Patent ID: 6370447
Filing Date: 2002-04-09
Classification: B65G

Abstract:
A conveyance system comprising:a conveyor assembly including a first conveyor unit and a second conveyor unit arranged after the first conveyor unit, each conveyor unit being provided with a plurality of motorized rollers each having a rotary drum and a motor for rotating the rotary drum, and a plurality of free rollers arranged between two adjacent motorized rollers, the motorized rollers being driven to convey items from the first conveyor unit to the second conveyor unit; a conveyance controller having a communication master function; a sensor provided at a position corresponding to each of the plurality of motorized rollers in each of the first and second conveyor units for detecting presence or absence of an item; a first communication slave unit provided in a position corresponding to the first conveyor unit and be able to communicate with the conveyance controller in serial transmission; a second communication slave unit provided in a position corresponding to the second conveyor unit and be able to communicate with conveyance controller in serial transmission; and a transmitting/receiving device for rendering communications between each sensor and the corresponding communication slave unit and communications between each motorized roller and the corresponding communication slave unit to transmit a drive signal for the corresponding motorized roller to the corresponding communication slave unit and receive a detection signal of the corresponding sensor; wherein the conveyance controller includes: a receiver for cyclically receiving respective detection signals of the sensors via the first and second communication slave units; a command data generator for generating operation command data to rotate or stop relating motorized rollers in response to the detection signals from the sensors received by the receiver; and a transmitter for cyclically transmitting generated operation command data to the first and second communication slave units in serial transmission.