Source: http://www.google.com/patents/US7654380?ie=ISO-8859-1&dq=6181294
Timestamp: 2015-04-21 15:39:00
Document Index: 272560548

Matched Legal Cases: ['art.\n3', 'art.\n4', 'art.\n5', 'Application No. 2005', 'art 5', 'art 5', 'art 5', 'art 5', 'art 5', 'art 5', 'art 5', 'art 5', 'art 5']

Patent US7654380 - Handling system, work system, and program - Google PatentsSearch Images Maps Play YouTube News Gmail Drive More »Sign inAdvanced Patent SearchPatentsA handling system able to efficiently process information relating to a plurality of conveyed articles, the handling system provided with a conveyer for conveying workpieces, a visual sensor for detecting positions of workpieces by acquiring images of a plurality of tracking ranges obtained by dividing...http://www.google.com/patents/US7654380?utm_source=gb-gplus-sharePatent US7654380 - Handling system, work system, and programAdvanced Patent SearchPublication numberUS7654380 B2Publication typeGrantApplication numberUS 11/472,279Publication dateFeb 2, 2010Filing dateJun 22, 2006Priority dateJul 7, 2005Fee statusPaidAlso published asDE102006031178A1, DE102006031178B4, US8442668, US20070007924, US20100094453Publication number11472279, 472279, US 7654380 B2, US 7654380B2, US-B2-7654380, US7654380 B2, US7654380B2InventorsYasunori Nishihara, Toshihiko NakaneOriginal AssigneeToshiba Kikai Kabushiki KaishaExport CitationBiBTeX, EndNote, RefManPatent Citations (7), Non-Patent Citations (2), Referenced by (5), Classifications (30), Legal Events (2) External Links: USPTO, USPTO Assignment, EspacenetHandling system, work system, and program
US 7654380 B2Abstract
a conveying part for moving a carrying part on which a plurality of articles are carried along a conveyance path and thereby conveying said plurality of articles;
a visual sensor for repeating imaging of an imaging region set in said conveyance path at a predetermined time interval, acquiring an image of each of a plurality of tracking ranges obtained by dividing said carrying part in a conveyance direction, and detecting relative positions of articles within each tracking range with respect to each tracking range based on each acquired image;
a movement amount detecting part for detecting an amount of movement of said carrying part;
a tracking range monitoring part for monitoring the amounts of movement of said plurality of tracking ranges from said imaging region based on the amount of movement detected by said movement amount detecting part and specifying the tracking range passing through a predetermined detection area;
an article selecting part for selecting an article satisfying a predetermined selection condition within the tracking range specified by said tracking range monitoring part;
a handling part for following and selectively picking up articles selected by the article selecting part carried on said carrying part; and
a controlling part for controlling the operation of said handling part so as to follow and pick up the article selected by said article selecting part based on the amount of movement detected by said movement amount detecting part and the relative positions detected by said visual sensor;
wherein the system is further provided with a data managing part for generating a plurality of tracking data corresponding to individual tracking ranges and a storing part for storing said plurality of tracking data generated by said data managing part, said tracking data includes movement amount information able to specify the amount of movement of a corresponding tracking range from said imaging region, and, when there are any articles in the corresponding tracking range, further includes the same number of article data as the number of articles within the corresponding tracking range, said article data includes article position information able to specify the relative position of a corresponding article with respect to said tracking range, said data managing part updates said movement amount information stored in said storing part based on the amount of movement detected by said movement amount detecting part, the tracking range monitoring part monitors the amount movement of said tracking range from said imaging region with reference to said movement amount information of said tracking data and specifies the tracking data of the tracking range passing through said detection area, said article selecting part selects article data satisfying said selection condition with reference to the article data included in the tracking data specified by said tracking range monitoring part, and said controlling part specifies the relative position of said article with respect to said handling part based on said movement amount information included in the tracking data specified by said tracking range monitoring part and said article position information included in the article data selected by said article selecting part and makes said handling part follow said article.
2. A handling system as set forth in claim 1, wherein said visual sensor specifies additional information concerning the appearance of said article based on said image, said data managing part generates said tracking data so that said additional information of the article is included in the article data corresponding to the article, and said article selecting part selects the article data satisfying said selection condition with reference to said additional information of said article data included in the tracking data specified by said tracking range monitoring part.
3. A handling system as set forth in claim 1, wherein said visual sensor specifies additional information concerning the appearance of said article based on said image, said data managing part generates said tracking data so that said additional information of the article is included in the article data corresponding to the article, and said controlling part makes said handling part execute different operations in accordance with the content of the additional information with reference to the additional information of the article data selected by said article selecting part.
4. A handling system as set forth in claim 1, wherein the system is further provided with a display device for displaying predetermined information, said visual sensor specifies additional information concerning the appearance of said article based on said image, said data managing part generates said tracking data so that said additional information of the article is included in the article data corresponding to the article, and said display device displays the additional information of the article data selected by said article selecting part.
5. A handling system as set forth in claim 2, wherein said additional information is information able to specify the type of said article.
6. A work system comprising:
a work part for selectively performing work on the article selected by the article selecting part carried on said carrying part; and
a controlling part for controlling the operation of said work part so as to perform work on the article selected by said article selecting part based on the amount of movement detected by said movement amount detecting part and the relative positions detected by said visual sensor;
7. A handling system as set forth in claim 1 wherein:
said tracking range monitoring part specifies one of said tracking ranges as a head tracking range and one of said tracking ranges as a tail tracking range; and
said article selecting part selects said article within a region from said head tracking range to said tail tracking range.
8. A work system as set forth in claim 6 wherein:
said article selecting part selects said article within a region from said head tracking range to said tail tracking range. Description
The present invention contains subject matter related to Japanese Patent Application No. 2005-199060 filed in the Japan Patent Office on Jul. 7, 2005, the entire contents of which being incorporated herein by reference.
The visual sensor 3 is connected via a HUB 8 to the robot controllers 6. Namely, the visual sensor 3 and the robot controllers 6 are connected by a star formed LAN, and signals from the visual sensor 3 are output to the plurality of robot controllers 6 by parallel communication. Due to this, high speed communication of the data become possible while maintaining an inexpensive configuration by using a conventional visual sensor. Note that the standard of the LAN is for example the Ethernet�.
Each robot 5 is provided with a pickup part 5 a for picking up a workpiece 100 and an arm part 5 b for moving the pickup part 5 a with respect to the conveyance path R1. The pickup part 5 a can selectively pick up one workpiece 100 among a plurality of workpieces 100 on the belt 12 by an appropriate pickup method such as clamping or suction holding of the workpiece 100. Note that the picked up part 5 a may be one that can selectively pick up two or more workpieces 100. In the arm part 5 b, the length of the arm and the degree of freedom of the joint are set so that the pickup part 5 a can be moved in a synchronizable area R11 (see FIG. 4) on the conveyance path R1. The plurality of robots 5 are provided adjacent to the conveyance path R1. Note that the plurality of robots 5 may be arranged along the conveyance direction A1, or the plurality of robots 5 may be arranged while sandwiching the conveyance path R1 between them.
The data management unit 21 a generates, updates, erases, etc. the tracking data D1 stored in the storage unit 22. The content of the tracking data D1 will be explained later. The tracking manager 21 b monitors the position of the tracking range R5 with reference to the tracking data D1. The workpiece manager 21 c searches for (selects) the workpiece 100 with reference to the tracking data D1. The controller 21 d controls the operation of the robot 5 based on the information etc. of the workpiece 100 selected by the tracking manager 21 c. Specifically, it controls the operations of a pickup motor 18 for driving the pickup part 5 a and an arm motor 19 for driving the arm part 5 b. The storage unit 22 is configured by for example a RAM in which data is read and written by the processing unit 21. The input unit 23 is configured by a key switch etc. and outputs a signal in response to an input operation of the user to the processing unit 21. The display unit 24 is configured by for example a liquid crystal display or a CRT display and displays an image based on a signal from the processing unit 21.
For the tracking number D11, for example use is made of an integer incremented by �1� by the processing unit 21 whenever imaging is carried out by the visual sensor 3 and a trigger signal is output. Namely, serial numbers are sequentially attached from the head side tracking range R5 of the conveyance direction A1. FIG. 3 illustrates a case where the tracking number D11 is the suffix of array data.
Specifically, the tracking manager 21 b specifies the tracking number of the head (downstream side) tracking range R5 in the workpiece detection area R12 and the tracking number of the tail (upstream side) tracking range R5 in the workpiece detection area R12 among a plurality of tracking ranges R5. In the following description, these head tracking number and tail tracking number will be sometimes referred to as just the �head� and �tail�.
The robot controller 6 searches for workpieces 100 from the head to tail track number tracking ranges R5. Then, the retrieved workpieces 100 are subjected to various processing such as pickup control by the robot 5. Note that these workpiece 100 and tracking range R5 being processed will be referred to as the �current workpiece� and �current tracking range�, while the workpiece number of the current workpiece and the track number of the current tracking range will be sometimes referred to as the �current workpiece number� and �current track number�.
At step S26, the processing unit 21 judges whether or not the next workpiece was specified at step S24. When it judges that the next workpiece was not specified, the processing unit 21 returns to step S24. When it judges that the next workpiece was specified, it judges whether or not control for picking up and sorting the current workpieces started at step S23 has ended and the robot 5 can start tracking to the next workpiece and stands by until it judges that starting is possible (step S27). When it judges that starting is possible, the processing unit 21 determines the track number and the workpiece number of the next workpiece as the current track number and the current workpiece number (step S28), then returns to step S23 and starts the next tracking control.
Note that the destination is specified and the control is ended by interruption processing triggered by an operation by the user on the input unit 23. Alternatively, the settings may be changed. Due to this, for example the user can suitably sort workpieces etc. while obtaining information of the next workpiece by the screen updated at step S25 of FIG. 7.
Patent CitationsCited PatentFiling datePublication dateApplicantTitleUS5040056Jan 29, 1990Aug 13, 1991Technistar CorporationAutomated system for locating and transferring objects on a conveyor beltUS5207331 *Aug 28, 1991May 4, 1993Westinghouse Electric Corp.Automatic system and method for sorting and stacking reusable cartonsUS6293408 *Jul 15, 1998Sep 25, 2001Robotic Vision Systems, Inc. (Rvsi)Inspection handler apparatus and methodUS20050075752Oct 7, 2004Apr 7, 2005Fanuc LtdRobotic physical distribution tracking systemJP2000219317A Title not availableJP2005111607A Title not availableJPH0972717A Title not available* Cited by examinerNon-Patent CitationsReference1English translation of German Office Action issued in counterpart German Application No. DE 10 2006 031 178.7-15, mailed Sep. 12, 2007.2Office Action issued in German Application No. DE 10 2006 031 178.7-15, mailed Sep. 12, 2007.Referenced byCiting PatentFiling datePublication dateApplicantTitleUS8554369 *Feb 14, 2011Oct 8, 2013Honda Motor Co., LtdMachining system and methodUS8606400 *Jan 20, 2012Dec 10, 2013Kabushiki Kaisha Yaskawa DenkiRobot systemUS8781616Jun 8, 2012Jul 15, 2014The Procter & Gamble CompanyRobotic unscrambler and methodUS8868231 *Aug 10, 2011Oct 21, 2014Xerox CorporationFlexible production collating systemUS20130041495 *Aug 10, 2011Feb 14, 2013Xerox CorporationFlexible production collating system* Cited by examinerClassifications U.S. Classification198/349, 414/770, 209/546, 209/542, 198/349.1, 209/583, 414/757, 209/600, 414/789.1, 209/539, 414/768, 414/791.1, 414/794.2, 414/791.2, 414/794, 209/556, 209/540, 209/580International ClassificationB07C5/36, B65G9/00, B65G15/00, B07C5/02Cooperative ClassificationG05B2219/40554, B25J9/0093, B25J9/1697, G05B2219/39106, G05B19/4182European ClassificationB25J9/00T, B25J9/16V1, G05B19/418C1Legal EventsDateCodeEventDescriptionMar 13, 2013FPAYFee paymentYear of fee payment: 4Jun 22, 2006ASAssignmentOwner name: TOSHIBA KIKAI KABUSHIKI KAISHA, JAPANFree format text: ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNORS INTEREST;ASSIGNORS:NISHIHARA, YASUNORI;NAKANE, TOSHIHIKO;REEL/FRAME:018006/0859Effective date: 20060606Owner name: TOSHIBA KIKAI KABUSHIKI KAISHA,JAPANFree format text: ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNORS INTEREST;ASSIGNORS:NISHIHARA, YASUNORI;NAKANE, TOSHIHIKO;US-ASSIGNMENT DATABASE UPDATED:20100203;REEL/FRAME:18006/859RotateOriginal ImageGoogle Home - Sitemap - USPTO Bulk Downloads - Privacy Policy - Terms of Service - About Google Patents - Send FeedbackData provided by IFI CLAIMS Patent Services