JPS605492B2 - Conveyance system control method and device using 3D image recognition - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] The present invention is based on the recognition of an optical three-dimensional image obtained by rotating the conveyed object under light irradiation in a conveyance system constructed by combining various logistics equipment and combined use with equipment. The present invention relates to a transport system control method and apparatus having an automatic judgment function and an automatic control function of a transport process.

In more detail, we will refer to transportation systems that are configured in conjunction with logistics equipment and equipment, such as various transportation wheels, various lifting devices, various conveyors, various pallets/containers, various related equipment, and various storage/storage equipment. The system recognizes the unique three-dimensional image that the conveyed object inevitably has, without giving the conveyed object any prior information such as color labels, text labels, reflective marks, reflective tape, etc., and uses this unique information to The present invention relates to a fully automatic conveyance system control method and apparatus for controlling physical distribution, in which computer functions are used to make automatic judgments necessary for fully automating physical distribution between connected devices. Today, the rationalization and modernization of physical distribution means that materials from production to consumption are viewed as a consistent flow.
There is a growing trend to reduce total costs by shortening and fully automating these routes, and to find meaning in improving the efficiency of economic activities through this.

In this sense, the objects to be transported will tend to become more diverse and segmented in the future, and the development of fully automated transport systems is of great significance. In the past, great efforts have been made to systemize transportation, promoting rational and economical development of logistics equipment and equipment. If we look at each unit of logistics equipment, such as various transport trucks, various lifting devices, various conveyors, various pallets/containers, and various related equipment, each functional entity can fully demonstrate its capabilities. It has been developed to a certain level. However, the current situation is that in many cases, human brain judgment and human effort are required to some extent at the connection points where these various logistics devices are connected. Currently, the problem of this connection point is the biggest obstacle to the full automation of transport systems, but two methods are being explored to deal with this problem.

One method is to standardize and standardize all conveyed items, and use this standard to achieve full automation of the conveyance system.The other method is to attach information such as labels or marks to the conveyed items in advance before transport, and to automate this. This is a method of fully automating the conveyance system while reading the information.

All of these methods are subject to major restrictions on the type of objects to be transported, and require a large amount of labor before being transported.As the objects to be transported become more diverse and subdivided, system efficiency may decline, and the replaceability of transported objects may decrease. It has the disadvantage of lacking in The present invention is intended to eliminate such conventional drawbacks, and its purpose is to automatically handle different types of objects with different sizes and external shapes without requiring manual labor before transporting them, and without reducing system efficiency. An object of the present invention is to provide a method and apparatus for controlling a conveyance system that can be carried out in a controlled manner.

In other words, the method for controlling a conveyance system of the present invention is to rotate a conveyance system by 180 degrees around a certain axis while irradiating a parallel beam of light from one side of the conveyed object to the entire surface of the conveyed object, in a conveyance system configured by combining various logistics equipment and using in combination with equipment. Then, a light-receiving section having a light-receiving surface perpendicular to the parallel light rays on the back side of the transported object detects the shadow of the transported object at each discontinuous step angle, and converts the signal from the light-receiving section into a three-dimensional image of the transported object. This data is stored in a storage device as data, and this data is compared with data of a standard 3D image of the transported object stored in the storage device in advance through arithmetic processing to recognize the 3D image characteristics unique to the transported object, The present invention is characterized in that the conveyance process is automatically determined and automatically controlled based on the recognition of the three-dimensional image characteristics.

Further, the conveyance system control device of the present invention is a conveyance system control device configured by combining various logistics equipment and used in combination with equipment, and includes a conveyance object receiving device and a light projecting unit for irradiating parallel light beams onto the conveyance object. The light receiving section has a light receiving surface perpendicular to the parallel light rays from the light projecting section and detects the shadow of the conveyed object, and a rotary plate located between the light projecting section and the light receiving section for controlling the conveyed object. A light irradiation rotation device that optically reads the three-dimensional image of the transported object, an input device that transfers the optically continued three-dimensional image of the transported object to a storage device, and the optically continued three-dimensional image of the transported object. A storage device that stores a standard three-dimensional image of the conveyed object, an arithmetic processing unit that recognizes the three-dimensional image characteristics unique to the conveyed object, a control output device that controls the next process based on the recognition of the three-dimensional image characteristics, and a control output device that stores the three-dimensional image of the conveyed object. The present invention is characterized by a conveyance system control device comprising a sending device.

The present invention will be explained in detail below.

First, when a parallel beam of light is irradiated onto the entire surface of the conveyed object from one side, a shadow of the actual size of the conveyed object is projected onto the light-receiving surface on the back side, which is perpendicular to the traveling direction of the parallel light beam.

Next, when the conveyed object is rotated and parallel light beams are irradiated from another angle in the same manner as above, a shadow of the actual size of the conveyed object at that angle is projected. In this way, 1800
By irradiating parallel light rays at every increment angle up to, that is, at each predetermined angle, shadows for each increment angle of the conveyed object can be obtained. In this case, on the light-receiving surface, the light ray passing through the center of the rotation axis forms a virtual line segment that virtually bisects the light-receiving surface, but this virtual line segment is used as a reference line on the light-receiving surface, and the shadow in the direction perpendicular to this is By sensing the length, a shadow spectrum that depends on the rotation angle of the conveyed object can be obtained. This shadow spectrum is deformed depending on the center position of the rotation axis that rotates the conveyed object, but by analyzing the shadow spectrum for each increment angle when the conveyed object is rotated up to 180 degrees, a three-dimensional image of the conveyed object can be uniquely obtained. can be recognized. The conveyed object is fed into the central part of the light irradiation rotation device by the receiving device.

This light irradiation rotation device is a device for optically loosening the three-dimensional image of the transported object, and is provided with a rotary plate in the center for rotating the transported object in a horizontal plane. That-
A light projecting section for irradiating the conveyed object with parallel light rays is provided on the side, and a light receiving section having a light receiving surface perpendicular to the traveling direction of the parallel light rays is provided on the surface facing this. For example, the following parts are used as the light projecting part and the light receiving part.
The light emitting part is formed by arranging light emitting elements such as light emitting diodes vertically and horizontally in a lattice pattern with 5 ribs, while the light receiving part is formed using photoelectric converters such as phototransistors and photodiodes. Similar to the above-mentioned light-emitting element, a functional light-receiving element is formed by arranging ION blocks vertically and horizontally in a grid pattern at five rib intervals so as to correspond to the above-mentioned light-emitting element. However, when a parallel beam of light is irradiated from the light projector onto an object placed on the rotary plate, the light is blocked by the object and has a shadowed area and a light-receiving area on the light-receiving area. Each light-receiving element in the form of a lattice point emits a binary electric signal indicating whether or not light is blocked.

Binarized data based on this electrical signal is transferred by an input device and stored in a storage device. The shading spectrum for each step angle corresponds to this electrical signal. Rotate the rotary plate up to 180°, detect shadows in the same manner as above for each increment angle, store the electrical signals in the memory device in address order, and store the binarized data for each increment angle up to 180° rotation. One set is data of a three-dimensional image of the conveyed object. The above step angle is usually in the range of 5o to 20o. For example, if the step angle is 15o, shadow detection will be performed 12 times, and 12 pieces of binarized data will form a set of three-dimensional image data of the conveyed object.
In addition to the data of the three-dimensional image of the conveyed object, the data of the three-dimensional image of the conveyed object is compared with the data of the standard three-dimensional image of the conveyed object, which is processed by the arithmetic processing unit according to the software program and stored in advance in the storage device. Image characteristics are recognized. At this time, a comparison with a standard three-dimensional image of the conveyed object is performed to determine whether or not the three-dimensional image has unique three-dimensional image characteristics by setting an allowable range. Note that the data of the standard three-dimensional image of the conveyed object is stored in the storage device as binarized data in the form of actual-sized lattice points, similar to the three-dimensional image of the conveyed object described above. Such standard data may be obtained by detecting a standard conveyed object in advance using the light irradiation and rotation device, or may be obtained by calculation. The three-dimensional image characteristics of the transported object include height, width, depth, cross-sectional shape, external volume,
Symmetry, protrusion, plane parallelism, etc. can be mentioned, and these can be changed depending on the contents of the software program.

The control output device controls the next process using a software program based on the above three-dimensional image characteristics. The above-mentioned conveyed object receiving device and sending device may be of a generally used mechanical structure, and a positioning mechanism that requires particularly high precision is not required.

The transport system control method and device of the present invention has a light irradiation and rotation device as its central axis, and based on the information obtained from stereoscopic image recognition, the software program makes decisions and controls to fully automate the transport process. It is applicable not only to specific conveyance items but also to a wide range of general conveyance processes, and has sufficient followability even when dealing with future diversification and segmentation of conveyance items.

Next, typical embodiments of a method and apparatus for controlling a conveyance system using stereoscopic image recognition according to the present invention will be described.

(Example of Sorting Items Using Three-Dimensional Image Recognition) Figure 1 is a simple system configuration diagram in which a wide variety of items are conveyed simultaneously on a conveyor and are sorted into a number of types based on the three-dimensional characteristics of the items.

The products flowing through the loaf conveyor 1 are fed into the center of the light irradiation rotation device 4 by the feed conveyor 2. In this case, the central positioning of the item in the device is 2 and 7
determined by the temporary counter-rotation of the roller conveyor. 5 is a light irradiation section, and 6 is a light receiving section.

The item rotates 1'2 at a certain angle on the rotary plate 3,
It is delivered to the roller conveyor 10 through the delivery conveyor 2 (rotating in the opposite direction to the feeding time).

During this time, the shadow spectrum is sensed by 5 and 6, and the storage and arithmetic processing unit 8 recognizes the three-dimensional image (characteristics) according to the software program.Based on this result, the controller 9 controls the roller conveyors A, B, C, D, and E. A stop order is given to one of them. For example, when roller conveyor D stops, the conveyed items are forced to stop between roller conveyors C and D, and pusher d works to sort them onto roller conveyor 〇.

Items other than those sorted into A', B', C', 0, and 8 are carried out from the roller conveyor 11. (Example of sorting items by stereoscopic image recognition) An example of the use of the present invention will be described in which a wide variety of items are conveyed simultaneously on a conveyor and assembled into several sets depending on the three-dimensional characteristics of the items.

FIG. 2 is a simple system configuration diagram in this case. The products flowing through the loaf conveyor 1 are fed into the center of the light irradiation rotation device 4 by the feed conveyor 2. As in the previous example, the position of the item in the device is determined by roller conveyors 2 and 7, and the item rotates 1/2 at a certain increment angle between the light emitting part 5 and the light receiving part 6 on the rotary plate 3, and then moves to the delivery conveyor. It is sent out by roller conveyor 1 river through 2. During this time, the above-mentioned shadow spectrum is sensed, and the storage and arithmetic processing unit 8 recognizes the stereoscopic image (characteristics) according to the software program. Based on this result, the control device 9 determines whether or not the roller conveyor 11 is stopped. Items that have flowed in the order of the assortment set advance, but items that are out of order are returned to the original conveyor when the roller conveyor 11 stops and the pusher 16 operates. 15 is the necessary return conveyor.

The roller conveyor 13 stops until one set is completed during the above-mentioned repetitive work, but when it is completed, it advances, carries out one set to the roller conveyor 14, and stops again. By repeating this long period of work, it is possible to rearrange the items and transport them out in sets of assorted items. As mentioned above, two representative examples were given, but
It is possible to simultaneously add a metering factor to the system control method and apparatus of the present invention. In the conveyance system control method of the present invention, as described above, parallel light beams are applied to the entire surface of the conveyed object from one side, so that the shape of the entire conveyed object viewed from one side can be detected as a shadow. Since the object is rotated by 180 degrees and the change in shadow is detected as data for each discontinuous cutting angle, the three-dimensional shape of the object to be transported can be easily detected.

In addition, the data for each discontinuous increment angle is analyzed to recognize the 3D image characteristics unique to the conveyed object. This is something that can be easily grasped.Furthermore, since parallel light is irradiated as described above, the shadow of the conveyed object can be obtained at its actual size, and the 3D image characteristics unique to the conveyed object can be recognized as actual measured values. Therefore, when controlling the conveyance system, there are no restrictions on the type of conveyed objects, and there is no need for a large amount of human labor such as marking them in advance before conveyance. Furthermore, since the transport system control device of the present invention employs the above configuration, the transport system control method described above can be easily carried out.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 shows an example of an article sorting system using stereoscopic image recognition according to the present invention, and FIG. 2 shows an example of an article sorting system using stereoscopic image recognition according to the present invention. Multi-1 drawing Multi-Z drawing

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1. In a conveyance system consisting of a combination of various logistics equipment and combined use with equipment, a conveyance object is rotated 180° around a certain axis while irradiating parallel light from one side to the entire surface of the conveyed object, A light-receiving section with a light-receiving surface perpendicular to the parallel light beam on the back side of the transported object detects the shadow of the transported object at each discontinuous step angle, and the signal from the light-receiving section is used as data of a three-dimensional image of the transported object. This data is stored in a storage device, and this data is compared with data of a standard 3D image of the transported object stored in the storage device in advance through arithmetic processing to recognize the 3D image characteristics unique to the transported object, and the 3D image is A method for controlling a conveyance system, characterized by automatically determining and automatically controlling a conveyance process based on specific recognition. 2. A method for controlling a conveyance system according to claim 1, wherein conveyed objects are sorted by recognition of stereoscopic image characteristics. 3. A method for controlling a conveyance system according to claim 1, in which the conveyed objects are rearranged by recognition of stereoscopic image characteristics. 4. In a conveyance system control device that is composed of a combination of various logistics equipment and combined use with equipment, there is a device for receiving conveyed objects, a light projecting section for irradiating parallel light onto the conveyed objects, and a beam perpendicular to the parallel light from the light projecting section. optically reads the three-dimensional image of the conveyed object, which is composed of a light-receiving section that has a light-receiving surface and detects shadows of the conveyed object, and a rotary plate on which the conveyed object is placed between the light projecting section and the light-receiving section. a light irradiation rotation device, an input device that transfers an optically read three-dimensional image of the transported object to a storage device, a storage device that stores the optically read three-dimensional image of the transported object and a standard three-dimensional image of the transported object; A conveyance system control device comprising: an arithmetic processing unit that recognizes stereoscopic image characteristics unique to a conveyed object; a control output device that controls the next process based on the recognition of the stereoscopic image characteristics; and a delivery device for the conveyed object.