Transfer robot, warehouse logistics system and article transferring method

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12312173-B2
Application number	US-202117357434-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 24, 2021
Priority date	Dec 25, 2018
Publication date	May 27, 2025
Grant date	May 27, 2025

Abstract

A transferring robot is disclosed in the disclosure. The transferring robot includes a movable chassis configured to move along a path among adjacent warehouse storage containers; a temporary storage shelf provided on the movable chassis, the temporary storage shelf being configured to store a target case; a fetching assembly provided on the movable chassis, the fetching assembly being configured to extend or retract horizontally relative to the movable chassis, so as to realize fetching and placing of the target case between the storage containers and the temporary storage shelf, where a direction along which the fetching assembly extends or retracts horizontally is perpendicular to a moving direction. A warehousing and logistics system includes the foregoing transferring robot. The disclosure further discloses a warehousing system and an item transferring method.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A transferring robot comprising:
a movable chassis configured to move along a path among adjacent warehouse storage containers;
a temporary storage shelf provided on the movable chassis, the temporary storage shelf being configured to store a target case;
a lifting adjustment assembly provided on the movable chassis;
a telescoping adjustment assembly provided on the lifting adjustment assembly and connected to a fetching assembly, the telescoping adjustment assembly being configured to drive the fetching assembly to extend or retract horizontally, and the lifting adjustment assembly being configured to drive the telescoping adjustment assembly and the fetching assembly to move up or down vertically; and
the fetching assembly configured to extend or retract horizontally relative to the movable chassis, so as to realize fetching and placing of the target case between the storage containers and the temporary storage shelf, wherein a direction along which the fetching assembly extends or retracts horizontally is perpendicular to a direction along which the movable chassis moves,
wherein the fetching assembly comprises:
two extending arms, each extending arm being connected with one telescoping adjustment assembly;
levers, wherein both ends of each extending arm are connected to the levers, at least one of the levers is in a rotatable manner, and a rotation axis of the at least one of the levers is parallel to a length direction of one extending arm; and
lever driving assemblies, each lever driving assembly being provided on one extending arm for driving the at least one of the levers to rotate to be perpendicular to each other.

2. The transferring robot according to claim 1 , wherein the two extending arms are parallel and oppositely provided on two sides of the temporary storage shelf.

3. The transferring robot according to claim 2 , wherein the temporary storage shelf comprises a temporary storage plate, the temporary storage plate is connected with the lifting adjustment assembly and moves up and down through the lifting adjustment assembly, and up and down of the temporary storage plate is synchronized with up and down of the telescoping adjustment assembly.

4. The transferring robot according to claim 2 , wherein the temporary storage shelf comprises a plurality of temporary storage plates arranged at intervals along a vertical direction, and each temporary storage plate is provided with an opening for avoiding the telescoping adjustment assembly.

5. The transferring robot according to claim 1 , wherein the lever driving assembly is connected to a lever transmission shaft, and the lever transmission shaft is connected to the lever.

6. The transferring robot according to claim 5 , wherein at least one of two ends of the lever transmission shaft is connected with the lever.

7. The transferring robot according to claim 6 , wherein in a case that both ends of the lever transmission shaft are respectively connected with the lever, the levers located at both ends of a same lever transmission shaft are perpendicular to each other.

8. The transferring robot according to claim 7 , wherein extending or retracting of the telescoping plates relative to the connecting plates is synchronized with extending or retracting of the extending arms relative to the connecting plates.

9. The transferring robot according to claim 1 , wherein at least one of two ends of each extending arm is provided with detection sensors for detecting a location of the target case.

10. The transferring robot according to claim 7 , wherein the detection sensors are further configured for scanning edges of the target case at two sides of the target case in turn during movement of the transferring robot along the path; the transferring robot further comprises a calculation unit and a control unit; the calculation unit is configured for recording a position X1 of the transferring robot once the detection sensor scans an edge of the target case for the first time, and a position X2 of the transferring robot once the detection sensor scans an edge of the target case for the second time; and for calculating a center position of the target case as (X2−X1)/2; and the control unit is configured for controlling the transferring robot to move to the center position (X2−X1)/2.

11. The transferring robot according to claim 1 , wherein the telescoping adjustment assembly comprises:
connecting plates connected with the lifting adjustment assembly; and
telescoping plates configured to extend or retract along the connecting plates, wherein the extending arms are configured to extend or retract along the telescoping plates.

12. The transferring robot according to claim 1 , wherein the temporary storage shelf are provided with a plurality of case storage areas along a vertical direction, and each case storage area is provided with a case detection device for detecting whether the target case is present in the corresponding case storage area.

13. A warehousing system comprising the transferring robot according to claim 1 , and a warehouse storage container for storing the target case.

14. The system according to claim 13 , wherein the transferring robot is provided with a detection sensor configured for detecting a location of the target case;
the transferring robot is configured for moving along the path, and scanning edges of the target case at two sides of the target case in turn through the detection sensor during movement of the transferring robot;
recording a position X1 of the transferring robot once the detection sensor scans an edge of the target case for the first time, and recording a position X2 of the transferring robot once the detection sensor scans an edge of the target case for the second time;
calculating a center position of the target case as (X2−X1)/2;
the transferring robot is configured for moving to the center position (X2−X1)/2; and
extending the fetching assembly of the transferring robot and fetching the target case to the temporary storage shelf when the fetching assembly rises to a height where the target case is located.

15. A transferring robot comprising:
a movable chassis provided with a robot controller, and a stacking mechanism provided on the movable chassis, wherein:
the stacking mechanism comprises a temporary storage shelf and a transmission component, the transmission component is provided on the temporary storage shelf and is configured to move along a vertical direction of the temporary storage shelf under control of the robot controller;
the movable chassis provided with a robot controller is configured to move to a transferring position of at least one target case according to a received item transferring instruction; and
the robot controller is configured to control the transmission component to move up and down along the vertical direction of the temporary storage shelf, fetch the at least one target case, and place the fetched target case onto the temporary storage shelf.

16. The transferring robot according to claim 15 , wherein the robot controller is further configured to adjust a height of the transmission component to be adapted for the target case before fetching the at least one target case.

17. The transferring robot according to claim 16 , wherein the transmission component comprises:
a lifting adjustment assembly provided on the temporary storage shelf, wherein the lifting adjustment assembly moves along the vertical direction of the temporary storage shelf under control of the robot controller; and
a telescoping adjustment assembly fixed

Assignees

• Beijing Geekplus Tech Co Ltd

Inventors

• Liu Kai
• Sun Langlang
• Tang Yan
• Wang Kun
• Xiao Yuhui
• Liu Xiang

Classifications

• B66F9/183

  Coplanar side clamps · CPC title

• B66F9/122

  longitudinally movable · CPC title

• B66F9/0755

  Position control; Position detectors · CPC title

• B66F9/063

  Automatically guided · CPC title

• B65G1/0421

  with control for stacker crane operations · CPC title