Automatic generation of load design

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11550968-B2
Application number	US-202016777498-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jan 30, 2020
Priority date	Jan 30, 2019
Publication date	Jan 10, 2023
Grant date	Jan 10, 2023

Abstract

A system including one or more processors and one or more non-transitory computer-readable media storing computing instructions configured to run on the one or more processors and perform certain acts. The acts can include obtaining a route for delivering one or more orders in a trailer from a distribution center to physical stores in a sequence of stops. The route can have an associated assignment of stack groups comprising stacks of pallets. The acts also can include determining a load design for the stacks in the trailer based on the sequence of the stops in the route. The acts additionally can include updating the load design using a first simulated annealing to adjust a front-to-rear center-of-gravity of the load design. The acts further can include updating the load design using a second simulated annealing to adjust a side-to-side center-of-gravity of the load design. The acts additionally can include outputting the load design, as updated by the first simulated annealing and the second simulated annealing. The load design can specify a respective floor spot assignment for each of the stacks. Other embodiments are described.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A system comprising:
one or more processors; and
one or more non-transitory computer-readable media storing computing instructions configured to run on the one or more processors and perform:
obtaining a route for delivering one or more orders in a trailer from a distribution center to physical stores in a sequence of stops, the route having an associated assignment of stack groups comprising stacks of pallets;
determining a load design for the stacks in the trailer based on the sequence of the stops in the route;
updating the load design using a first simulated annealing to adjust a front-to-rear center-of-gravity of the load design, wherein the first simulated annealing uses a first neighborhood defined by separate rows within a delivery group;
updating the load design using a second simulated annealing to adjust a side-to-side center-of-gravity of the load design; and
outputting the load design, as updated by the first simulated annealing and the second simulated annealing to cause the stacks to be loaded in the trailer according to the load design for delivery to the physical stores in the sequence of stops, wherein the load design specifies a respective floor spot assignment for each of the stacks.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein determining the load design for the stacks in the trailer further comprises:
when the trailer is a dry trailer, determining the load design such that the load design enables unloading each of the stacks a single time when the trailer delivers the orders to the physical stores.

3. The system of claim 1 , wherein determining the load design for the stacks in the trailer further comprises:
when the trailer is a tri-temp trailer, determining the load design such that unloading each of the stacks is minimized when the trailer delivers the orders to the physical stores.

4. The system of claim 1 , wherein updating the load design using the first simulated annealing to adjust the front-to-rear center-of-gravity of the load design further comprises:
minimizing a distance between the front-to-rear center-of-gravity of the load design and an optimal front-to-rear center-of-gravity for the trailer.

5. The system of claim 1 , wherein the first simulated annealing involves a series of iterations and a set of swaps within the first neighborhood at each of the iterations.

6. The system of claim 5 , wherein the series of the iterations ends when one of:
an improvement at an iteration over an immediately previous iteration is smaller than a predetermined convergence threshold; or
a quantity of the iterations meets a predetermined iteration limit.

7. The system of claim 1 , wherein updating the load design using the second simulated annealing to adjust the side-to-side center-of-gravity of the load design further comprises:
minimizing a distance between the side-to-side center-of-gravity of the load design and an optimal side-to-side center-of-gravity for the trailer.

8. The system of claim 1 , wherein the second simulated annealing uses a second neighborhood defined by a same row.

9. The system of claim 8 , wherein the second simulated annealing involves a series of iteration and a set of swaps within the second neighborhood at each of the iterations.

10. The system of claim 1 , wherein updating the load design using the first simulated annealing to adjust the front-to-rear center-of-gravity of the load design further comprises:
minimizing a distance between the front-to-rear center-of-gravity of the load design and an optimal front-to-rear center-of-gravity for the trailer.

11. The system of claim 1 , wherein:
determining the load design for the stacks in the trailer further comprises:
when the trailer is a tri-temp trailer, determining the load design such that unloading each of the stacks is minimized when the trailer delivers the orders to the physical stores; and

wherein the second simulated annealing uses a second neighborhood defined by a same row.

12. A method being implemented via execution of computing instructions configured to run at one or more processors and stored at one or more non-transitory computer-readable media, the method comprising:
obtaining a route for delivering one or more orders in a trailer from a distribution center to physical stores in a sequence of stops, the route having an associated assignment of stack groups comprising stacks of pallets;
determining a load design for the stacks in the trailer based on the sequence of the stops in the route;
updating the load design using a first simulated annealing to adjust a front-to-rear center-of-gravity of the load design, wherein the first simulated annealing uses a first neighborhood defined by separate rows within a delivery group;
updating the load design using a second simulated annealing to adjust a side-to-side center-of-gravity of the load design; and
outputting the load design, as updated by the first simulated annealing and the second simulated annealing to cause the stacks to be loaded in the trailer according to the load design for delivery to the physical stores in the sequence of stops, wherein the load design specifies a respective floor spot assignment for each of the stacks.

13. The method of claim 12 , wherein determining the load design for the stacks in the trailer further comprises:
when the trailer is a dry trailer, determining the load design such that the load design enables unloading each of the stacks a single time when the trailer delivers the orders to the physical stores.

14. The method of claim 12 , wherein determining the load design for the stacks in the trailer further comprises:
when the trailer is a tri-temp trailer, determining the load design such that unloading each of the stacks is minimized when the trailer delivers the orders to the physical stores.

15. The method of claim 12 , wherein the first simulated annealing involves a series of iterations and a set of swaps within the first neighborhood at each of the iterations.

16. The method of claim 15 , wherein the series of the iterations ends when one of:
an improvement at an iteration over an immediately previous iteration is smaller than a predetermined convergence threshold; or
a quantity of the iterations meets a predetermined iteration limit.

17. The method of claim 12 , wherein updating the load design using the second simulated annealing to adjust the side-to-side center-of-gravity of the load design further comprises:
minimizing a distance between the side-to-side center-of-gravity of the load design and an optimal side-to-side center-of-gravity for the trailer.

18. The method of claim 12 , wherein the second simulated annealing uses a second neighborhood defined by a same row.

19. The method of claim 18 , wherein the second simulated annealing involves a series of iteration and a set of swaps within the second neighborhood at each of the iterations.

20. The method of claim 12 , wherein:
determining the load design for the stacks in the trailer further comprises:
when the trailer is a tri-temp trailer, determining the load design such that unloading each of the stacks is minimized when the trailer delivers the orders to the physical stores; and

wherein the second simulated annealing uses a second neighborhood defined by a same row.

Assignees

• Walmart Apollo Llc

Inventors

• Huang Jing
• Liu Minghui
• Fu Mingang
• Nayak Amritayan

Classifications

• G06F30/17 Primary

  Mechanical parametric or variational design · CPC title

• G06F30/15 Primary

  Vehicle, aircraft or watercraft design · CPC title

• G06F30/20

  Design optimisation, verification or simulation (optimisation, verification or simulation of circuit designs G06F30/30) · CPC title

• G06F17/18

  for evaluating statistical data {, e.g. average values, frequency distributions, probability functions, regression analysis (forecasting specially adapted for a specific administrative, business or logistic context G06Q10/04)} · CPC title

• G06F2111/06

  Multi-objective optimisation, e.g. Pareto optimisation using simulated annealing [SA], ant colony algorithms or genetic algorithms [GA] · CPC title