Automatic pickup system and method

Abstract: A pickup system (1) comprising a robot (6) having a gripping member (8) fitted with a camera (11) for acquiring an image of the object to be picked up; which image is supplied to a control section (3) by which it is processed for determining a predetermined point, typically the center, of the object by generating shifted images of the object and intersecting the shifted images and the original image.

Description: The present invention relates to an automatic pickup system. On production and packing plants employing reels of strip material, such as paper, plastic film, foil or similar, various sections of the plant must be supplied with reels of, at times, considerable weight and normally differing widely in size. For this purpose, movable robots are currently employed, for picking up the reels off loading stations (pallets), depositing them on to stands integral with the robot, and transferring them to the plant loading devices. For gripping the reel when transferring it from the loading station to the stand, and from the stand to the plant loader, the robots feature an articulated arm fitted on the end with a circular gripping member by which the reel is normally retained by means of a vacuum. Due to the widely differing inside and/or outside diameters of the reels employed on complex plants, the useful suction portion of the circular gripping member is in the form of a ring, the outside and inside diameters of which are respectively equal to the smallest outside diameter and largest inside diameter of the reels. For the reel to be gripped properly by the articulated arm, the gripping member must be centered in relation to the type of reel being picked up, which, as the reel coordinates at the loading stations are seldom accurately known, and no provision is made for the assistance of an operator, necessarily involves providing the gripping member with an automatic centering system. It is an object of the present invention to provide a rapid, reliable, fully automatic pickup system and method requiring no operator assistance. According to the present invention, there is provided an automatic pickup system comprising a robot having an articulated arm with a gripping member for gripping an object, said articulated arm being controlled by a control section; characterized by the fact that said gripping member presents optical means for generating a detected image of at least one portion of said object, said detected image consisting of a number of dots; and by the fact that said control section comprises processing means for receiving said detected image and for determining the coordinates of predetermined points of the same. The present invention also relates to an automatic pickup method. According to the present invention, there is also provided a method of automatically picking up objects by means of a robot having an articulated arm fitted with a gripping member and controlled by a control section; characterized by the fact that it comprises stages wherein a detected image of at least one portion of said object is generated by optical means on said gripping member, said detected image consisting of a number of dots; and wherein the coordinates of predetermined points of said detected image are determined by said control section. The present invention will be described by way of example with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which: Fig.1 shows a block diagram of a preferred embodiment of the pickup system according to the present invention; Fig.2 shows a schematic view in perspective of a vehicle forming part of the automatic pickup system according to the present invention; Fig.3 shows a flow chart of a preferred embodiment of the automatic pickup method according to the present invention; Fig.s 4 to 16 show the various stages in determining the center of an object according to the Fig.3 method. Number 1 in Fig.1 indicates an automatic pickup system in accordance with the present invention. As shown in Fig.1, system 1 comprises a vehicle 2 with a control unit 16 dialoging by radio with a plant supervisor 17. Vehicle 2, which is shown in more detail in Fig.2, provides for picking up reels 4 at a loading station (not shown), depositing them on to one of stands 5 on vehicle 2, and subsequently picking them up off stand 5 and transferring them to a plant loader (not shown). For this purpose, vehicle 2 presents a robot 6 having an articulated arm 7 terminating with a circular gripping member 8, the reel gripping face 9 of which presents an annular portion (not shown) connected in known manner to a vacuum source (not shown) on vehicle 2. As shown schematically in Fig.1, face 9 of gripping member 8 also presents lighting elements 10 and a camera 11, preferably housed in the center of face 9, inside the annular portion. Vehicle 2 is fitted with a transmitter-receiver unit 12 connected to control unit 16 and which, via antennas 13 and 14 and a further transmitter-receiver unit 15, connects vehicle 2 to a plant supervisor 17 for supplying control unit 16 with operating instructions and the nominal coordinates of the reels to be picked up. Control unit 16 positions robot arm 7 over the nominal coordinates of the center of reel 4 to be picked up, and is connected over lines 23 and 24 to an image processing unit 20 forming part of a control section 3 and which, over lines 23 and 24, respectively receives information relative to the type of reel, and sends back the real coordinates of the center of the reel corrected in relation to the nominal coordinates. For accurately centering gripping member 8 in relation to the real coordinates of the center of reel 4, the system shown acquires an image of the central portion of the reel, including the axial hole of the reel, which appears dark in the image produced by the camera. The image is then sent to control section 3, and more specifically to processing unit 20 by which it is processed to determine the real coordinates of the center of reel 4, which coordinates are then employed by numerical control unit 16 for accordingly controlling operation of arm 7. The manner in which the image is processed by unit 20 will be described with reference to Fig.3 and Fig.s 4 to 16 showing the images resulting from processing the dot matrix constituting the image produced by the camera. In connection with the above, it should be pointed out that, for reasons of clarity, the images referred to in the following description are those which would be produced in a display of the dot matrix resulting from processing the camera image, even though said images may not actually be displayed. As shown in Fig.3, to begin with (block 30), unit 20 acquires the image produced by the camera and consisting of a number of dots, each characterized by a discrete value proportional to the luminance of the dot in the portion viewed by the camera and consisting of a whole number ranging between a maximum value (e.g. 255) and a minimum value (usually 0) corresponding, for example, to "white" and "black" levels. Block 31 then computes a histogram of the image dot values, wherein each discrete value is related to the number of dots at that value; and, on the basis of said histogram, block 32 determines a threshold value for discriminating between the very or fairly light dots definitely not forming part of the axial hole of the reel, and the dark dots which could form part of the axial hole. Block 33 then compares the dots in the image produced by camera 11 with the threshold determined in block 32, and each dot is assigned a binary or logic value depending on whether it is above or below the threshold. For example, the dots whose luminosity (i.e. discrete value) is above the threshold are assigned a "0" logic value, while the dark dots are assigned a "1". These logic values are then memorized in a storage device (not shown), such as a memory array. The image resulting from such processing, and hereinafter referred to for the sake of simplicity as the reference image, is as shown in Fig.4, wherein the logic "0" and "1" dots are respectively white and black. The image in the Fig.4 example presents a dark main portion corresponding to the axial hole of the reel, and a number of dark noise portions due, for example, to imperfect flatness of the side of the reel or other factors, so that certain portions of the reel appear darker than others. The image also includes other elements extraneous to the reel (such as portions of the supporting pallet). Block 34 then generates an inverted image consisting of dots with a negated or inverted logic value as compared with the reference image dots, so as to produce the negative image shown in Fig.5. In block 35, the inverted image is shifted in a first direction, e.g. to the right, by a given distance Ds expressed in pixels and as shown in Fig.6, wherein only the outline of the light portions on the dark background are shown for the sake of simplicity. Block 36 then performs an AND operation of the reference image dots (Fig.4) and the corresponding dots in the inverted, shifted image (Fig.6), which operation provides for generating a new image or matrix, the dots of which only present a logic "1" value when the corresponding dots in both the reference image and the inverted, shifted image also present a logic "1" value, i.e. are both black in the case in question. To make this clearer, observe Fig.7, wherein the continuous outlines indicate the black dot portions (on the white background) in the Fig.4 reference image, and the dotted outlines the white dot portions (on the black background) in the inverted, shifted image in Fig.6, and compare this with Fig.8 showing the outlines of the logic "1" (black) dot portions resulting from the above AND operation. In block 37, the dots in the image so formed (Fig.8) are shifted in the same direction as before, but by a distance Ds1 equal to the known radius of the axial hole of reel 4 minus half distance Ds, to give a dot matrix corresponding to the image shown in Fig.9 and hereinafter also referred to as the intersection image. The operations performed in blocks 35, 36 and 37 are repeated three times more, each time shifting the negative image (Fig.5) in a different direction and by the same distance Ds, and then shifting the respective intersection image in the same direction as before but by distance Ds1. The above stages relative to the case in question are illustrated in Fig.s 10 to 14. Fig.10 shows the image resulting from overlapping the reference image and that produced by shifting the negative image upwards by distance Ds. More specifically, the continuous outlines indicate the black dot portions (on the white background) in the reference image, and the dotted outlines the white dot portions (on the black background) in the inverted, up-shifted image. The AND operation produces a dot matrix corresponding to the image (intersection image) shown in Fig.11, which shows the outlines of the black dot portions on the white background. Fig.12 shows the image resulting from shifting the Fig.11 image upwards by distance Ds1. Similarly, Fig.13 shows the intersection image produced by the dot matrix by shifting the Fig.5 inverted image leftwards by distance Ds, performing an AND operation of said shifted inverted image and the Fig.4 reference image, and shifting the resulting image leftwards by distance Ds1. In the same way, Fig.14 shows the intersection image resulting from a downward shift. Following the above operations (YES output of block 38 in Fig.3), the method according to the present invention provides, in block 39 in Fig.3, for intersecting the four intersection images (Fig.s 9, 12, 13 and 14) as shown in Fig.15, which shows the outlines of the logic "1" dot portions of the four intersection images. For the sake of simplicity, the dark "noise" portions are omitted in Fig.15, by virtue of failing to overlap in the above four-directional shift and so being eliminated in the intersection operation. The resulting intersection (again effected by performing an AND operation of the logic values of the dots in the four intersection images) produces a small central square or other small irregular figure inside which the actual center of the reel lies. According to the present method, the coordinates of the center of the square are then determined in block 40 to give the coordinates of the theoretical center of the reel; and, for further increasing precision, block 41 provides for determining, in the reference image, two pairs of points on the circumference of the dark portion in which the square lies, and along two perpendicular lines through the theoretical center determined previously. By virtue of the symmetry of said circumference, the two mid points of said two pairs of points provide a further estimate of the reel center (block 42). This completes determination of the reel center coordinates, which are then supplied by processing unit 20 over line 24 to numerical control unit 16, which in turn provides for further controlling articulated arm 7 so as to center gripping member 8 in relation to reel 4, and then lower the gripping member on to the reel in known manner. Gripping member 8 is therefore centered perfectly at all times in relation to reel 4, regardless of lighting conditions or any noise present in the detected image, thus enabling rapid, fully automatic transfer of reels 4 from the pickup station (pallet) to stands 5, with no operator assistance required. It should be pointed out that the same method may also be employed for detecting the center of objects of different, albeit regular, shapes, e.g. square objects, or for determining the coordinates of particular predetermined points, by appropriately selecting the amount of shift to be effected.

Claims: An automatic pickup system comprising a robot (6) having an articulated arm (7) with a gripping member (8) for gripping an object (4), said articulated arm (7) being controlled by a control section (3); characterized by the fact that said gripping member (8) presents optical means (11) for generating a detected image of at least one portion of said object, said detected image consisting of a number of dots; and by the fact that said control section (3) comprises processing means (20) for receiving said detected image and for determining the coordinates of predetermined points of the same. A system as claimed in Claim 1, characterized by the fact that said processing means (20) comprise means (34-37) for generating at least a second and third image, each consisting of a number of dots shifted in relation to those of said detected image; and intersecting means (39) for determining dots common to said images. A system as claimed in Claim 1 or 2, wherein said dots are characterized by a discrete value proportional to the luminance of the dots in said portion and ranging between a minimum and maximum value; characterized by the fact that said processing means (20) comprise means (31-33) for comparing said discrete value with a threshold value, and for generating a reference matrix including a number of dots having a logic binary value. A system as claimed in Claim 3, characterized by the fact that said comparing means (31-33) comprise means (31) for determining the relative frequencies of said discrete values of said dots; and means (32) for generating said threshold value on the basis of said relative frequencies. A system as claimed in Claim 3 or 4, characterized by the fact that said processing means (20) comprise inverting means (34) downstream from said comparing means (31-33), and which provide for generating an inverted matrix including a number of dots having an inverted binary value as compared with corresponding dots in said reference matrix. A system as claimed in Claim 5, characterized by the fact that said processing means (20) comprise first shift means (35) downstream from said inverting means (34), and which provide for generating a number of first shifted matrices, each including a number of dots, by effecting first shifts of the dots in said inverted matrix; said shifts being effected in different directions. A system as claimed in Claim 6, characterized by the fact that said processing means (20) comprise a number of multiplying means (36), each located downstream from respective first shift means (35), and which provide for performing an AND operation of the binary values of corresponding dots in said inverted matrix and a respective first shifted matrix, and for generating a respective intersection dot matrix. A system as claimed in Claim 7, characterized by the fact that said processing means (20) comprise a number of second shift means (37), each located downstream from a respective said multiplying means (36) and a respective said first shift means (35); each said second shift means generating a respective second shifted matrix, including a number of dots shifted in relation to corresponding dots in a respective intersection matrix, by effecting a second shift in the same direction as said first shift by said respective first shift means. A system as claimed in Claim 8, characterized by the fact that said processing means (20) comprise intersecting means (39) connected downstream from said number of second shift means (37), and which provide for performing an AND operation of the binary values of corresponding dots in all said second shifted matrices, and for generating a small matrix of dots having a predetermined binary value. A system as claimed in Claim 9, characterized by the fact that said processing means (20) comprise means (40-43) for determining the coordinates of the center of said small dot matrix. A system as claimed in any one of the foregoing Claims from 8 to 10, for detecting the center of the axial hole of a reel (4) of strip material, said hole presenting a predetermined radius; characterized by the fact that said first shift means (35) each generate a first shift in a predetermined direction and by an amount (Ds) equal to a fraction of said radius; and by the fact that each said second shift means (37) generates a second shift by an amount (Ds1) slightly less than said predetermined radius. A method of automatically picking up objects (4) by means of a robot (6) having an articulated arm (7) fitted with a gripping member (8) and controlled by a control section (3); characterized by the fact that it comprises stages wherein a detected image of at least one portion of said object (4) is generated by optical means (11) on said gripping member, said detected image consisting of a number of dots; and wherein the coordinates of predetermined points of said detected image are determined by said control section (3). A method as claimed in Claim 12, characterized by the fact that it comprises stages wherein at least a second and third image are generated, each consisting of a number of dots shifted in relation to the dots of said detected image; and wherein points common to said images are determined. A method as claimed in Claim 12 or 13, wherein said dots are characterized by a discrete value proportional to the luminance of the dots in said portion and ranging between a minimum and maximum value; characterized by the fact that said coordinate determining stage comprises a stage wherein said discrete value is compared with a threshold value, and a reference matrix is generated including a number of dots having a logic binary value. A method as claimed in claim 14, characterized by the fact that said stage wherein said discrete value is compared comprises a stage wherein the relative frequencies of said discrete values are determined, and said threshold value is generated on the basis of said relative frequencies. A method as claimed in Claim 14 or 15, characterized by the fact that it also comprises a stage wherein an inverted matrix is generated, including a number of dots having an inverted binary value as compared with corresponding dots in said reference matrix. A method as claimed in Claim 16, characterized by the fact that it also comprises a stage wherein a number of first shifted matrices, each including a number of dots, are generated by effecting first shifts, in different directions, of the dots in said inverted matrix. A method as claimed in Claim 17, characterized by the fact that it also comprises a stage wherein an AND operation is performed of the binary values of the dots in said inverted matrix and in each first shifted matrix, for generating a number of intersection dot matrices. A method as claimed in Claim 18, characterized by the fact that it also comprises a stage wherein a number of second shifted matrices are generated, each relative to a respective first shifted matrix, and each including a number of dots shifted, in relation to corresponding dots in a respective intersection matrix, in the same direction as said first shift of said respective first shifted matrix. A method as claimed in Claim 19, characterized by the fact that it also comprises a stage wherein an AND operation is performed of the binary values of corresponding points in all said second shifted matrices, for generating a small matrix of dots having a predetermined binary value. A method as claimed in Claim 20, characterized by the fact that it also comprises a stage wherein the coordinates of the center of said small dot matrix are determined. A method as claimed in Claim 19, for detecting the center of the axial hole of a reel of strip material, said hole presenting a predetermined radius; characterized by the fact that said first shifts are by an amount equal to a fraction of said radius; and by the fact that said stage wherein said second shifted matrices are generated comprises a stage wherein a number of second shifts of slightly less than said predetermined radius are effected.

Inventors: CHINI STEFANO, DI STEFANO GIUSEPPE, NERI ARMANDO, CHINI, STEFANO, DI STEFANO, GIUSEPPE, NERI, ARMANDO
Applicants: GD SPA, G.D SOCIETA' PER AZIONI
Application year: 1993
Main classification: B25J9
IPC codes: B25J9, B65H19, B65G61