CN115924492A - Package separation method and apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

The application provides a parcel separation method and equipment, and relates to the technical field of logistics. According to the parcel separation method, the priorities of all parcels on the separation plane can be set according to the position and the outline of each parcel on the separation plane, a separation strategy is formulated, and the conveying device is controlled to separate and convey the parcels according to the separation strategy. Because the priority of packages positioned at the downstream in the overlapping area of the conveying paths is set to be higher than the priority of packages positioned at the upstream in the overlapping area of the conveying paths under the condition that the conveying paths of the two packages have the overlapping area, when the packages are separated and conveyed, the conveying speed of the packages with high priority is higher than the conveying speed of the packages with low priority, so that the packages can be ensured not to interfere with each other, and the success rate of separating the packages by the package separating equipment is improved. The parcel separation apparatus provided by the present application is capable of implementing the above parcel separation method.

Description

Package separation method and apparatus

Technical Field

The application relates to the field of logistics equipment, in particular to a parcel separation method and equipment.

Background

At present, in the domestic logistics industry, along with the rapid increase of the sorting amount of the packages, more and more logistics companies deploy logistics automation systems in sorting sites, the logistics automation systems are used for replacing the traditional manual mode to realize the separation, measurement and sorting of the packages, the processing efficiency of the packages is greatly improved, and the labor cost of the logistics companies is reduced.

The logistics system of the prior art comprises a separation device for receiving a plurality of parcels conveyed by a previous stage device (such as an evacuation device) and separating the parcels so that the parcels leave the separation device one by one at a distance satisfying a set requirement to enter a next stage device. The related art discloses a separation device and a method for separating packages, the separation device comprises a conveying device for conveying the packages and a camera arranged above the conveying device, the conveying device comprises a plurality of conveying belts arranged in multiple rows and multiple columns, the camera is used for acquiring images of the packages on a conveying surface of the conveying device, and the method for separating the packages by the separation device comprises the following steps: determining the position and the outline of the packages on the conveying surface through the images acquired by the camera, and determining a first package closest to the tail end of the conveying device and a second package closest to the first package; judging whether the distance between the first package and the second package in the package conveying direction is smaller than a set value or not; if the distance between the first package and the second package is smaller than the set value, the conveying speed of the conveying belt bearing the first package is made to be larger than the conveying speed of the conveying belt bearing the second package, so that the first package and the second package are separated when leaving the conveying device.

However, the inventors have found that the related art separation apparatus fails to separate the packages when the packages are separated, so that two adjacent packages are sent out of the separation apparatus in close proximity, which further causes abnormality in subsequent package handling.

Disclosure of Invention

The application aims to provide a parcel separation method and equipment, which can improve the success rate of parcel separation.

The embodiment of the application can be realized as follows:

in a first aspect, the present application provides a parcel separation method, applied to parcel separation equipment, the parcel separation equipment includes a separation device and a visual monitoring device, the separation device includes a plurality of conveying assemblies that are arranged in a matrix form and are used for conveying parcels along a set direction, each conveying assembly has a conveying surface for bearing parcels, the conveying surfaces of the plurality of conveying assemblies form a separation plane, the visual monitoring device is used for collecting images of the separation plane, and the parcel separation method includes:

determining the position and the outline of each parcel on the separation plane according to the image acquired by the visual monitoring device;

setting priorities of all parcels on the separation plane according to the position and the outline of each parcel, wherein if two parcels have an overlapping area along a conveying path of a parcel conveying direction, the priority of a parcel at the downstream in the overlapping area of the conveying path is set to be higher than the priority of a parcel at the upstream in the overlapping area of the conveying path;

and formulating a separation strategy, and controlling a separation device to separate and convey the parcels according to the separation strategy, wherein the separation strategy comprises that the conveying speed of the parcel with high priority in the two parcels is higher than the conveying speed of the parcel with low priority under the condition that the distance between the two parcels is smaller than a first threshold value.

In an alternative embodiment, the step of setting the priority of all parcels on the separation plane according to the position and contour of each parcel comprises:

step S1, determining a parcel which is positioned at the most downstream on a separation plane along a parcel conveying direction as a target parcel;

s2, judging whether a risk parcel which possibly interferes with the movement of the target parcel exists on the separation plane, wherein an overlapping area exists between the conveying path of the risk parcel and the conveying path of the target parcel, and in the overlapping area, the risk parcel is positioned at the downstream of the target parcel; if the separation plane is judged to have the risk packages, executing the step S3, and if the separation plane is judged to have no risk packages, executing the step S4;

s3, selecting one risk package according to a set principle, determining the selected risk package as a new target package, and executing the step S2 again;

s4, setting the priority of the target parcel as the highest priority in the vacancy priorities, and executing the step S5, wherein the vacancy priorities refer to priorities which are not occupied by the parcel;

s5, judging whether parcels without priority are in the target area of the separation plane, and executing S6 if the parcels without priority are in the target area of the separation plane;

step S6, of the parcels without priority set in the destination area, one parcel located most downstream in the parcel conveying direction is determined as a new destination parcel, and step S2 is executed again.

In an alternative embodiment, the step of determining whether there is a risk parcel on the separation plane that may interfere with the movement of the target parcel comprises:

determining a risk area of the target parcel, wherein the risk area comprises an area on a forward path of the target parcel in a minimum bounding rectangle of the target parcel;

judging whether packages without priority fall into the risk area, if so, judging that the packages without priority fall into the separation plane, and determining the packages without priority falling into the risk area as risk packages.

In an alternative embodiment, the target area of the separation plane comprises the entire area of the separation plane;

in step S5, if it is determined that there is no parcel without priority set in the target area of the separation plane, the flow ends.

In an alternative embodiment, determining a parcel as the target parcel comprises: marking the packages as target packages, and determining a target area according to all conveying assemblies bearing the target packages, wherein the width of the target area covers the width of all conveying assemblies bearing the target packages, and the length of the target area covers the length of the separation plane;

in step S5, if it is determined that there is no parcel without priority set in the destination area of the separation plane, it is determined whether there is any parcel without priority set on the separation plane, and if it is determined that there is any parcel without priority set on the separation plane, one of the parcels without priority set on the separation plane that is the most downstream parcel in the parcel conveying direction is determined as a new destination parcel, and step S2 is executed again, and if it is determined that there is no parcel without priority set on the separation plane, the flow ends.

In an alternative embodiment, the step of formulating a separation strategy comprises:

and sequentially judging whether the distance between two parcels adjacent to the priority is smaller than a first threshold value according to the sequence of the priority from high to low, and setting the conveying speeds of the two parcels to be different values when the distance between the two parcels adjacent to the priority is judged to be smaller than the first threshold value.

In an alternative embodiment, the package separating apparatus further comprises a buffer device located upstream of the separating device in the package conveying direction, the buffer device being configured to convey the packages to the separating device, and the package separating method further comprises:

judging whether the number of the parcels on the separation plane is larger than a second threshold value or not;

and if the number of the packages on the separation plane is judged to be larger than the second threshold value, controlling the buffer device to pause conveying the packages to the separation device.

In a second aspect, the application provides a parcel splitter, parcel splitter includes controlling means, separator and vision monitoring device, separator is including being a plurality of conveying subassembly that are used for along setting for the direction transport parcel that the matrix set up, every conveying subassembly has the conveying face that is used for bearing the parcel, the separation plane is formed to a plurality of conveying subassembly's conveying face, vision monitoring device is used for gathering the image in separation plane, separator and vision monitoring device all are connected with controlling means electricity, controlling means sets up to:

determining the position and the outline of each parcel on the separation plane according to the image acquired by the visual monitoring device;

setting priorities of all parcels on the separation plane according to the position and the profile of each parcel, wherein if two parcels have an overlapping area along a conveying path of the conveying direction of the parcels, the priority of the parcel at the downstream in the overlapping area of the conveying path is set to be higher than the priority of the parcel at the upstream in the overlapping area of the conveying path;

and formulating a separation strategy, and controlling a separation device to separate and convey the parcels according to the separation strategy, wherein the separation strategy comprises that the conveying speed of the parcel with high priority in the two parcels is higher than the conveying speed of the parcel with low priority under the condition that the distance between the two parcels is smaller than a first threshold value.

In an alternative embodiment, the control means is arranged to set the priority of all parcels on the separation plane according to the position and profile of each parcel in the following manner:

step S1, determining a parcel which is positioned at the most downstream position on a separation plane along a parcel conveying direction as a target parcel;

s2, judging whether a risk parcel which possibly interferes with the movement of the target parcel exists on the separation plane, wherein an overlapping area exists between the conveying path of the risk parcel and the conveying path of the target parcel, and in the overlapping area, the risk parcel is positioned at the downstream of the target parcel; if the separation plane is judged to have the risk packages, executing the step S3, and if the separation plane is judged to have no risk packages, executing the step S4;

s3, selecting one risk package according to a set principle, determining the selected risk package as a new target package, and executing the step S2 again;

s4, setting the priority of the target parcel as the highest priority in the vacancy priorities, and executing the step S5, wherein the vacancy priorities refer to priorities which are not occupied by the parcel;

s5, judging whether parcels without priority are in the target area of the separation plane, and executing S6 if the parcels without priority are in the target area of the separation plane;

step S6, of the parcels without priority set in the destination area, one parcel located most downstream in the parcel conveying direction is determined as a new destination parcel, and step S2 is executed again.

In an alternative embodiment, the control means is arranged to determine whether there is a risk parcel on the separation plane which may interfere with movement of the target parcel by:

determining a risk area of the target parcel, wherein the risk area comprises an area on a forward path of the target parcel in a minimum bounding rectangle of the target parcel;

judging whether packages without priority fall into the risk area, if so, judging that the packages without priority fall into the separation plane, and determining the packages without priority falling into the risk area as risk packages.

The beneficial effects of the embodiment of the application include:

according to the parcel separation method provided by the embodiment of the application, the priorities of all parcels on the separation plane can be set according to the position and the outline of each parcel on the separation plane, a separation strategy is formulated according to the priorities of all parcels and the distances among the parcels, and the conveying device is controlled to separate and convey the parcels according to the separation strategy. Because the priority of the packages positioned at the downstream in the overlapping area of the conveying paths is set to be higher than the priority of the packages positioned at the upstream in the overlapping area of the conveying paths under the condition that the conveying paths of the two packages have the overlapping area, if the two packages overlapped in the conveying paths need to be separated, the conveying speed of the packages with the high priority can be higher than the conveying speed of the packages with the low priority according to a separation strategy, the distance between the two packages can be gradually increased, and the packages can be ensured not to interfere with each other, so that the condition that when the two packages overlapped in the conveying paths are separated in the related art, one package pushes the other package out of a separating device to cause package separation failure is avoided. Therefore, the package separation method provided by the embodiment of the application can improve the package separation success rate of the package separation equipment.

The parcel separation equipment provided by the embodiment of the application can realize the parcel separation method, and therefore, the parcel separation equipment also has the advantage of high parcel separation success rate.

Drawings

In order to more clearly illustrate the technical solutions of the embodiments of the present application, the drawings that are required to be used in the embodiments will be briefly described below, it should be understood that the following drawings only illustrate some embodiments of the present application and therefore should not be considered as limiting the scope, and for those skilled in the art, other related drawings can be obtained from the drawings without inventive effort.

FIG. 1 is a schematic illustration of a first package and a second package as they are transported on a package separation apparatus;

FIG. 2 is a schematic view of a package separation apparatus according to one embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of the components of a package separation apparatus according to one embodiment of the subject application;

FIG. 4 is a flow chart of a package separation method in one embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 5 is a schematic view of an image of a separation plane in an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 6 is a flow diagram of prioritizing all parcels on a separation plane in one embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 7 is a schematic illustration of a distribution of a plurality of parcels on a separation plane in an embodiment of the present application.

Icon: 1' -first wrapping; 2' -second wrapping; 010-package separation equipment; 100-a control device; 200-a buffer device; 300-a separation device; 310-a delivery assembly; 400-a visual monitoring device; 410-camera.

Detailed Description

In order to make the objects, technical solutions and advantages of the embodiments of the present application clearer, the technical solutions in the embodiments of the present application will be clearly and completely described below with reference to the drawings in the embodiments of the present application, and it is obvious that the described embodiments are some embodiments of the present application, but not all embodiments. The components of the embodiments of the present application, generally described and illustrated in the figures herein, can be arranged and designed in a wide variety of different configurations.

Thus, the following detailed description of the embodiments of the present application, presented in the accompanying drawings, is not intended to limit the scope of the claimed application, but is merely representative of selected embodiments of the application. All other embodiments, which can be derived by a person skilled in the art from the embodiments given herein without making any creative effort, shall fall within the protection scope of the present application.

It should be noted that: like reference numbers and letters refer to like items in the following figures, and thus, once an item is defined in one figure, it need not be further defined or explained in subsequent figures.

In the description of the present application, it should be noted that if the terms "upper", "lower", "inside", "outside", etc. are used for indicating the orientation or positional relationship based on the orientation or positional relationship shown in the drawings or the orientation or positional relationship which the present invention product is usually put into use, it is only for convenience of describing the present application and simplifying the description, but it is not intended to indicate or imply that the referred device or element must have a specific orientation, be constructed in a specific orientation and be operated, and thus, should not be construed as limiting the present application.

Furthermore, the appearances of the terms "first," "second," and the like, if any, are used solely to distinguish one from another and are not to be construed as indicating or implying relative importance.

It should be noted that the features of the embodiments of the present application may be combined with each other without conflict.

The related art parcel separating apparatus separates the first and second parcels by making the conveying speed of the conveyor belt carrying the parcels relatively far downstream greater than the conveying speed of the conveyor belt carrying the parcels relatively far upstream, in the case where the distance between the two parcels is smaller than a set value. However, the inventors have found that the separation apparatus of the related art determines the position of the package by the forefront of the package in the package conveyance direction. Fig. 1 is a schematic view of a first package 1 'and a second package 2' as they are transported on a package separation apparatus. As shown in fig. 1, the parcels are conveyed on the conveyor in the direction of arrow x, and in the situation where two adjacent first and second parcels 1', 2' are in the condition shown in fig. 1, since the forward-most end of the first parcel 1' is located downstream of the forward-most end of the second parcel 2' in the parcel conveying direction, the first parcel 1' will be determined to be closest to the end of the conveyor, i.e. the parcel relatively downstream of the two parcels; while the second package 2 'will be determined as a package that is close upstream relative to the first package 1'. Therefore, the related art parcel separating apparatus, when performing parcel separation, separates the two parcels by making the conveying speed of the conveyor belt carrying the first parcel 1 'larger than the conveying speed of the conveyor belt carrying the second parcel 2'. However, since a part of the second parcel 2' is located on the path of the first parcel 1' when being conveyed in the parcel conveying direction, that is, there is an overlapping area between the conveying path of the first parcel 1' in the parcel conveying direction and the conveying path of the second parcel 2' in the parcel conveying direction, in the case where the conveying speed of the first parcel 1' is higher than the conveying speed of the second parcel 2', the first parcel 1' will interfere with the second parcel 2' and push the second parcel 2' to be conveyed downstream, so that there may occur a case where the first parcel 1' and the second parcel 2' are sent out of the parcel separating apparatus next to each other, that is, there may occur a case where the parcel separation fails when the parcels are separated.

In order to improve the problem that package separation failure may occur when two packages overlapping in a separation conveying path in the related art, embodiments of the present application provide a package separation method and a package separation apparatus for implementing the package separation method.

FIG. 2 is a schematic view of a package separation apparatus 010 according to an embodiment of the present application; fig. 3 is a block diagram illustrating a package separation apparatus 010 according to an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in fig. 2 and 3, in the embodiment of the present application, the package separation apparatus 010 includes a control device 100, a buffering device 200, a separation device 300, and a visual monitoring device 400. The separating device 300 is used to convey the parcels in a set direction and sequentially send the parcels out of the separating device 300 at intervals. The buffer device 200 is arranged upstream of the separating device 300 for feeding the packages to the separating device 300.

In the embodiment of the present application, the separating device 300 includes a plurality of conveying assemblies 310 arranged in a matrix for conveying the parcels along a set direction, each conveying assembly 310 has a conveying surface for carrying the parcels, and the conveying surfaces of the plurality of conveying assemblies 310 form a separating plane. As shown in fig. 2, each of the conveying assemblies 310 in the present embodiment includes a conveying belt driven by a motor, the separating device 300 includes M rows and N columns of conveying assemblies 310 arranged in a matrix (M and N are positive integers), the conveying assemblies 310 in the same row are arranged along a parcel conveying direction (indicated by a hollow arrow in the figure), and the conveying assemblies 310 in the same column are arranged side by side along a width direction of the separating device 300, wherein the width direction of the separating device 300 is perpendicular to the parcel conveying direction. The packages may be conveyed on the separating apparatus 300 by one or more conveyor assemblies 310, and the relative distance between different packages may be adjusted by adjusting the conveying speed of the conveyor assembly 310 carrying different packages. In alternative embodiments, the conveyor assembly 310 may also employ conveyor rollers to transport the packages.

As shown in fig. 2, in the present embodiment, the conveying surface of the buffer device 200 is gradually widened in the parcel conveying direction, and finally, the buffer device 200 has a function of evacuating the parcels in contact with the separating plane of the separating device 300. In other alternative embodiments, the buffering device 200 may also include a plurality of conveying assemblies arranged side by side, which may have the same or similar structure and size as the conveying assemblies 310 of the separating device 300 and are arranged along the width direction of the separating device 300, and the plurality of conveying assemblies of the buffering device 200 correspond to the conveying assemblies 310 of the upstream-most row of the separating device 300 in a one-to-one manner.

In an embodiment of the present application, the visual monitoring apparatus 400 is used to acquire images of the separation plane to determine the outline and location of the package on the separation plane. The visual monitoring apparatus 400 includes a support and cameras 410 disposed on the support, and the number of the cameras 410 may be one or more, for acquiring images of the separation plane. When the number of cameras 410 is one, its field of view should cover the entire separation plane; when the number of the cameras 410 is plural, the total field of view of the plural cameras 410 should cover the entire separation plane, and the images acquired by the plural cameras 410 can be spliced to obtain the entire image of the separation plane.

In the embodiment of the present application, the visual monitoring device 400, the buffering device 200, and the separating device 300 are all electrically connected to the control device 100, and can be controlled by the control device 100 to perform related operations. In the embodiment of the present application, the control device 100 is configured to:

determining the position and contour of each parcel on the separation plane from the images acquired by the vision monitoring apparatus 400; setting priorities of all parcels on the separation plane according to the position and the outline of each parcel, wherein if two parcels have an overlapping area along a conveying path of a parcel conveying direction, the priority of a parcel at the downstream in the overlapping area of the conveying path is set to be higher than the priority of a parcel at the upstream in the overlapping area of the conveying path; and formulating a separation strategy, and controlling the separation device 300 to separate and convey the parcels according to the separation strategy, wherein the separation strategy comprises that the conveying speed of the parcel with high priority in the two parcels is higher than the conveying speed of the parcel with low priority under the condition that the distance between the two parcels is smaller than a first threshold value.

The parcel separation equipment 010 provided by the embodiment of the application can set the priority of all parcels on the separation plane according to the position and the contour of each parcel on the separation plane, and set a separation strategy according to the priority of all parcels and the distance between parcels, and control the conveying device to separate and convey the parcels according to the separation strategy. Since in the case where the conveying paths of two parcels have an overlapping area, the priority of the parcel located downstream in the overlapping area of the conveying paths is set higher than the priority of the parcel located upstream in the overlapping area of the conveying paths. Therefore, if two overlapped parcels on the conveying path need to be separated, the conveying speed of the parcel with high priority can be higher than that of the parcel with low priority according to the separation strategy, the distance between the two parcels can be gradually increased, and mutual interference between the parcels can be avoided, so that the situation that when two overlapped parcels on the conveying path are separated in the related art, one parcel pushes the other parcel out of the separation equipment to cause the separation failure of the parcels is avoided. Therefore, the package separation device 010 provided by the embodiment of the application can improve the success rate of separating packages.

The following describes in detail the parcel separation method provided in the embodiment of the present application, and the parcel separation method can be implemented by the parcel separation apparatus 010 provided in the above embodiment of the present application.

FIG. 4 is a flow chart of a package separation method in an embodiment of the present application. As shown in fig. 4, the parcel separation method includes:

and S100, determining the position and the outline of each parcel on the separation plane according to the image acquired by the visual monitoring device.

Taking the package separation apparatus 010 provided in the embodiment of the present application as an example, the control device 100 controls the camera 410 of the visual monitoring device 400 to acquire an image of a separation plane, analyzes the image, determines a graph corresponding to each package in the image, and determines an outline of each package and a position of each package on the separation plane according to the graphs corresponding to each package. FIG. 5 is an image of a separation plane in an embodiment of the present application. As shown in fig. 5, in this embodiment, a coordinate system for indicating the position of the parcel on the separation plane may be established with the parcel conveying direction as the positive x-axis direction and the width direction of the separating apparatus 300 perpendicular to the parcel conveying direction as the y-axis direction, and the position of the parcel may be indicated by the coordinate value of one or more points on the parcel on the separation plane. For example, the leading end of the package in the package conveying direction is used to indicate the location of the package.

Step S200, setting priorities of all parcels on the separation plane according to the position and contour of each parcel, wherein if two parcels have an overlapping area along the conveying path of the parcel conveying direction, the priority of the parcel at the downstream in the overlapping area of the conveying path is set to be higher than the priority of the parcel at the upstream in the overlapping area of the conveying path.

In the present embodiment, the conveying path of the parcel refers to a path that the parcel has already passed and is about to pass along the conveying direction of the parcel, and can be regarded as a space swept by the parcel when moving by taking the conveying direction of the parcel as a scanning path. The conveying path of the parcels thus extends along the parcel conveying direction and has a width that is related to the parcel width (dimension in the y-direction). In fig. 5, two straight lines parallel to the x-axis are made with reference to two end points of the parcel in the y-direction, and the area between the two straight lines is the conveying path of the parcel. In fig. 5, the conveying path of the package a is the area between the straight line LA1 and the straight line LA 2; the conveying path of the package B is a region between the straight line LB1 and the straight line LB 2. The overlapping area of the conveying paths of the package a and the package B is the area between the line LB1 and the line LA2 in fig. 5. In the present embodiment, the conveying paths of two parcels have an overlapping area, which means that if two parcels are to be separated so that they are conveyed at different speeds, the parcel located upstream in the overlapping area may abut the parcel located downstream in the overlapping area because of the higher speed, and interference occurs between the parcels. When determining the priority of two parcels having an overlapping area of the two conveying paths, the relative positional relationship of the portions of the two parcels in the overlapping area of the conveying paths, which are downstream, is compared with the priority of the parcel which is upstream. In fig. 5, even if the foremost end of the parcel B is located upstream of the foremost end of the parcel a, the portion of the parcel B in the overlapping area of the conveying paths is located downstream of the portion of the parcel a in the overlapping area of the conveying paths, and therefore, the priority of the parcel B is higher than that of the parcel a.

For two packages with non-overlapping conveying paths, the priority level relationship between the two packages can be set as required, for example, a package positioned at the downstream in two packages with non-overlapping conveying paths has a higher priority level than a package positioned at the upstream. Alternatively, in this case, the position of the package may be indicated using the position of the foremost end of the package in the package conveying direction.

And step S300, a separation strategy is formulated, and the separation device is controlled to separate and convey the parcels according to the separation strategy, wherein the separation strategy comprises that the conveying speed of the parcel with the high priority in the two parcels is higher than the conveying speed of the parcel with the low priority under the condition that the distance between the two parcels is smaller than a first threshold.

Taking the parcel separation apparatus 010 provided in the embodiment of the present application as an example, when the control device 100 determines that the two parcels are too close (smaller than the first threshold value) according to the image of the separation plane, it is determined that the two parcels need to be separated. In this case, the control device 100 controls the separation device 300 to convey two parcels at different speeds, even if there is an overlap in the conveying paths of the two parcels to be separated, since the conveying speed of the parcel of high priority is higher than that of the parcel of low priority, and the part of the parcel of high priority in the overlapping area is located downstream of the part of the parcel of low priority in the overlapping area, when the parcel of high priority is conveyed at a higher speed, the distance from the parcel of low priority becomes longer and longer, and the parcel of high priority does not get close to the parcel of low priority and cause a separation failure.

FIG. 6 is a flow diagram of prioritizing all parcels on a separation plane in one embodiment of the present application. As shown in fig. 6, in the present embodiment, the step S200 of setting the priority of all parcels on the separation plane according to the position and contour of each parcel may specifically include the following steps:

step S1, determining a parcel which is positioned at the most downstream on a separation plane along a parcel conveying direction as a target parcel;

s2, judging whether a risk parcel which possibly interferes with the movement of the target parcel exists on the separation plane, wherein an overlapping area exists between the conveying path of the risk parcel and the conveying path of the target parcel, and in the overlapping area, the risk parcel is positioned at the downstream of the target parcel; if the separation plane is judged to have the risk packages, executing the step S3, and if the separation plane is judged to have no risk packages, executing the step S4;

s3, selecting one risk package according to a set principle, determining the selected risk package as a new target package, and executing the step S2 again;

s4, setting the priority of the target parcel as the highest priority in the vacancy priorities, and executing the step S5, wherein the vacancy priorities refer to priorities which are not occupied by the parcel;

s5, judging whether parcels without priority are in the target area of the separation plane, and executing S6 if the parcels without priority are in the target area of the separation plane;

step S6, of the parcels without priority set in the destination area, one parcel located most downstream in the parcel conveying direction is determined as a new destination parcel, and step S2 is executed again.

In this embodiment, a target parcel to be set with a priority is determined from a plurality of parcels on a separation plane, and then the priority of the target parcel is set to be the highest priority among the vacancy priorities when there is no risk parcel that may interfere with the movement of the target parcel on the separation plane, where the vacancy priorities are priorities that are not occupied by parcels. It should be understood that since the conveying path of the risky parcel and the conveying path of the target parcel have an overlapping region, and in the overlapping region, the risky parcel is located downstream of the target parcel, that is, the risky parcel which may interfere with the movement of the target parcel may refer to a parcel which may collide with the target parcel on its own conveying path. Through the embodiment, the priorities of a plurality of parcels can be sequentially set for the sequentially determined target parcels according to the sequence of the priorities from high to low. Since the embodiment preferentially determines the risk packages which are in front of the other packages and possibly interfere with the movement of the other packages as the target packages, that is, the risk packages which are in front of the other packages and possibly interfere with the movement of the other packages are set to have higher priority, and the packages which are in back of the risk packages and possibly interfered by the risk packages are set to have lower priority, after the priority of all the packages on the separation plane is set, the priority of all the packages is set to meet the condition that the packages are separated according to the mode that the speed of the packages with high priority is greater than that of the packages with low priority, so that mutual interference among the packages is avoided when the packages are separated according to the separation strategy which is made based on the priority of all the packages on the separation plane, and the condition that the separation of the packages fails due to the fact that one package pushes the other package out of the separation equipment during the separation of the packages in the related art is avoided.

In this embodiment, the position of the parcel may be indicated using the forwardmost end of the parcel in the parcel transport direction, i.e. a parcel located furthest downstream in the parcel transport direction on the separation plane means that of the forwardmost ends of all parcels, the forwardmost end of the parcel is located furthest downstream in the parcel transport direction.

Further, the step of determining whether there is a risk parcel that may interfere with the movement of the target parcel on the separation plane in step S2 includes:

determining a risk area of the target parcel, wherein the risk area comprises an area on a forward path of the target parcel in a minimum bounding rectangle of the target parcel; judging whether packages without priority fall into the risk area, if so, judging that the risk packages exist on the separation plane, and determining the packages without priority falling into the risk area as the risk packages.

FIG. 7 is a schematic illustration of a distribution of a plurality of parcels on a separation plane in an embodiment of the present application. As shown in fig. 7, the following description will be given by taking package a as the target package to determine the risk area of the target package. Optionally, the following method is used to determine the risk area of the target package:

determining a leftmost vertex and a rightmost vertex of the target parcel in a width direction of the separating apparatus 300 (i.e., determining a vertex having a maximum y coordinate value and a vertex having a minimum y coordinate value of the target parcel); determining a risk area of the target parcel according to coordinate values of a leftmost vertex and a rightmost vertex of the target parcel along the width direction of the separating device 300 and a forwardmost vertex of the target parcel along the parcel conveying direction, wherein the coordinate value of the leftmost vertex of the target parcel (i.e. vertex a of parcel a in fig. 7) is (x 0, y 0), the coordinate value of the leftmost vertex of the target parcel with the maximum y coordinate value (i.e. vertex b of parcel a in fig. 7) is (x 1, y 1), the coordinate value of the rightmost vertex of the target parcel with the minimum y coordinate value (i.e. vertex c of parcel a in fig. 7) is (x 2, y 2), and the risk area comprises a first area formed by all points of which the x coordinate value is greater than x1 and less than x0 and the y coordinate value is greater than y0 and less than x0 and a second area formed by all points of which the x coordinate value is greater than x2 and less than x0 and the y coordinate value is greater than y2 and less than y 0.

In fig. 7, the risk zone of the parcel a determined according to the above method is a zone indicated by a hatched portion, since the foremost end of the parcel B in the conveying direction of the parcel is located upstream of the foremost end of the parcel a, that is, when the position of the parcel is determined according to the foremost end of the parcel, the parcel B is determined as the parcel located upstream of the parcel a, and therefore, when the priorities of all parcels on the separation plane are set, the priority of the parcel B is not yet set when the parcel a is determined as the target parcel, and therefore, after the risk zone of the parcel a is determined, since the parcel B is the parcel to which the priority has not been set yet and a part of the parcel B falls into the risk zone of the parcel a, the parcel B will be determined as a risk parcel which may interfere with the movement of the parcel a.

As can be easily understood by referring to fig. 7, in the present embodiment, a region of the minimum bounding rectangle of the target parcel, which is located on the forwarding path of the target parcel, is determined as a risk region of the target parcel, since only when a part or all of a parcel is located on the forwarding path of the target parcel, the parcel may interfere with the movement of the target parcel, and when a parcel is located on the forwarding path of the target parcel and outside the minimum bounding rectangle of the target parcel, the frontmost end of the parcel is inevitably located downstream of the frontmost end of the target parcel, and when setting the priority of the target parcel, the priority of the parcel is inevitably set, that is, the priority of the parcel is higher than the priority of the target parcel, and when the parcel is separated according to the separation policy, the parcel does not interfere with the movement of the target parcel, therefore, the present embodiment determines a region of the target parcel, which is located in the minimum bounding rectangle of the target parcel on the forwarding path of the target parcel, as a risk region of the target parcel, and can accurately determine the risk region of the target parcel, so that the area of the determined risk region of the target parcel is smaller, thereby reducing the time taken by the parcel in searching the risk region of the target parcel, and increasing the efficiency of the parcel.

Optionally, in other embodiments of the present application, a region on the separation plane, which is formed by all points whose x-coordinate values are greater than x1 and whose y-coordinate values are greater than y0 and less than y1, may be determined as a first region, a region, which is formed by all points whose x-coordinate values are greater than x2 and whose y-coordinate values are greater than y2 and less than y0, may be determined as a second region, and a region, which is formed by the first region and the second region, may be determined as a risk region, that is, a region that is passed through on the target package forward path may be determined as a risk region.

Optionally, under the condition that it is determined that there is a risk parcel ahead of the determined target parcel, selecting a risk parcel according to a set principle includes: selecting the risk package with the maximum y coordinate value vertex, or selecting the risk package with the minimum x coordinate value vertex, or selecting the risk package with the maximum x coordinate value vertex. Therefore, in this embodiment, in the case that there is only one risky package in front of the determined target package, the risky package is determined as a new target package, and in the case that there are multiple risky packages in front of the determined target package, one of the risky packages is selected according to a preset principle, and the selected risky package is determined as a new target package.

It should be noted that, when the priorities of all parcels on the separation plane are set, the determined target parcel has uniqueness, that is, when a new target parcel is determined, the previously determined target parcel will no longer be the target parcel.

In an alternative embodiment, the target area of the separation plane comprises the entire area of the separation plane; in step S5, if it is determined that there is no parcel without priority set in the target area of the separation plane, the flow ends.

As shown in fig. 7, in the present embodiment, the target area of the separation plane refers to the entire separation plane, that is, the target area includes the conveying surfaces of thirty conveying assemblies 310 arranged in five rows along the y direction and six columns along the x direction. After the priority of one parcel is set, searching the next target parcel to be set with the priority in the whole separation plane, wherein the priorities of six parcels (A-F) on the conveying surface are as follows from high to low in sequence: C. d, B, A, E and F. Parcels C, D, B, A, E, F are sequentially given priorities of 1-6, wherein parcels with priority 1 have the highest priority and parcels with priority 6 have the lowest priority.

In an alternative embodiment, determining a parcel as the target parcel comprises: marking the parcels as target parcels, and determining a target area according to all conveying assemblies 310 carrying the target parcels, wherein the width of the target area covers the width of all conveying assemblies 310 carrying the target parcels, and the length of the target area covers the length of the separation plane; in the above step S5, if it is determined that there is no parcel without priority in the target area of the separation plane, it is determined whether there is any parcel without priority on the separation plane, and if it is determined that there is any parcel without priority on the separation plane, a parcel located at the most downstream in the parcel conveying direction among the parcels without priority on the separation plane is determined as a new target parcel, and step S2 is executed again, and if it is determined that there is no parcel without priority on the separation plane, the flow ends.

In this embodiment, when a parcel is determined as a target parcel, a target area of a separation plane is determined according to all the conveying assemblies 310 carrying the target parcel, after the priority of the parcel is set, whether parcels without the priority are available in the target area of the separation plane is judged, if the parcels without the priority are available in the target area, the next target parcel with the priority to be set is searched in the target area, and if the parcels without the priority are not available in the target area, the next target parcel with the priority to be set is searched in the whole separation plane. Therefore, according to this embodiment, the parcel separation apparatus 010 searches for the target parcels and sets the priorities of the target parcels area by area along the width direction (i.e. the y-axis direction) of the separation device 300, and in the process of determining the priorities of all parcels, for a plurality of parcels in the same area (the area is determined by the conveying assembly 310 where the parcels closer to the end of the separation device 300 are located) along the width direction of the separation device 300, the priorities of the parcels are arranged from high to low, so that when the parcel separation conveying apparatus 010 separates and conveys the parcels according to the separation strategy, the parcel conveying apparatus 010 also conveys the parcels area by area along the width direction of the separation device 300, and after all parcels in one area are sent out of the separation device 300, the parcels in the next area are conveyed. With the present embodiment, when the parcels are dense, the parcel separating apparatus 010 will transport the parcels from one batch to another, and the parcels in the same batch will be transported by the same one or more rows of transporting assemblies 310, so that, in the one or more rows of transporting assemblies 310, the transporting assemblies 310 in different rows only need to be adjusted relatively in transporting speed, therefore, the speed variation of the transporting assemblies 310 during the parcel separation is relatively small, and for a single transporting assembly 310, the number of times of starting and stopping the transporting assembly 310 will be greatly reduced, and therefore, the present embodiment is beneficial to improving the efficiency of parcel separation. According to the above embodiment, the priority of the six parcels (a-F) on the separation plane in fig. 7 is, in order from high to low: C. b, A, F, D and E, wherein the priority levels of the B, the A, the F, the D and the E are 1 to 6 in sequence. It can be seen that the packages carried by the upper three rows of conveyor assemblies 310 are prioritized first due to the proximity of the corresponding target areas.

In an alternative embodiment, in step S300, the step of formulating the separation policy includes:

the separation strategy is formulated according to the priorities of all parcels on the separation surface and the distance between two parcels adjacent to the priorities, and the separation strategy specifically comprises the following steps: and sequentially judging whether the distance between two parcels adjacent to the priority is smaller than a first threshold value according to the sequence of the priority from high to low, and setting the conveying speeds of the two parcels to be different values when the distance between the two parcels adjacent to the priority is judged to be smaller than the first threshold value.

Optionally, when a separation strategy is formulated according to the priorities of all parcels on the separation surface and the distance between two parcels adjacent to the priorities, whether the distance between each parcel and the parcel with the priority smaller than the priority of the parcel by one level is smaller than a first threshold is sequentially judged according to the sequence of the priorities of the parcels from high to low, if the distance between the two parcels is judged to be smaller than the first threshold in any judgment process, the conveying speeds of the two parcels are set to be different values, and when the distance between the two parcels is judged to be not smaller than the first threshold, the conveying speeds of the two parcels are set to be the same value. Thus, under the condition that a plurality of groups of packages with too close distances exist on the separation plane, when the separation device 300 is controlled to separate and convey the packages according to the established separation strategy, the conveying assemblies 310 of the separation device 300 are set to have conveying speeds of a plurality of levels, namely, the separation device 300 can simultaneously separate the plurality of groups of packages with too close distances, so that the efficiency and the success rate of separation of the packages are improved, and the distance between each package and the adjacent packages when each package leaves the separation device 300 is ensured to meet the set requirement.

In other alternative embodiments, whether the distance between each parcel and the parcel with the priority level higher than the priority level of each parcel is smaller than a first threshold value or not is judged in turn according to the priority level of the parcels from low to high, and the conveying speeds of the two parcels are determined to be set to be the same value or different values according to the judgment result.

Optionally, when a separation policy is formulated according to the priorities of all the parcels on the separation plane and the distance between two parcels adjacent to the priorities, only the conveying speed of each parcel is assigned, and when the separation device 300 is controlled to separate and convey the parcels according to the separation policy, the conveying speed of the conveying assembly 310 carrying the parcel is set according to the conveying speed of each parcel, so that the conveying speed of each parcel reaches the speed value assigned when the separation policy is formulated.

In an alternative embodiment, the package separation method may further include:

judging whether the number of the parcels on the separation plane is larger than a second threshold value or not; and if the number of the parcels on the separation plane is judged to be larger than the second threshold value, controlling the buffer device 200 to pause conveying the parcels to the separation device 300.

Taking the package separation apparatus 010 provided in the embodiment of the present application as an example, the control device 100 may analyze the number of packages on the separation device 300 according to the acquired image of the separation plane. In this embodiment, when the number of parcels on the separation plane is too large, the conveyance of the parcels to the separation device 300 is suspended, so that the parcel separation task matches the load capacity of the separation device 300, and the reliability of the separation device 300 in separating the parcels is ensured.

Further, the package separation method may further include: judging whether the number of the parcels on the separation plane is smaller than a third threshold value, wherein the third threshold value is smaller than the second threshold value; and if the number of the parcels on the separation plane is judged to be less than the third threshold value, controlling the buffer device 200 to convey the parcels to the separation device 300.

By controlling the buffer device 200 to convey the parcels to the separation device 300 when the number of parcels on the separation plane is smaller than the third threshold value, the separation device 300 can be guaranteed to have enough load, the separation device 300 is fully utilized, and the efficiency of parcel separation operation is improved.

In summary, in the parcel separation method provided in the embodiment of the present application, the priorities of all parcels on the separation plane can be set according to the position and the contour of each parcel on the separation plane, a separation strategy is formulated according to the priorities of all parcels and the distances between parcels, and the conveying device is controlled to separate and convey the parcels according to the separation strategy. Under the condition that the conveying paths of the two parcels have the overlapping area, the priority of the parcels positioned at the downstream in the overlapping area of the conveying paths is set to be higher than the priority of the parcels positioned at the upstream in the overlapping area of the conveying paths, so that if the two parcels overlapped on the conveying paths need to be separated, the conveying speed of the parcels with the high priority can be higher than the conveying speed of the parcels with the low priority according to a separation strategy, the distance between the two parcels can be gradually increased, and the parcels can be ensured not to interfere with each other, thereby avoiding the condition that when the two parcels overlapped on the conveying paths are separated in the related technology, one parcel pushes the other parcel out of the separating equipment to cause the separation failure of the parcels. Therefore, the package separation method provided by the embodiment of the application can improve the success rate of package separation of the package separation equipment 010.

The parcel separation equipment 010 provided by the embodiment of the application can realize the parcel separation method, and therefore, the parcel separation equipment 010 has the advantage of high parcel separation success rate.

The above description is only for the specific embodiments of the present application, but the scope of the present application is not limited thereto, and any changes or substitutions that can be easily conceived by those skilled in the art within the technical scope of the present application should be covered within the scope of the present application. Therefore, the protection scope of the present application shall be subject to the protection scope of the claims.

Claims (10)

1. The utility model provides a parcel separation method, is applied to parcel splitter, its characterized in that, parcel splitter includes separator and vision monitoring device, separator is including being a plurality of conveying subassemblies that are used for following the setting direction conveying parcel that are arranged of matrix, every conveying subassembly has the conveying face that is used for bearing the parcel, and a plurality of conveying subassembly the conveying face that carries forms the separation plane, vision monitoring device is used for gathering the image in separation plane, parcel separation method includes:

determining the position and the contour of each parcel on the separation plane according to the image acquired by the visual monitoring device;

setting priorities of all the parcels on the separation plane according to the position and the contour of each parcel, wherein if two parcels have an overlapping area along a conveying path of a parcel conveying direction, the priority of the parcel at the downstream in the overlapping area of the conveying path is set to be higher than the priority of the parcel at the upstream in the overlapping area of the conveying path;

and establishing a separation strategy, and controlling the separation device to separate and convey the parcels according to the separation strategy, wherein the separation strategy comprises that the conveying speed of the parcel with high priority in the two parcels is higher than the conveying speed of the parcel with low priority when the distance between the two parcels is smaller than a first threshold value.

2. The parcel separation method according to claim 1, wherein said step of setting the priority of all of the parcels on the separation plane according to the position and profile of each of the parcels comprises:

step S1, determining a parcel which is positioned at the most downstream position on the separation plane along the parcel conveying direction as a target parcel;

step S2, judging whether a risk parcel which possibly interferes with the movement of the target parcel exists on the separation plane, wherein an overlapping area exists between the conveying path of the risk parcel and the conveying path of the target parcel, and in the overlapping area, the risk parcel is positioned at the downstream of the target parcel; if the separation plane is judged to have the risk packages, executing a step S3, and if the separation plane is judged to have no risk packages, executing a step S4;

s3, selecting one risk package according to a set principle, determining the selected risk package as a new target package, and executing the step S2 again;

step S4, setting the priority of the target parcel as the highest priority in vacancy priorities, and executing step S5, wherein the vacancy priorities refer to priorities which are not occupied by the parcel;

step S5, judging whether parcels without priority are in the target area of the separation plane, and executing step S6 if the parcels without priority are judged to be in the target area of the separation plane;

and S6, determining one package which is positioned at the most downstream position in the package conveying direction in the packages with no priority in the target area as a new target package, and executing the step S2 again.

3. The parcel separation method according to claim 2, wherein the step of determining whether there is a risk parcel on the separation plane that may interfere with the movement of the target parcel comprises:

determining a risk area of the target package, wherein the risk area comprises an area of a minimum bounding rectangle of the target package that is located on an advancement path of the target package;

judging whether packages without priority fall into the risk area, if so, judging that the risk packages exist on the separation plane, and determining the packages without priority falling into the risk area as the risk packages.

4. The parcel separation method according to claim 2, wherein the target area of the separation plane comprises the entire area of the separation plane;

in step S5, if it is determined that there is no parcel without priority in the target area of the separation plane, the process ends.

5. The parcel separation method of claim 2, wherein determining a parcel as a target parcel comprises: marking the packages as the target packages, and determining the target area according to all conveying assemblies carrying the target packages, wherein the width of the target area covers the width of all conveying assemblies carrying the target packages, and the length of the target area covers the length of the separation plane;

in the step S5, if it is determined that there is no parcel without priority in the target area of the separation plane, it is determined whether there is a parcel without priority on the separation plane, and if it is determined that there is a parcel without priority on the separation plane, a parcel located at the most downstream side in the parcel conveying direction among the parcels without priority on the separation plane is determined as a new target parcel, and the step S2 is executed again, and if it is determined that there is no parcel without priority on the separation plane, the flow ends.

6. The package separation method of claim 1, wherein the step of formulating a separation strategy comprises:

and sequentially judging whether the distance between two parcels adjacent to the priority is smaller than the first threshold value according to the sequence of the priority from high to low, and setting the conveying speeds of the two parcels to be different when the distance between the two parcels adjacent to the priority is judged to be smaller than the first threshold value.

7. The package separation method according to claim 1, wherein the package separation apparatus further comprises a buffer device located upstream of the separation device in the package conveying direction, the buffer device being configured to convey the package to the separation device, the package separation method further comprising:

judging whether the number of the parcels on the separation plane is larger than a second threshold value or not;

and if the number of the parcels on the separation plane is judged to be larger than the second threshold value, controlling the buffer device to suspend conveying the parcels to the separation device.

8. The utility model provides a parcel splitter, its characterized in that, parcel splitter includes controlling means, separator and vision monitoring device, and separator is including being a plurality of conveying subassembly that are used for along setting for the direction transport parcel that the matrix set up, and every conveying subassembly has the transport face that is used for bearing the parcel, and the separation plane is formed to a plurality of conveying subassembly's transport face, and vision monitoring device is used for gathering the image in separation plane, and separator and vision monitoring device all are connected with the controlling means electricity, and controlling means sets up to:

determining the position and the contour of each parcel on the separation plane according to the image acquired by the visual monitoring device;

setting priorities of all the parcels on the separation plane according to the position and the contour of each parcel, wherein if two parcels have an overlapping area along a conveying path of a parcel conveying direction, the priority of the parcel at the downstream in the overlapping area of the conveying path is set to be higher than the priority of the parcel at the upstream in the overlapping area of the conveying path;

and formulating a separation strategy, and controlling the separation device to separate and convey the parcels according to the separation strategy, wherein the separation strategy comprises that the conveying speed of the parcel with high priority in the two parcels is higher than the conveying speed of the parcel with low priority under the condition that the distance between the two parcels is smaller than a first threshold value.

9. The package separation apparatus of claim 8 wherein the control means is arranged to set the priority of all of the packages on the separation plane according to the location and profile of each package in the following manner:

step S1, determining a parcel which is positioned at the most downstream position on the separation plane along the parcel conveying direction as a target parcel;

step S2, judging whether a risk parcel which possibly interferes with the movement of the target parcel exists on the separation plane, wherein an overlapping area exists between the conveying path of the risk parcel and the conveying path of the target parcel, and in the overlapping area, the risk parcel is positioned at the downstream of the target parcel; if the separation plane is judged to have the risk packages, executing a step S3, and if the separation plane is judged to have no risk packages, executing a step S4;

s3, selecting one risk package according to a set principle, determining the selected risk package as a new target package, and executing the step S2 again;

step S4, setting the priority of the target parcel as the highest priority in vacancy priorities, and executing step S5, wherein the vacancy priorities refer to priorities which are not occupied by the parcel;

s5, judging whether parcels without priority are in the target area of the separation plane, and executing S6 if the parcels without priority are in the target area of the separation plane;

and S6, determining one package which is positioned at the most downstream position in the package conveying direction in the packages with no priority in the target area as a new target package, and executing the step S2 again.

10. A parcel separation apparatus as claimed in claim 9 wherein the control means is arranged to determine whether there is a risky parcel on the separation plane which may interfere with the movement of the target parcel by:

determining a risk area of the target package, wherein the risk area comprises an area of a minimum bounding rectangle of the target package that is located on an advancement path of the target package;

judging whether packages without priority fall into the risk area, if so, judging that the risk packages exist on the separation plane, and determining the packages without priority falling into the risk area as the risk packages.

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