Management method, device and system applied to goods-to-person system, server and computer storage medium

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11724879-B2
Application number	US-201915734213-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	May 30, 2019
Priority date	Jun 1, 2018
Publication date	Aug 15, 2023
Grant date	Aug 15, 2023

Abstract

A management method applied to the goods-to-person system includes: in response to a task of putting products on shelves, calculating popularity of a product to be put on shelf according to historical sales order data of the product to be put on shelf, and matching the popularity of the product to be put on shelf with popularity of a shelf to determine a shelf area; selecting a goods location with space randomly in the determined shelf area, Wherein the goods location is used for storing the product to be put on shelf; and controlling a mobile robot to transport a shelf where the goods location is located to a work station.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A management method applied to a goods-to-person system, wherein the goods-to-person system comprises a plurality of shelves each comprising a plurality of goods locations, wherein the plurality of goods locations in each shelf is capable of storing different types of items,
wherein the method comprises:
in response to a shelving task, calculating a popularity level of an item to be shelved according to historical sales order data of the item to be shelved, and matching the popularity level of the item to be shelved with a shelf popularity level to determine, shelves each with a shelf popularity level corresponding to the popularity level of the item to be shelved, wherein the shelves each with the shelf popularity level corresponding to the popularity level of the item to be shelved form a shelf area;
selecting randomly a goods location with space among the shelves in the shelf area, wherein the goods location is used for storing the item to be shelved;
controlling a mobile robot to transport a shelf with the selected goods location with space to a work station to allow an operator to put the item to be shelved on the goods location in the shelf with the selected goods location with space;
wherein the method further comprises:
partitioning the shelves in the shelf area, according to work locations in the goods-to-person system, into a plurality of logical partitions, wherein each work location belongs to one logical partition;
allocating each shelf in the shelf area into a logical partition closest to the each shelf; wherein inventory items of one type are dispersedly stored on a plurality of shelves in different logical partitions.

2. The method according to claim 1 , wherein a quantity of inventory items of one type stored on one of the plurality of shelves is less than or equal to a preset minimum storage value, and the minimum storage value is k=max(m1, m2, n/2*w), wherein w is a quantity of sorting work locations in the work station, n is a total storage number of inventory items, m1 is a maximum number of inventory items in item order lines of an order structure, and m2 is a daily sales volume of inventory items.

3. The method according to claim 1 , wherein said selecting randomly a goods location with space in the shelves in the shelf area, comprises:
weighting a volume matching factor and a weight matching factor of the item to be shelved to obtain a matching degree, sorting the goods locations based on matching degree, and selecting the goods location with space based on a priority of selecting a goods location with higher matching degree being greater than a priority of selecting a goods location with lower matching degree; wherein the volume matching factor is determined by calculating a quantity of items to be shelved that is allowed to be placed on each shelf according to lengths, widths and heights of the items to be shelved, and the weight matching factor is determined by calculating a floor height of a shelf where items to be shelved should be placed according to a density of the items to be shelved.

4. The method according to claim 1 , further comprising:
adjusting positions of shelves in the shelf area in response to meeting a shelf adjustment condition.

5. The method according to claim 4 , wherein said adjusting positions of shelves in the shelf area in response to meeting a shelf adjustment condition, comprises:
determining shelf popularity levels and location popularity levels corresponding to at least some shelves in a warehouse according to a preset period, and saving them in a shelf information table;
in response to meeting the shelf adjustment condition, querying whether there is at least one candidate shelf in the shelf information table when a shelf popularity level of a current shelf is greater than a location popularity level corresponding to the current shelf; wherein a shelf popularity level corresponding to the candidate shelf is less than a location popularity level corresponding to the candidate shelf;
in response to at least one candidate shelf in the shelf information table being found, determining a target shelf which will exchange locations with the current shelf in the at least one candidate shelf;
controlling the robot to transport the current shelf to a location where the target shelf is located and then transport the target shelf to a location where the current shelf is located.

6. The method according to claim 5 , wherein said determining a target shelf which will exchange locations with the current shelf in the at least one candidate shelf, comprises:
judging whether there is at least one target shelf in the at least one candidate shelf; wherein the location popularity level corresponding to the target shelf is greater than the location popularity level corresponding to the current shelf, and the shelf popularity level corresponding to the target shelf is less than the shelf popularity level corresponding to the current shelf;
when there is at least one target shelf in the at least one candidate shelf, determining a target shelf which will exchange locations with the current shelf in the at least one target shelf.

7. The method according to claim 5 , wherein the shelf adjustment condition comprises: before a shelf needs to be returned from a location of any work station in the warehouse to a location of the shelf, or when a shelf is idle.

8. The method according to claim 5 , wherein determining location popularity levels corresponding to at least some shelves in a warehouse according to a preset period, comprises:
for any one of at least some shelves in the warehouse, calculating an average value of optimal paths from the location of the shelf to each work station according to the location of the shelf and the location of each work station in the warehouse;
determining the location popularity levels corresponding to at least some shelves in the warehouse according to the average value of optimal paths from the location of the shelf to each work station; wherein the smaller the average value of optimal paths, the greater the location popularity level corresponding to the shelf.

9. The method according to claim 5 , wherein said determining shelf popularity levels corresponding to at least some shelves in a warehouse according to a preset period, comprises:
for any one of at least some shelves in the warehouse, calculating a shelf score of the shelf according to a sales impact factor corresponding to the shelf;
determining the shelf popularity levels corresponding to at least some shelves in the warehouse according to the shelf score of the shelf, wherein the smaller the shelf score, the greater the shelf popularity level corresponding to the shelf.

10. The method according to claim 9 , wherein said that calculating a shelf score of the shelf according to a sales impact factor corresponding to the shelf, comprises:
calculating predicted sales volume of items on the shelf according to sales volume impact factors corresponding to the items on the shelf and weights corresponding to the sales volume impact factors; wherein the sales volume impact factors comprise at least one of: order pool factor, historical sales volume factor, historical shelving factor, inventory factor and designated sales volume factor;
calculating the shelf score of the shelf according to the predicted sales volume of items on the shelf, a total inventory of the warehouse, and a quantity of items on the shelf.

11. The method according to claim 1 , further comprising:
generating an order task according to orders to be processed in response to an order processing task, assigning the order task to a work station, selecting a shelf for the order tas

Assignees

• Beijing Geekplus Tech Co Ltd

Inventors

• Liu Kai
• Wang Haoyu
• Wu Xun
• Sun Kai

Classifications

• G05D1/0217

  in accordance with energy consumption, time reduction or distance reduction criteria · CPC title

• G06Q10/08

  Logistics, e.g. warehousing, loading or distribution; Inventory or stock management · CPC title

• B65G1/1375 Primary

  the orders being assembled on a commissioning stacker-crane or truck · CPC title

• B60S9/14

  for both lifting and manoeuvring · CPC title

• G06F16/245

  Query processing · CPC title