Material conveying system and conveying method

Abstract

This application relates to the field of industrial automation technology, specifically providing a material handling system and method, aiming to solve the problem of improving material handling efficiency. To this end, the system of this application includes a material control system and an automated guided vehicle (AGV) management system. The material control system is configured to generate receiving or feeding instructions based on receiving or feeding tasks, and send these instructions to the AGV management system. The receiving task is used to receive materials output from a first operating device, and the feeding task is used to feed materials to a second operating device. The AGV management system is configured to dispatch the AGV to the first operating device and perform the receiving operation based on the receiving instruction, and to control the AGV to move to the second operating device and perform the feeding operation based on the feeding instruction. Based on the above method, automatic receiving and feeding of materials can be achieved, improving material handling efficiency, thereby increasing equipment capacity utilization and uptime.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] This application relates to the field of industrial automation technology, specifically providing a material handling system and a material handling method. Background Technology

[0002] The manufacturing process of electronic products typically involves multiple steps. After completing one step, the materials output from that step may need to be transferred to the next step's production line for continued production. For example, in the tinning and die bonding processes of PCB boards, after tinning, the PCB board needs to be transferred from the tinning production line to the die bonding production line for die bonding.

[0003] Currently, the conventional material handling method involves specialized operators waiting at the discharge port of the preceding process to receive materials and manually placing them onto a dedicated carrier for temporary storage. Once the carrier is full, or according to the production rhythm of the subsequent process equipment, the operators then move the materials to the loading port of the next process equipment for loading. This method, relying on manual material handling, is relatively inefficient and can lead to insufficient utilization of production equipment capacity and low equipment uptime.

[0004] Accordingly, a new technical solution is needed in this field to solve the above problems. Summary of the Invention

[0005] This application aims to solve the aforementioned technical problems, namely, to solve or at least partially solve the following technical problems: how to improve the efficiency of material handling, thereby improving the capacity utilization rate and equipment uptime of production equipment.

[0006] In a first aspect, this application provides a material handling system, the system including a material control system and an automated guided vehicle (AGV) management system;

[0007] The material control system is configured to: acquire a receiving task or a feeding task, generate a receiving instruction or a feeding instruction based on the receiving task or the feeding task, and send the receiving instruction or the feeding instruction to the automated guided vehicle management system. The receiving task is used to receive the output material of the first operating device, and the feeding task is used to feed the material to the second operating device.

[0008] The automated guided vehicle (AGV) management system is configured to: dispatch the AGV to the first operating device and perform a receiving operation according to the receiving instruction, and control the AGV to move to the second operating device and perform a feeding operation according to the feeding instruction.

[0009] In one technical solution of the above material handling system, the receiving task is a task generated based on the unloading signal of the first operating device, and the feeding task is a task generated based on the loading signal of the second operating device.

[0010] In one technical solution of the above-mentioned material handling system, the material handling system further includes an automatic control system for equipment and a production execution system;

[0011] The automatic control system of the equipment is configured to: generate a feeding request in response to a feeding signal sent by the first operating device, and send the feeding request to the production execution system; and generate a feeding request in response to a feeding signal sent by the second operating device, and send the feeding request to the production execution system.

[0012] The production execution system is configured to: generate the receiving task based on the unloading request and send the receiving task to the material control system; and generate the feeding task based on the loading request and send the feeding task to the material control system.

[0013] In one technical solution of the above material handling system, the material control system communicates with an external system based on a message transmission middleware, and the external system includes the automated guided vehicle management system and the production execution system.

[0014] In one technical solution of the above material handling system, the unloading signal is generated by the first operating device when any one of the following conditions is met:

[0015] The output capacity of the first operating device is N times the target value, where N>1. The target value is the maximum quantity that an automated guided vehicle can load when loading materials of the largest size.

[0016] The output material of the first operating device is tailings.

[0017] In one technical solution of the above material handling system, the feeding signal is generated when the second operating device stops outputting material from its discharge port.

[0018] In one technical solution of the above material handling system, the material control system includes a server, and the server is equipped with a first service process and a second service process.

[0019] The first service process is configured to: receive material receiving tasks or material delivery tasks sent by the production execution system, and send the material receiving tasks or material delivery tasks to the second service process;

[0020] The second service process is configured to: generate a receiving instruction or a feeding instruction based on the receiving task or feeding task, and send the receiving instruction or feeding instruction to the automated guided vehicle management system.

[0021] In one technical solution of the above material handling system, the material control system includes a client and a server, and the server is equipped with a third service process;

[0022] The client is configured to: in response to a user's task creation operation on the operation interface, generate a receiving task or a feeding task, and send the receiving task or feeding task to the server.

[0023] The third service process is configured to: receive the material receiving task or material delivery task sent by the client, generate a material receiving instruction or material delivery instruction based on the material receiving task or material delivery task, and send the material receiving instruction or material delivery instruction to the automated guided vehicle management system.

[0024] In one technical solution of the above material handling system, there are multiple automated guided vehicles (AGVs), and the step of scheduling the AAVs to move to the first operating device according to the receiving instruction includes:

[0025] Each automated guided vehicle (AGV) is assigned a first priority, and at least one AGV is scheduled to move to the first operating device in descending order of the first priority.

[0026] Among them, the first priority is the Automated Guided Vehicle (AGV) that is in an unloaded state.

[0027] In one technical solution of the above-mentioned material handling system, the step of performing the receiving operation includes:

[0028] Based on the size of the material output by the first operating device, the maximum amount of material that the automated guided vehicle can carry is determined based on the size.

[0029] The output material of the first operating device is received according to the maximum material quantity.

[0030] In one technical solution of the aforementioned material handling system, the step of generating a receiving instruction or a feeding instruction based on the receiving task or feeding task, and sending the receiving instruction or feeding instruction to the automated guided vehicle management system, includes:

[0031] The second priority of each transport task is determined. According to the second priority from high to low, the transport instructions corresponding to each transport task are generated in sequence and sent to the automated guided vehicle management system in sequence.

[0032] Wherein, when the conveying task is a receiving task, the corresponding conveying instruction is a receiving instruction, and when the conveying task is a feeding task, the corresponding conveying instruction is a feeding instruction.

[0033] In a second aspect, this application provides a material handling method, the method comprising:

[0034] The material control system acquires receiving or feeding tasks, generates receiving or feeding instructions based on the receiving or feeding tasks, and sends the receiving or feeding instructions to the automated guided vehicle management system. The receiving task is used to receive the output material of the first operating device, and the feeding task is used to feed the material to the second operating device.

[0035] The automated guided vehicle (AGV) management system receives the receiving instruction or the feeding instruction, and according to the receiving instruction, dispatches the AGV to the first operating device and performs the receiving operation, or according to the feeding instruction, controls the AGV to move to the second operating device and performs the feeding operation.

[0036] The above-described technical solutions of this application have at least one or more of the following beneficial effects:

[0037] In one technical solution of the material handling system provided in this application, the material handling system may include a material control system and an automated guided vehicle (AGV) management system. The material control system may be configured to acquire a receiving task or a feeding task, and generate a receiving instruction or a feeding instruction based on the receiving task or the feeding task, and send the receiving instruction or the feeding instruction to the AGV management system. The receiving task is used to receive the output material of the first operating device, and the feeding task is used to feed the material to the second operating device. The AGV management system may be configured to schedule the AGV to move to the first operating device and perform the receiving operation according to the receiving instruction, and to control the AGV to move to the second operating device and perform the feeding operation according to the feeding task.

[0038] Based on the above implementation plan, the material control system and the automated guided vehicle management system can be used to realize the automatic receiving and feeding of materials, improve the material handling efficiency, and thus improve the capacity utilization and uptime of the equipment. Attached Figure Description

[0039] The disclosure of this application will become more readily understood with reference to the accompanying drawings. It will be readily understood by those skilled in the art that these drawings are for illustrative purposes only and are not intended to limit the scope of protection of this application. Wherein:

[0040] Figure 1 This is a schematic diagram of the main structure of the material handling system in some embodiments of this application;

[0041] Figure 2 This is a schematic diagram of the interaction process between the production execution system, the material handling system, and the automated guided vehicle management system in some embodiments of this application;

[0042] Figure 3 This is a schematic diagram of the interaction process between the production execution system, the material handling system, and the automated guided vehicle management system in other embodiments of this application;

[0043] Figure 4 This is a schematic diagram of the user interface provided by the client in some embodiments of this application;

[0044] Figure 5 This is a schematic diagram of the system architecture of the material control system in some embodiments of this application. Detailed Implementation

[0045] Some embodiments of this application are described below with reference to the accompanying drawings. Those skilled in the art should understand that these embodiments are merely illustrative of the technical principles of this application and are not intended to limit the scope of protection of this application.

[0046] First, an embodiment of the material handling system provided in this application will be described.

[0047] See appendix Figure 1 , Figure 1 The main structure of a material handling system is illustrated in some embodiments of this application. For example... Figure 1 As shown, a material handling system may include a Material Control System (MCS) and an Automated Guided Vehicle System (AGVC). These two systems will be described separately below.

[0048] 1. Describe the material control system.

[0049] In this embodiment of the application, the material control system can be configured to acquire a receiving task or a feeding task, generate a receiving instruction or a feeding instruction based on the receiving task or the feeding task, and send the receiving instruction or the feeding instruction to the automated guided vehicle management system.

[0050] The receiving task can be used to receive the output material of the first operating device. This output material refers to the material obtained after the first operating device has processed the input material through production / processing operations. Taking a soldering machine as an example, the input material of the first operating device is an un-soldered PCB board. This PCB board is then fed into the soldering machine for soldering to obtain a soldered PCB board. The soldered PCB board is the output material of the soldering machine. Alternatively, receiving can be understood as accepting the output material from the first operating device.

[0051] The feeding task can be used to feed materials to the second operating equipment, that is, to deliver input materials to the second operating equipment so that the second operating equipment can perform production / processing operations on the input materials. Taking the second operating equipment as a die bonding equipment as an example, the output material of the soldering equipment (such as the PCB board that has been soldered) can be used as the input material of the die bonding equipment and delivered to the die bonding equipment, so that the die bonding equipment can perform die bonding processing on the PCB board that has been soldered.

[0052] In some embodiments of this application, the material control system can communicate with external systems based on message transmission middleware, and the external systems may include automated guided vehicle (AGV) management systems. In these embodiments, conventional message transmission middleware from the computer technology field can be used, such as TIBCO Rendezvous. TIBCO Rendezvous is a cross-platform, excellent distributed middleware based on the UDP (User Datagram Protocol) protocol, capable of transmitting information across network segments.

[0053] 2. Explain the automated guided vehicle management system.

[0054] In this embodiment, the automated guided vehicle (AGV) management system can be configured to dispatch an AGV to a first operating device to perform a receiving operation according to a receiving instruction, and to control the AGV to move to a second operating device to perform a feeding operation according to a feeding instruction. The receiving operation allows the AGV to receive output materials from the first operating device, while the feeding operation allows the materials to be transported to the second operating device for processing.

[0055] An automated guided vehicle (AGV) is an unmanned transport vehicle equipped with an automatic navigation system (such as laser, vision, magnetic stripe, etc.), capable of traveling along a set path, and possessing safety protection and transfer functions. An AGV management system is responsible for directing, coordinating, and monitoring the entire AGV fleet, enabling it to work efficiently and orderly to complete complex production or logistics handling tasks.

[0056] Based on the above-described material handling system, the material control system and automated guided vehicle (AGV) management system can achieve automatic material receiving and feeding, eliminating the need for manual material handling by operators. This effectively improves material handling efficiency, thereby increasing the capacity utilization and uptime of the operating equipment. Taking the PCB manufacturing process as an example, after the tinning process, the PCB undergoes a die bonding process. The effective time after tinning is 3 hours. If die bonding is not performed within 3 hours, the PCB will be scrapped and unusable. Manual transport typically uses carriers with a capacity of 30 PCBs. However, the die bonding equipment takes 9 minutes to process one die bond and can only process one die bond at a time. If the carrier is fully loaded before being transported to the die bonding equipment, some PCBs within the carrier may exceed their effective time, resulting in scrap. Furthermore, while PCBs can be transported to the die bonding equipment based on its production cycle time, this method is inefficient when there are multiple die bonding lines (e.g., 3 solder brushing lines and 14 die bonding lines). Operators need to determine the production cycle time of each line, identify which die bonding equipment requires loading, and then transport the PCBs to the appropriate equipment. The material handling system described in this application, however, responds automatically to receiving and feeding tasks, dispatching automated guided vehicles (AGVs) to transport PCBs to the required die bonding equipment. This eliminates the need for operators to manually move carriers or confirm equipment production cycles, significantly improving PCB transport efficiency and reducing the number of operators, thus increasing overall production human resource efficiency. Additionally, this application's embodiment utilizes AGVs for direct storage and transfer, enhancing the flexibility of transport efficiency and minimizing material scrap due to exceeding process control time limits (such as the aforementioned effective time) when using carriers for transfer.

[0057] The following describes an embodiment of the material handling system provided in this application, specifically the method for automatically generating receiving and feeding tasks.

[0058] In some embodiments of this application, the output signals of the operating device may include a loading signal and a unloading signal. The loading signal can be understood as a prompt that the operating device lacks input material, and the unloading signal can be understood as a prompt to collect the output material from the operating device. Therefore, if a first operating device outputs a unloading signal, it indicates that the output material from the first operating device can be collected; thus, a receiving task can be generated based on the unloading signal of the first operating device. Conversely, if a second operating device outputs a loading signal, it indicates that material needs to be fed to the second operating device; thus, a feeding task can be generated based on the loading signal of the second operating device.

[0059] In some embodiments of this application, the feeding signal may be a signal generated by the first operating device when any of the following conditions are met.

[0060] Condition (1): The output quantity of the first operating device is N times the target value, where N>1. The target value is the maximum quantity that an automated guided vehicle (AGV) can load when loading materials of the largest size. The output quantity is the number of materials output by the first operating device. For example, if the material is a PCB board, and PCB boards come in two sizes (large and small), an AGV can load a maximum of 4 large PCB boards and a maximum of 8 small PCB boards. If N=4, then the first operating device generates a discharge signal when the output quantity is 16 PCB boards.

[0061] Condition (2): The output material of the first operating equipment is tailings.

[0062] In some embodiments of this application, the feeding signal may be generated by the second operating device when its outlet stops outputting material. For example, the time interval between two adjacent materials output from the outlet can be determined, and a detection duration longer than this time interval can be set. If it is detected that the outlet stops outputting material within this detection duration, a feeding signal can be generated.

[0063] Based on the method described in the above embodiments, loading and unloading signals output by the operating equipment can be used to automatically generate loading tasks and receiving tasks.

[0064] The following description continues with an embodiment of the material handling system provided in this application, specifically the automated guided vehicle (AGV) management system.

[0065] In some embodiments of this application, there are multiple automated guided vehicles (AGVs), each configured with a first priority. The AGV in an unloaded state has the highest first priority. When scheduling AGVs, the AGV management system can dispatch at least one AGV to the first operating device and perform a material receiving operation according to the first priority from high to low. Based on this embodiment, empty AGVs can be prioritized for dispatching to the first operating device for material receiving.

[0066] In some embodiments of this application, when the automated guided vehicle (AGV) management system controls the AGV to perform a material receiving operation, it can determine the maximum amount of material the AGV can load based on the size of the material output from the first operating device. Then, it receives the material output from the first operating device according to the maximum material quantity, i.e., it controls the AGV to receive and load material according to the maximum material quantity. Based on this implementation, the amount of material loaded by the AGV can be flexibly adjusted according to the material size, maximizing the utilization rate of the AGV.

[0067] The following description continues with an embodiment of the material handling system provided in this application, specifically focusing on the material control system.

[0068] In some embodiments of this application, the transport tasks (i.e., receiving tasks or feeding tasks) are configured with a second priority. A higher second priority indicates a heavier or more urgent transport task, requiring priority execution. When the material control system generates receiving or feeding instructions based on the receiving or feeding tasks, it can determine the second priority of each transport task and generate corresponding transport instructions for each task in descending order of second priority. These instructions are then sent to the automated guided vehicle (AGV) management system in descending order of second priority. Specifically, when the transport task is a receiving task, the corresponding transport instruction is a receiving instruction; when the transport task is a feeding task, the corresponding transport instruction is a feeding instruction. Based on this implementation, important or urgent transport tasks can be executed with priority.

[0069] The following description continues with an embodiment of the material handling system provided in this application, focusing on the automatic generation method of receiving and feeding tasks.

[0070] In some embodiments of this application, the material handling system may also include an Equipment Automation System (EAS) and a Manufacturing Execution System (MES).

[0071] The automatic control system can be configured to generate a feeding request in response to a feeding signal sent by a first operating device, and send the feeding request to the production execution system; and to generate a feeding request in response to a feeding signal sent by a second operating device, and send the feeding request to the production execution system. The feeding request may include the device ID and feeding port number of the first operating device, and the feeding request may include the device ID and feeding port number of the second operating device.

[0072] A Production Execution System (MES) is a real-time production management information system located between an upper-level planning and management system and lower-level industrial control equipment, oriented towards the workshop level. In this embodiment, the MES can be configured to generate receiving tasks based on unloading requests sent by the equipment's automatic control system, and send these receiving tasks to the material control system; and to generate feeding tasks based on loading requests sent by the equipment's automatic control system, and send these feeding tasks to the material control system. Specifically, when generating receiving tasks based on unloading requests, the MES can determine the first operating equipment based on information such as the equipment ID and unloading port number in the unloading request, and then determine the material information (including material model, size, etc.) of the material produced by the first operating equipment. Based on the material information, a receiving task is generated, and the receiving instruction generated based on this receiving task can include the task ID of the receiving task, the equipment ID of the first operating equipment, the unloading port number, the location of the first operating equipment, and the material information. Alternatively, a similar method can be used to generate loading tasks and loading instructions, which will not be elaborated further.

[0073] The material control system acts as a bridge between the production execution system (MES) and the automated guided vehicle (AGV) management system (AGV) to distribute transmission instructions from the MES to each AGV controller within the AGV management system. The material control system is primarily responsible for assigning material transport routes and managing storage equipment and material location information throughout the plant. In this embodiment, the material control system can communicate with the MES via a message transmission middleware. That is, external systems communicating with the material control system can include not only the AGV management system described in the previous embodiments but also the MES in this embodiment.

[0074] Based on the method described in the above embodiments, the automatic control system and production execution system of the equipment can be used to automatically generate material loading tasks and material receiving tasks, and can automatically send the material loading tasks and material receiving tasks to the material control system.

[0075] The following description continues with an embodiment of the material handling system provided in this application, focusing on the automatic generation method of receiving and feeding tasks.

[0076] In some embodiments of this application, the material control system may include a server, which has a first service process and a second service process. The server may include a physical server.

[0077] The first service process can be configured to receive material receiving or feeding tasks sent by the production execution system and then send these tasks to the second service process. In some embodiments, the material control system may also include a database, and the first service process may be configured to store the received material handling tasks (including material receiving and feeding tasks) in the database. In the embodiments of this application, a conventional database can be used, such as an Oracle database.

[0078] The second service process is configured to generate receiving or feeding instructions based on receiving or feeding tasks, and then send the receiving or feeding instructions to the automated guided vehicle management system.

[0079] The following is in conjunction with the appendix Figure 2 Describe the interaction process between the Production Execution System (MES), Material Handling System (MTS), and Automated Guided Vehicle (AGV) Management System. For example... Figure 2 As shown, for example, the production execution system receives data from the equipment automatic control system ( Figure 2 (Not shown) A material feeding request is sent. Based on the material feeding request, a receiving task is generated and sent to the material control system via a message transmission middleware. The first service process in the material control system receives the receiving task, stores it in the database, and forwards it to the second service process. The second service process generates a receiving instruction based on the receiving task and sends the receiving instruction to the automated guided vehicle (AGV) management system via the message transmission middleware. The AGV management system schedules the AGV to move to the operating equipment according to the receiving instruction and controls the AGV to perform the receiving operation on the operating equipment. The feeding process is similar to the receiving process described above and will not be repeated.

[0080] Based on the method described in the above embodiments, different service processes set up on the server can communicate and interact with different external systems (such as production execution systems and automated guided vehicle management systems) to collaboratively realize the reception of transport tasks, the generation and transmission of transport instructions.

[0081] The following description continues with an embodiment of the material handling system provided in this application, still focusing on the manual generation method of receiving and feeding tasks.

[0082] In some embodiments of this application, the material control system may include a client and a server, with the server having a third service process. The server may include a physical server.

[0083] The client can be configured to respond to user task creation operations on the operating interface, generating receiving or feeding tasks and sending them to the server. Specifically, the client may include a display device and can control the display device to show the operating interface. The user performs a task creation operation on the operating interface, and the client generates the corresponding transport task based on the operation information of the task creation operation. For example, the task creation operation could be to create a receiving task. The receiving task is generated based on the operation information, which may include at least the code and name of the operating equipment. The task information of the receiving task includes this code and name, and the receiving instruction generated based on the receiving task can also include this code and name. This allows for accurate control of the automated guided vehicle (AGV) to move to the operating equipment requiring receiving and to execute the receiving operation when scheduling the AGV according to the receiving instruction.

[0084] The third service process can be configured to receive material receiving or delivery tasks sent by the client, generate material receiving or delivery instructions based on the tasks, and send these instructions to the automated guided vehicle (AGV) management system. In some implementations, the client can send information to the server in JSON format. After receiving the material receiving or delivery tasks from the client, the server converts the format to XML before sending it to the AGV management system. The AGV management system can report task information such as AGV scheduling and task execution status to the server in real time. The server's second service process can receive the task information reported by the AGV management system and store it in a database. Users can view the task information of each material handling task (material receiving or delivery task) in real time through the client.

[0085] The following is in conjunction with the appendix Figure 3 Describe the interaction process between the Production Execution System (MES), Material Handling System (MTS), and Automated Guided Vehicle (AGV) Management System. For example... Figure 3 As shown, for example, a user creates a feeding task through the client of the material control system. The client generates the feeding task based on the user's task creation operation on the operation interface and sends the feeding task to the server of the material control system. A third service process within the server receives the feeding task, generates a feeding instruction based on the feeding task, and then sends the feeding instruction to the automated guided vehicle (AGV) management system through a message transmission middleware. The AGV management system schedules the AGV to move to the operating equipment according to the feeding instruction and controls the AGV to perform the feeding operation on the operating equipment.

[0086] In addition, the third service process can simultaneously send the feeding task to the message transmission middleware when sending the feeding instruction. The message transmission middleware then forwards the feeding task to the server. The second service process within the server receives the feeding task and stores it in the database. This second service process is the same as the second service process in the aforementioned embodiment of the automatic generation method for receiving and feeding tasks. The receiving process is similar to the feeding process described above and will not be repeated here.

[0087] Please refer to the appendix for further details. Figure 3 In this embodiment of the application, the user can also perform task monitoring operations on the operation interface provided by the client. The client can respond to the task monitoring operation by sending a task monitoring request to the server. The third service process in the server can receive the task monitoring request and obtain the status information of the transfer task from the database according to the task monitoring request. Then, it sends the status information of the transfer task to the client. The client can display the status information of the transfer task on the operation interface, so that the user can intuitively view the status information of the transfer task.

[0088] See appendix Figure 4 , Figure 4 This is a schematic diagram of the user interface provided by the client in some embodiments of this application. For example... Figure 4 As shown, the operation interface displays a transport task management area, which can display the status information of multiple transport tasks. The status information may include task ID, vehicle ID, starting device code, starting device name, starting unit, ending device code, ending device name, ending unit, status, task type, time taken, creation time, last update time, last update event, and priority. The vehicle is a tool for receiving and storing materials; in this embodiment, the vehicle may be an automated guided vehicle (AGV). The starting and ending devices are the operating devices that need to receive and deliver materials, respectively. The starting and ending units can be understood as the device ports (such as loading and unloading ports) of the starting and ending devices. The status indicates whether the task has been created successfully. Figure 4 The word "Create" indicates that the task has been created; the task type includes automatic and manual, which respectively indicate that the transfer task was generated using the automatic and manual generation methods described in the previous embodiments; the time taken is the execution duration of the transfer task. When the time taken exceeds the set duration, it indicates that the execution time of the transfer task is relatively long, and the transfer task can be marked as a reminder (such as changing the background color of the transfer task in the transfer task management area to the set color).

[0089] in addition, Figure 4The operations described in the text represent the actions that can be performed on a transport task. These operations can include changing the destination, modifying the priority, canceling, and deleting. Changing the destination can include changing at least one of the starting and ending devices. Once a transport task is completed, it can be automatically deleted from the transport task management area. Changing the destination could be, for example, that the original task was to load materials to die bonding equipment 1, but if die bonding equipment 1 malfunctions, the material can be loaded to die bonding equipment 2. Modifying the priority could be, for example, that if there are only 8 automated guided vehicles (AGVs), and the number of tasks exceeds the number of vehicles (each vehicle can only perform one task at a time), the tasks will be queued. By modifying the priority, tasks can be prioritized. Canceling could be, for example, that when a transport task is no longer needed, it can be canceled. After successful cancellation, the task is automatically deleted and will not be executed again.

[0090] Please refer to the appendix for further details. Figure 4 After clicking the "PCB Creation" button, the task creation interface will be displayed. Users can perform task creation operations on this interface, including selecting the transport task type, the destination equipment code, the destination unit, entering the product model, selecting the product size, and entering the site name. After completing these tasks, clicking "OK" will generate the transport task based on the information provided.

[0091] The following description continues with an embodiment of the material handling system provided in this application, specifically the system architecture of the material control system.

[0092] See appendix Figure 5 , Figure 5 The system architecture of a material control system in some embodiments of this application is illustrated by way of example. This system architecture can be designed and developed using a B / S (Browser / Server) architecture, which users can access via a browser without downloading or installing an installation program, making it relatively convenient. Figure 5 As shown, the system architecture of the material control system includes front-end and back-end technologies. The back-end technologies include core business logic (including material handling management), the core framework, and data storage. The back-end technologies facilitate communication and interaction with external systems (such as production execution systems and automated guided vehicle (AGV) management systems.

[0093] Based on the above system architecture, the material control system can include a presentation layer, an access layer, a message transmission middleware, an application layer, and an operation layer. These parts are described below.

[0094] (1) The presentation layer can be used to display the system interface, allowing users to view the system interface intuitively. In some embodiments of this application, it can be developed based on conventional front-end technologies such as Vue 3.0 and Element Plus. The development language can be HTML5, CSS, CSS3, JavaScript, or TypeScript. The presentation layer can realize the responsive function of the page and support access and use by multiple mainstream browsers.

[0095] (2) The access layer allows end users to connect to the application layer, mainly to solve data access needs. The presentation layer sends data requests to the application layer via HTTP requests. The request message data format is JSON type and is sent to the application layer for main business logic processing. After the application layer completes the relevant logic, it will return the corresponding processing result in JSON type and return it to the presentation layer to update the interface display.

[0096] (3) The message transmission middleware can be Tibco Rendezvous. Tibco Rendezvous has three message communication modes: publish-subscribe, point-to-point, and multicast request-reply. It can realize an event-driven mode with automatic data reception. Tibco Rendezvous has authenticated message passing, fault tolerance, and distributed queue functions. You don't need to consider the technical details of the network. You can focus on enterprise application development and quickly build and configure a scalable distributed application system. It has the advantages of high speed, high real-time performance, high message transmission reliability, support for multiple development languages, support for multiple system platforms, simplification of the development of distributed systems, shielding network details, and even not needing to know the specific IP address of the application.

[0097] (4) The application layer is the specific implementation of the server in the material control system, including communication with the production execution system and the automated guided vehicle management system to generate transport tasks, business processing code processing, database and related configuration, specific implementation of business code and database linking, timed tasks, etc.

[0098] (5) The operating layer is the operating environment of the entire system. The entire architecture of the material control system can run on Windows, Linux or Unix system environments.

[0099] The following describes an embodiment of the material handling method provided in this application.

[0100] In some embodiments of this application, the material handling method can be applied to the material handling system described in the foregoing system embodiments, and the material handling method includes the following steps S101 to S102.

[0101] Step S101: Obtain a receiving task or a feeding task through the material control system, generate a receiving instruction or a feeding instruction based on the receiving task or feeding task, and send the receiving instruction or feeding instruction to the automated guided vehicle management system. The meaning and generation method of the receiving and feeding tasks are the same as those in the aforementioned system embodiments. The material control system is the same as the material control system in the aforementioned system embodiments.

[0102] Step S102: Receive a receiving instruction or a feeding instruction through the automated guided vehicle (AGV) management system. Based on the receiving instruction, dispatch the AGV to the first operating device and perform the receiving operation; or based on the feeding instruction, control the AGV to move to the second operating device and perform the feeding operation. The meanings of the first and second operating devices are the same as in the aforementioned system embodiments. The AGV management system is the same as in the aforementioned system embodiments.

[0103] Based on the methods described in steps S101 to S102 above, the material control system and the automated guided vehicle management system can be used to realize the automatic receiving and feeding of materials, improve the material handling efficiency, and thus improve the capacity utilization and operating rate of the equipment.

[0104] The technical solutions of this application have been described above with reference to the optional embodiments shown in the accompanying drawings. However, it will be readily understood by those skilled in the art that the scope of protection of this application is obviously not limited to these specific embodiments. Without departing from the principles of this application, those skilled in the art can make equivalent changes or substitutions to the relevant technical features, and the technical solutions after these changes or substitutions will all fall within the scope of protection of this application.

Claims

1. A material handling system, characterized by, The system includes a material control system and an automated guided vehicle (AGV) management system. The material control system is configured to: acquire a receiving task or a feeding task, generate a receiving instruction or a feeding instruction based on the receiving task or the feeding task, and send the receiving instruction or the feeding instruction to the automated guided vehicle management system. The receiving task is used to receive the output material of the first operating device, and the feeding task is used to feed the material to the second operating device. The automated guided vehicle (AGV) management system is configured to: dispatch the AGV to the first operating device and perform a receiving operation according to the receiving instruction, and control the AGV to move to the second operating device and perform a feeding operation according to the feeding instruction.

2. The material handling system according to claim 1, characterized in that, The receiving task is generated based on the unloading signal of the first operating device, and the feeding task is generated based on the loading signal of the second operating device.

3. The material handling system according to claim 2, characterized in that, The material handling system also includes an automatic equipment control system and a production execution system; The automatic control system of the equipment is configured to: generate a feeding request in response to a feeding signal sent by the first operating device, and send the feeding request to the production execution system; and generate a feeding request in response to a feeding signal sent by the second operating device, and send the feeding request to the production execution system. The production execution system is configured to: generate the receiving task based on the unloading request and send the receiving task to the material control system; and generate the feeding task based on the loading request and send the feeding task to the material control system.

4. The material handling system according to claim 3, characterized in that, The material control system communicates with external systems based on a message transmission middleware. The external systems include the automated guided vehicle management system and the production execution system.

5. The material handling system according to claim 2, characterized in that, The feeding signal is generated by the first operating device when any one of the following conditions is met: The output capacity of the first operating device is N times the target value, where N>1. The target value is the maximum quantity that an automated guided vehicle can load when loading materials of the largest size. The output material of the first operating device is tailings.

6. The material handling system according to claim 2, characterized in that, The feeding signal is generated when the second operating device stops outputting material from its outlet.

7. The material handling system according to any one of claims 3 to 6, characterized in that, The material control system includes a server, which is configured with a first service process and a second service process. The first service process is configured to: receive material receiving tasks or material delivery tasks sent by the production execution system, and send the material receiving tasks or material delivery tasks to the second service process; The second service process is configured to: generate a receiving instruction or a feeding instruction based on the receiving task or feeding task, and send the receiving instruction or feeding instruction to the automated guided vehicle management system.

8. The material handling system according to claim 1, characterized in that, The material control system includes a client and a server, and the server is equipped with a third service process. The client is configured to: in response to a user's task creation operation on the operation interface, generate a receiving task or a feeding task, and send the receiving task or feeding task to the server. The third service process is configured to: receive the material receiving task or material delivery task sent by the client, generate a material receiving instruction or material delivery instruction based on the material receiving task or material delivery task, and send the material receiving instruction or material delivery instruction to the automated guided vehicle management system.

9. The material handling system according to claim 1, characterized in that, The automated guided vehicles (AGVs) are multiple units, and the step of scheduling the AGVs to move to the first operating device according to the receiving command includes: Each automated guided vehicle (AGV) is assigned a first priority, and at least one AGV is scheduled to move to the first operating device in descending order of the first priority. Among them, the first priority is the Automated Guided Vehicle (AGV) that is in an unloaded state.

10. The material handling system according to claim 1 or 9, characterized in that, The process of receiving materials includes: Based on the size of the material output by the first operating device, the maximum amount of material that the automated guided vehicle can carry is determined based on the size. The output material of the first operating device is received according to the maximum material quantity.

11. The material handling system according to claim 1, characterized in that, The step of generating a receiving instruction or a feeding instruction based on the receiving task or feeding task, and sending the receiving instruction or feeding instruction to the automated guided vehicle management system, includes: The second priority of each transport task is determined. According to the second priority from high to low, the transport instructions corresponding to each transport task are generated in sequence and sent to the automated guided vehicle management system in sequence. Wherein, when the conveying task is a receiving task, the corresponding conveying instruction is a receiving instruction, and when the conveying task is a feeding task, the corresponding conveying instruction is a feeding instruction.

12. A material handling method, characterized in that, The method includes: The material control system acquires receiving or feeding tasks, generates receiving or feeding instructions based on the receiving or feeding tasks, and sends the receiving or feeding instructions to the automated guided vehicle management system. The receiving task is used to receive the output material of the first operating device, and the feeding task is used to feed the material to the second operating device. The automated guided vehicle (AGV) management system receives the receiving instruction or the feeding instruction, and according to the receiving instruction, dispatches the AGV to the first operating device and performs the receiving operation, or according to the feeding instruction, controls the AGV to move to the second operating device and performs the feeding operation.

Images