CA1125412A - Rotary video article centering, orienting and transfer device for computerized electronic operating systems - Google Patents

Abstract

A B S T R A C T

Mounted upon a servo-motor-driven longitudinally-recipro-cable X-axis carriage is a servo-motor-driven laterally-recipro-cable Y-axis carriage upon which is mounted the cylinder of a lifting and swinging motor with an upstanding vertically-movable and rotatable piston rod. Mounted on the piston rod is an elong-ated fixed horizontal arm on which is journalled an elongated extensible horizontal arm rotated by a rotary actuator mounted on the fixed arm as well as advanced and retracted horizontally by a reciprocatory motor mounted on the fixed arm. Also mount-ed on said fixed horizontal arm and rotatable by a stepping mo-tor is a horizontal video camera with a narrow angle of view but high resolving power. Aligned with said video camera is an inclined reflector adjustably mounted on the outer end of said extensible arm and reflecting horizontally toward the camera vertical light rays from the workpieces underneath on a suitably-illuminated contrastingly-colored work carrier. A stationary vertical overhead video camera with a wide angle of view but lower resolving power is fixedly mounted above said work carrier and focussed thereupon. In a modification this vertical over-head video camera is mounted for stepping-motor rotation upon a servo-motor-driven laterally-reciprocable Y-axis carriage which in turn is mounted upon a servo-motor-driven longitudinally-re-ciprocable X-axis carriage above the work carrier.
Mounted upon said extensible arm adjacent and behind said reflector is an article gripper stepping motor arranged to ro-tate upon a vertical axis, a workpiece gripper suspended from said arm and having parallel-moving gripping fingers opened and closed by an air cylinder mounted on said arm. The computerized electronic operating system for this device involves convention-31 components and is described below.

Description

Z

~ ounted upon a servo-motor-driven longitudinally-recipro-cable X-axis carriage is a servo-motor-driven laterally-recipro-cable Y-axis carriage upon which is mounted the cylinder of a ligting and swinging motor with an upstanding vertic~ly-movable and rotatable piston rod. Mounted on the piston rod is an elong-ated fixed horizontal arm on which is journalled an elongated extensible horizontal arm rotated by a rotary actuator mounted on the fixed arm as well as advanced and retracted horizontally by a reciprocatory motor mounted on the fixed arm. Also mount-ed on said fixed horizontal arm and rotatable by a stepping mo-tor is a horizontal video camera with a narrow angle of view but high resolving power. Aligned with said video camera is an inclined reflector adjustanly mounted on the outer end of said extensible arm and reflecting horizontally t~ward the camera vertical light rays from the workpieces underneath on a suitably-illuminated contrastingly-o~lored` work carrier. A stationary vertical overhead video camera with a wide angle of view but lower resolving power is fixedly mounted above said work carrier and focussed thereupon,~ In a modificatinn this vertical over-head video camera is mounted for stepping~motor rotation upona servo-motor-driven laterally-reciprocable Y-axis carriage which in turn is mounted upon a servo-motor-driven longitudinally-re-ciprocable X-axis carriage above the work carrier.
Mounted upon said extensible arm adjacent and behind said reflector is an article gripper stepping motor arranged to ro-tate upon a vertical axis, a workpiece gripper suspended from said arm and having parallel-moving gripping fingers opened and closed by an air cylinder mounted on said arm. The computeriæed electronic operating system f~r this device involves convention-al components and is described below.

Background of the Invention Hitherto, article handling devices or robots, as they arefrequently termed, have contained lifting and swinging motors carrying mechanically-operated extensible arms with workpiece grippers mounted thereon for transferring articles from one lo-cation to another, such as for serving production machines.

, .

~1;25412 been limited in their applicability by the fact that they are blind, in that they are use~ul only where their mechanism can be programmed to feel the article tok~ picked up or to be accur-ately limited in its motions for picking up such articles, and in the orientation thereof. where a video camera has been in-corporated in computerized automation devices, its fixed position has required the computer to perform complex trigonometric compu-tations to determine the precise locations and o$ientations of such articles.
-10 summarY of the Invention The present invention provides an article centering, or-ientating and trans~er device which includes in its circuitry and mechanism a video camera along with camera-rotating mechanism coupled with motor-driven positioning devices for positioning the camera relatively to the X-axis and Y-axis of an article carrier or conveyor.
The rotation of the video camera in the present invent-ion eliminates a complex action of trigonometric computation by the compu~er in otherwise determining the precise location, cen-tration and orientation of the article and in transferring it, properly oriented to the production machine or other destination of article delivery. The present invention particularly resides in the combination of the rotatable video camera mounted on a ver-tically, longitudinally and laterally movable rotary workpiece-gripping, reach and turnover attachment andin the subcombination of the rotary video camera itself. It also resides in the wide ~gle overhead video camera asa finder for the rotatable narrow angle high resolving power video camera. It further resides in a modificatian wherein the overhead video camera is rotatable around a vertical axis and optionally equipped with a zoom lens, prefer-ably adjusted by an electric motor.
In the drawings, Figure 1 is a perspective view of the rotary video article centering, orienting and transfer device according to one form of the invention;
Figure 2 is an enlarged top plan view of the stepping mo-tor and video camera shown in Figure 1, but with the video camera housing and its rotation mechanism shown in central horizontal section:

~ -Figure 3 is a right-hand end elevation, partly in section, of Figure 2, showing the video camera and its rotation mechanism in front elevation;
Figure 4 is an end elevation of the article gripper and reflector shown at the left-hand end of Figure l;
Figure 5 is an enlarged side elevation, partly broken away, of the article gripper mechanism shown at the left-hand end ~ Figure 1 and in the lower half of Figure 4;
Figure 6 is an enlarged horizontal section, taken along the line 6--6 in Figure 5;
Figure 7 is a block diagram of the rotary video camera and its computerized rotating and control system as composed of its various modules, with the signal flow direction shown by arrows;
Figure 8 is a block subdiagram o~ the various modules which are contained in the video interface shown in the lower left-hand corner of Figure 7;
Figure 9 is a block subdiagram of the video camera rotating motor interface shown obliquely above and to the right of the video interface in Figure 7;
Figure 10 is a block subdiagram of either one of the identical X-axis or Y-axis motor interfaces shown immediately above the camera-rotating motor module in Figure 7;
Figure 11 is a diagrammatic view of the image in the image plane of the video camera, of a rectangular article before and after its proper orientation by comparison with the standard im-age in the memory section of the minicomputer, before and after rotation of the video camera in response to said image comparison;
Figure 12 i9 a diagrammatic top plan view of the properly-oriented video camera image of a Vee-block about to be grasped by the also properly-oriented article gripper in the lower left-hand middle portion of Figure l;
Figure 13 is a diagrammatic view of the video camera im-age of a screw properly oriented and centered;
Figure 14 is a view similar to Figure 13 of the video cam-era image or screw which is properly oriented but not centered:

Figure 15 is a view of the same screw of Figures 13 and 14 which is centered but not properly oriented;
Figure 16 is a view of the same screw which is neither centered nor properly oriented;
Figure 17 is a graphical view illustrating the analog out-put of the ho~zontal video camera of Figures 1 and 7;
Fogure 18 is a grap~ical view illustrating theoutput of analog-to-digital converted afyer conversion of the analog out-~t from the horizontal video camera as shown in Figure 17;
Figure 19 is a view of the numerical array in the minicom-~ter memory section corresponding to the array of picture elements in ~he horizontal video camera as shown in a video monitor; and Figure 20 i a phantom perspective view of a modified rotary video article centering~ orienting and transfer device, and employing a rotary overhead vLd~o camera mounted on an X-Y
positioner, according to another form of the invention, particu-larly adapted for use with large workpieces, with its supporting structure omitted to avoid the otherwise concealment thereby of working parts and partly broken away.
Referring to the drawings in detail, Figures 1 to 6 in-clusive show a rotary video article centering, orienting and transfer device, generally designated 20, according to one form of the invention as consisting generally of a stationary vertical Overhead video ca~era unit 21, a rotatable horizontal video camera unit 22 mounted on an article pickup and transfer attachment or robot 24 generally similar to that disclosed in the Potter pat-ent ~o, 961,061 issued ~anuary 16, 1975 for Workpiece-gripping reach and turnover attachment, but with a rotatable ar~icle gripper 23 therein of different construction as shown in Fig-ures 5 and 6 therein. For a detailed description of the attach-ment 24, reference is made to said Potter patent. The artic~e pickup and trans~er attachment 24 is mounted upon a head 31 on the upper end of the output shaft 25 of a lifting and swinging article transfer device 26 generally similar to that disclosed in the Kirsch and Robb patent No. 829,111 issued December 9, 1969 for Lifting and Swinging Work Transfer Device. For a de-tailed description of the device 26, reference is made to said Kirsch and Robb patent. The lifting and swinging device 26 is mounted on and movabe bodily by an X-Y axis positioner, general-ly designated 27 described below.
The article transfer device or attachment 24 herein (Fig-ure 1) has a tubular fixed arm 28, the forward end of which is fixedly mounted on a hollow housing 29 secured to the head 31.
Mounted on the rearward end o~ the fixed arm 28 is a fluid-operat-ed rotary actuator 30 operatively connected to the rearward end of a rotatable and reciprocable output shaft or extensible arm 32 within the ~ubular fixed arm 28 and capable of being advanced and retracted rela~ively thereto by fluid-operated means contained within a cylinder 29a ~Figure 3) secured to and containing a pis-tion head 29b on a piston rod 29c connected to a drag link 41, as well as capable of being turned around its axis of rotation by the ~tary actuator 30.
The rotary actuator 30 is made and sold as a unit and is conventional. Briefly described, it consists of forward and rear-ward heads 31a and 33a held against the opposite ends of a cylin-der 15 by strain rods 37. The cylinder lS contains a turning vane (not shown) operatively connected to the rotatable and re-ciprocable output shaft 32. The latter passes rotatably through the drag link 41 which moves it to and fro in response to the re-ciprocation of the piston rod 29c while guided by a guide rod 43 which passes through the housing 29 in accordance with the said Potter patent 961,061 of January 14, 1975. The guide rod 43 pass-es through the housing 29 and through a guide arm 47 integral with the forward head 31a. Forward and rearward fittings 49 and 51 res-pectively conduct fluid to and from the cylinder 35.
Mounted on the forward end of ~he rotatable and recipro-cable output sha~t or extensible arm 32 is a stem 33 o~ the hollow casing 34 of the rotary article gripper 23. The latter has an up-per cover plate 36 on which is mounted an electrical gripper-rotat-ing stepping motor 38 (Figures 1, 5 and 6). The stepping motor 38 has a downwardly-projecting output shaft 40 ~arrying a pinion 42 meshing with a gear 44, the hollow hub 46 of which extends down-ward into a driving connection with a rotary gripper head 48 jour-nalled in the hollow casing 34. Drivingly secured to the hollow hub 46 is a bevel-edged annular gripper-head-supporting pulley 45 which is rotatably supported by four pairs of bevel-edged loose pulleys 53 which in turn are rotationally supported on pivot bolts 55 threaded into the correspondingly-threaded and bored bottom plate 57 of the casing 34. Suspended by parallel links 59 and parallel bell-crank levers 61 from inner pivots 63 and outer piv-ots 65 respectively in the rotary gripper head 48 are the hubs 50 of article-gripping fingers or jaws 52. The latter are moved to and fro by a pin-and-slot connection 67 between the upper ends o~ the bellcrank levers 61 and the piston rods 54 of a recipro-catory fluid pressure motor 56 mounted on the cover plate 36 of the casing 34. In this manner, the respective gripping fingers are moved towatd and away from one another to respectively grip or release ~n article W, such as a workpiece held therebetween.
Mounted on the outer end of the hollow casing 34 (Figures 1 and 4) are two upwardly-and-outwardly-inclined bracket arms 58 which are bolted or otherwise fixedly secured to the upper sur-face 36 of the hollow casing 34 in spaced parallel relationsh~p and bored in alignment a~ their upper ends to receive coa~ial pivot pins 60 protruding laterally from a reflector mount 62 to which a reflector 64, such as a mirror, is adjustably secured.
Fixedly mounted on the hollow housing 29 on top of the article pickup and transfer device 24 is a hollow cylindrical out-er video camera casing 74 of the rotatably video camera unit or assembly 22. J,ournalled in the side wall 78 of the outer video camera casing 74 (Figure 2) as by coaxial longitudinally-spaced anti-friction bearings 80 and 82 is an inner cylindrical video camera casing 84 within which is coxially mounted a narrow-field high-resolution video camera, generally designated 86, and con-sisting generally of a video camera body 88 to the forward endof which is connected a video camera lens 90 of a focal length selected by the optical formuls : focal length =
imaqe size x object distance object size . The video camera 86 which has been used in the pr~sent invention is commercia lly available as a solid state automation video camera model. As supplied to and ~ccessfully used in the present invention, the camera body 88 con-tains in the focal plane of the lens 90 a square picture element array (not shown) having 128 parallel horizontal rows of picture :
..

elements (commonly referred to as pixels) arranged in 128 vertical columns for a total o~ 16384 such picture elements disposed in an area approximately one-quarter ~0.23) inch or 5,85 millimeters square.
The video camera 86 is centered within the inner camera housing 84 by centering screws 92 and 94 at its forward and rear-ward ends and has a central multiple-terminal connector 95 at its rearward end, the latter being seated within the rearward wall 96 adjacent the rearward anti-friction bearing 80 (Figure

2), Mounted on the inner video camera housing 84 is a ring gear 98 with which meshes an idler gear 100, in turn with which mesh-es the output pinion 102 on the output shaft 104 of a camera-rotating stepping-motor 106 which is bolted or otherwise secured at 108 to the base plate or carriage 72, The forward end of the video camera outer housing 74 is closed by a telescoping cylin-drical member 110 having a transparent window 112 closing its forward end.
The X-Y positioner 27 upon which the lifting and swing-ing device 26 is mounted and moved bodily (Figure 1) has a base plate or supporting plate 114 to which are secured four upstand-ing guide rod brackets 116 bored to receive the opposite ends of a pair of longitudinal slide guide rods 118 disposed in spaced parallel relationship. Slidably mounted on the guide rods 118 are two pairs of slide bearing brackets 120 to the upper ends of which is secured a longitudinal or X-axis carriage or slide 122. Mounted midway between the bearing brackets 120 and depending from and secured to the underside of the X-axis table 122 is a bored and internally-threaded screwshaft nut bracket 124, the threaded bore 126 of which meshes with the longitudinal ..
screwshaft 128. The forward end 127 of the longitudinal screw-shaft 128 is journalled for rotation in an upstanding bearing bracket 130 resting upon and secured to the base plate 114. The opposite or rearward end of the longitudinal screwshaft 128 is journalled at 132 in an upstanding bearing bracket 134 to the outer side of which is secured an X-axis servo-motor 136 driv-ingly connected to the longitudinal screw~haft 128.
Mounted upon and secured to the X-axis carriage or slide 122 are four upstanding slide guide rod brackets 138 in which are mounted the opposite ends of lateral slide guide rods 140 ii;~S~lZ

disposed in spaced parallel relationship. Slidably mounted upon the ~al slide guide rods 140 are four slide bearing brackets 142 ~only three of which are shown in Figure 1, the fourth being concealed behind the lifting and swinging device 26.) Mounted upon and secured to the upper ends of the slide guide bearing brackets 142 is a lateral or Y-axis carriage or slide 144. The axes of the lateral guide rods 140 are disposed precisely perpen-dicular to the a~es of the longitudinal guide rods 118. Mount-ed between the forward slide guide rod brackets 138 and secured to the longitudinal or X-axis carriage or slide 122 is an up-standing lateral screwshaft bearing bracket 146 in which the for-ward end 147 of a lateral or Y-axis screwshaft 148 is journalled for rotation. The opposite or rearward end of the lateral screw-shaft 148 is journalled at 150 for rotation in an upstanding bearing bracket 152, to the outer side of which is connected a Y-axis servo-motor 154. Secured to and depending from the und-erside of the lateral or Y-axis carriage or slide 144 immediate-ly behind the bearing bracket 146 similar to the nut bracket 124 containing the threaded bore 126 meshing with the longitud*
inal screwshaft 128 is a bored and internally-threaded screwshaft nut bracket (not shown) containing a threaded bore (not shown) which meshes with the lateral screwshaft 148.
Mounted beneath the path of travel of the gripper head 48 in its extended position (Figure 1) is an article or work-piece carrier 160, sho~n for simplicity as a tray with a carrier surface 162 on which the articles such as workpieces W are placed or are conveyed in randomly-arranged positions~ and which may be a movable conveyor which is momentarily halted during the scanning action of the rotàtable arm-mounted video camera 86.
The latter is a narrow-field high-resolution video camera, as stated above, well adapted for the high resolution of small ar-ticles or workpieces W.
Mounted above the workpiece carrier 160, as on an L-shaped vertical structure 164 carrying work-illumination.:~ lights. 165 is a vertical downwardly-directed overhead video camera 166 con-sisting of a body 16~3 with a lens 170 having a wider field of view capable of spanning the entire width of the surface 162 of the article or workpiece carrier 160, but with a lower resolu-, ii~S~lZ

tion than the arm-mounted video maera 86. The overhead video camera 166 which has been successfully used in the present in-vent:ion is commercially ava~lable as a solid state automation video camera. As supplied to and used in the present invention, the camera body 168 in the focal plane of the lens 170 contains a rectangular picture element array (~ot shown) ) having 342 par-allel horizontal rows of pixels in 42 vertical columns in an ar-ray approximately 0.5 inch or 12.7 millimeters high and approx-imately 0.067 inch or 1.7 millimeters wide. The overhead camera 166 serves as a ~inder or locator camera for small articles W, which are precisely positioned by the arm camera 860 in which case the overhead camera 166 is fixed and the arm camera 86 is rotatable. As explained below in a modification of this inven-tion, however, for the scanning of relatively large objects such as metal aircraft panels, where high resolution is not required, the arm camera 86 may be omitted and the overhead camera 166 ro-tatab~y mounted on its structure 164.
Th~lifting and swinging work transfer device 26 as pre-viously stated, is fully disclosed in the Canadian Patent No.
829,111 of December 90 1969 and its details are beyond the scope of the present invention. A brief description is therefore be-lieved to be sufficient. The device 26 is housed in a casing 172 with which a base plate 174 is cast integral and has parallel edge slots 176 by which it is bolted to the Y-axis table 144.
Also cast integral with the casing 172 is a tangentially-directed vertical plate-shaped boss 178. Bolted to the rearward side of the boss 178 is a reciprocatory pneumatic motor or "air cylind-er" 180 supplied with compressed air fittings 182 and 184. The air cylinder 180 contains a piston head (not shown) which act-uates a piston rod 186 which passes through the correspondingly-bored boss 178 and through a roughly sector-shaped drag link 188, and has a split collar 190 clamped on its forward end within a right-angled recess 192. The drag link 188 and boss 178 are al-so bored in alignment to reciprocably receive a cushioning pis-ton rod 194 which on its forward end has a split collar 196 clamped thereto within the recess 192.

The rearward end of the cushioning piston rod 194 is con-nected to a piston head (not shown) within a cushioning cylinder 198, the forward end plate 200 of which is secured to the boss 178 by means of four st~ain rods 202 threaded into the corres-pondingly-bored and threaded boss 178. The strain rods 202 at their rearward ends pass through a vertically-elongated end plate 204 with their hexagonal heads 206 thereby clamping the end plate 204 to the cylinder 198 and the latter in turn to the for-ward end plate 200. The cylinder 198 contains hydraulic fluid, such as oil, and its piston performs a so-called dash-pot func-tion by forcing the oil through restricted orifice ~eans at the opposite ends of the stroke of the cushioning piston within the cushioning cylinder 198. The elongated end plate 204 also closes the rearward end of a cylindrical oil reservoir 208, the forward end of which is closed by a forward end plate 210, this assembly being held together by strain rods 212 threaded at their forward ends into the forward end plate 210 and passing through correspondingly-bored holes in the rearward end plate 204 to hexagonal rod heads 214. The oil reservoir is connected hydraulically to the cushioning cylinder 198 for supplying oil thereto.
The vertical shaft 25 of the lifting and swinging cylin-der 26 passes downward through the upper circular head 216 through a suitable bearing 218 and, as stated in the above-men-tioned patent ~o. 829,111 of December 9, 1969 carries a piston head within the vertical cylinder 172 which is supplied with com-pressed air in a manner explained in that patent, to cause the piston (not shown) to move the shaft 25 upward and downward.
The lower end of the shaft 25 within the vertical cylinder 172 carries a pinion (not shown~ which meshes with a toothed rack bar or rod (not shown~, the rearward end of which passes through the suitably bored tangential boss 178 and through the drag link 188 and is threaded to receive the so-called Allen screw 220 by which it is secured to the drag link 188. As a consequence when the piston within the horizontal cylinder 180 is recipro-cated by air supplied thereto by the fittings 182 or 184, the drag link reciprocates, carrying with it the rack bar through 4~

its connection therewith by the ~llen screw 220, reciprocating the rack bar and rotating the gear within the ~rtical cylind-er 172 to rotate the vertical shaft 25 and conse~uengly swing the article pick-up and transfer device 24 through a horizontal arcuate plane.
ComPuterized Operating SYstem for RotarY Video Article Pick-up;
Orienting and Transfer Device.
The video camera rotating and control system, gener-ally designated 230, by which ~he video camera 86 is rotated and by which the article pick-up and transfer attachment 24 a~d its lifting and swinging article transfer device 26 are directed to the proper location to find the article W~ and orient its image for comparison with the standard image~ is shown generally in the block diagram in Figure 7. Certain portions of the block diagram of Figure 7 are further detailed in the subdiagrams of Figures 8~ 9 and 10 as discussed more fully below. From the rearward end of the video camera 86 signals flow in the direc-tion of the arrow 232 to a video camera interface 234, shown in more detail in Figure 8. From the video interface 234 signals flow in the direction of the arrow 236 to a conventinnal mini-computer 238 from which co~rol signals flow to the video inter-face 234 in the direction of the arrow 240.
The minicomputer 238, also known as a microcomputer or mic~o-processor, is made up of standard components purchas-able on the open market. One that has been successfully em-polyed in this invention contains, in addition to its other com-ponents, a memory section in which, as will be seen later in the discussion of the operation of the inventio~,a standard compar-ison image of a workpiece W properly positioned~ centered and oriented upon the workpiece carrier 160 for transfer to the served machine (not shown) has been impressed prior to theuse of the invention. Such image impression may be accomp-lished by area scanning~ such as by the actual scanning of a properly positioned article W or by mathematical analysis and impress the image of that article upon the memory section by use of the conventional 'lCoRoTo terminal" (catho~ ray tube terminal) 242 with which the minicomputer 238 is regularly equipped and which includes the usual keyboard for manual im-pression of the standard workpiece image. Also included as an adjunct to the minicomputer 238 is a so-called "floppy disc" 244 which enlarges the memory section of the minicomputer 238. From the C.R T. terminal 242 signals flo~ to and from the minicompu-ter 238 in the direction of the arrows 246 and 248 and to and from the floppy disc 244 in the directions of the arrows 250 and 252. ~lso included as an adjunct to the minicomputer 238 with signals flowing in the directions of the arrows 254 and 256 is a robot controller 258 which preferably includes the "block manifold'l set forth in the Kirsch Canadian patent 969,215 issued June 10, 1975~
The X-axis servo-motor 136 and the Y-axis servo-motor 154 are conventional and constitute high performancs direct cur-rent servo-motors. The X-axis servo-motor 136 has signals flow-ing in the directions of the arrows 260 and 262 to and from the X-axis motor controller 264, whereas the Y-axis servo-motor 154 has signals flowing in the directions of the arrows 266 and 268 to and from the Y-axis motor controller 270. The X-axis motor controller 264 and the Y-axis motor controller 270, components for the X-axis and Y-axis servo-motors 136 and 154,are the same for both motors. The X-axis and Y-axis motor controllers 264 and 270 have signals flowing in the directions of the arrows 272, 274 and 276, 278 respectively to and from X-axis and Y-axis ~motor interfaces 280 and 282 which are also of identical const-ruction and are shown in more de~ail in connection with Figure 10. In turn~ the x-axis and y~axis motor interfaces 280 and 282 have signals flowing in the directions of the arrows 284, 286 and 288~ 290 respectively to and from the minicomputer 238, as also shown and discussed in connection with Figure 10.
The minicomputer 238 has signals flowing in the dir-ections of the arrows 292 and 294 to and from a video camera ro-tating motor interface 296 which in turn has signals flowing in the direction of the a~rows 298 to a video cam~ra rotating motor controller 300 which in turn has signals flowing in the direction of the arrow 302 to the video camera rotating motor 106. ~he video camera rotating motor interface 296 is shown in more de-tail in Figure 9 discussed more fully below. The video camera motor controller 300 as used successfully in this invention is available on the open market.
In the video camera interface 234, as shown atthe lower left-hand corner of Figure 7 and in more detail within the dashed lines in Figure 8, signals flowing in the direction of the arrow 232 run to a conventional analog-to-di~ital con-verter module 310 (Figure 8) which is required because, as stated in the manufacturer's instructions for the video camera 86, "Electronics in the camera body perform analog signal der-ivation functions", whereas the minicomputer 238 requires dig-ital input. Accordingly, the output 312 on the converter 310 runs to the first of the three conductor buses respectively designated a data bus 3~4,~ a control bus 316,and an address bus 318. Between the data bus 314 and the minicomputer 238, the double-headed arrow 320 indicates the output from the data bus 314 to the minicomputer 238 and signals flowing in the direction from the minicomputer 238 back to the data bus 314. Similarly, the double-headed arrow 322 indicates input to the minicomputer 238 from the control bus 316 and signals flowing in the direc-tion of the minicomputer 238 back to the control bus 316. Sig-nals flowing in the direction indicated by the single-headed ar-row 324 proceed from the address bus 318 to control logic cir-cuitry 325 to which similar signal flow indicated by the arrow 328 proceeds from the control bus 316. From the control logic circuitry 326, signal flow indicated by the arrow 330 proceeds to the analog-to-digital converter module 310. Also from the video camera 86, vertical and horizontal synchronization pulses proceed in the directions of the arrows 332 and 334 respective-ly to the control logic circuitry 326.
Furthermm~e~ in Figure 8 the double-headed arrows 336 and 338 indicate the directions of signal flow to and from the control bus 316 and data bus 314 respectively to a direct memory access module 340 as well as from the direct memory ac-cess module 340 to and from the control bus 316 and data bus 314. Similarly, the double-headed arrow 342 indicates the dir-ections of signa,l flow to and from the direct memory access - i3 -1125~1~
module 340 and the control logic circuitry 326 and the direc-tion of signal flow between the latter and the former. More-over~ the single-headed arrow 344 from the minicomputer 238 to the address bus 318 indicates the direction of signal flow from the former to the latter. Finally~ the single-headed ar-rows 346 and 348 indicate respectively the directions of signal flow from the direct memory access module 340 to a convention-al 8-bit latch 350 and therefrom to the address bus 318. The term "bus" is used herein as is commonly understood in the el-ectronics industry to refer to a multiple conductor assembly.
In the video camera rotating interface 2960 shown im-mediately above and to the right of the video camera interface 234 in Figure 7~ and in more detail within dashed lines in Fig-ure 9, the data bus 352 (Figure 9) conveys signals in the direc-tions indicated by the arrow heads between the camera rotating motor interface 296 (Figure 7) and the minicomputer 238 by way of the single-headed arrows 292 and 294. From the minicomputer 238 (Figure 9) the address bus 318 and the control bus 316 run to the control logic circuitry 326. From the latter pulses flow in the directions indicated by the arrows 358 and 360 to the motor driver circuit 362, the arrows 359 indicating clockwise rotation pulse flow whereas the arrow 360 indicates counter-clockwise pulse flow thereto. A power connection 364 extends between the camera motor power supply 366 and the motor driver circuit 362 from which signal flow indicated by the arrows 368 proceeds to the camera rotating direct current stepping motor 106, the shaft 104 of which rotates the video camera 86 in one direction or the other through the gear train formed by the gears 102, 100 and 98.
Returning to the camera-rotating motor interface 296 (Figures 7 and 9), the single-headed arrow 370 indicates the directions of signal flow hetween the data bus 352 and th~ con-trol logic circuitry 326. The single-headed arrow 372 indicates the direction of signal flow from the data bus 352 to the preset-table 16-bit divide-by-N counter 374. The single-headed arrow 376 indicates the direction of signal flow from the data bus 352 to the presettable 16-bit counter 378 which registers the ii'~S~

number o~ steps. Moreover~ the double-headed arrows 380 indicate the directions of signal flow between the counter 374 and the control 'ogic circuitry 326. The double-headed arrows 382 sim-ilarly indicate the directions of signal flow between the count-er 378 and the control logic ci~cuitry 326. In conclusionO the arrow 384 indicates the direction of signal flow from a clock 386 to the counter 374. The clock 386 serves as a time basis for the presettable counter 374.
In each of the X-axis and Y-axis motor interfaces 280 and 282 shown in the central portion of Figure 7 and in more de-tail in Figure 10 within the dashed line, from the minicomputer 238 the single-headed alrrows 388 and 390 indicate the directions of signal flow between the minicomputer 238 and the control log-ic circuitry 326. The double-headed arrow 392 indicates the direction of signal flow between the control logic circuitry 326 and an 8-bit data bus 394, whereas the single-headed arrows 396 and 398 respectively indicate the direction of signal flow from the data bus 394 and control logic circuitry 326 to an output storage latch 400 from which the single-headed arrow 402 indi-cates the direction of signal flow from the output storage latch400 to the X-axis or Y-axis motor controllers 262 and 270--dis-cussed above. The single-headed arrow 404 indicates the direc-tion of signal ~low from the control logic c~rcuitry 326 to the input storage latch 406, whereas the single-headed arrow 408 indicates the direction of signal flow from the input storage latch 406 to the 8-bit data bus 394. The double-headed arrow 410 indicates the direction of signal flow between the mini-computer 238 and the data bus 314. The single-headed arrow 412 indicates the direction of signal flow from the data bus 394 to a 24-bit storage latch 414, whereas the single-headed arrow 416 from the latter to the X-axis or Y-axis motor controllers 264 or 270 represents the direction of signal flow from the former to the latter. The single-headed arrow 418 represents the dir-ection of signal flow to the input storage latch 406 from eith-er the X-axis or Y-axis motor controller 264 or 270. Furthermore, the double-headed arrow 420 extending between the X-axis or Y-axis motor controllers 264 or 270 indicate th~ direction of sig-nal :Elow between the control logic circuitry 326 and the motor controllers 264 or 270. FinallyO the single-headed arrow 422 running from the motor controllers 264 or 270 to the X-axis or Y-axis motor 136 or 154 represents the direction of signal flow from the former to the latter, thereby governing rotation of their respective shafts 128 or 148 (Figure 1). Each of these shafts 128 or 148 is drivingly connected to a tachometer 424, the direction of signal flow from which to the motor controllers 264 or 270 is indicated by the single-headed a~row 426. The same shaft 128 or 148 is drivingly connected to a resolver 4280 the direction of signal flow fr~.m which to the motor-controller 264 or 270 is indicated by the single-headed arrow 430.
Operation of the Computerized Electronic O~erating Circuit Prior to the use of the rotary video article center-ing, orienting and transfer device 20 of this invention, for pick-ing up articles such as workpieces randomly arranged on the work carrier or conveyor 160 and orienting them to the predetermined orientation required for feeding them to a predetermined loca-tion, for example, to the dies of a produc~ion machine ~uch as a punch press, it is first necessary to so program the memory section of the minicomputer 238 in one of several ways, after the device 20 of this invention has been c~nnected, as explained above, to a computerized operating system 230 including the con-ventional minicomputer 238 with a memory section. In one way of programming this memory section, a master workpiece W is pos-itioned upon the article or work carrier 160 in the predetermined centration and orientation necessary for feeding it to~he pro-duction machine of other place of delivery. The horizontal vid-eo camera 86 on the robot 23 is then focussed upon said prede-terminedly-positioned master workpiece W, said rotary video cam-era 86 is then rotated by its motor 106 until the image of the master workpiece W is properly centered or oriented in the ~ocal plane of the video camera 86 with its "threshold" or entering edge aligned with the X--X axis of said image plane, whereupon the "pixels" or picture elements in said image plane, reacting to the light-versus-dark contrasts of said workpiece image, transmit the centration and orientation characteristics of said image by f~edback through the conventional minicomputer circuit 230 to the memory section thereof and form a memory impression therein ~or future re~erence by the horizontal video camera.
In operation, and with the above mentioned system energized and the randomly-arranged workpieces W on the work carrier 160 and suitably illuminated by the lights 165, the wide-angle lower-resoluti~n overhead video camera 166 is focussed upon the top surface 162 of the work carrier 1~0 and thus upo~
a selected workpiece W upon the wor~ carrier 16~ beneath it, whereupon its pixels or picture elements are energized and trans-mit the workpiece image location and orientation through the vid-eo interface 234 to the minicomputer 238 for location analysis.
The minicomputer 238 then makes a location analysis of the Y- Y
coordinates of khe selected workpiece W and transmits these data in the form of commands to the X-Y axis positioner 27 to bodily move the lifting and swinging device 26 so as to swing the robot 24 over the work carrier 160 and thus bring the selected work-pieces W into the field of view of the horizontal narrow-angle higher-resolution video camera 86. The latter, which is then focussed upon the now-illuminated selected workpiece W by light rays thererom reflected by the reflector 64, transmits the work-piece image data back to the minicomputer 238 with its memory image. The horizontal camera 86 is th~n commanded ~o be rotated by its stepping motor 106 (Figures 2 and 7) until the leading edge or threshold of the workpiece image (Figure 12) becomes aligned with the X-axis and oriented and centered in the image plane o~ the camera. Thereupon the motor 29a now moves the ex-tensible arm 32 longitudinally to bring the gripper 23 over the workpiece W. The gripper stepping motor 38 is then commanded to rotate the gripper head 48 until its gripping fingers 52 are aligned with the opposite sides of the workpiece. The minicomput-er 238 then energizes a solenoid valve (not shown) to supply air to the robo~ controller 258, whereby the lifting and swinging motor 26 then causes the robot 24 with its camera 86 and its gripping fingers 52 to descend. Meanwhile, the air motor 56 on the arm 32 in response to the robot controller 258 causes these ingers 52 which are normally open to close upon the opposite sides of the selected workpiece W, whereupon the lifting and ,.

swinging motor 26 is commanded by the minicomputer 238 to cause the arm 32 and the workpiece W now carried by it to rise.
Summarizing the foregoing actions~ the horiz~ntal video camera 86 finds and transmits to ~he memory section of the minicomputer 238 the coordinates of the workpiece W which the minicomputer 238 then compares with the therein-stored image of the master workpiece in its proper orientation and centration, and rotates in response thereto until the image of the workpiece W which it holds has been rotated by the latter's stepping motor 38 and centered by the motions of the X-axis and Y-axis carriages 122 and 124 by their motors 136 and 154 until the orientation and centration thereof coincide with that of the memory image, Thereupon the rotation of the workpiece W is halted, having reached its proper orientation for delivery into the place of delivery, such as a p~oduction machine.
In response to -the action of the pre-set robot con-troller 2580 the robot 24 now swings over to the production ma-chine or other place of delivery and into its operating zone, whereupon the workoiece gripper 23 is rotated to the predeter-mined delivery position of its fingers 52, so that the liftingand swinging motor 26 causes the now-properly-oriented wor~piece W to descend into its proper position of delivery, such as in the production machine, and the air motor is then commanded to cause the ~ingers 52 to release their grip upon the workpiece.
The lifting and swinging motor 26 then raises the robot 24, the workpiece gripper 23 and the gripping fingers 52 carried thereby, whereupon the robot 24 swings back to its starting position, ready to pick up, orient and center and transfer the next work-piece from the work carrier 160 in the same manner, and the air controls associated with the robot controller 258 are reset for another operating cycle, Shown diagrammatically in Figure 11 is the greatly enlarged array 440 of picture elements in horizontal rows 442 and vertical columns 444. Scanning~ during operation, takes place starting at the origin 446 in the upper left-hand corner and proceeding downward~ The center lines 450 horizontally and 452 vertically intersect at 454. Shown in solid lines at 456 is the image o~ a rectangular object received from the memory section o~ the minicomputer 238 to which is to be compared the oblique d~tted line image 458 of an article or workpiece W on the workpiece carrier 1600 where the image 458 was originally centered at the intersection 460 o~ the horizontal and vertical cross lines 462 and 464 representing the X-axis and Y-axis co-ordinates r~spectively. Figure 11 shows that the article image 458 which was originally centered at 460 has been shifted in X-axis and Y-axis directions by the motions o~ the X-Y position-er 27 to coincide with the center 454 of the standard or master image 456 Eeceived ~rom the said memory section. The video cam-era 86 then rotates until the previously oblique workpiece image 458 coincides with the master workpiece image 456 and is also centered therewith, whereupon the workpiece is ready to be trans-~erred to its destination.
Shown diagrammatically in Figure 12 is the image 466 of a more complex workpiece consisting of a Vee-block wherein the workpiece image 466 has been brought into coincidence with the master workpiece image from the memory section of the mini-computer 238, and the gripper ~ingers 52 are ready to grasp the workpiece W. In Figurè 12, as the video camera 86 scans the work-piece, its threshold 468 represented by the vertical line encount-ers the workpiece at the points 470 and 472 when the video camera 86 has been properly rotated. As the threshold 468 proceeds from left to rightO the image 466 becomes fully developed upon the array 474 of picture elements, scanning as before beginning in the upper le~t-hand corner at 476 and proceeding downward and to the right there~rom . It will be understood that a video monitor can be connected into the video camera circuit to indicate the successive X and Y coordinates o~ the image as scanning takes place and proceeds until the image 466 is completely developed upon the array 474. By the X-Y axis motion o~ the X-Y positioner 27 with the rotation of the video camera 86, the workpiece image 466 is brought into coincidence with the master workpiece image and centered therewith at the intersection 478 o~ the cross lines - -470 and 482. Figure 12 thus shows ~he behavior o~ the invention when the entering edges 484 and 486 are re-entrant by converging inward toward a meeting point 488. A similar action would occur in the case of a heart-shaped workpiece.
Figures 13 to 16 show the four positions of a headed workpieceO such as the image 490 of a screw having a shank 492 terminating in an enlarged head 494. In Figure 13, the screw image 490 is shown as both properly oriented and centered at 496, such as would be the pre-impressed image of a properly centered and ~riented master workpiece in the memory section of the minicomputer 238. In Figure 14, the image 498 of the same screw is shown as properly oriented but not centered~ so that further action of the X-Y positioner 27 is necessary ~ bring the image 498 of Figure 14 into the condition of the image 490 of Figure 13. In Figure 15t the image 500 of the same screw is shown as centered at 496 but inclined obliquelyy so that further action ~f the rotatable video camera 86 is required to properly orient it, as shown by the image 490 in Figure 13.
In Figure 16, the image 502 of the same screw is shown as neith-er centered nor properly oriented. FurthermoreO the screw in Figure 16 is also inverted as well as its image being decentered and oblique. Consequently, the action of the X-Y positioner 27 is required to center the image 502 into proper orientation shown by the image 490 in Figure 13.
It will be understood by those skilled in the video cam~ra art of the type utilized in this invention that such a camera distinguishes between the darkness and dar~-grayness of the workpiece W and t~e lightness or light-grayness of the background 162 at the boundary or boundarie~ therebetween formed by the edge or edges of the workpiece W. Without the rotation of the video camera 86 independently of the robot 24 on which it is mounted as well as independently of the rotary workpiece gripper 23g according to the present inventiomy the computer would be required to perform workpiece recognition by multiple diagonal scans by the video camera and/or the performing of complex trigonometric computa'~ian~, either or both of which would involve a great amount of program development time el-iminated and avoided by the present invention.
The advantages just described are also obtained in the above-described modification of the present invention, when liZ5~iZ
for large workpieces not requiring high resolution in the video camera, the low-resolution wide-angle overhead video camera 166 is pivotally mounted and made to be revolved by a motor with circuitry analogous to that described for the robot-~ounted vi-deo camera 86, whereupon one of the video cameras3 such as the video camera 86t can be dispensed. This is described in more detail below.
Descrihing ~he construction and operation of the in-cention in more detail~ the video camera 86 emits information by means of analog steps in a string. Each step has an equal time base (0.282`,micr~secohds~ with a variation in voltage mag-nitude from zero to 1 volt proportional to light input to the video camera picture element of "pixel" array. These steps are emitted in the output of the camera back to back. These come out in a string corresponding to rows back to back (Figure 17).
As stated above, the analog output from the video camera 86 is then digitized through the use o~ the conventional analog-to-digital converter (AoDoCo) 310. This process splits the voltage levels into levels of light, or rather shades of gray. General-ly, if the workpiece W being observed is different in shade fromthe background 162, the transi~ion is made only once~ calling voltage levels above ~he transition level white and below dark.
The purpose of digitizing the signal is to make it compatible with th~ memory section of the comput~r or microproc~ssor 238 memory and with the digital circuitry. The result of digitizing the signal in~o two levels is shown in Figure 18.
The signals above are interpreted by the computer as binary numbers 1 to 0 for each picture element (pixel). This string of eleme~ now binary numbers, is loaded in~o the computer memory. The memory is in the form of a numerical ar-ray, the same numerically as the a~ray of the video camera 86.
An example of this is shown in Figure 19 where 1 represents a white po~ian corresponding to the presence of the workpiece and 0 represents a black portion corresponding to the absence of the workpiece at the respective points.
~ ow thatthe analog output of the video camera 86 llZ~

has been digitalized and transmitted to the computer or micropro-cessor 238, the inage of the workpiece W is represented as an array of elements similar to the array in the camera. The array of memory can be scanned by a simple program in the same wa~ in-formation is taken into memory, row by row.
Example: C = column R = row For C = pixels 1 to 128 For R = pixels 1 to 128 Area - Area plus A (RoCo) Next R
Next C
Print "Area" - Area Stop The above program sums the number of memory locations wi~h the number 1~ vs. the num3~1zero. This is proportional to the amount of white in the image.
To recognize a workpiece W and its orientation by con-ventional means has hitherto requi~along program with differ-ent scanning directions and a multitude of decisions which havehad to be made by the computer. A principal pbject of this in-vention is to simplify this programming by rotating the video camera array such that one condition is met upon examination.
The orientation of the video camer 86 is known by servo feedback from theo2~ra-rotating motor 106 or, in the case of a stepping motor, the number of steps is known at this position relative to a "zero" position and bhe angle of rotation can be calculated therefrom.
The process of checking is controlled by the comput-er in a series of cycles involving a turn-look-compare sequence until a condition is met. The condition which will define orien-tational alignment ~ill be decided upon when p~culiarities of the part are observed. Examples of these peculiarities have been given in Figures 12 to 16 and described above in connection therewith. Note that the workpiece thereon need not be centered in order to be rotationally aligned.

~lZS~Z

The method of analysis of the workpiece for the cameras can be accomplished in several ways depending upon the nature of the workpiece involved. With some workpieces it may be useful to take the digital information from the camera and store the video camera image of a properly-positioned ~orkpiece in the memory section o~ the computer for subsequent scanning by the computer. With other workpieces, it may only be necessary to use hardware consisting of clocks and counters to measure the workpiece position, area, height and width. In the case of the rectangular workpiece of Figure 11~ the workpiece can be aligned first by rotating the camera until the first line in which the image 458 of the workpiece is encountered con~ains a prsdeter-mined number of picture elements excited by the existence of the workpiece. This insures that the leading edge of the workpiece in the top of the frame will be parall~l to the rows of picture elements in the camera. It is not necessary that the workpiece be centered in the array to perform this type of assurance that alignment is correct because this can happen only in one posi-tion of rotation. The specially designated fingers 52 can then pick up the workpiece.
With the understanding of the above examples one can see the importance of the rotating arm-mounted video camera.
It provides for extended usage of relatively simple analysis.
The height and width check, for example, can be adapted to nearly all si~ple parts by a parameter change in the program as well as necessary hardwar~ changes in the gripping finger~
to fit the particular workpiece. One very important method of programming is what may be called the "area dif~erence technique".
By taking a workpiece during initial set-up and placing it on the examination stage~ one can call upon a centeringsubroutine to center the part. One can rotate the part by hand until it is in alignment compatible with the gripper 23 for pick-up by the gripper fingers 52.
When the workpiece W has been centered and aligned, the compute~ receives the input of the data as previously described and stores it in a so-called "floppydisc" for future reference In operation, the properly oriented and centered image is brought into the working memory of the minicomputer. The work-piece W which is randomly positioned on the workpiece carrier 160 is then centered by the area technique. Once centered~

the arm-mounted camera i9 incrementally rotated and the image is stored in the memory section of the minicomputer 238. The ~moxy image is then subtracted numerically from the image of the properly positioned previously impressed workpiece, element by element The object here is to minimize the difference to find the proper orientation.
Once the part is centered~ the camera picture is com-pared in memory with that of the centered part. The camera is not rotated until the overall height is equal to a set paramet-er, such as the height of the workpiece 500 in Figure 14. At this point the width ~ the workpiece 500 is checked at a cer-tain distance from the top of the screw head. If this dimension is too small, then the workpiece is considered to be 180 invert-ed, as shown in Figure 16. At this point, the analysis i~ repeat-ed to re-center the aligned workpiece if necessary, It should be noted that rotational alignment does not require the workpiece to be centered, In the case of the"V-block" 466 of Figure 12, centering can be accomplished as in the case of the screw of Figures 13 to 16. Rotational alignment is accomplished by incrementally rotating the camera and scanning ~lumns first row-by-row.
When the workpiece 466 is first encountered as at 370 in Figure 12, the workpiece 466 nust be re-encountered in the same column as at 472 after a void of a predetermined number of elements.
This provides for positive alignment. when alignment is com-pleted, the workpiece can be centered through the use of count-ers. Picture elements are counted until the workpiece is en-countered. Due to the fact that the upper left-hand corner 470 (Figure 12) will be encountered first, the counters will stop and the position of the workpiece 466 can then be known and compensated for, The workpiece is no~ in a known orientation and available for pick-up. Another means of alignment of a rectangle or square 458 (Figure 11) is to minimize the overall height by rotating the camera 86.
With more complicated parts, such as the socket cap screw (Figures 13 to 16), it may prove to be si~pler to store the output of the camera picture elements in memory locations.

The camera analog s~gnal is digitized and stored as numbers in separate memory loca~Lons. In most cases, two levels of light are all that are neededO so that a threshold or point of cross-over :will be set at a gray level so that the post on which may be light in color will register a "1" and the back ground, usually darkO will register a "0" Some applications could also conceivably require more levels where different shades of gray or colors are involved. For these cases, the picture elements can be broken down into 4, 8, 16 or 32 levels of gray and pro-cessed as sucho Once in memory as numbers, the picture ofsegments of the picture are easily scanned by the computer pro-gram and decisions made upon the results. In the case of the screw in Figure 13, the screw can be centered by matching the areas in the four quadrants divided from another by the major axes which bisect the array of picture elements. By setting the constraint or limiting condition that non-adjacent quadrants must have equal areas of the part in view, or areas to each side of them must be equal, it can be calculated by the differences how much movement is required to center the workpiece (Figure 15).
Figure 20 shows in perspective a modified rotary video article centering, orienting and transfer device, generally des-ignated 520, which may be considered as the stationary overhead vertical video camera 21 of Figure 1 and the horizontal arm-mounted video camera 22 of the same figure replaced by the X-Y
positioner shown at 27 in the lower half of Figure 1 but in-verted and placed overhead away from the lifting and swinging article transfer device 28 and with the video camera pointing downward and made rotatable. The overhead suppor~ing structure corresponding to the L-shaped vertical structure 164 has its overhead structure and its work-illumination lights 165 omitted to simplify the showing and prevent concealment of parts which would otherwise be hidden. Since, except for the above-mentioned inversion, the X-Y positioner is substantially the same as that shown in Figure 1, the same reference numerals have been employed for corresponding parts, and further detailed description is not dee~ed necessary, except the additional features not shown in . .

S9.1~2 Figure 1 but shown in Figure 20.
In particular, Figure 20 shows a supporting plate 114 from which depend four Y-slide upper guide rod brackets 116 holding the opposite ends of a pair of upper Y-axis slide guide rods 118 which in turn slidably support Y-axis slide upper bear-inq brackets 120 carrying the Y-axis upper carriage or slide 122 to which is secured the threaded Y-axis nut bracket 134 moved to and from by the Y-axis upper screw shaft 128 rotated by the Y-axis upper servomotor 136. The Y-axis carriage or slide 122 carries four X-axis slide guide rod brackets 138 holding the opposite ends of lateral X;iaxis slide guide rods 140 upon which four X-axis slide bearing brackets 142 support a lower X-axis carriage or slide 144 disposed perpendicular to the axes of the Y-axis slide guide rods 118. Secured to and rotatably mounted on the Y-axis upper carriage or slide 122 is an X-axis lower screw shaft 148 rotat~d by an X-axis lower servo-motor 154 which moves the X-axis lower carriage 144 to and fro by means of a threaded X-axis screw shaft nut bracket 155 mesh-ing with the X-axis screwshaft 148.
The modified rotary video art~cle centering, orienting and transfer device 520 on the lower X-axis carriage or slide 144 rotatably supports a rotary video camera table 522 which is externally-toothed to be rotated by a meshing pinion (not shown) on a shaf~ 524 driven by a table rotating servo-motor 526.
Mounted on the X-axis lower carriage or slide 144 and secured to and depending fromthe rotary video camera table 522 is a video camera 528 which is focussed upon a work table 530 cor-responding to the article or workpiece carrier 160 in Figure 1 such as a tray and which, like the article or workpiece car-riage 160 may be a movable conveyor which is momentarily halted during the scanning action of the rotatable overhead vertical video camera 86 of Figure 1 for the article or workpieces which are sufficiently large to be accurately positioned and suffi-ciently resolved by the video camera 528. It will be understood, however, that for very snall workpieces W which ar~ot positioned with sufficient accuracy by the resolving poYer of the overhead video camera 528, the latter may be supplemented by a horizont-ll;~S~Z

al robot arm-mounted video camera 86 similar to that shown in Figure 1. It will also be understood that the video camera 528, instead of being provided with the usual objective lens 532, may be equipped with a conventional"zoom lens" (not shown) wherein optical elements of the lens system within the lens mount can be moved back and forth relatively to one another by motor-driven mechanism such as gearing driven by an electric motor to vary the size of the image of the workpiece W and con-sequently vary the resolving power of the lens.

. , ., '. '. ', . .-' , ,.... :

Claims (12)

THE EMBODIMENTS OF THE INVENTION IN WHICH AN EXCLUSIVE
PROPERTY OR PRIVILEGE IS CLAIMED ARE DEFINED AS FOLLOWS:

1. A rotary video article centering, orienting and transferring machine adapted to be installed in a computerized electronic operating and control system with a memory section therein and operable to transport articles from a loading station to an unloading station outside said machine, said machine comprising an article carrier disposed at the loading station, a machine-supporting structure adapted to be disposed between said stations, a first X-Y axis positioner including a first X-axis carriage mounted on said structure for horizont-al reciprocation longitudinally of said article carrier and a first Y-axis carriage mounted on said X-axis carriage for hori-zontal reciprocation laterally of said X-axis carriage, means for so reciprocating said first X-axis and said first Y-axis carriages, a lifting and horizontally swinging device mounted on said first Y-axis carriage, an article transporter mounted on said device for lifting and swinging thereby and having an article gripper connected thereto and movable thereby between the loading and loading stations. a first video camera mounted in optical alignment with said article carrier for rotation a -round its optical axis and having a focal plane disposed in focus with said article carrier for imaging articles thereon in said focal plane, said first video camera having means thereon adapted for the electrical connection thereof to the co?puterized electronic operating and control system for trans-mitting the image of a randomly-positioned article on said carrier in said focal plane to the operating and control system for comparison with the image of a previously-properly-positioned article on said article carrier previously recorded in the mem-ory section, and means responsive to the bringing of the video camera image of the randomly-positioned article on said work-piece carrier into coincidence with image in the memory sec-tion of the computerized electronic operating and control syst-em for rotating said first video camera and moving said X-axis carriage and said Y-axis carriage to move said article gripper into a position adjacent the randomly-positioned article for pickup thereof.

2. A rotary video article centering, orienting and transferring machine, according to claim 1, wherein said first video camera is mounted on and movable bodily with said article transporter.

3. A rotary video article centering, orienting and transferring machine, according to claim 1, wherein said article transporter has a rearward portion mounted on said lifting and swinging device, also an extensible forward portion movably mounted on said rearward portion, and also has means connected to said rearward portion for extending and retracting said for-ward portion relatively to said rearward portion, said article gripper being mounted on said forward portion.

4. A rotary video article centering, orienting and transferring machine, according to claim 3, wherein said first video camera is mounted on said rearward portion, and wherein said forward portion has reflecting means thereon in optical alignment with said video camera and the loading station.

5. A rotary video article centering, orienting and transferring machine, according to claim 3, wherein said for-ward portion is mounted on said rearward portion coaxial there-with for rotation relatively thereto, and wherein means are mounted on said rearward portion and operatively connected to said forward portion for rotating said forward portion rela-tively to said rearward portion.

6. A rotary video article centering, orienting and transferring machine, according to claim 3, wherein said art-icle gripper is rotatably mounted on said forward portion, and wherein means is provided for rotating said article grip-per.

7. A rotary video article centering, orienting and transferring machine, according to claim 6, wherein said article gripper rotates upon an axis substantially perpendicular to said forward portion.

8. A rotary video article centering, orienting and transferring machine, according to claim 6, wherein said article gripper is mounted on said article transporter for rotation in-dependently of the swinging of said transporter.

9. A rotary video article centering, orienting and transferring machine, according to claim 4, wherein said first video camera is disposed with its optical axis parallel to said articld transporter and perpendicular to the axis of swing of said transporter.

10. A rotary video article centering, orienting and transferring machine, according to claim 1, wherein a second camera supporting structure is disposed adjacent the loading station, and wherein a second video camera is disposed with its optical axis substantially perpendicular to the loading station.

11. A rotary video article centering, orienting and transferring machine, according to claim 10, wherein said first video camera has a narrow-angle high resolution objective lens covering only a fractional part of the loading station width, and wherein said second video camera has a wide angle lower resolution objective lens covering substantially the entire width of the loading station, said second video camera having means thereon adapted for electrical connection thereof to the operating and control system and to said first video camera for moving said X-axis carriage and said Y-axis carriage to move said article transporter and said first video camera thereon to bring the field of view of said first video camera into cover-ing relationship with said randomly-positioned article in res-ponse to the locating of said randomly-positioned article and the determination and transmittal of the X-axis and Y-axis co-ordinates to said first video camera by way of the operating and control system and the feedback therefrom.

12. A rotary video article centering, orienting and transferring machine, according to claim 10, wherein a second X-Y axis positioner is mounted on said second camera supporting structure above said article carrier, wherein a rotary video cam-era support is rotatably mounted on said second X-Y axis posit-ioner for horizontal reciprocation therewith in mutually per-pendicular directions relatively to said second camera support-ing structure, and wherein said second video camera is mounted on said rotary camera support with its optical axis substantial-ly vertical and substantially coincident with the axis of ro-tation of said rotary camera support.