Method and apparatus for monitoring and managing the operation of loading and unloading docks and facilities

Abstract

Systems, apparatuses, articles, and methods for monitoring and managing operations at a loading and unloading dock and facility are disclosed. An example apparatus includes at least one memory, machine-readable instructions, and at least one programmable circuit programmed by the machine-readable instructions to: present, through a graphical user interface, a layout of a material handling facility, the layout including a plurality of locations for representing material handling equipment, the locations corresponding to at least one of a loading and unloading dock or doorway of the material handling facility; associate data from a first equipment at a first loading and unloading dock or doorway from the at least one of a loading and unloading dock or doorway with a first location of the plurality of locations included in the layout; and generate a graphic to be presented at the first location through the graphical user interface, the graphic based on the data from the first equipment.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] This disclosure generally relates to monitoring systems, and more specifically, to methods and apparatus for monitoring and managing the operation of loading and unloading stations and facilities. Background Technology

[0002] In recent years, loading and unloading platforms have provided parking areas for vehicles (such as trucks and trailers), allowing them to park next to elevated platforms of buildings (such as material handling facilities), thus facilitating the transfer of goods between vehicles and buildings. Some loading and unloading platforms are equipped with platform adjustment panels, vehicle restraint devices, and / or platform doors, any of which can be associated with one or more sensor / monitoring systems. Attached Figure Description

[0003] Figure 1 An exemplary material handling facility is shown that can implement the teachings disclosed herein.

[0004] Figure 2 This shows the view from the outside of the material handling facility. Figure 1 An exemplary loading and unloading station.

[0005] Figure 3 This shows an observation from inside the material handling facility. Figure 1 An exemplary loading and unloading platform, in which a trailer is parked.

[0006] Figure 4 It shows Figure 1 Exemplary loading and unloading platforms and Figure 3 The corresponding side sectional view of the trailer.

[0007] Figure 5 It shows Figure 1 A top view of an exemplary material handling facility.

[0008] Figure 6 for Figure 1 A block diagram of an exemplary implementation of an exemplary master server.

[0009] Figure 7 The example graphical user interface is shown. Figure 1 An exemplary layout of an exemplary material handling facility.

[0010] Figure 8A and Figure 8B Showing the scaling Figure 7 An exemplary movable size calibration graphic of an exemplary layout.

[0011] Figure 9 An exemplary graphical user interface is shown, which is used for providing Figure 1The exemplary controllers identified in the equipment asset inventory of the exemplary material handling facility are assigned descriptive names.

[0012] Figure 10 An example device label is shown. Figure 7 Placement on an exemplary layout.

[0013] Figure 11 An exemplary device diagram is shown, illustrating an exemplary state of an exemplary loading and unloading platform device.

[0014] Figures 12 to 16 The flowchart illustrates exemplary machine-readable instructions and / or operations, which may be executed, instantiated, and / or implemented by exemplary programmable circuitry to achieve... Figure 6 The main server.

[0015] Figure 17 This is a block diagram of an exemplary processing platform, which includes programmable circuitry configured to execute, instantiate, and / or implement... Figure 12 , Figure 13 , Figure 14 , Figure 15 and / or Figure 16 Exemplary machine-readable instructions and / or perform exemplary operations to achieve Figure 6 The main server.

[0016] Figure 18 for Figure 17 A block diagram of an exemplary implementation of a programmable circuit.

[0017] Figure 19 for Figure 17 A block diagram of another exemplary embodiment of the programmable circuit.

[0018] Figure 20 This is a block diagram of an exemplary software / firmware / instruction distribution platform (e.g., one or more servers) for distributing software, instructions, and / or firmware (e.g., corresponding to end users and / or consumers (e.g., for licensing, sale, and / or use), retailers (e.g., for sale, resale, licensing, and / or re-licensing), and / or original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) (e.g., contained in products to be distributed to retailers and / or other end users (e.g., direct purchase customers)). Figure 12 , Figure 13 , Figure 14 , Figure 15 and / or Figure 16 (Example machine-readable instructions).

[0019] Generally, the same reference numerals will be used to refer to the same or similar parts in all accompanying drawings and written descriptions. The drawings are not necessarily drawn to scale. Detailed Implementation

[0020] Figure 1 An exemplary material handling facility 100 is shown that can implement the teachings disclosed herein. The material handling facility 100 may be associated, for example, with a warehouse, distribution center, manufacturing plant, retail store, etc. In the illustrated example, the material handling facility 100 includes a plurality of loading / unloading platforms 102 (two are shown) that provide platforms for trucks to park trailers or truck beds (referred to herein as trailers) onto the platforms to enable loading and / or unloading of materials between the trailer and the material handling facility 100. Figure 2 An exemplary loading and unloading platform 102 is shown as viewed from the outside of the material handling facility 100. Figure 3 An exemplary loading and unloading platform 102 is shown as viewed from inside the material handling facility 100, with a trailer 300 parked at the platform 102. Figure 4 A side sectional view of an exemplary loading / unloading platform 102 and its corresponding trailer 300 is shown. Figures 1 to 4 As shown, the exemplary platform 102 includes platform screen doors 104, doorway railings 106, platform adjustment panels 108, vehicle restraint devices 110, presence / motion detectors 112, and / or notification systems 114. In some examples, platform 102 may be associated with and / or include other equipment such as fans, lighting equipment, door seals, door covers, trailer supports, etc. Figure 5 A top view of a material handling facility 100 is shown, which includes multiple exemplary loading and unloading platforms 102 and multiple exemplary trailers 300.

[0021] In the illustrated example, each platform 102 includes a platform controller 116 for monitoring and / or controlling the operation of the corresponding platform door 104, corresponding doorway railing 106, corresponding platform control panel 108, corresponding vehicle restraint device 110, corresponding presence / motion detector 112, corresponding notification system 114, and / or other equipment associated with the platform. In some examples, the platform controller 116 includes a display screen 118 for displaying information related to the components monitored and / or controlled by the controller 116. The display screen 118 may be a touchscreen, through which users can also input commands and / or instructions to operate the controller and / or access specific information related to the operation of the controller, the platform, or matters involving the platform. In some examples, the display screen 118 may be integrated into another device separate from but communicating with the platform controller 116. Although a single controller 116 is shown controlling all equipment associated with platform 102, in some examples, each platform 102 may be associated with multiple controllers configured to control and / or monitor different devices among platform doors 104, doorway railings 106, platform control panels 108, vehicle restraint devices 110, presence / motion detectors 112, notification systems 114, and / or other equipment associated with the platform. In other examples, one platform controller 116 may be associated with multiple platforms, thereby enabling control of multiple aspects and / or functions of two or more platforms.

[0022] The platform door 104 associated with platform 102 can move between an open position and a closed position to selectively open or close the passageway between the interior 120 of the material handling facility 100 and the external environment 122. Thus, when the trailer 300 is parked at platform 102, the platform door 104 provides access to the trailer when it is in the open position and blocks that access when it is in the closed position.

[0023] In some examples, platform screen door 104 is associated with one or more sensors and / or a door monitoring system to monitor and / or control the operation of platform screen door 104. For example, one or more door status sensors can monitor and / or detect the status of platform screen door 104 (e.g., whether the door is fully open, fully closed, partially open, partially closed, opening, or closing); one or more collision sensors can monitor and / or detect when platform screen door 104 is impacted (e.g., by a material handling vehicle such as a forklift); one or more derailment sensors can monitor and / or detect when platform screen door 104 is displaced, pushed out, or detached from the guide rails on the side of the guide door panel; one or more photoelectric sensors arranged on both sides of platform screen door 104 can monitor and / or detect the passage of people or objects through the doorway when the door is open; one or more motion and / or presence sensors can monitor and / or detect activity in the area near the doorway (e.g., within material handling facility 100 and / or within trailer 300); one or more radio frequency identification (RFID) sensors... Sensors can monitor and / or identify the identity of personnel, equipment, and / or materials passing through the doorway; one or more temperature sensors can monitor and / or detect the temperature on one or both sides of platform screen door 104; one or more airflow sensors can monitor and / or detect airflow through platform screen door 104 (e.g., airflow through the door when it is open or partially open, and / or airflow leaking from the door when it is closed); one or more other environmental sensors can monitor and / or detect pressure, humidity, contaminants, particulate matter, chemicals, etc.; one or more actuator sensors can monitor and / or detect the energy consumption and / or operation of door actuators (e.g., motors) used to open and / or close the door; and one or more image and / or video sensors (e.g., cameras) can be implemented to monitor and / or detect specific states of the platform based on image / video analytics. In some examples, platform controller 116 receives output signals from these sensors to monitor and / or control the operation of platform screen door 104.

[0024] In some examples, the doorway barrier 106 is configured to provide a barrier across the doorway corresponding to the platform screen door 104. Even when the platform screen door 104 is in the open position, the doorway barrier 106 can still block passage through the doorway. For example, when the platform screen door 104 is open but no trailer is parked at platform 102 (e.g.) Figure 2 (as shown), or when a trailer parked at platform 102 is not restrained, the doorway guardrail 106 can be used in this manner as a safety protection device. When platform door 104 is closed, the doorway guardrail 106 can also extend across the doorway in front of platform door 104 within the interior 120 of the material handling facility 100 to reduce the likelihood of collision between the material handling equipment and platform door 104, thereby protecting platform door 104. In some examples, the doorway guardrail 106 and guardrail sensor 302 ( Figure 3Associated with this, the sensor outputs a signal to the platform controller 116 to indicate the status of the doorway barrier 106 (e.g., whether the barrier is in use and blocking the doorway). Figure 2 (As shown), the collapsed state allows passage through doorways (such as...) Figure 3 and Figure 4 (As shown), or in some intermediate state). In some examples, guardrail sensor 302 and / or another sensor detect a collision (e.g., a force) experienced by guardrail 106, which can indicate that an impact with the guardrail has occurred. Figures 2 to 4 In the example shown, the doorway guardrail 106 is a retractable guardrail that, when not in use, is stored within an adjacent support post on one side of the doorway, and when in use, extends across the doorway to a second support post on the other side. Other types of guardrails may also be used; for example, in some examples, the doorway guardrail 106 is implemented as a vertically lifting gate, which includes one or more guide rails or beams, stored above the doorway when not in use, and lowered to span across the front of the doorway when in use. In some examples, such a doorway guardrail 106 runs along guide rails independent of the guide gate panel 104 (e.g., with...). Figure 3 The vertical guide rail (corresponding to the position of the support column of the doorway guardrail 106 shown) is raised and lowered. In other examples, the vertically lifting doorway guardrail 106 can move along a guide rail that simultaneously guides the door panel 104.

[0025] Typically, when a truck bed or trailer (e.g.) Figure 3 and Figure 4 When the trailer 300 shown is parked at platform 102, a gap may exist between the rear edge of the truck bed or trailer and the outer surface of the platform 102. Platform ramp 108 provides an adjustable bridging plate to bridge this gap, allowing material handling equipment to pass between the interior 120 of the material handling facility 100 and the vehicle / trailer parked at platform 102. Furthermore, platform ramp 108 is vertically adjustable to accommodate trailers with different heights relative to the platform 102. In some examples, platform ramp 108 includes one or more sensors to facilitate monitoring and control of its operation. For example, ramp sensors may generate output signals indicating when platform ramp 108 is active (extended to bridge the gap between the platform platform and the trailer, such as...). Figure 3 and Figure 4 As shown), inactive state (adjustment panel is in the storage position, such as...). Figure 2 As shown), it is still in some intermediate state. In some examples, the situation where the trailer leaves the platform 102 when the platform adjustment plate 108 is in the active state can be detected by a sensor such as a limit switch (e.g., the adjustment plate falls when the extended end loses trailer support). In such examples, the output of the limit switch can trigger the platform controller 116 to retract the platform adjustment plate 108 to the inactive, retracted position.

[0026] A vehicle restraint device 110 associated with each platform 102 is disposed in the external environment 122 for engagement with a portion of a vehicle (e.g., trailer 300) parked at platform 102 to reduce accidental vehicle movement (e.g., vehicle displacement due to movement of material handling equipment within the trailer, and / or premature departure of the vehicle from the platform by the driver). In some examples, the vehicle restraint device 110 is coupled to the vehicle's rear bumper (e.g., Figure 4 The ICC crossbeam 400 shown engages to restrain the vehicle. In some examples, the vehicle restraint device 110 engages with a tire and / or any other suitable part of the vehicle. In some examples, the vehicle restraint device 110 includes one or more sensors to monitor and / or control the operation of the vehicle restraint device 110. For example, the restraint device sensor may generate an output signal indicating when the vehicle restraint device 110 is in a locked position (e.g., in a position that engages / restrains the vehicle) or an unlocked position (e.g., retracted away from the vehicle). Alternatively or additionally, the restraint device sensor may generate an output signal indicating the position of the restraint device relative to a reference point and / or the force exerted on the restraint device to determine whether the restraint device actively engages / restrains the vehicle.

[0027] exist Figure 1 In the illustrated example, presence / motion detector 112 represents one or more presence and / or motion detection systems. In some examples, presence / motion detector 112 includes a presence detection system for detecting the presence of trailer 300 parked at platform 102. For the purposes of the discussion of detecting presence or motion, the term "trailer" refers to a trailer that can be attached to or detached from a tractor, or a vehicle having a cargo box or platform. In some examples, the presence of trailer 300 is detected by one or more trailer sensors 202 ( Figure 2 The trailer sensor 202 is located in the external environment 122, on the building of the material handling facility 100 and / or adjacent to the building. The trailer sensor 202 can be implemented using any suitable sensor, such as a photoelectric eye, proximity sensor, motion sensor, induction coil sensor, laser detection and ranging (LiDAR) system, camera running analysis algorithms, etc. In some examples, the presence / motion detector 112 may include a presence detection system for detecting the presence of personnel / equipment (e.g., pedestrians and / or personnel driving material handling equipment, autonomous vehicles, etc.) inside the trailer 300 parked at the loading / unloading platform 102 (e.g., when loading and / or unloading goods) or at the platform entrance outside the facility at the platform entrance. In some examples, the presence of personnel / equipment inside the trailer 300 is based on a motion sensor 204 (from a location inside the material handling facility 100 toward the interior of the trailer) Figures 2 to 4The presence / motion detector 112 may additionally or alternatively include a presence detection system for detecting the presence of personnel / equipment / materials on the platform of platform sluice 108, within the sluice pit 402, and / or in other areas near platform 102. In some examples, the presence of personnel / equipment within the material handling facility 100 adjacent to platform 102 is based on motion sensors 304 toward platform sluice 108 and / or the surrounding area. Figure 3 and Figure 4 ) for testing. Additional or alternative ground can be used based on the regulating plate pit 402 ( Figure 4 One or more presence / motion sensors 404 within the platform adjustment plate 108 detect the presence of personnel / equipment / materials within the adjustment plate pit 402 below the platform adjustment plate 108 (e.g., for adjustment plates stored vertically). In addition to detecting the presence of vehicles, personnel, or material handling equipment, Figure 1 Any presence / motion system represented by the presence / motion detector 112 can be used to determine the movement (e.g., speed, direction, etc.), position (e.g., distance, orientation, etc.), size, shape, etc., and combinations thereof of vehicles, people, equipment, or other objects (e.g., products, materials), and can distinguish these different objects.

[0028] The notification system 114 illustrated may include multiple independently operating notification systems, each including one or more visual indicators (e.g., lights, displays, etc.) and / or one or more auditory indicators (e.g., horns, alarms, sirens, loudspeakers, etc.) to inform persons near platform 102 of specific situations, warnings, events, and / or other conditions related to certain aspects or states of platform 102 and / or vehicles parked at the platform. Additionally or alternatively, some visual indicators may be lights used to illuminate and / or improve visibility of areas associated with platform 102 without indicating any specific situation or condition related to the platform. The visual and / or auditory indicators of notification system 114 may be located within the interior 120 of material handling facility 100 and / or in the external environment 122 outside material handling facility 100, depending on the purpose of the indicators.

[0029] In some examples, at least some indicators within the material handling facility are positioned and / or oriented toward the external environment 122 (e.g., located in...). Figures 2 to 4The end of the arm associated with motion sensor 204 is shown so that the indicators can be seen and / or heard inside the trailer parked at platform 102 when platform door 104 is open. Such indicators provide better visibility for personnel entering the trailer to load and / or move goods. Such indicators can also warn personnel inside the trailer of potential safety risks, such as vehicle restraints 110 not being engaged, and / or the presence of personnel not visible from inside the trailer near the platform 102. Other indicators within the material handling facility 100 may be positioned and / or oriented to provide illumination, visibility, and / or hearing in areas within the facility 120, such as on the platform and / or surrounding area. Some of these indicators may be used to warn of potential safety risks, such as vehicle restraints 110 not being engaged, and / or someone potentially exiting the trailer accidentally. Additionally or alternatively, indicators may indicate the operational status of equipment associated with platform 102.

[0030] In some examples, Figure 1 The notification system 114 includes a timer indicator 306. Figure 3 The timer indicator 306, located adjacent to platform door 104 and visible from inside the material handling facility 100, displays the duration a trailer has been parked at platform 102. This informs personnel how much time remains before demurrage and / or late fees begin to accrue. In some examples, the timer indicator 306 is implemented via a display screen 118 associated with platform controller 116. In some examples, the timer indicator 306 may operate in a countdown rather than a forward countdown manner. In some examples, when the timer indicator reaches a threshold, it may change its appearance (e.g., change color, begin flashing, etc.) and / or activate another indicator to indicate to personnel that a time related to a specific operational constraint is about to expire (e.g., the loading and / or unloading of the trailer needs to be completed quickly). In some examples, the timer indicator 306 may (e.g., based on color, flashing, etc.) indicate the priority of loading and / or unloading of trailers at the corresponding platform 102 relative to loading and / or unloading of other trailers at other platforms 102. In some such examples, prioritization may be based on the estimated time allocation and / or estimated cost expenditure of multiple stations 102 of the material handling facility 100 under the conditions of available operating resources (e.g., personnel on duty, available material handling equipment, picking status, cross-docking order status, etc.). Although the timing indicator 306 is shown as separate from and spaced apart from the controller 116 in the illustrated example, in other examples, the controller 116 includes the timing indicator 306.

[0031] In some examples, one or more indicators are positioned outside the material handling facility 100 to provide illumination, visibility, and / or hearing in the external area of ​​platform 102. In some examples, such indicators may be lights illuminating the area to provide better visibility for personnel in the external environment 122 (e.g., drivers backing trailers onto platform 102). Additionally or alternatively, in some examples, indicators may be lights providing warnings and / or guidance to personnel in the external environment 122. For example, such as... Figure 2 As shown, the external lighting indicator 206 of the material handling facility 100 includes a red light (stop) and a green light (go) to guide truck drivers when to allow trailers (e.g., Figure 3 and Figure 4 The trailer 300 is backed into the area near platform 102, and / or when the trailer can be driven away from platform 102. In some examples, light and / or audible indicators may be used to indicate to the driver when the vehicle restraint device 110 is in an overrun state (e.g., the vehicle restraint device 110 cannot engage and / or restrain the trailer due to the shape and / or construction of the trailer, and is therefore manually disabled or specified by manual input that the vehicle restraint device 110 is not used in a specific situation), that platform equipment is under maintenance, or that there are people / objects in or near the trailer's path. These situations may be communicated through separate indicators, different states of the same indicator (color / tone changes, flashing / sound patterns, etc.), or combinations thereof. In addition, in some examples, indicators associated with platform 102 include light and / or audible alarms to alert personnel standing near the platform entrance when the truck is backing up.

[0032] In some examples, the platform controller 116 controls various indicators associated with the notification system 114 based on one or more signals received from various sensors associated with platform door 104, doorway railing 106, platform control plate 108, vehicle restraint device 110, and / or presence detector 112. For example, in some such examples, the platform controller 116 controls the light indicator 206 to display a stop light (e.g., a red light) whenever the restraint signal indicates that the vehicle restraint device 110 is active and engaged with a trailer. As another example, if the presence detector 112 does not detect a trailer parked at platform 102, but the door sensor indicates that platform door 104 is open, the open door could pose a risk of people falling from the platform. Therefore, in some such examples, the platform controller 116 may activate a warning indicator to alert nearby personnel to the exposed platform drop. Additionally or alternatively, the platform controller 116 controls the platform door 104 to close and / or controls the doorway barrier 106 (e.g., a motor-driven vertical lift gate) to move to a position spanning the doorway to reduce detected fall risks. However, in some such examples, the platform controller 116 may not trigger a warning indicator if the barrier sensor 302 outputs a signal indicating that the doorway barrier 106 is active and obstructing passage through the open doorway. Thus, different signals from various sensors can be combined to trigger the activation or status change of relevant indicators in the notification system 114, providing warnings, notifications, and / or guidance to personnel within the relevant area of ​​platform 102.

[0033] Although the material handling facility 100 includes loading and unloading platforms 102 equipped with various components and / or systems to facilitate cargo transfer between trailers and the material handling facility 100, Figure 1 The material handling facility 100 also includes other components and / or systems for facilitating the handling, transport, and / or storage of goods within the facility 120. In some examples, these components and / or systems may operate substantially independently of each other, with their operation monitored and / or controlled by their respective controllers. Specifically, such as Figure 1 As shown, the material handling facility 100 includes one or more industrial doors 124 (two are shown), which are electrically driven and can selectively close or open doorways and / or other passages between different areas (e.g., rooms and / or other areas) within the material handling facility 100.

[0034] In the illustrated example, each industrial door 124 is equipped with a corresponding door controller 126 for controlling the operation of the industrial door 124. In some examples, the industrial door 124 also includes sensors similar to or the same as those described above (used for the platform door 104 of the loading / unloading platform 102), enabling the door controller 126 to monitor and / or control the internal industrial door 124. For example, such an industrial door 124 may include one or more door status sensors for indicating the status of the industrial door 124 (e.g., open, closed, opening, closing, etc.); one or more collision sensors for monitoring and / or detecting impacts to the door, such as material handling vehicles impacting the industrial door 124; one or more sensors (e.g., photoelectric sensors) for monitoring and / or detecting the passage of people or objects through the corresponding doorway of the industrial door 124; one or more motion and / or presence sensors for monitoring and / or detecting activity in the area near the doorway (e.g., one or both sides of the doorway); and one or more radio frequency identification (RFID) sensors for monitoring... The industrial door 124 includes: a door sensor for controlling and / or identifying the person, equipment, and / or materials passing through the doorway; one or more temperature sensors for monitoring and / or detecting the temperature on one or both sides of the industrial door 124; one or more other environmental sensors for monitoring and / or detecting pressure, humidity, contaminants, particulate matter, chemicals, etc.; one or more airflow sensors for monitoring and / or detecting airflow through the industrial door 124 (e.g., airflow through the door when it is open or partially open, and / or airflow leaking from the door when it is closed); and one or more actuator sensors for monitoring and / or detecting the energy consumption and / or operation of door actuators (e.g., motors) used to open and close the door. Additionally or alternatively, in some examples, the industrial door 124 includes one or more derailment sensors for detecting derailment events. In this document, a derailment event refers to an event in which the door panel of the industrial door 124 is forcibly detached from the guide rails on the side of the door panel. Typically, a derailment event is caused by a large object (e.g., a forklift) impacting the door panel, but it can also be caused by a pressure shock. In some examples, the door controller 126 includes and / or has a communication connection to a local display screen, which is similar to the display screen 118 of the platform controller 116.

[0035] In some examples, how the door controller 126 utilizes the signals output by such sensors may depend on the location and / or intended use of the corresponding industrial door 124. For example, one or more industrial doors 124 may serve as passageways to a freezer compartment. In such examples, the corresponding door controller 126 may monitor feedback signals from temperature sensors to ensure that the temperature on one side of the freezer compartment remains at or below a set temperature value. Additionally or alternatively, the door controller 126 for the freezer compartment door may monitor the frequency and / or duration of door openings (based on feedback from door status sensors) and generate an alarm when the frequency or duration of door openings exceeds a corresponding threshold. In other examples, one or more industrial doors 124 may be used to control access to a cleanroom with low contaminant concentrations. In some such examples, the door controller 126 may monitor feedback signals from one or more airflow and / or pressure sensors to ensure that airflow (which may lead to contaminant diffusion) is maintained at or below a suitable threshold, or to ensure that a specific pressure differential is maintained across the passageway. In some examples, individual doors (such as industrial door 124 and / or platform door 104) can be configured in an interlocking relationship, meaning that the operation of one door depends on the state or operation of the other door (e.g., only one of the two doors can be open at any given time). In such examples, sensor signals monitoring the operation of each door can be transmitted to an individual door controller 126 associated with each door (and / or a platform controller 116 controlling the door at the corresponding platform 102) (or to a single controller 116, 126 that simultaneously controls both doors).

[0036] exist Figure 1In the illustrated example, each station controller 116 associated with different stations 102, and each door controller 126 associated with the internal industrial door 124, communicates with the main server 128. More specifically, in some examples, the station controllers 116 and door controllers 126 transmit values ​​corresponding to the operating and / or status parameters configured in their respective controllers 116, 126, and / or feedback signals collected from various sensors associated with their respective controllers. In this way, the main server 128 aggregates all available data from various independent systems within the material handling facility 100 into one place. After aggregating data from different sources, the main server 128 can analyze and / or integrate the controller data, identifying previously unrecognizable relationships. As described in more detail below, in some examples, the main server 128 organizes the aggregated controller data and presents it to the end user through one or more dashboards or graphical user interfaces (GUIs) tailored to the specific needs of the end user. The graphical user interface can be presented through one or more web pages, applications, applets, software applications, etc. In some examples, the graphical user interface can be configured to provide notifications and / or alerts when a specific event is detected based on a combination of values ​​of different parameters monitored by one or more controllers 116, 126. Further details regarding the exemplary implementation of master server 128 will be provided below. Figures 12 to 16 Note: Additionally or alternatively, in some examples, the master server 128 may send information back to controllers 116, 126. In some such examples, the information transmitted to the controllers is passive, meaning it does not affect the operation of the components controlled by the controllers. In such examples, this information may be displayed on a local display screen (e.g., Figure 3 The display screen 118 of the station controller 116 shown, and / or a similar local display screen associated with a door controller 126, is for viewing by personnel near the controller. In other examples, the information transmitted to the controller by the master server 128 is proactive information, i.e., it contains instructions to cause the controller to perform specific operations. Although the master server 128 is located inside the material handling facility 100 in the illustrated example, in other examples, the master server 128 may be located remotely from the material handling facility 100. In some examples, the master server 128 may be integrated with and / or implemented by one of the station controllers 116. In some examples, the master server 128 may be deployed in the cloud (e.g., a server provided by a cloud service provider).

[0037] In some examples, the graphical user interface generated based on information aggregated by the master server 128 can be configured to provide basic real-time (e.g., latency less than 5 seconds, less than 1 second) information related to the configuration, operation, and / or current status of one or more stations 102 and / or industrial gates 124. In some examples, the graphical user interface is configured to display such information in conjunction with (e.g., overlaid on) a map of the material handling facility 100 (e.g., a facility layout diagram) to indicate the location of corresponding equipment within the facility from or associated with that equipment, and the configuration, operation, and / or status information therefrom.

[0038] exist Figure 1 In the example shown, the master server 128 communicates with one or more remote servers 130 that are not located in the material handling facility 100. In some examples, the remote server 130 corresponds to other servers that are functionally equivalent to the master server 128, deployed in other material handling facilities and / or related to operations. Figure 1 Other locations related to the enterprise for material handling facility 100. Additionally or alternatively, in some examples, remote server 130 may correspond to a server maintained by the manufacturer of the equipment associated with platform controller 116 and / or door controller 126. For example, remote server 130 may provide equipment warranty information, equipment version and / or update information, equipment installation date, technician and / or service call records, etc. In other examples, remote server 130 may be deployed in the cloud (e.g., a server provided by a cloud service provider).

[0039] exist Figure 1 In the illustrated example, material handling facility 100 includes one or more management servers 132 for assisting in the management of the equipment assets and / or various aspects of production operations of the material handling facility 100. In some examples, management servers 132 communicate with a main server 128 via a bus, local area network (LAN), and / or wide area network (e.g., the Internet). Exemplary management servers 132 may include platform / yard management systems, inventory control systems, video management systems (VMS), warehouse management systems (WMS), enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems, building management systems (BMS), asset management systems (AMS), etc. Additionally or alternatively, in some examples, one or more management servers 132 may be integrated with and / or implemented by the main server 128.

[0040] For ease of explanation, this article will Figure 1The data reported by the different controllers 116 and 126 to the master server 128 is referred to as IO (input / output) data because it contains input and output information monitored and / or provided by each controller. IO data is also referred to herein as sensor feedback data because it is based on sensor feedback collected by the different controllers 116 and 126. In this document, the sensors associated with controllers 116 and 126 include buttons, touchscreen icons, and / or other user interfaces associated with controllers 116 and 126, which users can operate by pressing or other interactive methods to instruct controllers 116 and 126 to function. In some examples, IO data (sensor feedback data) includes the time and / or duration of a user pressing a button and / or selecting an icon. In the example shown, the IO data (sensor feedback data) collected by the master server 128 is transmitted by controllers 116 and 126 via a wireless mesh network (other network types, such as wired networks or non-mesh wireless networks, may also be used). Therefore, as... Figure 1 As illustrated in the examples, each controller 116, 126 is equipped with an I / O communication board 134, which includes a wireless transceiver (e.g., a radio device) capable of transmitting I / O data according to any suitable communication protocol. In some examples, the I / O boards of controllers 116, 126 can transmit I / O data directly (e.g., without via a mesh network) to a receiver associated with the master server 128. In other examples, I / O data from one controller can be transmitted indirectly to the master server 128 via the I / O communication board 134 in another controller, and / or via any other device or component capable of communicating on a mesh network (e.g., one or more gateways, repeaters, transponders, etc.). In some examples, the I / O communication board 134 is configured to communicate with the master server 128 via a cellular network. Additionally or alternatively, in some examples, the I / O communication board 134 is configured to access a Wi-Fi network that communicates with the master server 128 via the Internet.

[0041] In some examples, the I / O boards of controllers 116 and 126 are equipped with reusable firmware modules that convert and standardize data collected by different controllers into a universal format corresponding to a specific communication protocol. The reusability of the firmware allows it to be embedded in existing products, thereby modifying existing products for integration into the monitoring system of the main server 128. By enabling all controllers 116 and 126 to transmit data according to a single communication protocol and in a universal format, the main server 128 can directly integrate and correlate data collected from different types of controllers, regardless of the original source of the data or the attributes and / or type of the sensor that generated the data.

[0042] In some examples, the transmission of IO data reported by controllers 116 and 126 includes device identification information, which includes the identifier, name, and / or type of the device or controller sending the message, as well as the device's address on the network. This device identification information enables the master server 128 to determine the source of the message (e.g., the controller that sent the message). In some examples, the IO data includes values ​​of specific IO parameters monitored and / or generated by the controller. In some examples, the values ​​of the IO parameters correspond to the measurement outputs of sensors monitored by the corresponding controller (e.g., the output of a door sensor indicating whether platform door 104 is open or closed). In other examples, the values ​​of the IO parameters are not directly measured or sensed, but are derived from one or more measurements (e.g., the transitional state of platform door 104, such as opening or closing, is derived from the previous state of the door sensor and the actuator sensor signal indicating that the door actuator is driving the door). Additionally or alternatively, IO parameters may be derived based on the sequence, duration, and / or timing of user input (e.g., the time, duration, and / or sequence in which a button is pressed).

[0043] As described above, the master server 128 acts as a central hub, aggregating and / or integrating relevant data from various independent systems operating within the material handling facility 100 (e.g., different stations 102 and / or industrial gates 124). In some examples, the master server 128 includes, corresponds to, and / or is associated with a web server 136, which hosts one or more web pages accessible to users via client devices 138. Client devices 138 can be any suitable computing device equipped with a browser and capable of accessing the web pages hosted by the web server 136. Therefore, client devices 138 may correspond to one or more operator stations deployed within the material handling facility 100 (e.g., within the facility's logistics office). In some examples, client devices may be portable devices (e.g., tablets, smartphones, etc.) carried and used by staff within the material handling facility 100 and / or at remote locations away from the facility. In addition, some client devices 138 may be portable devices used by truck drivers and yard dispatchers, where truck drivers are responsible for transporting trailers to or from material handling facility 100, and yard dispatchers are responsible for re-parking trailers at platform 102 and / or within the yard area of ​​material handling facility 100.

[0044] Different web pages may contain different graphical user interfaces (GUIs) designed to present different types of information in an easy-to-understand format, helping users identify the relationships between data collected from different sources within the material handling facility 100. In some examples, whenever new data related to a specific web page is collected, the main server 128 automatically updates the corresponding web page via web-based communication 140. Furthermore, in some examples, web pages are designed to receive user input and send it back to the main server 128. In some examples, web page updates are implemented based on pull requests issued by client devices to request updated information. Additionally or alternatively, in some examples, updated content can be dynamically updated by pushing requests to web pages currently opened by specific client devices. In some examples, user input received on a web page can be pushed to other web pages displaying information related to that user input (e.g., other web pages being accessed by other client devices 138). Although this document describes the graphical user interface in conjunction with web pages, the graphical user interface can also be presented in forms other than web pages (e.g., through applications, applets, software applications, etc.). In some examples, the graphical user interface may be provided via a display associated with the exemplary notification system 114, which is a local device of a particular station 102, as described above. Figure 1 As stated above.

[0045] In some examples, master server 128 analyzes information provided by individual systems within material handling facility 100 to identify situations, conditions, and / or events (collectively referred to herein as events) that may require a response or other processing. In some examples, the identification of such events is based on configurable rules that rely on feedback (e.g., specific I / O data) from multiple different controllers 116, 126. In some examples, master server 128 triggers a specific response based on the detection of a specific event (e.g., when conditions of a relevant event rule are met). In some examples, a response may include sending information and / or instructions back to one or more controllers 116, 126, causing such controllers to control corresponding associated devices to perform an operation (e.g., opening or closing a door, toggling indicator light status, etc.). In some examples, master server 128 may respond to a specific event by generating alarms, warnings, notifications, log entries, and / or reports (collectively referred to herein as notifications) and sending them to one or more client devices 138. In some examples, such notifications may be provided via web communication 140 when a webpage is updated. Alternatively or additionally, the master server 128 may send notifications to the client device 138 independently of the network server 136 using other forms of network communication 142, such as email, short message service (SMS) messages, push notifications, etc. Alternatively or additionally, the master server 128 may transmit notifications via a local display screen (e.g., display screen 118) associated with one of the controllers 116, 126 within the material handling facility 100. In this way, such notifications can provide information to personnel at nearby corresponding controllers, which are the very controllers that report the data used to generate the notifications to the master server 128.

[0046] Figure 6 for Figure 1 An exemplary implementation block diagram of an exemplary master server 128 is provided, which is used to collect data (e.g., IO data) from various sensors and / or controllers (e.g., controllers 116, 126) related to different devices (e.g., platform 102 and / or industrial gate 124) in a polymer material handling facility (e.g., facility 100), and to generate a graphical user interface (GUI) based on the aggregated data. Figure 6 The main server 128 can be instantiated by a programmable circuit (e.g., creating an instance, making it effective for any duration, materializing it, implementing it, etc.). For example, the programmable circuit can be implemented by a central processing unit (CPU) that executes the first instruction, a field-programmable gate array (FPGA), a programmable logic device (PLD), a general-purpose array logic (GAL) device, a programmable array logic (PAL) device, a complex programmable logic device (CPLD), a simple programmable logic device (SPLD), a microcontroller (MCU), a programmable system-on-a-chip (PSoC), etc. Additionally or alternatively, Figure 6The main server 128 may be instantiated (e.g., instantiated, made effective for any duration, visualized, implemented, etc.) by (i) an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) and / or (ii) a field-programmable gate array (FPGA) (e.g., another form of programmable circuit), said FPGA being constructed and / or configured to perform the operation corresponding to the first instruction in response to the execution of the second instruction. It should be understood that... Figure 6 Some or all of the circuitry in the system can therefore be instantiated at the same or different times. For example, Figure 6 Some or all of the circuitry can be instantiated in one or more threads that execute concurrently on hardware and / or in threads that execute serially on hardware. Furthermore, in some examples, Figure 6 Some or all of the circuitry can be implemented by microprocessor circuitry that executes instructions and / or FPGA circuitry that performs operations to run one or more virtual machines and / or containers. For example... Figure 6 As shown, the exemplary master server 128 includes a network server 136. However, as described above, in some examples, the network server 136 may be implemented independently of the master server 128. Alternatively, the network server 136 may be the same entity as the master server 128. In other examples, the network server 136 is implemented in software by the master server 128. Figure 6 As shown, the exemplary master server 128 also includes an exemplary network communication interface circuit 602, an exemplary IO network interface circuit 604, an exemplary data recording circuit 606, an exemplary IO data analysis circuit 608, an exemplary layout operation circuit 610, an exemplary device cataloging circuit 612, an exemplary device graphics generation circuit 614, an exemplary GUI generation circuit 616, and an exemplary memory 618.

[0047] Figure 6 The exemplary network communication interface circuit 602 enables communication with client devices 138 independently of network server 136. For example, network communication interface circuit 602 can send emails and / or short messages to one or more client devices 138. Furthermore, in some examples, network communication interface circuit 602 can send data to and / or receive data from local management server 132 and / or remote server 130. In some examples, data received from servers 130, 132 is stored in exemplary memory 618. In some examples, network communication interface circuit 602 is instantiated by programmable circuitry that executes network communication interface instructions and / or is configured to perform actions such as... Figure 12 , Figure 13 and Figure 16 The operation is represented by the flowchart.

[0048] In some examples, the master server 128 includes means for communicating with remote devices (e.g., client device 138, local management server 132, and / or remote server 130). For example, this communication means may be implemented by network communication interface circuitry 602. In some examples, network communication interface circuitry 602 may be implemented by, for example... Figure 17 The exemplary programmable circuit 1712 is instantiated as a programmable circuit. For example, the network communication interface circuit 602 may be instantiated by... Figure 18 An exemplary microprocessor 1800 is instantiated by executing relevant machine-executable instructions. In some examples, the network communication interface circuitry 602 may be instantiated by hardware logic circuitry, which may be an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a heterogeneous processor (XPU), or... Figure 19 The network communication interface circuit 602 is implemented using a field-programmable gate array (FPGA) circuit 1900, which is configured and / or constructed to perform operations corresponding to machine-readable instructions. Additionally or alternatively, the network communication interface circuit 602 may be instantiated by any other combination of hardware, software, and / or firmware. For example, the network communication interface circuit 602 may be implemented by at least one or more hardware circuits (e.g., processor circuitry, discrete and / or integrated analog and / or digital circuitry, FPGAs, application-specific integrated circuits, heterogeneous processors, comparators, operational amplifiers, logic circuits, etc.) configured and / or constructed to execute some or all of the machine-readable instructions, and / or to perform some or all of the operations corresponding to the machine-readable instructions without executing software or firmware, but other configurations are equally applicable.

[0049] Figure 6 The exemplary I / O network interface circuit 604 enables communication with the platform controller 116 and the door controller 126. That is, the I / O network interface circuit 604 receives I / O data (e.g., sensor feedback data, device status data, etc.) collected by the controllers 116 and 126, and / or any other type of I / O data reported by the controllers 116 and 126. In some examples, the I / O network interface circuit 604 receives device identification information (e.g., serial number, IP address, address, unique identifier, etc.) from the controllers 116 and 126. The I / O data and / or device identification information may be aggregated and stored in memory 618 for subsequent analysis and / or processing. Additionally or alternatively, in some examples, the I / O network interface circuit 604 transmits instructions, commands, and / or other types of information to the controllers 116 and 126. In some examples, the I / O network interface circuit 604 is instantiated by a programmable circuit that executes I / O network interface instructions and / or is configured to perform actions such as... Figure 12 , Figure 13 and Figure 16 The operation is represented by the flowchart.

[0050] In some examples, the master server 128 includes means for communicating with devices (e.g., controllers 116, 126) within the material handling facility 100. For example, this communication means may be implemented by I / O network interface circuitry 604. In some examples, I / O network interface circuitry 604 may be implemented by, for example... Figure 17 The exemplary programmable circuit 1712 is instantiated as a programmable circuit. For example, the I / O network interface circuit 604 may be instantiated by... Figure 18 An exemplary microprocessor 1800 executes machine-executable instructions to instantiate, the instructions corresponding to at least Figure 12 , Figure 13 and Figure 16 The operations implemented by boxes 1202, 1212, 1306, and 1602 are described. In some examples, the I / O network interface circuit 604 may be instantiated by hardware logic circuitry, which may be an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a heterogeneous processor (XPU), or... Figure 19 The I / O network interface circuitry 604 is implemented using a field-programmable gate array (FPGA) circuit 1900, which is configured and / or constructed to perform operations corresponding to machine-readable instructions. Additionally or alternatively, the I / O network interface circuitry 604 may be instantiated by any other combination of hardware, software, and / or firmware. For example, the I / O network interface circuitry 604 may be implemented by at least one or more hardware circuits (e.g., processor circuitry, discrete and / or integrated analog and / or digital circuitry, FPGA, application-specific integrated circuit, heterogeneous processor, comparator, operational amplifier, logic circuitry, etc.) configured and / or constructed to execute some or all of the machine-readable instructions, and / or to perform some or all of the operations corresponding to the machine-readable instructions without executing software or firmware, but other configurations are equally applicable.

[0051] The exemplary data logging circuit 606 records I / O data (such as sensor feedback data, device status data, etc.) in memory 618. The I / O data in memory 618 is then available for use by I / O data analysis circuit 608 and device graphics generation circuit 614. In some examples, the data logging circuit 606 is instantiated by a programmable circuit that executes data logging instructions and / or is configured to perform actions such as... Figure 12 and Figure 16 The operation is represented by the flowchart.

[0052] In some examples, the master server 128 includes means for recording data (e.g., I / O data, sensor feedback data, device status data, etc.) in a data storage area (e.g., exemplary memory 618). For example, this recording means may be implemented by data recording circuitry 606. In some examples, data recording circuitry 606 may be implemented by, for example,... Figure 17 The exemplary programmable circuit 1712 is instantiated as a programmable circuit. For example, the data recording circuit 606 may be instantiated by... Figure 18 An exemplary microprocessor 1800 executes machine-executable instructions to instantiate, the instructions corresponding to at least Figure 12 and Figure 16 The operations implemented by boxes 1202, 1212, 1602, and 1604 are described. In some examples, the data recording circuit 606 may be instantiated by hardware logic circuitry, which may be an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a heterogeneous processor (XPU), or... Figure 19 The data recording circuit 606 is implemented using a field-programmable gate array (FPGA) circuit 1900, which is configured and / or constructed to perform operations corresponding to machine-readable instructions. Additionally or alternatively, the data recording circuit 606 may be instantiated by any other combination of hardware, software, and / or firmware. For example, the data recording circuit 606 may be implemented by at least one or more hardware circuits (e.g., processor circuitry, discrete and / or integrated analog and / or digital circuitry, FPGAs, application-specific integrated circuits, heterogeneous processors, comparators, operational amplifiers, logic circuits, etc.) configured and / or constructed to execute some or all of the machine-readable instructions, and / or to perform some or all of the operations corresponding to the machine-readable instructions without executing software or firmware, but other configurations are equally applicable.

[0053] An exemplary IO data analysis circuit 608 analyzes feedback collected from equipment-related sensors at loading / unloading stations 102 and / or industrial gates 124 to determine the equipment's status and / or operating condition, and provides corresponding commands and / or instructions to the equipment based on the reported equipment status and / or operating condition. In some examples, the IO data analysis circuit 608 analyzes IO data to determine whether the equipment at loading / unloading stations 102 and / or industrial gates 124 has recently experienced a status change (e.g., since the last determination of a status change). Furthermore, in some examples, the IO data analysis circuit 608 analyzes and / or compares IO data aggregated from different station controllers 116 associated with different stations 102 and / or different gate controllers 126 associated with different industrial gates 124. In some examples, the IO data analysis circuit 608 is instantiated by a programmable circuit that executes IO data analysis instructions and / or is configured to perform actions such as... Figure 12 , Figure 13 and Figure 16 The operation is represented by the flowchart.

[0054] In some examples, the master server 128 includes means for analyzing I / O data. For example, this analysis means may be implemented by I / O data analysis circuitry 608. In some examples, I / O data analysis circuitry 608 may be implemented by, for example... Figure 17 The exemplary programmable circuit 1712 is instantiated as a programmable circuit. For example, the IO data analysis circuit 608 may be instantiated by... Figure 18An exemplary microprocessor 1800 executes machine-executable instructions to instantiate, the instructions corresponding to at least Figure 12 , Figure 13 and Figure 16 The operations implemented by boxes 1202, 1212, 1214, 1306, 1604, 1606, and 1608 in the diagram. In some examples, the IO data analysis circuit 608 may be instantiated by hardware logic circuitry, which may be an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a heterogeneous processor (XPU), or... Figure 19 The field-programmable gate array (FPGA) circuit 1900 is implemented, configured and / or constructed to perform operations corresponding to machine-readable instructions. Additionally or alternatively, the I / O data analysis circuit 608 may be instantiated by any other combination of hardware, software, and / or firmware. For example, the I / O data analysis circuit 608 may be implemented by at least one or more hardware circuits (e.g., processor circuitry, discrete and / or integrated analog and / or digital circuitry, FPGAs, application-specific integrated circuits, heterogeneous processors, comparators, operational amplifiers, logic circuits, etc.) configured and / or constructed to execute some or all of the machine-readable instructions, and / or to perform some or all of the operations corresponding to the machine-readable instructions without executing software or firmware, but other configurations are equally applicable.

[0055] Figure 6 The exemplary layout operation circuit 610 receives, processes, preprocesses, and / or generates Figure 1 An exemplary layout of an exemplary material handling facility 100 is provided to enable its use in the graphical user interface (GUI) further described below. The layout is a map or other representation of the material handling facility 100 (e.g., facility layout diagram, facility map, top view, bird's-eye view, photograph, drawing, sketch, etc.) used to show the spatial relationships between various physical or architectural features within the facility (e.g., platforms 102 and / or doors 124). In some examples, the layout operation circuit 610 receives the layout in an image data format (e.g., .jpg, .gif, .pdf, etc.). In some examples, the layout operation circuit 610 receives the layout in a computer-aided design (CAD) format. In some examples, the layout operation circuit 610 converts the layout to a second format (e.g., scalable vector graphics (SVG) format) for ease of use and scaling as described below. In other examples, the layout operation circuit 610 receives a layout drawn by a user via the GUI generation circuit 616 or otherwise input. The layout operation circuit 610 can process the layout to display it at different sizes and / or locations.

[0056] Figure 7 The following is shown on the exemplary graphical user interface (GUI) 702. Figure 1An exemplary layout 700 of an exemplary material handling facility 100 is provided. The layout operation circuit 610 operates the layout 700 (e.g., zoom in, zoom out, pan, rotate, etc.) based on user input received by the GUI generation circuit 616 via the GUI 702. In some examples, the size of the layout 700 can be adjusted (e.g., zoom in or out) by pressing or otherwise selecting a zoom icon (e.g., icons 704, 706). In other examples, the layout 700 can be operated using other input methods (e.g., mouse wheel, keyboard input, etc.). In some examples, the user can configure specific locations and sizes of the layout and save them as named shortcuts, such as receiving shortcut 708 (associating with the area of ​​the platform in facility 100 used for receiving goods) and shipping shortcut 710 (associating with another area of ​​the platform in facility 100 used for shipping materials). Shortcuts 708 and 710 allow the user to quickly view specific areas of facility 100 represented by the layout without having to operate the layout 700 displayed on the GUI 702 through a series of user inputs. In other words, shortcuts 708 and 710 enable the GUI generation circuit 616 to switch between a first part of the displayed layout (e.g., the entire layout, a larger portion of the layout, etc.) and a second part of the displayed layout (e.g., a shipping area of ​​the layout, a smaller portion of the layout, a specific station, etc.). The GUI generation circuit 616 can generate shortcuts that store the size, position, and orientation used by the layout operation circuit 610 when displaying the layout 700 on the GUI 702. The layout 700 includes... Figure 1 Platform section 712 (e.g., platform doorway) corresponding to platform 102 of material handling facility 100. In some examples, layout 700 includes... Figure 1 The industrial door section 714 (e.g., industrial doorway) corresponds to the industrial door 124 of the material handling facility 100. In some examples, the platform section 712 and the industrial door section 714 are represented in the layout as opening sections (e.g., doorways, passageways) of the exterior wall 716 and interior wall 718, respectively. In other examples, the platform section 712 and / or the industrial door section 714 can be depicted by lines or symbols indicating the presence of platforms and / or industrial doors. The specific representation of the platform section 712 and / or the industrial door section 714 may depend on the nature and content of the document (e.g., an image) initially provided to the layout operation circuitry 610 as the basis for the layout 700.

[0057] In some examples, the layout operation circuit 610 defines a scaling factor for the layout so that the size of the layout is related to the size of other graphical components generated by the device graphics generation circuit 614 and the GUI generation circuit 616. More specifically, as further detailed below, the device graphics generation circuit 614 and the GUI generation circuit 616 can generate graphics components that are compatible with the device (e.g., ...). Figure 1The layout 700 will integrate (e.g., overlay) graphics of the platform 102 and door 124, along with their associated operational graphics, into the layout 700 at locations corresponding to the physical location of the equipment in the real world (e.g., the location of the equipment within the material handling facility 100). In some examples, these integrated graphic components can be dynamically updated (e.g., updated in real time), transforming a static layout image of the material handling facility 100 into a dynamic view of the operation and / or status of equipment within the facility 100, visually representing the actual physical location relationships of the equipment within the facility. In some examples, the dimensions of these dynamic graphic components generated by the equipment graphics generation circuitry 614 and / or the GUI generation circuitry 616 are defined independently of the dimensions of the layout 700. For example, in a high-resolution facility map image, the width of a platform within the image may be 200 pixels, while in a low-resolution image of the same facility, the width of the same platform may be only 50 pixels. Therefore, in some examples, the layout operation circuit 610 determines a scaling factor to enlarge and / or reduce the size of the layout 700 relative to the size of the graphical components generated by the device graphics generation circuit 614 and / or the GUI generation circuit 616, ensuring that the graphical components match the layout size so that end users viewing the graphics integrated into the layout can easily understand the final dynamic image.

[0058] Figure 8A and Figure 8B Showing the scaling Figure 7 An exemplary movable size calibration graphic 800 of an exemplary layout 700. More specifically, Figure 8A The image shows the position of the movable dimensioning graphic 800 relative to the layout 700 before scaling. In this example, the movable dimensioning graphic 800 is used to define the width of the platform doorway of the material handling facility. As can be seen from this example, the layout 700 is smaller than the movable dimensioning graphic 800 because the platform section 712 (e.g., the platform doorway) is much smaller than the movable dimensioning graphic 800. Figure 8B The position of the scaled, movable-size calibration graphic 800 relative to the layout 700 is shown. Specifically, in Figure 8B In the example shown, the movable dimensioning graphic 800, after being moved, oriented, and / or sized (based on user input), is adapted to fit a platform segment 712 of the layout (e.g., spanning the platform segment). Once the dimensioning graphic 800 is in place, the layout operation circuit 610 sets a scaling factor so that the platform segment 712 measured by the dimensioning graphic 800 corresponds to... Figure 1The standard (e.g., default) width of the doorway of platform 102 in the material handling facility 100. Therefore, the graphics subsequently generated by the device graphics generation circuit 614 and the GUI generation circuit 616 can be easily integrated into the layout 700 at approximately the same scale. In some examples, the standard (e.g., default) width of the platform doorway is 10 feet. However, in other examples, the standard width may be greater than or less than 10 feet. In some examples, there is no preset standard width. Instead, in some examples, the width of the platform segment 712 corresponding to the length of the dimensioning graphic 800 is specified by the user. In some such examples, the user can not only adjust the dimensioning graphic 800 to the size of the platform segment 712 within the layout, but also adjust the dimensioning graphic 800 to the size of any feature displayed in the layout, and then enter the known (e.g., measured) size of that feature to specify the scale of the layout. Thus, for example, if the user knows that the length of a wall in the layout is 100 feet, the user can adjust the dimensioning graphic 800 to the length of that wall and then specify that the length corresponds to 100 feet. Based on this input, the exemplary layout operation circuitry 610 can determine the layout 700 and the scale and / or dimensions of all features within the layout 700. In some examples, the scaling of the layout 700 relative to the dimensioning graphic 800 is only an "approximate" scaling because it is based on user input, and therefore the accuracy is limited by the precision with which the end user adjusts the dimensioning graphic 800. In some examples, the layout operation circuitry 610 is instantiated by a programmable circuit that executes layout operation instructions and / or is configured to perform actions such as... Figure 12 , Figure 14 and Figure 15 The operation is represented by the flowchart.

[0059] In some examples, the master server 128 includes means for processing layouts. For example, this processing means may be implemented by layout operation circuitry 610. In some examples, layout operation circuitry 610 may be implemented by, for example... Figure 17 The exemplary programmable circuit 1712 is instantiated as a programmable circuit. For example, the layout operation circuit 610 may be provided by... Figure 18 An exemplary microprocessor 1800 executes machine-executable instructions to instantiate, the instructions corresponding to at least Figures 12 to 15 The operations implemented by boxes 1206, 1208, 1210, 1216, 1408, 1506, and 1508 in the diagram. In some examples, the layout operation circuitry 610 may be instantiated by hardware logic circuitry, which may be an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a heterogeneous processor (XPU), or... Figure 19The layout operation circuitry 610 is implemented using a field-programmable gate array (FPGA) circuit 1900, which is configured and / or constructed to perform operations corresponding to machine-readable instructions. Additionally or alternatively, the layout operation circuitry 610 may be instantiated by any other combination of hardware, software, and / or firmware. For example, the layout operation circuitry 610 may be implemented by at least one or more hardware circuits (e.g., processor circuitry, discrete and / or integrated analog and / or digital circuitry, FPGA, application-specific integrated circuit, heterogeneous processor, comparator, operational amplifier, logic circuitry, etc.) configured and / or constructed to execute some or all of the machine-readable instructions, and / or to perform some or all of the operations corresponding to the machine-readable instructions without executing software or firmware, but other configurations are equally applicable.

[0060] Figure 6 The exemplary device cataloging circuit 612 collects and organizes data with... Figure 1 Data related to platforms 102, industrial doors 124, and / or other equipment of the exemplary material handling facility 100 is stored in memory 618. In some examples, equipment cataloging circuitry 612 generates an asset list (e.g., equipment list, asset group) to represent platforms 102 and / or industrial doors 124 present in the material handling facility 100. Equipment cataloging circuitry 612 identifies (e.g., detects, discovers, etc.) platforms 102 and / or industrial doors 124 and lists them as entries in the asset list. In some examples, platforms 102 and / or industrial doors 124 are identified via equipment identification information sent by controllers 116, 126. The asset inventory includes at least equipment identification information (e.g., unique identifiers of specific controllers 116, 126 associated with each platform 102 and / or industrial door 124), and a list of equipment associated with or connected to controllers (e.g., platform controller 116, door controller 126) (e.g., platform door 104, doorway railing 106, platform control panel 108, vehicle restraint device 110, presence detector 112, and / or notification system 114, etc.). In some examples, the asset inventory includes all assets within a facility having multiple platforms 102 and / or multiple industrial doors 124. In some such examples, entries in the asset inventory associated with a given platform 102 and / or industrial door 124 are grouped together. Additionally or alternatively, the equipment cataloging circuit 612 generates a separate asset inventory for each platform 102 and each industrial door 124, with the equipment associated with each platform 102 and / or door 124 included in the corresponding asset inventory.

[0061] In some examples, the device cataloging circuitry 612 identifies the specific device associated with controllers 116, 126 and automatically adds data representing that device to the asset inventory based on data received from controllers 116, 126. For example, in some examples, controllers 116, 126 include a user interface (e.g., Figure 1 The display screen 118 shown enables users to locally configure and / or identify all devices connected to the corresponding controllers 116 and 126, so that controllers 116 and 126 can then provide this information to the device cataloging circuitry 612 of the master server 128. In other examples, controllers 116 and 126 do not have the capability to perform such local configuration. Instead, in some such examples, when controllers 116 and 126 receive a signal from a connected device indicating a change in the device's state, they report the signal along with the address associated with that signal (e.g., an Internet Protocol (IP) address, network address, etc.) to the master server 128. In some examples, the device cataloging circuitry 612 is able to determine the type of device associated with the reported address (e.g., an IP address, network address, etc.), thereby determining that controllers 116 and 126 are associated with at least one device of the identified type.

[0062] As a concrete example, as described above, the vehicle restraint device 110 includes a restraint sensor that outputs a signal when the vehicle restraint device 110 switches between a locked position (e.g., a position where the vehicle is engaged / restrained) and an unlocked position (e.g., a position where the vehicle restraint device 110 is not engaged / restrained). The associated platform controller 116 receives this signal and transmits it, along with the associated address of the restraint sensor and / or the corresponding signal (e.g., address "RestraintEngaged-003"), to the main server 128. In this example, the equipment cataloging circuit 612 is able to identify that the address "RestraintEngaged-003" corresponds to the vehicle restraint device 110, thereby determining that the controller 116 is operatively connected to a vehicle restraint device 110. Accordingly, the equipment cataloging circuit 612 adds a vehicle restraint device 110 to the associated asset list of the corresponding controller 116. In some examples, the device cataloging circuit 612 adds the vehicle restraint device 110 to the asset list only when the number of reported state changes associated with the associated address reaches a threshold number within a threshold time period. Meeting these thresholds provides redundancy, avoiding false alarms and misidentification of device entries to be added to the asset list. For this purpose, signals can be repeatedly transmitted. When other devices associated with controller 116 undergo state changes (e.g., a button is pressed, a warning light turns on or off, a sensor is triggered due to related activity or device movement), the corresponding signal transmitted to controller 116, along with the corresponding address of the associated device, is reported to the master server 128, enabling the device cataloging circuit 612 to generate a complete asset list associated with controller 116. In some examples, once a specific device is identified as associated with a given controller 116, 126, the device cataloging circuit 612 accesses and / or retrieves additional information about the device (e.g., model, serial number, etc.) from the configuration file stored in controllers 116, 126. In some examples, a configuration file may not exist, and / or relevant information may not be available for some or all of the devices that have been identified and added to the asset list.

[0063] In addition to automatically detecting and adding equipment to the asset list, or as an alternative, in some examples, the equipment cataloging circuit 612 adds data to the asset list based on user input. In some examples, the user input to the asset list may include descriptive names of assets (e.g., Platform 6, West Receiving Platform, Refrigeration Door 1, etc.), and / or information on the presence of equipment not communicatively connected to or monitored by controllers 116, 126 (e.g., door covers, trailer supports, etc.).

[0064] As described above, the exemplary device cataloging circuit 612 associates or groups each device with its corresponding controller 116, 126. More specifically, in some examples, this association is established based on unique device identification information (e.g., serial number) of the corresponding controller 116, 126. Therefore, unless a user explicitly knows the unique device identification information corresponding to each controller 116, 126, a user may not be able to determine which specific controller 116, 126 within the material handling facility corresponds to each asset group associated with multiple different controllers in the complete asset inventory. Accordingly, in some examples, the device cataloging circuit 612 uses easily identifiable or intuitive names or labels to assist in associating a specific controller 116, 126 with its corresponding station 102 and / or industrial door 124. In other words, users may not know or have difficulty remembering the unique device identification information of a given controller 116, 126, but may have set descriptive names or labels for the associated platform 102 or door 124 (e.g., platform 01, platform 02, door A, door B, freezer door 2, etc.), and the exemplary device cataloging circuit 612 can assist in assigning these names to the corresponding controllers 116, 126 in the asset list for subsequent identification.

[0065] Specifically, Figure 9 An exemplary graphical user interface 900, which can be generated by GUI generation circuitry 616, is shown. Exemplary device cataloging circuitry 612 can obtain user input through this interface and assign descriptive names to each controller 116, 126 identified and added to the asset list. In the example shown, six different controllers 116, 126 identified by device cataloging circuitry 612 are listed. As mentioned above, in some examples, device cataloging circuitry 612 is able to determine the type of controller based on device identification information provided for each controller 116, 126. Figure 9 In the example shown, the device types are listed in device type column 902. As shown, four platform controllers 116 and two door controllers 126 have been identified in this example. Furthermore, in this example, two of the platform controllers 116 have been assigned specific device names (e.g., "01" and "02"), and one of the two door controllers has been assigned a specific device name (e.g., "A"), as shown in device name column 904.

[0066] exist Figure 9In the example shown, the two station controllers 116 identified by the equipment cataloging circuit 612 have not yet been assigned names. In some cases, a user may not know which row in the inventory corresponds to which associated station 102 in the material handling facility 100. In some examples, to address this issue, the graphical user interface 900 includes an alarm column 906 with indicators 908 that visually change in response to alarm signals (e.g., equipment identification signals) generated by the corresponding controllers 116, 126. That is, in some examples, a given controller 116, 126 has user-selectable input items (e.g., user-pressable buttons, or specific button press sequences) to generate an alarm signal and transmit it to the master server 128 to identify that the given controller 116, 126 corresponds to a specific row in the asset inventory shown in the graphical user interface 900. Upon receiving this signal, the exemplary equipment cataloging circuit 612 (e.g., via the GUI generation circuit 616) controls the associated indicator 908 to change its visual appearance (e.g., change color, light up, highlight, change size, start flashing, etc.). For example, the indicator 908 in the fourth row of the example list looks different from the other indicators 908 (e.g., it has a unique appearance) because the user just pressed the corresponding button on the associated station controller 116, triggering the generation of an alarm signal. In this way, the user can confirm that the associated station in the fourth row corresponds to station 102 where the controller 116 that the user just triggered to generate the alarm signal is located. Accordingly, the user can select (e.g., click via a mouse or other clicking device) the associated edit button 910 and enter the device name for the corresponding station 102. The entered name will then be populated in the device name column 904. Furthermore, in this example, a checkmark will appear in the status column 912 to indicate that the associated controller 116 has been named.

[0067] In some examples, exemplary device cataloging circuitry 612 also associates the relative positions and orientations in the layout with platforms 102 and doors 124 in the asset inventory. In some examples, GUI generation circuitry 616 creates device tags (e.g., asset tags, graphics, icons, proxy elements, etc.) that a user can position and orient on layout 700 (e.g., rotate). In some examples, each device tag is associated with a specific device in material handling facility 100 (e.g., a specific platform 102 or industrial door 124). Device cataloging circuitry 612 reads the position of the device tag in layout 700 and stores it in memory 618 for GUI generation circuitry 616 to place device graphics generated by device graphics generation circuitry 614, which will be described in more detail below. In other examples, device cataloging circuitry 612 obtains the position and orientation of the device tag through direct user input (e.g., coordinates, target pixels, etc.). Figure 10The placement of exemplary equipment tags (platform tag 1000 and industrial door tag 1002) on exemplary layout 700 is shown. Exemplary asset list 1004 shows the equipment tags (platform tag 1000 and / or industrial door tag 1002) corresponding to the assets generated by equipment cataloging circuit 612. Each equipment tag contains a label specified by the user (e.g., a string of numbers and / or letters) (as combined above). Figure 9 As stated above, and in conjunction with the following text Figure 13 (Further explanation) This allows users to associate each marker with the corresponding platform or industrial door of the material handling facility represented by the corresponding location in layout 700. In this way, users can select platform marker 1000 or industrial door marker 1002 and place it in the corresponding location in layout 700 according to the marker's label. Some equipment markers (platform marker 1000 and / or industrial door marker 1002) have been moved and rotated according to user input to align with exemplary platform section 712 and industrial door section 714. Assets that have not yet been placed will remain in asset list 1004 until the user performs a movement operation.

[0068] In some examples, the device cataloging circuit 612 is instantiated by a programmable circuit that executes device cataloging instructions and / or is configured to perform actions such as Figure 12 , Figure 13 and Figure 15 The operation is represented by the flowchart.

[0069] In some examples, the master server 128 includes means for cataloging devices. For example, this cataloging means may be implemented by device cataloging circuitry 612. In some examples, device cataloging circuitry 612 may be implemented by, for example... Figure 17 The exemplary programmable circuit 1712 is instantiated as a programmable circuit. For example, the device cataloging circuit 612 may be instantiated by... Figure 18 An exemplary microprocessor 1800 executes machine-executable instructions to instantiate, the instructions corresponding to at least Figure 12 , Figure 13 and Figure 15 The operations implemented by boxes 1202, 1204, 1210, 1304, 1310, and 1508 in the diagram. In some examples, the device cataloging circuit 612 may be instantiated by hardware logic circuitry, which may be an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a heterogeneous processor (XPU), or... Figure 19The device cataloging circuitry 612 is implemented using a field-programmable gate array (FPGA) circuit 1900, which is configured and / or constructed to perform operations corresponding to machine-readable instructions. Additionally or alternatively, the device cataloging circuitry 612 may be instantiated by any other combination of hardware, software, and / or firmware. For example, the device cataloging circuitry 612 may be implemented by at least one or more hardware circuits (e.g., processor circuitry, discrete and / or integrated analog and / or digital circuitry, FPGA, application-specific integrated circuit, heterogeneous processor, comparator, operational amplifier, logic circuitry, etc.) configured and / or constructed to execute some or all of the machine-readable instructions, and / or to perform some or all of the operations corresponding to the machine-readable instructions without executing software or firmware, but other configurations are equally applicable.

[0070] Figure 6 The exemplary device graphics generation circuit 614 generates a representation Figure 1 The exemplary material handling facility 100 includes graphics of platforms 102 and / or industrial doors 124. The graphics (e.g., icons, images, symbols, etc.) generated by the equipment graphics generation circuit 614 reflect both asset data stored by the equipment cataloging circuit 612 (e.g., sensor and / or equipment type associated with the asset, asset name or tag, etc.) and IO data collected from the equipment and processed by the IO data analysis circuit 608. In this way, a corresponding graphic is generated for each asset in the asset list to reflect the type of equipment equipped and the relevant status of the equipment. Such graphics can be combined with layout 700 and displayed at the placement locations of each platform marker 1000 and / or industrial door marker 1002 (as described above). Figure 10 As stated above.

[0071] Figure 11An exemplary device graphic generated by an exemplary device graphic generation circuit 614 is shown. The exemplary first platform graphic 1100 includes a platform door symbol 1102, a doorway barrier symbol 1104, a platform adjustment panel symbol 1106, a first vehicle restraint device symbol 1108, a presence detector symbol 1110, an external notification system symbol 1112, and a communication status symbol 1114. The exemplary second platform graphic 1116 is similar to the first platform graphic 1100, also including the platform door symbol 1102, doorway barrier symbol 1104, platform adjustment panel symbol 1106, presence detector symbol 1110, external notification system symbol 1112, and communication status symbol 1114. However, due to the differences in the equipment status associated with the two platforms represented by the two platform graphics 1100 and 1116, the symbols 1102, 1104, 1106, 1108, 1110, 1112, and 1114 included in the second platform graphic 1116 are adjusted relative to their corresponding symbols in the first platform graphic 1100. Specifically, in the example shown, the first platform graphic 1100 represents a platform that is closed (e.g., protected, locked) and not enabled (e.g., not in use), while the second platform graphic 1116 represents a platform that is in use and has trailers docked, indicated by the trailer symbol 1118 and the tractor symbol 1120.

[0072] In the example shown, the platform door symbol 1102 in the first platform graphic 1100 is placed at the platform location (e.g., Figure 7 The platform section 712 is represented by a rectangle. In some examples, the size and shape of the platform door symbol 1102 are similar to... Figure 10 The platform marker 1000 is identical to the one in the layout 700, which allows the user to initially define the location of the platform graphic. In some examples, the platform door symbol 1102 indicates whether the associated platform door 104 is open or closed by changing its appearance. For example, in the illustrated example, the platform door symbol 1102 of the first platform graphic 1100 has a shadow to indicate that the corresponding door 104 of the corresponding platform 102 in the real world is in the closed position. In contrast, the platform door symbol 1102 of the second platform graphic 1116 has no shadow and is presented without fill to indicate that the corresponding door 104 of the corresponding platform 102 in the real world is in the open position. In other examples, the platform door symbol 1102 may adopt any other suitable appearance and / or switch the display state between the closed and open positions in any other suitable manner.

[0073] The portal railing symbol 1104 in the first platform graphic 1100 is shown spanning the corresponding portal of the platform, indicating that the portal railing 106 of the corresponding platform 102 in the real world is in an unfolded state (or in a lowered state if the portal railing is a vertical lift gate). In contrast, the portal railing symbol 1104 in the second platform graphic 1116 does not span the portal, indicating that the portal railing 106 is in a retracted state (or in a raised state if it is a vertical lift gate). However, the portal railing symbol 1104 in the second platform graphic 1116 contains two circles, representing the two posts of the portal railing 106 spanning between them. In other examples, the portal railing symbol 1104 may adopt any other suitable appearance, and / or switch between unfolded and retracted positions in any other suitable manner.

[0074] In the first platform graphic 1100, the platform control panel symbol 1106 is represented by thin lines spaced apart from the platform door symbol 1102, indicating that the corresponding platform control panel 108 is in a retracted state. In contrast, in the second platform graphic 1116, the platform control panel symbol 1106 extends to the platform door symbol 1102, representing that the platform control panel 108 is in an extended state. In other examples, the platform control panel symbol 1106 may adopt any other suitable appearance and / or switch between extended and retracted positions in any other suitable manner. For example, in some examples, the thin lines representing the platform control panel symbol 1106 in the first platform graphic 1100 are used only to indicate the retracted state of vertically retractable control panels, while different appearances are used to represent non-vertically retractable control panels. In other examples, the retracted state of all types of control panels may be represented by the same appearance.

[0075] The first vehicle restraint device symbol 1108 in the first platform graphic 1100 indicates that a vehicle restraint device 110 is provided at the corresponding platform 102. However, in this example, the vehicle restraint device 110 is inactive because there is no trailer at the corresponding platform for the restraint device to engage. Since platform graphics 1100 and 1116 are intended to visually convey platform information from a bird's-eye view or top-down view, the vehicle restraint device 110 is located below the trailer and is therefore not visible when there is a trailer at the platform. For this reason, the first vehicle restraint device symbol 1108 is omitted in the second platform graphic 1116. However, in some examples, the second platform graphic 1116 includes a second vehicle restraint device symbol 1122 to indicate that the real-world vehicle restraint device 110 is physically engaged with the corresponding trailer (e.g., restraining the trailer). In this example, the second vehicle restraint device symbol 1122 is a lock-shaped icon, but any other symbol may be used.

[0076] The presence detector symbol 1110 indicates that a presence detector 112 is present at the corresponding platform 102. The presence detector symbol 1110 is displayed on the inside of the first platform graphic 1100. The second platform graphic 1116 also displays the presence detector symbol 1110, and additionally includes an activity symbol 1124 to indicate that the presence detector 112 is detecting activity (e.g., movement) within the trailer. In some examples, when the presence detector 112 detects movement within the trailer, it projects light onto the ground in front of the trailer opening within the material handling facility 100 to alert personnel near the platform. Accordingly, in this example, the activity symbol 1124 is circular and placed near the projected light signal, corresponding to the real-world indication provided by the presence detector 112. In some examples, the color of the activity symbol 1124 is the same as the color of light projected onto the ground in front of the trailer opening in the real world. In other examples, the activity symbol 1124 may be any other symbol. It is worth noting that in this example, the appearance or disappearance of the activity symbol 1124 in the platform graphic 1116 indicates whether movement within the trailer has been detected. In contrast, as mentioned above, the presence detector symbol 1110 is used to indicate whether a presence detector is installed at the corresponding platform. The presence detector symbol 1110 helps end users determine whether the absence of the activity symbol 1124 is due to no movement detected within the trailer, or because movement within the trailer is not monitored at all (e.g., no presence detector is installed at that location).

[0077] External notification symbol 1112 is used to indicate the light indicator 206 at the corresponding platform 102 (e.g. Figure 2 The status of the external notification symbol 1112 is shown in the diagram. In the first platform diagram 1100, the exemplary external notification symbol 1112 is represented by a colored circle. In some examples, the color of the external notification symbol 1112 is consistent with or corresponds to the signal status of the light indicator 206 at the corresponding platform 102. In the exemplary first platform diagram 1100, the external notification symbol 1112 is a specific color (e.g., green) to inform relevant personnel (e.g., drivers, staff, other personnel outside the material handling facility, etc.) that the platform is available for trailer parking and / or the vehicle restraint device 110 has been disengaged and the trailer can leave the platform. In contrast, the external notification symbol 1112 in the second platform diagram 1116 is a different color (e.g., red) to inform relevant personnel that the platform is occupied, the trailer 300 is secured, or to indicate the need for caution around the platform.

[0078] The communication status symbol 1114 on the first station graphic 1100 indicates that communication between the corresponding IO communication board 134 of station 102 and the network communication interface circuit 602 is active. Although the communication status symbol 1114 resembles a wireless communication symbol, the actual network connection can be implemented using any form of network communication (e.g., Wi-Fi, Ethernet, cellular networks, etc.). In some examples, the communication status symbol 1114 may disappear or otherwise change (e.g., change color, start flashing, etc.) to indicate a communication interruption with the network or to indicate that the device is not equipped with a communication device (e.g., the IO communication board 134 of station 102). In other examples, other icons or symbols may be used to indicate that communication between the corresponding station 102 and the main server 128 is active.

[0079] The trailer symbol 1118 of the second platform graphic 1116 includes a timer symbol 1126 to indicate the duration the trailer is operating (e.g., loading or unloading). In some examples, the timer symbol 1126 corresponds to the timing indicator 306 of the notification system 114 and / or the display screen 118 of the corresponding platform 102 in the real world. An exemplary third platform graphic 1128 includes the trailer symbol 1118 but no corresponding tractor symbol (e.g., tractor symbol 1120). In contrast, the trailer symbol 1118 of the third platform graphic 1128 includes status text 1130. The status text 1130 of the third platform graphic 1128 indicates that the real-world trailer 300 at the corresponding platform 102 is docked. In other examples, the status text 1130 may be used to provide any status information about the trailer and / or the platform (e.g., the trailer is used for storage, the platform is under maintenance, waste or scrap containers are available, etc.). In this example, the third platform graphic 1128 includes a canopy symbol 1131 to indicate that the corresponding platform 102 at that location is equipped with a canopy and / or matching door seals to surround the opening of the trailer 300 parked at platform 102. In contrast, the first and second platform graphics 1100 and 1116 do not include the canopy symbol 1131 to indicate that the corresponding platform is not equipped with such a canopy. In some examples, whether the platform graphic includes the canopy symbol 1131 depends on whether the user specifies that the corresponding real-world platform is equipped with a canopy.

[0080] The platforms shown in the exemplary fourth and fifth platform graphics 1132 and 1134 have fewer and / or different types of equipment compared to the first, second, and third platform graphics 1100, 1116, and 1128. The equipment graphic generation circuit 614 generates graphics based on equipment automatically detected and / or manually entered into the asset inventory (by the exemplary equipment cataloging circuit 612 described above). Therefore, different features or symbols displayed in the door graphics can be combined in any way to reflect the equipment configuration of any platform and can be dynamically updated to reflect the status or operating condition of the equipment at that platform. For example, neither the fourth nor fifth platform graphics 1132 and 1134 have doorway barriers. The fourth platform graphics 1132 includes a detector symbol 1110, while the fifth platform graphics 1134 does not. The fifth platform graphics 1134 shows a door cover symbol 1131, while the fourth platform graphics 1132 does not. In other examples, different symbols may be used to represent equipment with similar functions but different types. For example, the exemplary vehicle restraint device symbol 1108 in the fourth platform figure 1132 (and shown in the first platform figure 1100) represents a vehicle restraint device engaged with the rear crash barrier of the trailer. Correspondingly, the exemplary vehicle restraint device symbol 1138 in the fifth platform figure 1134 represents a vehicle restraint device engaged with the trailer tire.

[0081] The device graphic generation circuit 614 of the main server 128 generates various device graphics to reflect the platform 102 and its status. Figure 11 The exemplary device graphic illustrates the graphics and status of the platform. In other examples, the device graphic generation circuit 614 can generate graphics for other assets, such as the industrial door 124 of the material handling facility 100.

[0082] In some examples, the device graphics generation circuit 614 is instantiated by a programmable circuit that executes device graphics generation instructions and / or is configured to perform actions such as Figure 12 and Figure 16 The operation is represented by the flowchart.

[0083] In some examples, the main server 128 includes means for generating device graphics. For example, this generation means may be implemented by device graphics generation circuitry 614. In some examples, device graphics generation circuitry 614 may be implemented by, for example... Figure 17 The exemplary programmable circuit 1712 is instantiated as a programmable circuit. For example, the device graphics generation circuit 614 may be instantiated by... Figure 18 An exemplary microprocessor 1800 executes machine-executable instructions to instantiate, the instructions corresponding to at least Figure 12 and Figure 16The operations implemented in boxes 1214, 1216, and 1610 are described. In some examples, the device graphics generation circuitry 614 may be instantiated by hardware logic circuitry, which may be an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a heterogeneous processor (XPU), or... Figure 19 The device graphics generation circuitry 614 is implemented using a field-programmable gate array (FPGA) circuit 1900, which is configured and / or constructed to perform operations corresponding to machine-readable instructions. Additionally or alternatively, the device graphics generation circuitry 614 may be instantiated by any other combination of hardware, software, and / or firmware. For example, the device graphics generation circuitry 614 may be implemented by at least one or more hardware circuits (e.g., processor circuitry, discrete and / or integrated analog and / or digital circuitry, FPGA, application-specific integrated circuit, heterogeneous processor, comparator, operational amplifier, logic circuitry, etc.) configured and / or constructed to execute some or all of the machine-readable instructions, and / or to perform some or all of the operations corresponding to the machine-readable instructions without executing software or firmware, but other configurations are equally applicable.

[0084] Figure 6 The exemplary GUI generation circuit 616 of the main server 128 generates a graphical user interface (e.g., Figure 7 , Figure 9 and Figure 10 The GUI (GUI as shown) is displayed on a webpage hosted on web server 136. In some examples, GUI generation circuitry 616 generates a GUI for other applications, applets, applications, etc., that can be accessed by client device 138 independently of web server 136. The GUI generated by exemplary GUI generation circuitry 616 may be based on the output of IO data analysis circuitry 608, layout operation circuitry 610, device cataloging circuitry 612, and / or device graphics generation circuitry 614. In some examples, the GUI generated by GUI generation circuitry 616 includes icons, graphics, or other tools (e.g., Figure 8A and Figure 8B Dimensioning drawing 800 Figure 9 The list of tested equipment shown Figure 10 (e.g., platform marker 1000) to receive or capture user input. In some examples, the GUI generation circuit 616 is instantiated by a programmable circuit that executes GUI generation instructions and / or is configured to perform actions such as... Figures 12 to 16 The operation is represented by the flowchart.

[0085] In some examples, the main server 128 includes means for generating a graphical user interface and / or means for providing information to the user. For example, the generation and / or provisioning means may be implemented by a GUI generation circuit 616. In some examples, the GUI generation circuit 616 may be implemented by, for example... Figure 17The exemplary programmable circuit 1712 is instantiated as a programmable circuit. For example, the GUI generation circuit 616 can be instantiated by... Figure 18 An exemplary microprocessor 1800 executes machine-executable instructions to instantiate, the instructions corresponding to at least Figures 12 to 15 The operations implemented by boxes 1208, 1210, 1216, 1302, 1304, 1308, 1310, 1402, 1404, 1406, 1502, 1506, and 1508 in the diagram. In some examples, the GUI generation circuit 616 may be instantiated by hardware logic circuitry, which may be an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a heterogeneous processor (XPU), or... Figure 19 The GUI generation circuitry 616 is implemented using a field-programmable gate array (FPGA) circuit 1900, which is configured and / or constructed to perform operations corresponding to machine-readable instructions. Additionally or alternatively, the GUI generation circuitry 616 may be instantiated by any other combination of hardware, software, and / or firmware. For example, the GUI generation circuitry 616 may be implemented by at least one or more hardware circuits (e.g., processor circuitry, discrete and / or integrated analog and / or digital circuitry, FPGAs, application-specific integrated circuits, heterogeneous processors, comparators, operational amplifiers, logic circuits, etc.) configured and / or constructed to execute some or all of the machine-readable instructions, and / or to perform some or all of the operations corresponding to the machine-readable instructions without executing software or firmware, but other configurations are equally applicable.

[0086] although Figure 6 Implementation shown Figure 1 One exemplary method for the main server 128, but Figure 6 One or more elements, processes, and / or devices shown may be combined, divided, rearranged, omitted, removed, and / or implemented in any other way. Furthermore, exemplary network server 136, exemplary network communication interface circuit 602, exemplary IO network interface circuit 604, exemplary data logging circuit 606, exemplary IO data analysis circuit 608, exemplary layout operation circuit 610, exemplary device cataloging circuit 612, exemplary device graphics generation circuit 614, exemplary GUI generation circuit 616, exemplary memory 618, and / or more generally, Figure 6The exemplary master server 128 may be implemented solely by hardware, or by a combination of hardware and software and / or firmware. Therefore, for example, the exemplary network server 136, the exemplary network communication interface circuit 602, the exemplary I / O network interface circuit 604, the exemplary data logging circuit 606, the exemplary I / O data analysis circuit 608, the exemplary layout operation circuit 610, the exemplary device cataloging circuit 612, the exemplary device graphics generation circuit 614, the exemplary GUI generation circuit 616, the exemplary memory 618, and / or more generally, any of the exemplary master server 128 may be implemented by programmable circuitry, processor circuitry, analog circuitry, digital circuitry, logic circuitry, programmable processors, programmable microcontrollers, graphics processing units (GPUs), digital signal processors (DSPs), application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs), programmable logic devices (PLDs), vision processors (VPUs), and / or field-programmable logic devices (FPLDs) (e.g., field-programmable gate arrays). Furthermore, Figure 6 An exemplary master server 128 may include, in addition to Figure 6 One or more elements, processes and / or devices other than those shown, and / or may include more than one of any or all of the elements, processes and devices illustrated.

[0087] Figure 12 , Figure 13 , Figure 14 , Figure 15 and / or Figure 16 A flowchart illustrating exemplary machine-readable instructions is shown, which can be executed by programmable circuitry to implement and / or instantiate. Figure 6 The main server 128; and / or indicates that it can be implemented and / or instantiated by programmable circuitry. Figure 6 The exemplary operation of the master server 128. Machine-readable instructions may be one or more executable programs, or components of one or more executable programs, for use as described below. Figure 17 The programmable circuitry, such as programmable circuitry 1712 shown in the exemplary processor platform 1700, executes the programmable circuitry; and / or may be one or more functions or components thereof, as described below. Figure 18 and / or Figure 19 The exemplary programmable circuitry (e.g., field-programmable gate array) described herein executes the commands. In some examples, machine-readable instructions enable real-world operations, tasks, etc., to be performed and implemented in an automated manner. As used herein, “automation” means without human intervention.

[0088] The program may be embodied as instructions (e.g., software and / or firmware) stored on one or more non-transitory computer-readable and / or machine-readable storage media, such as cache memory, magnetic storage devices or disks (e.g., floppy disks, hard disk drives (HDDs), etc.), optical storage devices or optical discs (e.g., Blu-ray discs, optical discs (CDs), digital versatile optical discs (DVDs), etc.), redundant arrays of independent disks (RAID), registers, read-only memory (ROM), solid-state drives (SSDs), SSD memory, non-volatile memory (e.g., electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), flash memory, etc.), volatile memory (e.g., any type of random access memory (RAM), etc.), and / or any other storage device or storage disk. The instructions on the non-transitory computer-readable and / or machine-readable media may program and / or be executed by programmable circuitry located in one or more hardware devices, but the entire program and / or portions thereof may also be executed and / or instantiated by one or more hardware devices other than the programmable circuitry, and / or embodied in dedicated hardware. Machine-readable instructions may be distributed across multiple hardware devices and / or executed by two or more hardware devices (e.g., server and client hardware devices). For example, client hardware devices may be implemented by end-user client hardware devices (e.g., hardware devices associated with human and / or machine users) or intermediate-user hardware device gateways (e.g., radio access networks (RANs)), which facilitate communication between the server and end-user client hardware devices. Similarly, non-transitory computer-readable storage media may include one or more media. Furthermore, although references... Figure 12 , Figure 13 , Figure 14 , Figure 15 and / or Figure 16The flowchart shown illustrates an exemplary program, but many other methods can be used to implement the exemplary master server 128. For example, the execution order of the blocks in the flowchart can be changed, and / or some of the blocks can be changed, removed, or combined. Additionally or alternatively, any or all of the blocks in the flowchart can be implemented by one or more hardware circuits (e.g., processor circuits, discrete and / or integrated analog and / or digital circuits, field-programmable gate arrays, application-specific integrated circuits, comparators, operational amplifiers, logic circuits, etc.) constructed to perform the corresponding operation without executing software or firmware. Programmable circuits can be distributed across different network locations and / or located locally on one or more hardware devices (e.g., single-core processors (e.g., single-core CPUs), multi-core processors (e.g., multi-core CPUs, heterogeneous processors, etc.)). As used herein, programmable circuits include any type of circuit that can be programmed to perform the desired function, such as CPUs, GPUs, VPUs, and / or FPGAs. Programmable circuitry may include one or more CPUs, one or more GPUs, one or more VPUs, and / or one or more FPGAs located in the same package (e.g., within the same integrated circuit (IC) package, or in two or more separate housings); may include one or more CPUs, GPUs, VPUs, and / or one or more FPGAs in a single machine; may include multiple CPUs, GPUs, VPUs, and / or FPGAs distributed across multiple servers in a server rack; and may include multiple processors distributed across one or more server racks. Additionally or alternatively, programmable circuitry may include programmable logic devices (PLDs), general-purpose array logic (GAL) devices, programmable array logic (PAL) devices, complex programmable logic devices (CPLDs), simple programmable logic devices (SPLDs), microcontrollers (MCUs), programmable system-on-a-chip (PSoCs), and / or any combination thereof in any of the above scenarios.

[0089] The machine-readable instructions described herein can be stored in one or more forms, such as compressed format, encrypted format, segmented format, compiled format, executable format, and packaged format. These machine-readable instructions can be stored as data (e.g., computer-readable data, machine-readable data, one or more bits (e.g., one or more computer-readable bits, one or more machine-readable bits, etc.), bit streams (e.g., computer-readable bit streams, machine-readable bit streams, etc.)) or data structures (e.g., as components of instructions or code, representations of code, etc.), and can be used to create, manufacture, and / or generate machine-executable instructions. For example, machine-readable instructions can be segmented and stored on one or more storage devices, disks, and / or computing devices (e.g., servers) located in the same or different locations (e.g., cloud, edge devices, etc.) on one or more networks. Machine-readable instructions may require one or more steps, such as installation, modification, adaptation, updating, combination, supplementation, configuration, decryption, decompression, unpacking, distribution, reallocation, and compilation, before they can be directly read, interpreted, and / or executed by computing devices and / or other machines. For example, machine-readable instructions can be divided into multiple parts, each of which is compressed, encrypted, and / or stored on a separate computing device; these parts, after being decrypted, decompressed, and / or combined, form a set of computer-executable and / or machine-executable instructions for implementing one or more functions and / or operations, together constituting a program as described herein.

[0090] In another example, machine-readable instructions may have a state storage readable by programmable circuits, but require the addition of libraries (e.g., dynamic link libraries (DLLs)), software development kits (SDKs), application programming interfaces (APIs), etc., to execute the machine-readable instructions on a specific computing device or other apparatus. In yet another example, machine-readable instructions may require prior configuration (e.g., storing settings, input data, recording network addresses, etc.) to execute all or part of the machine-readable instructions and / or corresponding programs. Therefore, as used herein, machine-readable, computer-readable, and / or machine-readable media may contain instructions and / or programs, regardless of the specific format or state of the machine-readable instructions and / or programs.

[0091] The machine-readable instructions described herein can be represented by any past, present, or future instruction language, scripting language, programming language, etc. For example, machine-readable instructions can be represented using any of the following languages: C, C++, Java, C#, Perl, Python, JavaScript, Hypertext Markup Language (HTML), Structured Query Language (SQL), Swift, etc.

[0092] As mentioned above, Figure 12 , Figure 13 , Figure 14 , Figure 15 and / or Figure 16 Exemplary operations can be implemented using executable instructions (e.g., computer-readable and / or machine-readable instructions) stored on one or more non-transitory computer-readable and / or machine-readable media. As used herein, the terms "non-transitory computer-readable medium," "non-transitory computer-readable storage medium," "non-transitory machine-readable medium," and / or "non-transitory machine-readable storage medium" are explicitly defined as including any type of computer-readable storage device and / or storage disk, excluding propagation signals and transmission media. Examples of such non-transitory computer-readable media, non-transitory computer-readable storage media, non-transitory machine-readable media, and / or non-transitory machine-readable storage media include optical storage devices, magnetic storage devices, hard disk drives, flash memory, read-only memory, optical disks, digital versatile optical disks, caches, random access memory of any type, registers, and / or any other storage device or storage disk in which information can be stored for any duration (e.g., long-term storage, permanent storage, transient storage, temporary buffering, and / or information caching). As used herein, the terms "non-transitory computer-readable storage device" and "non-transitory machine-readable storage device" are defined as any physical (mechanical, magnetic, and / or electrical) hardware that can retain information for a period of time, excluding propagated signals and transmission media. Examples of non-transitory computer-readable storage devices and / or non-transitory machine-readable storage devices include any type of random access memory, any type of read-only memory, solid-state drives, flash memory, optical discs, disks, disk drives, and / or redundant arrays of independent disks (RAID) systems. As used herein, the term "device" refers to a physical structure, such as mechanical and / or electrical equipment, hardware, and / or circuitry, which may or may not be configured with computer-readable instructions, machine-readable instructions, etc., and / or is manufactured to execute computer-readable instructions, machine-readable instructions, etc.

[0093] Figure 12 The flowchart illustrates exemplary machine-readable instructions and / or exemplary operations 1200, which may be executed, instantiated, and / or implemented by programmable circuitry for identifying equipment in a material handling facility and displaying equipment-related status information on the layout of the material handling facility. Figure 12The exemplary machine-readable instructions and / or exemplary operations 1200 begin at box 1202, where exemplary device cataloging circuitry 612 generates a facility equipment list (e.g., an asset list). For ease of illustration, devices mentioned in the flowchart may refer to platforms 102, industrial doors 124, and / or a collection of components of industrial doors 124 located within a material handling facility. In some examples, other types of devices may also be identified and included in the facility equipment list. Device cataloging circuitry 612 receives data from exemplary IO network interface circuitry 604 and / or IO data analysis circuitry 608 to identify devices and associated sensors in the facility associated with controllers (e.g., exemplary platform controller 116 or exemplary door controller 126). Identified devices are stored in an exemplary memory 618 in list form by data logging circuitry 606. In some examples, different device items or assets in the device list are identified by arbitrary identifiers and / or identifiers contained in data collected from the devices (e.g., serial numbers). In some examples, the identifiers used in the device list may not be recognizable by the end user. In other examples, newly identified equipment assets are not assigned identifiers, and the inventory contains only blank label placeholders. Therefore, end users cannot easily identify the equipment listed in the inventory and cannot associate it with the corresponding equipment in material handling facility 100. Accordingly, at box 1204, the equipment cataloging circuit 612 allows the user to tag (e.g., re-tag) the facility equipment identified in box 1202, matching controllers 116, 126, and / or other items in the equipment inventory with user-identifiable names for the corresponding platforms 102 and / or industrial gates 124. In some examples, user-identifiable names or labels are combined as described above. Figure 9 As stated, it is obtained from and / or provided by the user. Further details regarding the implementation of box 1204 will be provided below. Figure 13 illustrate.

[0094] At box 1206, exemplary layout operation circuitry 610 generates a layout representing the facility. In some examples, the layout is generated based on an image or other data file received via exemplary network communication interface circuitry 602. In some such examples, layout operation circuitry 610 generates the layout by converting the data file to a more suitable format. In some examples, layout operation circuitry 610 may perform additional preprocessing on user-provided input to generate the layout. In some examples, the received data file is already in a suitable format and requires no further processing to generate a layout that conforms to the requirements of the examples disclosed herein. In some examples, layout operation circuitry 610 generates the layout based on information input by the user via exemplary GUI generation circuitry 616. That is, in some examples, the user can use layout operation circuitry 610 and / or exemplary GUI generation circuitry 616 to directly build or create the layout within an exemplary GUI. At box 1208, layout operation circuitry 610 and / or GUI generation circuitry 616 scale the layout in response to user input. Further details regarding the implementation of box 1208 will be provided below. Figure 14 illustrate.

[0095] At box 1210, GUI generation circuitry 616 places facility equipment in the facility layout based on user input. In some examples, layout operation circuitry 610, equipment cataloging circuitry 612, and GUI generation circuitry 616 work together to store the positions of facility equipment relative to the facility layout for later use by the main server 128. Further details regarding the implementation of box 1210 will be discussed below. Figure 15 illustrate.

[0096] At box 1212, IO data analysis circuitry 608 monitors IO data (e.g., sensor feedback data, device status data, etc.) provided by IO network interface circuitry 604 to generate and / or determine the status and / or relevant operating conditions of facility assets in the equipment inventory. In some examples, monitoring IO data includes storing IO data in memory (e.g., memory 618) by data logging circuitry 606 for later use.

[0097] At box 1214, the device graphics generation circuit 614 generates a device graphic to depict the status and / or relevant operating conditions of the facility equipment corresponding to the analysis results of the IO data analysis circuit 608. Further details regarding the implementation of box 1214 will be provided below. Figure 16 Explanation. As described below, the graphics generated by the equipment graphics generation circuit 614 depict both the equipment constituting the platform or industrial gate and the status and / or related operating conditions of the equipment.

[0098] At box 1216, GUI generation circuitry 616 generates or displays (generated by device graphics generation circuitry 614 at box 1214) and facility layout (generated by layout operation circuitry 610 at box 1206) in the associated GUI. The device graphics are displayed together with the layout scaled by layout operation circuitry 610 (at box 1208), and their position and orientation relative to the layout are recorded by device cataloging circuitry 612. In some examples, layout operation circuitry 610 may display the graphics and / or layout at different sizes (e.g., zoomed in, enlarged display, zoomed out, etc.) or different positions (e.g., focused on a single station or a group of stations) based on user input. At box 1218, master server 128 determines whether to continue monitoring IO data. If yes, control returns to box 1212. If no, control proceeds to box 1220, where master server 128 determines whether the device inventory and / or facility layout need to be updated. In some examples, the master server 128 determines whether the device inventory and / or facility layout needs to be updated based on user input and / or the detection of a new device communicating with the master server 128. If yes, control returns to box 1202. If no, Figure 12 The exemplary process has ended.

[0099] Figure 13 The flowchart illustrates exemplary machine-readable instructions and / or exemplary operations 1300, which can be executed, instantiated, and / or implemented by programmable circuitry for the purpose of implementing... Figure 12 Box 1204. Figure 13 The machine-readable instructions and / or operations 1300 begin at box 1302, where the master server 128 determines whether a device tagging command has been received from the user. In this context, a device tagging command refers to a command from the user used to initiate a process that enables the user to... Figure 12 The different device items in the device list generated in box 1202 are provided with user-identifiable labels or names. In some examples, the GUI generation circuit 616 receives commands from the user via an exemplary GUI provided to the website and / or the user's device. If no device tagging command is received, then... Figure 13 Operation 1300 returned to Figure 12 Box 1206. Otherwise, operation 1300 continues to box 1304, where the GUI generation circuit 616 displays a device list generated by the device cataloging circuit 612. This device list displays all devices detected by the device cataloging circuit 612 or received through user input. As described above, Figure 9 An exemplary graphical user interface for displaying a list of assets to be named or tagged.

[0100] At box 1306, the IO data analysis circuit 608 determines whether the controller (e.g., platform controller 116, door controller 126) is sending a device identification signal through the IO network interface circuit 604. In some examples, the device identification signal is generated in response to a user's direct input to the controller (e.g., by user input to the display screen 118 of platform controller 116, and / or pressing any other designated button). If a device identification signal is detected at box 1306, operation 1300 continues to box 1308. If not detected, operation 1300 jumps to box 1310. At box 1308, the GUI generation circuit 616 visually distinguishes the assets in the device inventory corresponding to the identification signal received by the IO data analysis circuit 608. That is, as described above... Figure 9 As illustrated in the example, the indicator 908 associated with the corresponding controllers 116, 126 changes appearance. In some examples, distinguishing assets includes highlighting the entry with a contrasting color or adding additional graphics or icons to indicate an identified status. Once an asset is properly distinguished, operation 1300 proceeds to block 1310, where assets in the equipment list are tagged (or re-tagged) based on user input received by the GUI generation circuitry 616. In some examples, the tags are stored in memory 618 by the equipment cataloging circuitry 612. Visually distinguishing specific items in the equipment list by having a personnel manually trigger an equipment identification signal at the corresponding equipment (e.g., a specific station 102 or industrial door 124) allows users to easily identify which asset in the equipment list corresponds to a specific station 102 or industrial door 124 in the material handling facility. Visually distinguishing equipment has significant advantages, especially in large material handling facilities with numerous stations 102 and / or industrial doors 124 that would otherwise be difficult to distinguish. User-identifiable (e.g., user-defined) tags are added to the device inventory to describe the asset, its location, and / or its functionality.

[0101] As shown in box 1306, in some examples, devices can be directly tagged based on user input without visual differentiation. In this case, the user identifies the device based on other data present in the device list (such as device identification information, unique identifiers, unique untagged device items, etc.). The process continues to box 1312, where the main server 128 determines whether to continue the tagging process. In some examples, the decision to continue the tagging process is based on whether the user input to stop the tagging process has been received. If the tagging process continues, operation 1300 returns to box 1304. If the tagging process does not continue, operation 1300 returns to... Figure 12 Box 1206.

[0102] Figure 14The flowchart illustrates exemplary machine-readable instructions and / or exemplary operations 1400, which can be executed, instantiated, and / or implemented by programmable circuitry for the purpose of implementing... Figure 12 Box 1208. Figure 14 The machine-readable instructions and / or operations 1400 begin at box 1402, where the master server 128 determines whether a facility layout scaling command has been received from the user. In this context, a facility layout scaling command refers to a command from the user used to initiate a process that allows the user to input parameters and define... Figure 12 The scale of the facility layout generated in box 1206. In some examples, GUI generation circuitry 616 receives commands from the user via an exemplary GUI provided to the website and / or user device. If no facility layout scaling command is received, then... Figure 14 Operation 1400 returned to Figure 12 Box 1210. Otherwise, operation 1400 continues to box 1404, where GUI generation circuit 616 generates a movable dimensioning graphic to be displayed together with the layout on the GUI (e.g., overlaid on the layout) (e.g., dimensioning graphic 800 of Figure 8).

[0103] At box 1406, GUI generation circuitry 616 receives user input generated by the user adjusting the sizing graphic 800 to match the facility layout dimensions. In some examples, user input generated by adjusting the sizing graphic 800 includes: moving the sizing graphic 800 to the position of the corresponding station in the layout, adjusting the orientation of the sizing graphic to match the corresponding station position, and adjusting the size of the sizing graphic to match the width of the corresponding station in the layout. At box 1408, layout operation circuitry 610 sets a scaling factor for the layout and equipment. This scaling factor defines the size or proportion of the layout so that the station positions in the layout correspond to (e.g., match) the size of the station graphic, thereby allowing subsequently generated graphics (e.g., equipment graphics generated by equipment graphic generation circuitry 614, or graphics generated by GUI generation circuitry 616) to be resized to fit the layout. In this way, icons, graphics, and other visual elements generated by master server 128 have a consistent size or proportion with the corresponding portions of the layout. After setting the scaling factor at box 1408, operation 1400 returns to... Figure 12 Box 1210.

[0104] Figure 15 The flowchart illustrates exemplary machine-readable instructions and / or exemplary operations 1500, which can be executed, instantiated, and / or implemented by programmable circuitry for the purpose of implementing... Figure 12 Box 1210. Figure 15The machine-readable instructions and / or operations 1500 begin at box 1502, where the master server 128 determines whether it has received an in-layout facility placement command from the user. In this context, an in-layout facility placement command refers to a command from the user to initiate a process that allows the user to input parameters and define the location of the facility. Figure 12 The location within the facility layout generated in box 1206. In some examples, GUI generation circuitry 616 receives commands from the user via an exemplary GUI provided to the website and / or user device. If no device placement command is received, then... Figure 15 Operation 1500 returned to Figure 12 Box 1212. Otherwise, operation 1500 continues to box 1504, where the GUI generation circuit 616 generates device tags (e.g., platform tags, door tags) based on the device inventory. Device tags represent assets in the device inventory, and their dimensions are set to match their corresponding positions on the layout. In some examples, the device tags share the same label as the corresponding assets in the device inventory. At box 1506, the GUI generation circuit 616 and the layout operation circuit 610 render the device tags and layout on the GUI.

[0105] At box 1508, the GUI generation circuit 616, based on user input, places and / or adjusts the orientation of a device tag from the previously presented device tags to the corresponding platform or industrial door location on the layout. In some examples, the user moves (e.g., clicks and drags, rotates, aligns, etc.) the device tag on the GUI to place it in the layout at the position corresponding to the tag's label. After the device tag is placed, the device cataloging circuit 612 stores the tag's position and orientation. In some examples, all devices associated with the corresponding device asset, as well as all data collected from that device, are already associated with the device tag selected by the user. Therefore, after the user clicks and drags the device tag to the correct position in the layout, no extensive layout configuration is required, as this is automatically completed based on the previously discovered associated devices. The process continues to box 1510, where the main server 128 determines whether to continue the placement process. In some examples, the determination of whether to continue the placement process is based on whether the user inputs to stop the placement process have been received. If the placement process continues, operation 1500 returns to box 1508. If the placement process does not continue, operation 1500 returns to... Figure 12 Box 1212.

[0106] Figure 16 The flowchart illustrates exemplary machine-readable instructions and / or exemplary operations 1600, which can be executed, instantiated, and / or implemented by programmable circuitry for the purpose of implementing... Figure 12 Box 1214. Figure 16Machine-readable instructions and / or operations 1600 begin at box 1602, where the master server 128 receives data related to device status (e.g., assets in a device inventory). Status data corresponds to, and / or is generated from, I / O data received by I / O network interface circuitry 604 and / or stored by data logging circuitry 606. In some examples, status data reflects the device's operating condition. In some examples, status data comes from user input (e.g., input assigning status to the device). At box 1604, the master server 128 determines whether a change in received and / or stored data has been detected. In some examples, a detected status change refers to new I / O data received from a newly added or recently powered-on device. If no status data change is detected, operation 1600 returns to... Figure 12 Box 1216. If a change in status data is detected, operation 1600 continues to box 1606. At box 1606, IO data analysis circuitry 608 identifies the device (e.g., an asset in an equipment inventory) associated with the detected data change. At box 1608, IO data analysis circuitry 608 determines the device status based on the changed data. The determined device status may include: whether a component of the device is active and / or deployed, the conditions around or near the device (e.g., movement or activity near a platform and / or door), signals and / or notifications being displayed or transmitted by the device, etc. In some examples, the determined device status includes the status of a timing indicator (e.g., timing indicator 306). In other examples, IO data stored in data logging circuitry 606 is used to determine the duration of the status (e.g., the duration a trailer is docked at a platform).

[0107] At box 1610, device graphic generation circuit 614 generates a device graphic that includes symbols (e.g., symbols 1102, 1104, 1106, 1108, 1110, 1112, 1114, 1118, 1120, 1122, 1124, 1126, 1131, 1138) corresponding to the state of the device whose data has changed. Figure 11 The exemplary device graphics shown represent both specific device items associated with the corresponding station and / or industrial gate, and the status of these device items. In some examples, the generated device graphics remain displayed until a status change is detected, and the generated device graphics are updated to reflect the change. At box 1612, the device graphics generation circuit 614 and the IO data analysis circuit 608 determine whether there are any devices with changed IO data. If more devices with changed IO data are detected, operation 1600 proceeds to box 1606 to generate a device graphics for the next asset. If no more devices with changed IO data are detected, operation 1600 returns to... Figure 12 Box 1216.

[0108] Figure 17 This is a block diagram of an exemplary programmable circuit platform 1700, which is configured to perform and / or instantiate... Figure 12 , Figure 13 , Figure 14 , Figure 15 and / or Figure 16 Exemplary machine-readable instructions and / or exemplary operations to implement Figure 6 The main server 128. The programmable circuit platform 1700 can be, for example, a server, a personal computer, a workstation, a self-learning machine (e.g., a neural network), a mobile device (e.g., a mobile phone, a smartphone, an iPad™, or other tablet computer), a personal digital assistant (PDA), an internet device, a head-mounted device (e.g., an augmented reality (AR) head-mounted device, a virtual reality (VR) head-mounted device, or other wearable devices), or any other type of computing and / or electronic device.

[0109] The programmable circuit platform 1700 shown in the example includes a programmable circuit 1712. The programmable circuit 1712 shown in the example is hardware. For example, the programmable circuit 1712 can be implemented by one or more integrated circuits, logic circuits, field-programmable gate arrays, microprocessors, central processing units, graphics processors, vision processors, digital signal processors, and / or microcontrollers from any desired family or manufacturer. The programmable circuit 1712 can be implemented by one or more semiconductor-based (e.g., silicon-based) devices. In this example, the programmable circuit 1712 implements a network server 136, a network communication interface circuit 602, an I / O network interface circuit 604, a data logging circuit 606, an I / O data analysis circuit 608, a layout operation circuit 610, a device cataloging circuit 612, a device graphics generation circuit 614, and a GUI generation circuit 616.

[0110] The programmable circuit 1712 shown in the example includes local memory 1713 (e.g., cache, registers, etc.). The programmable circuit 1712 of the example communicates with main memories 1714 and 1716 via bus 1718. The main memories include volatile memory 1714 and non-volatile memory 1716. Volatile memory 1714 may be implemented using synchronous dynamic random access memory (SDRAM), dynamic random access memory (DRAM), RAMBUS® dynamic random access memory (RDRAM®), and / or any other type of RAM device. Non-volatile memory 1716 may be implemented using flash memory and / or any other desired type of memory device. Access to the main memories 1714 and 1716 of the example shown is controlled by a memory controller 1717. In some examples, the memory controller 1717 may be implemented using one or more integrated circuits, logic circuits, microcontrollers, or any other type of circuit from any desired family or manufacturer to manage the flow of data to and from the main memories 1714 and 1716.

[0111] The programmable circuit platform 1700 shown in the example also includes interface circuitry 1720. Interface circuitry 1720 can be implemented in hardware that conforms to any type of interface standard, such as an Ethernet interface, a Universal Serial Bus (USB) interface, a Bluetooth® interface, a Near Field Communication (NFC) interface, a Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) interface, and / or a High-Speed ​​Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCIe) interface.

[0112] In the example shown, one or more input devices 1722 are connected to interface circuitry 1720. Input devices 1722 allow users (e.g., human users, machine users, etc.) to input data and / or commands into programmable circuitry 1712. Input devices 1722 may be implemented using, for example, audio sensors, microphones, cameras (still or video), keyboards, buttons, mice, touchscreens, touchpads, trackballs, isotope devices, and / or voice recognition systems.

[0113] The interface circuit 1720 of the example shown is also connected to one or more output devices 1724. The output devices 1724 may be implemented as, for example, display devices (e.g., light-emitting diode (LED), organic light-emitting diode (OLED), liquid crystal display (LCD), cathode ray tube (CRT) display, in-plane switching (IPS) display, touch screen, etc.), haptic output devices, printers, and / or speakers. Therefore, the interface circuit 1720 of the example shown typically includes a graphics driver card, a graphics driver chip, and / or graphics processor circuitry (e.g., a GPU).

[0114] The interface circuit 1720 of the example shown also includes communication devices, such as a transmitter, receiver, transceiver, modem, residential gateway, wireless access point, and / or network interface, to facilitate the exchange of data with external machines (such as any type of computing device) via network 1726. Communication can be achieved through, for example, Ethernet connections, digital subscriber line (DSL) connections, telephone line connections, coaxial cable systems, satellite systems, beyond-line-of-sight wireless systems, line-of-sight wireless systems, cellular telephone systems, optical connections, etc.

[0115] The programmable circuit platform 1700 illustrated also includes one or more mass storage disks or devices 1728 for storing firmware, software, and / or data. Examples of such mass storage disks or devices 1728 include magnetic storage devices (e.g., floppy disks, drives, hard disks, etc.), optical storage devices (e.g., Blu-ray discs, CDs, DVDs, etc.), RAID systems, and / or solid-state storage disks or devices (e.g., flash memory devices and / or solid-state drives).

[0116] can be Figure 12 , Figure 13 , Figure 14 , Figure 15 and / or Figure 16 The machine-readable instructions 1732, implemented by the machine-readable instructions, may be stored in a mass storage device 1728, a volatile memory 1714, a non-volatile memory 1716, and / or on at least one non-transitory computer-readable storage medium (e.g., a removable CD or DVD).

[0117] Figure 18 for Figure 17 A block diagram of an exemplary embodiment of the programmable circuit 1712. In this example, Figure 17 The programmable circuit 1712 is implemented by the microprocessor 1800. For example, the microprocessor 1800 can be a general-purpose microprocessor (e.g., a general-purpose microprocessor circuit). The microprocessor 1800 executes... Figure 12 , Figure 13 , Figure 14 , Figure 15 and / or Figure 16 The flowchart contains some or all of the machine-readable instructions to... Figure 6 The circuit is effectively instantiated as a logic circuit, performing operations corresponding to these machine-readable instructions. In some such examples, Figure 6 The circuitry is instantiated by the hardware circuitry of the microprocessor 1800 in conjunction with machine-readable instructions. For example, the microprocessor 1800 may be implemented using multi-core hardware circuitry, such as a CPU, DSP, GPU, heterogeneous processor, etc. Although it may contain any number of exemplary cores 1802 (e.g., one core), the microprocessor 1800 in this example is a multi-core semiconductor device containing N cores. The cores 1802 of the microprocessor 1800 may run independently or collaboratively execute machine-readable instructions. For example, machine code corresponding to firmware, embedded software programs, or software programs may be executed by a single core 1802 or by multiple cores 1802 at the same or different times. In some examples, the machine code corresponding to firmware, embedded software programs, or software programs is split into multiple threads and executed in parallel by two or more cores 1802. The software program may correspond to... Figure 12 , Figure 13 , Figure 14 , Figure 15 and / or Figure 16 The flowchart represents some or all of the machine-readable instructions and / or operations.

[0118] Core 1802 can communicate via a first exemplary bus 1804. In some examples, the first bus 1804 may be implemented as a communication bus to enable communication associated with one or more cores 1802. For example, the first bus 1804 may be implemented as at least one of an inter-integrated circuit (I2C) bus, a serial peripheral interface (SPI) bus, a PCI bus, or a PCIe bus. Additionally or alternatively, the first bus 1804 may be implemented as any other type of computing or electrical bus. Core 1802 can acquire data, instructions, and / or signals from one or more external devices via exemplary interface circuitry 1806. Core 1802 can output data, instructions, and / or signals to one or more external devices via interface circuitry 1806. Although the kernel 1802 of this example includes exemplary local memory 1820 (e.g., a Level 1 (L1) cache that can be split into an L1 data cache and an L1 instruction cache), the microprocessor 1800 also includes exemplary shared memory 1810 (e.g., a Level 2 (L2) cache) that can be shared by the kernels to enable high-speed access to data and / or instructions. Data and / or instructions can be transferred (e.g., shared) by writing to and / or reading from shared memory 1810. The local memory 1820 and shared memory 1810 of each kernel 1802 may be part of a storage device hierarchy that includes multi-level cache memory and main memory (e.g., ...). Figure 17 (Main memory 1714, 1716). Generally, higher-level memory in a tier has shorter access times but smaller storage capacity compared to lower-level memory. Data changes between different levels of the cache tier are managed by cache coherence policies (e.g., coordination).

[0119] Each core 1802 may be referred to as a CPU, DSP, GPU, or any other type of hardware circuitry. Each core 1802 includes control unit circuitry 1814, arithmetic and logic (AL) circuitry (sometimes called an ALU) 1816, multiple registers 1818, local memory 1820, and a second exemplary bus 1822. Other structures may also be present. For example, each core 1802 may include vector unit circuitry, single instruction multiple data (SIMD) unit circuitry, load / store unit (LSU) circuitry, branch / jump unit circuitry, floating-point unit (FPU) circuitry, etc. Control unit circuitry 1814 includes semiconductor-based circuitry configured to control (e.g., coordinate) data movement within the corresponding core 1802. AL circuitry 1816 includes semiconductor-based circuitry configured to perform one or more mathematical and / or logical operations on data within the corresponding core 1802. Some examples of AL circuitry 1816 perform integer-based operations. In other examples, AL circuitry 1816 also performs floating-point operations. In some other examples, the AL circuit 1816 may include a first AL circuit that performs integer-based arithmetic and a second AL circuit that performs floating-point arithmetic. In some examples, the AL circuit 1816 may be referred to as an arithmetic logic unit (ALU).

[0120] Register 1818 is a semiconductor-based structure used to store data and / or instructions, such as the results of one or more operations performed by the AL circuit 1816 corresponding to core 1802. For example, register 1818 may include vector registers, SIMD registers, general-purpose registers, flag registers, segment registers, machine-specific registers, instruction pointer registers, control registers, debug registers, memory management registers, machine check registers, etc. Register 1818 can be as follows: Figure 18 The arrangement is shown in groups. Alternatively, registers 1818 can be organized in any other arrangement, format, or structure, such as distributed throughout core 1802 to reduce access time. The second bus 1822 can be implemented by at least one of an I2C bus, an SPI bus, a PCI bus, or a PCIe bus.

[0121] Each core 1802 and / or more generally, the microprocessor 1800 may include additional and / or alternative structures in addition to those shown and described above. For example, one or more clock circuits, one or more power supplies, one or more power gates, one or more cache home agents (CHAs), one or more fused / universal mesh nodes (CMS), one or more shifters (e.g., barrel shifters), and / or other circuitry may be present. The microprocessor 1800 is a semiconductor device that integrates a large number of interconnected transistors during its fabrication to implement the above-described structures within one or more integrated circuits (ICs) contained in one or more packages.

[0122] The microprocessor 1800 may include one or more accelerators (e.g., acceleration circuitry, hardware accelerators, etc.) and / or work in conjunction with them. In some examples, accelerators are implemented by logic circuitry to perform specific tasks faster and / or more efficiently than a general-purpose processor. Examples of accelerators include application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs) and field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) as described herein. GPUs, DSPs, and / or other programmable devices may also serve as accelerators. Accelerators may be integrated onto the microprocessor 1800 board, in the same chip package as the microprocessor 1800, and / or in one or more separate packages with the microprocessor 1800.

[0123] Figure 19 for Figure 17 A block diagram of another exemplary embodiment of the programmable circuit 1712 is shown. In this example, the programmable circuit 1712 is implemented by an FPGA circuit 1900. For example, the FPGA circuit 1900 may be implemented by a field-programmable gate array. The FPGA circuit 1900 can be used to perform actions that would otherwise be implemented by... Figure 18 The exemplary microprocessor 1800 executes operations corresponding to machine-readable instructions. However, once configured, the FPGA circuitry 1900 instantiates the operations and / or functions corresponding to the machine-readable instructions in hardware, thus typically executing these operations / functions faster than a general-purpose microprocessor executes the corresponding software.

[0124] More specifically, compared with the above Figure 18 The 1800 microprocessor (which is a general-purpose device that can be programmed to execute...) Figures 12 to 16 The flowchart represents some or all of the machine-readable instructions, but its interconnection structure and logic circuitry are fixed after manufacturing. Figure 19 The interconnect structure and logic circuitry of the example FPGA circuit 1900 can be configured, constructed, programmed, and / or interconnected in different ways after manufacturing to instantiate, for example... Figure 12 , Figure 13 , Figure 14 , Figure 15 and / or Figure 16 The flowchart represents some or all of the machine-readable instructions corresponding to the operations / functions. Specifically, the FPGA circuit 1900 can be viewed as an array of logic gates, interconnects, and switches. Switches can be programmed to change the connection of logic gates via interconnects, effectively forming one or more dedicated logic circuits (unless and until the FPGA circuit 1900 is reprogrammed). The configured logic circuits enable the logic gates to work together in different ways, performing different operations on the data received by the input circuits. These operations can correspond to... Figure 12 , Figure 13 , Figure 14 , Figure 15 and / or Figure 16 The flowchart represents some or all of the instructions (e.g., software and / or firmware). Therefore, the FPGA circuit 1900 can be configured and / or constructed to... Figure 12 , Figure 13 , Figure 14 , Figure 15 and / or Figure 16 In the flowchart, some or all of the machine-readable instructions corresponding to the operations / functions are effectively instantiated as dedicated logic circuits, executing the operations / functions corresponding to these software instructions in a dedicated manner similar to that of application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs). Therefore, the FPGA circuit 1900 executes... Figure 12 , Figure 13 , Figure 14 , Figure 15 and / or Figure 16 The speed of operations / functions corresponding to some or all of the machine-readable instructions is faster than that of general-purpose microprocessors executing the same instructions.

[0125] exist Figure 19 In the examples, the FPGA circuit 1900 is programmed (and / or reprogrammed once or multiple times) based on a binary file to complete its configuration and construction. In some examples, the binary file can be compiled and / or generated based on instructions in a hardware description language (HDL) (such as Lucid, VHSIC Hardware Description Language (VHDL), or Verilog). For example, users (e.g., human users, machine users, etc.) can write code or programs corresponding to one or more operations / functions using a hardware description language; this code / program can be converted into a low-level language as needed; and this low-level language form of code / program can be converted into a binary file using a compiler, software application, etc. In some examples, Figure 19 The FPGA circuit 1900 can access and / or load the binary file to configure and / or construct itself to perform one or more of the operations / functions. For example, the binary file may be implemented from a bit stream (e.g., one or more computer-readable bits, one or more machine-readable bits, etc.), data (e.g., computer-readable data, machine-readable data, etc.), and / or machine-readable instructions. Figure 19 The FPGA circuit 1900 can access the above content to configure and construct itself or parts thereof.

[0126] In some examples, the binary file is compiled, generated, converted, and / or otherwise output by a unified software platform for programming field-programmable gate arrays. For example, this unified software platform can convert first instructions corresponding to one or more operations / functions in a high-level language (e.g., C, C++, Python, etc.) into second instructions corresponding to one or more operations / functions in a hardware description language. In some such examples, the binary file is compiled, generated, and / or otherwise output by the unified software platform based on the second instructions. In some examples, Figure 19 The FPGA circuit 1900 can access and / or load the binary file to configure and / or construct itself to perform one or more of the operations / functions. For example, the binary file can be implemented as a bitstream, data, and / or machine-readable instructions. Figure 19 The FPGA circuit 1900 can access the above content to configure and construct itself or parts thereof.

[0127] Figure 19 The FPGA circuit 1900 includes exemplary input / output (I / O) circuitry 1902 for acquiring and / or outputting data to exemplary configuration circuitry 1904 and / or external hardware 1906. For example, configuration circuitry 1904 may be implemented by interface circuitry that acquires a binary file (which may be implemented as a bitstream, data, and / or machine-readable instructions) to configure the FPGA circuitry 1900 or portions thereof. In some such examples, configuration circuitry 1904 may acquire the binary file from a user, a machine (e.g., hardware circuitry that can implement an artificial intelligence / machine learning (AI / ML) model to generate a binary file, such as programmable or dedicated circuitry), and / or any combination thereof. In some examples, external hardware 1906 may be implemented by external hardware circuitry. For example, external hardware 1906 may be... Figure 18 The microprocessor 1800 is implemented.

[0128] The FPGA circuit 1900 also includes an exemplary logic gate array 1908, a plurality of exemplary configurable interconnects 1910, and an exemplary memory circuit 1912. The logic gates 1908 and the configurable interconnects 1910 can be configured to instantiate corresponding to... Figure 12 , Figure 13 , Figure 14 , Figure 15 and / or Figure 16 One or more operations / functions of at least some of the machine-readable instructions, and / or other required operations. Figure 19The logic gate circuit 1908 shown is manufactured in the form of modules or groups. Each module contains a semiconductor-based electrical structure that can be configured as a logic circuit. In some examples, the electrical structure includes logic gates (e.g., AND gates, OR gates, NOR gates, etc.), forming the basic building blocks of the logic circuit. Each logic gate circuit 1908 internally includes electrically controlled switches (e.g., transistors) for configuring the electrical structure and / or logic gates to form a circuit that performs the desired operation / function. The logic gate circuit 1908 may include other electrical structures such as lookup tables (LUTs), registers (e.g., flip-flops or latches), multiplexers, etc.

[0129] The configurable interconnect 1910 in the example shown is a conductive path, trace, via, or similar structure that may contain electrically controlled switches (e.g., transistors); the state of the switches can be changed by programming (e.g., using a hardware description instruction language) to activate or deactivate one or more connections between one or more logic gates 1908, thereby programming the desired logic circuit.

[0130] The storage circuit 1912 in the example shown is configured to store the results of one or more operations performed by the corresponding logic gates. The storage circuit 1912 can be implemented using registers, etc. In the example shown, the storage circuit 1912 is distributed among the logic gates 1908 for easy access and improved execution speed.

[0131] Figure 19 The exemplary FPGA circuit 1900 also includes an exemplary dedicated computing circuit 1914. In this example, the dedicated computing circuit 1914 includes a dedicated circuit 1916 that can be invoked to implement common functions, thus eliminating the need for on-site programming of these functions. Examples of such dedicated circuits 1916 include memory (e.g., dynamic random access memory) controller circuitry, high-speed peripheral component interconnect (PCIe) controller circuitry, clock circuitry, transceiver circuitry, memory, and multiply-accumulate circuitry. Other types of dedicated circuitry may also be present. In some examples, the FPGA circuit 1900 may also include an exemplary general-purpose programmable circuit 1918, such as an exemplary central processing unit 1920 and / or an exemplary digital signal processor 1922. Other general-purpose programmable circuits 1918, such as graphics processors, heterogeneous processors, etc., may also be additionally or alternatively present and programmed to perform other operations.

[0132] although Figure 18 and Figure 19 It shows Figure 17 These are two exemplary implementations of the programmable circuit 1712, but many other implementations are also conceivable. For example, the FPGA circuit may include an onboard central processing unit, such as... Figure 19 One or more of the exemplary central processing units 1920. Therefore, Figure 17 The programmable circuit 1712 can also be combined with at least Figure 18 Exemplary microprocessor 1800 and Figure 19 This is implemented using an exemplary FPGA circuit 1900. In some such hybrid examples, Figure 18 One or more kernels 1802 executable Figure 12 , Figure 13 , Figure 14 , Figure 15 and / or Figure 16 The first part of the flowchart represents machine-readable instructions to perform a first operation / function; Figure 19 The FPGA circuit 1900 can be configured and / or constructed to perform actions corresponding to... Figures 12 to 16 The second operation / function of the second part of the machine-readable instructions represented in the flowchart; and / or the application-specific integrated circuit can be configured and / or constructed to perform the corresponding operation / function. Figure 12 , Figure 13 , Figure 14 , Figure 15 and / or Figure 16 The flowchart represents the third operation / function of the third part of the machine-readable instructions.

[0133] It should be understood that Figure 6 Some or all of the circuitry in the system can therefore be instantiated at the same or different times. For example, Figure 18 The same and / or different parts of the microprocessor 1800 can be programmed to execute some machine-readable instructions at the same and / or different times. In some examples, Figure 19 The same and / or different parts of the FPGA circuit 1900 can be configured and / or constructed to perform operations / functions corresponding to certain machine-readable instructions at the same and / or different times.

[0134] In some examples, Figure 6 Some or all of the circuitry can be instantiated, for example, in one or more threads that execute concurrently and / or serially. For example, Figure 18 The microprocessor 1800 can execute machine-readable instructions in one or more concurrent and / or serially executed threads. In some examples, Figure 19 The FPGA circuit 1900 can be configured and / or constructed to perform operations / functions concurrently and / or serially. Furthermore, in some examples, Figure 6 Part or all of the circuit can be Figure 18 Implemented in one or more virtual machines and / or containers running on the 1800 microprocessor.

[0135] In some examples, Figure 17 The programmable circuit 1712 can be packaged in one or more packages. For example, Figure 18microprocessors 1800 and / or Figure 19 The FPGA circuitry 1900 can be packaged in one or more packages. In some examples, heterogeneous processors can be... Figure 17 The programmable circuit 1712 is implemented and can be packaged in one or more packages. For example, a heterogeneous processor may include a central processing unit (e.g., a CPU) packaged in one package. Figure 18 microprocessor 1800, Figure 19 Central processing units (CPUs) such as the 1920, and digital signal processors packaged in another package (e.g., CPUs). Figure 19 Digital signal processors (DSPs) 1922, graphics processors packaged in another package, and field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) packaged in yet another package. Figure 19 FPGA circuit 1900).

[0136] Figure 20 This is a block diagram of an exemplary software distribution platform 2005, which is used to distribute software (e.g., ...) Figure 17 The exemplary machine-readable instructions 1732 are distributed to other hardware devices, such as hardware devices owned and / or operated by a third party other than the owner and / or operator of the software distribution platform. The exemplary software distribution platform 2005 can be implemented by any computer server, data center, cloud service, etc., capable of storing software and transferring it to other computing devices. The third party can be a customer of the entity that owns and / or operates the software distribution platform 2005. For example, the entity that owns and / or operates the software distribution platform 2005 could be... Figure 17 The software developer, vendor, and / or licensor, such as the exemplary machine-readable instruction 1732, is a third party. Third parties may be consumers, users, retailers, original equipment manufacturers, etc., who purchase and / or license the software for use and / or resell and / or sublicense. In the illustrated example, the software distribution platform 2005 includes one or more servers and one or more storage devices. The storage devices store the machine-readable instruction 1732, which may correspond to the instructions described above. Figure 12 , Figure 13 , Figure 14 , Figure 15 and / or Figure 16The exemplary machine-readable instructions are provided. One or more servers of the exemplary software distribution platform 2005 communicate with the exemplary network 2010, which may correspond to the Internet and / or any or more of the exemplary networks described above. In some examples, the one or more servers respond to a request and transfer software to the requesting party as part of a commercial transaction. Payment for the delivery, sale, and / or licensing of the software may be processed by one or more servers of the software distribution platform and / or a third-party payment entity. The servers enable purchasers and / or licensors to download machine-readable instructions 1732 from the software distribution platform 2005. For example, this may correspond to... Figures 12 to 16 Software containing exemplary machine-readable instructions can be downloaded to an exemplary programmable circuit platform 1700, which executes the machine-readable instructions 1732 to implement the master server 128. In some examples, one or more servers of the software distribution platform 2005 periodically provide, transmit, and / or force software updates (e.g., Figure 17 The exemplary machine-readable instruction 1732 ensures that improvements, patches, updates, etc., are distributed and applied to software on end-user devices. Although referred to as software above, the distributed "software" can also be firmware.

[0137] As used herein, “comprising” and “including” (and all forms and tenses thereof) are open-ended terms. Therefore, whenever a claim uses “comprising” or “including” (e.g., including, containing, having, etc.) in its preamble or in any type of claim statement, it should be understood that additional elements, terms, etc., may exist without exceeding the scope of the corresponding claim or statement. As used herein, when the phrase “at least” is used as a transitional term, for example, in the preamble of a claim, it is an open-ended expression, just like “comprising” and “including”. The term “and / or”, when used in expressions such as “A, B and / or C”, refers to any combination or subset of A, B, and C, for example: (1) only A, (2) only B, (3) only C, (4) A and B, (5) A and C, (6) B and C, or (7) A, B, and C. As used herein in the context of describing structures, components, items, objects, and / or things, the phrase "at least one of A and B" is intended to cover implementations that include any of the following: (1) at least one A, (2) at least one B, or (3) at least one A and at least one B. Similarly, as used herein in the context of describing structures, components, items, objects, and / or things, the phrase "at least one of A or B" is intended to cover implementations that include any of the following: (1) at least one A, (2) at least one B, or (3) at least one A and at least one B. As used herein in the context of describing the execution or implementation of processes, instructions, actions, activities, etc., the phrase "at least one of A and B" is intended to cover implementations that include any of the following: (1) at least one A, (2) at least one B, or (3) at least one A and at least one B. Similarly, as used herein in the context of describing the execution or implementation of processes, instructions, actions, activities, etc., the phrase “at least one of A or B” is intended to cover implementations that include any of the following: (1) at least one A, (2) at least one B, or (3) at least one A and at least one B.

[0138] As used herein, singular expressions (e.g., “a,” “an,” “first,” “second,” etc.) do not exclude plural forms. The term “an” as used herein refers to one or more of that object. “A” (or “a”), “one or more,” and “at least one” are used interchangeably herein. Furthermore, although multiple means, elements, or actions are listed separately, they may be implemented by, for example, the same entity or object. Additionally, although individual features may be included in different examples or claims, these features can still be combined; inclusion in different examples or claims does not mean that the combination of features is not feasible and / or lacks advantage.

[0139] As used herein, unless otherwise stated, the term "above" describes the positional relationship of two components relative to the Earth. The first component is above the second component if at least a portion of the first component is between the second component and the Earth. Similarly, as used herein, the first component is "below" the second component when it is closer to the Earth than the second component. As stated above, the first component may be above or below the second component, with or without one or more other components in between; the first and second components may be in contact with each other or not in direct contact.

[0140] As used in this patent, the term "any component (e.g., layer, film, region, area, or plate) located on another component in any manner" (e.g., disposed on, located on, arranged on, formed on, etc.) indicates that the component referred to is in direct contact with the other component, or that the component referred to is located above the other component, with one or more intermediate components in between.

[0141] As used herein, unless otherwise stated, connection-related expressions (e.g., attachment, coupling, connection, joining) may include intermediate components between the elements referred to, and / or relative motion between the elements. Therefore, connection-related expressions do not necessarily imply that two elements are directly connected and / or in a fixed relationship. As used herein, the term "in contact" between any two components is defined as the absence of intermediate components between them.

[0142] Unless otherwise expressly stated, the descriptive terms such as “first,” “second,” and “third” as used herein do not imply or otherwise indicate any priority, physical order, listing arrangement, and / or any form of sorting, but are merely used as labels and / or arbitrary names to distinguish individual elements and facilitate understanding of the disclosed examples. In some examples, the descriptive term “first” may be used to refer to an element in a particular embodiment, while the same element may be referred to by different descriptive terms in the claims, such as “second” or “third.” In such cases, it should be understood that such descriptive terms are only used to clearly distinguish individual elements in the discussion context (e.g., in the claims), where these elements might otherwise share the same name.

[0143] As used in this article, "near-real-time" means occurring in a near-instantaneous manner, taking into account real-world delays such as computation time and transmission. Therefore, unless otherwise stated, "near-real-time" means real-time ± 1 second.

[0144] As used herein, the phrase “in communication” and its variations cover direct communication and / or indirect communication through one or more intermediate components, without requiring direct physical (e.g., wired) communication and / or continuous communication, and also include selective communication at periodic intervals, predetermined intervals, non-periodic intervals, and / or one-off event communication.

[0145] As used herein, a “programmable circuit” is defined as including: (i) one or more special-purpose electrical circuits (e.g., application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs)) configured to perform specific operations and containing one or more semiconductor-based logic devices, such as electrical hardware implemented by one or more transistors; and / or (ii) one or more general-purpose semiconductor-based electrical circuits programmable by instructions to perform specific functions and / or operations and containing one or more semiconductor-based logic devices, such as electrical hardware implemented by one or more transistors. Examples of programmable circuits include: programmable microprocessors, such as central processing units (CPUs) that can execute first instructions to perform one or more operations and / or functions; field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) that can be programmed via second instructions to perform configuration and / or construction, thereby instantiating FPGAs corresponding to one or more operations and / or functions corresponding to the first instructions; graphics processing units (GPUs) that can execute first instructions to perform one or more operations and / or functions; digital signal processors (DSPs) that can execute first instructions to perform one or more operations and / or functions; heterogeneous processors (XPUs), network processors (NPUs), one or more microcontrollers that can execute first instructions to perform one or more operations and / or functions; and / or integrated circuits such as application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs). For example, a heterogeneous processor can be implemented by a heterogeneous computing system that includes multiple types of programmable circuits (e.g., one or more FPGAs, one or more CPUs, one or more GPUs, one or more network processors, one or more DSPs, and / or any combination thereof), and orchestration techniques, such as application programming interfaces (APIs) that can assign computational tasks to any suitable and available type of programmable circuit for execution.

[0146] As used herein, an integrated circuit is defined as comprising one or more semiconductor packages containing one or more circuit elements, such as transistors, capacitors, inductors, resistors, current paths, diodes, etc. For example, an integrated circuit can be implemented as one or more of the following: application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC), field-programmable gate array (FPGA), chip, microchip, programmable circuit, semiconductor substrate coupling multiple circuit elements, system-on-a-chip (SoC), etc.

[0147] In summary, it should be understood that this document discloses exemplary systems, apparatus, articles, and methods for monitoring loading / unloading stations and facility operations by combining facility maps or layout displays with graphical representations of facility status. These graphics display a variety of information, enabling users to monitor the status of a station relative to other stations and / or other equipment within the facility, while also allowing users to perceive the spatial location of different stations and understand the operational status indications of stations in different areas of the facility. This offers advantages over traditional facility monitoring methods: in traditional methods, stations can be monitored individually or as part of a large inventory, requiring users to visualize and memorize large amounts of fragmented status data.

[0148] This document discloses exemplary methods, apparatus, systems, and articles of art for monitoring the operation of loading and unloading terminals and facilities, which achieve monitoring by displaying graphics representing the facility status in the context of a facility map or layout. Further examples and combinations thereof include the following: Example 1 includes an apparatus for monitoring the operation of a material handling facility, the apparatus including at least one memory, machine-readable instructions, and at least one programmable circuit. The programmable circuit is programmed by the machine-readable instructions to: present a layout of the material handling facility via a graphical user interface, the layout including multiple locations for representing material handling equipment, the locations corresponding to at least one of the platforms or doorways of the material handling facility; associate data from a first device at a first loading / unloading platform or doorway of the at least one of the platforms or doorways with a first location among the multiple locations included in the layout; and generate a graph to be presented at the first location via the graphical user interface, the graph being based on the data from the first device.

[0149] Example 2 includes the apparatus described in Example 1, wherein the graphic is used to indicate the state of a first loading / unloading platform or doorway of at least one of the platforms or doorways, and the graphic changes in response to a change in the state of the first loading / unloading platform or doorway of at least one of the platforms or doorways.

[0150] Example 3 includes the apparatus described in Example 2, wherein the graphic will change substantially in real time with the change in the state of the first loading / unloading platform or gateway of at least one of the platforms or gateways.

[0151] Example 4 includes the apparatus of any one of Examples 1 to 3, wherein one or more of the at least one programmable circuits are configured to: detect the first device at a first loading / unloading platform or doorway of at least one of the platforms or doorways based on a signal from the first device; and designate the first device as associated with the first loading / unloading platform or doorway of at least one of the platforms or doorways based on user input.

[0152] Example 5 includes the apparatus described in Example 4, wherein the signal is a first signal, the user input is a first user input, and one or more of the at least one programmable circuits are configured to: visually distinguish the discovered first device from other discovered devices at at least one of the platforms or doorways on a graphical user interface based on a second signal from the first device, the second signal being generated in response to a second user input received by the first device, the discovered first device being visually distinguished to facilitate the user providing the first user input.

[0153] Example 6 includes the apparatus of any one of Examples 1 to 5, wherein one or more of the at least one programmable circuits are used to present a dimension calibration graphic via a graphical user interface, the dimension calibration graphic being used to define the size of the graphic relative to the size of the layout.

[0154] Example 7 includes the apparatus described in Example 6, wherein the ends of the dimensional calibration graphic are adjusted based on the width of a first position relative to the user within the layout, the dimensional calibration graphic measuring the width of the first position.

[0155] Example 8 includes the apparatus of any one of Examples 1 to 7, wherein the association of the data with a first location identifies the first location contained in the layout as a first loading / unloading platform or doorway corresponding to at least one of the platforms or doorways of a material handling facility based on user input.

[0156] Example 9 includes the apparatus described in Example 8, wherein the user input includes moving a marker to a first position contained in the layout, the marker being associated with the first device.

[0157] Example 10 includes the apparatus described in Example 9, wherein the mark is one of a plurality of marks, different marks of the plurality of marks corresponding to different ones of at least one of the platforms or doorways of the material handling facility, and the mark of the plurality of marks not associated with a corresponding location among a plurality of locations included in the layout will be placed in an asset list that is adjacent to the layout and independent of the layout.

[0158] Example 11 includes the apparatus of any one of Examples 9 or 10, wherein the user input includes rotating the mark to align it with the orientation of a first position contained in the layout.

[0159] Example 12 includes the apparatus of any one of Examples 1 to 11, wherein one or more of the at least one programmable circuitry is configured to: associate a second loading / unloading platform or doorway of at least one of the platforms or doorways with a corresponding second position among a plurality of positions included in the layout; and to present a second graphic at the second position.

[0160] Example 13 includes the apparatus of any one of Examples 1 to 12, wherein one or more of the at least one programmable circuits are used to switch between the presentation of a first portion of the layout and the presentation of a second portion of the layout, the second portion of the layout covering a smaller area than the first portion of the layout, the second portion of the layout being enlarged relative to the first portion of the layout.

[0161] Example 14 includes the apparatus described in Example 13, wherein a second portion of the layout includes the first position.

[0162] Example 15 includes a non-transitory machine-readable storage medium containing instructions for causing at least one programmable circuit to at least: present a layout of a material handling facility via a graphical user interface, the layout including a plurality of locations for representing material handling equipment, the locations corresponding to at least one of platforms or doorways of the material handling facility; associate data from a first device at a first loading / unloading platform or doorway of the at least one of the platforms or doorways with a first location among the plurality of locations included in the layout; and generate a graph to be presented at the first location via a graphical user interface, the graph being based on the data from the first device.

[0163] Example 16 includes the non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of Example 15, wherein the graphics are used to indicate the state of a first loading / unloading platform or gateway of at least one of the platforms or gateways, and the graphics will change in response to a change in the state of the first loading / unloading platform or gateway of at least one of the platforms or gateways.

[0164] Example 17 includes the non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of Example 16, wherein the graphics will change substantially in real time as the state of the first loading / unloading platform or gateway of at least one of the platforms or gateways changes.

[0165] Example 18 includes a non-transitory machine-readable storage medium as described in any one of Examples 15 to 17, wherein the instructions cause one or more of the at least one programmable circuits to: detect the first device at a first loading / unloading platform or doorway of at least one of the platforms or doorways based on a signal from the first device; and designate the first device as associated with the first loading / unloading platform or doorway of at least one of the platforms or doorways based on user input.

[0166] Example 19 includes the non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of Example 18, wherein the signal is a first signal, the user input is a first user input, and the instructions further cause one or more of the at least one programmable circuits to: visually distinguish the discovered first device from other discovered devices at at least one of the platforms or doorways on a graphical user interface based on a second signal from the first device, the second signal being generated in response to a second user input received by the first device, the discovered first device being visually distinguished to facilitate the user providing the first user input.

[0167] Example 20 includes a non-transitory machine-readable storage medium as described in any one of Examples 15 to 19, wherein the instructions cause one or more of the at least one programmable circuits to present a dimensional calibration graphic via a graphical user interface, the dimensional calibration graphic defining the size of the graphic relative to the size of a layout.

[0168] Example 21 includes the non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of Example 20, wherein the ends of the dimensional calibration pattern are adjusted based on the width of a first position relative to a user within the layout, the dimensional calibration pattern measuring the width of the first position.

[0169] Example 22 includes any one of Examples 15 to 21, a non-transitory machine-readable storage medium, wherein the association of the data with a first location identifies the first location included in the layout as a first loading / unloading platform or doorway corresponding to at least one of the platforms or doorways of a material handling facility based on user input.

[0170] Example 23 includes the non-transitory machine-readable storage medium described in Example 22, wherein the user input includes moving a marker to a first position contained in the layout, the marker being associated with the first device.

[0171] Example 24 includes the non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of Example 23, wherein the mark is one of a plurality of marks, different marks of the plurality of marks corresponding to different ones of at least one of the platforms or doorways of a material handling facility, and the mark of the plurality of marks not associated with a corresponding location of a plurality of locations included in the layout will be placed in an asset list that is adjacent to the layout and independent of the layout.

[0172] Example 25 includes a non-transitory machine-readable storage medium as described in any one of Examples 23 or 24, wherein the user input includes rotating the mark to align it with the orientation of a first position contained in the layout.

[0173] Example 26 includes any one of Examples 15 to 25, a non-transitory machine-readable storage medium, wherein the instructions cause one or more of the at least one programmable circuits to associate at least one of the platforms or passageways with a corresponding second position among a plurality of positions included in the layout, and to present a second graphic at the second position.

[0174] Example 27 includes any one of Examples 15 to 26, a non-transitory machine-readable storage medium, wherein the instructions further cause one or more of the at least one programmable circuits to switch between presentation of a first portion of the layout and presentation of a second portion of the layout, the second portion of the layout covering a smaller area than the first portion of the layout, the second portion of the layout being enlarged relative to the first portion of the layout.

[0175] Example 28 includes the non-transitory machine-readable storage medium described in Example 27, wherein a second portion of the layout includes the first location.

[0176] Example 29 includes a method comprising: presenting a map of a material handling facility via a graphical user interface, the map depicting multiple locations for representing material handling equipment, the locations corresponding to at least one of platforms or doorways of the material handling facility; associating data from a first device at a first loading / unloading platform or doorway of the at least one of the platforms or doorways with a first location among the multiple locations depicted in the map by executing at least one programmable circuit based on instructions; and generating a graphic to be presented at the first location via a graphical user interface, the graphic being based on data from the first device.

[0177] Example 30 includes the method of Example 29, wherein the graph is used to indicate the state of a first loading / unloading platform or gateway of at least one of the platforms or gateways, and the graph changes in response to a change in the state of the first loading / unloading platform or gateway of at least one of the platforms or gateways.

[0178] Example 31 includes the method of Example 30, wherein the graph will change substantially in real time as the state of the first loading / unloading platform or gateway of at least one of the platforms or gateways changes.

[0179] Example 32 includes the method of any one of Examples 29 to 31, further comprising: detecting the first device at a first loading / unloading platform or doorway of at least one of the platforms or doorways based on a signal from the first device; and designating the first device as associated with the first loading / unloading platform or doorway of at least one of the platforms or doorways based on user input.

[0180] Example 33 includes the method of Example 32, wherein the signal is a first signal, the user input is a first user input, and the method further includes: visually distinguishing the detected first device from other detected assets at other locations of at least one of the platforms or doorways on a graphical user interface based on a second signal from the first device, the second signal being generated in response to a second user input received by the first device, the detected first device being visually distinguished to facilitate the user providing the first user input.

[0181] Example 34 includes the method of any one of Examples 29 to 33, further comprising: presenting a size calibration graphic via a graphical user interface, the size calibration graphic being used to define the size of the graphic relative to the size of a map.

[0182] Example 35 includes the method of Example 34, wherein the ends of the dimensional calibration graphic are adjusted based on the width of the user relative to a first location within the map, the dimensional calibration graphic measuring the width of the first location.

[0183] Example 36 includes the method of any one of Examples 29 to 35, wherein the association of the data with a first location identifies the first location depicted in the map as a first loading / unloading platform or access point corresponding to at least one of the platforms or access points of a material handling facility based on user input.

[0184] Example 37 includes the method of Example 36, wherein the user input includes moving a platform marker to a first location depicted on a map, the marker being associated with the first device.

[0185] Example 38 includes the method of Example 37, wherein the marker is one of a plurality of markers, different markers of the plurality of markers correspond to different ones of at least one of the platforms or doorways of the material handling facility, and markers of the plurality of markers not associated with corresponding locations of a plurality of locations depicted in a map are placed in an asset list that is adjacent to and independent of the map.

[0186] Example 39 includes the method of any one of Examples 37 or 38, wherein the user input includes rotating the marker to align it with the orientation of a first location depicted on the map.

[0187] Example 40 includes the method of any one of Examples 29 to 39, further comprising: associating a second loading / unloading platform or passageway of at least one of the platforms or passageways with a corresponding second location among a plurality of locations depicted in a map, and presenting a second graphic at the second location.

[0188] Example 41 includes the method of any one of Examples 29 to 40, and further includes: switching between the presentation of a first part of the map and the presentation of a second part of the map, wherein the second part of the map covers a smaller area than the first part of the map, and the second part of the map is enlarged relative to the first part of the map.

[0189] Example 42 includes the method described in Example 41, wherein a second portion of the map contains the first location.

[0190] Example 43 includes an apparatus comprising at least one memory, machine-readable instructions, and at least one programmable circuit. The programmable circuit is programmed by the machine-readable instructions to: identify the type of a controller, corresponding to a platform controller or a door controller, based on device identification information from a controller associated with a device in a material handling facility; and discover a device associated with the controller based on I / O data from the controller, the I / O data containing signals provided by the device to the controller indicating a state change in the device.

[0191] Example 44 includes the apparatus described in Example 43, wherein one or more of the at least one programmable circuitry is configured to: determine the type of the device based on an address received from the controller, the address being provided along with the signal.

[0192] Example 45 includes the apparatus of any one of Examples 43 or 44, wherein the device is a first device, and one or more of the at least one programmable circuits are configured to: discover multiple devices associated with the controller, including the first device, based on I / O data received from the controller.

[0193] Example 46 includes the apparatus of any one of Examples 43 to 45, wherein the controller is a first controller, and one or more of the at least one programmable circuits are used to generate an asset inventory comprising a plurality of controllers, the plurality of controllers including the first controller.

[0194] Example 47 includes the apparatus described in Example 46, wherein one or more of the at least one programmable circuitry are used to associate different discovered devices with different controllers among the plurality of controllers.

[0195] Example 48 includes the apparatus of any one of Examples 46 or 47, wherein one or more of the at least one programmable circuits are used to display the asset list in a graphical user interface.

[0196] Example 49 includes the apparatus of any one of Examples 46 or 48, wherein the asset inventory includes an indicator associated with each of the plurality of controllers, and one or more of the at least one programmable circuits are configured to: change the appearance of a first indicator among the indicators in response to receiving a device identification signal from a corresponding first controller.

[0197] Example 50 includes a non-transitory machine-readable storage medium containing instructions for causing at least one programmable circuit to at least: identify the type of a controller, corresponding to a platform controller or a door controller, based on device identification information from a controller associated with a device in a material handling facility; and discover a device associated with the controller based on I / O data from the controller, the I / O data containing signals provided by the device to the controller indicating a state change of the device.

[0198] Example 51 includes the non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of Example 50, wherein the instructions cause one or more of the at least one programmable circuits to: determine the type of a device based on an address received from the controller, the address being provided along with the signal.

[0199] Example 52 includes a non-transitory machine-readable storage medium as described in any one of Examples 50 or 51, wherein the device is a first device, and the instructions cause one or more of the at least one programmable circuits to: discover multiple devices associated with the controller, including the first device, based on I / O data received from the controller.

[0200] Example 53 includes a non-transitory machine-readable storage medium as described in any one of Examples 50 to 52, wherein the controller is a first controller, and the instructions cause one or more of the at least one programmable circuits to generate an asset inventory comprising a plurality of controllers, including the first controller.

[0201] Example 54 includes the non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of Example 53, wherein the instructions cause one or more of the at least one programmable circuits to associate different discovered devices with different controllers among the plurality of controllers.

[0202] Example 55 includes a non-transitory machine-readable storage medium as described in any one of Examples 53 or 54, wherein the instructions cause one or more of the at least one programmable circuits to display the asset list in a graphical user interface.

[0203] Example 56 includes a non-transitory machine-readable storage medium as described in any one of Examples 53 to 55, wherein the asset inventory contains an indicator associated with each of the plurality of controllers; the instructions cause one or more of the at least one programmable circuits to change the appearance of a first indicator in response to receiving a device identification signal from a corresponding first controller.

[0204] Example 57 includes a method comprising: identifying a type of controller based on device identification information from a controller associated with a device in a material handling facility, the type corresponding to a platform controller or a door controller; and identifying a device associated with the controller based on I / O data received from the controller by executing at least one programmable circuitry based on instructions, the I / O data including signals provided by the device to the controller indicating a state change of the device.

[0205] Example 58 includes the method of Example 57, further comprising: determining the type of a device based on an address received from the controller, the address being provided along with the signal.

[0206] Example 59 includes the method of any one of Examples 57 or 58, wherein the device is a first device, and the method further includes: identifying a plurality of devices associated with the controller based on IO data received from the controller, the plurality of devices including the first device.

[0207] Example 60 includes the method of any one of Examples 57 to 59, wherein the controller is a first controller, and the method further includes generating an asset list comprising a plurality of controllers, the plurality of controllers including the first controller.

[0208] Example 61 includes the method of Example 60, and further includes associating different discovered devices with different controllers among the plurality of controllers.

[0209] Example 62 includes the method of any one of Examples 60 or 61, and further includes presenting the asset list in a graphical user interface.

[0210] Example 63 includes the method of any one of Examples 60 to 62, wherein the asset inventory includes an indicator associated with each of the plurality of controllers, and the method further includes: changing the appearance of a first indicator among the indicators in response to receiving a device identification signal from a corresponding first controller.

[0211] Example 64 includes an apparatus comprising at least one memory, machine-readable instructions, and at least one programmable circuit. The programmable circuit is programmed by the machine-readable instructions to: present a layout of a material handling facility via a graphical user interface; and, after a user inputs an adjustment of the size of a dimensional calibration graphic relative to the layout, determine the scale of the layout based on the size of the adjustable dimensional calibration graphic.

[0212] Example 65 includes the apparatus of Example 64, wherein one or more of the at least one programmable circuitry are configured to enable at least one operation of rotating or moving the dimensional calibration graphic relative to the layout, so that a user can adjust the size of the dimensional calibration graphic to match the size of the features shown in the layout.

[0213] Example 66 includes the apparatus described in Example 65, wherein the feature corresponds to a doorway at a loading / unloading platform of a material handling facility.

[0214] Example 67 includes the apparatus of any one of Examples 65 or 66, wherein the feature has a standard width, and one or more of the at least one programmable circuits are used to retrieve the standard width from the at least one memory to determine the layout proportions.

[0215] Example 68 includes the apparatus of any one of Examples 65 to 67, wherein the size is specified by a user, and one or more of the at least one programmable circuits are used to determine the proportion of the layout based on the user-specified size.

[0216] Example 69 includes the apparatus of any one of Examples 64 to 68, wherein one or more of the at least one programmable circuitry are used to generate a mark displayed on a layout, the mark corresponding to a device detected at a corresponding location in at least one of the platforms or doorways of the material handling facility, the mark being movable by a user to a location on the layout corresponding to the corresponding location in at least one of the platforms or doorways of the material handling facility, and the size of the mark being set based on a determined scale of the layout.

[0217] Example 70 includes the apparatus of Example 69, wherein one or more of the at least one programmable circuits are used to generate a graphic at the location of a corresponding mark, the graphic containing one or more symbols for indicating a device detected at the corresponding location of at least one of the platform or doorway, and the size of the graphic is set based on a determined scale of the layout.

[0218] Example 71 includes a non-transitory machine-readable storage medium containing instructions for causing at least one programmable circuit to at least: render a layout of a material handling facility via a graphical user interface; and, after a user inputs an adjustment of the size of a dimensional calibration graphic relative to the layout, determine the scale of the layout based on the size of the adjustable dimensional calibration graphic.

[0219] Example 72 includes the non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of Example 71, wherein the instructions are configured to cause one or more of the at least one programmable circuitry to perform at least one operation of rotating or moving the dimensional calibration graphic relative to the layout, so that a user can adjust the size of the dimensional calibration graphic to match the size of the features shown in the layout.

[0220] Example 73 includes the non-transitory machine-readable storage medium described in Example 72, wherein the feature corresponds to a doorway at a loading / unloading platform of a material handling facility.

[0221] Example 74 includes a non-transitory machine-readable storage medium as described in any one of Examples 72 or 73, wherein the feature has a standard width, and the instructions are used to cause one or more of the at least one programmable circuits to retrieve the standard width from memory to determine the proportions of the layout.

[0222] Example 75 includes a non-transitory machine-readable storage medium as described in any one of Examples 72 to 74, wherein the size is specified by a user, and the instructions are used to cause one or more of the at least one programmable circuits to determine a layout proportion based on the user-specified size.

[0223] Example 76 includes a non-transitory machine-readable storage medium as described in any one of Examples 71 to 75, wherein the instructions are configured to cause one or more of the at least one programmable circuitry to generate a mark displayed on a layout, the mark corresponding to a device detected at a corresponding location in at least one of the platforms or doorways of a material handling facility, the mark being movable by a user to a location on the layout corresponding to the corresponding location in at least one of the platforms or doorways of the material handling facility, and the size of the mark being set based on a determined scale of the layout.

[0224] Example 77 includes the non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of Example 76, wherein the instructions are used to cause one or more of the at least one programmable circuits to generate a graphic at the location of a corresponding mark, the graphic containing one or more symbols for indicating a device detected at the corresponding location of at least one of the platforms or doorways, and the size of the graphic is set based on a determined scale of the layout.

[0225] Example 78 includes a method comprising: presenting a layout of a material handling facility via a graphical user interface; and determining a scale of the layout based on the size of an adjustable dimensional calibration graphic after a user inputs an adjustment of the size of the dimensional calibration graphic relative to the layout by operating at least one programmable circuitry based on instructions.

[0226] Example 79 includes the method of Example 78, further comprising: enabling the dimensioning graphic to be rotated or moved relative to the layout at least once, so that a user can adjust the size of the dimensioning graphic to match the size of the features shown in the layout.

[0227] Example 80 includes the method of Example 79, wherein the feature corresponds to a doorway at a loading / unloading platform of a material handling facility.

[0228] Example 81 includes the method of any one of Examples 79 or 80, further comprising: retrieving a standard width of the feature from memory, the determination of the layout ratio being based on the standard width.

[0229] Example 82 includes the method of any one of Examples 79 to 81, wherein the size is specified by the user and the determination of the layout ratio is based on the user-specified size.

[0230] Example 83 includes the method of any one of Examples 78 to 82, further comprising: generating a marker displayed on a layout, the marker corresponding to a device detected at a corresponding location in at least one of the platforms or doorways of the material handling facility, the marker being movable by a user to a location on the layout corresponding to said corresponding location in at least one of the platforms or doorways of the material handling facility, and the size of the marker being set based on a determined scale of the layout.

[0231] Example 84 includes the method of Example 83, further comprising: generating a graphic at the location of a corresponding mark, the graphic containing one or more symbols for indicating a device detected at a corresponding location in at least one of the platform or doorway, and the size of the graphic being set based on a determined scale of the layout.

[0232] The following claims are incorporated herein by reference in the Detailed Description section. While certain exemplary systems, apparatuses, articles of manufacture, and methods are disclosed herein, the scope of protection of this patent is not limited thereto. Rather, this patent covers all systems, apparatuses, articles of manufacture, and methods that reasonably fall within the scope of the claims of this patent.

Claims

1. An apparatus for monitoring the operation of a material handling facility, the apparatus comprising: At least one memory; Machine-readable instructions; as well as At least one programmable circuit, said at least one programmable circuit being programmed by said machine-readable instructions to: The layout of the material handling facility is presented through a graphical user interface, the layout including multiple locations for representing material handling equipment, the locations corresponding to at least one of the loading / unloading platforms or doorways of the material handling facility; Data from a first device at a first loading / unloading station or gate of at least one of the loading / unloading stations or gates is associated with a first location among the plurality of locations included in the layout; and A graphic is generated that will be presented at the first location via the graphical user interface, the graphic being based on data from the first device.

2. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein, The graphic is used to indicate the state of the first loading / unloading platform or passageway of at least one of the loading / unloading platforms or passageways, and the graphic will change in response to changes in the state of the first loading / unloading platform or passageway of at least one of the loading / unloading platforms or passageways.

3. The apparatus according to claim 2, wherein, The graphic will change substantially in real time as the state of the first loading / unloading platform or passageway changes with the changes in the state of at least one of the loading / unloading platforms or passageways.

4. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein, One or more of the at least one programmable circuits are used for: Based on the signal from the first device, the first device at the first loading / unloading platform or passageway of at least one of the loading / unloading platforms or passageways is detected; and Based on user input, the first device is designated as associated with the first loading / unloading platform or gateway of at least one of the loading / unloading platforms or gateways.

5. The apparatus according to claim 4, wherein, The signal is a first signal, and the user input is a first user input. One or more of the at least one programmable circuits are used to visually distinguish the discovered first device from other discovered devices at other locations of the at least one of the loading / unloading platforms or passageways on a graphical user interface based on a second signal from the first device. The second signal is generated in response to a second user input received by the first device, and the discovered first device is visually distinguished to facilitate the user providing the first user input.

6. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein, One or more of the at least one programmable circuits are used to present a size calibration graphic through the graphical user interface, the size calibration graphic being used to define the size of the graphic relative to the layout.

7. The apparatus according to claim 6, wherein, The user adjusts both ends of the dimensional calibration graphic based on the width of the first position within the layout, the dimensional calibration graphic measuring the width of the first position.

8. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein, The association of the data with the first location is based on user input, identifying the first location contained in the layout as the first loading / unloading platform or doorway corresponding to at least one of the loading / unloading platforms or doorways of the material handling facility.

9. The apparatus according to claim 8, wherein, The user input includes moving a marker to the first position contained in the layout, the marker being associated with the first device.

10. The apparatus according to claim 9, wherein, The mark is one of a plurality of marks, different marks of the plurality of marks correspond to different locations of at least one of the loading / unloading platforms or doorways of the material handling facility, and the mark of the plurality of marks that is not associated with a corresponding location of one of the plurality of locations included in the layout will be placed in an asset list that is adjacent to the layout and independent of the layout.

11. The apparatus according to claim 9, wherein, The user input includes rotating the marker to align it with the orientation of the first position contained in the layout.

12. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein, One or more of the at least one programmable circuits are used for: Associating the second loading / unloading platform or passageway of at least one of the loading / unloading platforms or passageways with the corresponding second location among the plurality of locations included in the layout; and The second graphic is presented at the second position.

13. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein, One or more of the at least one programmable circuits are used to switch between the presentation of a first portion of the layout and the presentation of a second portion of the layout, wherein the second portion of the layout covers a smaller layout area than the first portion of the layout, and the second portion of the layout is enlarged relative to the first portion of the layout.

14. The apparatus according to claim 13, wherein, The second part of the layout includes the first position.

15. A non-transitory machine-readable storage medium comprising instructions for causing at least one programmable circuit to at least: The layout of the material handling facility is presented through a graphical user interface, the layout including multiple locations for representing material handling equipment, the locations corresponding to at least one of the loading / unloading platforms or doorways of the material handling facility; Data from a first device at a first loading / unloading station or gate, representing at least one of the loading / unloading stations or gates, is associated with a first location among the plurality of locations included in the layout; and A graphic is generated that will be presented at the first location via the graphical user interface, the graphic being based on data from the first device.

16. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium according to claim 15, wherein, The graphic is used to indicate the state of the first loading / unloading platform or passageway of at least one of the loading / unloading platforms or passageways, and the graphic will change in response to changes in the state of the first loading / unloading platform or passageway of at least one of the loading / unloading platforms or passageways.

17. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium according to claim 16, wherein, The graphic will change substantially in real time as the state of the first loading / unloading platform or passageway changes with the changes in the state of at least one of the loading / unloading platforms or passageways.

18. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium according to claim 15, wherein, The instruction causes one or more of the at least one programmable circuits to: Based on the signal from the first device, the first device at the first loading / unloading platform or passageway of at least one of the loading / unloading platforms or passageways is detected; and Based on user input, the first device is designated as associated with the first loading / unloading platform or gateway of at least one of the loading / unloading platforms or gateways.

19. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium according to claim 18, wherein, The signal is a first signal, and the user input is a first user input. The instruction also causes one or more of the at least one programmable circuits to visually distinguish the discovered first device from other discovered devices at other locations of the at least one of the loading / unloading platforms or passageways on a graphical user interface, based on a second signal from the first device. The second signal is generated in response to a second user input received by the first device, and the discovered first device is visually distinguished to facilitate the user providing the first user input.

20. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium according to claim 15, wherein, The instructions cause one or more of the at least one programmable circuits to present a size calibration graphic through the graphical user interface, the size calibration graphic defining the size of the graphic relative to the layout.

21. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium according to claim 20, wherein, The user adjusts both ends of the dimensional calibration graphic based on the width of the first position within the layout, the dimensional calibration graphic measuring the width of the first position.

22. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium according to claim 15, wherein, The association of the data with the first location is based on user input, identifying the first location contained in the layout as the first loading / unloading platform or doorway corresponding to at least one of the loading / unloading platforms or doorways of the material handling facility.

23. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium according to claim 22, wherein, The user input includes moving a marker to the first position contained in the layout, the marker being associated with the first device.

24. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium according to claim 23, wherein, The mark is one of a plurality of marks, different marks of the plurality of marks correspond to different locations of at least one of the loading / unloading platforms or doorways of the material handling facility, and the mark of the plurality of marks that is not associated with a corresponding location of one of the plurality of locations included in the layout will be placed in an asset list that is adjacent to the layout and independent of the layout.

25. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium according to claim 23, wherein, The user input includes rotating the marker to align it with the orientation of the first position contained in the layout.

26. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium according to claim 15, wherein, The instruction causes one or more of the at least one programmable circuits to: Associating the second loading / unloading platform or passageway of at least one of the loading / unloading platforms or passageways with the corresponding second location among the plurality of locations included in the layout; and The second graphic is presented at the second position.

27. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium according to claim 15, wherein, The instructions also cause one or more of the at least one programmable circuits to switch between presentation of a first portion of the layout and presentation of a second portion of the layout, wherein the second portion of the layout covers a smaller layout area than the first portion of the layout, and the second portion of the layout is enlarged relative to the first portion of the layout.

28. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium according to claim 27, wherein, The second part of the layout includes the first position.

29. A method comprising: A map of a material handling facility is presented through a graphical user interface. The map depicts multiple locations for representing material handling equipment, which correspond to at least one of the loading / unloading platforms or doorways of the material handling facility. By running at least one programmable circuit based on instructions, data from a first device at a first loading / unloading station or gate of at least one of the loading / unloading stations or gates is associated with a first location among the plurality of locations depicted in the map. as well as A graphic is generated that will be presented at the first location via the graphical user interface, the graphic being based on data from the first device.

30. The method according to claim 29, wherein, The graphic is used to indicate the state of the first loading / unloading platform or passageway of at least one of the loading / unloading platforms or passageways, and the graphic will change in response to changes in the state of the first loading / unloading platform or passageway of at least one of the loading / unloading platforms or passageways.

31. The method according to claim 30, wherein, The graphic will change substantially in real time as the state of the first loading / unloading platform or passageway changes with the changes in the state of at least one of the loading / unloading platforms or passageways.

32. The method according to claim 29, further comprising: Based on the signal from the first device, detect the first device at the first loading / unloading station or gate of at least one of the loading / unloading stations or gates; as well as Based on user input, the first device is designated as associated with the first loading / unloading platform or gateway of at least one of the loading / unloading platforms or gateways.

33. The method according to claim 32, wherein, The signal is a first signal, and the user input is a first user input. The method further includes: visually distinguishing the detected first device from other detected assets at other locations of the at least one of the loading / unloading platform or passageway on a graphical user interface based on a second signal from the first device, the second signal being generated in response to a second user input received by the first device, the detected first device being visually distinguished to facilitate the user providing the first user input.

34. The method according to claim 29, further comprising: The graphical user interface presents a size calibration graphic, which defines the size of the graphic relative to the size of the map.

35. The method according to claim 34, wherein, The user adjusts the two ends of the dimensional calibration graphic based on the width of the first location relative to the first location in the map, the dimensional calibration graphic measuring the width of the first location.

36. The method according to claim 29, wherein, The association of the data with the first location is based on user input, identifying the first location depicted in the map as the first loading / unloading platform or doorway corresponding to at least one of the loading / unloading platforms or doorways of the material handling facility.

37. The method according to claim 36, wherein, The user input includes moving a platform marker to the first location depicted on the map, the marker being associated with the first device.

38. The method according to claim 37, wherein, The marker is one of a plurality of markers, the different markers of the plurality of markers corresponding to different locations of at least one of the loading / unloading platforms or access points of the material handling facility, and the markers of the plurality of markers not associated with corresponding locations of the plurality of locations depicted in the map will be placed in an asset list that is adjacent to the map and independent of the map.

39. The method according to claim 37, wherein, The user input includes rotating the marker to align it with the orientation of the first location depicted in the map.

40. The method according to claim 29, further comprising: Associating the second loading / unloading platform or passageway of at least one of the loading / unloading platforms or passageways with the corresponding second location among the plurality of locations depicted in the map; and The second graphic is presented at the second position.

41. The method according to claim 29, further comprising: The display switches between showing a first part of the map and a second part of the map, the second part of the map covering a smaller area than the first part of the map, and the second part of the map is magnified relative to the first part of the map.

42. The method according to claim 41, wherein, The second part of the map contains the first location.

43. An apparatus comprising: At least one memory; Machine-readable instructions; as well as At least one programmable circuit, said at least one programmable circuit being programmed by said machine-readable instructions to: Based on equipment identification information from controllers associated with equipment in the material handling facility, the type of the controller is identified, corresponding to either a platform controller or a door controller; and Based on IO data from the controller, a device associated with the controller is discovered, the IO data containing signals provided by the device to the controller indicating a state change in the device.

44. The apparatus according to claim 43, wherein, One or more of the at least one programmable circuits are used to: determine the type of the device based on an address received from the controller, the address being provided along with the signal.

45. The apparatus according to claim 43, wherein, The device is a first device, and one or more of the at least one programmable circuits are configured to: discover multiple devices associated with the controller, including the first device, based on the IO data received from the controller.

46. ​​The apparatus according to claim 43, wherein, The controller is a first controller, and one or more of the at least one programmable circuits are used to generate an asset list that includes multiple controllers, including the first controller.

47. The apparatus according to claim 46, wherein, One or more of the at least one programmable circuits are used to associate different discovered devices with different controllers among the plurality of controllers.

48. The apparatus according to claim 46, wherein, One or more of the at least one programmable circuits are used to display the asset list in a graphical user interface.

49. The apparatus according to claim 46, wherein, The asset list includes indicators associated with each of the plurality of controllers, and one or more of the at least one programmable circuits are configured to: change the appearance of a first indicator among the indicators in response to receiving a device identification signal from the corresponding first controller.

50. A non-transitory machine-readable storage medium comprising instructions for causing at least one programmable circuit to at least: Based on equipment identification information from controllers associated with equipment in the material handling facility, the type of the controller is identified, corresponding to either a platform controller or a door controller; and Based on IO data from the controller, a device associated with the controller is discovered, the IO data containing signals provided by the device to the controller indicating a state change in the device.

51. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium according to claim 50, wherein, The instructions cause one or more of the at least one programmable circuits to determine the type of a device based on an address received from the controller, the address being provided along with the signal.

52. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium according to claim 50, wherein, The device is a first device, and the instructions cause one or more of the at least one programmable circuits to: discover multiple devices associated with the controller, including the first device, based on the IO data received from the controller.

53. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium according to claim 50, wherein, The controller is a first controller, and the instructions cause one or more of the at least one programmable circuits to generate an asset list containing multiple controllers, including the first controller.

54. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium according to claim 53, wherein, The instructions cause one or more of the at least one programmable circuits to associate different discovered devices with different controllers among the plurality of controllers.

55. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium according to claim 53, wherein, The instructions cause one or more of the at least one programmable circuits to display the asset list in a graphical user interface.

56. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium according to claim 53, wherein, The asset list includes indicators associated with each of the plurality of controllers, and the instructions cause one or more of the at least one programmable circuits to change the appearance of a first indicator in response to receiving a device identification signal from the corresponding first controller.

57. A method, the method comprising: Based on device identification information from controllers associated with equipment in the material handling facility, the type of the controller is identified, which corresponds to a platform controller or a door controller; as well as By running at least one programmable circuit based on instructions, a device associated with the controller is identified based on I / O data received from the controller, the I / O data including signals provided by the device to the controller indicating a state change of the device.

58. The method according to claim 57, further comprising: The type of a device is determined based on an address received from the controller, the address being provided along with the signal.

59. The method according to claim 57, wherein, The device is a first device, and the method further includes: identifying multiple devices associated with the controller based on the IO data received from the controller, wherein the multiple devices include the first device.

60. The method of claim 57, wherein, The controller is a first controller, and the method further includes generating an asset list containing multiple controllers, including the first controller.

61. The method of claim 60, further comprising associating different discovered devices with different controllers among the plurality of controllers.

62. The method of claim 60, further comprising presenting the asset list in a graphical user interface.

63. The method according to claim 60, wherein, The asset list includes indicators associated with each of the plurality of controllers, and the method further includes: in response to receiving a device identification signal from a corresponding first controller, causing a first indicator among the indicators to change its appearance.

64. An apparatus comprising: At least one memory; Machine-readable instructions; as well as At least one programmable circuit, which operates based on the machine-readable instructions to: The layout of material handling facilities is presented through a graphical user interface; and After the user adjusts the size of the adjustable size calibration graphic relative to the layout, the proportion of the layout is determined based on the size of the size calibration graphic.

65. The apparatus according to claim 64, wherein, One or more of the at least one programmable circuits are configured to perform at least one operation to enable the dimensional calibration graphic to rotate or move relative to the layout, so that a user can adjust the size of the dimensional calibration graphic to match the size of the features shown in the layout.

66. The apparatus according to claim 65, wherein, The feature corresponds to the doorway at the loading and unloading platform of the material handling facility.

67. The apparatus according to claim 65, wherein, The feature has a standard width, and one or more of the at least one programmable circuits are used to retrieve the standard width from the at least one memory to determine the proportion of the layout.

68. The apparatus according to claim 65, wherein, The dimensions are specified by the user, and one or more of the at least one programmable circuits are used to determine the proportion of the layout based on the user-specified dimensions.

69. The apparatus according to claim 64, wherein, One or more of the at least one programmable circuits are used to generate a mark displayed on the layout, the mark corresponding to a device detected at a corresponding location in at least one of the loading / unloading stations or doorways of the material handling facility, the mark being movable by a user to a location on the layout corresponding to the corresponding location in the at least one of the loading / unloading stations or doorways of the material handling facility, the size of the mark being set based on a determined scale of the layout.

70. The apparatus according to claim 69, wherein, One or more of the at least one programmable circuits are used to generate a graphic at the location of a corresponding mark, the graphic containing one or more symbols for indicating a device detected at the corresponding location of the at least one of the loading / unloading platform or doorway, the size of the graphic being set based on a determined scale of the layout.

71. A non-transitory machine-readable storage medium comprising instructions for causing at least one programmable circuit to at least: The layout of material handling facilities is presented through a graphical user interface; and After the user adjusts the size of the adjustable size calibration graphic relative to the layout, the proportion of the layout is determined based on the size of the size calibration graphic.

72. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium according to claim 71, wherein, The instructions are used to enable one or more of the at least one programmable circuits to perform at least one operation of rotating or moving the dimension calibration graphic relative to the layout, so that the user can adjust the size of the dimension calibration graphic to match the size of the features shown in the layout.

73. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium according to claim 72, wherein, The feature corresponds to the doorway at the loading and unloading platform of the material handling facility.

74. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium according to claim 72, wherein, The feature has a standard width, and the instructions are used to cause one or more of the at least one programmable circuits to retrieve the standard width from memory to determine the proportion of the layout.

75. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium according to claim 72, wherein, The size is specified by the user, and the instructions are used to cause one or more of the at least one programmable circuits to determine the proportion of the layout based on the user-specified size.

76. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium according to claim 71, wherein, The instructions are used to cause one or more of the at least one programmable circuits to generate a mark displayed on the layout, the mark corresponding to a device detected at a corresponding location in at least one of the loading / unloading stations or doorways of the material handling facility, the mark being movable by a user to a location on the layout corresponding to the corresponding location in the at least one of the loading / unloading stations or doorways of the material handling facility, the size of the mark being set based on a determined scale of the layout.

77. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium according to claim 76, wherein, The instructions are used to cause one or more of the at least one programmable circuits to generate a graphic at the location of a corresponding mark, the graphic containing one or more symbols for indicating a device detected at the corresponding location of the at least one of the loading / unloading platforms or passageways, the size of the graphic being set based on a determined scale of the layout.

78. A method comprising: The layout of material handling facilities is presented through a graphical user interface; as well as By running at least one programmable circuit based on instructions, the proportion of the layout is determined based on the size of the adjustable size calibration graphic after the user inputs an adjustment of the size of the calibration graphic relative to the layout.

79. The method according to claim 78, further comprising: The dimensional calibration graphic can be rotated or moved relative to the layout at least once, so that the user can adjust the size of the dimensional calibration graphic to match the size of the features shown in the layout.

80. The method according to claim 79, wherein, The feature corresponds to the doorway at the loading and unloading platform of the material handling facility.

81. The method according to claim 79, further comprising: The standard width of the feature is retrieved from memory, and the proportion of the layout is determined based on the standard width.

82. The method according to claim 79, wherein, The dimensions are specified by the user, and the proportions of the layout are determined based on the user-specified dimensions.

83. The method according to claim 78, further comprising: A marker is generated and displayed on the layout, the marker corresponding to a device detected at a corresponding location in at least one of the loading / unloading stations or doorways of the material handling facility, the marker being movable by a user to a location on the layout corresponding to the corresponding location in the at least one of the loading / unloading stations or doorways of the material handling facility, the size of the marker being set based on a determined scale of the layout.

84. The method according to claim 83, further comprising: A graphic is generated at the location of the corresponding mark, the graphic containing one or more symbols for indicating the equipment detected at the corresponding location of at least one of the loading / unloading platforms or passageways, the size of the graphic being set based on a determined scale of the layout.

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