Material box robot control method and device and electronic equipment

Abstract

The application provides a bin robot control method, device and electronic equipment. The application assigns a delivery task to a target bin robot with an empty bin, selects a target to-be-warehoused material from the to-be-warehoused materials currently carried by the target bin robot, and updates the warehousing position of the target to-be-warehoused material to the delivery position to be released by the delivery task, so that the bin robot does not need to go to a pre-designated fixed warehousing position to perform the warehousing operation of the to-be-warehoused material, but first performs the delivery task, releases the empty position, and then directly stores the target to-be-warehoused material in the released empty position, effectively shortens the moving distance required for the robot to perform the warehousing after completing the delivery, reduces the invalid movement, and thus improves the work efficiency of the bin robot.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] This application relates to the field of warehousing and logistics technology, and in particular to control methods, devices and electronic equipment for bin robots. Background Technology

[0002] In warehousing and logistics systems, tote robots are often controlled to perform inbound and outbound tasks. For inbound tasks, the system pre-assigns a fixed, available storage location as the sole target location for each task and controls the tote robot to move the tote from the workbench to that designated location. For outbound tasks, the system controls the tote robot to travel to the designated outbound location, retrieve the tote, and move it to the workbench.

[0003] When a bin robot is simultaneously assigned both inbound and outbound tasks—for example, the robot first performs an independent outbound task, retrieving a bin from the outbound storage location and transporting it to the workbench—and then performs an independent inbound task, retrieving a bin from the workbench and transporting it to a pre-designated inbound storage location—it's clear that under this scheduling method, after completing the outbound task, the bin robot needs to move to a relatively distant, pre-designated storage location to complete the inbound task. This results in a longer overall movement path for the bin robot and lower operational efficiency. Summary of the Invention

[0004] In view of this, this application provides a control method, apparatus and electronic equipment for a bin robot to improve the operating efficiency of the bin robot.

[0005] The technical solution provided in this application is as follows: According to an embodiment of the first aspect of this application, a bin robot control method is provided, the method comprising: For unassigned outbound tasks, a target bin robot is selected for the outbound task, and the outbound task is assigned to the target bin robot; the target bin robot has empty compartments, and the outbound task records the outbound location of the material to be outbound; If the target bin robot is currently carrying materials to be put into storage, select the target material to be put into storage from the materials currently carried by the target bin robot. The warehouse location of the target material to be put into storage is updated to the warehouse location, and the target material box robot is controlled to sequentially execute the warehouse exit task and the warehouse entry operation of the target material to be put into storage.

[0006] According to an embodiment of a second aspect of this application, a bin robot control device is provided, the device comprising: The allocation unit is used to select a target bin robot for an unassigned outbound task and assign the outbound task to the target bin robot; the target bin robot has empty material compartments, and the outbound task records the outbound location of the material to be outbound; The selection unit is used to select a target material to be put into storage from the materials currently being carried by the target bin robot when the target bin robot is currently carrying materials to be put into storage. The control unit is used to update the inbound storage location of the target material to be stored to the outbound storage location, and to control the target material box robot to sequentially execute the outbound task and the inbound operation of the target material to be stored.

[0007] According to an embodiment of a third aspect of this application, an electronic device is provided, comprising: a processor and a machine-readable storage medium storing machine-executable instructions executable by the processor; the processor is configured to execute the machine-executable instructions to implement the method described in the first aspect.

[0008] As can be seen from the above technical solution, this application assigns the outbound task to the target bin robot with an empty storage compartment, selects the target material to be stored from the materials currently being stored by the target bin robot, and updates the storage compartment of the target material to the outbound compartment to be released by the outbound task. This eliminates the need for the bin robot to go to a pre-specified fixed storage compartment to perform the storage operation of the material to be stored. Instead, it first performs the outbound task, releases the empty compartment, and then directly stores the target material to be stored into the released empty compartment. This effectively shortens the movement distance required for the robot to perform the storage operation after completing the outbound task, reduces unnecessary movement, and thus improves the operating efficiency of the bin robot. Attached Figure Description

[0009] Figure 1 This is a schematic diagram of the layout of a warehousing and logistics system provided in an embodiment of this application; Figure 2 This is a flowchart of a bin robot control method provided in an embodiment of this application; Figure 3 This is a schematic diagram of the inbound and outbound execution process provided in an embodiment of this application; Figure 4 This is a schematic diagram of the overall process of the bin robot control method provided in the embodiments of this application; Figure 5 This is a structural diagram of the bin robot control device provided in an embodiment of this application; Figure 6 This is a schematic diagram of the structure of an electronic device provided in an embodiment of this application. Detailed Implementation

[0010] To enable those skilled in the art to better understand the technical solutions provided in the embodiments of this application, and to make the above-mentioned objectives, features and advantages of the embodiments of this application more apparent and understandable, the technical solutions in the embodiments of this application will be further described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

[0011] In warehousing and logistics systems, bin robots are often controlled to perform inbound and outbound tasks.

[0012] Please refer to Figure 1 , Figure 1 This is a schematic diagram of the layout of a warehousing and logistics system provided in an embodiment of this application.

[0013] like Figure 1 As shown, a warehousing and logistics system can include core components such as a storage area, a work area, bin robots, and control components (not shown in the figure). The work area refers to the workbench area, used for acquiring materials to be received and placing materials to be shipped out. The storage area can consist of multiple rows of shelves, each with one or more storage locations (small rectangles in the figure) for storing various materials. A bin robot is an automated handling device that includes multiple storage compartments to hold multiple materials. The bin robot moves under the control of the control components. Simultaneously, the control components can obtain the current status of each storage location (e.g., whether the location currently stores materials). Figure 1 For example, the colored slots represent slots where materials are stored, while uncolored slots represent empty slots. It should be noted that... Figure 1 The arrangement of shelves in the central warehouse area and the arrangement of storage locations on the shelves are merely illustrative descriptions and are not intended to limit the scope of this application.

[0014] In this application scenario, multiple bin robots can perform material handling tasks between the warehouse area and the work area. The basic operation process of the bin robots can include: obtaining bins to be put into storage from the work area, transporting the bins to be put into storage and storing them in the designated storage location in the warehouse area (referred to as the storage task); and, according to instructions, going to the designated outbound location in the warehouse area to pick up the bins and transporting them to the work area (referred to as the outbound task).

[0015] In the scheduling schemes of related technologies, when a bin robot is simultaneously assigned both inbound and outbound tasks, it first performs an independent outbound task, retrieving a bin from the outbound storage location and transporting it to the workbench. Then, it performs an independent inbound task, retrieving a bin from the workbench and transporting it to a pre-designated inbound storage location. It is evident that under this scheduling method, after completing the outbound task, the bin robot needs to move to a relatively distant, pre-designated storage location to complete the inbound task, resulting in a long overall movement path and low operational efficiency.

[0016] Based on this, this application proposes a control method for a bin robot to improve the operating efficiency of the bin robot.

[0017] Please refer to Figure 2 , Figure 2 A flowchart illustrating the bin robot control method provided in this application embodiment.

[0018] In this embodiment, the method can be applied to control components in a warehousing and logistics system, such as a scheduling server or a warehouse control system, and this application does not impose any limitations on it.

[0019] like Figure 2 As shown, the method may include the following steps: Step 201: For unassigned outbound tasks, select a target bin robot for the outbound task and assign the outbound task to the target bin robot.

[0020] Among them, the target material bin robot has empty material compartments, and the outbound task records the outbound warehouse location of the material to be outbound.

[0021] In this embodiment, when the control component (such as a scheduling server) detects one or more unassigned outbound tasks, it needs to select and assign a suitable target bin robot for each outbound task. Each outbound task records at least the outbound location information of the material to be outbound. To ensure the robot can successfully retrieve the material, the selected target bin robot must have at least one empty compartment to temporarily hold the retrieved material.

[0022] As an example, an empty compartment can hold one material, and a storage space can store one material.

[0023] In this embodiment, the specific method for selecting a target bin robot for an outbound task may include: Based on the material compartment status of each bin robot, candidate bin robots with empty material compartments are identified; Based on the location information of the outbound warehouse, determine the distance between each candidate material box robot and the outbound warehouse; The candidate bin robot that is closest to the outbound storage location is identified as the target bin robot.

[0024] Specifically, the control component can obtain the material compartment status of each bin robot included in the warehousing and logistics system, that is, determine whether each bin robot has an empty material compartment, and identify bin robots with empty material compartments as candidate bin robots that meet the outbound requirements.

[0025] Furthermore, the control component acquires the real-time storage status of all bins within the warehousing and logistics system. The storage status includes whether each bin is occupied by materials. By iterating through the storage occupancy status of each bin robot, bin robots with at least one empty bin are selected and marked as candidate bin robots. If all bins of a bin robot are currently full (regardless of whether they are carrying materials to be received or shipped), it indicates that the bin robot does not meet the basic conditions for performing outbound tasks and is not included in the candidate pool.

[0026] In this embodiment, for the identified candidate bin robots, the control component can calculate the distance between the current position of each candidate bin robot and the corresponding outbound bin location based on the outbound location information recorded in the outbound task. This distance can be the straight-line Euclidean distance between the two, or it can be the length of the actual travel path of the bin robot; this application does not impose any limitations on this.

[0027] After obtaining the distance between each candidate bin robot and the outbound location recorded in the outbound task, the candidate bin robot closest to the outbound location can be identified as the target bin robot for the final execution of the outbound task, and the outbound task can be assigned to that robot.

[0028] In this embodiment, selecting the candidate robot closest to the outbound warehouse as the target robot to perform the outbound task can significantly shorten the empty travel distance of the robot to the outbound warehouse and improve the overall operation efficiency.

[0029] This concludes the description of step 201. We will now proceed to step 202.

[0030] Step 202: If the target bin robot is currently carrying materials to be put into storage, select the target material to be put into storage from the materials currently carried by the target bin robot.

[0031] In this embodiment, if the target bin robot determined by step 201 is currently carrying materials to be put into storage, it indicates that the target bin robot has been assigned a storage task in addition to the outbound task assigned in step 201.

[0032] In order to make full use of the storage space released after the execution of the outbound task, the proposed solution considers that after the outbound task is executed, that is, after the material to be outbound is taken out of the outbound storage space, the material to be put into storage in the target bin robot is directly put into the outbound storage space, so as to avoid the bin robot having to travel a long distance to find the storage space.

[0033] In this embodiment, after the target bin robot is assigned an outbound task, if the robot's current storage compartment already carries one or more materials awaiting inbound storage (i.e., in addition to the outbound task to be performed, the robot is also carrying materials that have not yet been stored), the control component needs to select a suitable material from these materials and update its storage target to the outbound storage location to be released by this outbound task, thereby realizing a "one-to-one" assembly line operation. However, not all materials awaiting inbound storage are suitable for dynamically changing their storage location. For example, some materials that require a special storage environment (such as refrigeration) can only be stored in pre-designated dedicated storage locations and cannot be arbitrarily stored in ordinary outbound storage locations. Therefore, this application introduces a dynamic change identifier and task priority mechanism to rationally select target materials awaiting inbound storage.

[0034] Specifically, the target bin robot is currently carrying materials awaiting warehousing that are associated with a dynamic change identifier. This dynamic change identifier is used to indicate whether the warehousing location of the materials awaiting warehousing is allowed to be changed.

[0035] Specific methods for selecting target materials to be put into storage from the materials currently being carried by the target bin robot may include: For the target bin robot currently carrying the material to be put into storage, if the dynamic change identifier associated with the material to be put into storage indicates that the storage location of the material to be put into storage is allowed to be changed, then the material to be put into storage is determined to be a candidate material to be put into storage. If there are candidate materials to be put into storage, the target material to be put into storage shall be determined from the candidate materials.

[0036] In this embodiment, the control component associates a dynamic change identifier with each material to be received into the warehouse. This identifier indicates whether the material's receiving location is allowed to be changed. The dynamic change identifier can be set by the upper-level business system based on material attributes (such as temperature and humidity requirements, storage requirements) or customer instructions when the receiving task is generated. For example, for ordinary materials, the dynamic change identifier can be set to allow changes; for special materials such as fresh produce and pharmaceuticals, it can be set to disallow changes.

[0037] The phrase "the warehouse location of the material to be received can be changed" means that the material to be received can be stored in any warehouse location, and therefore its warehouse location can be changed at any time during the receiving process. The phrase "the warehouse location of the material to be received cannot be changed" means that the material to be received can only be stored in a preset designated warehouse location. For example, fresh products can only be stored in warehouses with refrigeration functions, and their warehouse location cannot be changed.

[0038] As an example, the dynamic change flag can be identified by 0 or 1. For example, a dynamic change flag of 0 indicates that the warehouse location of the material to be received is not allowed to be changed, while a dynamic change flag of 1 indicates that the warehouse location of the material to be received is allowed to be changed.

[0039] In this embodiment, when selecting a target material to be put into storage from the materials currently being carried by the target bin robot, each material to be put into storage currently being carried by the target bin robot can be detected to obtain its associated dynamic change identifier.

[0040] If the dynamic change flag associated with the material to be received indicates that the receiving location of the material to be received is allowed to be changed, it means that the receiving location of the material to be received can be changed, and at this time the material to be received can be determined as a candidate material to be received.

[0041] When at least one candidate material is available for warehousing, the control component further determines a single target material from these candidates. If no candidate material is available (i.e., no material is allowed to change its storage location), the outbound task cannot be dynamically matched for warehousing, and the control component can handle it in a conventional manner: for example, the target bin robot can only perform the outbound task, and after the outbound task is completed, the remaining materials to be received can be stored in the pre-designated fixed storage location.

[0042] Furthermore, if there are candidate materials to be put into storage, the target material to be put into storage is determined from the candidate materials.

[0043] Specifically, the materials that the target bin robot is currently carrying and waiting to be put into storage are also associated with task priorities.

[0044] If there is only one candidate material to be received, then the candidate material to be received will be designated as the target material to be received. If there are multiple candidate materials to be put into storage, the target materials to be put into storage will be determined according to the priority order of the tasks associated with the candidate materials.

[0045] In this embodiment, if only one candidate material to be put into storage is found, then that candidate material to be put into storage can be directly identified as the target material to be put into storage.

[0046] If multiple candidate materials to be put into storage are identified, the task priority associated with each candidate material can be obtained, and the candidate material with the higher task priority can be selected as the target material to be put into storage.

[0047] If there is only one material with the highest priority, then that material is identified as the target material to be put into storage. If there are multiple materials with the highest priority (i.e., there is a tie in priority), then preset auxiliary rules can be used to make a selection, such as: selecting the material that was moved to the target bin robot earliest (i.e., the material that was issued the earliest or loaded by the robot first), or randomly selecting one of them.

[0048] As an example, if there are multiple candidate materials to be put into storage with the highest task priority, the candidate material to be put into storage corresponding to the earliest put-in task can be selected as the target material to be put into storage according to the order of the put-in tasks corresponding to the candidate materials to be put into storage. That is, the candidate material to be put into storage that is first transported to the target bin robot among the multiple candidate materials to be put into storage with the highest task priority is selected as the target material to be put into storage.

[0049] By adopting the two-level screening mechanism of dynamic change of identifier and task priority proposed in step 202, the storage compliance of special materials is guaranteed, the high-priority materials are given priority in warehousing, and the warehouse space resources released by the outbound are maximized, which significantly improves the overall operating efficiency of the bin robot.

[0050] This concludes the description of step 202. We will now proceed to step 203.

[0051] Step 203: Update the inbound storage location of the target material to be stored to the outbound storage location, so as to control the target material box robot to execute the outbound task and the inbound operation of the target material to be stored in sequence.

[0052] In this embodiment, after determining the target material to be put into storage through step 202, the storage location of the target material to be put into storage can be updated to the outbound storage location corresponding to the outbound task, so that the target material to be put into storage can be stored in the outbound storage location. In other words, the target bin robot does not need to go to the originally pre-designated fixed empty storage location to store the target material to be put into storage, but directly binds the storage target of the target material to the storage location that is about to be emptied.

[0053] After updating the storage location of the target material to be stored, the control component can generate a composite task instruction for the target bin robot. This composite task instruction is used to instruct the target bin robot to first perform the outbound task and then perform the storage operation of the target material to be stored.

[0054] Furthermore, the control component can send the composite task instruction to the target bin robot. After receiving the instruction, the target bin robot can sequentially execute the outbound task and the inbound operation of the target material to be put into storage.

[0055] As an example, the target bin robot can move the material to be shipped from the outbound storage location to the empty compartment of the target bin robot, and move the target material to be received into the newly released outbound storage location, thus completing the receiving operation of the target material to be received.

[0056] Please refer to Figure 3 , Figure 3 This is a schematic diagram of the inbound and outbound execution process provided in an embodiment of this application.

[0057] like Figure 3 As shown, there is an empty material compartment in the target material bin robot CTU. The outbound material to be outbound is P01, which is issued by the control component to the CTU. The target material to be inbound is P21, which is determined by the CTU. According to the solution provided in this embodiment, the inbound location of P21 can be updated to the outbound location of P01. When executing the inbound / outbound task, P01 is first taken out of the outbound location and placed on the empty material compartment. Then, P21 is directly put into the outbound location to complete the inbound process of P21.

[0058] As can be seen, the solution proposed in this embodiment breaks the limitation of independent scheduling of inbound and outbound tasks in traditional solutions by binding the outbound release location as the inbound location in real time. It realizes a "one-to-one" assembly line operation mode, enabling the bin robot to perform tasks continuously and avoiding the time waste caused by searching for storage locations over long distances.

[0059] This concludes the description of step 203.

[0060] As an example, after controlling the target bin robot to sequentially execute the outbound task and the inbound operation of the target material to be inbound, the method further includes: If the target bin robot is currently carrying materials to be put into storage, then determine whether there is an outbound task assigned to the target bin robot. If it exists, return to the step of selecting the target material to be put into storage from the materials currently being carried by the target bin robot; If it does not exist, the robot controlling the target bin will store the currently loaded material to be put into an empty storage space.

[0061] In this embodiment, after completing the above-mentioned "take one, put one" operation, the target bin robot may still be carrying other materials waiting to be put into storage (i.e., in addition to the materials that have just been paired and put into storage, there are still materials that have not yet been put into storage). At this time, the control component can perform the following processing based on whether there is an outbound task assigned to the robot.

[0062] Specifically, if the control component finds that there are still unexecuted outbound tasks assigned to the target bin robot (i.e., the robot still has outbound storage locations to retrieve goods from), the control component returns to the step of selecting the target material to be put into storage from the materials currently carried by the target bin robot, and continues to match new outbound tasks for the remaining materials to be put into storage on the robot. In other words, after the target bin robot completes a set of "take one, put one," if it still has materials to be put into storage and has been assigned other outbound tasks (such as previously assigned but unexecuted outbound tasks), it repeats the above dynamic matching process, binding the next material to be put into storage with the storage location released by the next outbound task. This enables continuous multi-round "take one, put one" flow operations.

[0063] If the control component finds that there are no outbound tasks assigned to the target bin robot (i.e., the robot has no outbound tasks to be executed), it indicates that it cannot continue to use the outbound release space for inbound storage. In this case, the control component can control the target bin robot to store the currently carried materials to be stored in a pre-designated empty space in the system, to ensure that the materials to be stored are eventually stored and to avoid materials remaining on the bin robot for a long time.

[0064] As an example, after controlling the target bin robot to sequentially execute the outbound task and the inbound operation of the target material to be inbound, the method further includes: When the target bin robot is not currently carrying any materials to be put into storage and there are empty material compartments in the target bin robot, determine whether there is an outbound task currently assigned to the target bin robot. If present, control the target bin robot to move the materials to be shipped from the outbound warehouse corresponding to the outbound task to the empty material slot of the target bin robot, until there are no empty material slots or no outbound task assigned to the target bin robot; control the target bin robot to move to the workbench area and move all the materials to be shipped on the target bin robot to the workbench area. If it does not exist, control the target bin robot to move to the workbench area and move all the materials to be shipped out on the target bin robot to the workbench area; The workbench area is used to acquire materials to be put into storage and to place materials to be put out of storage.

[0065] After completing one or more rounds of "pick-up-put-down" operations, the target bin robot may be in a state where it is not currently carrying any materials to be put into storage (i.e., all materials originally carried have been put into storage through dynamic pairing or conventional storage methods). At this time, the target bin robot only carries materials to be taken out from various outbound locations. However, in this case, the target bin robot often still has empty storage compartments (because the number of empty storage compartments remains unchanged after each "pick-up-put-down" operation, and the initial number of empty storage compartments is usually greater than 0). In order to further improve the robot's single-pass handling efficiency and avoid wasting transport capacity due to the robot returning to the workbench without being fully loaded, this application further proposes to determine whether there is an outbound task assigned to the target bin robot when the target bin robot is not currently carrying any materials to be put into storage and has empty storage compartments.

[0066] If an outbound task is assigned to the target bin robot, the control component directs the target bin robot to sequentially proceed to the outbound compartment corresponding to each outbound task, retrieve the material to be outbound, and place it into the target bin robot's own empty compartment. It is important to note that these outbound tasks are not paired with any inbound tasks (because the target bin robot already has no material to be inbound).

[0067] Each time the target bin robot completes an outbound task, the number of its empty storage compartments decreases by one. The control unit repeats this process until either of the following conditions is met: the target bin robot has no empty storage compartments (i.e., all compartments are full of materials to be outbound); or there are no more available or already assigned outbound tasks to the robot. This maximizes the utilization of the target bin robot's storage compartments, ensuring that the compartments are filled before delivery.

[0068] When the robot no longer has empty material slots or no outbound task to perform, the control unit controls the robot to move to the workbench area (i.e., the area used to acquire materials to be put into storage and place materials to be taken out of storage), and moves all the materials to be taken out of storage on the robot to the workbench area one by one, completing the final delivery of the outbound task.

[0069] If the target bin robot is not currently carrying any materials to be put into storage and there are empty material compartments, and it is found that there is no outbound task assigned to the target bin robot, then the target bin robot can be directly controlled to move to the workbench area and move the existing materials to be put into storage to the workbench.

[0070] In this embodiment, after executing step 203, a special case may exist. For example, after performing the "take one, put one" operation in step 203, the target bin robot may still be carrying materials to be put into storage, and the dynamic change identifier associated with some of these materials indicates that their storage location cannot be changed (e.g., special materials that require refrigeration). In this case, since such materials cannot have their storage location dynamically changed, they cannot be stored in the ordinary outbound release location. Therefore, the control component can prioritize controlling the target bin robot to perform the storage task of these materials that cannot be changed (i.e., store them in their pre-specified dedicated storage locations). After the storage is completed, the outbound operation of the currently carried materials to be released will be performed.

[0071] This concludes the discussion on... Figure 2 The description.

[0072] This application assigns outbound tasks to target bin robots with empty storage compartments. It selects the target material to be stored from the materials currently being stored by the target bin robot and updates the storage location of the target material to the outbound location to be released by the outbound task. This eliminates the need for the bin robot to travel to a pre-designated fixed storage location to perform the storage operation. Instead, it first executes the outbound task, releases an empty storage compartment, and then directly stores the target material into the released empty compartment. This effectively shortens the distance the robot needs to travel after completing the outbound process and reduces unnecessary movement, thereby improving the operating efficiency of the bin robot.

[0073] Meanwhile, this application fully leverages the advantage of the number of material compartments in the body of a multi-compartment (at least 2 material compartments) bin robot, eliminating the need to reserve empty storage spaces in the racks and enabling the acquisition of storage spaces based on outbound tasks, thus lowering the requirements for recommended storage spaces.

[0074] The following is through Figure 4 The proposed solution in this application is described in its entirety.

[0075] Please refer to Figure 4 , Figure 4 This is a schematic diagram of the overall process of the bin robot control method provided in the embodiments of this application.

[0076] like Figure 4 As shown, this embodiment includes the following steps: (1) Select the target bin robot for the outbound task.

[0077] In this embodiment, when the control component detects an unassigned outbound task, it can select a target bin robot for that task. The selected target bin robot must have at least one empty storage compartment to retrieve the material to be outbound from the outbound location and temporarily carry it. For example, the bin robot with an empty storage compartment closest to the outbound location can be selected as the target bin robot, and the outbound task can be assigned to that target bin robot.

[0078] (2) Determine whether the target bin robot is currently carrying materials to be put into storage.

[0079] In this embodiment, the control component queries the cell status of the target bin robot to determine whether at least one cell contains materials to be put into storage (i.e., whether the target bin robot is simultaneously carrying materials that have not yet been put into storage). If the determination result is yes, then step (3) is executed; if the determination result is no (i.e., the robot is currently only carrying materials to be put out of storage or is empty), then the pure outbound process is executed.

[0080] (3) Select the target material to be put into storage from the materials to be put into storage.

[0081] In this embodiment, after confirming that the target bin robot carries materials to be stored, the control component can select one of these materials as the target material to be stored. For specific selection methods, please refer to [link to relevant documentation]. Figure 2 The description in the text will not be repeated here.

[0082] (4) Update the warehouse location of the target material to be put into storage to the warehouse location corresponding to the outbound task.

[0083] In this embodiment, the control component modifies the original storage location (usually a pre-designated fixed empty storage location) of the selected target material to be stored in the warehouse to the storage location corresponding to this outbound task. This dynamic binding operation allows the material to be directly stored in the newly released storage location after the robot completes the outbound task, without having to travel a long distance to another location.

[0084] (5) Control the target material box robot to take out the material to be shipped out from the outbound warehouse and put the target material to be shipped in.

[0085] In this embodiment, the control component sends a compound command to the target bin robot. The robot first moves to the outbound bin specified by the outbound task, takes out the material to be outbound from the bin and puts it into its own empty bin. Then, the robot takes the previously selected target material to be put into storage from its own bin and puts it into the outbound bin that has just been released.

[0086] At this point, the robot has completed a set of "take one, put one away" operations: an outbound storage location is immediately reused to receive a material to be put into storage.

[0087] (6) Determine whether the target bin robot still carries materials to be put into storage.

[0088] In this embodiment, after completing the above "take one, put one" operation, the control component checks the status of the target bin robot's compartment again to determine whether it still carries other materials to be put into storage. If the determination result is yes, then step (7) is further executed to determine whether there is an outbound task assigned to the robot; if the determination result is no (i.e. all materials to be put into storage have been processed through dynamic pairing or other means), then the pure outbound process is executed.

[0089] (7) Determine whether there is an outbound task assigned to the target bin robot.

[0090] In this embodiment, if there are still materials to be put into storage in the target bin robot, the control component can query whether there are other outbound tasks that have not yet been executed and have been assigned to the target bin robot. If there are, return to step (3) and continue to dynamically match the remaining materials to be put into storage with the next outbound task; if there are no outbound tasks available for matching, continue to execute step (8).

[0091] (8) Control the target bin robot to store the materials to be put into the warehouse into the empty warehouse.

[0092] In this embodiment, when the target bin robot still has materials to be put into storage but no outbound tasks to be paired with, the control component can allocate the remaining materials to be put into storage to the robot to a pre-specified idle bin (i.e., a traditional fixed target bin) and control the robot to store these materials into the corresponding bins one by one, so as to ensure that the materials to be put into storage can eventually be put into storage and will not be stuck for a long time due to the lack of outbound tasks.

[0093] (9) Pure outbound process.

[0094] In this embodiment, when the robot is not currently carrying any materials to be put into storage (i.e., all materials to be put into storage have already been put into storage), the control component enters a pure outbound process. Specifically, if the robot has empty storage compartments and there are available outbound tasks in the system, the robot is controlled to continuously execute pure outbound tasks (only pick up, no put down) until the robot has no empty storage compartments or no more outbound tasks to be assigned; the robot is then controlled to move to the workbench area and move all the materials to be put out of storage carried on the robot to the workbench. If the robot has no empty storage compartments or no outbound tasks to be assigned, the robot is directly controlled to go to the workbench to unload the goods.

[0095] As can be seen, according to the solution proposed in this embodiment, the robot does not need to travel a long distance to the pre-assigned, distant original storage location. Instead, it directly stores the materials to be stored corresponding to the storage task into the newly released outbound storage location. This enables the storage to be completed on-site at the outbound location, greatly shortening the robot's travel distance.

[0096] This concludes the discussion on... Figure 4 The description.

[0097] Please refer to Figure 5 , Figure 5 This is a structural diagram of the bin robot control device proposed in an embodiment of this application. This device is applied to cloud-based devices. Figure 5 As shown, the device may include a distribution unit 501, a selection unit 502, and a control unit 503. Specifically, the device includes: The allocation unit 501 is used to select a target bin robot for an unassigned outbound task and assign the outbound task to the target bin robot; the target bin robot has empty material compartments, and the outbound task records the outbound location of the material to be outbound; Selection unit 502 is used to select a target material to be put into storage from the materials currently being put into storage carried by the target bin robot when the target bin robot is currently carrying materials to be put into storage. The control unit 503 is used to update the inbound storage location of the target material to be stored to the outbound storage location, and to control the target material box robot to sequentially execute the outbound task and the inbound operation of the target material to be stored.

[0098] As one embodiment, the allocation unit 501 is specifically used for: Based on the material compartment status of each bin robot, candidate bin robots with empty material compartments are identified; Based on the location information of the outbound warehouse, determine the distance between each candidate material box robot and the outbound warehouse; The candidate bin robot that is closest to the outbound storage location is identified as the target bin robot.

[0099] As one embodiment, the target bin robot currently carrying materials awaiting warehousing is associated with a dynamic change identifier, which indicates whether the warehousing location of the materials is allowed to be changed; the selection unit 502 is specifically used for: For the target bin robot currently carrying the material to be put into storage, if the dynamic change identifier associated with the material to be put into storage indicates that the storage location of the material to be put into storage is allowed to be changed, then the material to be put into storage is determined to be a candidate material to be put into storage. If there are candidate materials to be put into storage, the target material to be put into storage shall be determined from the candidate materials.

[0100] As an example, the materials currently being stored on the target bin robot are also associated with task priorities; the selection unit 502 is specifically used for: If there is only one candidate material to be received, then the candidate material to be received will be designated as the target material to be received. If there are multiple candidate materials to be put into storage, the target materials to be put into storage will be determined according to the priority order of the tasks associated with the candidate materials.

[0101] As one embodiment, the control unit 503 is specifically used for: Control the target bin robot to move the materials to be shipped from the outbound warehouse to the empty compartment of the target bin robot; The robot controls the target material bin to move the target material to the outbound storage location.

[0102] As an example, after the target bin robot sequentially executes the outbound task and the inbound operation of the target material to be stored, the control unit 503 is further configured to: If the target bin robot is currently carrying materials to be put into storage, then determine whether there is an outbound task assigned to the target bin robot. If it exists, return to the step of selecting the target material to be put into storage from the materials currently being carried by the target bin robot; If it does not exist, the robot controlling the target bin will store the currently loaded material to be put into an empty storage space.

[0103] As an example, after the target bin robot sequentially executes the outbound task and the inbound operation of the target material to be stored, the control unit 503 is further configured to: When the target bin robot is not currently carrying any materials to be put into storage and there are empty material compartments in the target bin robot, determine whether there is an outbound task currently assigned to the target bin robot. If present, control the target bin robot to move the materials to be shipped from the outbound warehouse corresponding to the outbound task to the empty material slot of the target bin robot, until there are no empty material slots or no outbound task assigned to the target bin robot; control the target bin robot to move to the workbench area and move all the materials to be shipped on the target bin robot to the workbench area. If it does not exist, control the target bin robot to move to the workbench area and move all the materials to be shipped out on the target bin robot to the workbench area; The workbench area is used to acquire materials to be put into storage and to place materials to be put out of storage.

[0104] This concludes the discussion on... Figure 5 Description of the device.

[0105] This application also provides embodiments that... Figure 5 Hardware structure description of the illustrated device. This hardware structure is... Figure 5 The structure in the illustrated electronic device. Please refer to [link / reference]. Figure 6 , Figure 6 This is a structural diagram of an electronic device provided in an embodiment of this application. Figure 6 As shown, the hardware structure may include: a processor and a machine-readable storage medium, the machine-readable storage medium storing machine-executable instructions that can be executed by the processor; the processor is used to execute the machine-executable instructions to implement the method disclosed in the above example of this application.

[0106] Based on the same concept as the above method, this application also provides a machine-readable storage medium storing a plurality of computer instructions, which, when executed by a processor, can implement the method disclosed in the above examples of this application.

[0107] For example, the aforementioned machine-readable storage medium can be any electronic, magnetic, optical, or other physical storage device that can contain or store information such as executable instructions, data, etc. For instance, computer-readable storage media can be: RAM (Random Access Memory), volatile memory, non-volatile memory, flash memory, storage drives (such as hard disk drives), solid-state drives, any type of storage disk (such as optical discs, DVDs, etc.), or similar storage media, or combinations thereof.

Claims

1. A control method for a bin robot, characterized in that, The method includes: For unassigned outbound tasks, a target bin robot is selected for the outbound task, and the outbound task is assigned to the target bin robot; the target bin robot has empty compartments, and the outbound task records the outbound location of the material to be outbound; If the target bin robot is currently carrying materials to be put into storage, select the target material to be put into storage from the materials currently carried by the target bin robot. The warehouse location of the target material to be put into storage is updated to the warehouse location, and the target material box robot is controlled to sequentially execute the warehouse exit task and the warehouse entry operation of the target material to be put into storage.

2. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that, Selecting a target bin robot for the outbound task includes: Based on the material compartment status of each bin robot, candidate bin robots with empty material compartments are identified; Based on the location information of the outbound storage location, determine the distance between each candidate material box robot and the outbound storage location; The candidate bin robot that is closest to the outbound storage location is identified as the target bin robot.

3. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that, The target bin robot is currently carrying materials to be put into storage, which are associated with a dynamic change identifier. The dynamic change identifier is used to indicate whether the storage location of the materials to be put into storage is allowed to be changed. The step of selecting the target material to be put into storage from the materials currently being carried by the target bin robot includes: For the target bin robot currently carrying the material to be put into storage, if the dynamic change identifier associated with the material to be put into storage indicates that the storage location of the material to be put into storage is allowed to be changed, then the material to be put into storage is determined to be a candidate material to be put into storage. If the candidate materials to be put into storage exist, the target material to be put into storage is determined from the candidate materials to be put into storage.

4. The method according to claim 3, characterized in that, The target bin robot is currently carrying materials awaiting warehousing, which are also associated with task priorities; determining the target material to be warehoused from the candidate materials includes: If the quantity of the candidate material to be put into storage is one, then the candidate material to be put into storage is determined as the target material to be put into storage; If there are multiple candidate materials to be put into storage, the target materials to be put into storage are determined according to the priority order of the tasks associated with the candidate materials.

5. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that, The process of controlling the target bin robot to sequentially execute the outbound task and the inbound operation of the target material to be inbound includes: Control the target material box robot to transport the material to be shipped from the shipping warehouse to the empty material compartment of the target material box robot; The target material box robot is controlled to transport the target material to be put into storage to the outbound storage location.

6. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that, After controlling the target bin robot to sequentially execute the outbound task and the inbound operation of the target material to be inbound, the method further includes: If the target bin robot is currently carrying materials to be put into storage, then determine whether there is an outbound task assigned to the target bin robot. If it exists, return to the step of selecting the target material to be put into storage from the materials currently being carried by the target bin robot; If it does not exist, control the target bin robot to store the currently loaded material to be put into the empty bin.

7. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that, After controlling the target bin robot to sequentially execute the outbound task and the inbound operation of the target material to be inbound, the method further includes: When the target bin robot is not currently carrying any materials to be put into storage and the target bin robot has empty material compartments, determine whether there is an outbound task currently assigned to the target bin robot. If present, control the target material box robot to move the material to be shipped from the shipping compartment corresponding to the shipping task to the empty material box of the target material box robot, until the target material box robot has no empty material box or no shipping task assigned to the target material box robot; control the target material box robot to move to the workbench area and move all the material to be shipped on the target material box robot to the workbench area; If it does not exist, control the target bin robot to move to the workbench area, and move all the materials to be shipped out on the target bin robot to the workbench area; The workbench area is used to acquire materials to be put into storage and to place materials to be put out of storage.

8. A control device for a bin robot, characterized in that, The device includes: The allocation unit is used to select a target bin robot for an unassigned outbound task and assign the outbound task to the target bin robot; the target bin robot has empty material compartments, and the outbound task records the outbound location of the material to be outbound; The selection unit is used to select a target material to be put into storage from the materials currently being carried by the target bin robot when the target bin robot is currently carrying materials to be put into storage. The control unit is used to update the inbound storage location of the target material to be stored to the outbound storage location, and to control the target material box robot to sequentially execute the outbound task and the inbound operation of the target material to be stored.

9. The apparatus according to claim 8, characterized in that, The allocation unit is specifically used for: Based on the material compartment status of each bin robot, candidate bin robots with empty material compartments are identified; Based on the location information of the outbound storage location, determine the distance between each candidate material box robot and the outbound storage location; The candidate bin robot that is closest to the outbound storage location is identified as the target bin robot; And / or, the target bin robot is currently carrying materials awaiting warehousing that are associated with a dynamic change identifier, which is used to indicate whether the warehousing location of the materials awaiting warehousing is allowed to be changed; the selection unit is specifically used for: For the target bin robot currently carrying the material to be put into storage, if the dynamic change identifier associated with the material to be put into storage indicates that the storage location of the material to be put into storage is allowed to be changed, then the material to be put into storage is determined to be a candidate material to be put into storage. If the candidate materials to be put into storage exist, the target material to be put into storage shall be determined from the candidate materials to be put into storage; And / or, the target bin robot is currently carrying materials awaiting warehousing that are also associated with a task priority; the selection unit is specifically used for: If the quantity of the candidate material to be put into storage is one, then the candidate material to be put into storage is determined as the target material to be put into storage; If there are multiple candidate materials to be put into storage, the target materials to be put into storage are determined according to the priority order of the tasks associated with the candidate materials to be put into storage. And / or, the control unit is specifically used for: Control the target material box robot to transport the material to be shipped from the shipping warehouse to the empty material compartment of the target material box robot; The target material box robot is controlled to transport the target material to be put into storage to the outbound storage location; And / or, after controlling the target bin robot to sequentially execute the outbound task and the inbound operation of the target material to be inbound, the control unit is further configured to: If the target bin robot is currently carrying materials to be put into storage, then determine whether there is an outbound task assigned to the target bin robot. If it exists, return to the step of selecting the target material to be put into storage from the materials currently being carried by the target bin robot; If it does not exist, control the target bin robot to store the currently loaded material to be put into the empty bin. And / or, after controlling the target bin robot to sequentially execute the outbound task and the inbound operation of the target material to be inbound, the control unit is further configured to: When the target bin robot is not currently carrying any materials to be put into storage and the target bin robot has empty material compartments, determine whether there is an outbound task currently assigned to the target bin robot. If present, control the target material box robot to move the material to be shipped from the shipping compartment corresponding to the shipping task to the empty material box of the target material box robot, until the target material box robot has no empty material box or no shipping task assigned to the target material box robot; control the target material box robot to move to the workbench area and move all the material to be shipped on the target material box robot to the workbench area; If it does not exist, control the target bin robot to move to the workbench area, and move all the materials to be shipped out on the target bin robot to the workbench area; The workbench area is used to acquire materials to be put into storage and to place materials to be put out of storage.

10. An electronic device, characterized in that, include: A processor and a machine-readable storage medium, the machine-readable storage medium storing machine-executable instructions that can be executed by the processor; The processor is configured to execute machine-executable instructions to implement the method according to any one of claims 1 to 7.

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