Patent Application
20240108133
The present application is based on, and claims priority from, TAIWAN Patent Application Serial Number 111136939, filed Sep. 29, 2022, the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.
The present invention relates to a smart locker system and an operation method thereof, and more particularly to a locker system capable of dynamically generating a storage space based on an object volume, and an operation method thereof.
In recent years, with the popularity and vigorous development of the logistics industry, how to efficiently use storage spaces (also known as spaces of the locker system) has become one of the issues that various manufacturers are eager to solve.
Generally speaking, a conventional locker system uses pre-fixed storage spaces, and a stored object smaller than the size of the storage space can be placed in the storage space. However, this conventional locker system is difficult to effectively utilize the storage spaces. For example, when there is no smaller storage space, the stored object with a small size must be placed in an overly large storage space, so there is a problem of poor space utilization rate.
In view of this problem, some manufacturers have proposed technical means to change storage space; the proposed technical means is to control a shelf to adjust the sizes of the section spaces of the cabinet by a complex mechanism. However, the complex mechanism causes greatly increases in the overall volume, weight, and cost, and also causes higher failure rate and maintenance inconvenience, so the problem of poor space utilization rate is not effectively solved.
According to above-mentioned contents, what is needed is to develop an improved solution to solve the convention problem of a poor space utilization rate.
An objective of the present invention is to disclose a locker system capable of dynamically generating a storage space based on an object volume and an operation method thereof, to solve the convention problem of a poor space utilization rate.
In order to achieve the objective, the present invention discloses a locker system capable of dynamically generating a storage space based on an object volume, and the locker system includes a cabinet body and a computer device.
The cabinet body includes an interior space, a front panel, and at least one group of support members, wherein the front panel has cabinet doors, the at least one group of support members is disposed on inner sides of two side plates of the cabinet body, and each of the at least one group of support members is not provided with a detachable carrier in initial. The computer device is connected to the cabinet body and includes a section space calculation module, a section space selection module, and a confirmation module. The section space calculation module is configured to calculate at least one storage space formed by partitioning the interior space by the detachable carrier based on a location of the detachable carrier, and detect a quantity, a size and a usage status of the at least one storage space to generate a section space status. The section space selection module is connected to the section space calculation module, and configured to detect the object volume of a stored object before the stored object is placed into the cabinet body, select one of the unused storage spaces larger than the object volume of the stored object based on the section space status, unlock the N+1 cabinet doors corresponding to the selected storage space, and prompt a specified location for disposing the detachable carrier based on a height of the stored object to partition the interior space to generate the different storage space, wherein N is a positive integer. The confirmation module is connected to the section space calculation module and the section space selection module, wherein when the N+1 cabinet doors are detected to be closed and the stored object is placed in the selected storage space and the detachable carrier disposed newly is detected, the confirmation module drives the section space calculation module to calculate and detect the storage space to update the section space status and switch statuses of the N+1 closed cabinet doors to locked statuses.
In order to achieve the objective, the present invention discloses a locker system capable of dynamically generating a storage space based on an object volume, the locker system includes a cabinet body and a computer device. The cabinet body include an interior space, a front panel, and at least one group of support members, wherein the front panel has cabinet doors, the at least one group of support members is disposed on inner sides of two side plates of the cabinet body, each of the at least one group of support members is not provided with a detachable carrier in initial. The computer device is connected to the cabinet body, and includes a section space calculation module, a section space selection module and a confirmation module. The section space calculation module is configured to continuously calculate at least one storage space which is remaining and available, based on a space occupied by at least one stored object placed in the interior space, and detect a quantity and a size of the at least one storage space to generate a section space status. The section space selection module is connected to the section space calculation module, wherein before a stored object is placed, the section space selection module is configured to detect the object volume of the stored object, select one of the storage spaces larger than the object volume of the stored object, based on the section space status, and open the N cabinet doors corresponding to the selected storage space, wherein N is a positive integer. The confirmation module is connected to the section space calculation module and the section space selection module, wherein when the detachable carrier does not exist on a bottom of the selected storage space, the confirmation module prompts to dispose the detachable carrier on the bottom of the selected storage space, and when the N cabinet doors are closed, the confirmation module drives the section space calculation module to calculate and detect the storage space to update the section space status.
In order to achieve the objective, the present invention discloses an operation method of a locker system capable of dynamically generating a storage space based on an object volume, the operation method is applied in environment where a cabinet body and a computer device are disposed, the cabinet body includes an interior space, the operation method includes steps of: disposing cabinet doors on a front panel of the cabinet body, disposing at least one group of support members on inner sides of two side plates of the cabinet body, wherein each of the at least one group of support members is not provided with a detachable carrier in initial; calculating at least one storage space generated by partitioning the interior space by the detachable carrier based on a location of the detachable carrier, and detecting a quantity, a size and a usage status of the at least one storage space to generate a section space status, by the computer device; before a stored object is placed into the cabinet body, detecting the object volume of the stored object, selecting one of the unused storage spaces larger than the object volume of the stored object based on the section space status, unlocking the N+1 cabinet doors corresponding to the selected storage space, prompting a specified location for disposing the detachable carrier to partition the interior space to generate the different storage space based on a height of the stored object, by the computer device, wherein N is a positive integer; when the N+1 cabinet doors are detected to be closed and the stored object is placed in the selected storage space and the detachable carrier disposed newly is detected, calculating and detecting the storage space to update the section space status, and switching statuses of the N+1 closed cabinet doors to locked statuses, by the computer device.
In order to achieve the objective, the present invention discloses an operation method of a locker system capable of dynamically generating a storage space based on an object volume, the operation method is applied in environment where a cabinet body and a computer device are disposed, the cabinet body includes an interior space, the operation method includes steps of: disposing cabinet doors on a front panel of the cabinet body, disposing at least one group of support members on inner sides of two side plates of the cabinet door, wherein each of the at least one group of support members is not provided with a detachable carrier in initial; continuously calculating at least one storage space which is remaining and available based on a space occupied by at least one stored object placed in the interior space, and detecting a quantity and a size of the at least one storage space to generate a section space status, by the computer device; before a stored object is placed, detecting the object volume of the stored object, selecting one of the storage spaces larger than the object volume of the stored object based on the section space status, and opening the N cabinet doors corresponding to the selected storage space, by the computer device, wherein N is a positive integer; when the detachable carrier does not exist on a bottom of the selected storage space, prompting to dispose the detachable carrier on the bottom of the selected storage space, and when the N cabinet doors are closed, calculating and detecting the storage space to update the section space status, by the computer device.
According to the above-mentioned systems and operation methods of the present invention, the difference between the present invention and the conventional technology is that, in the present invention, the at least one group of support members is disposed on the cabinet body to allow a user to select whether to dispose the detachable carrier; in order to place the stored object into the cabinet body, the object volume of the stored object is detected, the user is prompted to dispose the detachable carrier at the specified location inside the cabinet body based on the object volume, so that the interior space of the cabinet door can be dynamically partitioned to generate an appropriate storage space for placing the stored object.
Therefore, the above-mentioned solution of the present invention is able to achieve the technical effect of improving a space usage rate.
The structure, operating principle and effects of the present invention will be described in detail by way of various embodiments which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings.
The following embodiments of the present invention are herein described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. These drawings show specific examples of the embodiments of the present invention. These embodiments are provided so that this disclosure will be thorough and complete, and will fully convey the scope of the invention to those skilled in the art. It is to be acknowledged that these embodiments are exemplary implementations and are not to be construed as limiting the scope of the present invention in any way. Further modifications to the disclosed embodiments, as well as other embodiments, are also included within the scope of the appended claims.
These embodiments are provided so that this disclosure is thorough and complete, and fully conveys the inventive concept to those skilled in the art. Regarding the drawings, the relative proportions and ratios of elements in the drawings may be exaggerated or diminished in size for the sake of clarity and convenience. Such arbitrary proportions are only illustrative and not limiting in any way. The same reference numbers are used in the drawings and description to refer to the same or like parts. As used herein, the singular forms “a”, “an” and “the” are intended to include the plural forms as well, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise.
It is to be acknowledged that, although the terms ‘first’, ‘second’, ‘third’, and so on, may be used herein to describe various elements, these elements should not be limited by these terms. These terms are used only for the purpose of distinguishing one component from another component. Thus, a first element discussed herein could be termed a second element without altering the description of the present disclosure. As used herein, the term “or” includes any and all combinations of one or more of the associated listed items.
It will be acknowledged that when an element or layer is referred to as being “on,” “connected to” or “coupled to” another element or layer, it can be directly on, connected or coupled to the other element or layer, or intervening elements or layers may be present. In contrast, when an element is referred to as being “directly on,” “directly connected to” or “directly coupled to” another element or layer, there are no intervening elements or layers present.
In addition, unless explicitly described to the contrary, the words “comprise” and “include”, and variations such as “comprises”, “comprising”, “includes”, or “including”, will be acknowledged to imply the inclusion of stated elements but not the exclusion of any other elements.
The terms self-defined in the present invention are descripted before illustration of the locker system capable of dynamically generating a storage space based on an object volume and an operation method. The locker system of the present invention means a smart object storage cabinet with detection, calculation and control functions, and needs electrical power supply for normal functioning. The locker system includes a cabinet body, and a computer device having a section space calculation module, a section space selection module, and a confirmation module. The electrical power supply can be from commercial power, a power bank, a battery, solar apparatus or the like. The locker system will be illustrated in detail with reference to embodiments and drawing figures in the following paragraphs.
The locker system capable of dynamically generating a storage space based on an object volume and the operation method thereof will hereinafter be described in more detail with reference to the accompanying drawing figures. Please refer to
The computer device 110 is connected to the cabinet body 100 and includes a section space calculation module 111, a section space selection module 112, and a confirmation module 113. The section space calculation module 111 is configured to calculate a storage space generated by partitioning the interior space by the detachable carrier, based on a location of the detachable carrier, and also detect a quantity, a size and a usage status of the storage space to generate a section space status. In actual implementation, the location of the detachable carrier can be continuously detected and confirmed through the detection device installed inside the cabinet body 100; or the required storage space and the location of the corresponding detachable carrier can be calculated based on size data in database. The detection device can be a sensor, and transmit data through WiFi and ZigBee, constrained application protocol, message queuing telemetry transport (MQTT), similar wireless transmission technology.
The section space selection module 112 is connected to the section space calculation module 111. Before a stored object is placed, the section space selection module 112 detects an object volume of the stored object, and selects one of the unused storage spaces larger than the object volume of the stored object based on the section space status, unlocks the N+1 cabinet doors corresponding to the selected storage space, prompts a specified location for disposing the detachable carrier to partition the interior space to generate the different storage space, based on a height of the stored object, wherein N is a positive integer. In actual implementation, the object volume of the stored object can be detected by using at least one of a radar ranging module, an image recognition module and mechanical tool to measure a length, a width and a height of the stored object to calculate the object volume, or directly detecting a volume value inputted through a mobile application program or a GUI. When selecting the storage space, the section space selection module 112 filters out unused storage spaces larger than the object volume of the stored object, selects the unused storage space having minimal volume; when the detachable carrier exists above the selected storage space, it indicates that the above storage space may be in use, even the above storage space is not in use, because the detachable carrier has been disposed, it is not necessary to dispose the detachable carrier again, so the section space selection module 112 can prohibit the highest one among the N+1 cabinet doors from being opened, and open the cabinet doors just for taking out the stored object in the storage space. It further explains that the specified location can be between upper edges and lower edges of the highest and the second highest ones among the opened cabinet doors, and this scheme will be illustrated in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings in the following paragraphs. It is particularly noted that, for example, in a condition that the cabinet body 100 has 3 cabinet doors numbered 1, 2 and 3 from top to bottom, when the selected storage space corresponds to the cabinet doors numbered 2 and 3, the “N+1 cabinet doors” means N is 2 and represents the two cabinet doors numbered 2 and 3, and “1” represents the above cabinet door numbered 1. In other words, “+1” represents the cabinet door above the storage space by one layer.
The confirmation module 113 is connected to the section space calculation module 111 and the section space selection module 112. When the N+1 cabinet doors are detected to be closed and the stored object is placed in the selected storage space and the detachable carrier disposed newly is detected, the confirmation module 113 drives the section space calculation module 111 to calculate and detect the storage space to update the section space status, and switches the statuses of the N+1 closed cabinet doors to locked statuses. In actual implementation, a sensor mounted on the cabinet body or the cabinet door can be used to detect whether the N cabinet doors are closed; the sensor can be, for example, a pressure-sensitive sensor, a light-sensitive sensor or other sensor capable of detecting whether the cabinet door is closed; the sensor even can detect whether the detachable carrier is fastened; when the detachable carrier is detected to be fastened already, it indicates that the detachable carrier is newly disposed.
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The section space selection module 132 is connected to the section space calculation module 131. Before a stored object is placed, the section space selection module 132 detects the object volume of the stored object, selects one of storage space greater than the object volume of the stored object based on the section space status, and opens the N cabinet doors corresponding to the selected storage space, N is a positive integer. The main difference between the second embodiment and the first embodiment is that the section space selection module 112 of the first embodiment opens N+1 cabinet doors, and the section space selection module 132 of the second embodiment opens the N cabinet doors; in other words, the second embodiment does not need to open the additional cabinet door above the N cabinet doors for inserting the detachable carrier.
The confirmation module 133 is connected to the section space calculation module 131 and the section space selection module 132. When the detachable carrier does not exist on a bottom of the selected storage space, the confirmation module 133 prompts to dispose the detachable carrier on a bottom of the selected storage space. When the N cabinet doors are closed, the confirmation module 133 drives the section space calculation module 131 to calculate and detect the storage space to update the section space status. The different between the confirmation module 133 and the confirmation module 113 is that when the detachable carrier does not exist on the bottom of the selected storage space, the confirmation module 133 prompts the user to dispose the detachable carrier on the bottom of the storage space, so as to provide the carrier for placing another stored object next time.
It is to be particularly noted that, in actual implementation, the modules of the present invention can be implemented by various manners, including software, hardware or any combination thereof, for example, in an embodiment, the module can be implemented by software and hardware, or one of software and hardware. Furthermore, the present invention can be implemented fully or partly based on hardware, for example, one or more module of the system can be implemented by integrated circuit chip, system on chip (SoC), a complex programmable logic device (CPLD), or a field programmable gate array (FPGA). The concept of the present invention can be implemented by a system, a method and/or a computer program. The computer program can include computer-readable storage medium which records computer readable program instructions, and the processor can execute the computer readable program instructions to implement concepts of the present invention. The computer-readable storage medium can be a tangible apparatus for holding and storing the instructions executable of an instruction executing apparatus. Computer-readable storage medium can be, but not limited to electronic storage apparatus, magnetic storage apparatus, optical storage apparatus, electromagnetic storage apparatus, semiconductor storage apparatus, or any appropriate combination thereof. More particularly, the computer-readable storage medium can include a hard disk, an RAM memory, a read-only-memory, a flash memory, an optical disk, a floppy disc or any appropriate combination thereof, but this exemplary list is not an exhaustive list. The computer-readable storage medium is not interpreted as the instantaneous signal such a radio wave or other freely propagating electromagnetic wave, or electromagnetic wave propagated through waveguide, or other transmission medium (such as optical signal transmitted through fiber cable), or electric signal transmitted through electric wire. Furthermore, the computer readable program instruction can be downloaded from the computer-readable storage medium to each calculating/processing apparatus, or downloaded through network, such as internet network, local area network, wide area network and/or wireless network, to external computer equipment or external storage apparatus. The network includes copper transmission cable, fiber transmission, wireless transmission, router, firewall, switch, hub and/or gateway. The network card or network interface of each calculating/processing apparatus can receive the computer readable program instructions from network, and forward the computer readable program instruction to store in computer-readable storage medium of each calculating/processing apparatus. The computer program instructions for executing the operation of the present invention can include source code or object code programmed by assembly language instructions, instruction-set-structure instructions, machine instructions, machine-related instructions, micro instructions, firmware instructions or any combination of one or more programming language. The programming language include object oriented programming language, such as Common Lisp, Python, C++, Objective-C, Smalltalk, Delphi, Java, Swift, C #, Perl, Ruby, and PHP, or regular procedural programming language such as C language or similar programming language. The computer readable program instruction can be fully or partially executed in a computer, or executed as independent software, or partially executed in the client-end computer and partially executed in a remote computer, or fully executed in a remote computer or a server.
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According to above-mentioned contents, the difference between the present invention and the conventional technology is that, in the present invention, the at least one group of support members is disposed on the cabinet body to allow a user to select whether to dispose the detachable carrier; in order to place the stored object into the cabinet body, the object volume of the stored object is detected, the user is prompted to dispose the detachable carrier at the specified location inside the cabinet body based on the object volume, so that the interior space of the cabinet door can be dynamically partitioned to generate an appropriate storage space for placing the stored object. Therefore, the above-mentioned technical solution of the present invention is able to solve the convention problem and achieve the technical effect of improving a space usage rate.
The present invention disclosed herein has been described by means of specific embodiments. However, numerous modifications, variations and enhancements can be made thereto by those skilled in the art without departing from the spirit and scope of the disclosure set forth in the claims.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 111136939 | Sep 2022 | TW | national |
