acquired item. In response to each item collector corresponding to the conveyor track receiving the acquired item, each acquired item is placed into the item receiving tray.

2. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that, The conveyor track consists of multiple parallel conveyor tracks, each driven by an independent motor, and each conveyor track corresponds to a set of item collectors, with each set of item collectors including at least two item collectors. The method further includes: The detection results of the receiving detection device for each item placement position are used to indicate whether there is an item in each item placement position. The position of each item placement position on the conveyor track is fixed. If the detection result indicates the presence of an item, the item collector retrieves the item from the item placement location; If it is determined that there is an item at the item placement position moved by the conveyor track, the item acquirer acquires the item at the corresponding item placement position, including: For each item placement position driven by the conveyor track, if there is an item in that item placement position, the item acquirer corresponding to that item placement position acquires the item in that item placement position.

3. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that, The bottom of the item collector is provided with a suction cup, and a liftable rod is connected above the suction cup. The liftable rod is connected to the top of the item collector. If an item exists, the item acquirer acquires the item from the corresponding item placement position to obtain the acquired item, including: If an item is present, the lifting rod of the item collector lowers the suction cup, which then adsorbs the item on the target item placement position to obtain the item.

4. The method according to claim 2, characterized in that, The conveying track includes multiple parallel conveying tracks, each of which is independent of the others. The items on the conveying track are arranged in a continuous matrix, while the items on the conveying track are arranged in a random order. The items on the receiving tray are arranged in a matrix, and the posture of the items on the placement positions is the target posture. The posture of the items on the receiving tray is also the target posture. If it is determined that there is an item at the item placement position moved by the item collector on the conveyor track, the following is included: In response to the conveyor track moving a preset number of displacement units, if it is determined that there is an item at the item placement position moved by the item collector on the conveyor track, wherein the displacement unit is the distance between adjacent item placement positions, and the preset number is less than the number of item collectors in the group of item collectors.

5. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that, Above the item collector is a horizontal collector track, and the item collector can move between the item placement position and the item receiving tray on the collector track; Before placing each acquired item into the item receiving tray, the method further includes: The item retriever moves from above the item placement position to above the item receiving tray via the retriever track.

6. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that, The item placement area of ​​the conveyor track includes at least two categories of items; the conveyor track includes multiple parallel conveyor tracks, and all conveyor tracks move together. The step of determining that there is an item at the item placement position corresponding to the item pickup on the conveying track, and then the item pickup acquires the item at the corresponding item placement position, includes: if it is determined that there is an item at the item placement position and it is a first category item, then the item pickup acquires the item at the corresponding item placement position. The step of placing each acquired item into the item receiving tray includes: placing each acquired item into the item receiving tray corresponding to the first category of items.

7. The method according to claim 6, characterized in that, The method further includes: If it is determined that the item in the item placement position is a second category item, then the item collector will acquire the item in the corresponding item placement position and obtain the acquired item. In response to each item acquirer corresponding to the conveyor track obtaining the acquired item, each acquired item is placed into the item receiving tray corresponding to the second category of items.

8. The method according to claim 6, characterized in that, The method further includes: The detection results of the detection device on each item placement position are received. The detection results are used to indicate the category of the item in each item placement position. The category includes the first category of items or the second category of items. If the detection result indicates an item in either the first category or the second category, the item collector retrieves the item from the item placement position.

9. The method according to claim 6, characterized in that, The item collector includes a first group of item collectors and a second group of item collectors. Each group of gripping mechanisms includes multiple rows of gripping mechanisms in the first direction. The number of rows of item collectors, the number of collector tracks, and the number of conveying tracks in each group of item collectors are the same. The track of the item collector in any group of item collectors is on the extension line of the track of the other group of item collectors. If it is determined that the item in the item placement position is a first-category item, then the item collector acquires the item in the corresponding item placement position, including: For each item collector in the first group, if it is determined that there is an item of the first category in the item placement position corresponding to the item collector on the conveying track, then the item collector will acquire the item in the corresponding item placement position. After obtaining the acquired item, the method further includes: In response to the conveyor track moving a preset number of displacement units, for each item collector in the second group, if it is determined that there is a first category item at the item placement position corresponding to the item collector on the conveyor track, then the item collector acquires the item at the corresponding item placement position, and the preset number is less than the number of item collectors corresponding to one conveyor track.

10. A device for transferring articles, characterized in that, An application in an item transfer system, the item transfer system comprising an item picker, an item conveying track, and an item receiving tray, the item conveying track being used to move the item placement position; the device includes: The acquisition unit is configured such that, when the item placement position moves to the acquisition position corresponding to the item acquirer, if it is determined that there is an item at the item placement position corresponding to the item acquirer on the conveying track, the item acquirer acquires the item at the corresponding item placement position and obtains the acquired item. The stacking unit is configured to place each acquired item into the item receiving tray in response to each item acquirer corresponding to the conveyor track acquiring the acquired item.

Images