Multi-Level Warehouse Robot Picking With Lift-Based Vertical Routing
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing order preparation systems in logistics warehouses face inefficiencies due to long travel times for operators and robots, increased warehouse size requirements, and challenges in managing high storage shelves, leading to suboptimal productivity and high land costs.
Innovation Solution
A multi-level warehouse system with autonomous mobile robots that can move vertically between stories, equipped with a central mast for picking products at various levels, and a lift system for inter-story movement, optimizing product storage and retrieval without extensive ground space, and featuring a buffer module for efficient order preparation.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Quantity of substance
If the warehouse surface area is increased to extend the products-storage store, then the storage capacity is improved, but the travel distance between pickings increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies vertical dimensionality by implementing a multi-level warehouse structure with multiple stories. Robots can move between different levels using elevators, allowing the storage capacity to expand vertically rather than horizontally. This reduces the ground surface area required while maintaining storage capacity and minimizing travel distances through optimized vertical and horizontal navigation paths.
2Area of stationary object
If the height of storage shelf units is increased to reduce land use, then the land cost is reduced, but the robot movement speed and stability deteriorate
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the storage system into multiple discrete levels or stories, each with its own circulation zone and shelf units. Robots operate independently on each level and use elevators for inter-level transitions. This segmentation allows the system to achieve high vertical storage utilization without compromising robot speed and stability, as robots maintain optimal operating heights on each segmented level rather than navigating extreme vertical heights.
3Productivity
If multiple robots are used to pick products from high shelf units, then the picking capability is improved, but the robot circulation efficiency deteriorates due to intersections
Solution Approach 1:
The patent utilizes the vertical dimension by implementing multiple stories with dedicated circulation zones on each level. Robots operate on different horizontal planes and use elevators for vertical transitions, effectively adding a third dimension to robot navigation. This multi-level structure eliminates path intersections that would occur in a single-level system, allowing multiple robots to operate simultaneously without circulation conflicts while maintaining high picking capability.
Data Source
AI summary
A system for preparing orders for products stored in a logistics warehouse. The system includes: a products-storage store including plural stories, each story having a shelf unit having levels subdivided into storage locations; autonomous mobile picking robots, capable of moving around in at least one circulation zone of each story, the picking robots ensuring picking of products inside the storage locations of a given level of a shelf unit, each picking robot able to stow a picked product on a storage support of the picking robot while the robot moves around on the ground; a lift able to move a picking robot from one story of the products-storage store to another; an order preparation zone distant from the products-storage store towards which the picking robots convey picked products, the order preparation zone including a workstation for making up the order from the products conveyed by the picking robots.