CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This application claims priority to Chinese Patent Application No. 201811109377.5, filed on Sep. 21, 2018, the content of which is incorporated by reference in the entirety.

FIELD

This disclosure relates to the field of intelligent manufacturing, and particularly to an apparatus, system and method for controlling logistics, and a non-transitory computer readable medium.

DESCRIPTION OF THE RELATED ART

In the related art, a logistics system only interacts with devices via such simple communication signals in a practical production process of a factory that the logistics system lacks deep perception of production. Also since the logistics system less perceives production information of the devices, the logistics system cannot identify a demand of the devices for materials precisely, so if the logistics system is supplying materials to a plurality of production lines, then the logistics system will not control the materials to be handled to respective devices intelligently, so that the materials may tend to be not supplied in an equilibrium manner or handled in a timely manner, and thus the devices may be idled for a long period of time, which will degrade a throughput accordingly.

SUMMARY

Embodiments of the disclosure provide an apparatus, system and method for controlling logistics, and a non-transitory computer readable medium.

In an aspect, the embodiments of the disclosure provides an apparatus for controlling logistics, applicable to a system in which a handling component handles materials to at least two devices with a plurality of material feeding ports, wherein the apparatus including at least one processor and a memory, wherein the memory is configured to store readable program codes, and the at least one processor is configured to execute the readable program codes to: obtain a logistics communication state corresponding to each of the plurality of material feeding ports of each of the at least two devices; pair every two material feeding ports among the plurality of material feeding ports of each of the at least two devices into a group, and determine a logistics communication state corresponding to each group of material feeding ports of each of the at least two devices; determine a handling priority corresponding to each of the at least two devices according to the determined logistics communication state corresponding to each group of material feeding ports of each of the at least two devices; and control the handling component to select one group of material feeding ports of a device with a highest handling priority to execute a handling command.

In some embodiments, in the apparatus for controlling logistics according to the embodiments of the disclosure, the at least one processor is further configured to execute the readable program codes to: determine the handling priority corresponding to each of the at least two devices by referring to a pre-created correspondence relationship table between logistics communication states corresponding to respective groups of material feeding ports of respective devices, and handling priorities of the respective devices.

In some embodiments, in the apparatus for controlling logistics according to the embodiments of the disclosure, the at least one processor is further configured to execute the readable program codes to: determine, for the device with the highest handling priority, a group of material feeding ports with a highest handling priority according to logistics communication states corresponding to respective groups of material feeding ports of the device; and control the handling component to select the group of material feeding ports with the highest handling priority in the device with the highest handling priority to execute the handling command.

In some embodiments, in the apparatus for controlling logistics according to the embodiments of the disclosure, the at least one processor is further configured to execute the readable program codes to: select, among the plurality of material feeding ports of each of the at least two devices, one of first material feeding ports via dichotomy among current material feeding ports which are not paired, and select one of second material feeding ports via dichotomy among remaining material feeding ports which are not paired to constitute a group to pair every two material feeding ports among the plurality of material feeding ports of each of the at least two devices into a group.

In some embodiments, in the apparatus for controlling logistics according to the embodiments of the disclosure, the at least one processor is further configured to execute the readable program codes to: determine, for each group of material feeding ports, a material feeding port to which a material is most desirable according to logistics communication states corresponding respectively to a first material feeding port and a second material feeding port of the group of material feeding ports; and determine a logistics communication state corresponding to the material feeding port to which a material is most desirable as a logistics communication state corresponding to the group of material feeding ports.

In some embodiments, in the apparatus for controlling logistics according to the embodiments of the disclosure, the at least one processor is further configured to execute the readable program codes to: determine, for each group of material feeding ports, the material feeding port to which a material is most desirable by referring to a pre-created correspondence relationship table between logistics communication states of two material feeding ports in a pair of material feeding ports, and a logistics communication state of the pair of material feeding ports.

In some embodiments, in the apparatus for controlling logistics according to the embodiments of the disclosure, the logistics communication state corresponding to each of the plurality of material feeding ports of each of the at least two devices includes: Ready To Load, Reserved To Load, Ready To Process, Processing, Ready To Unload, or Reserved To Unload.

In some embodiments, in the apparatus for controlling logistics according to the embodiments of the disclosure, the at least one processor is further configured to execute the readable program codes to: determine, for each of the plurality of material feeding ports of each of the at least two devices, a state of Processing as a state of Pre-Processing or a state of End-Processing according to an amount of material in the material feeding port before a state of Ready To Process, and an amount of material in the material feeding port in the state of Processing; wherein both of the amount of material in the material feeding port before the state of Ready To Process, and the amount of material in the material feeding port in the state of Processing are detected by a sensor arranged in the material feeding port.

In some embodiments, in the apparatus for controlling logistics according to the embodiments of the disclosure, the at least one processor is further configured to execute the readable program codes to: determine the state of Processing as the state of Pre-Processing, when the amount of material in the material feeding port in the state of Processing is greater than or equal to a half of the amount of material in the material feeding port before the state of Ready To Process; or determine the state of Processing as the state of End-Processing, when the amount of material in the material feeding port in the state of Processing is less than a half of the amount of material in the material feeding port before the state of Ready To Process.

In another aspect, the embodiments of the disclosure further provide a system for controlling logistics, including a handling component, at least two devices with a plurality of material feeding ports, and the apparatus for controlling logistics according to the embodiments of the disclosure; wherein the handling component is configured to handle materials to the at least two devices under control of the apparatus for controlling logistics.

In still another aspect, the embodiments of the disclosure further provide a method for controlling logistics, wherein a handling component handles materials to at least two devices with a plurality of material feeding ports, wherein the method includes: obtaining a logistics communication state corresponding to each of the plurality of material feeding ports of each of the at least two devices; pairing every two material feeding ports among the plurality of material feeding ports of each of the at least two devices into a group, and determining a logistics communication state corresponding to each group of material feeding ports of each of the at least two devices; determining a handling priority corresponding to each of the at least two devices according to the determined logistics communication state corresponding to each group of material feeding ports of each of the at least two devices; and controlling the handling component to select one group of material feeding ports of a device with a highest handling priority to execute a handling command.

In some embodiments, in the method for controlling logistics according to the embodiments of the disclosure, determining the handling priority corresponding to each of the at least two devices according to the determined logistics communication state corresponding to each group of material feeding ports of each of the at least two devices includes: determining the handling priority corresponding to each of the at least two devices by referring to a pre-created correspondence relationship table between logistics communication states corresponding to respective groups of material feeding ports of respective devices, and handling priorities of the respective devices.

In some embodiments, in the method for controlling logistics according to the embodiments of the disclosure, the method further includes: determining, for the device with the highest handling priority, a group of material feeding ports with a highest handling priority according to logistics communication states corresponding to respective groups of material feeding ports of the device; controlling the handling component to select one group of material feeding ports of the device with the highest handling priority to execute the handling command includes: controlling the handling component to select the group of material feeding ports with the highest handling priority in the device with the highest handling priority to execute the handling command.

In some embodiments, in the method for controlling logistics according to the embodiments of the disclosure, pairing every two material feeding ports among the plurality of material feeding ports of each of the at least two devices into a group includes: selecting, among the plurality of material feeding ports of each of the at least two devices, one of first material feeding ports via dichotomy among current material feeding ports which are not paired, and selecting one of second material feeding ports via dichotomy among remaining material feeding ports which are not paired to constitute a group to pair every two material feeding ports among the plurality of material feeding ports of each of the at least two devices into a group.

In some embodiments, in the method for controlling logistics according to the embodiments of the disclosure, determining the logistics communication state corresponding to each group of material feeding ports includes: determining, for each group of material feeding ports, a material feeding port to which a material is most desirable according to logistics communication states corresponding respectively to a first material feeding port and a second material feeding port of the group of material feeding ports; and determining a logistics communication state corresponding to the material feeding port to which a material is most desirable as a logistics communication state corresponding to the group of material feeding ports.

In some embodiments, in the method for controlling logistics according to the embodiments of the disclosure, the material feeding port to which a material is most desirable is determined by referring to a pre-created correspondence relationship table between logistics communication states of two material feeding ports in a pair of material feeding ports, and a logistics communication state of the pair of material feeding ports.

In some embodiments, in the method for controlling logistics according to the embodiments of the disclosure, the logistics communication state corresponding to each of the plurality of material feeding ports of each of the at least two devices includes: Ready To Load, Reserved To Load, Ready To Process, Processing, Ready To Unload, or Reserved To Unload.

In some embodiments, in the method for controlling logistics according to the embodiments of the disclosure, the method further includes: determining, for each of the plurality of material feeding ports of each of the at least two devices, a state of Processing as a state of Pre-Processing or a state of End-Processing according to an amount of material in the material feeding port before a state of Ready To Process, and an amount of material in the material feeding port in the state of Processing; wherein both of the amount of material in the material feeding port before the state of Ready To Process, and the amount of material in the material feeding port in the state of Processing are detected by a sensor arranged in the material feeding port.

In some embodiments, in the method for controlling logistics according to the embodiments of the disclosure, determining the state of Processing as the state of Pre-Processing or the state of End-Processing includes: determining the state of Processing as the state of Pre-Processing, when the amount of material in the material feeding port in the state of Processing is greater than or equal to a half of the amount of material in the material feeding port before the state of Ready To Process; or determining the state of Processing as the state of End-Processing, when the amount of material in the material feeding port in the state of Processing is less than a half of the amount of material in the material feeding port before the state of Ready To Process.

In yet another aspect, the embodiments of the disclosure further provide a non-transitory computer readable medium, including program codes, wherein the program codes are configured to be run on a computing device to cause the computing device to perform operations in the method for controlling logistics according to the embodiments of the disclosure.

