JPS6219232B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to an automatic sorting device for sorting crops such as fruits such as apples and vegetables such as cucumbers by weight, and in particular, a classification error detection method for detecting classification errors in such an automatic sorting device. Regarding the method.

This type of automatic sorting device, as typified by a fruit sorting machine that sorts fruit by weight, has a cup conveyance line that sequentially conveys the cups for placing the fruit, and includes a placing section for placing the fruit in the cup; A weighing section that measures the weight of the fruit placed in the cup; a classifying section that has multiple classification sections for discharging the fruit by tipping over the cup; and a classification section that classifies the fruit placed in the cup into weight classes; It has a non-class dispensing section for discharging crops to be sorted that do not correspond to the class, sequentially in the cup conveyance direction,
Whether or not the weighed fruit placed on the cup has reached the classifier corresponding to its weight is determined by the number of pulses proportional to the amount of movement of the conveyance chain of the cup conveyance line, and the corresponding classifier is driven to place the fruit. The placed fruits are dispensed, and fruits that do not fall into the weight class of the sorting section and are not dispensed are dispensed by overturning all the cups in the non-grading dispensing section.

By the way, in such conventional automatic sorting equipment, if an electrical problem occurs such as stretching of the conveying chain or failure of the classification device, the loaded items will not be classified into the intended class and will be swept to the end of the line and rejected. It will be sold as a commodity. Conventional devices do not have a means for detecting and displaying such classification errors, and as a result, classification errors continue to occur, which may impede the sorting work.

The present invention therefore aims to improve the above-mentioned drawbacks of the prior art, and its purpose is to provide a method for detecting classification errors.

The features of the present invention for achieving the above object include, regarding a cup conveyance line that sequentially conveys a plurality of cups, a placing part for placing crops to be sorted on the cups, and a botanical characteristic of the cup placement. There is a detection unit that detects, a sorting unit that has a plurality of classifying devices for discharging the placed items by overturning the cup, and classifies the placed items by class, and a sorting unit that removes crops that do not fall into each class of the classification unit. In an automatic sorting device, which is provided with sequentially dispensing parts in the cup conveying direction, and in which the placed items that have not been taken out by the sorting part are taken out by the unsorted unloading part, the placed items to be taken out by the unsorted unloading part are detected. A non-class dispensing part detecting means is provided, and by detecting the dispensing of a placed object by the means, it is determined whether or not the placed object delivered to the non-class dispensing part should be classified in any class of the classification section. It is determined based on whether or not the placed object has been designated as an out-of-class payout by the detection section, and if the result of this determination is that it should be classified in any of the classes of the classification section, a classification error is displayed. There is a method for detecting classification errors in automatic sorting equipment such as automatic sorting equipment.

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

1, 2, and 3 are examples of the configuration of an automatic sorting device showing one embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 4 is a block diagram of a control device that controls the configuration.

In FIG. 1, reference number 1 is a cup conveying line, 2 is a loading section, 3 is a measuring section, 4 is a classifying section, and 5 is an out-of-grade dispensing section.

The cup conveyance line 1 includes a cup 6 for placing fruits.
and an endless chain (not shown) to which the cups are attached at predetermined intervals and convey them.
The cup 6 is conveyed from left to right in the drawing as shown by the arrow, and the driven section 8 reverses the conveying direction and the drive section 7 drives the chain. Then transport it again in the direction of the arrow. The placing part 2 is provided following the driving part 7,
A work area for artificially placing fruit on the cup 6 is formed. The weighing section 3 is provided following the placing section 2, has a weighing device 9, measures the weight of each cup being conveyed, and outputs the weighed value as an electrical analog quantity. The classification section 4 includes a plurality of classification devices 10 arranged in series in the transport direction of the cup transport line 1.
a, 10b, . . . 10g, and each classification device is provided with a chute 11a, 11b, .

FIG. 2 shows an example of the configuration of a classification device according to the present invention.
A side view is shown. In the figure, 601 is a cup support member that supports the cup 6 at its upper end, 602 is a sliding pin provided at the lower end of the cup support member 601 and protrudes in the vertical direction in the drawing, and 603 is a chain 13 with a chain fixing portion 603a. Mounting members 604a and 604b attached to the cup support member 601 and the mounting member 603 are an upper frame and a lower frame that constitute a four-point parallel link mechanism. When the sliding pin 603 moves downward in the drawing, the cup 6 tilts toward the front as if bowing about the pivot shaft 601a. At this time, the upper frame 60
4a and the lower frame 604b, the cup 6 does not tilt with respect to the direction of travel. 14 is a pin rail that guides the sliding pin 602 so that the cup maintains the fruit-mounted state;
5 is a classification rail that is continuous with the pin rail 14 and can be provided discontinuously, 16 is an elastic body that pulls the classification rail downward in the drawing, and 17 is a material that holds the classification rail 15 on the same plane as the pin rail 14 or as shown by the dashed line. This is a rotary solenoid that determines whether to lower the drawing. With such a configuration, the classification device is configured such that a classification command signal is given to the rotary solenoid 17 from the control device explained in FIG.
6, the classification rail 15 is lowered to the position shown by the two-dot chain line. As a result, the sliding pin 602 is lowered and the cup 6 is tilted forward about the support shaft 601a, and the loaded fruit is dispensed.

Returning to FIG. 1, the out-of-grade payout section 5 will be explained. An out-of-class dispensing section 5 is provided following the sorting section 4, and has a configuration in which all cups are tipped over, and those that do not fall into each class of the sorting section 4 are stored in a receiving box 19 via a chute 18.

FIG. 3 shows a side view of an example of the configuration of the out-of-grade payout section according to the present invention. Note that the same reference numerals as in FIG. 2 indicate the same parts. In the figure, reference numeral 20 denotes a discharge rail connected to and discontinuously connected to the pin rail 14, and when the sliding pin 602 of the cup is placed on it, it rotates downward by the weight of the cup around the support shaft 20a. The cam 21 moves the non-class ejection rail 20 when the cup is not placed on the non-class ejection rail 20.
0 is applied to the out-of-grade ejection rail 20 so that it becomes flush with the pin rail 14. 22 is an out-of-class discharge detection means such as a limit switch;
The off-grade discharge rail 20 rotates downward under the weight of the cup, and accordingly detects the presence or absence of fruit discharged from the cup which is overturned. The out-of-grade discharged fruit detection signal from the out-of-grade payout detection means 22 is given to a control device which will be described later.

The chain drive unit 7 is equipped with a pulse generator that detects the amount of rotation of its rotating shaft, that is, the amount of movement of the conveyance chain, and a control pulse representing the amount of movement of the conveyance chain is given to a control device described later. It will be done. Further, an optical detection means (not shown) for providing a first cup detection signal is provided in connection with the cup conveyance line, and the detection signal is applied to a control device to be described later. The first cup detection signal is a signal indicating that a specific cup among a plurality of cups flowing through the line has been detected, and is used to determine a cup address as described later.

Figure 4 shows a block diagram of the control device.
The metering signal is provided by a pressure-to-electrical conversion element of the metering device. This weighing signal is a rectangular wave having a time width equal to the cup weighing time, and is an analog signal whose peak value changes depending on the measured weight.

In FIG. 4, 30 is an A/D converter that A/D converts the wave height level of the measurement signal, and 31 is the front end and rear end where large fluctuations in wave height are likely to be included in the wave height level of the measurement signal converted into a digital quantity. 32 is a sampling average value output circuit that calculates and outputs the average value (average measured value) of each sampled digital quantity; 33 receives the average measured value of circuit 32 and outputs the fruit of the cup; This is an empty cup/placed cup discrimination circuit that determines whether a cup is placed or not and outputs the average measured value as empty cup weight information or placed cup weight information.

The placed cup weight information of the empty cup/placed cup discriminating circuit 33 is given to the calculation control section 34, and the empty cup weight information is given to the empty cup weight memory 35. Empty cup weight information is provided by the cup addressing circuit 36.
According to the addressing of the empty cup weight memory 3
5 is stored. Cup addressing circuit 36
The addressing is performed by receiving the first cup detection signal and sequentially recognizing the cups following the first cup as a reference. That is, one cup is identified as the No. 1 cup, the optical detection means detects the cup synchronously with the measurement of this cup, and provides the No. 1 cup detection signal, and the No. 1 cup is detected almost simultaneously with the weighing signal. By applying the cup detection signal, the first cup
The address of each cup is determined by determining the address and incrementing the first cup address each time a sequential metering signal is obtained.

In addition to the empty cup weight memory 35 and the cup address designation circuit 36, the calculation control section 34
In connection with this, a classification data memory 37, a classification position memory 38, a classification instruction memory 39, an out-of-grade classification instruction memory 40, an out-of-grade classification instruction temporary storage memory 41, and a display device 42 are provided. The classification data memory 37 stores class data used for determining the weight class of the detected weight of the placed object, and the calculation control unit 34 refers to the class data in the memory 37 to determine which weight class the detected fruit weight belongs to. and decide. The classification position memory 38 stores each distance from the weighing device of the weighing section to the classification devices 10a, 10b, ..., 10g corresponding to each weight class of the classification section 4 as classification position data expressed by the number of control pulses. has been done. The arithmetic control unit 34 refers to the classification position data to determine which classification device should be driven at what timing to dispense the product to the corresponding weight class in the classification unit 4. The classification instruction memory 39 is composed of a subtraction register, and includes each classification device 10a, 10b,..., 10g of the classification section 4.
It temporarily stores classification position data related to
Memory 3 specified for detected fruit weight
The classification position data within 8 is stored. Arithmetic control unit 3
4, the classification position data stored in the classification instruction memory 39 is subtracted by the control pulse representing the movement amount of the chain and becomes zero.
It is known that the target cup has reached the designated classification device in the classification section 4. The out-of-grade classification instruction memory 40 includes an out-of-grade classification data storage section in which the distance from the weighing device of the weighing section to the out-of-grade dispensing section is expressed by the number of control pulses, and a subtraction section in which the data is taken in and the data is subtracted by the number of control pulses. When it is determined that the fruit weight detected by the calculation control unit 34 does not belong to any weight class of the classification device 4, the out-of-class classification instruction data is transferred to the subtraction register. The arithmetic control unit 34 determines that the classification is normal by subtracting the out-of-grade classification instruction data by the control pulse number and making it zero, and in conjunction with this, an out-of-grade discharged fruit detection signal is given from the out-of-grade dispensing detection means. On the other hand, it is known that a classification error has occurred since only the out-of-grade discharged fruit detection signal is given and the control pulse does not subtract out-of-grade classification instruction data. Whether or not the control pulse is subtracting the out-of-grade classification instruction data when the out-of-grade discharged fruit detection signal is applied is determined based on the reference result of the out-of-grade product classification instruction temporary storage memory 41. The inferior product classification instruction temporary storage memory 41 is
When the non-grade classification instruction data is being subtracted from the non-grade product classification instruction memory 40, at the same time as the last bit of the non-grade classification instruction data being subtracted,
Information indicating that the data has become zero is stored for a predetermined short time. The arithmetic control unit 34 determines whether a classification error has occurred based on whether or not information of zero classification instruction data exists in the memory 41 when receiving the out-of-class discharge detection signal. The display device 42 notifies the operator when a classification error occurs, and is, for example, a lighting display or a buzzer display.

When the calculation control unit 34 receives the placed cup weight information from the empty cup/placed cup discrimination circuit 33, it retrieves the empty cup weight of the cup corresponding to the placed cup weight information from the memory 35, and calculates the (placed cup weight) ) - (empty cup weight) = (fruit weight), calculate the weight of only the loaded fruit. The weight class to which this calculated fruit weight belongs is determined by referring to the classification data in the memory 35. As a result, when the weight class in the classifying section corresponding to the weight of the fruit is determined, the classification position data of the classifier corresponding to this weight class is fetched from the memory 38 and transferred to the classification instruction memory 39. The classification position data transferred to the classification instruction memory 39 is subtracted by a control pulse, and at the timing when this becomes zero, a classification command signal is sent to the target classification device of the classification section 4. This purpose classification device receives a classification command signal, drives a rotary solenoid, overturns the cup, and discharges the detected object.

By the way, if an electrical problem occurs such as elongation of the cup conveyance chain or failure of the classification device, even if the target classification device is driven at the above-mentioned classification timing, the actual position of the cup with the detected object may not match. If the timing is not right or the classification device does not operate, the placed object will be carried to the out-of-grade dispensing section and discharged there.
When such a state occurs, an out-of-grade discharged fruit detection signal is given from the out-of-grade payout detection means, and the arithmetic control unit 34 thereby refers to the out-of-grade product classification instruction temporary storage memory 41 and stores information on the out-of-grade classification instruction data zero. Check to see if it exists. In this example, since the detected fruit weight belongs to the weight class of the classification section, the temporary storage memory 41 does not contain information of zero classification instruction data. As a result, the arithmetic control section 34
learns that a classification error has occurred and displays display device 4.
2 to notify that fact.

On the other hand, if the detected fruit weight does not belong to any weight class of the classification section, the calculation control section 34
drives the inferior product classification instruction memory 40 and transfers the inferior classification instruction data to its subtraction register. As a result, the exceptional classification instruction data is subtracted by the control pulse,
When this becomes zero, information to that effect is stored in the temporary storage memory 41. Therefore, the arithmetic control unit 34 knows that there is no error in the classification with the given out-of-grade discharged fruit detection signal. Note that the time period during which the information of zero grade classification instruction data is stored in the temporary storage memory 41 for non-grade product classification instructions is shortened to the time from the time when the non-grade classification instruction data becomes zero until the non-grade discharged fruit detection signal is given. The time shall be added, and it shall be cleared after the said time has elapsed.

In the above embodiment, the weight sorting of fruits was explained as an example, but it is of course applicable not only to fruits but also to sorting vegetables such as cucumbers and tomatoes. If the present invention is used for purposes other than weight sorting, the detecting section corresponding to the sorting may be replaced with the measuring section of the above embodiment.

As described above, according to the present invention, it is possible to provide a classification error detection method for an automatic sorting device that can accurately detect classification errors.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

1, 2, and 3 are diagrams showing an example of the configuration of an automatic sorting device to which the present invention is applied, and FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a configuration example of an automatic sorting device to which the present invention is applied. 1 is a block diagram of a control device having the configuration shown in FIG. 1... Cup conveyance line, 2... Placement section, 3...
...Weighing department, 4... Classification department, 5... Out-of-class dispensing department, 6
... Cup, 22 ... Unqualified payout detection means.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1 Regarding a cup conveyance line that sequentially conveys a plurality of cups, there is a placing section for placing the crops to be sorted on the cups, a detection section for detecting the botanical characteristics of the cup placed on the cup, and a section for detecting the botanical characteristics of the cup placed on the cup, and a section for detecting the botanical characteristics of the cup placed on the cup. A sorting section, which has a plurality of sorting devices for discharging ornaments and sorts the placed objects into classes, and a non-class discharging section, which dispenses crops to be sorted that do not correspond to each class of the classified products, are connected in the cup conveyance direction. The automatic sorting device is equipped with a non-grading dispensing detecting means for detecting the dispensing objects to be dispensed in the non-grading dispensing section, and is equipped with a non-grading dispensing detection means for detecting the dispensing objects that have not been discharged in the sorting section. In the detection of placed object dispensing, whether or not the placed object dispensed to the out-of-class dispensing section should have been classified in any of the classes of the classification section is determined whether the placed object was designated as out-of-class dispensing by the detection section. A method for detecting a classification error in an automatic sorting device, characterized in that a classification error is displayed when the result of the determination indicates that the product should be classified in any class of the classification section. .