CROSS-REFERENCES TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This is a U.S. National Stage Application of International Patent Application No. PCT/CN2017/115751, filed on Dec. 12, 2017, which claims priority to Chinese Patent Application No. 201710919964.X, filed on Sep. 30, 2017, the contents of which are incorporated herein by reference in their entireties.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present application relates to the field of parcel sorting techniques and, in particular, to a parcel dropping method, a sorting robot and a sorting system.

BACKGROUND

The parcel sorting robot system is a logistics sorting system created according to national conditions and geographical factors of our country and in overall consideration of a balance between costs of manpower in labor-intensive industries and costs of precise and complex automation equipment in our country. With the instant response feature of robots and the flexibility of the distributed system, the parcel sorting robot system can significantly reduce the overall costs of parcel sorting.

In the conventional parcel sorting robot system, when a robot needs to deliver a parcel to, for example, a separate opening or a temporary parcel storage container, the robot needs to decelerate until the robot stands still, deliver the parcel when the robot is stationary, and then accelerate and move away from the delivery point after the delivery is completed. When such delivery mode is used, in addition to a long delivery time, factors affecting the system efficiency include that when the robot in the stationary state delivers the parcel, other robots that plan to pass through the same position are blocked by the robot. In addition, robots that stop temporarily in the field interact with each other, causing a chain effect and reducing the average speed of sorting robots.

SUMMARY

In view of this, a parcel dropping method for a sorting robot system, a sorting robot, and a sorting system are provided in the present application. This method greatly increases the sorting efficiency by allowing the robot to deliver a parcel when the robot is in motion.

A parcel dropping method for a parcel sorting system is provided in the present application. The method includes providing a conveying device; operating the conveying device to receive a parcel and move towards a delivery target; and delivering, by the conveying device, the parcel to the delivery target after the conveying device moves to a delivery region. The motion speed of the conveying device is not equal to zero when the conveying device delivers the parcel.

In one embodiment, the parcel dropping method further includes determining whether a condition for delivering the parcel when the conveying device is in motion is satisfied; and in condition that the condition is satisfied, delivering, by the conveying device, the parcel to the delivery target after the conveying device moves to the delivery region.

In one embodiment, whether the condition for delivering the parcel when the conveying device is in motion is satisfied is determined by at least one of the conveying device, a control system or another conveying device.

In one embodiment, the delivering, by the conveying device, the parcel to the delivery target after the conveying device moves to the delivery region includes: delivering, by the conveying device, the parcel to the delivery target during a uniform motion.

In one embodiment, the operating the conveying device to receive the parcel and move towards the delivery target includes: calculating a delivery distance and a delivery speed according to a size parameter of a to-be-delivered parcel and a size parameter of the delivery target so that the conveying device delivers the parcel to the delivery target at the delivery speed in the delivery distance.

In one embodiment, the conveying device moves in a first direction in parallel with the delivery target.

In one embodiment, a speed v at which a robot passes by the delivery target satisfies

v=a1-a22⁢(Δ⁢h+h2-h0)g;
and when a delivery device is started, a distance s from the conveying device to a front edge of the delivery target satisfies

s=v·(t0+t1)=a1-a22⁢(Δ⁢h+h2-h0)g·(t0+2⁢(h1-h2)g).

a1denotes an opening size of the delivery target in the first direction, a2denotes a maximum side length of the parcel, Δh denotes a maximum height of the parcel, h2denotes a vertical height from a highest point of an edge of the delivery target to ground, h1denotes a vertical height from the parcel to a motion ground when the parcel is dropped from the conveying device, and h0denotes a minimum safe delivery height from which the parcel reaches an inside of a target container when the parcel is delivered to the target container.

In one embodiment, the first direction is consistent with a direction in which the delivery target has a largest opening size.

In one embodiment, the method further includes: after the conveying device passes by the delivery target, operating the conveying device to turn 90° or 180° along an arc when the conveying device is in motion so that the conveying device returns to a pickup region.

In one embodiment, the conveying device moves towards the delivery target in a first direction and returns to a pickup region in a second direction that is different from the first direction after delivering the parcel.

In one embodiment, the conveying device moves towards the delivery target along a first arc-shaped curve and returns to a pickup region along a second arc-shaped curve after delivering the parcel.

In one embodiment, the first arc-shaped curve and the second arc-shaped curve form an axisymmetric structure.

In one embodiment, the method further includes: in condition that the condition is not satisfied, operating the conveying device to stop moving and deliver the parcel to the delivery target when the conveying device is stationary.

In another aspect of the present application, a sorting robot is provided. The sorting robot includes a control unit, a drive unit and a delivery unit. The drive unit is configured to drive the sorting robot to move towards a delivery position after the sorting robot receives a parcel in a pickup region. The control unit is configured to control the delivery unit to deliver, at the delivery position, the parcel to a delivery target when the sorting robot moves to the delivery position. The motion speed of the sorting robot is not equal to zero when the sorting robot delivers the parcel.

In one embodiment, the sorting robot further includes a detection unit configured to detect whether an obstacle exists at the delivery position.

In one embodiment, the control unit is configured after the sorting robot receives the parcel, to calculate a delivery distance and a delivery speed according to a size parameter of a to-be-delivered parcel and a size parameter of the delivery target so that the control unit controls the delivery unit to deliver the parcel to the delivery target at the delivery speed in the delivery distance.

In one embodiment, the sorting robot further includes a receiving unit configured to receive the size parameter of a to-be-delivered parcel and a size parameter of the delivery target.

In one embodiment, after the sorting robot passes by the delivery target, the control unit is configured after the sorting robot passes by the delivery target, to control the drive unit to drive the sorting robot to turn 90° or 180° along an arc when the sorting robot is in motion so that the sorting robot returns to the pickup region.

In another aspect of the present application, a parcel sorting system is provided. The system includes a parcel supply region, which is configured to distribute a to-be-sorted item; a conveying region, in which at least one conveying device moves, where the conveying device is configured to convey the to-be-sorted item through the conveying region; and a parcel dropping region, in which the conveying device drops the to-be-sorted item to a corresponding sorting target, where parcel dropping region includes a plurality of sorting targets. The conveying device is further configured to determine whether the parcel dropping region satisfies the condition for parcel dropping when the conveying device is in motion; and in condition that the condition is satisfied, the conveying device drops the to-be-sorted item to the corresponding sorting target when the conveying device is in motion.

In one embodiment, at least one of the conveying device, a control system or another conveying device is configured to determine whether the parcel dropping region satisfies a condition for parcel dropping when the conveying device is in motion or the control system is configured to determine whether the parcel dropping region satisfies the condition for parcel dropping when the conveying device is in motion; and in condition that the condition is satisfied, the conveying device drops the to-be-sorted item to the corresponding sorting target when the conveying device is in motion.

In one embodiment, the conveying device calculates a delivery distance and a delivery speed according to a size parameter of a to-be-delivered parcel and a size parameter of the delivery target so that the control unit controls the delivery unit to deliver the parcel to the delivery target at the delivery speed in the delivery distance.

In one embodiment, the item sorting system further includes a turning region. After the conveying device passes by the corresponding sorting target and reaches the turning region, the conveying device turns 90° or 180° along an arc when the conveying device is in motion so that the conveying device returns to a pickup region.

In the parcel delivery method provided in embodiments of the present application, a conveying device delivers a parcel to a delivery target when the conveying device is in motion, greatly improving the parcel sorting efficiency and reducing the energy loss of, for example, a sorting robot.

