CN116863453A

CN116863453A - Automatic sorting device for laser cutting parts

Info

Publication number: CN116863453A
Application number: CN202311001016.XA
Authority: CN
Inventors: 孙明杰; 刘学师; 张钦溟; 杨霖; 李强
Original assignee: Jinan Bodor Laser Co Ltd
Current assignee: Jinan Bodor Laser Co Ltd
Priority date: 2023-02-17
Filing date: 2023-02-17
Publication date: 2023-10-10
Also published as: CN116030449B; CN116030449A

Abstract

The invention relates to an automatic sorting device for laser cutting parts, which comprises: the man-machine interaction processing module is used for acquiring first information for identifying the laser cutting piece; the numerical control task management module is used for establishing a navigation map of the area where the laser cutting piece belongs and determining a search strategy; according to the searching strategy and the navigation map, an image acquisition component acquires images; and the visual analysis processing module is used for identifying the image acquired by the image acquisition component and acquiring the position information of the laser cutting piece transmitted to the cutting piece pickup component so that the cutting piece pickup component sorts the laser cutting piece based on the position information of the laser cutting piece. The device realizes intelligent automatic material picking, and can flexibly pick various types of laser cutting pieces with different sizes.

Description

Automatic sorting device for laser cutting parts

The scheme belongs to the application number: division of 202310127103.3

Technical Field

The invention relates to the technical field of visual identification, in particular to an automatic sorting device for laser cutting parts.

Background

At present, manual picking of sheet metal laser cutting parts is time consuming and laborious. The large-arm spreading and picking robot is high in metal plate picking cost and is only suitable for large workpieces. The blanking platform of the laser cutting machine cannot be covered by the arm of the small-sized material picking robot, and the material picking can be completed by the auxiliary moving mechanism matched with the movement of the robot, so that the quick moving and beat material picking are not facilitated.

In addition, the material picking system based on the laser cutting sleeve positioning workpiece position is difficult to handle the abnormal conditions of workpiece offset, material leakage, material picking band plate, lamination, individual piece micro-connection and the like which are common on a blanking platform of small and medium material metal plates (especially thin plates). Thus, there is a need for a reliable, relatively low cost automated sorting method that intelligently handles the above anomalies so that small (medium) sheet metal can be quickly sorted.

Disclosure of Invention

In view of the above-mentioned drawbacks and shortcomings of the prior art, the present invention provides an automatic sorting method and an automatic sorting system for laser cutting pieces, so as to achieve the purpose of low-cost rapid analysis and rapid beat material picking.

In order to achieve the above purpose, the main technical scheme adopted by the invention comprises the following steps:

in a first aspect, an embodiment of the present invention provides a method for automatically sorting laser cutting elements, the method including:

s10, acquiring first information for identifying the laser cutting piece;

s20, establishing a navigation map of an area where the laser cutting piece belongs according to the first information, and determining a search strategy of the laser cutting piece based on the navigation map;

the navigation map includes: a visual map composed of a plurality of visual cells arranged in sequence; each visual cell has a unique serial number, and each visual cell is an area corresponding to the visual field of the image acquisition assembly; the searching strategy comprises the steps of searching and the sequence of searching according to the field of view cell;

S30, sending an image acquisition instruction to an image acquisition assembly according to the search strategy and the navigation map, and identifying the position information of the laser cutting piece according to the image fed back by the image acquisition assembly based on the image acquisition instruction, so that the cutting piece pickup assembly sorts the laser cutting piece based on the position information of the laser cutting piece.

Optionally, the method further comprises: s30 includes:

according to the search strategy and the navigation map, a first image acquisition instruction is sent to the image acquisition component, and a first real-time image returned by the image acquisition component is acquired;

and identifying whether a laser cutting member exists in the first real-time image based on the first information, and if so, identifying the position information of the laser cutting member so that a cutting member pickup assembly sorts the laser cutting member based on the position information of the laser cutting member;

otherwise, an Nth image acquisition instruction is sent to an image acquisition component according to a search strategy and a navigation map, so that the image acquisition component acquires an Nth real-time image based on the Nth image acquisition instruction and feeds back the Nth real-time image, and based on first information, whether a laser cutting piece exists in the Nth real-time image or not is identified, if so, the position information of the laser cutting piece is identified, and the cutting piece pickup component sorts the laser cutting piece based on the position information of the laser cutting piece;

Otherwise, repeating the sending of the (N+1) th image acquisition instruction, wherein N is more than or equal to 1; and if the navigation map is traversed and no laser cutting piece exists, an alarm signal is sent out.

Optionally, S10 includes:

s11, the automatic sorting numerical control system receives a specified format workpiece diagram (such as a CAD workpiece diagram) of the laser cutting piece and the type of the laser cutting piece input/imported by a user;

s12, the automatic sorting numerical control system receives a trepanning file and/or laser cutting coordinate information transmitted by the laser cutting system;

s13, the automatic sorting numerical control system acquires basic information of the laser cutting piece serving as first information according to a specified format workpiece diagram (such as a CAD workpiece diagram), the type of the laser cutting piece, a trepanning file and/or laser cutting coordinate information; the basic information includes one or more of the following: shape, origin of coordinates, plate information of the plate to which the laser cutting piece belongs, presumed coordinate positions, correspondence between the type of the laser cutting piece and the receiving device, contours, model characteristics and cutting area information.

Optionally, S20 includes:

s21, the automatic sorting numerical control system acquires a material picking area of the laser cutting piece according to basic information of the laser cutting piece, wherein the material picking area is a certain area on a material picking platform;

S22, establishing a navigation map composed of multiple vision cells according to the material picking area and the visual field size of the image acquisition assembly;

s23, determining a transverse moving step length, a longitudinal moving step length and a moving path according to the position information of the visual cell and the size of the visual cell in the navigation map, and obtaining a searching strategy of the laser cutting piece.

Optionally, S23 includes:

the size of the visual cell is 90cm x90cm, and the transverse moving step length and the longitudinal moving step length are both 30cm; a diameter/length of the laser cutting member is less than or equal to 60 cm;

the size of the visual cell is 100cm x100cm, and the transverse moving step length and the longitudinal moving step length are both 30cm; a workpiece with the diameter/length of the laser cutting piece being less than or equal to 70 cm;

the size of the visual cell is 100cm x100cm, and the transverse moving step length and the longitudinal moving step length are both 20cm; the diameter/length of the laser cutting member is equal to or less than 80 cm.

Optionally, the image acquisition instruction includes: center coordinate information of an image area to be acquired;

s30 includes:

performing binarization processing on the first real-time image, and performing brightness conversion and histogram equalization on the binarized image to obtain an intermediate result image;

extracting features of the intermediate result image, and judging whether the extracted features are matched with the profile of the laser cutting piece in the first information or not;

If the first real-time image is matched with the second real-time image, determining that the first real-time image is provided with the laser cutting piece, determining the type number of the laser cutting piece, and acquiring the position information of the laser cutting piece serving as the grabbing center coordinate according to the information of the outline of the extracted feature.

Optionally, the step S30 further includes:

the cutting member pick-up assembly includes: when the sucker array is arranged, the automatic sorting numerical control system determines the information of the sucker array combination required to be opened in the cutting piece picking assembly according to the information of the outline of the extracted feature; to control the chuck array to sort the laser cutting members based on the positional information of the laser cutting members.

Optionally, the method further comprises:

s40, judging whether the laser cutting piece meets the quality standard of the type of the laser cutting piece or not according to the real-time image of the laser cutting piece, and outputting a judging result.

In a second aspect, an embodiment of the present invention further provides an automatic sorting apparatus for laser cutting members, including:

the man-machine interaction processing module is used for acquiring first information for identifying the laser cutting piece;

the numerical control task management module is used for establishing a navigation map of the area where the laser cutting piece belongs according to the first information and determining a searching strategy of the laser cutting piece based on the navigation map; sending an image acquisition instruction to an image acquisition component according to the search strategy and the navigation map;

and the visual analysis processing module is used for identifying the position information of the laser cutting piece according to the image fed back by the image acquisition assembly based on the image acquisition instruction so that the cutting piece pickup assembly sorts the laser cutting piece based on the position information of the laser cutting piece.

In an alternative implementation, the numerical control task management module is used for sending a first image acquisition instruction to the image acquisition component according to the search strategy and the navigation map,

the visual analysis processing module is used for acquiring a first real-time image returned by the image acquisition component; based on the first information, identifying whether a laser cutting piece exists in the first real-time image, and if so, identifying the position information of the laser cutting piece, wherein at the moment, the numerical control task management module is also used for enabling a cutting piece pickup assembly to sort the laser cutting piece based on the position information of the laser cutting piece;

When the vision analysis processing module determines that the laser cutting piece does not exist in the first real-time image, the numerical control task management module is used for sending an N-th image acquisition instruction to the image acquisition assembly according to a search strategy and a navigation map so that the image acquisition assembly acquires the N-th real-time image based on the N-th image acquisition instruction and feeds back the N-th real-time image; the visual analysis processing module is further used for identifying whether a laser cutting piece exists in the Nth real-time image or not based on the first information, and if so, identifying the position information of the laser cutting piece;

the visual analysis processing module and the numerical control task management module are interacted to realize the traversal of the navigation map, and if the navigation map is traversed, no laser cutting piece exists, the numerical control task management module sends out an alarm signal.

Optionally, the man-machine interaction processing module is specifically used for receiving a workpiece diagram with a specified format of the laser cutting piece and the type of the laser cutting piece input/imported by a user;

receiving a trepanning file and/or laser cutting coordinate information transmitted by a laser cutting system;

acquiring basic information of the laser cutting piece serving as first information according to the specified format workpiece diagram, the type of the laser cutting piece, the trepanning file and/or the laser cutting coordinate information; the basic information includes one or more of the following: shape, origin of coordinates, plate information of the plate to which the laser cutting piece belongs, presumed coordinate positions, correspondence between the type of the laser cutting piece and the receiving device, contours, model characteristics and cutting area information.

Optionally, the numerical control task management module is specifically configured to obtain a material picking area of the laser cutting piece according to the basic information of the laser cutting piece, where the material picking area is a certain area on the material picking platform;

establishing a navigation map composed of multiple vision cells according to the material picking area and the visual field size of the image acquisition assembly;

and determining a transverse moving step length, a longitudinal moving step length and a moving path according to the position information of the visual cell and the size of the visual cell in the navigation map, and obtaining a searching strategy of the laser cutting piece.

Correspondingly, the size of the visual cell is 90cm x90cm, and the transverse movement step length and the longitudinal movement step length are both 30cm; a diameter/length of the laser cutting member is less than or equal to 60 cm;

Optionally, the image acquisition instructions include: center coordinate information of an image area to be acquired.

Optionally, the visual analysis processing module is specifically configured to perform binarization processing on the first real-time image, perform luminance conversion and histogram equalization on the binarized image, and obtain an intermediate result image;

Optionally, the cutting element picking assembly comprises a sucker array, and the numerical control task management module determines the information of the sucker array combination required to be opened in the cutting element picking assembly according to the information of the outline of the extracted feature; to control the chuck array to sort the laser cutting members based on the positional information of the laser cutting members.

In a third aspect, an embodiment of the present invention further provides an automatic sorting system for laser cutting pieces, where the automatic sorting system is used for automatically sorting the laser cutting pieces on a material picking platform, and the automatic sorting system includes: the automatic sorting system comprises an industrial personal computer integrated with an automatic sorting numerical control system, an automatic controller, an image acquisition assembly and a first transmission structure; the first transmission structure is used for enabling the image acquisition assembly to move to the appointed position of the material picking platform;

the industrial personal computer sends more than one instruction to the automatic controller according to the first information, so that the automatic controller controls the first transmission structure to move the image acquisition assembly according to the more than one instruction to acquire images of the designated positions in real time;

An automatic sorting numerical control system in the industrial personal computer determines the position information of the laser cutting piece according to the first information and the image acquired in real time; so that the cutting member picking assembly picks up the laser cutting member according to the position information of the laser cutting member;

the first information is information input by a user or information transmitted by a laser cutting system.

Optionally, the cutter pick-up assembly is mounted on a first drive structure;

or the cutting piece picking assembly is arranged on the second transmission structure, and the industrial personal computer controls the second transmission structure to move the cutting piece picking assembly by means of the automatic controller according to the position information of the laser cutting piece so as to pick up the laser cutting piece.

Optionally, the automatic sorting numerical control system performs an automatic sorting method of laser cut pieces according to any one of the first aspect.

Optionally, the head of the cutter pick-up assembly includes an open suction cup array configuration of a plurality of suction nozzles. The suction can be realized by programming each suction cup combination of the suction cup array structure in the embodiment.

Optionally, the industrial personal computer and the automatic controller exchange information through Modbus-TCP bus protocol;

the automatic controller and the first transmission structure exchange information through an EtherCAT bus protocol;

The automatic controller controls the cutting element picking assembly in a DMCNET bus mode.

Optionally, the first transmission structure includes:

y-axis guide rails positioned on two sides of the material picking platform,

an X-axis guide rail arranged on the cross beam and crossing the cross beam above the material picking platform,

a Z-axis lead screw is arranged on the cross beam, and a cutting piece pickup assembly is fixed on the Z-axis lead screw;

the image acquisition component is fixed on the Z-axis screw rod;

the automatic controller drives the Y-axis guide rail, the X-axis guide rail and the Z-axis screw rod to move in respective directions by means of the first transmission structure.

In a fourth aspect, an embodiment of the present invention further provides a laser cutting device, including: a laser cutting system and an automatic sorting system for laser cut pieces according to any one of the third aspect;

after the laser cutting system finishes machining the laser cutting part, the laser cutting system moves a platform for bearing the laser cutting part of the laser cutting system to an area of an automatic sorting system and serves as a material picking platform, and the automatic sorting system for the laser cutting part identifies and picks up the laser cutting part of the material picking platform according to any one of the automatic sorting methods in the first aspect.

In addition, the embodiment of the invention also provides an operation method of the automatic sorting system of the laser cutting piece, wherein the automatic sorting system is the automatic sorting system of the embodiment; the operation method comprises the following steps:

The automatic sorting system acquires basic information of the laser cutting piece, establishes a navigation map of an area where the laser cutting piece belongs, and determines a searching strategy of the laser cutting piece based on the navigation map;

the automatic sorting system acquires the coordinate position required by the camera of the image acquisition assembly for photographing right above the current visual cell according to the coordinate position of the current visual cell;

the automatic sorting system issues a first action instruction to the automatic controller based on the coordinate position of the camera, and the automatic controller controls the transmission system to send the camera to a position needing to be photographed based on the first action instruction;

the automatic sorting system controls the camera to shoot according to the ambient light and the camera parameters, acquires a real-time image shot by the camera, and analyzes whether a laser cutting piece which accords with the workpiece model characteristics exists in the real-time image; the workpiece model features are features in basic information of the laser cutting piece;

if the laser cutting piece exists, acquiring the position information of the laser cutting piece, and opening a corresponding suction nozzle array in a cutting piece pickup assembly and the type of the laser cutting piece;

the automatic sorting system issues a second action instruction to the automatic controller based on the position information of the laser cutting piece, the corresponding suction nozzle array opening combination in the cutting piece picking assembly and the type of the laser cutting piece, and the automatic controller controls the transmission system to drop the cutting picking assembly to the pre-picking height based on the second action instruction so as to realize the picking of the laser cutting piece.

Further, if the laser cutting part does not exist, the searching and picking task of the current visual cell is finished, searching of the next visual cell is prepared according to a searching strategy until searching of all the visual cells in the navigation map is finished, and all the picking is finished.

The method of the embodiment of the invention divides a larger area (the area needing to search for the materials) into a plurality of visual cells (the camera field of view observed in a short distance), and the method of shooting, searching and analyzing one by one ensures that the cost of the image acquisition component is low, the shooting speed, the transmission speed and the analysis speed are high, and the defects that the transmission speed and the rapid analysis cannot be realized due to the arrangement of a large-field high-definition photo in the prior art can be avoided by the method.

In addition, the automatic sorting method can realize intelligent automatic material picking, can flexibly pick various types of laser cutting pieces with different small sizes, and can effectively solve the abnormal conditions of material leakage, material picking and stacking in the prior art.

Drawings

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of an automatic sorting system for laser cut parts according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 2 is a schematic flow chart of an automatic sorting method executed by an automatic sorting numerical control system in an industrial personal computer according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of a transmission structure according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 4 is a schematic flow chart of an automatic picking method in an embodiment of the invention;

fig. 5A is a schematic diagram of a visual cell in an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 5B is a schematic diagram of a visual cell and a search strategy according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 5C is a schematic diagram of a search process using a search strategy in an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram of a PLC executing process in a material picking process according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 7 is a schematic diagram of a second process executed by the PLC in the material picking process according to the embodiment of the present invention.

Description of the reference numerals

1. A material picking platform; 2. a left Y-axis guide rail; 3. a right Y-axis guide rail; 4. a cross beam; 5. an X-axis guide rail; 6. the material picking machine head; 7. an auxiliary light source; 8. a camera; 9. and a lifting shaft.

Detailed Description

The invention will be better explained by the following detailed description of the embodiments with reference to the drawings.

The invention provides an automatic sorting device and a sorting method for quick analysis and quick beat material picking. The following describes the technical scheme of the present disclosure in detail.

An embodiment of the present invention provides a laser cutting device, which may include: a laser cutting system and an automatic sorting system for laser cutting pieces in the following embodiments;

After the laser cutting system finishes machining the laser cutting piece, the laser cutting system moves a platform for bearing the laser cutting piece of the laser cutting system to an area of an automatic sorting system, the platform is used as a material picking platform, and the automatic sorting system for the laser cutting piece identifies and picks up the laser cutting piece according to the automatic sorting method according to any embodiment.

The laser cutting system may be an existing laser cutting system, and the present embodiment does not make any modification to the laser cutting system.

After the cutting processing of the laser cutting system is finished, the processed workpiece moves to the rear table surface area, and the automatic sorting method is executed in the rear table surface area. In practical application, the cutting processing of the front table top and the automatic sorting process of the rear table top are mutually noninterfere and can work in parallel.

In addition, the industrial personal computer in the automatic sorting system of the laser cutting parts and the industrial personal computer of the laser cutting system can be independent two devices or one device. The following examples illustrate two devices that are independent.

The terms "workpiece to be picked", "processed workpiece", "laser cut" and "laser cut" as referred to in any of the following examples are intended to have the same meaning.

The "user" and "operator" mentioned in the following examples are all in the same sense. The servo driving component in the following embodiment is a transmission structure/transmission system.

Example 1

As shown in fig. 1, in this embodiment, the automatic sorting system of the laser cutting member is used to pick up the workpiece to be picked up in the rear table area, i.e., the picking area. The automatic controller (such as a PLC, programmable logic controller) of the automatic sorting system of the embodiment is connected with an independent control device such as a numerical control device, and an automatic sorting numerical control system is integrated in the numerical control device, and can calculate a material picking area according to the following "nesting/laser cutting coordinate information", divide the material picking area into a plurality of "vision cells" and automatically number, thereby providing a basis for building a navigation map and planning a searching path.

In the specific implementation process, after the laser cutting processing is finished, an exchange platform is executed to move the workpiece to be picked up to the rear table surface area. At this time, the front table cutting processing and the rear table workpiece sorting realize parallel work.

The embodiment of the invention provides an automatic sorting system for laser cutting pieces, which comprises the following components: the automatic sorting system comprises an industrial personal computer integrated with an automatic sorting numerical control system, an automatic controller (such as a PLC), an image acquisition assembly and a first servo driving assembly; the first servo driving assembly is used for driving the image acquisition assembly to a designated position;

The industrial personal computer sends more than one instruction to the automatic controller according to the first information, so that the automatic controller controls a first transmission structure (such as a first servo driving assembly) to move the image acquisition assembly according to the more than one instruction, and images of a designated area are acquired in real time;

an automatic sorting numerical control system integrated in the industrial personal computer determines the position information of the laser cutting piece according to the first information and the image acquired in real time; so that the cutting member pick-up assembly picks up the laser cutting member according to the positional information of the laser cutting member.

The image acquisition assembly shown in fig. 1 may include a light source sensing structure and a low cost, small field of view industrial camera.

The first information is information input by a user and/or transmitted by the laser cutting system, and the first information may be basic information of the laser cutting member, which includes: one or more of the following: shape, origin of coordinates, plate information of the plate to which the laser cutting member belongs, presumed coordinate positions, correspondence between the type of the laser cutting member and the receiving device, contour, model characteristics, cutting area information, and the like. The information transmitted by the laser cutting system in this embodiment may be the accurate information calculated in the cutting of the laser cutting system.

Typically, the cutter pick-up assembly is mounted on a first servo drive assembly for integrated control and operation by an automatic controller. In other embodiments, the cutting element picking assembly can be further installed on the second servo driving assembly, and the industrial personal computer controls the second servo driving assembly to drive the cutting element picking assembly to pick up the laser cutting element according to the position information of the laser cutting element. The small workpiece picking device can be independently selected, and intelligent picking of small workpieces can be better achieved. The cutter pickup assembly of this embodiment may include a valve island, an array of open suction cups formed by a plurality of openable and closable arrays of suction nozzles controlled by the valve island. The suction combination in the open suction cup array can be controlled by programming.

In a specific implementation mode, the end head of the cutting piece picking assembly can be set to be an open sucker array structure, after the position information of the laser cutting piece is determined, the serial numbers of suckers used in the movable sucker array structure can be determined, at the moment, the suction nozzles with the serial numbers can be controlled to be opened and moved to the position information of the laser cutting piece to achieve suction type picking, and then the suction nozzles are moved to the corresponding receiving device.

In practical application, the industrial personal computer and the automatic controller of the embodiment exchange information through Modbus-TCP bus protocol; the automatic controller and the first servo driving assembly interact information through an EtherCAT bus protocol; the automatic controller controls the cutting element picking assembly in a DMCNET bus mode. The first servo drive assembly may be a first transmission structure.

To better embody the structure of the automatic sorting system, the first servo driving assembly and the related matched assemblies thereof will be described in detail, for example, as shown in fig. 3, two sides of the material picking platform 1 of the automatic sorting system are provided with guide rails (such as a left Y-axis guide rail 2 and a right Y-axis guide rail 3 in fig. 3), and a guide rail (such as an X-axis guide rail 5 arranged on the cross beam 4 in fig. 3) is arranged above the material picking platform 1. Specifically, two side surfaces of the material picking platform 1 are provided with Y-axis guide rails, a cross beam 4 crossing the material picking platform 1 and an X-axis guide rail arranged on the cross beam 4 are arranged above the material picking platform 1, a Z-axis lead screw (a lifting shaft 9 for realizing Z-axis lifting by means of an auxiliary matching component 6 of an X axis and a Z axis is shown in fig. 3, and all components belong to the Z-axis lead screw) is also arranged on the cross beam, and a cutting piece picking component is fixed on the Z-axis lead screw; an image acquisition component (such as a camera 8) is fixed on the Z-axis screw rod; the automatic controller drives the Y-axis guide rail, the X-axis guide rail and the Z-axis screw rod to move in respective directions by means of the first servo driving assembly.

The free movement of the image acquisition device and the cutting pick-up assembly in the X-axis, Y-axis and Z-axis directions can be realized through the movement of the X-axis, Y-axis and Z-axis guide rails/lead screws. The image acquisition device of the embodiment is also matched with an auxiliary light source 7 for providing illumination in the acquisition process of the camera 8.

The small workpiece in the embodiment can be a workpiece of which the visual cell can completely cover the outline, and meanwhile, the visual field of the industrial camera can completely cover the industrial outline of the small workpiece.

Example two

The automatic sorting numerical control system integrated in the industrial personal computer can be a software part realized by a computer program, and can realize the automatic sorting method of the laser cutting parts in the following embodiment, and the automatic sorting numerical control system is matched with an automatic controller in the realization process to effectively and reasonably acquire required real-time images so as to further determine the position information of the laser cutting parts, thereby determining the offset coordinate information of the cutting and picking assembly based on the position information of the laser cutting parts, and enabling the automatic controller to control the cutting and picking assembly to move so as to quickly pick the laser cutting parts and then place the laser cutting parts in a corresponding receiving device.

As shown in fig. 2, the automatic sorting method of laser cutting members according to the present embodiment may include the following steps:

s10, acquiring first information for identifying the laser cutting piece; the first information includes: the method comprises the following steps of forming a shape, an origin of coordinates, plate information of a plate to which a laser cutting piece belongs, cutting parameter information, a presumed coordinate position, and a corresponding relation between the type of the laser cutting piece and a receiving device. Wherein, part of the first information is input by a user, and part of the first information is transmitted by the laser cutting system.

For example, S10 includes the sub-steps of S11 to S13:

s11, the automatic sorting numerical control system receives a CAD workpiece image of the laser cutting piece input/led by a user, basic parameters of a plate to be processed and the type of the laser cutting piece;

s13, the automatic sorting numerical control system acquires basic information of the laser cutting piece serving as first information according to the CAD work piece graph, the type of the laser cutting piece, the trepanning file and/or the laser cutting coordinate information.

Of course, when the types of the laser cutting pieces are multiple, and the number of the receiving devices is multiple, the automatic sorting numerical control system is also used for receiving the corresponding relation between the types of the laser cutting pieces and the receiving devices input by a user; therefore, the laser cutting part is convenient to move into the corresponding receiving device after being picked up by the final cutting and picking assembly.

the navigation map includes: a visual map composed of a plurality of visual cells arranged in sequence; each visual cell has a unique serial number, and each visual cell is an area corresponding to the visual field of the image acquisition assembly;

the search strategy comprises determining a step size of the search and an order of the search according to the field of view cell.

For example, S20 includes the sub-steps of S21 to S23:

s21, the automatic sorting numerical control system acquires a material picking area of the laser cutting piece according to cutting parameter information, wherein the material picking area is a certain area on a material picking platform;

s23, determining a transverse movement step length and a longitudinal movement step length according to the position information of the visual cell and the size of the visual cell in the navigation map, and obtaining a search strategy of the laser cutting piece.

For example, the size of the visual cell is 90cmx90cm, and the lateral movement step size and the longitudinal movement step size are both 30cm; a diameter/length of the laser cutting member is less than or equal to 60 cm;

The foregoing is merely exemplary, and in other embodiments, the size of the visual cell, the lateral movement step length, the longitudinal movement step length, etc. may be adjusted according to the size of the actual workpiece, and the embodiment is not limited thereto, and the workpiece size and the foregoing non-correspondence may be adjusted as required, which are all within the scope of the present application.

For example, a first image acquisition instruction can be sent to the image acquisition component according to the search strategy and the navigation map, and a first real-time image returned by the image acquisition component can be acquired;

In addition, based on the first information, identifying whether the laser cutting member exists in the first real-time image may specifically include:

Further, the cutter pickup assembly includes: when the sucking disc array is used, determining the information of a sucking nozzle array combination required to be opened in a cutting piece picking assembly according to the information of the outline of the extracted feature; to control the chuck array to sort the laser cutting members based on the positional information of the laser cutting members.

The mode of taking a picture by a camera with a large visual field (a photo can cover a material picking table) in the prior art is limited by the observation distance, resolution and visual field angle when the method is applied to recognition of thin seam cutting outlines of metal sheets, and the recognition difficulty is extremely high. Even very expensive high definition cameras have difficulty in using one or a few pictures to see all the details on the entire pick-up table. In the embodiment, the industrial camera with low cost and small visual field can identify areas one by one, is movably identified, is not limited by the observation distance, resolution and visual field angle, ensures the identification accuracy, and simultaneously has fast transmission and ensures the identification speed.

Therefore, the method of the embodiment can divide a larger area (the area needing to search for the materials) into a plurality of 'visual cells' (the camera field of view observed in a short distance), and the method of photographing, searching and analyzing one by one, namely the cost is reduced, and the recognition and the picking of the workpieces are realized rapidly and effectively.

Example III

The software part of the automatic sorting system mainly comprises: the automatic sorting numerical control system is operated on the industrial personal computer, and the real-time control program is operated in the PLC. The automatic sorting numerical control system and the laser cutting system are independent systems.

As shown in fig. 4, the automatic sorting numerical control system of the present embodiment may include: the system comprises a man-machine interaction processing module, a numerical control task management module and a visual analysis processing module. In addition, the automatic sorting numerical control system can also comprise a local parameter database for storing information input by a user or information transmitted by the laser cutting system and the like. The modules correspond to the above-described methods, and the embodiment will be described in more detail from the viewpoint of the modules.

For the man-machine interaction processing module, the man-machine interaction processing module of this embodiment may include: the state display and control main interface, the automatic back-referencing/zero-finding page, the parameter configuration page, the workpiece type and material receiving device pairing page, the alarm information prompting page and the like.

The state display and control main interface is provided with X-axis, Y-axis and Z-axis coordinate position data, a CAD work piece picture leading-in button/work piece adding button, a start and stop control button and the like. Through the button of the state display and control main interface, the user can realize loading the trepanning file and processing coordinate system information, so that the visual analysis processing module calculates the placement range of the workpiece on the material picking platform, and the visual analysis processing module can plan the workpiece searching path. For example, the user may click a work-piece add button to add a CAD work-piece map, and the numerical control task management module may match the receiving device number according to the automatic type number. In addition, there are also some control buttons on the control cabinet panel, which belongs to the man-machine interaction processing part, and they are set according to the actual needs, and the embodiment is not limited thereto.

After the automatic sorting numerical control system is powered on and started each time, an operator is required to control and execute conventional zeroing search, find a reference point and establish a coordinate system. Before each formal picking, an operator is required to pre-load CAD graphics (workpiece outline drawing) of the workpiece processed at this time, sleeve material/laser cutting coordinate information, plate material and thickness parameters into an automatic sorting numerical control system. The CAD graph (workpiece outline drawing) and the trepanning/laser cutting coordinate information of the workpiece processed at this time, as well as the plate material and thickness parameters, can also be transmitted to an automatic sorting numerical control system through a laser cutting system. In practice, an operator can set a receiving device (according to the number of the receiving device) corresponding to each workpiece (according to the type number) to be picked up in the "pairing page of the workpiece type and the receiving device", that is, input the corresponding relation between the type of the laser cutting piece and the receiving device, and then set the numbers of the receiving devices corresponding to different workpieces. Each receiving device number corresponds to the coordinate position of one receiving position area.

The numerical control task management module serving as a numerical control kernel is responsible for overall planning and management of the picking task. The method specifically comprises the following steps: at the beginning of task creation, according to the information of the nesting/laser cutting coordinates, the placing range (namely the material picking area) of the workpiece on the material picking platform is obtained, a navigation map for visual search is established, and a workpiece searching path is planned. In the process of executing the material picking task, the material picking task interacts with the PLC in a communication way, and issues a currently required action instruction or instruction group to the PLC according to the requirement; and issuing a photographing search instruction to the image acquisition component according to the requirement, and acquiring information such as coordinates of a workpiece grabbing point, the type of the workpiece, the number of a suction nozzle and the like by means of a photographed image.

The numerical control task management module acquires the placement range (namely a material picking area) of the workpiece on the material detection platform according to the trepanning/laser cutting coordinate information, establishes a navigation map for visual search, and plans a workpiece searching path.

The numerical control task management module loads processing area information provided by a user or a laser cutting machine and calculates which area of the whole platform the cut workpiece mainly exists in, namely a material picking area. The calculation of which "field of view cells" on the pick-up platform the sheet area occupies.

The description will be given of the visual cell and the navigation map with reference to fig. 5A to 5C.

As shown in fig. 5A, the numerical control task management module divides the whole material picking platform into 48 visual cells from X1Y1 to X8Y 6; according to the information (such as the nesting/laser cutting coordinates) transmitted by the laser cutting system, the workpiece placement range (black area in fig. 5A) is known, and the workpiece placement area is completely covered by 20 'vision cells' required to be X4Y3-X8Y6 through calculation. I.e. X4Y3-X8Y6 total of 20 "visual cells" require searching for the workpiece. The numerical control task management module automatically numbers the 'field-of-view cells' needing to search for the materials in the total material picking path (N1-N20 shown in FIG. 5A), so that the actual material picking process always searches for and picks up the materials one by one according to the numbers of the 'field-of-view cells'.

After the corresponding relation between the workpiece type number and the material receiving device number is received in the man-machine interaction processing module and the 'field of view cell' is determined, a searching strategy can be determined according to the workpiece type.

In actual pick-up, there is a workpiece "crossover" between two or even more "vision cells" adjacent, as shown in fig. 5B, the workpiece spans between four "vision cells" of N2, N3, N6, N7. Therefore, the actual search process always "staggers" the scanned cells, i.e., the lateral and longitudinal movement steps in the search strategy may be smaller than the width and length of the visual cell. In practical application, the workpiece can be scanned in a traversing mode, and in practice, a plurality of scanning processes exist.

Assuming that the image range of each "field of view cell" is 90cmx90cm, then a maximum of 60cmx60cm workpiece can be ensured by performing a mobile search scan every 30cm step.

Assuming that the image range of each "field of view cell" is 100cmx100cm, then each step is a 30cm motion search scan to ensure that a maximum of 70cmx70cm workpiece is searched.

Assuming that the image range of each "field of view cell" is 100cmx100cm, then each step is a 20cm motion search scan, which ensures that a maximum of 80cmx80cm workpiece is searched.

That is, the pick-up of the largest workpiece is related to the image range of the "field of view cell" and the minimum step of movement. The human-computer interaction processing module can be manually and freely configured to set the searching strategy, and the searching strategy can be determined by the numerical control task management module by means of workpiece contour information and the size of the field of view cell. The searching strategy and the configuration method of the visual cell in the navigation map enhance the flexibility of the material picking size of the system.

Under the condition that no other system alarm signals exist, the numerical control task management module can respond to the operation of a user at any time to start material picking.

For the vision analysis processing module, the vision analysis processing module may be simply referred to as a vision module in this embodiment, and the hardware portion corresponding to the vision module is mainly an intelligent light source system and an industrial camera used by machine vision.

The intelligent light source system is responsible for automatically detecting the ambient light intensity and adjusting the light intensity of the auxiliary light source according to the ambient light intensity. The industrial camera is responsible for automatically adjusting the focal length, capturing digital images, and transmitting the digital images to the numerical control task management module.

The intelligent light source system and the industrial camera can form an image acquisition assembly, and the image acquisition assembly can be arranged on the Z-axis screw rod or driven by a separate servo driving assembly. Typically, for cost savings and structural simplicity, it may be mounted in a fixed area of the Z-axis lead screw, used by the first servo drive assembly to drive the image acquisition assembly.

The vision module is mainly used for controlling photographing, receiving image information, analyzing and processing, searching and determining the position information of the workpiece in the image by utilizing a machine vision technology, and further calculating offset coordinates required by the cutting element picking assembly for picking the workpiece and suction nozzle array opening combination required by sucking the workpiece.

In the processing procedure of the vision module, digital image processing, such as image binarization, brightness conversion, gray level histogram and histogram equalization, is performed first. And then, carrying out feature extraction based on convolution operation, extracting features such as edges, angles and areas, analyzing whether the contour features in the image are highly matched with an established mathematical model (a workpiece contour map), and judging whether the contour features are workpiece contours according to the matching degree.

When the outline of the workpiece is determined, namely the workpiece is identified, distinguishing the workpiece to be picked from the left hollowed-out area of the picked workpiece according to the chromatic aberration characteristics of the interior and the exterior of the outline, and determining the specific coordinate position of the workpiece. Finally, according to the workpiece characteristics and the nozzle array characteristics, deciding a nozzle array opening combination and offset coordinates required for sucking the workpiece, and feeding back an analysis result to the numerical control task management module.

Specifically, the vision module analyzes and processes according to the CAD work piece graph, the sucker array characteristic parameters, the switching signals of the suction nozzle and the image information; the output result comprises: whether a workpiece exists or not, and if the workpiece exists, outputting a result further comprises: the workpiece type number, the center coordinates of the workpiece grabbing points, the opening combination mode of the suction nozzle array and the like.

In other embodiments, the vision module may also be used to estimate the quality of the workpiece based on CAD workpiece maps (contour maps), workpiece materials, and thickness parameters.

The automatic sorting numerical control system adopts a strategy of dividing visual communities, so that the thin seam cutting outline of the metal sheet can be seen clearly by using an industrial camera with relatively common precision, and the hardware cost and the recognition success rate of a visual scheme are greatly reduced.

In addition, the image data with relatively short distance and small visual field is beneficial to the rapid transmission and rapid analysis of visual images, thereby facilitating the rapid beat material picking.

Because of the strategy of dividing the visual cell and loading and analyzing the trepanning/laser cutting coordinate information, the navigation map is automatically constructed by the numerical control system, the searching strategy is planned, and a practical numerical control basis is established.

The receiving device of the automatic sorting system is provided with an open type, the position of the receiving device and the size of the receiving device can be set relatively freely by a user, and the applicability of the device to different users and different laser cutting machines is improved. For example, the receiving device set by the user can be an iron barrel, an inclined table top, a starting end of a production line conveyor belt and the like, so that the arrangement flexibility is improved.

Example IV

An automatic sorting system of a laser cutting machine based on an actual structure, for example, an industrial personal computer integrated with an automatic sorting numerical control system, a PLC, an image acquisition assembly, a first servo driving assembly and a cutting piece picking assembly; the end head of the cutting piece picking assembly is arranged into an open sucker array structure,

the first servo driving assembly is used for driving the image acquisition assembly to a designated position and driving the cutting piece picking assembly to a picking position to pick the workpiece. The industrial personal computer and the PLC interact information through a Modbus-TCP bus protocol; the PLC and the first servo driving assembly interact information through an EtherCAT bus protocol; the PLC controls the cutting element picking assembly in a DMCNET bus mode.

The specific construction and mating assembly of the first servo drive assembly is shown with reference to fig. 3. The present embodiment provides a method of operation of the automated sorting system, as shown in fig. 6.

After the industrial personal computer is powered on and started, the automatic sorting system needs to be initialized, and the following first step and the following second step are executed after the initialization. The initialization of the present embodiment may specifically include: the operator controls to execute the conventional zeroing search, find the reference point and establish the coordinate system.

In a specific implementation process, if the number of the receiving devices for receiving the workpieces to be picked is multiple, for example, when the receiving devices are numbered according to types, the types of the workpieces to be picked can be set in initialization, and information such as the numbers of the receiving devices corresponding to each type, namely, the corresponding relation between the types of the workpieces to be picked and the numbers of the receiving devices is input in advance. In general, each receiving device number corresponds to a coordinate position of a receiving location area, that is, the corresponding relationship of the type and the attributive coordinate position can be the corresponding relationship of the type and the attributive coordinate position, and then the PLC performs the picking of the workpiece to be picked according to the picking instruction and then places the attributive receiving location according to the corresponding relationship.

First step task planning stage

1.1, loading a workpiece diagram and establishing a workpiece model.

The user/laser cutter system provides "workpiece profile" i.e., a (CAD workpiece profile) and "trepanning/laser cutting coordinates" information to the automated sorting system. The vision module of the automatic sorting system establishes a 'workpiece model' for vision identification according to the characteristics of the 'workpiece profile map'.

1.2 the workpiece is matched with the receiving device.

The user needs to match each "work piece number" (corresponding to "work piece model") with a "receiving device number" (corresponding to "receiving device coordinate position"). I.e. to determine which "receiving means" the "workpiece" needs to be placed in.

And 1.3, establishing a navigation map, and planning a search strategy and a search path.

The automatic sorting system establishes a navigation map for visual search according to the information of the nesting/laser cutting coordinates. The whole area needing to be checked is divided into N visual cells needing visual search (visual field area photographed by a camera), and the areas are automatically numbered to prepare to search for the materials one by one.

And a second step of: specific material picking method

The specific method for searching and picking up the materials is as follows:

2.1 calculating the coordinate position of the Camera when photographing

Firstly, the automatic sorting system calculates the coordinate position required by the camera to shoot just above the visual community according to the coordinate position of the current visual community.

2.2 execution of the Camera in place

The automatic sorting system gives an instruction to the PLC, and the PLC and the transmission system, namely the first servo driving assembly, are responsible for sending the camera to a position where photographing is required (such as lifting the manipulator to a translation height).

2.3 photographing analysis and feedback of search results.

After the camera is in place, the automatic sorting system is responsible for light source control, focusing fine adjustment and photographing control, acquires image information photographed by the camera, and analyzes whether a workpiece which accords with the characteristic of a workpiece model exists in the image.

If a workpiece exists (more than one optional workpiece exists), calculating the optimal workpiece grabbing position and a suction nozzle array opening combination required for grabbing the workpiece, and feeding back grabbing position, suction nozzle array opening combination and workpiece type information to an automatic sorting system.

If the workpiece does not exist, feeding back the workpiece-free information to the automatic sorting system, and ending the searching and picking subtask of the visual community, as shown in the flow of the picking subtask in fig. 7.

2.4 perform "robot in place".

If a workpiece exists, the automatic sorting system gives an instruction to the PLC, and the PLC and the first servo driving assembly are responsible for executing a manipulator to be in place, wherein the cutting and picking assembly is sent to the position above a picking point in the X-axis direction and the Y-axis direction, and the cutting and picking assembly is dropped to a pre-picking height in the Z-axis direction. The process can be performed in linkage with the X axis, the Y axis and the Z axis.

2.5 executing the "Down detection-suction-Pre-lifting" action group

2.5.1 downscaling: the PLC is responsible for controlling the cutting pick-up assembly to slowly go down from the pre-pick-up height to the pick-up height in the Z-axis direction.

2.5.2 sucking: the automatic sorting system controls suction of the suction nozzles according to the suction nozzle array opening combination provided by the vision module, so that the cutting and picking assembly sucks the plate. (during the suction process, whether the workpiece is sucked normally or not can be judged by detecting the suction air pressure).

2.5.3 Pre-lifting: the automatic sorting system starts to act as an instruction downwards to the PLC, and the PLC is responsible for controlling the cutting pick-up assembly to slowly lift from the material picking height to the pre-lifting height in the Z-axis direction.

2.6 perform "put in place".

The PLC is responsible for conveying the workpiece to the upper part of the corresponding material receiving device and stopping at the discharging height. In the process, the workpiece moves from the picking point to the right above the receiving device in the X-axis and Y-axis directions, is lifted upwards (the highest lifting to the translation height is achieved when the stroke is far enough) in the Z-axis direction, and then falls to the discharging height.

And 2.7, executing 'releasing the workpiece', and ending the picking task of the workpiece.

The automatic sorting system controls the suction nozzle to stop sucking air, so that the workpiece is released.

2.8 repeating the searching and picking up materials.

And returning to the step 2.2 according to the photographing offset position, and circulating the steps until the visual search result is that a workpiece does not exist, ending the searching and picking subtask of the visual cell, adding 1 to the serial number of the searching and picking subtask, and preparing for the next searching task of the visual cell.

If the visual search result is "no work piece present" and the present "visual cell" is the last (nth), then all pick up tasks are completed.

In addition, as shown in fig. 7, the PLC performs "blanking detection" in real time during the execution of the "blanking-in-place action group". If the PLC detects that a material dropping event occurs, the current action is automatically stopped, the material dropping position is marked, a data task management module of the automatic material picking system is notified, and the interpolation task is triggered.

It should be noted that in the description of this specification, the terms "one embodiment," "some embodiments," "example," "specific example," or "some examples," etc., refer to a particular feature, structure, material, or characteristic described in connection with the embodiment or example as being included in at least one embodiment or example of the invention. In this specification, schematic representations of the above terms are not necessarily directed to the same embodiment or example. Furthermore, the particular features, structures, materials, or characteristics described may be combined in any suitable manner in any one or more embodiments or examples. Furthermore, the different embodiments or examples described in this specification and the features of the different embodiments or examples may be combined and combined by those skilled in the art without contradiction.

While preferred embodiments of the present invention have been described, additional variations and modifications in those embodiments may occur to those skilled in the art upon learning the basic inventive concepts. Therefore, the appended claims should be construed to include preferred embodiments and all such variations and modifications as fall within the scope of the invention.

It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various modifications and variations can be made to the present invention without departing from the spirit or scope of the invention. Thus, the present invention should also include such modifications and variations provided that they come within the scope of the following claims and their equivalents.

Claims

1. An automatic sorting device for laser cutting pieces, comprising:

the numerical control task management module is used for establishing a navigation map of the area where the laser cutting piece belongs according to the first information and determining a searching strategy of the laser cutting piece based on the navigation map; according to the search strategy and the navigation map, sending an image acquisition instruction to the image acquisition component so that the image acquisition component acquires an image based on the image acquisition instruction;

The navigation map includes: a visual map composed of a plurality of visual cells arranged in sequence; each visual cell has a unique serial number, and each visual cell is an area corresponding to the visual field of the image acquisition assembly; the searching strategy comprises the steps of searching and the searching sequence according to the visual cell;

and the visual analysis processing module is used for identifying the image acquired by the image acquisition component and acquiring the position information of the laser cutting piece transmitted to the cutting piece pickup component so that the cutting piece pickup component sorts the laser cutting piece based on the position information of the laser cutting piece.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the numerical control task management module is configured to send a first image acquisition instruction to the image acquisition component according to the search strategy and the navigation map, and acquire a first real-time image returned by the image acquisition component;

the visual analysis processing module is used for identifying whether the laser cutting piece exists in the first real-time image or not based on the first information, and if so, identifying the position information of the laser cutting piece so that the cutting piece picking assembly sorts the laser cutting piece based on the position information of the laser cutting piece;

When the laser cutting part does not exist in the first real-time image, the numerical control task management module is used for sending an N-th image acquisition instruction to the image acquisition assembly according to a search strategy and a navigation map so that the image acquisition assembly acquires the N-th real-time image based on the N-th image acquisition instruction;

the visual analysis processing module is used for identifying whether the laser cutting piece exists in the N real-time image or not based on the first information, and if so, identifying the position information of the laser cutting piece so that the cutting piece picking assembly sorts the laser cutting piece based on the position information of the laser cutting piece;

otherwise, the numerical control task management module is further used for repeatedly sending the (N+1) th image acquisition instruction, wherein N is greater than or equal to 1; and if the navigation map is traversed and no laser cutting piece exists, an alarm signal is sent out.

3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the device comprises a plurality of sensors,

the man-machine interaction processing module is specifically used for receiving a workpiece diagram with a specified format of the laser cutting piece and the type of the laser cutting piece which are input/imported by a user; receiving a trepanning file and/or laser cutting coordinate information transmitted by a laser cutting system; acquiring basic information of the laser cutting piece serving as first information according to the specified format workpiece diagram, the type of the laser cutting piece, the trepanning file and/or the laser cutting coordinate information;

The basic information includes one or more of the following: shape, origin of coordinates, plate information of the plate to which the laser cutting piece belongs, presumed coordinate positions, correspondence between the type of the laser cutting piece and the receiving device, contours, model characteristics and cutting area information.

4. The device of claim 1, wherein the numerical control task management module is specifically configured to obtain a material picking area of the laser cutting member according to basic information of the laser cutting member, where the material picking area is a certain area on the material picking platform;

establishing a navigation map composed of multiple vision cells according to the material picking area and the visual field size of the image acquisition assembly; and determining a transverse moving step length, a longitudinal moving step length and a moving path according to the position information of the visual cell and the size of the visual cell in the navigation map, and obtaining a searching strategy of the laser cutting piece.

5. The apparatus of claim 4, wherein the device comprises a plurality of sensors,

6. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein each image acquisition instruction comprises: center coordinate information of an image area to be acquired;

the visual analysis processing module is specifically used for:

7. The apparatus of claim 6, wherein the cutter pickup assembly comprises: when the sucking disc array is used, determining the information of a sucking nozzle array combination required to be opened in a cutting piece picking assembly according to the information of the outline of the extracted feature; to control the chuck array to sort the laser cutting members based on the positional information of the laser cutting members.

8. The apparatus as recited in claim 2, further comprising:

and the quality standard judging module is used for judging whether the laser cutting piece accords with the quality standard of the type of the laser cutting piece or not for the real-time image of the laser cutting piece, and outputting a judging result.

9. Automatic sorting system of laser cutting spare, its characterized in that, automatic sorting system is used for carrying out automatic sorting to the laser cutting spare on the material picking platform, and automatic sorting system includes: the automatic sorting system comprises an industrial personal computer integrated with an automatic sorting numerical control system, an automatic controller, an image acquisition assembly and a first transmission structure; the first transmission structure is used for enabling the image acquisition assembly to move to the appointed position of the material picking platform;

10. The automatic sorting system of laser cut pieces according to claim 9, wherein the automatic sorting numerical control system performs an automatic sorting method of laser cut pieces according to any one of claims 1 to 8.

11. The automated laser cutting element sorting system of claim 9, wherein the tip of the cutting element pick-up assembly comprises an open suction cup array configuration of a plurality of suction nozzles;

and/or the industrial personal computer and the automatic controller exchange information through Modbus-TCP bus protocol;