CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

The present application is a U.S. National Stage Application under 35 U.S.C. § 371 of International Patent Application No. PCT/CN2019/007215, filed on Jun. 22, 2018, which is based on and claims priorities to CN Patent Application No. 201710533262.8 filed on Jul. 3, 2017 and CN Patent Application No. 201710864856.7 filed on Sep. 22, 2017, the contents of all which are incorporated by reference herein in their entirety.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present disclosure relates to the field of logistics distribution, and in particular, to a distribution station for serving an unmanned logistics distribution vehicle and distribution method.

BACKGROUND

In recent years, with rapid development of e-commerce in China, it has gradually become the current mainstream business model. For e-commerce, logistics can often become a bottleneck restricting the development due to its relatively late development. For merchandisers, in order to provide distribution and logistics services to more concentrated consumer groups, distribution stations for cargo can be normally established within or around an area.

In some related arts, manual receipt is applied in a distribution station, and manual inspection, manual unloading, and manual sorting are performed within the distribution station. Then, the sorted parcels are transported and delivered by the courier according to a corresponding destination of the parcel. With the development of logistics automation, various unmanned logistics distribution vehicles have been rapidly developed. Among them, unmanned distribution aerial vehicles and unmanned distribution vehicles have been applied to the transport and delivery of parcels, to partially or fully replacing manual transport and delivery operations, thereby saving the labor that has been occupied. In other related arts, there are also buildings capable of supporting multiple drones for cargo distribution.

SUMMARY

After research, the inventors have found that, although the distribution stations in the related arts are equipped with unmanned distribution aerial vehicles and unmanned distribution vehicles, the unloading, sorting, and loading after arrival of the cargo still need to be completed manually, thus causing a very high labor cost and a low delivery efficiency of the distribution stations. In addition, the buildings supporting drone distribution in the related technology can only support drone distribution, and need to cooperate with manual loading within the buildings, so that their labor cost is still very high. Considering the current distribution capabilities of drones, it is difficult to adapt to the distribution function of substantial batch of heavy cargo, which in turn affects the distribution efficiency.

In view of this, embodiments of the present disclosure provide a distribution station for serving an unmanned logistics distribution vehicle and distribution method, which can reduce the labor cost of the distribution station and improve the distribution efficiency.

According to one aspect of the present disclosure, a distribution station for serving an unmanned logistics distribution vehicle is provided. The distribution station includes:

a building having a vehicle parking space for parking an unmanned logistics distribution vehicle at least including an unmanned logistics distribution aircraft and an unmanned logistics distribution ground vehicle;

a cargo conveying and loading device disposed within the building, for automatically conveying and loading a cargo to be distributed to an allocated unmanned logistics distribution vehicle parked in the vehicle parking space; and

a cargo dispatching device for allocating a corresponding unmanned logistics distribution vehicle to the cargo to be distributed, and providing the unmanned logistics distribution vehicle with guidance information to guide distribution of the unmanned logistics distribution vehicle, so that the unmanned logistics distribution vehicle automatically distributes the cargo to be distributed according to the guidance information.

In some embodiments, the vehicle parking space in the building includes a plurality of parking areas, which are provided on at least one of different floors and different compartments of the building according to a type of the unmanned logistics distribution vehicle.

In some embodiments, a parking area of the unmanned logistics distribution aircraft and a parking area of the unmanned logistics ground vehicle are respectively located on different floors of the building.

In some embodiments, the plurality of parking areas are located on at least two floors of the building, and the parking area of the unmanned logistics distribution aircraft is located on a top floor of the at least two floors, and/or the parking area of the unmanned logistics distribution ground vehicle is located on a ground floor of the at least two floors.

In some embodiments, at least partial parking areas in the plurality of parking areas is provided with an automatic charging device for automatically charging the unmanned logistics distribution vehicle being parked.

In some embodiments, the automatic charging device is an automatic charger configured to automatically charge the unmanned logistics distribution vehicle with electrical energy after it is detected that the unmanned logistics distribution vehicle is parked in place.

In some embodiments, the top floor is provided with an unmanned aircraft passage for communicating outside with the parking area of the unmanned logistics distribution aircraft, for entry and exit of the unmanned logistics distribution aircraft.

In some embodiments, the unmanned aircraft passage is located on a building roof on the top floor, and the unmanned aircraft passage is internally provided with a first automatic door capable of automatically opening or closing the unmanned aircraft passage.

In some embodiments, the parking area of the unmanned logistics distribution aircraft and the unmanned aircraft passage are both plural, and each of the parking areas of the unmanned logistics distribution aircraft has a corresponding relationship with each of the unmanned aircraft passages.

In some embodiments, at least two of the plurality of unmanned aircraft passages differ in at least one of a cross-sectional shape and a size to adapt to the unmanned logistics distribution aircraft with a different type/size.

In some embodiments, a plurality of parking areas in the vehicle parking space are located on a plurality of floors, and the parking area of the unmanned logistics distribution aircraft is located in at least one of inner, a top and an exterior extension of the building on other floors than the ground floor in the plurality of floors.

In some embodiments, the exterior extension is capable of being received inside the building in a telescopic or rotary manner.

In some embodiments, the ground floor is provided with an unmanned vehicle passage for communicating outside with the parking area of the unmanned logistics distribution ground vehicle, for entry and exit of the unmanned logistics distribution ground vehicle.

In some embodiments, the unmanned vehicle passage is located on a side wall of the building on the ground floor, and the unmanned vehicle passage is internally provided with a second automatic door capable of automatically opening or closing the unmanned vehicle passage.

In some embodiments, the parking area of the unmanned logistics distribution ground vehicle and the unmanned vehicle passage are both plural, and each of the parking areas of the unmanned logistics distribution ground vehicle has a corresponding relationship with each of the unmanned vehicle passages.

In some embodiments, at least two of the plurality of unmanned vehicle passages differ in at least one of a cross-sectional shape and a size to adapt to the unmanned logistics ground vehicle with a different type/size.

In some embodiments, further including: a cargo receiving device disposed in the building (1), for receiving a single or batch of cargo to be distributed from a distribution unit which comes from outside.

In some embodiments, the external distribution unit includes at least one of a distribution motor vehicle from the outside, an unmanned logistics distribution vehicle from the outside, a distribution trunk aircraft from the outside, and a fixed cargo conveying mechanism connected to the outside.

In some embodiments, the building further includes an external batch distribution passage for parking the distribution motor vehicle, and the cargo receiving device is configured to receive a cargo to be distributed that is incoming in batches from the distribution motor vehicle being parked.

In some embodiments, the external batch distribution passage is provided with a third automatic door capable of automatically opening or closing the external batch distribution passage.

In some embodiments, the unmanned logistics distribution vehicle from the outside includes an unmanned logistics distribution aircraft and/or an unmanned logistics distribution ground vehicle, and the unmanned logistics distribution vehicle from the outside shares at least one of a vehicle parking space and an entry/exit passage with the unmanned logistics distribution vehicle inside the building for distributing the cargo outwards.

In some embodiments, the building further includes an apron for parking the distribution trunk aircraft, and the cargo receiving device is configured to receive the cargo to be distributed that is incoming in batches from the distribution trunk aircraft being parked.

In some embodiments, the cargo receiving device includes a track and a driving mechanism provided within the external batch distribution passage, and the track is capable of cooperating with the distribution motor vehicle being parked so that the cargo within the distribution vehicle or a rack for loading the cargo is received along the track under action of the driving mechanism.

In some embodiments, the building is further internally provided with a temporary cargo storage space for temporarily storing the cargo to be distributed that is received from outside, and the cargo conveying and loading device is configured to automatically convey and load the cargo to be distributed in the temporary cargo storage space onto the allocated unmanned logistics distribution vehicle parked in the vehicle parking space according to allocation information of the cargo dispatching device.

In some embodiments, the plurality of parking areas are located on at least two floors of the building, and the temporary cargo storage space is located on a floor between the floor where a parking area of the unmanned logistics distribution aircraft is located and the floor where a parking area of the unmanned logistics distribution ground vehicle is located;

the cargo conveying and loading device includes at least one of following conveying mechanisms:

a hoist conveying mechanism disposed between the temporary cargo storage space and the parking area of the unmanned logistics distribution aircraft; and

a slide conveying mechanism disposed between the temporary cargo storage space and the parking area of the unmanned logistics distribution ground vehicle.

In some embodiments, the plurality of parking areas are located on at least two floors of the building;

the cargo conveying and loading device includes: a wheeled transferring robot configured to move on a floor between the floor where a parking area of the unmanned logistics distribution aircraft is located and the floor where a parking area of the unmanned logistics ground vehicle is located.

In some embodiments, ground of the parking area of the unmanned logistics distribution aircraft is provided with a first hole communicating with an area for movement of the wheeled transferring robot, and the wheeled transferring robot is configured to convey the cargo to be distributed in the temporary cargo storage space below the first hole, and load the cargo to be distributed onto a loading mechanism below the unmanned logistics distribution aircraft through a hoist mechanism.

In some embodiments, an upper floor of the parking area of the unmanned logistics distribution ground vehicle is provided with a second hole communicating with an area for movement of the wheeled transferring robot, and the wheeled transferring robot is configured to convey the cargo to be distributed in the temporary cargo storage space to a side of the second hole, and load the cargo to be distributed onto a loading mechanism below the unmanned logistics distribution ground vehicle through an reversing mechanism.

In some embodiments, the temporary cargo storage space is provided with a rack including a two-sided support structure with an intermediate hollowed-out space for supporting the cargo to be distributed, and the wheeled transferring robot is configured to move to below the two-sided support structure, and remove the cargo to be distributed from the two-sided support structure through the intermediate hollowed-out space by a liftable support mechanism.

In some embodiments, the cargo dispatching device includes:

a cargo information obtaining unit for obtaining relevant information of the cargo to be distributed;

an unmanned vehicle allocating unit for allocating a corresponding unmanned logistics distribution vehicle for at least one of the cargo to be distributed that is received from the external distribution unit and the cargo to be distributed that is temporarily stored in the temporary cargo storage space according to the relevant information of the cargo to be distributed; and

a guidance information providing unit for providing the unmanned logistics distribution vehicle with guidance information to guide distribution of the unmanned logistics distribution vehicle according to the relevant information of the cargo to be distributed, so that the unmanned logistics distribution vehicle automatically distributes the cargo to be distributed based on the guidance information.

In some embodiments, the external distribution unit includes an unmanned logistics distribution vehicle from outside, and the cargo information obtaining unit includes an information detecting device disposed in an entry passage of the unmanned logistics distribution vehicle from the outside, and is capable of obtaining at least one of a distribution address and an outline dimension information of the cargo to be distributed in an image recognition manner or a radio frequency recognition manner;

the unmanned vehicle allocating unit is configured to directly allocate a corresponding unmanned logistics distribution vehicle for the cargo loaded on the unmanned logistics distribution vehicle from the outside according to at least one of the distribution address and the outline dimension of the cargo to be distributed, so that the cargo conveying and loading device automatically conveys and loads the cargo loaded on the unmanned logistics distribution vehicle from the outside onto the allocated unmanned logistics distribution vehicle parked in the vehicle parking space.

In some embodiments, the unmanned vehicle allocating unit is configured to preferentially allocate the unmanned logistics distribution aircraft or the unmanned logistics distribution ground vehicle according to one of a destination distance and weight information of the cargo to be distributed.

In some embodiments, the guidance information includes route planning information of the unmanned logistics distribution vehicle.

In some embodiments, each passage of the building is in an enclosed state when there is no entry or exit of an unmanned logistics distribution vehicle and when there is no parking of an external distribution motor vehicle.

In some embodiments, a profile of the circumferential side wall of the building is a cylindrical or convex polygonal prism, and the unmanned vehicle passages are respectively provided in a plurality of directions on the side wall of the building.

In some embodiments, the building is an independent building or a building complex, and the building complex includes a plurality of building units, wherein connecting passages are provided between adjacent building units in the plurality of building units.

In some embodiments, each building unit in the building complex has a plurality of floors, and the connection passages are provided between parts of floors of adjacent building units, and the parking area of the unmanned logistics distribution aircraft is located on at least one of inner, a top, an exterior extension and a connection passage of the building on other floors than the ground floor in the plurality of floors.

In some embodiments, at least partial building units in the building complex are provided with a passage for entry and exit of the unmanned logistics distribution vehicle.

In some embodiments, the unmanned logistics distribution vehicle from the outside includes a cargo loading mechanism for loading cargo to be distributed, which is separable from the unmanned logistics distribution vehicle from the outside, and the cargo conveying and loading device is configured to perform a separation operation on the unmanned logistics distribution vehicle from the outside, and load the cargo loading mechanism being separated together with the cargo to be distributed within the cargo loading mechanism onto the allocated unmanned logistics distribution vehicle parked in the vehicle parking space.

In some embodiments, the cargo dispatching device further includes:

a cargo return and exchange allocating unit for selecting an unmanned logistics distribution vehicle according to a received cargo return and exchange allocation instruction, and providing the unmanned logistics distribution vehicle with guidance information to guide distribution of the unmanned logistics distribution vehicle to arrive at a cargo return and exchange site, so that the unmanned logistics distribution vehicle goes to the cargo return and exchange site to receive a cargo to be returned and exchanged and transport it back to the distribution station according to the guidance information.

According to another aspect of the present disclosure, a distribution method based on the foregoing distribution station for serving an unmanned logistics distribution vehicle is provided. The distribution method includes:

allocating an unmanned logistics distribution vehicle corresponding to a cargo to be distributed for the cargo to be distributed through a cargo dispatching device;

automatically conveying and loading the cargo to be distributed onto an allocated unmanned logistics distribution vehicle parked in a vehicle parking space through a cargo conveying and loading device;

providing the unmanned logistics distribution vehicle with guidance information to guide distribution of the unmanned logistics distribution vehicle through the cargo dispatching device, so that the unmanned logistics distribution vehicle automatically distributes the cargo to be distributed according to the guidance information.

In some embodiments, further including: receiving a single or batch of cargo to be distributed from a distribution unit which comes from outside through a cargo receiving device provided in the building.

In some embodiments, the external distribution unit includes a distribution motor vehicle from the outside, and the building is further provided with an external batch distribution passage for parking the distribution motor vehicle, and the operation of receiving a single or batch of cargo to be distributed includes:

receiving the cargo to be distributed that is incoming in batches from the distribution motor vehicle through the cargo receiving device, when the distribution motor vehicle is parked to the external batch distribution passage.

In some embodiments, the external distribution unit includes an unmanned logistics distribution vehicle from the outside, and the operation of receiving a single or batch of cargo to be distributed includes:

receiving a single or batch of cargo to be distributed from the unmanned logistics distribution vehicle from the outside through the cargo receiving device.

In some embodiments, the building is further internally provided with a temporary cargo storage space for temporarily storing the cargo to be distributed that is received from the outside; the operation of conveying and loading specifically includes:

automatically conveying and loading the cargo to be distributed in the temporary cargo storage space onto the allocated unmanned logistics distribution parked in the vehicle parking space through the cargo conveying and loading device according to the allocation information of the cargo dispatching device.

In some embodiments, the external distribution unit includes an unmanned logistics distribution vehicle from the outside, and the cargo dispatching device includes an information detecting device disposed at an entry passage of the unmanned logistics distribution vehicle from the outside; the operation of allocating an unmanned logistics distribution vehicle specifically includes:

obtaining a distribution address and/or an outline dimension information of the cargo to be distributed in an image recognition manner or in a radio frequency recognition manner through the information detecting device;

allocating an unmanned logistics distribution vehicle corresponding to the cargo to be distributed for the cargo loaded on the unmanned logistics distribution vehicle from the outside through the cargo dispatching device according to the distribution address and/or the outline dimension information of the cargo to be distributed;

the operation of conveying and loading operation specifically includes:

automatically conveying and loading the cargo to be distributed that is loaded on the unmanned logistics distribution vehicle from the outside onto the allocated unmanned logistics distribution vehicle parked in the vehicle parking space through the cargo conveying and loading device.

In some embodiments, further including a step of obtaining relevant information of the cargo to be distributed.

In some embodiments, the operation of providing guidance information specifically includes:

reading the relevant information of the cargo to be distributed through the cargo dispatching device, and providing the unmanned logistics distribution vehicle with the guidance information to guide distribution of the unmanned logistics distribution vehicle according to the relevant information of the cargo to be distributed.

In some embodiments, the operation of allocating an unmanned logistics distribution vehicle specifically includes:

reading the relevant information of the cargo to be distributed through the cargo dispatching device, and preferentially allocating the unmanned logistics distribution aircraft or the unmanned logistics distribution ground vehicle for the cargo to be distributed according to a destination distance and/or weight information of the cargo to be distributed.

In some embodiments, the operation of preferentially allocating specifically includes:

preferentially allocating the unmanned logistics distribution aircraft if at least one of conditions that the destination distance of the cargo to be distributed exceeds a first preset distance threshold and a weight of the cargo to be distributed is lower than a first preset weight threshold is satisfied;

preferentially allocating the unmanned logistics distribution ground vehicle if at least one of the conditions that the destination distance of the cargo to be distributed is lower than a second preset distance threshold and the weight of the cargo to be distributed exceeds a second preset weight threshold is satisfied.

In some embodiments, further including: selecting an unmanned logistics distribution vehicle through the cargo dispatching device according to a cargo return and exchange allocation instruction being received, and providing the unmanned logistics distribution vehicle with guidance information to guide the unmanned logistics distribution vehicle to arrive at a cargo return and exchange site, so that the unmanned logistics distribution vehicle goes to the cargo return and exchange site to receive a cargo to be returned and exchanged and transport it back to the distribution station according to the guidance information.

Therefore, according to the embodiments of the present disclosure, a cargo conveying and loading device is provided in a distribution station, to convey and load the cargo to be distributed onto the allocated unmanned logistics distribution vehicle in a vehicle parking space, and provide guidance information to the unmanned logistics distribution vehicle, so that the cargo to be distributed can be automatically distributed at least by unmanned logistics delivery aircrafts or unmanned logistics delivery ground vehicles, thereby reducing or eliminating the manual involvement in the distribution work within the distribution station. Moreover, it is possible to at least support vehicles such as unmanned logistics distribution aircrafts and unmanned logistics distribution ground vehicles with a higher loading capacity, thereby greatly reducing the labor cost and also efficiently improving the logistics distribution efficiency.

