Granted Patent B1

US 12,643,749 · App. 19/205,881 · Granted Jun 2, 2026

Inventors: Bingchuan Yang (Acworth, GA); Yujie Lu (Acworth, GA)

Assignee: VisionNav Robotics USA Inc.

B65G57/20B66F9/063B66F9/0755B65G2203/0283

Abstract

Claims (59)

1 . A material handling equipment, comprising a controller, wherein the controller is configured to execute program instructions to perform following steps:

determining a first carrier and a target storage area of the first carrier, wherein the target storage area is a top area of a second carrier;

determining a deviation storage area based on a first offset and the target storage area, and placing the first carrier in the deviation storage area, wherein the first offset is greater than or equal to an operational error of the material handling equipment, and when the first carrier is placed in the deviation storage area, the first carrier and the second carrier are in contact with each other; and

moving the first carrier according to a target direction to move the first carrier from the deviation storage area to the target storage area,

wherein a bottom of the first carrier is provided with a protruding component, and a top of the second carrier is provided with a slot, wherein moving the first carrier according to the target direction to move the first carrier from the deviation storage area to the target storage area comprises:

moving the first carrier according to the target direction to engage the protruding component of the first carrier with the slot of the second carrier to move the first carrier from the deviation storage area to the target storage area.

2 . The material handling equipment according to claim 1 , wherein moving the first carrier according to the target direction to move the first carrier from the deviation storage area to the target storage area comprises:

moving the first carrier according to the target direction, and collecting a sound signal during a movement process of the first carrier; and

detecting the sound signal to obtain a detection result, wherein the detection result is configured to indicate whether the first carrier is moved to the target storage area.

3 . The material handling equipment according to claim 1 , wherein moving the first carrier according to the target direction to move the first carrier from the deviation storage area to the target storage area comprises:

moving the first carrier according to the target direction based on a second offset to move the first carrier from the deviation storage area to the target storage area, wherein the second offset is greater than the first offset.

4 . The material handling equipment according to claim 1 , wherein the target direction comprises a first direction and a second direction, wherein moving the first carrier according to the target direction to move the first carrier from the deviation storage area to the target storage area comprises:

moving the first carrier according to the first direction to align a first side of the first carrier with a first side of the target storage area; and

moving the first carrier according to the second direction to align a second side of the first carrier with a second side of the target storage area.

5 . The material handling equipment according to claim 4 , wherein moving the first carrier according to the first direction to align the first side of the first carrier with the first side of the target storage area comprises:

moving the first carrier according to the first direction, and collecting a first sound signal during a first movement process corresponding to the first direction; and

detecting the first sound signal to obtain a first detection result, wherein the first detection result is configured to indicate whether the first side of the first carrier is aligned with the first side of the target storage area,

wherein moving the first carrier according to the second direction to align the second side of the first carrier with the second side of the target storage area comprises:

moving the first carrier according to the second direction, and collecting a second sound signal during a second movement process corresponding to the second direction; and

detecting the second sound signal to obtain a second detection result, wherein the second detection result is configured to indicate whether the second side of the first carrier is aligned with the second side of the target storage area.

6 . The material handling equipment according to claim 5 , wherein moving the first carrier according to the first direction, and collecting the first sound signal during the first movement process corresponding to the first direction comprises:

moving the first carrier according to the first direction based on a second offset, and collecting the first sound signal during the first movement process corresponding to the first direction, wherein the second offset is greater than the first offset,

wherein moving the first carrier according to the second direction, and collecting the second sound signal during the second movement process corresponding to the second direction comprises:

moving the first carrier according to the second direction based on the second offset, and collecting the second sound signal during the second movement process corresponding to the second direction.

7 . The material handling equipment according to claim 4 , wherein the first direction is perpendicular to the second direction.

8 . The material handling equipment according to claim 1 , wherein the first offset is greater than or equal to a sum of the operational error of the material handling equipment and a dimensional error between the first carrier and the second carrier.

9 . The material handling equipment according to claim 8 , wherein the dimensional error between the first carrier and the second carrier comprises a dimensional difference between the protruding component and the slot in a width direction.

10 . The material handling equipment according to claim 3 , wherein the second offset is greater than or equal to a sum of the first offset and the operational error of the material handling equipment.

11 . The material handling equipment according to claim 1 , wherein placing the first carrier in the deviation storage area comprises:

controlling the first carrier to descend, during descending, adjusting an alignment error between a position of a bottom area of the first carrier and a position of a top area of the second carrier to be within a preset range; and

when the alignment error between the position of the bottom area of the first carrier and the position of the top area of the second carrier is within the preset range, adjusting, according to the first offset, the position of the bottom area of the first carrier in real time, so that when the first carrier descends to a top of the second carrier, the first carrier is located at the deviation storage area.

12 . The material handling equipment according to claim 11 , wherein controlling the first carrier to descend, during descending, adjusting the alignment error between the position of the bottom area of the first carrier and the position of the top area of the second carrier to be within the preset range comprises:

controlling the first carrier to descend, during descending, collecting position data of the bottom area of the first carrier and position data of the top area of the second carrier through a position sensing sensor, and adjusting the alignment error between the position of the bottom area of the first carrier and the position of the top area of the second carrier to be within the preset range.

13 . The material handling equipment according to claim 2 , wherein moving the first carrier according to the target direction to move the first carrier from the deviation storage area to the target storage area further comprises:

in a case that the detection result indicates that the first carrier is not moved to the target storage area, controlling the first carrier to move to a preset position, and re-executing the step of placing the first carrier in the deviation storage area.

14 . The material handling equipment according to claim 1 , wherein a shape of the deviation storage area is the same as a shape of the target storage area, and a difference between the deviation storage area and the target storage area in the target direction is the first offset.

15 . The material handling equipment according to claim 1 , wherein a bottom of the first carrier is provided with a plurality of fork holes, and the material handling equipment further comprises a plurality of forks, wherein before moving the first carrier according to the target direction to move the first carrier from the deviation storage area to the target storage area, the material handling equipment is further configured to perform a following step:

moving at least one fork in the plurality of forks, so that the at least one fork contacts a side wall of at least one fork hole corresponding to the at least one fork, respectively.

16 . The material handling equipment according to claim 15 , wherein the at least one fork comprises two forks, and the material handling equipment is further configured to perform a following step:

adjusting a distance between the two forks according to a preset distance,

wherein moving at least one fork in the plurality of forks, so that the at least one fork contacts the side wall of the at least one fork hole corresponding to the at least one fork, respectively, comprises:

moving the two forks, so that the two forks contact side walls of fork holes corresponding to the two forks, respectively.

17 . The material handling equipment according to claim 2 , wherein detecting the sound signal to obtain the detection result comprises:

inputting the sound signal into a sound detection model to obtain the detection result output by the sound detection model.

18 . A method for stacking, comprising:

determining a first carrier and a target storage area of the first carrier, wherein the target storage area is a top area of a second carrier;

determining a deviation storage area based on a first offset and the target storage area, and placing the first carrier in the deviation storage area, wherein the first offset is greater than or equal to an operational error of a material handling equipment, and when the first carrier is placed in the deviation storage area, the first carrier and the second carrier are in contact with each other; and

moving the first carrier according to a target direction to move the first carrier from the deviation storage area to the target storage area,

wherein a bottom of the first carrier is provided with a protruding component, and a top of the second carrier is provided with a slot, wherein moving the first carrier according to the target direction to move the first carrier from the deviation storage area to the target storage area comprises:

moving the first carrier according to the target direction to engage the protruding component of the first carrier with the slot of the second carrier to move the first carrier from the deviation storage area to the target storage area.

19 . A controller, comprising:

a processor; and

a memory configured to store an instruction executable by the processor,

wherein the processor is configured to execute a method for stacking, and the method for stacking comprises:

determining a first carrier and a target storage area of the first carrier, wherein the target storage area is a top area of a second carrier;

determining a deviation storage area based on a first offset and the target storage area, and placing the first carrier in the deviation storage area, wherein the first offset is greater than or equal to an operational error of a material handling equipment, and when the first carrier is placed in the deviation storage area, the first carrier and the second carrier are in contact with each other; and

moving the first carrier according to a target direction to move the first carrier from the deviation storage area to the target storage area,

wherein a bottom of the first carrier is provided with a protruding component, and a top of the second carrier is provided with a slot, wherein moving the first carrier according to the target direction to move the first carrier from the deviation storage area to the target storage area comprises:

moving the first carrier according to the target direction to engage the protruding component of the first carrier with the slot of the second carrier to move the first carrier from the deviation storage area to the target storage area.

Assignments (1)

References Cited (71)