Patent ID: 11858011
Assignee: FANUC CORPORATION
Field: Chemical engineering (Chemistry)
Classification: CPC B  G | IPC B  G

Claim 0:
1. A device configured to determine whether or not it is necessary to clean a work area of a machine tool, the device comprising:
an imaging device configured to image first image data of the work area before the machine tool machines a workpiece in the work area, and to image second image data of the work area after the machine tool machines the workpiece in the work area;
a processor having a plurality of sections, including:
an image data generation section configured to generate third image data including pixels, each of the pixels having brightness corresponding to a degree of change between brightness of a pixel of the first image data and brightness of a pixel of the second image data which corresponds to the pixel of the first image data, wherein the degree of change between the brightness of the pixel of the first image data and the brightness of the pixel of the second image data is caused by a presence of foreign matter on the work area after the machine tool machines the workpiece; and
a determination section configured to determine whether or not to clean the work area based on a histogram statistically indicating a relationship between the brightness of the pixels of the third image data and the number of the pixels of the third image detail;
the processor being configured to perform cleaning of the work area:
when a rate of the number of pixels having brightness within a predetermined range with respect to a total number of pixels in the histogram is equal to or lower than a predetermined threshold value, or
when a rate of the number of pixels having brightness out of the predetermined range with respect to the total number of pixels in the histogram is equal to or larger than a predetermined threshold value.