Article Transporting Carriage Control for Warehouse Logistics
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Existing article transporting facilities in automated warehouses often fail to utilize multiple carriages efficiently, leading to repeated use of a single carriage for transport operations, despite having multiple carriages available, which limits the facility's transporting ability.
Innovation Solution
An article transporting facility with a ground controller that selectively chooses between single and multiple carriage selecting modes based on transport request conditions, ensuring that multiple carriages are utilized by coordinating their operations to avoid interference and optimize travel ranges.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If the controlling means selects one particular carriage located near the transport starting station designated by each transport request information, then the transporting operation can be efficiently executed, but the same single carriage may be selected repeatedly for a series of transport operations, failing to utilize multiple carriages
Solution Approach 1:
The controlling means dynamically switches between single carriage selecting mode and multiple carriage selecting mode based on transport request conditions. When multiple transport requests with the same transport starting station are received, the system transitions to multiple carriage selecting mode to distribute tasks across different carriages, thereby improving overall transporting ability while maintaining operational efficiency.
2Adaptability or versatility
If multiple carriage selecting mode is used to distribute transport tasks across multiple carriages, then carriage utilization is improved, but coordinating operations to avoid interference increases control complexity
Solution Approach 1:
The control system is segmented into two distinct modes: single carriage selecting mode and multiple carriage selecting mode. Each mode has its own selection criteria and control logic. This segmentation simplifies the overall control complexity by providing clear, separate decision pathways rather than a single complex control algorithm.
Solution Approach 2:
The system changes the selection parameter based on transport request conditions. In single carriage selecting mode, the selection is based on proximity to the transport starting station. In multiple carriage selecting mode, the selection distributes tasks across multiple carriages. This parameter change allows the system to adapt to different operational scenarios without requiring a completely different control system.
Data Source
Figure 1
Figure 2
Figure 3
AI summary
An article transporting facility includes: a single predetermined path (2) disposed along a plurality of article transfer locations (1) and having a first end and a second end; a predetermined number of article transporting carriages (3) traveling on the predetermined path (2); controlling means for controlling traveling of the predetermined number of article transporting carriages (B); wherein based on article transport request information for transporting an article (20) from an original article transfer location (19) to a destination article transfer location (1e) among the plurality of article transfer locations (1e), the controlling means controls the traveling of the transporting carriages (3) such that the controlling means selects an article transporting carriage (3a) from the plurality of article transporting carriages (B) for causing the selected carriage (3a) to transfer the article (20) from the original article transfer location (19) to the destination article transfer location (1e); and when a multiple request condition exists wherein a plurality of transport request information designating a same single article transfer location as the original article transfer location are issued, the controlling means executes a multiple carriage selecting mode wherein the controlling means selects a plurality of article transporting carriages from the predetermined number of article transporting carriages for article transport.