CN210358133U - Automatic inspection equipment for realizing product appearance inspection - Google Patents

Automatic inspection equipment for realizing product appearance inspection Download PDF

Info

Publication number
CN210358133U
CN210358133U CN201921104907.7U CN201921104907U CN210358133U CN 210358133 U CN210358133 U CN 210358133U CN 201921104907 U CN201921104907 U CN 201921104907U CN 210358133 U CN210358133 U CN 210358133U
Authority
CN
China
Prior art keywords
product
inspected
appearance
inspection
products
Prior art date
Legal status (The legal status is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the status listed.)
Active
Application number
CN201921104907.7U
Other languages
Chinese (zh)
Inventor
丁高松
Current Assignee (The listed assignees may be inaccurate. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation or warranty as to the accuracy of the list.)
Degson Electronics Co ltd
Original Assignee
Degson Electronics Co ltd
Priority date (The priority date is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the date listed.)
Filing date
Publication date
Application filed by Degson Electronics Co ltd filed Critical Degson Electronics Co ltd
Priority to CN201921104907.7U priority Critical patent/CN210358133U/en
Application granted granted Critical
Publication of CN210358133U publication Critical patent/CN210358133U/en
Active legal-status Critical Current
Anticipated expiration legal-status Critical

Links

Images

Landscapes

  • Investigating Materials By The Use Of Optical Means Adapted For Particular Applications (AREA)

Abstract

The utility model relates to an automatic inspection device for realizing product appearance inspection, which adds a speed limiting mechanism in the station before the product to be inspected is input into a bearing rotating disc so as to reduce the speed of the conveyed product to be inspected by utilizing the speed limiting mechanism and ensure the reasonable interval between the products to be inspected conveyed to the bearing rotating disc; aiming at the products to be inspected after speed reduction treatment and entering the bearing rotating disc, the corresponding surface characteristic information of the products to be inspected is collected by the product side surface characteristic collecting mechanism, the product top surface characteristic collecting mechanism and the product bottom surface characteristic collecting mechanism respectively for processing by the controller, the products to be inspected meeting the matching degree requirement of the appearance characteristic information and the prestored qualified product appearance characteristic information are determined to be qualified products by the controller to be output, and the rest products are determined to be unqualified products for appearance inspection to be output.

Description

Automatic inspection equipment for realizing product appearance inspection
Technical Field
The utility model relates to an automatic change the check-out set field, especially relate to a realize product visual inspection's automatic check-out set.
Background
In the production process of products, especially products in the terminal field, it is generally required to accurately inspect the appearance of the products (such as inspecting the side surfaces of the products, the bottom surface of the products and the top surface of the products) to ensure that the appearance of each product meets the appearance inspection requirements of qualified products.
Most of the existing inspection schemes for product appearance inspection adopt a manual inspection mode, even if some product appearance inspection schemes adopt automatic inspection schemes, the automatic inspection schemes still cannot completely and accurately inspect the appearance of the product, so that the finally separated products with qualified appearance and products with unqualified appearance have great errors, and the inspection efficiency of the product appearance is reduced.
SUMMERY OF THE UTILITY MODEL
The utility model aims to solve the technical problem that an automatic check-out set for realizing product appearance inspection is provided to above-mentioned prior art.
The utility model provides a technical scheme that above-mentioned technical problem adopted does: the utility model provides a realize product visual inspection's automatic check-out equipment, is including carrying the defeated material mechanism of examining the product, its characterized in that still includes:
the speed limiting mechanism is used for carrying out speed reduction treatment on the product to be detected conveyed by the conveying mechanism;
the transparent bearing rotating disc is connected with the material conveying mechanism and is used for bearing input products to be detected;
the feeding detection mechanism is used for detecting whether the product to be detected moves onto the bearing rotating disc or not;
the product side surface characteristic acquisition mechanism is used for respectively acquiring the side surface characteristics of the product to be detected, which is borne by the bearing rotating disc;
the product top surface characteristic acquisition mechanism is used for acquiring the top surface characteristics of the product to be detected, which is borne by the bearing rotating disc;
the product bottom surface characteristic acquisition mechanism is used for acquiring the bottom surface characteristics of the product to be detected, which is borne by the bearing rotating disc;
the good product output mechanism is used for outputting qualified products which are qualified in appearance inspection;
the defective product output mechanism is used for outputting defective products which are unqualified in appearance inspection;
the controller is respectively connected with the material conveying mechanism, the speed limiting mechanism, the bearing rotating disc, the feeding detection mechanism, the product side surface characteristic acquisition mechanism, the product top surface characteristic acquisition mechanism and the product bottom surface characteristic acquisition mechanism; wherein, product bottom surface characteristic acquisition mechanism includes:
the image acquisition device is positioned below the bearing rotating disc and used for acquiring the bottom surface characteristics of the product to be inspected;
and the light source device is positioned below the bearing rotating disc and used for emitting uniform light to an area which is positioned on the bearing rotating disc and bears the product to be inspected.
The automatic inspection equipment for realizing the product appearance inspection is characterized in that the product side surface feature acquisition mechanism comprises a product back side surface feature acquisition device, a product right side surface feature acquisition device, a product left side surface feature acquisition device and a product front side surface feature acquisition device which are respectively connected with a controller.
And the defective product output mechanism comprises a defective product poke rod and a defective product containing box for bearing a defective product poked by the defective product poke rod, and the defective product output mechanism comprises a defective product poke rod and a defective product containing box for bearing a defective product poked by the defective product poke rod.
Further, the good product containing box and the defective product containing box are located on the same product output rotating disc.
The improved automatic inspection equipment for realizing the product appearance inspection is characterized in that the speed limiting mechanism comprises a speed limiting motor connected with the controller and a brush which can be driven by the speed limiting motor to rotate and is in contact with the side face of a product to be inspected.
In the automatic inspection equipment for realizing the product appearance inspection, the product bottom surface characteristic acquisition mechanism further comprises a spherical reflection light source which is positioned above the product to be inspected and receives light rays emitted by the light source device.
In an improved way, the automatic inspection equipment for realizing the product appearance inspection further comprises a first display and a second display screen, wherein the first display and the second display screen are respectively connected with the controller; or/and the automatic inspection equipment for realizing the product appearance inspection comprises a product inspection state indicator lamp connected with the controller.
Preferably, in the automatic inspection equipment for inspecting the appearance of the product, the bearing rotary disc is made of transparent optical glass.
Compared with the prior art, the utility model has the advantages of:
firstly, the utility model discloses in realize product visual inspection's automatic check equipment through having increased the speed limiting mechanism in the station before the product of waiting to examine is imported to bear the weight of the rolling disc to utilize this speed limiting mechanism to reduce the product speed of waiting to examine of being carried, ensure to carry and bear the weight of the reasonable interval between the product of waiting to examine on the rolling disc; aiming at the products to be inspected after speed reduction treatment and entering the bearing rotating disc, a product side surface characteristic acquisition mechanism, a product top surface characteristic acquisition mechanism and a product bottom surface characteristic acquisition mechanism are selected to respectively acquire corresponding surface characteristic information of the products to be inspected for processing by a controller, the controller determines the products to be inspected meeting the requirement of matching degree of the appearance characteristic information and the pre-stored appearance characteristic information of the qualified products as qualified products to be output, and determines the rest products as unqualified substandard products for appearance inspection to be output, so that the inspection efficiency aiming at the appearance of the products is improved;
the speed limiting mechanism is provided with a brush made of soft materials, so that the brush can contact and block a product to be detected to be conveyed to the bearing rotating disc along with the rotation of the speed limiting motor, and the initial speed of the product to be detected entering the bearing rotating disc is reduced;
secondly, in consideration of the light intensity condition when the characteristics of the bottom surface of a product to be inspected are acquired, the automatic inspection equipment for realizing the product appearance inspection not only adopts a transparent bearing rotating disc, but also is provided with a light source device which can send uniform light to an area which is positioned on the bearing rotating disc and bears the product to be inspected under the bearing rotating disc, so that the ambient light positioned when the image acquisition device acquires is more uniform, and the adverse effect of the light on the product surface characteristic acquisition result is reduced;
additionally, the utility model discloses still increase the spherical reflection light source who has set up the light that the light source device of receiving sent above being located waiting to inspect the product to make shine to wait to examine the light on the product more even, thereby ensure that the top surface characteristic of waiting to examine the product that image acquisition device gathered is more accurate, improve follow-up correct screening rate to the qualified product of outward appearance.
Drawings
Fig. 1 is a schematic structural diagram of an automated inspection apparatus for inspecting the appearance of a product according to an embodiment of the present invention;
FIG. 2 is an enlarged view of portion A of FIG. 1;
FIG. 3 is a top view of the automated inspection apparatus of FIG. 1;
FIG. 4 is a schematic view of the automated inspection apparatus of FIG. 1 from another perspective;
FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram showing the connections of the major mechanisms of the automated inspection apparatus of FIG. 1;
fig. 6 is a schematic flow chart of the inspection method of the automated inspection apparatus according to the embodiment of the present invention.
Detailed Description
The present invention will be described in further detail with reference to the following embodiments.
As shown in fig. 1 to 5, the present embodiment provides an automatic inspection apparatus for realizing product appearance inspection, including a material conveying mechanism 100 for conveying a product 2 to be inspected, wherein the product 2 to be inspected in the present embodiment is a terminal connector, and as an improvement, the automatic inspection apparatus for realizing product appearance inspection further includes:
the speed limiting mechanism 101 is used for carrying out speed reduction treatment on the product 2 to be detected conveyed by the conveying mechanism 100; for example, the speed limiting mechanism 101 in this embodiment includes a speed limiting motor 1011 connected to the controller 109 and a brush 1012 capable of being driven by the speed limiting motor to rotate and contacting with the side of the product to be inspected, and the brush 1012 is preferably made of a soft material to prevent the brush 1012 from scraping and scratching the surface of the product to be inspected;
a transparent bearing rotary disc 102, wherein the bearing rotary disc 102 is connected with the material conveying mechanism 100 and is used for bearing the input product to be detected; the bearing rotary disc 102 in this embodiment is made of transparent optical glass;
a feeding detection mechanism 103 for detecting whether a product to be inspected moves onto the bearing rotary disc 102; for example, the feeding detection structure 103 here employs a grating sensing device;
the product side feature acquisition mechanism 104 is used for respectively acquiring the side features of the product to be inspected, which is borne by the bearing rotating disc; wherein the side features of the product 2 to be inspected in this embodiment include the front side feature, the left side feature, the back side feature and the right side feature of the terminal connector; correspondingly, the product side feature collecting mechanism 104 here includes a product rear side feature collecting device 1041, a product right side feature collecting device 1042, a product left side feature collecting device 1043 and a product front side feature collecting device 1044 which are respectively connected to the controller 109. Each side feature acquisition device in the product side feature acquisition mechanism 104 comprises an auxiliary light source to provide light to the corresponding side feature acquisition device so as to clearly acquire the side features of the product to be inspected;
a product top surface feature acquisition mechanism 105 for acquiring the top surface features of the product to be inspected, which is carried by the carrying rotating disc;
the product bottom surface feature acquisition mechanism 106 is used for acquiring the bottom surface features of the product to be detected, which is borne by the bearing rotating disc;
a good product output mechanism 107 for outputting a qualified product that is qualified in the appearance inspection; the good product output mechanism 107 can further comprise a good product poke rod 1071 and a good product containing box 1072 for bearing the qualified products poked by the good product poke rod;
a defective product output mechanism 108 for outputting defective products that are not qualified in the appearance inspection; the defective output mechanism 108 may further include a defective toggle lever 1081 and a defective receiving box 1082 for receiving a defective toggled by the defective toggle lever; the good product containing box 1072 and the defective product containing box 1082 are preferably located on the same product output rotating disc 110;
the controller 109 is respectively connected with the material conveying mechanism 100, the speed limiting mechanism 101, the bearing rotary disc 102, the feeding detection mechanism 103, the product side surface characteristic acquisition mechanism 104, the product top surface characteristic acquisition mechanism 105 and the product bottom surface characteristic acquisition mechanism 106; wherein, product bottom surface characteristic acquisition mechanism 106 includes:
the image acquisition device 1061 is positioned below the bearing rotary disc 102 and is used for acquiring the bottom surface characteristics of the product to be inspected;
the light source device 1062 is located below the carrying rotary disc 102, and is used for emitting uniform light to the area on the carrying rotary disc 102 and carrying the product 2 to be inspected. Wherein, can also be in the spherical reflection light source 1063 that is located the product top of waiting to inspect and receives the light that light source device 1062 sent to make the light that shines on the product of waiting to inspect more even, thereby ensure that the top surface characteristic of the product of waiting to inspect that image acquisition device 1061 gathered is more accurate, improve follow-up correct screening rate to the qualified product of outward appearance. The light source device 1062 is preferably disposed below the image pickup device 1061.
Wherein, specifically to in the automatic check out test set of this embodiment, the collection station to waiting to inspect product appearance characteristics does in proper order: a product front side feature acquisition device 1044, a product top surface feature acquisition mechanism 105, a product rear side feature acquisition device 1041, a product bottom surface feature acquisition mechanism 106, another additionally arranged product top surface feature acquisition mechanism 105, a product right side feature acquisition device 1042, and a product left side feature acquisition device 1043. Of course, the sequence of the several acquisition stations for the appearance features of the product to be inspected can be adjusted as required. In addition, two image acquisition devices are preferably matched on a station for acquiring the appearance characteristics of the product, so that the problem that the depth of field of a lens of each image acquisition device is limited is effectively solved, and the acquisition accuracy of the appearance image characteristics of the product is improved.
In addition, in order to facilitate the operation of the automatic inspection apparatus for inspecting the appearance of the product by the operator, the automatic inspection apparatus may further include a first display 111 and a second display 112, and the first display 111 and the second display 112 are respectively connected to the controller 109. Of course, a product inspection status indicator light 113 connected to the controller 109 may be further provided in the automatic inspection apparatus.
Aiming at the automatic inspection equipment for realizing the product appearance inspection in the embodiment, the embodiment also provides an inspection method of the automatic inspection equipment. Specifically, referring to fig. 1 to 5, the inspection method of the automated inspection apparatus for inspecting the appearance of the product in the embodiment includes the following steps:
step 1, a conveying mechanism 100 conveys a product 2 to be detected to a bearing rotary disc 102;
step 2, the speed limiting mechanism 101 performs speed reduction treatment on the product 2 to be detected conveyed by the conveying mechanism 100, so that the product 2 to be detected after speed reduction treatment rotates along with the rotating bearing rotating disc 102;
step 3, when detecting that the product 2 to be detected moves onto the bearing rotary disc 102, the feeding detection mechanism 103 sends result information of the detected product to be detected to the controller 109;
step 4, the product side feature acquisition mechanism 104 acquires each side feature of the product 2 to be inspected, which is borne by the bearing rotating disc 102, according to a starting instruction of the controller 109, and sends the acquired information of each side feature of the product to be inspected to the controller 109;
step 5, the product top surface characteristic acquisition mechanism 105 acquires the top surface characteristics of the product to be inspected, which is borne by the bearing rotating disc 102, according to the starting instruction of the controller 109, and sends the acquired top surface characteristic information of the product to be inspected to the controller 109;
step 6, the product bottom surface characteristic acquisition mechanism 106 acquires the bottom surface characteristics of the product to be inspected, which is borne by the bearing rotating disc 102, according to the starting instruction of the controller 109, and sends the acquired bottom surface characteristic information of the product to be inspected to the controller 109;
and 7, the controller 109 correspondingly matches and judges the received appearance characteristic information of the product 2 to be detected and the pre-stored appearance characteristic information of the qualified product:
when the appearance characteristic information of the product to be detected is matched with the appearance characteristic information of the pre-stored qualified product, the appearance inspection of the product to be detected is determined to be qualified, and the step 8 is carried out; otherwise, confirming that the appearance inspection of the product to be inspected is qualified, and turning to the step 9; the appearance characteristic information of the product to be detected comprises all side surface characteristic information, top surface characteristic information and bottom surface characteristic information of the product to be detected; the pre-stored appearance characteristic information of the qualified product comprises all side surface characteristic information, top surface characteristic information and bottom surface characteristic information of the qualified product;
the matching here means: the characteristic information of each side face of the product to be detected is correspondingly consistent with the characteristic information of each side face of the qualified product, the characteristic information of the top face of the product to be detected is consistent with the characteristic information of the top face of the qualified product, and the characteristic information of the bottom face of the product to be detected is consistent with the characteristic information of the bottom face of the qualified product, namely, when all the characteristic information are correspondingly consistent, the appearance of the product to be detected is qualified; otherwise, determining that the product is unqualified;
step 8, the controller 109 commands the good product output mechanism 107 to output the qualified product qualified by the appearance inspection;
in step 9, the controller 109 instructs the defective product output mechanism 108 to output a defective product that is not subjected to the appearance inspection.
In addition, the controller 109 in this embodiment may also receive external parameter adjustment on the speed limiting mechanism 101 to adjust the speed reduction processing amplitude of the product 2 to be inspected by the speed limiting mechanism 101, so that the user can adjust the speed of the product to be inspected entering the bearing rotary disc 102 conveniently.
Although the preferred embodiments of the present invention have been described in detail hereinabove, it should be clearly understood that modifications and variations of the present invention are possible to those skilled in the art. Any modification, equivalent replacement, or improvement made within the spirit and principle of the present invention should be included in the protection scope of the present invention.

Claims (8)

1. The utility model provides a realize product visual inspection's automatic check-out equipment, is including carrying defeated material mechanism (100) of examining product (2), its characterized in that still includes:
the speed limiting mechanism (101) is used for carrying out speed reduction treatment on the product to be detected conveyed by the conveying mechanism (100);
the transparent bearing rotary disc (102), the bearing rotary disc (102) is connected with the material conveying mechanism (100) and is used for bearing the input product to be detected;
a feed detection mechanism (103) for detecting whether a product to be inspected is moved onto the carrying rotary disc (102);
the product side feature acquisition mechanism (104) is used for respectively acquiring the side features of the product to be inspected, which is borne by the bearing rotating disc;
the product top surface characteristic acquisition mechanism (105) is used for acquiring the top surface characteristics of the product to be detected, which is borne by the bearing rotating disc;
the product bottom surface feature acquisition mechanism (106) is used for acquiring the bottom surface features of the product to be detected, which is borne by the bearing rotating disc;
a good product output mechanism (107) for outputting qualified products qualified in the appearance inspection;
a defective product output mechanism (108) for outputting defective products that are not qualified in the appearance inspection;
the controller (109) is respectively connected with the material conveying mechanism (100), the speed limiting mechanism (101), the bearing rotary disc (102), the feeding detection mechanism (103), the product side surface characteristic acquisition mechanism (104), the product top surface characteristic acquisition mechanism (105) and the product bottom surface characteristic acquisition mechanism (106); wherein the product bottom surface feature acquisition mechanism (106) comprises:
the image acquisition device (1061) is positioned below the bearing rotating disc (102) and is used for acquiring the bottom surface characteristics of a product to be inspected;
and the light source device (1062) is positioned below the bearing rotary disc (102) and used for emitting uniform light to an area which is positioned on the bearing rotary disc (102) and bears the product (2) to be inspected.
2. The automatic inspection equipment for realizing the product appearance inspection according to claim 1, wherein the product side feature acquisition mechanism (104) comprises a product rear side feature acquisition device (1041), a product right side feature acquisition device (1042), a product left side feature acquisition device (1043) and a product front side feature acquisition device (1044) which are respectively connected with the controller (109).
3. The automated inspection apparatus for inspecting the appearance of a product according to claim 1, wherein the good product output mechanism (107) comprises a good product poke rod (1071) and a good product receiving box (1072) for receiving a good product poked by the good product poke rod, and the defective product output mechanism (108) comprises a defective product poke rod (1081) and a defective product receiving box (1082) for receiving a defective product poked by the defective product poke rod.
4. The automated inspection apparatus for inspecting the appearance of products according to claim 3, wherein the good product containing box (1072) and the bad product containing box (1082) are located on the same product output rotary plate (110).
5. The automated inspection apparatus for inspecting the appearance of a product according to claim 1, wherein the speed limiting mechanism (101) comprises a speed limiting motor (1011) connected to the controller (109) and a brush (1012) which can be driven by the speed limiting motor to rotate and contacts the side of the product to be inspected.
6. The automated inspection apparatus for inspecting the appearance of products according to claim 1, wherein the bottom surface feature collecting mechanism (106) further comprises a spherical reflecting light source (1063) which is located above the products to be inspected and receives the light emitted from the light source device (1062).
7. The automatic inspection equipment for realizing the product appearance inspection according to claim 1, characterized by further comprising a first display (111) and a second display screen (112), wherein the first display (111) and the second display screen (112) are respectively connected with the controller (109); or/and the automatic inspection equipment for realizing the product appearance inspection comprises a product inspection state indicator lamp (113) connected with the controller (109).
8. The automated inspection device for product visual inspection according to claim 1, characterized in that the carrying rotating disc (102) is a transparent optical glass.
CN201921104907.7U 2019-07-15 2019-07-15 Automatic inspection equipment for realizing product appearance inspection Active CN210358133U (en)

Priority Applications (1)

Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
CN201921104907.7U CN210358133U (en) 2019-07-15 2019-07-15 Automatic inspection equipment for realizing product appearance inspection

Applications Claiming Priority (1)

Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
CN201921104907.7U CN210358133U (en) 2019-07-15 2019-07-15 Automatic inspection equipment for realizing product appearance inspection

Publications (1)

Publication Number Publication Date
CN210358133U true CN210358133U (en) 2020-04-21

Family

ID=70271430

Family Applications (1)

Application Number Title Priority Date Filing Date
CN201921104907.7U Active CN210358133U (en) 2019-07-15 2019-07-15 Automatic inspection equipment for realizing product appearance inspection

Country Status (1)

Country Link
CN (1) CN210358133U (en)

Cited By (2)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
CN111881699A (en) * 2020-07-01 2020-11-03 格力电器(武汉)有限公司 Product detection method, device, storage medium and system
CN112221998A (en) * 2019-07-15 2021-01-15 宁波高松电子有限公司 Automatic inspection equipment for realizing product appearance inspection and inspection method thereof

Cited By (2)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
CN112221998A (en) * 2019-07-15 2021-01-15 宁波高松电子有限公司 Automatic inspection equipment for realizing product appearance inspection and inspection method thereof
CN111881699A (en) * 2020-07-01 2020-11-03 格力电器(武汉)有限公司 Product detection method, device, storage medium and system

Similar Documents

Publication Publication Date Title
CN103090804B (en) Automatic detection system and detection method of finished product magnet ring image
CN104198157B (en) Automatic sorting device with lens detection function
CN104897693A (en) Glass surface defect enhancement device and detection method thereof
CN203750868U (en) Computer vision-based burr detection device
CN110018178A (en) A kind of mobile phone bend glass typical defect on-line measuring device and method
CN210358133U (en) Automatic inspection equipment for realizing product appearance inspection
CN211905129U (en) Dispensing detection device
CN103175847A (en) Grating surface blemish detection device
CN210071686U (en) Fruit grading plant based on orthogonal binocular machine vision
CN110146516A (en) Fruit sorter based on orthogonal binocular machine vision
CN106353336A (en) Lens coating automatic detection system
CN111025072A (en) Device for detecting photoelectric performance and appearance of chip
US6766046B1 (en) Plate glass shatter testing method, device, imaging method for glass testing and image signal processing method
CN110208269A (en) The method and system that a kind of glass surface foreign matter and internal foreign matter are distinguished
CN109827974B (en) Resin optical filter film crack detection device and detection method
CN104132945A (en) On-line surface quality visual inspection device for bar based on optical fiber conduction
CN104458758A (en) Detection device for synthetic sapphire wafer
CN109622404B (en) Automatic sorting system and method for micro-workpieces based on machine vision
CN209148563U (en) A kind of double imaging type transparent component defect detecting devices
CN208350678U (en) Transparent vessel oral area crackle on-line measuring device
CN112221998A (en) Automatic inspection equipment for realizing product appearance inspection and inspection method thereof
CN114002234A (en) Simple ceramic tile surface defect detection device and method
CN110646441A (en) PCB defect detection system and method based on FPGA
CN108204977A (en) Corn kernel quality automatic detection device based on machine vision
CN105910534B (en) Product of rubber and plastic geometric measurement system

Legal Events

Date Code Title Description
GR01 Patent grant
GR01 Patent grant