CN111369055B - Method, device and electronic device for determining the position of a cargo container - Google Patents

Abstract

The invention provides a method, a device and electronic equipment for determining the position of an article container, wherein a target article container to be processed is determined based on a received article order; determining a target tower pile of the target goods container according to a preset constraint relation so as to minimize the total distance of the target goods container from the target tower pile to a site related to the goods order; the constraint relationship includes: the sites related to the goods orders meet preset order processing rules, and the goods provided by the target goods containers meet the goods requirements of the goods orders; and determining the final placement position of the target goods container according to the target tower stack, and controlling the robot to convey the target goods container to the final placement position. The placement position of the goods container determined by the method can ensure that the overall distance from the robot to the station is shorter, so that the distance from the robot to the target goods container is reduced on the whole, and the order production efficiency is improved.

Description

Method, device and electronic device for determining the position of a cargo container

technical field

The invention relates to the technical field of artificial intelligence, in particular to a method, device and electronic equipment for determining the position of a cargo container.

Background technique

Stacked three-dimensional storage is a high-density storage method. In the warehousing system, the goods storage area usually includes multiple stacking towers, each stacking tower is composed of multiple layers, and each layer is placed with a container for the goods, such as a material box, and each material box contains one or more kinds of goods.

During the order production process, if the order requires a certain product, the robot will move the material box containing the product from the product storage area to the picking site. After the staff picks the required goods from the material box, the robot will move the material box Move back to the item storage area and place it somewhere. In the product storage area, the robot may select a nearby location based on the picking site for the material box brought back by the robot from the picking site, or it may place boxes containing the same category in several fixed positions. However, this method of determining the position of the material box is unreasonable, which easily leads to a long distance for the robot to carry the material box during the order production process, thereby reducing the order production efficiency.

Contents of the invention

The object of the present invention is to provide a method, device and electronic equipment for determining the position of a cargo container, so as to reduce the distance of a robot carrying a material box during the order production process, thereby reducing the order production efficiency.

In the first aspect, an embodiment of the present invention provides a method for determining the position of a cargo container, the method is applied to an electronic device; the electronic device communicates with a robot; multiple stacking towers are set in the preset warehouse; each stacking tower includes a at least one container of goods stacked from bottom to top; the robot is used to transport the container of goods from the current location to one of a plurality of stack towers in the warehouse according to the control of the electronic device; the method includes: based on the received order of goods, determining The target product container to be processed; according to the preset constraint relationship, determine the target tower pile of the target product container, so that the total distance for the target product container to visit the site related to the product order from the target tower pile is the shortest; wherein, the constraint relationship includes: The site related to the goods order meets the preset order processing rules, and the goods that the target goods container can provide meet the goods demand of the goods order; determine the final placement position of the target goods container according to the target tower pile, and control the robot to deliver the target goods container to the final placement position.

In an optional embodiment, the goods that can be provided by the above-mentioned target goods container meet the goods demand of the goods order, including: the quantity of the specified goods provided by the target goods container to the target site is greater than or equal to that of the goods ordered by the target site, The total amount of the specified goods; the quantity of the specified goods provided by the target goods container to the target site is less than or equal to the quantity of the specified goods contained in the target goods container.

In an optional embodiment, each stack tower includes at least one position; the above-mentioned constraint relationship also includes: the target goods container is placed in a position in the warehouse; each position in the warehouse places at most one target goods container; if the target The goods container is placed at a designated position in the designated stack in the target tower, and the goods container is placed at a position below the designated position in the target tower.

In an optional embodiment, the above step of determining the target tower of the target cargo container according to the preset constraint relationship, so that the total distance for the target cargo container to visit the site related to the cargo order from the target tower to be the shortest, includes: The shortest total distance of the target goods container from the target tower to the site related to the goods order is set as the objective function; through the objective function and constraint relationship, the integer linear programming process is performed to obtain the target goods container's target tower stack.

In an optional embodiment, the above-mentioned objective function includes: min∑ _{i, j, k, s} dist _{s, j, k} *v _{i, j, k, s} ; the above-mentioned constraint relationship includes:

Among them, dist _{s, j, k} represent the distance from the target product container i located on the kth floor of the jth tower stack to the target site s related to the product order; v _{i, j, k, s} represent the distance according to the product order , whether to go to the position of the kth floor of the jth tower to pick up the target product container i, if v _{i, j, k, s} = 1, if not, v _{i, j, k, s} = 0; x _{i, j, k} represent whether the target goods container i is located at the position of the kth floor of the jth tower pile, if yes, x _{i, j, k} = 1, if not, x _{i, j, k} = 0; if the target The goods container is located in the j-th tower pile, then the target goods container i is placed on the position of the k'th floor below the k-th floor of the j-th tower pile; y _{o, s} indicates whether the goods order o is carried out at the target site s Production, if yes, y _{o, s} = 1, if not, y _{o, s} = 0; T _s represents the maximum quantity of the goods ordered by the target site s; z _{i, s, g} represents the target goods container i The quantity of the specified item g provided to the target site s; req _{o, g} indicates the quantity of the specified item g required for the item order; has _{i, g} indicates the quantity of the specified item g contained in the target item container i; U is the default Positive number; w _{i, s} indicates whether the target product container i should arrive at the target site s, if yes, w _{i, s} = 1, if not, w _{i, s} = 0; stands for any.

In an optional embodiment, the above-mentioned step of determining the final placement position of the target cargo container according to the target tower pile includes: if the target tower pile is in an idle state, determining the target tower pile as the final placement position of the target cargo container; The tower pile is in an occupied state, and the free position closest to the target tower pile is determined as the final placement position of the target goods container.

In an optional embodiment, the above-mentioned product order includes multiple; based on the received product order, the step of determining the target product container to be processed includes: according to the first product type and the first product included in each product order The quantity of goods corresponding to the category, the second category of goods contained in each commodity container and the quantity of goods corresponding to the second category of goods determine the target commodity container to be processed.

In an optional embodiment, the above-mentioned product order includes multiple; the sites related to the product order include multiple; the above-mentioned order processing rules include: each product order is assigned to a site; the assigned product order in each site The number of is less than or equal to the preset threshold.

In the second aspect, the embodiment of the present invention provides a device for determining the position of a cargo container, the device is arranged on an electronic device; the electronic device is connected to the robot in communication; a plurality of stacking towers are set in the preset warehouse; each stacking tower includes a At least one cargo container stacked from bottom to top; the robot is used to transport the cargo container from the current position to one of the multiple stacking towers in the warehouse according to electronic control; the device includes: a cargo container determination module for The incoming goods order determines the target goods container to be processed; the target stack determination module is used to determine the target stack of the target goods container according to the preset constraint relationship, so that the target goods container is accessed from the target stack with the goods order The total distance of the relevant stations is the shortest; wherein, the constraint relationship includes: the station related to the goods order satisfies the preset order processing rules, and the goods that the target goods container can provide meet the goods demand of the goods order; the delivery module is used to The tower stack determines the final placement position of the target cargo container, and the robot is controlled to transport the target cargo container to the final placement position.

In a third aspect, an embodiment of the present invention provides an electronic device, the electronic device includes: a processor and a storage device; a computer program is stored on the storage device, and when the computer program is executed by the processor, the position determination of the above-mentioned cargo container is performed method.

In a fourth aspect, an embodiment of the present invention provides a warehouse management system, which includes a robot and the electronic device described in the third aspect; the electronic device is connected to the robot in communication; the electronic device is used to control the robot to deliver the target goods container to The final placement location.

In the fifth aspect, the embodiment of the present invention provides a machine-readable storage medium, the machine-readable storage medium stores machine-executable instructions, and when the machine-executable instructions are called and executed by a processor, the machine-executable instructions cause The processor implements the method for determining the location of the goods container described above.

Embodiments of the present invention bring the following beneficial effects:

A method, device, and electronic device for determining the position of a cargo container provided by the embodiments of the present invention firstly determine the target cargo container to be processed based on the preset cargo order; then determine the target cargo container according to the received constraint relationship Tower stack, so that the total distance for the target product container to visit the site related to the product order from the target tower stack is the shortest; the constraint relationship includes: the site related to the product order satisfies the preset order processing rules, and the target product container can provide The goods meet the goods requirements of the goods order; then the final placement position of the target goods container is determined according to the target tower, and the robot is controlled to transport the target goods container to the final placement position. The placement position of the goods container determined in the above manner can make the overall distance for the robot to transport the goods container to the station shorter, which reduces the overall distance for the robot to carry the target goods container, thereby improving the order production efficiency.

Additional features and advantages of the invention will be set forth in the description which follows, and in part will be apparent from the description, or may be learned by practice of the invention. The objectives and other advantages of the invention will be realized and attained by the structure particularly pointed out in the written description and claims hereof as well as the appended drawings.

In order to make the above-mentioned objects, features and advantages of the present invention more comprehensible, preferred embodiments will be described in detail below together with the accompanying drawings.

Description of drawings

In order to more clearly illustrate the specific implementation of the present invention or the technical solutions in the prior art, the following will briefly introduce the accompanying drawings that need to be used in the specific implementation or description of the prior art. Obviously, the accompanying drawings in the following description The drawings show some implementations of the present invention, and those skilled in the art can obtain other drawings based on these drawings without any creative effort.

FIG. 1 is a schematic structural diagram of an electronic device provided by an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a flow chart of a method for determining the position of a cargo container provided by an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 3 is a flow chart of another method for determining the position of a cargo container provided by an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 4 is a flow chart of another method for determining the position of a cargo container provided by an embodiment of the present invention;

Fig. 5 is a schematic structural diagram of a device for determining the position of a cargo container provided by an embodiment of the present invention;

Fig. 6 is a schematic structural diagram of a warehouse management system provided by an embodiment of the present invention.

Detailed ways

In order to make the purpose, technical solutions and advantages of the embodiments of the present invention clearer, the technical solutions in the embodiments of the present invention will be clearly and completely described below in conjunction with the drawings in the embodiments of the present invention. Obviously, the described embodiments It is a part of embodiments of the present invention, but not all embodiments. The components of the embodiments of the invention generally described and illustrated in the figures herein may be arranged and designed in a variety of different configurations.

Accordingly, the following detailed description of the embodiments of the invention provided in the accompanying drawings is not intended to limit the scope of the claimed invention, but merely represents selected embodiments of the invention. Based on the embodiments of the present invention, all other embodiments obtained by persons of ordinary skill in the art without creative efforts fall within the protection scope of the present invention.

At present, in the order production process, if the order requires a certain product, the robot will move the material box containing the product from the product storage area to the picking site. The box is moved back to the goods storage area and placed in a certain location. In the product storage area, the robot may select a nearby location based on the picking site for the material box brought back by the robot from the picking site, or it may place boxes containing the same category in several fixed positions. However, this method of determining the position of the material box is unreasonable, which easily leads to a long distance for the robot to carry the material box during the order production process, thereby reducing the order production efficiency.

Based on this, the embodiments of the present invention provide a method, device, and electronic device for determining the position of a cargo container. This technology can be applied to various types of actual warehouse production processes such as e-commerce warehouses, three-dimensional warehouses, automated warehouses, and storage warehouses. , so that the position of the cargo container is better, this technology can be realized by using relevant software and hardware, and the following examples will be described.

Embodiment one:

First, an example electronic device 100 for implementing the method, device and electronic device for determining the position of a cargo container according to the embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. 1 .

As shown in FIG. 1 , a schematic structural diagram of an electronic device, the electronic device 100 includes one or more processors 102, one or more storage devices 104, an input device 106, an output device 108, and may also include one or more images The acquisition device 110, these components are interconnected via a bus system 112 and/or other forms of connection mechanisms (not shown). It should be noted that the components and structure of the electronic device 100 shown in FIG. 1 are only exemplary and not restrictive. According to needs, the electronic device may also have other components and structures, or the electronic device may also have other components and structures than those shown in the figure. Fewer components, or the electronic device may also have a different arrangement of components.

The processor 102 may be a gateway, or an intelligent terminal, or a device including a central processing unit (CPU) or other forms of processing units with data processing capabilities and/or instruction execution capabilities, and may communicate with other devices in the electronic device 100. Data of the components are processed, and other components in the electronic device 100 can be controlled to perform desired functions.

Storage device 104 may include one or more computer program products, which may include various forms of computer-readable storage media, such as volatile memory and/or non-volatile memory. The volatile memory may include random access memory (RAM) and/or cache memory (cache), etc., for example. Non-volatile memory may include, for example, read-only memory (ROM), hard disk, flash memory, and the like. One or more computer program instructions can be stored on the computer-readable storage medium, and the processor 102 can execute the program instructions to realize the client functions (implemented by the processor) in the following embodiments of the present invention and/or other desired Function. Various application programs and various data, such as various data used and/or generated by the application programs, can also be stored in the computer-readable storage medium.

The input device 106 may be a device used by a user to input instructions, and may include one or more of a keyboard, a mouse, a microphone, a touch screen, and the like.

The output device 108 may output various information (eg, images or sounds) to the outside (eg, a user), and may include one or more of a display, a speaker, and the like.

The image collection device 110 can collect preview video frames or picture data (such as pictures to be recognized or training pictures), and store the collected preview video frames or image data in the storage device 104 for use by other components.

Exemplarily, each device in the example electronic equipment used to implement the shelf scheduling method, device, electronic equipment, and warehouse management system according to the embodiment of the present invention can be integrated or distributed, such as the processor 102, the storage device 104. The input device 106 and the output device 108 are integrated into one body, and the image collection device 110 is set at a designated position where pictures can be collected. When the components in the above-mentioned electronic device are integrated, the electronic device can be realized as an intelligent terminal such as a camera, a smart phone, a tablet computer, a computer, and a vehicle-mounted terminal.

Embodiment two:

This embodiment provides a method for determining the position of a cargo container, and the method is applied to the above-mentioned electronic device; the electronic device is connected to the robot in communication; a plurality of stacking towers are set in the preset warehouse; each stacking tower includes stacking from bottom to top At least one product container is placed; the robot is used to transport the product container from the current location to one of the plurality of stack towers in the warehouse according to the control of the electronic device.

The above-mentioned preset warehouse can specifically be a stacked three-dimensional storage system. At this time, the warehouse can be divided into multiple layers, and each layer has multiple tracks. The robots on the tracks are used to carry the goods containers in the current layer. The cargo containers in each layer can be placed in the form of towers. One or more cargo containers can be stacked from bottom to top in the stacking tower, so the number of cargo containers in the stacking tower can be preset. For example, a station is a special kind of stacking tower, which can be preset to place only one cargo container. The staff is at the station, taking out the items needed for the order from the goods container arriving at the station, and then the robot transports the goods container from the station back to the storage area; usually, a track connects multiple stack towers and multiple stations.

If the goods container is already in a stack tower in the warehouse, the current position of the above goods container can be understood as the stack tower where the goods container is currently located; Other locations other than the tower, such as the entrance of the warehouse, the location of a transit dispatching area, etc.

As shown in Figure 2, the method includes the following steps:

Step S202, based on the received product order, determine the target product container to be processed.

The above-mentioned preset goods orders can be orders sent by users using computers, tablet computers, mobile phones or wearable devices through webpages, shopping apps and other applications; they can also be orders entered manually in large quantities, such as bulk goods orders, etc. ; It can also be an order generated by the control system of the warehouse or workshop to meet the materials or parts required by a certain production link. Goods orders can be historical orders or real-time orders that change at any time. For example, the warehouse management system can collect orders in real time as goods orders.

The number of product orders is often multiple; for example, the warehouse management system can collect orders at regular intervals, for example, multiple orders received by the warehouse management system within a time period of ten minutes or one hour are used as the preset Item order. The above-mentioned target product container can be determined by the product included in the product order, that is, the container (for example, a material box) corresponding to the product included in the product order information is determined as the target product container; specifically, it can be determined according to the product The type of goods determines the corresponding storage container, and each type of goods usually corresponds to one or more storage containers.

It should be noted that the goods mentioned in the present disclosure may include, but not limited to, commodities for sale, materials or parts required in the production process, parcels or express delivery, and the like.

Step S204, according to the preset constraint relationship, determine the target tower of the target product container, so that the total distance for the target product container to visit the site related to the product order from the target tower is the shortest; wherein, the constraint relationship includes: The site related to the order satisfies the preset order processing rules, and the goods that can be provided by the target goods container meet the goods requirements of the goods order.

The aforementioned preset constraint relationship can be set by mathematical methods such as nonlinear equality constraint function, nonlinear inequality constraint function, integer linear programming, machine learning, and deep learning. The above-mentioned target stack can be understood as the stack where the target product container is placed in the goods storage area of the warehouse. The total distance is the shortest when the station is related to the order of goods. Wherein, the site related to the goods order may be a place where goods are manually or automatically picked.

In specific implementation, the above constraints include the order processing rules satisfied by the site related to the product order. The order processing rules can be the quantity of a certain product that a site can produce, the number of orders that can be processed by each site, or the relationship between orders and sites. Allocation rules, etc.; the constraint relationship also includes satisfying the goods that the target goods container can provide to meet the goods demand of the goods order. The quantity of goods that can be held meets the needs of the goods order, etc.

Step S206, determine the final placement position of the target goods container according to the target tower stack, and control the robot to transport the target goods container to the final placement position.

In actual implementation, the final placement position of the target goods can be determined according to the idle state of the target tower; the final placement position can also be determined according to the surrounding environment of the target tower. The operation of the above-mentioned robot can be remotely controlled by the electronic equipment of the warehouse management system. First, the warehouse management system first controls the robot to reach the corresponding position of the target goods container, and after carrying the target goods container, transports the target goods container to the final placement position.

A method for determining the position of a cargo container provided by an embodiment of the present invention firstly determines the target cargo container to be processed based on the received cargo order; then determines the target stack of the target cargo container according to the preset constraint relationship, so that The total distance from the target product container to the site related to the product order is the shortest; the constraint relationship includes: the site related to the product order satisfies the preset order processing rules, and the products that the target product container can provide meet the requirements of the product order. The goods demand of the order; then determine the final placement position of the target goods container according to the target tower pile, and control the robot to transport the target goods container to the final placement position. The placement position of the goods container determined in the above manner can make the overall distance for the robot to transport the goods container to the station shorter, which reduces the overall distance for the robot to carry the target goods container, thereby improving the order production efficiency.

Embodiment three:

This embodiment provides another method for determining the position of a product container, which is implemented on the basis of the above-mentioned embodiments; this embodiment focuses on the specific process of determining the target product container to be processed based on the received product order, according to The target stack determines the specific process of the final placement position of the target cargo container and the specific content of the constraint relationship. As shown in Figure 3, there are multiple product orders, and the method for determining the position of the product container in this embodiment includes the following steps:

Step S302, for multiple product orders, according to the first product type included in each product order and the corresponding product quantity of the first product type, as well as the second product type contained in each product container and the second product type The corresponding quantity of goods determines the target goods container to be processed.

The above-mentioned first product type may be the type of the product required by the product order, and the product order also includes the required quantity of the product. In specific implementation, the type and quantity of goods contained in each goods container can be preset, therefore, it can be determined according to the second goods type contained in each goods container and the quantity of goods corresponding to the type. an item container matching the first item type and item quantity included in the item order, and identifying the container as the target item container, e.g., a item container of the same item type as required by the item order may be selected from the individual item containers As a candidate container, a product container whose quantity of the type of goods is greater than or equal to the quantity of the type of goods required in the product order is selected from the candidate containers, and the product container is determined as the target product container.

Step S304, according to the preset constraint relationship, determine the target tower of the target product container, so that the total distance for the target product container to visit the site related to the product order from the target tower is the shortest; wherein, the constraint relationship includes: The site related to the order satisfies the preset order processing rules, and the goods that can be provided by the target goods container meet the goods requirements of the goods order.

Specifically, the above-mentioned product order includes multiple; the site related to the product order includes multiple; the order processing rules include: each product order is assigned to a site; the number of assigned product orders in each site is less than or equal to the preset threshold.

For each product order, there are multiple sites related to the product order, and the sites may be adjacent to each other or scattered in different areas. The above-mentioned preset threshold is also the upper limit of the quantity of goods orders that each site can receive, and the upper limit can be set according to the user's demand or the production capacity of the site. In actual implementation, each product order can only be produced by one site, but a site can be assigned multiple product orders, and the quantity of product orders assigned to each site needs to be less than or equal to the number of orders that the site can receive upper limit to ensure that the order can be completed normally.

The goods that the above-mentioned target goods container can provide meet the goods demand of the goods order, including: the quantity of the specified goods provided by the target goods container to the target site is greater than or equal to the total amount of the specified goods in the goods order allocated by the target site; the target goods The quantity of the specified goods provided by the container to the target site is less than or equal to the quantity of the specified goods contained in the target goods container.

The above-mentioned specified goods can be the goods required by the goods order, and the target site is the site to which the goods order is assigned. In order to meet the quantity of the specified goods required by the goods order, the quantity of the specified goods supplied by the target container to the target site needs to be greater than or equal to The total quantity of the specified goods required by the goods order, and the quantity of the specified goods contained in the target goods container needs to be greater than or equal to the quantity of the specified goods provided by the target container to the target site.

In specific implementation, each stack tower includes at least one position; the above constraint relationship also includes: the target goods container is placed in a position in the warehouse; each position in the warehouse can place at most one target goods container; if the target goods container is placed At the specified position in the target stacking tower, the position below the specified position in the target stacking tower is placed with a cargo container; wherein, multiple stacking towers are preset in the warehouse; each stacking tower includes multiple positions stacked from bottom to top .

The above-mentioned warehouse usually includes a plurality of goods storage areas, and a plurality of goods containers are placed in the goods storage areas. There are multiple tower stacks preset in the warehouse, and each tower stack includes multiple layers stacked from bottom to top, each layer has at least one position, and each position can place at most one target cargo container, that is, each position Only one item container can be placed.

Usually, each stack tower includes at least one position; if the target stack tower only includes one position, the target cargo container should be placed on this position of the target stack tower; if the target stack tower includes multiple positions; the multiple positions are from bottom to top Arranged in multiple layers, each layer has a position; the designated position of the target tower stack can be any position in the designated tower stack; usually, if the cargo container is placed on the designated push tower, the cargo container is usually placed on the designated tower The upper layer of the current highest layer of the stack is placed on the top layer of the specified stack; at this time, cargo containers are placed on the positions corresponding to the layers below the specified position of the specified stack. For example, a stack consists of There are 5 floors from bottom to top. There must be goods containers placed on the next floor of the highest floor, and goods containers must be placed on the next floor of the second highest floor until the next floor of the fourth highest floor. There must be a product container placed on the position of the layer.

Step S306, judging the state of the target tower; if the target tower is in an idle state, determine the target tower as the final placement position of the target goods container; The position is determined as the final placement position of the target goods container.

The above-mentioned idle state can refer to the position where there is no cargo container on the target stack, that is, the number of stacked cargo containers in the target stack does not reach the preset maximum value; There are other cargo containers placed on each floor, that is, the number of cargo containers stacked in the target stack has reached the maximum; when the target tower stack is occupied, it is necessary to find other stacks that are closest to the target tower stack near the target tower stack Tower, if the number of goods containers stacked in other towers does not reach the preset maximum, it means that the tower has an idle position, and the idle position in the tower can be determined as the final placement position , so that the distance to transport the target cargo container can be reduced.

Step S308, controlling the robot to transport the target goods container to the final placement position.

In the above method, the constraints corresponding to the demand in the actual production process are fully considered, and under the constraints, the total moving distance of the target product container from the target tower to the site related to the product order is reduced as much as possible, thereby optimizing the warehouse Productivity.

Embodiment four:

This embodiment provides another method for determining the position of the cargo container, which is implemented on the basis of the above-mentioned embodiments; this embodiment focuses on determining the target tower pile of the target cargo container according to the preset constraint relationship, so that the target The specific process that the total distance of the goods container from the target stack to the station related to the goods order is the shortest. As shown in Figure 4, the method for determining the position of the goods container in this embodiment includes the following steps:

Step S402, based on the received product order, determine the target product container to be processed.

Step S404, setting the shortest total distance for the above-mentioned target goods container to visit the station related to the goods order from the target tower stack as the objective function.

In actual implementation, since the target product container has been determined, and the site related to the product order has also been determined, multiple candidate positions can be obtained by permutation and combination; then, according to certain rules, each candidate position can be calculated and obtained The total distance between the selected location and the site related to the goods order; the total distance of the above-mentioned target goods container visiting the site related to the goods order from the target tower is the shortest, and the constraint relationship can be established by mathematical methods to make the total distance the shortest. The above objective function may be the functional relationship between the total distance of the target goods container from the target tower to visit the station related to the goods order and the warehouse goods container information, pending order information, station information and scheduling distance information. Simply put, it is the function obtained after solving. Before solving, the function is unknown. According to the preset idea, the known condition information is used to solve the functional relationship of the unknown quantity, which is the objective function.

In step S406, the integer linear programming process is performed through the above-mentioned objective function and constraint relationship to obtain the target stack of the target cargo container.

It can be known from the above embodiments that the constraint relationship can be set by mathematical methods such as nonlinear equality constraint function, nonlinear inequality constraint function, integer linear programming, machine learning, and deep learning. In this embodiment, the constraint relationship includes integer linear programming. The above-mentioned integer linear programming may mean that the variables (all or part) in the planning are limited to integers, and in the linear model, the variables are limited to integers. In this embodiment, the warehouse information can be converted into variables in the planning, the warehouse information includes information of multiple orders to be processed, product container information, site information related to the product order, warehouse road information, etc., all or Partially restricted to integers, the problem is modeled as an integer programming problem.

In specific implementation, the above objective functions may include:

min∑ _{i, j, k, s} dist _{s, j, k} *v _{i, j, k, s} ;

In this objective function, dist _{s, j, k} represent the distance from the target product container i located on the kth floor of the jth tower stack to the target site s related to the product order; v _{i, j, k, s} represent According to the goods order, should go to the position of the kth floor of the jth tower to pick up the target goods container i, if v _{i, j, k, s} = 1, if not, v _{i, j, k, s} = 0.

The above-mentioned objective function can represent the shortest total distance from the target product container determined based on the product order to the site related to the product order from the position of the target product container. Under the requirements of site busyness and multiple locations for one product (the container corresponding to the same type of product is placed in multiple positions), the total distance between the location of the target product container and the site related to the product order is the shortest. In theory, this integer is linear An optimal solution can be found for programming problems.

The above constraints include:

Wherein, x _{i, i, k} represent whether the target cargo container i is located at the position of the kth floor of the jth tower stack, if yes, x _{i, j, k} =1, if not, x _{i, j, k} =0 ; If the target product container is located in the jth tower pile, then the target product container i is placed on the position of the k'th layer below the kth layer of the jth tower pile; y _{o, s} indicates whether the product order o is in the target Site s is producing, if yes, y _{o, s} = 1, if not, y _{o, s} = 0; T _s represents the maximum quantity of goods ordered by target site s; z _{i, s, g} represents the target The quantity of the specified product g provided by the product container i to the target site s; req _{o, g} represents the quantity of the specified product g required for the product order; has _{i, g} represents the quantity of the specified product g contained in the target product container i; U is A preset positive number; w _{i, s} indicates whether the target product container i should go to the target site s, if yes, w _{i, s} = 1, if not, w _{i, s} = 0; stands for any.

The above constraint relationship, formula (1) can be understood as placing each target product container at a position in the warehouse stack, or it can also be understood as if x _{i, i, k} = 1, the target product container i is placed at the jth on the position of the kth floor of the tower stack.

The above formula (2) limits that at most one target product container can be placed in each position.

According to the above formula (3), there are multiple tower piles (also can be called stations) preset in the preset warehouse, and each tower pile includes multiple layers stacked from bottom to top, each layer has at least one position, and each position There is at most one target product container, that is, only one product container can be placed in each position; if the target product container is placed in the specified position (for example, the kth floor) in the target stack (for example, the j-th tower pile) , the position below the specified position in the target stack (for example, the k′th floor of the jth tower stack) is placed with a cargo container.

The above formula (4) limits that a product order can only be assigned to one site for production.

The above formula (5) defines that the quantity of goods orders allocated in each site is less than or equal to a preset threshold, and the preset threshold is the maximum value T _s of the quantity of goods orders allocated in the target site s.

The above formula (6) limits the goods that the target goods container can provide to meet the goods demand of the goods order, that is, the quantity of the specified goods provided by the target goods container to the target site is greater than or equal to the target site’s assigned goods order. The total amount of the specified item.

The above formula (7) limits that the quantity of the specified goods provided by the target goods container to the target site is less than or equal to the quantity of the specified goods contained in the target goods container.

In the above formula (8), U can be a very large positive number, therefore, is a very small positive number close to 0, for example, 0.001; in formula (8), if the total amount of specified goods g required by the target product container i at the target site s is less than 1, then w _i,s = 1, otherwise , w _i,s =0.

In the above formula (9), if v _{i, j, k, s} v _{i, j, k, s v i, j, k , s} ≤ x _{i, j, k ,} v _{i, j, k, s} ≤ w _{i, s} , v _{i, j, k, s} ≥ x _{i, j, k} + w _{i, s} -1 v_(i, j, k, s) ≤ x_(i, j, k), v_(i, j , k, s)≤w_(i, s), v_(i, j, k, s)≥x_(i, j, k)+w_(i, s)-1v _{i, j, k, s} The value is less than or equal to the value of x _{i, j, k} , the value of v _{i, j, k, s} is less than or equal to the value of w _{i, s} , and the value of v _{i, j, k, s} is less than or It is equal to the value of x _{i, j, k} plus the value of w _{i, s} minus 1, then the target tower pile corresponding to the target cargo container i is the position of the kth floor of the jth tower pile.

Step S408, determine the final placement position of the target goods container according to the above target tower stack, and control the robot to transport the target goods container to the final placement position.

By solving the above integer linear programming problem (that is, the above formulas 1-9), a feasible target stack of target cargo containers can be obtained to maximize warehouse efficiency. In actual implementation, this method can also be used for off-line optimization, that is, to optimize the position of each cargo container at night or after the operation is completed, so as to facilitate the delivery of the robot to the target container in the next day's operation.

In the above method, under the requirements of satisfying the demand for goods required by the goods order and the busyness of the site, the shortest total distance between the position of the target goods container and the site related to the goods order is taken as the objective function, and based on the objective function and the constraint relationship, Integer linear programming is performed to obtain the target stack corresponding to the target cargo container. This method models the order demand and the actual production situation of the warehouse, converts the problem into a positive linear programming problem, and parameterizes the model, which can be dynamically adjusted according to the on-site demand of the warehouse, so that it is beneficial to obtain the best solution according to the actual demand. Optimal target tower stack, thereby improving order production efficiency.

Embodiment five:

Corresponding to the above-mentioned method embodiment, refer to the schematic structural diagram of a device for determining the position of a cargo container shown in FIG. ; Each stacking tower includes at least one cargo container stacked from bottom to top; the robot is used to transport the cargo container from the current position to a stacking tower in a plurality of stacking towers in the warehouse according to electronic control; the device includes:

The goods container determination module 50 is configured to determine the target goods container to be processed based on the received goods order.

The target tower determination module 51 is used to determine the target tower of the target cargo container according to the preset constraint relationship, so that the total distance for the target cargo container to visit the site related to the cargo order from the target tower is the shortest; wherein, the constraint The relationship includes: the site related to the goods order satisfies the preset order processing rules, and the goods that can be provided by the target goods container meet the goods requirements of the goods order.

The transport module 52 is configured to determine the final placement position of the target cargo container according to the target tower stack, and control the robot to transport the target cargo container to the final placement position.

Specifically, the above-mentioned goods orders include multiple; the sites related to the goods orders include multiple; the order processing rules include: each goods order is assigned to a site; the number of goods orders assigned in each site is less than or equal to preset threshold.

The goods that the above-mentioned target goods container can provide meet the goods demand of the goods order, including: the quantity of the specified goods provided by the target goods container to the target site is greater than or equal to the total amount of the specified goods in the goods order allocated by the target site; the target goods The quantity of the specified goods provided by the container to the target site is less than or equal to the quantity of the specified goods contained in the target goods container.

Specifically, each stacking tower includes at least one position; the above constraint relationship also includes: the target goods container is placed in a position in the warehouse; each position in the warehouse can place at most one target goods container; if the target goods container is placed in the target The specified position in the stack tower, and the position below the specified position in the target stack tower is placed with a cargo container.

Further, the above-mentioned target tower determination module 51 is used to: set the shortest total distance of the target goods container from the target tower to visit the site related to the goods order as the objective function; carry out integer linear programming through the objective function and the constraint relationship Process to obtain the target stack of the target cargo container.

Specifically, the above objective functions include: min∑ _{i, j, k, s} dist _{s, j, k} *v _{i, j, k, s} ;

The above constraints include:

Among them, dist _{s, j, k} represent the distance from the target product container i located on the kth floor of the jth tower stack to the target site s related to the product order; v _{i, j, k, s} represent the distance according to the product order , whether to go to the position of the kth floor of the jth tower to pick up the target product container i, if v _{i, j, k, s} = 1, if not, v _{i, j, k, s} = 0; x _{i, j, k} represent whether the target goods container i is located at the position of the kth floor of the jth tower pile, if yes, x _{i, j, k} = 1, if not, x _{i, j, k} = 0; if the target The goods container is located in the j-th tower pile, then the target goods container i is placed on the position of the k'th floor below the k-th floor of the j-th tower pile; y _{o, s} indicates whether the goods order o is carried out at the target site s Production, if yes, y _{o, s} = 1, if not, y _{o, s} = 0; T _s represents the maximum quantity of the goods ordered by the target site s; z _{i, s, g} represents the target goods container i The quantity of the specified item g provided to the target site s; req _{o, g} indicates the quantity of the specified item g required for the item order; has _{i, g} indicates the quantity of the specified item g contained in the target item container i; U is the default Normal number; w _{i, s} indicates whether the target product container i should go to the target site s, if yes, w _{i, s} = 1, if not, w _{i, s} = 0; stands for any.

Further, the above-mentioned delivery module 52 is used to: if the target tower pile is in an idle state, determine the target tower pile as the final placement position of the target cargo container; , determined as the final placement position of the target product container.

Further, the above-mentioned goods order includes multiple goods; the above-mentioned goods container determination module 50 is used for: according to the first goods category included in each goods order and the quantity of goods corresponding to the first goods category, and the number of goods contained in each goods container The second type of goods and the quantity of goods corresponding to the second type of goods determine the target goods container to be processed.

The above-mentioned device for determining the position of the goods container first determines the target goods container to be processed based on the received goods order; then determines the target tower pile of the target goods container according to the preset constraint relationship, so that the target goods container can be moved from the target tower pile The total distance to visit the site related to the product order is the shortest; the constraint relationship includes: the site related to the product order meets the preset order processing rules, and the products that the target product container can provide meet the product requirements of the product order; then according to The target tower pile determines the final placement position of the target cargo container, and the robot is controlled to transport the target cargo container to the final placement position. The placement position of the goods container determined in the above manner can make the overall distance for the robot to transport the goods container to the station shorter, which reduces the overall distance for the robot to carry the target goods container, thereby improving the order production efficiency.

Embodiment six:

An embodiment of the present invention provides an electronic device, which includes: a processor and a storage device; a computer program is stored on the storage device, and when the computer program is run by the processor, the above-mentioned method for determining the position of the goods container is executed.

Those skilled in the art can clearly understand that for the convenience and brevity of the description, the specific working process of the electronic device described above can refer to the corresponding process in the foregoing method embodiment, which will not be repeated here.

The embodiment of the present invention also provides a machine-readable storage medium, the machine-readable storage medium stores machine-executable instructions, and when the machine-executable instructions are called and executed by a processor, the machine-executable instructions prompt the processor to To realize the method for determining the position of the above-mentioned cargo container, the specific implementation may refer to the method embodiment, and details will not be repeated here.

Those skilled in the art can clearly understand that for the convenience and brevity of description, the specific working process of the above-described devices and/or devices can refer to the corresponding process in the foregoing method embodiments, and details are not repeated here.

Embodiment seven:

The embodiment of the present invention provides a warehouse management system, as shown in FIG. 6, the system includes a robot 60 and the above-mentioned electronic device 100; the electronic device 100 is connected to the robot 60 in communication; the electronic device 100 is used to control the robot 60 to target The goods container is transported to the final placement location.

Those skilled in the art can clearly understand that, for the convenience and brevity of the description, the specific working process of the warehouse management system described above can refer to the corresponding process in the foregoing method embodiments, which will not be repeated here.

If the functions described above are realized in the form of software function units and sold or used as independent products, they can be stored in a computer-readable storage medium. Based on this understanding, the essence of the technical solution of the present invention or the part that contributes to the prior art or the part of the technical solution can be embodied in the form of a software product, and the computer software product is stored in a storage medium, including Several instructions are used to make a computer device (which may be a personal computer, a server, or a network device, etc.) execute all or part of the steps of the methods described in various embodiments of the present invention. The aforementioned storage medium includes: U disk, mobile hard disk, read-only memory (ROM, Read-Only Memory), random access memory (RAM, Random Access Memory), magnetic disk or optical disk and other media that can store program codes. .

Finally, it should be noted that: the above-described embodiments are only specific implementations of the present invention, used to illustrate the technical solutions of the present invention, rather than limiting them, and the scope of protection of the present invention is not limited thereto, although referring to the foregoing The embodiment has described the present invention in detail, and those of ordinary skill in the art should understand that any person familiar with the technical field can still modify the technical solutions described in the foregoing embodiments within the technical scope disclosed in the present invention Changes can be easily thought of, or equivalent replacements are made to some of the technical features; and these modifications, changes or replacements do not make the essence of the corresponding technical solutions deviate from the spirit and scope of the technical solutions of the embodiments of the present invention, and should be included in the scope of the present invention within the scope of protection. Therefore, the protection scope of the present invention should be based on the protection scope of the claims.

Claims (11)

1. A method for determining the position of a container of goods, characterized in that the method is applied to an electronic device; the electronic equipment is in communication connection with the robot; a plurality of stacking towers are arranged in the preset warehouse; each of the stack towers includes at least one article container placed in a stack from bottom to top; the robot is used for conveying the goods containers from the current position to one of the plurality of stacking towers in the warehouse according to the control of the electronic equipment; the method comprises the following steps:

Determining a target goods container to be processed based on the received goods order;

determining a target layer position of a target tower of the target goods container according to a preset constraint relation, so that the total distance of the target goods container from the target layer position of the target tower to a site related to the goods order is the shortest; wherein the constraint relationship comprises: the sites related to the goods orders meet preset order processing rules, and the goods which can be provided by the target goods containers meet the goods requirements of the goods orders; the order processing rule includes: each item order is assigned to a site;

and determining the final placement position of the target goods container according to the target layer position of the target stacking tower, and controlling the robot to convey the target goods container to the final placement position.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the goods that the target goods container is capable of providing satisfy the goods requirements of the goods order, comprising:

the number of the specified goods provided by the target goods container to the target site is larger than or equal to the total quantity of the specified goods in the goods orders distributed by the target site;

The number of the specified goods provided to the target site by the target goods container is smaller than or equal to the number of the specified goods contained in the target goods container.

3. The method of claim 1 or 2, wherein each of the stack towers comprises at least one location; the constraint relationship further includes:

the target article container is placed in one location in the warehouse;

at most one of the target article containers is placed at each location in the warehouse;

if the target article container is placed at a specified position in the target stacker, the article container is placed at a position below the specified position in the target stacker.

4. A method according to any one of claims 1-3, characterized by the step of determining a target stacker for the target article container according to a preset constraint relationship so as to minimize the total distance the target article container accesses from the target stacker to a site associated with the article order, comprising:

setting a shortest total distance from the target goods container to a site related to the goods order from the target stacker as a target function;

and carrying out integer linear programming processing through the objective function and the constraint relation to obtain a target stacking tower of the target goods container.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the step of determining the position of the first electrode is performed,

the objective function includes: min sigma _{i，j，k，s} dist _s，j，k *v _{i，j，k，s} ；

The constraint relation includes:

v _{i，j，k，s} ≤x _i，j，k ，v _{i，j，k，s} ≤w _i，s ，

wherein dist _s，j，k Representing a distance from the target item container i located at a position of a kth tier of the jth tower stack to a target site s associated with the item order; v _{i，j，k，s} Indicating whether the target item should be fetched to a position of a kth tier of a jth tower according to the item order _Product(s) Container i, if v _{i，j，k，s} =1, if no, v _{i，j，k，s} ＝0；x _i，j，k Indicating whether the target article container i is located at the position of the kth layer of the jth tower stack, and if so, x _i，j，k =1, if no, x _i，j，k =0; if the target article container is located in the j-th tower, the target article container i is placed at a position of a k' th layer below a k-th layer of the j-th tower; y is _o，s Indicating whether the goods order o is being produced at the destination site s, if so, y _o，s =1, if no, y _o，s ＝0；T _s A maximum value representing the quantity of the item order to which the target site s is assigned; z _i，s，g Representing the number of specified items g provided by the target item container i to the target site s; req _o，g Representing the quantity of the specified item g required for the item order; has (has) _i，g Representing the number of the specified items g contained in the target item container i; u is a preset positive number; w (w) _i，s Indicating whether the target article container i should be supplied to the target site s, if so, w _i，s =1, if no, w _i，s ＝0；Representing any one ofMeaning.

6. The method of any of claims 1-5, wherein the item order comprises a plurality of;

the step of determining a target article container to be processed based on the received article order includes:

and determining a target goods container to be processed according to the first goods category and the goods quantity corresponding to the first goods category and the second goods category and the goods quantity corresponding to the second goods category contained in each goods container.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the item order comprises a plurality of; the sites associated with the item orders include a plurality of sites; the order processing rule includes:

each of the item orders is assigned to a site;

the number of item orders allocated in each of the sites is less than or equal to a preset threshold.

8. A position determining apparatus of a goods container, characterized in that the apparatus is provided to an electronic device; the electronic equipment is in communication connection with the robot; a plurality of stacking towers are arranged in the preset warehouse; each of the stack towers includes at least one article container placed in a stack from bottom to top; the robot is used for conveying the goods containers from the current position to one of the plurality of stacking towers in the warehouse according to the electronic control; the device comprises:

The goods container determining module is used for determining a target goods container to be processed based on the received goods order;

the target tower pile determining module is used for determining the target layer position of the target tower pile of the target goods container according to a preset constraint relation so as to enable the total distance of the target goods container accessing the site related to the goods order from the target layer position of the target tower pile to be the shortest; wherein the constraint relationship comprises: the sites related to the goods orders meet preset order processing rules, and the goods which can be provided by the target goods containers meet the goods requirements of the goods orders; the order processing rule includes: each item order is assigned to a site;

and the conveying module is used for determining the final placement position of the target goods container according to the target layer position of the target tower stack and controlling the robot to convey the target goods container to the final placement position.

9. An electronic device, the electronic device comprising: a processor and a storage device;

the storage device has stored thereon a computer program which, when executed by the processor, performs the method of determining the location of an item container as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 7.

10. A warehouse management system, characterized in that the system comprises a robot and the electronic device of claim 9; the electronic equipment is in communication connection with the robot;

the electronic device is configured to control the robot to transport the target article container to a final placement location.

11. A machine-readable storage medium storing machine-executable instructions which, when invoked and executed by a processor, cause the processor to implement the method of determining the location of an item container of any one of claims 1 to 7.