Article Storage Facility Conveyor Pairing for Same-Type Grouping
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing article storage facilities struggle to efficiently transport two articles of the same type adjacent to each other, as they lack a configuration for the supply device to achieve this in automated warehouse units.
Innovation Solution
The article storage facility incorporates a supply device with a first conveyor, multiple branching conveyors, and branching devices, controlled by a control device to select and direct articles to ensure that two articles of the same type are transported adjacent to each other by determining a pairing target conveyor or selecting a conveyor based on a predetermined rule if no pairing target is available.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Device complexity
If the supply device uses a simple conveyor configuration, then the device complexity is reduced, but the ability to transport two articles of the same type adjacent to each other deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The supply device is segmented into a first conveyor for receiving articles and multiple second conveyors for transporting articles to different transport devices. This segmentation allows independent control of each conveyor section, enabling the system to group articles of the same type together while maintaining a relatively simple overall configuration.
Solution Approach 2:
The control device performs selection processing in advance to determine which second conveyor should receive the target article based on the article type of the most-upstream article on each second conveyor. By making this preliminary determination, the system can proactively group articles of the same type together before they reach the transport devices, improving the rate of adjacent same-type article transport without requiring complex real-time adjustments.
2Productivity
If the supply device transports articles of the same type together, then the storage operation efficiency is improved, but the device complexity increases due to multiple conveyors and control mechanisms
Solution Approach 1:
The first conveyor serves multiple functions: it receives articles from upstream, transports them to the branching portion, and acts as a common feed for multiple second conveyors. This multi-functionality reduces the need for separate dedicated conveyors for each article type, thereby improving storage efficiency while limiting the increase in device complexity.
Solution Approach 2:
The control device continuously monitors the state of articles on each second conveyor (specifically the article type of the most-upstream article) and uses this feedback information to make real-time routing decisions. This feedback mechanism enables the system to dynamically group articles of the same type together, improving storage operation efficiency without requiring a overly complex predetermined routing structure.
Data Source
AI summary
A control device performs selection processing for determining a selected conveyor that is to be the destination of a target article. The selection processing is processing for, if a second conveyor in which an article of the same type as the target article is the most-upstream article and there is no adjacent same-type article group, and a second conveyor in which an articles of the same type as the target article is the most-upstream article and there is an even number of articles in the adjacent same-type article group, are pairing target conveyors and there is a pairing target conveyor, determining the pairing target conveyor as the selected conveyor, and if there is no pairing target conveyor, determining a second conveyor selected according to a predetermined basic selection rule as the selected conveyor.