Material handling method and device, server, and handling robot

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12280996-B2
Application number	US-202117381133-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jul 20, 2021
Priority date	Jul 24, 2020
Publication date	Apr 22, 2025
Grant date	Apr 22, 2025

Abstract

The present disclosure provides a material handling method and device, a server and a handling robot. The material handling method provided by the present embodiment includes: acquiring position information and idle storage unit information of a robot; and allocating a second handling task to the robot according to the position information, the idle storage unit information and a position of a first target included in a first handling task; where one of the first handling task and the second handling task is a material fetching task, and the other is a returning task. Thus, a handling strategy can be set flexibly, and fetching materials while returning is implemented during a material handling process, the handling efficiency of the materials is improved effectively.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A material handling method, comprising:
acquiring position information and idle storage unit information of a robot, by a processor; and
allocating a second handling task to the robot according to the position information, the idle storage unit information and a position of a first target comprised in a first handling task, by the processor; wherein the first handling task is a material fetching task, and the second handling task is a returning task;
when a return position in the second handling task is a position of an idle storage site, the allocating the second handling task to the robot comprises:
generating a material fetching path according to the position information and a position of the first target comprised in the first handling task, by the processor; and determining positions corresponding to U idle storage sites whose distances from the material fetching path are within a first preset range as return positions of a second target, by the processor; wherein U is a natural number greater than 0; and/or
determining, according to the position information, positions corresponding to U idle storage sites whose distances from the robot are within a second preset range as return positions of the second target; wherein U is a natural number greater than 0, by the processor.

2. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the second handling task is allocated at any time point before, during, or after the first handling task is executed.

3. The method according to claim 1 , wherein a change of a total quantity of the idle storage units for the robot to execute the first handling task is estimated, and the second handling task is inserted selectively before, during or after the first handling task.

4. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the return position of the second target comprises any one of the following:
an initial storage position of the second target, a position of the idle storage site, and the position of the first target.

5. The method according to claim 1 , wherein before the allocating the second handling task to the robot, the method further comprises:
determining whether a planned path corresponding to the second handling task complies with a reservation requirement; wherein the reservation requirement comprises that no robot travels on the planned path within a preset period of time.

6. The method according to claim 5 , further comprising:
reallocating the second handling task if the planned path does not comply with the reservation requirement,
receiving a handling task cancellation request or a new handling task addition request sent by a client terminal; and
reallocating the second handling task according to the handling task cancellation request or the new handling task addition request.

7. The method according to claim 1 , wherein when the first handling task and the second handling task are allocated, any one or more of the following constraints to generate the planned path corresponding to the first handling task and the second handling task are considered:
total movement time for the robot to complete the material fetching task and the returning task;
a total number of times of material fetching operations and return operations performed by the robot when completing the material fetching task and the returning task;
a total travel distance for the robot to complete the material fetching task and the returning task; and
a load rate of the robot when completing the material fetching task and the returning task.

8. The method according to claim 1 , wherein when a shelf for placing materials has two or more storage positions in a shelf depth direction, and a position of a target indicated by the material fetching task or the returning task is a second sequential position of storage positions or a position thereafter, the method further comprises:
instructing the robot to handle a non-target material that is placed before the position of the target to an idle storage unit of the robot;
instructing the robot to execute the material fetching task or the returning task for the position of the target; and
instructing the robot to return the non-target material to an original storage position on the shelf, or return the non-target material to an idle storage position; wherein the idle storage position and the position of the target belong to the same shelf or different shelves.

9. The method according to claim 1 , further comprising:
allocating a tally task to the robot, wherein the tally task comprises: performing material sorting on the first target or the second target, and/or adjusting a storage position of the first target or the second target; wherein:
execution timing of the tally task comprises any one of the following situations:
before the first handling task and the second handling task;
between the first handling task and the second handling task;
after the first handling task and the second handling task; and
during an execution process of any task in a task sequence constituted by the first handling task and the second handling task.

10. A material handling method, comprising:
acquiring a handling task sequence to execute a first handling task, by a processor; and
executing a second handling task during an execution process of the first handling task, by the processor, wherein the first handling task is a material fetching task and the second handling task is a returning task;
wherein the second handling task is obtained during the execution process of the first handling task, or the acquired handling task sequence comprises the first handling task and the second handling task;
when a return position of a second target corresponding to the second handling task is a position of an idle storage site, the return position of the second target is selected from acquired positions corresponding to U idle storage sites from the second handling task;
wherein distances between the positions corresponding to the U idle storage sites and a robot material fetching path are within a first preset range; and/or distances between the positions corresponding to the U idle storage sites and the robot are within a second preset range; wherein U is a natural number greater than 0; and the material fetching path is generated according to position information of the robot and a position of the first target comprised in the first handling task, by the processor.

11. The method according to claim 10 , further comprising:
reporting, by a robot, at least one of position information of the robot and idle storage unit information to a server periodically or aperiodically; and/or
reporting, by a robot, at least one of position information of the robot and idle storage unit information to the server when receiving a request indication from a server.

12. The method according to claim 11 , wherein the executing the second handling task during the execution process of the first handling task comprises:
acquiring a position of a first target from the first handling task, and acquiring a return position of a second target from the second handling task;
reaching the return position of the second target to execute the returning task, during travelling to the position of the first target; and
travelling to the position of the first target to execute the material fetching task.

13. The method according to claim 12 , wherein the return position of the second target in the second handling task comprises any one of the following:
an initial storage position of the second target; or
a position of an idle storage site; or
the position of the first target.

14. The method acco

Assignees

• Hai Robotics Co Ltd

Inventors

• Ai Xin
• Chen Yeguang
• Zhou Shaokai

Classifications

• G06Q10/087

  Inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling, procurement or balancing against orders · CPC title

• G06Q10/06316

  Sequencing of tasks or work · CPC title

• B66F9/0755

  Position control; Position detectors · CPC title

• B65G1/1373

  for fulfilling orders in warehouses · CPC title

• B25J9/1664

  characterised by motion, path, trajectory planning · CPC title