Automatic generation of incremental load design with stacks of pallets

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11829688-B2
Application number	US-202117161538-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jan 28, 2021
Priority date	Jan 30, 2019
Publication date	Nov 28, 2023
Grant date	Nov 28, 2023

Abstract

A system including one or more processors and one or more non-transitory computer-readable media storing computing instructions that, when executed on the one or more processors, perform certain acts. The acts can include obtaining information about a trailer that has been partially loaded with preloaded stacks in a manner that deviates from an original load design. The trailer is being loaded with stacks of pallets comprising the preloaded stacks and unloaded stacks. The acts also can include determining positions of empty floor spots remaining in the trailer. The acts additionally can include determining a first portion of an incremental load design for the unloaded stacks using a gap-filling pattern behind an uneven rear edge of the preloaded stacks. The acts further can include determining a second portion of the incremental load design. The acts additionally can include updating the incremental load design based on an overall load design of the trailer. The acts further can include outputting at least the incremental load design, as updated. The incremental load design can specify a respective floor spot assignment for each of the unloaded 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 that, when executed on the one or more processors, perform:
obtaining information about a trailer that has been partially loaded with preloaded stacks in a manner that deviates from an original load design, wherein the trailer is being loaded with stacks of pallets comprising (i) the preloaded stacks that have already been loaded in the trailer and (ii) unloaded stacks that have not yet been loaded into the trailer;
determining positions of empty floor spots remaining in the trailer;
determining a first portion of an incremental load design for the unloaded stacks using a gap-filling pattern behind an uneven rear edge of the preloaded stacks in the trailer, wherein determining the first portion of the incremental load design further comprises:
determining a gap size at the uneven rear edge of the preloaded stacks;
determining an orientation of an extending stack at the uneven rear edge;
determining a quantity of the unloaded stacks; and
selecting the gap-filling pattern from among a predetermined set of gap-filling patterns based at least in part on the gap size, the orientation of the extending stack, and the quantity of the unloaded stacks;

determining a second portion of the incremental load design;
updating the incremental load design based on an overall load design of the trailer using a first simulated annealing using a first neighborhood defined by separate rows within a delivery group that does not include the preloaded stacks; and
outputting at least the incremental load design, as updated, to cause the unloaded stacks to be loaded in the trailer according to the incremental load design while the preloaded stacks remain in the trailer, wherein the incremental load design specifies a respective floor spot assignment for each of the unloaded stacks.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein determining the positions of the empty floor spots remaining in the trailer further comprises:
when the trailer is a tri-temp trailer, determining potential assignments of the unloaded stacks to compartments of the trailer to minimize unloading of the stacks when the trailer delivers the stacks to physical stores.

3. The system of claim 1 , wherein a quantity of the gap-filling patterns in the predetermined set of the gap-filling patterns is twelve.

4. The system of claim 1 , wherein determining the first portion of the incremental load design further comprises:
adding first stacks of the unloaded stacks to the first portion of the incremental load design based on the gap-filling pattern.

5. The system of claim 1 , wherein determining the second portion of the incremental load design further comprises:
adding second stacks of the unloaded stacks to the second portion of the incremental load design using a rules-based assignment pattern.

6. The system of claim 5 , wherein the rules-based assignment pattern is based on a ranking of weights of the second stacks from lightest to heaviest.

7. The system of claim 1 , wherein updating the incremental load design further comprises:
using the first simulated annealing to adjust a front-to-rear center-of-gravity of the overall load design while maintaining positions of the preloaded stacks.

8. The system of claim 1 , wherein updating the incremental load design further comprises:
using a second simulated annealing to adjust a side-to-side center-of-gravity of the overall load design while maintaining positions of the preloaded stacks.

9. The system of claim 1 , wherein updating the incremental load design further comprises:
using the first simulated annealing to adjust a front-to-rear center-of-gravity of the overall load design while maintaining positions of the preloaded stacks; and
using a second simulated annealing to adjust a side-to-side center-of-gravity of the overall load design while maintaining positions of the preloaded stacks.

10. The system of claim 1 , wherein:
determining the first portion of the incremental load design further comprises:
adding first stacks of the unloaded stacks to the first portion of the incremental load design based on the gap-filling pattern; and

determining the second portion of the incremental load design further comprises:
adding second stacks of the unloaded stacks to the second portion of the incremental load design using a rules-based assignment pattern.

11. A method implemented via execution of computing instructions at one or more processors, the method comprising:
obtaining information about a trailer that has been partially loaded with preloaded stacks in a manner that deviates from an original load design, wherein the trailer is being loaded with stacks of pallets comprising (i) the preloaded stacks that have already been loaded in the trailer and (ii) unloaded stacks that have not yet been loaded into the trailer;
determining positions of empty floor spots remaining in the trailer;
determining a first portion of an incremental load design for the unloaded stacks using a gap-filling pattern behind an uneven rear edge of the preloaded stacks in the trailer, wherein determining the first portion of the incremental load design further comprises:
determining a gap size at the uneven rear edge of the preloaded stacks;
determining an orientation of an extending stack at the uneven rear edge;
determining a quantity of the unloaded stacks; and
selecting the gap-filling pattern from among a predetermined set of gap-filling patterns based at least in part on the gap size, the orientation of the extending stack, and the quantity of the unloaded stacks;

determining a second portion of the incremental load design;
updating the incremental load design based on an overall load design of the trailer using a first simulated annealing using a first neighborhood defined by separate rows within a delivery group that does not include the preloaded stacks; and
outputting at least the incremental load design, as updated, to cause the unloaded stacks to be loaded in the trailer according to the incremental load design while the preloaded stacks remain in the trailer, wherein the incremental load design specifies a respective floor spot assignment for each of the unloaded stacks.

12. The method of claim 11 , wherein determining the positions of the empty floor spots remaining in the trailer further comprises:
when the trailer is a tri-temp trailer, determining potential assignments of the unloaded stacks to compartments of the trailer to minimize unloading of the stacks when the trailer delivers the stacks to physical stores.

13. The method of claim 11 , wherein a quantity of the gap-filling patterns in the predetermined set of the gap-filling patterns is twelve.

14. The method of claim 11 , wherein determining the first portion of the incremental load design further comprises:
adding first stacks of the unloaded stacks to the first portion of the incremental load design based on the gap-filling pattern.

15. The method of claim 11 , wherein determining the second portion of the incremental load design further comprises:
adding second stacks of the unloaded stacks to the second portion of the incremental load design using a rules-based assignment pattern.

16. The method of claim 15 , wherein the rules-based assignment pattern is based on a ranking of weights of the second stacks from lightest to heaviest.

17. The method of claim 11 , wherein updating the incremental load design further comprises:
using the first simu

Assignees

• Walmart Apollo Llc

Inventors

• Liu Minghui
• Huang Jing
• Fu Mingang

Classifications

• G06F30/15 Primary

  Vehicle, aircraft or watercraft design · CPC title

• G06F2111/06

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

• G06F2111/08

  Probabilistic or stochastic CAD · CPC title

• G06F2113/20

  Packaging, e.g. boxes or containers · CPC title

• G06F30/20

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