Patent ID: 6161551
Filing Date: 2000-12-19
Classification: A24C

Abstract:
An automatic smoking machine comprising: a smoking apparatus body; a plurality of smoking mouths arranged on a front surface of the smoking apparatus body; and a robot apparatus, arranged in front of the smoking apparatus body, for attaching holders and tobacco rolls to the smoking mouths and lighting the tobacco rolls, wherein:the robot apparatus comprises: a rail extending along a direction of arrangement of the smoking mouths on the front surface of the smoking apparatus; a robot body movable along the rail; a roll hand for attaching the tobacco rolls to the smoking mouths and a lighter hand for lighting a top end of an attached tobacco roll, the roll hand having a position detecting mechanism for measuring a position of the top end of the attached tobacco roll, said position measuring mechanism including an optical measuring device, provided in the roll hand, for optically detecting a length of a top end portion of a tobacco roll present in a predetermined measurement range in a state where the roll hand is stopped near the top end portion of the tobacco roll attached to the smoking mouth; and a controller for receiving a signal from the optical measuring device and the robot apparatus and calculating a position of the top end of the tobacco roll from a stop position of the robot apparatus and the length of the top end portion of the tobacco roll present in the predetermined range measured by the optical measuring device, said controller prestores lengths of tobacco rolls corresponding to a plurality of brands of tobacco rolls, calculates a rough position of the top end of the attached tobacco roll in accordance with the brand thereof, and controls the stop position of the hand of the robot apparatus, so that the top end of the tobacco roll is located within the measurement range of the optical measuring device; anda holder tray supplying mechanism and a roll tray supplying mechanism are provided near an end portion of the rail, the holder tray supplying mechanism and the roll tray supplying mechanism holding a plurality of holder trays and roll trays, respectively, the holder trays and roll trays being supplied one by one to an operation range of the robot body, and each of the holder trays and roll trays holding a plurality of holders and tobacco rolls, respectively.