230 can rotate around the vertical direction as an axis to adjust an orientation, to be aligned with the storage unit or aligned with the rack and/or the material. The goods retrieving and placing apparatus 230 is configured to load or unload the material, to transport the material between the rack and the storage unit.

The foregoing material is usually stored in a container. Therefore, when the robot transports the material, the robot transports the container. When a container is bounded out, the robot transports the container from a rack in the warehouse onto a work table, to bound out the container on the work table.

In the related technology, during outbound, a plurality of containers may be continuously bounded out. Specifically, the robot may be assigned to a plurality of containers in order, so that the robot bound outs these containers in order.

However, the foregoing outbound solution is simple, and consequently cannot satisfy an outbound requirement in a complicated service scenario.

To resolve the foregoing problem, based on the embodiments of this application, an outbound requirement in a complicated service scenario may be divided into an outbound sequence and an outbound group, where each outbound sequence includes at least one outbound group, and each outbound group includes at least one outbound container. Therefore, the outbound container may be bounded out through the outbound sequence and the outbound group, and the outbound requirement in the complicated service scenario may be satisfied.

The foregoing complicated service scenario may be a scenario in which a material is divided according to at least two dimensions. For example, the material may be a costume, and the costume may be divided according to such two dimensions as color and size. Therefore, one size may correspond to one outbound group, and the group includes costumes in the size sorted according to colors. Then, outbound groups corresponding to a plurality of sizes may form one outbound sequence. For example, one outbound sequence is obtained in order of a smallest size, a medium size, and a large size. In this way, it may be convenient for a user to store costumes directly according to the outbound sequence, and the costumes are not required to be organized and then stored according to colors and sizes, thereby reducing operating complexity of the user. The user may be usually a costume vendor.

The following describes the technical solutions of the embodiments of this application and how to resolve the foregoing technical problems according to the technical solutions of this application in detail by using specific embodiments. The following specific embodiments may be combined with each other, and the same or similar concepts or processes may not be described in some embodiments. The following describes the embodiments of this application with reference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart of specific steps of an outbound method according to an embodiment of this application. Referring to FIG. 4, the method may include:

S201: determining at least one outbound sequence, where the outbound sequence includes at least one outbound group, and the outbound group includes at least one outbound container.

The outbound sequence and the outbound group may be determined according to an outbound requirement. In some embodiments, each outbound sequence includes at least one outbound group, and each outbound group includes at least one outbound container.

S202: assigning a transporting task of the outbound container to a robot according to the at least one outbound sequence.

Specifically, for one outbound group, a transporting task of a first outbound container L1 may be first assigned to one robot A, and then transporting tasks of several outbound containers after L1 in the outbound group may be assigned to the robot A according to the number of containers that the robot can transport.

Definitely, when the number of containers assigned to this robot A reaches the number of containers that the robot can be transported, a transporting task of a next outbound container L2 in the group may be assigned to a robot B, and transporting tasks of several outbound containers after L2 in the outbound group are assigned to the robot B, until transporting tasks of outbound containers in the outbound group are all assigned.

A transporting task refers to a task of transporting an outbound container from a rack in a warehouse to a work table, and the work table is configured to bound out the outbound container. One outbound container corresponds to one transporting task, one transporting task is executed by one robot, and one robot may execute one or more transporting tasks.

When at least two outbound sequences exist, transporting tasks between the foregoing different outbound sequences may be assigned in series or in parallel, and the parallel assignment may reduce the time length for assigning the transporting tasks, thereby reducing the outbound time length.

For example, for two outbound sequences Q1 and Q2, Q1 includes two outbound groups G1 and G2, Q2 includes three outbound groups G3, G4, and G5, G1 includes two outbound containers B1 and B2, G2 includes three outbound containers B3, B4, and B5, G3 includes one outbound container B6, G4 includes two outbound containers B7 and B8, and G5 includes four outbound containers B9 to B12.

For the foregoing outbound containers B1 to B12, because B1 to B5 are containers in the outbound sequence Q1, and B6 to B12 are containers in the outbound sequence Q2, transporting tasks may be assigned to B1 to B5 and B6 to B12 in parallel. That is to say, when transporting tasks are assigned to B1 to B5, transporting task may be assigned to B6 to B12.

In addition, each of the foregoing outbound sequences may correspond to one target outbound strategy, where the target outbound strategy may indicate an outbound order of outbound containers in the outbound sequence as any order, and the target outbound strategy may further indicate an outbound order of outbound groups in the outbound sequence, and/or an outbound order of outbound containers in each outbound group.

To ensure the foregoing outbound order, transporting tasks of outbound containers in one outbound sequence are also assigned one by one according to the outbound order, and a transporting task is preferentially assigned to an outbound container that is first bounded out. That is to say, a transporting task of at least one outbound container in each outbound sequence is assigned to the robot according to a target outbound strategy corresponding to each outbound sequence.

For ease of description, an outbound order of outbound groups that is indicated by the target outbound strategy is referred to as a first outbound order, and an outbound order that is of outbound containers in an outbound group and that is indicated by the target outbound strategy is referred to as a second outbound order.

A process of assigning a transporting task according to the target outbound strategy is described below in detail.

When the target outbound strategy indicates the first outbound order and the second outbound order, the transporting task of the at least one outbound container in the outbound sequence may be assigned to the robot according to the first outbound order and the second outbound order.

When a transporting task is assigned to the foregoing outbound sequence according to the first outbound order and the second outbound order, an order of outbound groups in the outbound sequence is first determined according to the first outbound order; then, for each outbound group, an order of outbound containers in the outbound group is determined according to the second outbound order of the outbound groups; then, an order of at least one outbound container in the outbound sequence is determined according to the order of the outbound groups and the order of the outbound containers in each outbound group; and finally, transporting tasks are assigned one by one to the robot according to the order of the at least one outbound container in the outbound sequence.

Usually, a transporting task may be assigned successfully to each outbound container in the outbound sequence according to the first outbound order and the second outbound order. However, because of impact of various factors, a transporting task may be assigned unsuccessfully. For example, an aisle in which one outbound container is located is filled with robots that are performing transporting tasks. Therefore, a transporting task cannot be assigned anymore to the outbound container, and the transporting task is assigned unsuccessfully. In another example, all robots have been assigned or are abnormal. Therefore, no robot may be assigned, and the transporting task is assigned unsuccessfully.

When the target outbound strategy indicates the first outbound order and the second outbound order, that is to say, the outbound requirement indicates an outbound order of outbound groups and an outbound order of outbound containers in an outbound group, in a process of assigning, according to the first outbound order and the second outbound order, the transporting task of each outbound container in the outbound sequence to the robot, if a transporting task of any outbound container in the outbound sequence is assigned unsuccessfully, the transporting task of each outbound container in the outbound sequence is stopped from being assigned to the robot. In this way, when the assignment is unsuccessful, continuing assigning transporting tasks of other outbound containers may be avoided, thereby avoiding inconsistency between an actual outbound order and an outbound order indicated by the target outbound strategy.

Outbound containers that are stopped from being assigned include: outbound containers in a first outbound group in which the outbound containers to which assignment is unsuccessful are located, and outbound containers to which assignment is not performed in an outbound group. For example, for the outbound sequence Q1, the first outbound order is G1 and G2, the second outbound order of G1 is B1 and B2, and the second outbound order of G2 is B3, B4, and B5. If a transporting task is assigned to B2 unsuccessfully, transporting tasks of B3, B4, and B5 are stopped from being assigned to the robot.

When the target outbound strategy indicates the first outbound order but does not indicate the second outbound order, transporting tasks are assigned to outbound groups in the outbound sequence according to the first outbound order, and transporting tasks may be assigned to outbound containers in each outbound group in any order. To avoid omitting an outbound container in an outbound group, one default order may be determined for outbound containers in the outbound group. That is to say, the transporting task of the at least one outbound container in the outbound sequence may be assigned to the robot according to the first outbound order and an intra-group default strategy, where the intra-group default strategy is used for determining, according to information about each outbound container included in the outbound group, an outbound order of the at least one outbound container.

The information about the outbound container includes at least one of the following: a transporting distance of the outbound container, a weight of the outbound container, and a size of the outbound container.

The foregoing transporting distance refers to a distance between a location of the outbound container on a rack and the work table. That is to say, only after the outbound container is transported from the rack to the work table, the robot can perform outbound.

In this embodiment of the present disclosure, a transporting task may be preferentially assigned to an outbound container with a small transporting distance, or a transporting task may be preferentially assigned to an outbound container with a large transporting distance.

For a weight of the foregoing outbound container, a transporting task may be preferentially assigned to an outbound container with a small weight, or a transporting task may be preferentially assigned to an outbound container with a large weight.

For a size of the foregoing outbound container, a transporting task may be preferentially assigned to an outbound container with a small size, or a transporting task may be preferentially assigned to an outbound container with a large size.

Definitely, at least two factors of the transporting distance, the weight, and the size may be further combined to determine an assignment order of transporting tasks of outbound containers in each outbound group. Specifically, one score may be determined for each outbound container according to at least two factors of the transporting distance, the weight, and the size, to perform sorting according to the score to obtain an assignment order of transporting tasks. For example, the score may be obtained by calculation through the following formula:

[Image Omitted]

- where SCR2 is a score of each outbound container, D, H, and S are a transporting distance, a weight, and a size respectively, and p_21, p_22, and p_23 are weighing coefficients of the transporting distance, the weight, and the size respectively.

In actual application, a weighing coefficient in the foregoing formula may be adjusted, to adjust a relationship between the corresponding factor and an assignment order. For example, p_21, p_22, and p_23 may be set to positive numbers, and transporting tasks are assigned to outbound containers in ascending order of SCR2. In this way, a transporting task may be preferentially assigned to an outbound container whose transporting distance, weight, and size are all small.

When a transporting task is assigned to the foregoing outbound sequence according to the first outbound order and the intra-group default strategy, an order of outbound groups in the outbound sequence is first determined according to the first outbound order; then, for each outbound group, an order of outbound containers in the outbound group is determined according to the intra-group default strategy; then, an order of at least one outbound container in the outbound sequence is determined according to the order of the outbound groups and the order of the outbound containers in each outbound group; and finally, transporting tasks are assigned one by one to the robot according to the order of the at least one outbound container in the outbound sequence.

Usually, a transporting task may be assigned successfully to each outbound container in the outbound sequence according to the first outbound order and the intra-group default strategy. However, because of impact of various factors, a transporting task may be assigned unsuccessfully.

When the target outbound strategy indicates the first outbound order but does not indicate the second outbound order, that is to say, the outbound requirement does not indicate an outbound order of outbound containers in an outbound group, in a process of assigning, according to the first outbound order and the intra-group default strategy, the transporting task of the at least one outbound container in the outbound sequence to the robot, if a transporting task of a first outbound container in the outbound sequence is assigned unsuccessfully, outbound may be performed through the following two policies.

In a first strategy, all outbound containers in the outbound sequence are stopped from being assigned to the robot. For example, when outbound containers in one outbound group are required to be bounded out together, this strategy is used.

In a second strategy, a transporting task of an outbound container in an outbound group other than a first outbound group is stopped from being assigned to the robot, and a transporting task of an outbound container in the first outbound group other than the first outbound container is assigned to the robot, where the first outbound group is an outbound group in which the first outbound container is located. For example, when outbound containers in one outbound group are not required to be bounded out together, this strategy is used.

The stopping assigning the outbound container in the outbound group other than the first outbound group to the robot may avoid inconsistency between an actual outbound order of the outbound groups and an outbound order indicated by the target outbound strategy, and the assigning the outbound container in the first outbound group other than the first outbound container to the robot may increase an assignment success rate of transporting tasks.

For example, for the outbound sequence Q1, the first outbound order is G1 and G2, it is determined according to the intra-group default strategy that the second outbound order of G1 is B2 and B1, and it is determined according to the intra-group default strategy that the second outbound order of G2 is B4, B3, and B5. If a transporting task is assigned to B2 unsuccessfully, transporting tasks of B4, B3, and B5 in G2 are stopped from being assigned to the robot, and a transporting task of B1 in G1 continues to be assigned.

When the target outbound strategy indicates the second outbound order but does not indicate the first outbound order, transporting tasks may be assigned through two policies.

In a first strategy, transporting tasks may be assigned to outbound groups in the outbound sequence in any order, and transporting tasks may be assigned to outbound containers in each outbound group according to the second outbound order. To avoid omitting an outbound group, one default order may be determined for the outbound groups. That is to say, the transporting task of the at least one outbound container in the outbound sequence may be assigned to the robot according to an inter-group default strategy and the second outbound order, where the inter-group default strategy is used for determining, according to information about each outbound group included in the outbound sequence, an outbound order of the at least one outbound group.

The information about the outbound group includes at least one of the following: the number of the outbound containers included in the outbound groups, and the number of aisles in which the outbound containers included in the outbound groups are located.

For the number of the outbound containers, a transporting task may be preferentially assigned to an outbound group in which the number is small, or a transporting task may be preferentially assigned to an outbound group in which the number is large.

For the number of aisles in which the outbound containers are located, a transporting task may be preferentially assigned to an outbound group in which the number of aisles is small, or a transporting task may be preferentially assigned to an outbound group in which the number of aisles is large.

Definitely, the number of outbound containers and the number of aisles may be further combined to determine an assignment order of transporting tasks of outbound groups. Specifically, one score may be determined for each outbound group according to the number of outbound containers and the number of aisles, to perform sorting according to the score to obtain an assignment order of transporting tasks. For example, the score may be obtained by calculation through the following formula:

SCR1=p_11· [Image Omitted] NUM_1+p_12·NUM_2)

- where SCR1 is a score of each outbound group, NUM_1 and NUM_2 are the number of outbound containers and the number of aisles respectively, and p_11 and p_12 are weighing coefficients of the number of outbound containers and the number of aisles respectively.

In actual application, a weighing coefficient in the foregoing formula may be adjusted, to adjust a relationship between the corresponding factor and an assignment order. For example, p_11 and p_12 may be set to positive numbers, and transporting tasks are assigned to outbound groups in ascending order of SCR1. In this way, a transporting task may be preferentially assigned to an outbound group in which the number of outbound containers and the number of aisles are both small.

When a transporting task is assigned to the foregoing outbound sequence according to the second outbound order and the inter-group default strategy, an order of outbound groups in the outbound sequence is first determined according to the inter-group default strategy; then, for each outbound group, an order of outbound containers in the outbound group is determined according to the second outbound order of the outbound groups; then, an order of at least one outbound container in the outbound sequence is determined according to the order of the outbound groups and the order of the outbound containers in each outbound group; and finally, transporting tasks are assigned one by one according to the order of the at least one outbound container in the outbound sequence.

Usually, a transporting task may be assigned successfully to each outbound container in the outbound sequence according to the second outbound order and the inter-group default strategy. However, because of impact of various factors, a transporting task may be assigned unsuccessfully.

In a second strategy, outbound containers of a plurality of outbound groups may be alternately assigned while ensuring the second outbound order. For example, assuming that the outbound sequence Q1 includes two outbound groups G1 and G2, G1 includes two outbound containers B1 and B2, and G2 includes three outbound containers B3, B4 and B5, transporting tasks may be assigned in the following order: B1, B3, B4, B2, and B5.

The foregoing alternate assignment may be understood as inserting an outbound container in one outbound group G1 before or after an outbound container that is associated with the outbound container and that is in another outbound group, to assign a transporting task. Two associated outbound containers may include at least one of the following: two outbound containers in close storage locations on a rack, and two outbound containers in the same type.

When the target outbound strategy indicates the second outbound order but does not indicate the first outbound order, that is to say, the outbound requirement does not indicate an outbound order of outbound groups, in a process of assigning, according to the inter-group default strategy and the second outbound order, the transporting task of the at least one outbound container in the outbound sequence to the robot, if a transporting task of a first outbound container in the outbound sequence is assigned unsuccessfully, transporting tasks of other outbound containers in a first outbound group in which the first outbound container is located are stopped from being assigned to the robot, and a transporting task of each outbound container in a second outbound group is assigned to the robot, where the second outbound group is an outbound group in the outbound sequence other than the first outbound group.

The stopping assigning the transporting tasks of the other outbound containers in the first outbound group in which the first outbound container is located to the robot may avoid inconsistency between an actual outbound order of outbound containers in the outbound group and an order indicated by the target outbound strategy. In addition, the assigning the transporting task of each outbound container in the second outbound group to the robot may increase an assignment success rate of transporting tasks.

For example, for the outbound sequence Q1, an outbound order determined according to the inter-group default strategy is G2 and G1, the second outbound order of G1 is B1 and B2, and the second outbound order of G2 is B3, B4, and B5. If a transporting task is assigned to B1 unsuccessfully, a transporting task of B2 in G1 is stopped from being assigned to the robot, but transporting tasks of B3, B4, and B5 in G2 are assigned to the robot.

When the target outbound strategy does not indicate the first outbound order and the second outbound order, transporting tasks may be assigned through two policies.

In a first strategy, for all outbound containers in the outbound sequence, an assignment order of transporting tasks of all the outbound containers in the outbound sequence may be determined according to a distance between two outbound containers, a priority of each outbound container, and an aisle in which each outbound container is located, to assign the transporting tasks. For example, transporting tasks are continuously assigned to outbound containers between which a distance is short, or transporting tasks are assigned to outbound containers one by one in order of priorities, or transporting tasks are continuously assigned to outbound containers on racks in the same aisle.

In a second strategy, a transporting task may be assigned to at least one outbound container in the outbound sequence in any order. In this embodiment of the present disclosure, to avoid omitting an outbound container when a transporting task is assigned, the transporting task of the at least one outbound container in the outbound sequence may be assigned to the robot according to the inter-group default strategy and the intra-group default strategy.

It may be understood that according to the inter-group default strategy and the intra-group default strategy, one default outbound order is determined for at least one outbound container, to assign a transporting task to the at least one outbound container according to the default outbound order.

In addition, when the target outbound strategy does not indicate the first outbound order and the second outbound order, that is to say, the outbound requirement does not indicate an outbound order of outbound groups and an outbound order of outbound containers in an outbound group, in a process of assigning, according to the inter-group default strategy and the intra-group default strategy, the transporting task of the at least one outbound container in the outbound sequence to the robot, if a transporting task of one outbound container is assigned unsuccessfully, outbound may be performed through the following two policies.

In a first strategy, transporting tasks of other outbound containers in a first outbound group may be stopped from being assigned to the robot, and transporting tasks of outbound containers in other outbound groups are assigned to the robot. The first outbound group is an outbound group in which outbound containers to which assignment is unsuccessful are located.

In a second strategy, transporting tasks of other outbound containers in the outbound sequence to which no transporting task is assigned may continue to be assigned, where the transporting tasks include transporting tasks of the following outbound containers: other outbound containers in a first outbound group and outbound containers in other outbound groups. In this way, an assignment success rate of transporting tasks may be increased.

For example, the outbound sequence Q1 includes outbound groups G1 and G2, G1 includes outbound containers B1 and B2, and G2 includes outbound containers B3, B4, and B5. Because the first outbound order and the second outbound order do not exist, an outbound order may be determined according to the inter-group default strategy and the intra-group default strategy, to obtain: B5, B4, B3, B1, and B2. If a transporting task is assigned to B4 unsuccessfully, transporting tasks of B3, B1, and B2 continue to be assigned to the robot.

In addition, to further increase an assignment success rate of transporting tasks, each time a transporting task is assigned to one outbound sequence, outbound containers assigned unsuccessfully previously may be assigned again.

S203: carrying out the outbound operation of the at least one outbound container according to a task execution state of the transporting task and the at least one outbound sequence.

The task execution state may include a plurality of states, for example, a state in which the robot walks, a state in which the robot picks out an outbound container, and a state in which the robot reaches the work table. The state in which the robot walks may include a state of walking when no container is picked out, and a state of walking when a container is picked out, and the reaching the work table indicates that the robot has transported an outbound container into a preset range around the work table.

In this embodiment of the present disclosure, any outbound container is referred to as a second outbound container. An outbound group in which the second outbound container is located is referred to as a second outbound group. An outbound container that is in the first outbound order and that is included in a third outbound group located before the second outbound group and/or an outbound container that is in the second outbound order corresponding to the second outbound group and that is located before the second outbound container is referred to as a third outbound container.

Therefore, when a task execution state of a transporting task of the second outbound container is that the second outbound container is picked out, it is required to determine, according to a task execution state of a transporting task of the third outbound container, that the robot of the second outbound container waits or continues to execute the transporting task of the second outbound container, to ensure that the second outbound container is bounded out after the third outbound container.

Optionally, a task execution state of a transporting task of the third outbound container may be obtained when the robot picks out the second outbound container, to determine that the robot of the second outbound container waits or continues to execute the transporting task of the second outbound container. The state of picking out the second outbound container may include a time range between the picking out the second outbound container and the reaching the work table.