CN114433490A

CN114433490A - Method, system and storage medium for detecting sorting abnormity of articles

Info

Publication number: CN114433490A
Application number: CN202011214185.8A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 付展宏; 薛喜辉; 朱颖; 吴登禄
Original assignee: SF Technology Co Ltd
Current assignee: SF Technology Co Ltd
Priority date: 2020-11-04
Filing date: 2020-11-04
Publication date: 2022-05-06

Abstract

The embodiment of the application provides a method, a system and a storage medium for detecting article sorting abnormity, wherein the method comprises the following steps: detecting and tracking the position of an article to be sorted along the moving direction of the article to be sorted through video stream information; acquiring track information detected and tracked by the objects to be sorted in a target detection area, wherein the target detection area is an area corresponding to the sorting port on the cross belt; determining sorting behavior information of the articles to be sorted according to the track information; and outputting abnormal sorting information when determining that the articles to be sorted are in an abnormal sorting state according to the sorting behavior information and the flow direction information of the preset sorting port corresponding to the articles to be sorted. The scheme can sort the express mail sorting abnormity, so that the output abnormal sorting information can directly position the abnormal type of the abnormal express mail. The method has the advantages that the goods which are wrongly distributed or failed to be distributed are good, and the goods which are wrongly distributed or failed to be distributed in the piece distributing stage can be automatically detected.

Description

Method, system and storage medium for detecting sorting abnormity of articles

Technical Field

The embodiment of the application relates to the technical field of logistics, in particular to a method, a system and a storage medium for detecting article sorting abnormity.

Background

In the commodity circulation trade, the drop-in of automatic sorting equipment can greatly promote express delivery transfer efficiency, reduces artificial intensity of labour, reduce cost. Currently, cross-belt automated sorting systems have become an integral part of the industry. The automatic cross belt sorting system is generally formed by connecting a main driving belt conveyor and a trolley carrying a small cross belt conveyor, and when the trolley moves to a specified sorting opening, the cross belt is rotated to complete the task of sorting and delivering the express mail. The sorting mode is stable, and the whole system is easy to control. However, there is a high demand for the initial state of the express items, and if the express items are not placed in a single trolley, the express items may drop to other sorting ports in advance due to shaking before reaching the specified sorting position; the express items are not distributed to other sorting ports because the rotation of the cross belt is not performed at the same time; even the dispatch pieces are too light and drift down to another sorting opening due to inertia during the fall. The sorting speed of the cross belts is high, and the conditions of abnormal sorting cannot be found in time, so that final express delivery is wrongly sorted.

During the research and practice of the prior art, the inventors of the embodiments of the present application found that the following problems exist in the existing cross-belt type automatic sorting system:

1. the existing cross belt type automatic sorting system has the conditions of inaccurate dropping, collision with the side edge of a lattice opening and the like, and causes abnormal sorting of express items.

2. And the wrong score information cannot be timely acquired and processed.

3. The traditional exception handling mode is completed manually, operation guidance is lacked, and efficiency is low.

Disclosure of Invention

The embodiment of the application provides a method, a system and a storage medium for detecting article sorting abnormity, which can accurately detect whether express delivery is wrongly thrown or fails to throw, classify the express delivery sorting abnormity, and automatically detect the articles which are wrongly thrown or fail to throw in the delivery stage.

In a first aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a method for detecting an article sorting abnormality, where the method includes:

detecting and tracking the position of an article to be sorted along the moving direction of the article to be sorted;

acquiring track information detected and tracked by the objects to be sorted in a target detection area, wherein the target detection area is an area corresponding to a preset sorting opening on the cross belt;

determining sorting behavior information of the articles to be sorted according to the track information;

and according to the sorting behavior information and the flow direction information of the articles to be sorted corresponding to the preset sorting port, outputting abnormal sorting information when the articles to be sorted are determined to be in an abnormal sorting state.

In one possible design, the track information includes a first track and a second track, and the motion direction includes a first direction and a second direction; the first direction refers to a moving direction of the articles to be sorted, which are turned to the preset sorting opening to move within an effective sorting range of the preset sorting opening when the articles reach the preset sorting opening on the cross belt; the second direction is the moving direction of the articles to be sorted when the articles to be sorted are driven by the crossed belts to move towards the actual sorting openings in the sorting area;

the first track refers to a motion track of the articles to be sorted in the first direction; the second track refers to a motion track of the articles to be sorted in the second direction, and the ending time of the first track is prior to the starting time of the second track.

In one possible design, before determining the sorting behavior information of the to-be-sorted item according to the trajectory information, the method further includes:

controlling the cross belt to move in a single direction towards the first direction before the articles to be sorted move to the actual sorting opening;

when the articles to be sorted move to the actual sorting opening, the cross belts are controlled to move towards the second direction, so that the articles to be sorted are thrown into the actual sorting opening.

In one possible design, the determining, according to the sorting behavior information and the flow direction information of the to-be-sorted article corresponding to the preset sorting port, that the to-be-sorted article is in an abnormal sorting state includes:

if the first track passes through the target detection area and the end point of the first track is not in the target detection area, acquiring the second track of the object to be sorted;

and if the actual sorting port covered by the second track is determined not to be the preset sorting port, determining that the abnormal sorting state of the articles to be sorted is the first type of wrong delivery.

if the first track passes through the target detection area and the end point of the first track is not in the target detection area, acquiring the second track of the articles to be sorted;

if the actual sorting port covered by the second track is determined not to be the preset sorting port, and a resident track point exists in the second track, the abnormal sorting state of the articles to be sorted is determined to be a second type error piece throwing state, and the resident track point means that the resident time of the articles to be sorted at the same track point exceeds the preset time.

if the first track passes through the target detection area and the end point of the first track is not in the target detection area, determining the second track of the articles to be sorted;

and if the end point of the second track is not in any sorting port, determining that the abnormal sorting state of the articles to be sorted is a piece throwing failure.

and if the first track does not pass through the target detection area, determining that the abnormal sorting state of the articles to be sorted is the wrong piece throwing.

In one possible design, the determining that the abnormal sorting status of the to-be-sorted item is a wrong delivery if the first trajectory does not pass through the target detection area includes:

if the first track does not pass through the target detection area, determining that the actual sorting port covered by the second track is the preset sorting port, and determining that the abnormal sorting state of the articles to be sorted is a third-type wrong piece throwing state if a resident track point exists in the second track, wherein the resident track point means that the resident time of the articles to be sorted at the same track point exceeds the preset time.

if the first track does not pass through the target detection area, determining that the article to be sorted does not reach the preset sorting port;

if the first track does not pass through the target detection area, and the actual sorting port covered by the second track is determined not to be the preset sorting port, and a resident track point exists in the second track, the abnormal sorting state of the articles to be sorted is determined to be a fourth type error throwing piece, and the resident track point means that the resident duration of the articles to be sorted at the same track point exceeds the preset duration.

In a second aspect, an analysis device for detecting an article sorting anomaly is provided, and has a function of implementing the method for detecting an article sorting anomaly provided corresponding to the first aspect. The functions can be realized by hardware, and the functions can also be realized by executing corresponding software by hardware. The hardware or software includes one or more modules corresponding to the above functions, which may be software and/or hardware.

In one possible design, the analysis device includes:

the detection module is used for detecting and tracking the position of the article to be sorted along the movement direction of the article to be sorted;

the input and output module is used for acquiring track information detected and tracked by the objects to be sorted in a target detection area, and the target detection area is an area which corresponds to a preset sorting port on the cross belt;

the processing module is used for determining the sorting behavior information of the articles to be sorted according to the track information; and outputting abnormal sorting information through the input and output module when determining that the articles to be sorted are in an abnormal sorting state according to the sorting behavior information and the flow direction information of the articles to be sorted corresponding to the preset sorting port.

In one possible design, the processing module is further configured to:

In one possible design, the processing module is specifically configured to:

if the first track passes through the target detection area and the end point of the first track is not in the target detection area, determining that the article to be sorted normally reaches the preset sorting port, and acquiring the second track of the article to be sorted;

In one possible design, the processing module is specifically configured to:

if the first track passes through the target detection area and the end point of the first track is not in the target detection area, determining the second track of the object to be sorted;

In one possible design, the processing module is specifically configured to:

if the first track does not pass through the target detection area, and the actual sorting port covered by the second track is determined to be the preset sorting port, and a resident track point exists in the second track, the abnormal sorting state of the articles to be sorted is determined to be a third type of wrong piece throwing, and the resident track point means that the resident time of the articles to be sorted at the same track point exceeds the preset time.

In one possible design, the processing module is specifically configured to:

if the actual sorting port covered by the second track is determined not to be the preset sorting port, and a resident track point exists in the second track, the abnormal sorting state of the articles to be sorted is determined to be a fourth type error throwing piece, and the resident track point means that the resident time of the articles to be sorted at the same track point exceeds the preset time.

In a third aspect, embodiments of the present application provide a sorting system that includes at least one crossbar, a plurality of sorting ports, and an analysis device; the sorting ports are mutually independent, each sorting port corresponds to one detection area, and the sorting ports are used for receiving the objects to be sorted which are thrown in the crossed belts;

the detection area is used for detecting and tracking the position of an article to be sorted along the movement direction of the article to be sorted; the system comprises a cross belt, a target detection area, a sorting opening and a sorting module, wherein the cross belt is used for carrying out sorting on objects to be sorted;

the analysis equipment is used for determining the sorting behavior information of the articles to be sorted according to the track information; and according to the sorting behavior information and the flow direction information of the articles to be sorted corresponding to the preset sorting port, when the articles to be sorted are determined to be in an abnormal sorting state, outputting abnormal sorting information.

In one possible design, a sorting partition plate is arranged between adjacent sorting openings; a gap exists between the sorting partition and the cross belt.

In one possible embodiment, the evaluation device has the functionality of implementing the functionality implemented by the evaluation device corresponding to the second aspect described above.

In yet another aspect, an analysis device is provided, which includes at least one connected processor, a memory and an input/output device, wherein the memory is used for storing a computer program, and the processor is used for calling the computer program in the memory to execute the method of the first aspect.

Yet another aspect of the embodiments of the present application provides a computer-readable storage medium, which includes instructions that, when executed on a computer, cause the computer to perform the method of the first aspect.

Compared with the prior art, in the scheme provided by the embodiment of the application, the positions of the articles to be sorted along the movement direction of the articles to be sorted are detected and tracked; acquiring track information detected and tracked by the objects to be sorted in a target detection area, wherein the target detection area is an area corresponding to the sorting port on the cross belt; determining sorting behavior information of the articles to be sorted according to the track information; and outputting abnormal sorting information when determining that the articles to be sorted are in an abnormal sorting state according to the sorting behavior information and the flow direction information of the preset sorting port corresponding to the articles to be sorted. The scheme can accurately detect whether the express mail is wrongly thrown or fails to throw, classify the sorting abnormity of the express mail, and automatically detect the article which is wrongly thrown or fails to throw in the express mail stage.

Drawings

Fig. 1a is a schematic flow chart illustrating sorting and detection of express items based on a sorting system in an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 1b is a schematic view of a cross belt sorter apparatus according to an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 2 is a schematic view of a cross belt type sorting apparatus according to an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating an exemplary method for detecting sorting anomalies in an embodiment of the present disclosure;

fig. 4 is a schematic diagram of a motion track of normal sorting of the express items in the embodiment of the present application;

fig. 5 is a schematic diagram of a motion trajectory of an abnormally sorted express item in the embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 6 is a schematic view of a cross belt sorter apparatus in an embodiment of the subject application;

FIG. 7 is a schematic view of a trajectory of a flag in an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 8 is a schematic diagram of a trace of a pendant according to an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 9 is a schematic diagram of an analysis apparatus according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 10 is a schematic structural diagram of an analysis apparatus in an embodiment of the present application.

Detailed Description

The terms "first," "second," and the like in the description and in the claims of the embodiments of the application and in the drawings described above are used for distinguishing between similar elements and not necessarily for describing a particular sequential or chronological order. It will be appreciated that the data so used may be interchanged under appropriate circumstances such that the embodiments described herein may be practiced otherwise than as specifically illustrated or described herein. Furthermore, the terms "comprise" and "have," and any variations thereof, are intended to cover non-exclusive inclusions, such that a process, method, system, article, or apparatus that comprises a list of steps or modules is not necessarily limited to those steps or modules expressly listed, but may include other steps or modules not expressly listed or inherent to such process, method, article, or apparatus, such that the division of modules presented in the present application is merely a logical division and may be implemented in a practical application in a different manner, such that multiple modules may be combined or integrated into another system or some features may be omitted or not implemented, and such that couplings or direct couplings or communicative connections shown or discussed may be through interfaces, indirect couplings or communicative connections between modules may be electrical or the like, the embodiments of the present application are not limited. Moreover, the modules or sub-modules described as separate components may or may not be physically separated, may or may not be physical modules, or may be distributed in a plurality of circuit modules, and some or all of the modules may be selected according to actual needs to achieve the purpose of the embodiments of the present application.

The embodiment of the application provides a method, a system and a storage medium for detecting article sorting abnormity, which can be used for analyzing and detecting various sorting behaviors in logistics sorting, such as detecting articles with abnormal sorting. In some embodiments, the solution can be used in a sorting system, such as a schematic flow chart of sorting and detecting express items based on the sorting system shown in fig. 1 a. The sorting system comprises an automatic code scanning system, a Warehouse Control System (WCS), an express target tracking module, an express track analysis module, an information fusion judgment module, an abnormity early warning module and a manual processing module. The WCS is applied to warehouse management and coordinates the operation among various logistics devices such as a conveyor, a stacker, a shuttle, a robot, an automatic guided vehicle and the like, can adopt a C/S framework, optimizes and decomposes tasks and analyzes execution paths mainly through a task engine and a message engine, provides execution guarantee and optimization for a scheduling instruction of an upper system, and realizes integration, unified scheduling and monitoring of various device system interfaces.

The information fusion module can correspondingly obtain the preset sorting port flow direction of the sorted objects through the complete track. The method comprises the following specific steps: the camera for obtaining the video stream is fixed (namely the camera is deployed at a fixed position to shoot the video stream in a fixed range), and the speed of the trolley movement on the cross belt is fixed (namely the cross belt keeps constant-speed movement before the express mail reaches a preset sorting port so as to keep the trolley on the cross belt to also move at a constant speed), so that the corresponding relation between each pixel point (X, Y) of each frame image in the video stream and the (X, Y, Z) of the actual application scene real coordinate can be found. Therefore, each point on the complete track can find the corresponding real coordinate, and then the time delta _ t of the current position of the object and the flow direction information issued by the code scanning system can be calculated according to the movement speed of the crossed belt. And then, according to the time t for acquiring the current frame image, the time t0 that the object to be sorted reaches the preset sorting port information is calculated to be t-delta _ t, that is, the flow direction information issued by the WCS system at the time t0 can be acquired.

The above-mentioned text narrative can be used in a relatively simple scenario to determine a correspondence between sorting behavior information and flow direction information of the predetermined sorting opening of the item to be sorted. According to the embodiment of the application, calculation algorithms of the pixel points (X, Y) and three-dimensional coordinates (X, Y, Z) of the real scene are not limited, and other devices such as sensors and photoelectric tubes can be used.

In hardware, the sortation system further comprises at least one crossbelt, a plurality of sorting gates, and an analytical apparatus; the sorting ports are independent from each other, and each sorting port corresponds to a detection area (for example, a target detection area corresponding to an article to be sorted in the following text), and the sorting port is used for receiving the article to be sorted thrown in the cross belt.

Setting a detection area for detecting and tracking the position of an article to be sorted along the movement direction of the article; and track information of the to-be-sorted articles in a target detection area can be acquired, where the target detection area is an area on the cross belt corresponding to a preset sorting port, where the area corresponding to each other may be an area where the cross belt passes through the preset sorting port, for example, an area where the cross belt passes through the preset sorting port and is connected with the preset sorting port or is adjacent to the preset sorting port or is opposite to the preset sorting port, and so on. For example, as shown in fig. 2, fig. 2 shows 6 sorting openings, each corresponding to one detection area (shown as a rectangular box).

The sorting behavior information refers to various motion states of the articles to be sorted in the process of being thrown into the sorting area, such as throwing, hovering, waving, sliding and the like. The flow direction information refers to a sorting task planned in advance for the items to be sorted, and the sorting task comprises a sorting route, a sorting speed, a sorting time and the like. The sorting route comprises a cross belt number, a transportation route, a preset sorting port and the like. A sorting area refers to a physical area in which a plurality of sorting gates are deployed, the sorting area being intended to receive items to be sorted from a cross-belt for delivery, which may be understood as a discharge area.

A sorting partition plate is arranged between adjacent sorting ports; a gap exists between the sorting partition plate and the cross belt.

The embodiment of the application mainly provides the following technical scheme:

fig. 1b shows a schematic view of a cross-belt sorting installation, which fig. 1b shows a series of sorting openings and cross belts, and which cross belts 10 are pre-numbered according to the number of the sorting openings and are connected in contact with sorting openings 11, wherein the packages can be loaded onto a package sorting vehicle (e.g. a trolley 1-7 in the figure), which is placed on the cross belts for transport and sorting. The express items on the cross belt 10 are moved towards the first direction a before the appointed sorting opening, and when the express items reach the corresponding sorting opening, the cross belt changes the current moving direction, for example, moves towards the second direction b, so that the express items are separated from the cross belt and move towards the appointed sorting opening to carry out the throwing. Every letter sorting mouth 11 both sides all have the letter sorting baffle 110 of a take the altitude (for example for metal baffle, this application embodiment does not make any restriction to the material of letter sorting baffle, whether flexible), can prevent effectively that the express mail that has a certain volume from falling to other letter sorting mouths because of inertia.

As shown in FIG. 2, each sorting opening 11 is designed to correspond to a detection area on the cross belt, and a corresponding target detection area 120 is designed for each sorting opening 11, namely, fillets 2-7 in the trolley area of the cross belt correspond to sorting openings 2-7 respectively. Wherein, the detection area is used for tracking the motion trail of the express mail. In the embodiment of the application, only the process that the express mail enters the detection area needs to be detected and tracked, the whole process of detecting and tracking the express mail is not needed, namely, the whole process that the express mail is placed in a cross zone and begins to enter a sorting port does not need to be detected and tracked, and therefore the target loss caused by the cross camera can be avoided, and the calculated amount and the potential error rate are effectively reduced. And then, performing express target detection on the video stream acquired by the camera frame by using the trained deep learning model. After the express target is obtained, Kalman (KALMAN) filtering can be utilized to track express of frames before and after the video stream so as to obtain the motion track of each express. If the express item is planned to be sorted to the sorting port 6, if the express item does not reach the boundary at the rightmost side of the detection area 6, the express item may be hung or incorrectly sorted to other sorting ports, such as the sorting ports 5, 4 or 3; if the boundary of the leftmost side of the detection area 6 is exceeded, the express mail may be hung or incorrectly sorted to the sorting opening 7.

Referring to fig. 3, a method for detecting an article sorting anomaly according to an embodiment of the present application is described below, where the method may be performed by an analysis device, and the analysis device may be inherited in a sorting system, or may be deployed separately in an enterprise server or a terminal device, and the present application is not limited to this. The embodiment of the application comprises the following steps:

301. the position of the article to be sorted along the moving direction is detected and tracked.

The articles to be sorted refer to the articles to be thrown into the sorting opening and are currently transported on the cross belt, and the articles may also be called as express mails, packages, boxes and the like, which is not limited in the embodiments of the present application. It is understood that the articles to be sorted are generally loaded by the trolley, and the embodiment of the present application does not limit the loading type, loading or not of the articles to be sorted on the cross belt.

It can be understood that, when detecting and tracking the articles to be sorted, the detection may be in real time, or the subsequent analysis may be performed based on the sorting detection video stream, which is not limited in the embodiments of the present application. During detection and tracking, the sorting detection video stream needs to be acquired first.

Because the articles to be sorted are placed on the cross belt for transportation, the articles to be sorted and the cross belt are kept relatively static before being thrown to the preset sorting opening. Thus, the direction of movement of the articles to be sorted before and at the moment of their disengagement from the cross belt coincides with the cross belt. Since the detection and tracking of the articles to be sorted is the movement process of the whole articles to be sorted, the movement direction of the movement process comprises the movement direction of the articles to be sorted before and at the moment of separation from the cross belt, and also comprises the movement direction of the articles to be sorted after separation from the cross belt. Since the movement state of the articles to be sorted is caused by the cross belts and there is an interaction with the cross belts, the movement state (e.g., movement direction, movement speed, etc.) of the cross belts can be used for the articles to be sorted.

In some embodiments, the cross-belt comprises essentially two states of motion:

a. the cross belt is changed to move towards the preset sorting opening in the effective sorting range of the articles to be sorted to the preset sorting opening, namely the first direction of the articles to be sorted. At this time, the articles to be sorted are still on the cross belt, and the moving direction of the articles to be sorted is consistent with the moving direction of the cross belt, so that the first direction is also the moving direction of the articles to be sorted. For the articles to be sorted, the first direction is the moving direction of the articles to be sorted, which reaches the effective sorting range of the preset sorting opening on the cross belt and is about to turn to the preset sorting opening.

b. The cross belts move towards the direction of the actual sorting opening, i.e. the second direction of the articles to be sorted, so as to throw the articles to be sorted.

According to the description of the motion state of the cross belt, the first direction in this embodiment may refer to a motion direction when the article to be sorted reaches an effective sorting range of the preset sorting opening on the cross belt and turns to the preset sorting opening to move, where the effective sorting range may include a range in which the express mail can be sorted to the preset sorting opening, for example, the effective sorting range may be an area right above or near the preset sorting opening, for example, the express mail on the cross belt is 1 meter away from the preset sorting opening. Since the articles to be sorted and the cross belt are generally kept relatively stationary on the cross belt, specifically, the first direction of the articles to be sorted is the moving direction before the cross belt switches the moving direction to the second direction, that is, the moving direction before the articles to be sorted are driven by the cross belt to be thrown to the sorting opening. The second direction is a moving direction of the to-be-sorted articles when the to-be-sorted articles are driven by the cross belt to move (for example, put into and deliver) towards an actual sorting opening in the sorting area (the actual sorting opening may be a preset sorting opening, and may also be other sorting openings different from the preset sorting opening). Accordingly, the position of the articles to be sorted along their direction of movement on the cross-belt includes both the position of the articles to be sorted on the cross-belt when they are transported in a first direction (e.g. horizontal) and the position of the inertial movement of the cross-belt in the direction of the sorting opening, so that the articles to be sorted are moved in a second direction.

The preset sorting port is a sorting port distributed for the to-be-sorted articles by the sorting system after the to-be-sorted articles enter the sorting system, and under a normal condition, the to-be-sorted articles can be sorted to the preset sorting port. The related information of the preset sorting port can be acquired through the automatic code scanning system, then the information of the code scanned by the automatic code scanning system is compared with the information of a Warehouse Control System (WCS), the related information of the preset sorting port of the article to be sorted can be acquired, and the time required for the article to be sorted to reach the preset sorting port can be predicted. However, in case of abnormal sorting, the situation that the preset sorting opening is inconsistent with the actual sorting opening may occur.

302. And acquiring track information detected and tracked by the object to be sorted in the target detection area.

Wherein, the target detection area refers to the area (such as the inner circle quadrangle area 2-7 in fig. 4) corresponding to the preset sorting opening position on the cross belt. The target detection area is used for tracking the motion track of the articles to be sorted, and one sorting opening can correspond to one or more than two target detection areas. In some embodiments, each target detection area may detect, in addition to the movement trajectory of the article to be sorted in the corresponding sorting opening spatial range, the movement trajectories of other articles to be sorted in the adjacent sorting opening spatial range, and the detection angle, number, and spatial data of the target detection area may be dynamically adjusted. The number, the detection mode, the division mode and the detection range of the target detection areas are not limited in the embodiment of the application.

In some embodiments, to improve the accuracy of analyzing the abnormal sorting behavior and to improve the effectiveness of analyzing the abnormal sorting behavior, the embodiments of the present application introduce a segmented trajectory analysis, and particularly, a segmented trajectory analysis method is designed, which can segment based on the moving direction of the article to be sorted, for example, the trajectory of the article to be sorted moving in the first direction and the second direction can be divided into a first trajectory and a second trajectory, respectively. Such as parabola 121 and parabola 122 shown in fig. 4; in fig. 4, each sorting opening 11 has a corresponding detection and tracking area, and if the movement trajectory of the express mail in the detection and tracking area is the parabola 121 (i.e. the first trajectory moving in the first direction) as shown in fig. 4 and meets the arrival time of the express mail, the movement of the express mail on the cross belt is correct, the cross belt can drive the article to be sorted to be correctly thrown to the vicinity of the sorting opening 6, and at this time, the rotation of the cross belt is correct, that is, the movement trajectory of the current cross belt is also correct.

However, in some cases, even if the movement trajectory of the express item on the cross belt 10 is correct at this time, it does not mean that the express item can reach the correct sorting opening 6, so it is necessary to consider the type of the express item, for example, if the express item is a file type express item, the file type express item may easily fall to the previous sorting opening 7 due to inertia due to its light weight and thinness, and may be stuck above the sorting opening 6. Therefore, it is also necessary to continue detecting and analyzing the trajectory of the express item from the direction away from the cross belt toward (e.g., down to) the sorting opening 6, as shown in fig. 4, the trajectory analysis may be performed on a parabola 122, that is, the second trajectory is analyzed, and if the express item is a non-file type express item, the motion situation shown in fig. 4 may occur. If the express mail is a file type express mail, the motion situation shown in fig. 5 may occur.

Wherein the track information includes the first track and the second track. The first track refers to a motion track of the articles to be sorted in the first direction; the second track refers to a motion track of the articles to be sorted in the second direction. The end time of the first track precedes the start time of the second track.

In some embodiments, the second trajectory may be a single-segment trajectory, or may be composed of more than two segments of trajectories, and a connection point between the segments of trajectories is determined according to an actual situation of the to-be-sorted object, which is not limited in this application.

303. And determining the sorting behavior information of the articles to be sorted according to the track information.

In some embodiments, before determining the sorting behavior information of the to-be-sorted item according to the trajectory information, the method further includes:

controlling the cross belt to move in the first direction before the articles to be sorted move to the actual sorting mouth;

when the article to be sorted moves to the actual sorting opening, the cross belt is controlled to move towards the second direction, so that the article to be sorted is thrown into the actual sorting opening.

Wherein, the actual sorting opening is the sorting opening into which the detected article to be sorted is finally put. The actual sorting port can be a preset sorting port corresponding to the article to be sorted, or can be a non-preset sorting port, and the embodiment of the application does not limit the preset sorting port.

304. And according to the sorting behavior information and the flow direction information of the articles to be sorted corresponding to the preset sorting port, outputting abnormal sorting information when the articles to be sorted are determined to be in an abnormal sorting state.

Optionally, in some embodiments of the present application, when a segmented trajectory is introduced to analyze sorting behavior information of the to-be-sorted article, determining that the to-be-sorted article is in an abnormal sorting state according to the sorting behavior information and flow direction information of the to-be-sorted article corresponding to the preset sorting port mainly includes the following several scenarios:

(1) the articles to be sorted are sorted into adjacent sorting openings.

Considering that the moving trajectory of the articles to be sorted after leaving the cross belt may be influenced by many factors in the air (such as collision with other articles to be sorted, air resistance, gravity acceleration, etc.), the moving direction, moving speed, timing, etc. when leaving the cross belt may finally cause the final drop point of the articles to be sorted to be in a non-preset sorting opening, such as an adjacent sorting opening, etc., or may be dropped to a sorting opening separated by more than two sorting openings. For example, the articles to be sorted are sorted to the next sorting opening or the previous sorting opening of the preset sorting opening, and may also be the next sorting opening or the previous sorting opening, and the like, which is not limited in the embodiments of the present application.

Specifically, if the first trajectory passes through the target detection area and the end point of the first trajectory is not in the target detection area, the second trajectory of the article to be sorted is obtained;

If the first track passes through the target detection area and the end point of the first track is not in the target detection area, it is indicated that the object to be sorted moves away from the target detection area of the preset sorting port, the object to be sorted may move along the second direction, at this time, the moving track of the object to be sorted in the second direction, that is, the second track, may be obtained, and the second track is analyzed to determine the abnormal sorting state of the object to be sorted. For example, the covered detection area of the second trajectory, or the edges of the sorting deck of the covered detection area, etc. may be analyzed to determine an abnormal sorting status of the sorted articles. The embodiment of the present application will describe a specific way of analyzing the second trajectory to determine an abnormal sorting status by taking the analysis of the coverage relationship between the second trajectory and the edge of the sorting partition in the detection area as an example.

For example, in an embodiment, if it is determined that the second trajectory covers the edge of the sorting partition corresponding to the adjacent detection area (i.e. the adjacent detection area of the target detection area corresponding to the preset sorting opening) (in practical application, the sorting partition may be specifically a sorting partition on one side of the adjacent detection area close to the preset sorting opening), the adjacent detection area may correspond to the actual sorting opening (the sorting behavior is normal at this time), and the actual sorting opening is not the preset sorting opening (the sorting behavior is abnormal at this time), see fig. 5.

As shown in fig. 4, taking the example that the express mail is loaded on the cross belt trolley, the sorting plan of the express mail is as follows: and sorting to a sorting port 6, wherein the sorting port 6 corresponds to the target detection area 6. In fig. 4, the track of the express mail on the cross belt trolley is in the corresponding detection area 6, the moving distance in the horizontal direction does not exceed the edge of the left metal partition plate of the sorting opening 6, and the express mail directly reaches the inside of the sorting opening 6, so that the express mail has no abnormal sorting behavior and is normally sorted.

As shown in fig. 5, taking the case that the express mail is loaded on the cross belt trolley, the track of the express mail on the cross belt trolley is not in the corresponding detection area 6, and the moving distance in the horizontal direction exceeds the edge of the left metal partition plate of the sorting mouth 6, and the express mail directly reaches the inside of the next sorting mouth 7. In comparison with the correct trajectory shown in fig. 4, it is clear that the dispatch is not inserted into the correct sorting mouth 6, and therefore an abnormal sorting behaviour of the dispatch exists.

(2) The articles to be sorted become hanging or floating pieces.

For example, the article to be sorted is not sorted to any sorting opening all the time and becomes a hanging piece or a floating piece, and the hanging piece at the back may be subjected to an external force (e.g. hit by other article to be sorted) of other article to be sorted (e.g. the article to be sorted at the back) and become a floating piece. The floating pieces are express mails which are suspended in a certain space range in the air for a long time after being sorted; the pendant is the express mail of hanging in a certain position such as baffle top or inner wall etc. at letter sorting mouth for a long time after the letter sorting.

Specifically, if the first trajectory passes through the target detection area and the end point of the first trajectory is not within the target detection area, determining the second trajectory of the article to be sorted;

The end point of the first track is not in the target detection area of the preset sorting port, which indicates that the object to be sorted moves to be separated from the target detection area of the preset sorting port, and the object to be sorted may move along the second direction. For example, the relationship between the end point of the second trajectory and the sorting mouth can be analyzed to determine an abnormal sorting status of the items to be sorted. Such as whether the end of the second trajectory is in any of the sorting gates, etc.

In an actual sorting scenario, the possible case where the end point of the second trajectory is not at the sorting gate may include: the article to be sorted is driven by the cross belt to move along the second direction and exceed the preset sorting opening (specifically exceed the edge of the sorting partition plate of the preset sorting opening), and the article to be sorted finally stops above the sorting partition plate of the sorting opening or at other spatial positions (such as below, upper left and the like), and at the moment, the end point of the second track is not at the sorting opening.

As shown in fig. 6, taking an express mail as an example of a pendant, the pendant is mostly a thin file express mail, and the sorting plan of the express mail is as follows: sorting is carried out to a sorting port 6, and the sorting port 6 corresponds to the detection area 6. Because the mass of the document express is too light and the moving speed of the cross belt is too high, the moving distance of the express in the horizontal direction on the cross belt exceeds the edge of the left metal partition plate of the sorting opening 6, and because the inertia is not enough to support the express to continue moving in the horizontal direction, the express is clamped above the left metal partition plate of the sorting opening 6 and finally stops moving, and a hanging piece is formed. Therefore, the express mail has abnormal sorting behavior.

(3) The articles to be sorted, which become hanging or floating pieces, are sorted into adjacent sorting mouths.

For example, the article to be sorted is not sorted to any sorting opening at first and becomes a hanging piece or a floating piece, and the following hanging piece is acted by (e.g. hit) the next sorting opening by the external force of other article to be sorted (e.g. the following article to be sorted).

In the embodiment of the application, when the resident track point can be a hanging piece or a floating piece, the turning point appearing in the motion trail of the object to be sorted. The resident track point can be in the air, for example, the fluttering piece hovers in a certain small space range in the air for a long time; the staying track point can also be any position on the baffle of the sorting opening, namely an inflection point appearing in the track of the incorrect piece throwing of the article to be sorted, for example, the hanging piece is hung on the top or the inner wall of the baffle of the sorting opening for a long time.

As shown in fig. 7, taking the case that the express mail 12 becomes a flying mail, the flying mail is mostly a document express mail with light and thin texture, and the sorting plan of the express mail is as follows: sorting is carried out to a sorting port 6, and the sorting port 6 corresponds to the detection area 6. Because the mass of the document express is too light and the moving speed of the cross belt is too fast, the moving distance of the express in the horizontal direction on the cross belt exceeds the edge of the left metal partition plate of the sorting opening 6, and because the inertia is not enough to support the express to continue the horizontal direction movement, the express is clamped at the spatial position above the left metal partition plate of the sorting opening 6 and finally stops moving, and a float piece is formed (wherein the express is changed into a vertical state in the falling process and is higher than the metal partition plate).

However, after the document express is changed into a flying object for a period of time, a new express is thrown into the sorting port 6 from the cross belt, and at this time, the new express may collide with the document express which is changed into the flying object due to the horizontal movement of the new express, so that the document express continues to move in the horizontal direction after being stressed. In fig. 7, the document inlet is moved horizontally into the sorting opening 7. Although the file express is mistakenly knocked by mistake, the file express is not sorted into the correct sorting opening (namely the sorting opening 6), so that the file express is determined to have abnormal sorting behaviors.

As shown in fig. 8, taking express mail 12 as a pendant as an example, the sorting schedule of express mail 12 is: sorting is carried out to a sorting port 6, and the sorting port 6 corresponds to the detection area 6. Because the throwing time of the express is too late or the moving speed of the cross belt is too high, the moving distance of the express in the horizontal direction on the cross belt exceeds the edge of the left metal partition plate of the sorting opening 6, and because the inertia is not enough to support the express to continue the horizontal movement, the express is clamped above the left metal partition plate of the sorting opening 6 and finally stops moving, and a hanging piece is formed.

However, after the express mail 12 becomes a hanging part for a while, a new express mail is dropped into the sorting opening 6 from the cross belt, and at this time, the new express mail may collide with the hung express mail due to a horizontal movement, so that the file express mail continues to move in the horizontal direction after being stressed. In fig. 8, the dispatch moves horizontally into the sorting opening 7. Although the express mail is mistakenly knocked by mistake, the express mail is not sorted into the correct sorting port (namely, the sorting port 6), so that the express mail is also determined to have abnormal sorting behavior. It will be appreciated that in the example of fig. 8, where an existing pendant is knocked down by other express items, the correct sorting gate for that pendant needs to be checked against the warehouse facility management system in order to analyze that the pendant may be dropped at the wrong sorting gate.

(4) Object to be sorted not passing target detection area

And if the first track does not pass through the target detection area, determining that the abnormal sorting state of the articles to be sorted is the wrong piece throwing. As long as the target detection area is not passed, the probability that the target detection area is put into the preset sorting port can not be obtained through empirical values, the abnormal sorting effect can be improved through processing, and unnecessary reports are reduced.

In some embodiments, due to the fact that the delivered articles to be sorted are numerous in number, different in volume and different in weight, some special situations may occur in the spatial range where the sorting openings are located, for example, the articles to be sorted, which originally become hanging pieces or flying pieces, are finally sorted into some sorting openings due to some external force factors; for another example, an article to be sorted which originally has a normal track is forced to become a hanging piece or a floating piece due to some external force factors; for another example, the article to be sorted, which is originally in a normal track, is forced to be sorted into the non-preset sorting opening due to some external force factors. The above situations can be determined by analyzing whether the second track exists in the to-be-sorted goods, whether the second track is one or at least two tracks, and whether a resident track point exists in the second track.

Taking the example that the article to be sorted, which originally becomes a hanging piece or a floating piece, is finally sorted into some sorting ports due to some external force factors, if it is detected that the article to be sorted has the second track, and possibly does not reach the preset sorting port, the article to be sorted becomes the hanging piece or the floating piece, and is just hit into the preset sorting port by the article to be sorted at the back, and the article to be sorted becomes a normal piece throwing, and in this case, the article to be sorted is not thrown according to the normal track, so the article to be sorted is avoided, and the article to be sorted is also marked as an abnormal piece throwing. Specifically, if the first track does not pass through the target detection area, it is determined that the article to be sorted does not reach the preset sorting port;

if the actual sorting port covered by the second track is determined to be the preset sorting port, and a resident track point exists in the second track, the abnormal sorting state of the articles to be sorted is determined to be a third type error throwing piece, and the resident track point means that the resident time of the articles to be sorted at the same track point exceeds the preset time.

In the embodiment of the application, corresponding detection areas are respectively arranged for each sorting opening, and the positions of the express items passing through the detection areas in the movement direction of the cross belt are detected. Before the articles to be sorted reach the preset sorting port, the cross belts move in a single direction and keep the moving direction unchanged; when the articles to be sorted reach the preset sorting opening, the cross belts move towards the direction of the preset sorting opening and throw the articles. And then detecting and analyzing the track of the express mail in 2 stages in the process of throwing the express mail, and judging whether the express mail is normally thrown to an appointed sorting port or not according to the track of the 2 stages. When the trolley is on the cross belt, if the track of the trolley is not in the detection area corresponding to the designated sorting opening, the fault of piece throwing can occur, and the detection is continued.

As shown in fig. 8, when the moving trajectory of the mail 12 in the horizontal direction of the cross belt moving direction exceeds the edge of the metal partition 110 corresponding to the adjacent detection area at the stage when the mail enters the sorting opening, the mail is incorrectly dropped (into the next adjacent sorting opening). If the express mail crosses the edge of the metal partition 110 corresponding to the adjacent detection area toward the horizontal movement track of the movement direction of the cross belt and is clamped between the cross belt and the metal partition of the sorting opening, the express mail delivery fails (i.e. a hanging part).

Therefore, whether the express delivery is mistakenly thrown or failed can be accurately detected, the express delivery sorting abnormity is classified, and the output abnormal sorting information can directly position the abnormal type of the abnormal express delivery. The method has the advantages that the goods which are wrongly distributed or failed to be distributed are good, and the goods which are wrongly distributed or failed to be distributed in the piece distributing stage can be automatically detected.

It should be noted that, in the embodiment of the present application, the definition of the target detection area may be adjusted according to the accuracy of the camera, the installation distance, the accuracy of the abnormal sorting detection, and the like, which is not limited in the embodiment of the present application.

In addition, considering the dimensional factors such as the change of the overall occupied area of the sorting equipment, the possible variation of the length and width of the cross belt, the possible variation of the size and weight of the articles to be sorted, the possible variation of the size of different sorting openings, the same or different spacing between the sorting openings, the moving speed of the cross belt, the variation of the number or weight of the articles to be sorted on the cross belt in different time periods, and the variation of the relative spacing between the cross belt and each sorting opening, the division of the target detection area can be comprehensively determined by at least one of the factors, and the specific embodiment of the present application is not limited.

Any technical feature mentioned in the embodiment corresponding to any one of fig. 1 to 8 is also applicable to the embodiment corresponding to fig. 9 in the embodiment of the present application, and the subsequent similar parts are not repeated.

In the above description, a method for detecting an article sorting abnormality in the embodiment of the present application is described, and an analysis apparatus for performing the method for detecting an article sorting abnormality is described below.

The above describes a method for detecting an article sorting anomaly in the embodiment of the present application, and an analysis device for detecting an article sorting anomaly in the embodiment of the present application is described below.

Referring to fig. 4, a schematic diagram of an analysis apparatus 90 for detecting sorting abnormality of an article as shown in fig. 4 can be applied to analyze various abnormal sorting behaviors occurring when the sorting system sorts articles, and notify a manager of the abnormal sorting behaviors, so that the manager can analyze and improve the abnormal sorting process. The analysis device in the embodiment of the present application is capable of implementing the steps corresponding to the method for detecting sorting anomalies of items performed in the embodiment corresponding to fig. 1 described above. The functions realized by the analysis device can be realized by hardware, and can also be realized by executing corresponding software by hardware.

In some embodiments, the analysis device 90 comprises:

the detecting module 901 is used for detecting and tracking the position of an article to be sorted along the moving direction of the article;

an input/output module 902, configured to obtain track information detected and tracked by the object to be sorted in a target detection area, where the target detection area is an area on the cross belt corresponding to a preset sorting opening;

a processing module 903, configured to determine, according to the trajectory information, sorting behavior information of the article to be sorted; and according to the sorting behavior information and the flow direction information of the articles to be sorted corresponding to the preset sorting port, when the articles to be sorted are determined to be in an abnormal sorting state, outputting abnormal sorting information through the input and output module 902.

In some embodiments, the trajectory information includes a first trajectory and a second trajectory, and the motion direction includes a first direction and a second direction; the first direction refers to a moving direction of the articles to be sorted, which are turned to the preset sorting opening to move within an effective sorting range of the preset sorting opening when the articles reach the preset sorting opening on the cross belt; the second direction is the moving direction of the articles to be sorted when the articles to be sorted are driven by the crossed belts to move towards the actual sorting openings in the sorting area;

the first track refers to a motion track of the articles to be sorted in the first direction; the second track refers to a motion track of the articles to be sorted in the second direction.

In some embodiments, the processing module 903 is further configured to:

In some embodiments, the processing module 903 is specifically configured to:

In one possible design, the processing module 903 is specifically configured to:

In some embodiments, the processing module 903 is specifically configured to:

In the embodiment of the application, the detection module 901 detects and tracks the position of an article to be sorted along the movement direction of the article, and after the input/output module 902 obtains track information detected and tracked by the article to be sorted in a target detection area, the processing module 903 determines sorting behavior information of the article to be sorted according to the track information; and according to the sorting behavior information and the flow direction information of the preset sorting port corresponding to the article to be sorted, when the article to be sorted is determined to be in an abnormal sorting state, outputting abnormal sorting information through the input and output module 902. The scheme can accurately detect whether the express mail is wrongly thrown or fails to throw, classify the sorting abnormity of the express mail, and automatically detect the article which is wrongly thrown or fails to throw in the express mail stage.

The analysis device in the embodiment of the present application is described above from the perspective of the modular functional entity, and the network authentication server and the terminal device in the embodiment of the present application are described below from the perspective of hardware processing.

It should be noted that, in the embodiment shown in fig. 9 of the present application, the entity device corresponding to the input/output module may be an input/output device, and the entity device corresponding to the detection module and the processing module may be a processor. Each of the apparatuses shown in fig. 9 may have a structure as shown in fig. 10, when one of the apparatuses has the structure as shown in fig. 10, the processor and the input/output unit in fig. 10 implement the same or similar functions of the processing module and the input/output module provided in the embodiment of the apparatus corresponding to the apparatus, and the memory in fig. 10 stores a computer program that the processor needs to call when executing the method for detecting an article sorting abnormality.

In the foregoing embodiments, the descriptions of the respective embodiments have respective emphasis, and for parts that are not described in detail in a certain embodiment, reference may be made to related descriptions of other embodiments.

It can be clearly understood by those skilled in the art that, for convenience and brevity of description, the specific working processes of the system, the apparatus and the module described above may refer to the corresponding processes in the foregoing method embodiments, and are not described herein again.

In the several embodiments provided in the embodiments of the present application, it should be understood that the disclosed system, apparatus, and method may be implemented in other ways. For example, the above-described apparatus embodiments are merely illustrative, and for example, the division of the modules is merely a logical division, and in actual implementation, there may be other divisions, for example, multiple modules or components may be combined or integrated into another system, or some features may be omitted, or not implemented. In addition, the shown or discussed mutual coupling or direct coupling or communication connection may be an indirect coupling or communication connection through some interfaces, devices or modules, and may be in an electrical, mechanical or other form.

The modules described as separate parts may or may not be physically separate, and parts displayed as modules may or may not be physical modules, may be located in one place, or may be distributed on a plurality of network modules. Some or all of the modules may be selected according to actual needs to achieve the purpose of the solution of the present embodiment.

In addition, functional modules in the embodiments of the present application may be integrated into one processing module, or each module may exist alone physically, or two or more modules are integrated into one module. The integrated module can be realized in a hardware mode, and can also be realized in a software functional module mode. The integrated module, if implemented in the form of a software functional module and sold or used as a stand-alone product, may be stored in a computer readable storage medium.

In the above embodiments, the implementation may be wholly or partially realized by software, hardware, firmware, or any combination thereof. When implemented in software, may be implemented in whole or in part in the form of a computer program product.

The computer program product includes one or more computer instructions. The procedures or functions described in accordance with the embodiments of the present application are generated in whole or in part when the computer program is loaded and executed on a computer. The computer may be a general purpose computer, a special purpose computer, a network of computers, or other programmable device. The computer instructions may be stored in a computer readable storage medium or transmitted from one computer readable storage medium to another, for example, from one website site, computer, server, or data center to another website site, computer, server, or data center via wired (e.g., coaxial cable, fiber optic, Digital Subscriber Line (DSL)) or wireless (e.g., infrared, wireless, microwave, etc.). The computer-readable storage medium can be any available medium that a computer can store or a data storage device, such as a server, a data center, etc., that is integrated with one or more available media. The usable medium may be a magnetic medium (e.g., floppy Disk, hard Disk, magnetic tape), an optical medium (e.g., DVD), or a semiconductor medium (e.g., Solid State Disk (SSD)), among others.

The technical solutions provided by the embodiments of the present application are introduced in detail, and the principles and implementations of the embodiments of the present application are explained by applying specific examples in the embodiments of the present application, and the descriptions of the embodiments are only used to help understanding the method and core ideas of the embodiments of the present application; meanwhile, for a person skilled in the art, according to the idea of the embodiment of the present application, there may be a change in the specific implementation and application scope, and in summary, the content of the present specification should not be construed as a limitation to the embodiment of the present application.

Claims

1. A method of detecting sorting anomalies in items, the method comprising:

acquiring track information detected and tracked by the objects to be sorted in a target detection area, wherein the target detection area is an area corresponding to a preset sorting opening on a crossed belt;

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the trajectory information comprises a first trajectory and a second trajectory, and the direction of motion comprises a first direction and a second direction; the first direction refers to a moving direction of the articles to be sorted, which are turned to the preset sorting opening to move within an effective sorting range of the preset sorting opening when the articles reach the preset sorting opening on the cross belt; the second direction is the moving direction of the articles to be sorted when the articles to be sorted are driven by the crossed belts to move towards the actual sorting openings in the sorting area;

3. The method of claim 2, wherein prior to determining sorting behavior information for the item to be sorted based on the trajectory information, the method further comprises:

controlling the cross belts to move in the first direction before the articles to be sorted move to the actual sorting mouth;

4. The method according to claim 2 or 3, wherein the determining that the article to be sorted is in an abnormal sorting state according to the sorting behavior information and the flow direction information of the article to be sorted corresponding to the preset sorting port comprises:

5. The method according to claim 2 or 3, wherein the determining that the article to be sorted is in an abnormal sorting state according to the sorting behavior information and the flow direction information of the article to be sorted corresponding to the preset sorting opening comprises:

6. The method according to claim 2 or 3, wherein the determining that the article to be sorted is in an abnormal sorting state according to the sorting behavior information and the flow direction information of the article to be sorted corresponding to the preset sorting opening comprises:

7. The method according to claim 2 or 3, wherein the determining that the article to be sorted is in an abnormal sorting state according to the sorting behavior information and the flow direction information of the article to be sorted corresponding to the preset sorting opening comprises:

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the determining that the abnormal sorting status of the item to be sorted is a mis-drop if the first trajectory does not pass through the target detection area comprises:

9. An analysis apparatus for detecting sorting anomalies of articles, characterized in that it comprises:

10. A sortation system for detecting sorting anomalies for articles, said sortation system comprising at least one crossbelt, a plurality of sorting gates, and an analytical apparatus; the sorting ports are mutually independent, each sorting port corresponds to one detection area, and the sorting ports are used for receiving the objects to be sorted which are thrown in the crossed belts;

the detection area is used for detecting and tracking the positions of the objects to be sorted along the movement direction of the cross belt; the system comprises a cross belt, a target detection area, a sorting opening and a sorting module, wherein the cross belt is used for carrying out sorting on objects to be sorted;

11. An apparatus for detecting article sorting anomalies, the apparatus comprising:

at least one processor, a memory, a detection device, and an input-output unit;

wherein the memory is for storing a computer program and the processor is for calling the computer program stored in the memory to perform the method of any one of claims 1-8.

12. A computer-readable storage medium comprising instructions which, when executed on a computer, cause the computer to perform the method of any one of claims 1-8.