Abstract:
An automatic vision aligned scriber includes a table, an adsorption orientation device, a bridge, a moving platform, a service controller, a printing head, a camera, a lamp and an image processor. The scriber uses a flat table for placing each footwear assembly waiting for scribing. An image system can identify each footwear assembly and measure its position and orientation on the table. A manipulator is used for controlling the printing head to move above the table and printing the lineation on each footwear assembly according to its special position and orientation relative to the table. The scriber has the advantages of digitalization and space saving.

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
       [0001]    1. Field of the Invention 
         [0002]    The present invention relates to a scriber, and more particularly to a digital and compact automatic vision aligned scriber. 
         [0003]    2. Description of the Prior Art 
         [0004]    When making shoes, basically, the respective parts (footwear assemblies) of a shoe should be printed or scribed with marks before being assembled together. For example, the respective footwear assemblies of the shoe are printed with logos, patterns or stitch marks along which the respective footwear assemblies are to be assembled together. These printed stitch marks instruct the sewer to sew or glue the footwear assemblies together by following the sew lines, and the printed patterns show the sewer where to sew the decorative pattern (at what position on the footwear assemblies the decorative pattern should be sewn). Currently, there are two methods for scribing a stitch mark, one of the methods is to prepare a slotted template, then put the template at a precise position on the footwear assemblies, and then use a pencil to draw the stitch mark on the footwear assemblies by moving the pencil along the slots of the template. Another method is to put a silk screen with open areas on the footwear assemblies, and the silk screen is precisely positioned with respect to the footwear assemblies, finally ink or other printable materials is pressed put on the silk screen and pressed through the open areas so as to leave the stitch mark on the footwear assemblies. 
         [0005]    Both of the above methods are labor intensive due to the fact that it is time-consuming to put the shoe template or the silk screen precisely at the designated positions on the footwear assemblies. Furthermore, it should repeatedly put footwear assemblies of shoes at precise positions on a table as quickly as possible, each position should be surrounded by blocks, and then the shoe template or the silk screen should be placed in alignment with the footwear assemblies, so that the shoe template an the silk screen can be moved from one footwear assembly to another footwear assembly. However, it still costs a lot of time to prepare the precise positions of the respective footwear assemblies on the table and to adjust the positions of the blocks with respect to the footwear assemblies. Bad consequence will occur if want to save time. Marking the stitch mark with the above methods requires the factory to have a large area for many tables loaded with many footwear assemblies, thus increasing the cost of purchasing real estate. 
         [0006]    Another disadvantage is that it needs to produce various shoe templates or silk screens for the respective footwear assemblies of different sized left and right shoes. Any style of shoes may involve the use of hundreds of templates, which not only increases the production cost, but requires a large warehouse to store the templates. Moreover, picking out the needed templates from the sea of templates may also cause cost increase. 
         [0007]    A third disadvantage is that the above methods need to be carried out in a hall (big room) of a factory, namely, all the footwear assemblies required for making shoes must flow through the hall, which contradicts the notion that it should try to minimize inventory and use flexible slanting production line during production. 
         [0008]    The present invention has arisen to mitigate and/or obviate the afore-described disadvantages. 
       SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
       [0009]    The primary object of the present invention is aimed at solving all the abovementioned disadvantages by providing an automatic vision aligned scriber, wherein the footwear assemblies can be automatically scribed or printed by a small computerized scriber or printer without using shoe templates or silk screen. The present invention is further capable of using image to identify and locate the positions of the footwear assemblies, so that the patterns or stitch marks can be printed or scribed at accurate positions on the respective footwear assemblies, without having to make the footwear assemblies precisely fixed on the printing surface. The printing or scribing is performed by an inkjet printer which includes a flat table and a printing head mounted on a manipulator, and the manipulator is capable of moving the printing head along the path which covers the entire area of the table. 
         [0010]    To achieve the above object, the automatic vision aligned scriber in accordance with the present invention comprises: 
         [0011]    a table for carrying footwear assemblies, on the table being mounted two rails; 
         [0012]    an adsorption orientation device for adsorbing the footwear assemblies to the table; 
         [0013]    a bridge movably mounted on the rails, bestriding over the table, and being driven to move linearly along the rails; 
         [0014]    a moving platform movable mounted on the bridge and driven to move linearly; 
         [0015]    a service controller for controlling the linear motion of the bridge and the moving platform; 
         [0016]    a printing head assembled to the moving platform; 
         [0017]    a camera mounted on the platform; 
         [0018]    a lamp mounted on the platform; 
         [0019]    an image processor connected to the camera for digitization and storage of images taken by the camera, the images covering the entire area of the table, wherein database of digital geometry of all the available footwear assemblies corresponding to patterns to be printed are saved in advance in the image processor, and the database is used to implement an image-matching program, so as to locate the positions of the footwear assemblies on the table, the automatic vision aligned scriber uses a computer to perform printing by using predetermined geometry patterns, the computer calculates the real positions of the footwear assemblies with respect to the patterns to be printed, thus producing an actual printing program of the footwear assemblies, the actual printing program is implemented by the automatic vision aligned scriber, the printing head is driven to move on the table to perform printing at the positions calculated by the printing program. 
         [0020]    The automatic vision aligned scriber in accordance with the present invention further includes an image processor which is provided with a digital camera, an image processing computer and an image analysis software. The digital camera is assembled to the movable printing head. Before printing, when the footwear assemblies are positioned at any arbitrary positions on the table, the camera takes a set of images covering the entire area of the table. The images are processed by the image processing computer. Define the geometries of all the footwear assemblies and the relation between the geometries of all the footwear assemblies and the stitch marks, the image analysis software can identify the respective footwear assemblies based on their unique geometry parameters, and the locates the position and orientation of the footwear assemblies based on the positions of the geometries of the footwear assemblies. Finally, the image analysis software can move or change the stitch marks to fit the arbitrary positions of the footwear assemblies. When all the patterns and stitch marks are reset, patterns will be printed with tiny drops of ink at the final position at which the geometry patterns need to be printed. 
         [0021]    The printing head driver can move the printing head all over the table to release tiny drops of ink to print out the patterns at the positions where the footwear assemblies are located. 
         [0022]    The footwear assemblies can be fixed on the table by many ways, such as vacuum suction or electrostatic adsorption. The electrostatic field is produced from an isolation layer displayed on the table by using DC high voltage current. The present invention is capable of continuously printing when the printed footwear assemblies are being removed from the table and unprinted footwear assemblies are being placed on the table. The design is such that the printing is performed at one half of the table while the operator put the unprinted footwear assemblies on another half of the table. 
         [0023]    To better understand how the present invention overcomes the disadvantages of the conventional art, the geometry data of the present invention is digital. Therefore, the present invention doesn&#39;t need to use shoe templates or silk screens, and according doesn&#39;t require a large area to store the hundreds of templates. Furthermore, the printing device is as small as an office desk, and the printing device can be operated by only a single operator and has a capacity same as the workload of several operators using conventional methods. Therefore, the present invention is truly labor-saving, as compared to the conventional method that requires the footwear assemblies to be put at precise positions in a large ground area, and then the footwear assemblies are manually marked one by one by using a template. 
     
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         [0024]      FIG. 1  is a flow chart showing an automatic vision aligned scriber in accordance with the present invention; 
           [0025]      FIG. 2  is an assembly view of the automatic vision aligned scriber in accordance with the present invention; 
           [0026]      FIG. 3  is a perspective view showing a table of the automatic vision aligned scriber in accordance with the present invention; and 
           [0027]      FIG. 4  is an illustrative view of a part of  FIG. 3 . 
       
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS 
       [0028]    The present invention will be clearer from the following description when viewed together with the accompanying drawings, which show, for purpose of illustrations only, the preferred embodiment in accordance with the present invention. 
         [0029]    Referring to  FIGS. 1-4 , an automatic vision aligned scriber in accordance with the present invention includes a table  20 , an adsorption orientation device, a bridge  4 , a moving platform  10 , a service controller  43 , a printing head  9 , a camera  11 , a lamp  13  and an image processor  40 . 
         [0030]    The table  20  is used to carry the footwear assemblies  14  and  16 , which are adsorbed to the table  20  by the adsorption orientation device (such as a vacuum pump  30 ) and wait to be printed, as shown in  FIG. 2 . 
         [0031]    The printing head  9  is assembled to the moving platform  10 , and the moving platform  10  is movably mounted on the bridge  4  and capable of moving in the direction Y together with the bridge  4  and further capable of sliding along the bridge  4  to move in the direction X to across the table  20 , so that the printing head  9  can cover the entire area of the table  20 . It is to be noted that the moving and orientation of the bridge  4  in the direction Y is controlled by a motor  5  and a position feedback encoder  6 , and the moving and orientation of the moving platform  10  in the direction X is controlled by a motor  7  and a position feedback encoder  8 . The bridge  4  bestrides over the table and is driven to move linearly along the rails  2 ,  3  mounted on the table  20 . In this embodiment, the rail  3  is a screw to be rotated by the motor  5 , which consequently causes the movement of the bridge  4 . Similarly, the platform  10  can also be driven to move linearly by the motor  7 . 
         [0032]    The table  20  can also be equally divided into two halves  20   a  and  20   b,  each of which is connected to the vacuum pump  30  by a vacuum pipe line (not shown), and two electrically controlled valves  23 ,  24  are selectively used to control the vacuum pump, so that the vacuum pump can be control to selectively produce vacuum on the two halves  20   a  or  20   b  of the table  20 . 
         [0033]    A digital camera  11  with a lens  12  is mounted on a pillar  26  which is assembled on the moving platform  10 , so that the camera  11  is able to move on the table  20  in the directions X and Y. The camera  11  includes a visible area  18  which covers a part of the table  20 . It is to be noted that the camera  11  can be set into a stationary mode, in which the camera  11  is fixed with respect to the table  20 , and the visible area  18  covers the entire area of the table  20 . Or, there can be several cameras  11  all fixed with respect to the table  20 , and the visible areas of the cameras  11  add up to the entire area of the table  20 . 
         [0034]    The lamp  13  is assembled onto the pillar  26  and moves together with the camera  11 , so that the lamp  13  can be driven by a lamp driver  15  to illuminate the visible area  18  of the camera  11  all the time. 
         [0035]    The digital database of the geometry of the various available footwear assemblies and the combined geometry of the stitch marks of the footwear assemblies are all digitized and saved in the memory of an image processor  40  in advance. The digital database can be obtained from the computer-aided shoe design system, such as the Delcam. 
         [0036]    What mentioned above is the summary of the positional and structural relations of the main components of the present invention. 
         [0037]    For a better understanding of the operation of the automatic vision aligned scriber of the present invention, please refer to  FIGS. 1-4 . The respective footwear assemblies, such as the footwear assemblies  14 ,  16 , are all placed at arbitrary positions on the table  20 , once the footwear assemblies  14 ,  16  are placed on the table, they will be adsorbed to the table  20  by the vacuum suction produced by the vacuum pump  30 . Then, the camera  11  will move to the first position (X c , Y c ), at which, the camera  11  can cover the visible area  18  and take a picture of the visible area  18 . After that, the camera  11  is moved to the next position to cover the visible area  19  and take a picture. Hence, the camera  11  can be moved to a series of positions to take a picture at each position, then the pictures can be digitized and saved in the image processor  40 , and finally, the pictures can add up to cover the entire area of the table  20 . The image processor  40  then will analyze the digital pictures by using picture-matching rule systems. The rule systems are known and commercially available from many companies, such Matrox of Canada and Cognex of America, and can be used to search between the various footwear assemblies on the table  20  and the digital geometries of all the available footwear assemblies, and the available footwear assemblies are saved in advance in the memory of the image processor  40 . Once a matched digital geometry is found, the picture-matching rule system can identify and locate the position and orientation of all the footwear assemblies  14 ,  16  on the table  20 . 
         [0038]    The position data of the footwear assemblies  14 ,  16  is transmitted from the image processor  40  to a main system computer  41 , and then the main system computer  41  calculates the geometry changes of each stitch mark with respect to the corresponding footwear assembly, just like putting the stitch marks on the table  20 . The main system computer  41  is further capable of transferring the newly calculated geometries of the stitch marks to a printing program based on the coordination system of the table  20 , so that the geometries can be printed on the footwear assemblies  14  and  16 , and each of geometries is precisely scribed on the corresponding footwear assemblies  14  and  16 , just like putting the geometry at any arbitrary position on the table  20 . 
         [0039]    The printing program is downloaded to a printing head driver  42  from the main system computer  41 , and the printing head driver  42  is capable of receiving the position data of the printing head  9  directly from a XY service controller  43 . The main system computer  41  orders the service controller  43  to move the printing head driver  42  by turning on the path on the table  20 , and the path will finally cover the entire area of the table  20 . When the printing head driver  42  moves, it can receive position data from the service controller  43  to perform printing based on the data of the printing program downloaded from the main system computer  41 . 
         [0040]    To make the scriber of the present invention has better utility, the table  20  can be divided into two halves  20   a  and  20   b  which can work independently by using vacuum suction to fix the footwear assemblies  14 ,  16 , so that manipulator can download new footwear assemblies waiting for scribing (printing) onto one of the two halves of the table  20 , and another of the two halves of the table  20  can continue to perform printing, in other words, the present invention is capable of continuously and simultaneously carrying out the operations of printing and loading the footwear assemblies. 
         [0041]    In general, the structure disclosed in the embodiment of the present invention overcomes all the disadvantages of the conventional art, wherein the footwear assemblies can be automatically scribed or printed by a small computerized scriber or printer without using shoe templates or silk screen. The present invention is further capable of using image to identify and locate the position and orientation of the footwear assemblies, so that the patterns or stitch marks can be printed or scribed at accurate positions on the respective footwear assemblies, without having to make the footwear assemblies precisely fixed on the printing surface. 
         [0042]    While we have shown and described various embodiments in accordance with the present invention, it is clear to those skilled in the art that further embodiments may be made without departing from the scope of the present invention.