EA045203B1 - SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR AUTOMATICALLY HANGING POULTRY ON A CARRIER CONVEYOR CARRIER - Google Patents

Description

The invention relates to a system and method for automatically hanging poultry.

JP 2005 245348 discloses a system and method in which poultry are transported in boxes by conveyors to a nitrogen gas chamber. Killed poultry from the gas chamber is transferred via an exit conveyor to a chicken hanging stand, where the poultry is monitored using a camera. Depending on the camera capturing the condition of the chickens from the image, the poultry is automatically suspended from the overhead conveyor of the automatic chicken slaughter line using a robot and a loading/transfer device.

WO2014/040604 discloses a device for hanging birds having a torso, a neck, legs and possibly a head and feet on an overhead conveyor, comprising a plurality of holders, each having a neck end capable of receiving the bird's neck, and a first opening from which protruding legs and/or feet of the poultry, a control station for determining the orientation of the legs and/or feet of each bird, and a rotation station for rotating the bird about an axis of rotation extending between a plane defined by the first hole of the holder and a plane defined by the neck end of the holder.

Using the device according to WO2014/040604, a method for hanging birds having a body, a neck, legs and possibly a head and feet can be applied on an overhead conveyor, comprising the following sequence of steps:

A) each bird is positioned in the holder with its legs and/or feet protruding from the first opening therein and its neck at the neck end of the holder,

B) determine the orientation of the legs and/or feet,

C) the bird is rotated about an axis of rotation extending between the plane defined by the first hole of the holder and the plane defined by the neck end of the holder until the desired orientation of the legs and/or feet is achieved, and

D) the bird's legs and/or feet are positioned in a bracket on the conveyor.

WO2020/126893 states that it is common practice in pig slaughterhouses to hang pieces of meat on a specific conveying device, commonly referred to as a tree, for internal or external transport and/or storage. This tree essentially consists of a series of hooks mounted on a vertical rod, which is configured to be suspended from an overhanging rail or to be mounted on a stand, and constitutes a means for collecting and transporting meat objects.

In slaughterhouses and when processing, for example, the front and belly parts of pork, it is common to sort these meat objects into different weight classes, which requires the separation of the original products into different production lines (holding areas) for storage and awaiting further processing.

WO2020/126893 proposes a system and method to avoid the heavy manual work associated with hanging large and heavy pieces of pig meat, for example, on racks for storing and/or transporting goods. Accordingly, WO2020/126893 describes a pig meat handling system configured to move and suspend one or more pig meat objects from an inlet conveyor to means for storing and/or transporting said pig meat objects, the system comprising:

one or more processing means;

one conveyor belt for transporting and supplying meat objects to the arrival area;

yes a sensor installed in or within the working distance of the arrival area to detect the arrival of pig meat objects into the arrival area;

the processing means operates with an incoming conveyor belt, a sensor, and one or more industrial robots and/or storage/transport means, means for rotating a rod to determine the precise location of an incoming pig meat object to determine the location of a suitable gripping point on the pig meat object ;

a grasping tool mounted on an industrial robot capable of picking up, gripping, clamping or holding an incoming pig meat object while in motion, as well as lifting it from the conveyor so that it can eventually be hung on a storage/transport means;

this storage/transport means includes a series of hooks, with the tip directed upward, for receiving objects of pig meat to be stored/transported, and these hooks are mounted on a vertical rod, which is operatively connected to means for rotating said rod so as to bring the hook into a specific position for receiving a pig meat object delivered by a gripper mounted on an industrial robot.

US 10,881,115 B1 discloses a system and method for automatically hanging poultry by the legs on a carrier conveyor carrier containing a feed line for the poultry being hung, the system comprising an image forming apparatus coupled to a decision means to process images of the poultry on the feed line, obtained from the imaging device, and the vision-guided robot for picking up the poultry from the feed line and for hanging the poultry by its legs on the carrier

- 1 045203 le carrying conveyor, wherein the system is equipped with a poultry orientation detection system, a poultry orientation system, an orientation match/non-match system and a poultry hanging system in which the poultry is robotically inserted into the poultry bracket using a plurality of sequential located robots with visual control, and a tool having three axes of rotation and a contour corresponding to the contour of the poultry breast.

A major disadvantage of this known system and method for automatically hanging poultry on a carrier conveyor carrier is that it requires a large amount of equipment, which makes it expensive, complex and prone to failure.

The objective of the invention is to reduce costs, increase reliability, as well as simplify and reduce the complexity of the system and its method of operation.

The invention provides a system and method in accordance with the appended claims, which also covers a computer, a computer program, and a computer-readable medium provided with such computer program in support of the method and system of the invention.

According to a first aspect of the invention, in a system for automatically hanging poultry by the legs on a carrier conveyor carrier according to the generic concept of claim 1, a decision making means is provided to detect and select poultry with a breast engaging the feed line, and control the robot with vision control to grasping the poultry thus selected from the feed line by hooking the poultry by the legs, and subsequently suspending the poultry by the legs on the carrier conveyor.

In a related aspect of the invention, decision means are provided to detect and select poultry at a position other than the position in which the breast engages the feed line, and to control the vision-guided robot to move such selected poultry such that the breast engages the feed line. line, whereupon the decision maker controls the vision-guided robot to pick up said poultry from the feed line by hooking the poultry by the legs, and subsequently suspend the poultry by the legs on the carrier conveyor carrier.

The advantage of the invention is that the poultry is only grabbed by the legs when the poultry's breast engages the feed line, the position of the legs is well defined since the poultry's legs are always on top of the feed line, avoiding the need to determine the height of the legs. The invention further avoids the complex orientation match/mismatch system that is required in the prior art system and method, without compromising but even improving the reliability that is achieved in the method of picking up poultry from a feed line and then hanging the poultry by its feet in a conveyor belt. lines.

Thus, the invention requires obtaining images of poultry on the feed line, processing said images to detect and select poultry with a breast hooking the feed line, operating an image-guided robot to grab the poultry from the feed line by hooking the poultry's legs , and control the vision-guided robot to hang the poultry by its legs from the carrier conveyor.

Accordingly, it is desirable that upon detecting a poultry in a position other than when its breast engages the feed line, the steps are performed to control the vision-guided robot to move said poultry such that its breast engages the feed line, and then operate the visually guided robot to hook the poultry by the legs and hang the poultry by the legs on the carrier conveyor carrier.

Although this is not necessarily the only mode of implementation, preferably at least the poultry image processing step and/or the vision-guided robot control step is carried out using a computer. Accordingly, the invention is also embodied in a computer program which, when loaded into a computer, ensures that the computer supports the system of the invention and its method of operation. Exclusive rights to a machine-readable medium embodied with the computer program of the invention are also sought.

In order to be able to process poultry in large quantities and at high speed, it is preferable that the feed line be equipped with a feed station for discharging a plurality of poultry in an unorganized manner onto the feed line. Of course, it is also possible for the feed line to receive the poultry in an organized manner, which can reduce the burden of subsequent proper orientation of the poultry after the poultry is picked up from the feed line by the vision-guided robot and before the vision-guided robot hangs the poultry on the appropriate carrier conveyor carrier.

The feeding station is equipped to receive poultry one by one or in containers,

- 2 045203 such as boxes.

Desirably, the feed station is equipped to release poultry from the containers so that it moves into and through the transfer section to the feed line, wherein the transfer section is equipped with guide channels for providing poultry to the feed line in separate lines or moving queues of poultry. This ensures that poultry on individual adjacent lines do not touch each other, making imaging of individual birds easier, and also helps the vision-guided robot to pick up poultry from the feed line. It is preferable that neighboring poultry on the feed line do not end up touching each other.

An advantageous feature of the invention is that the decision maker controls the vision-guided robot to engage and grasp the poultry from the feed line in a random orientation, which is particularly advantageous due to the random order in which the feed station can release the poultry onto the feed line. The decision means can then control the vision-guided robot to suspend the captured poultry by the legs at a predetermined orientation of the captured poultry relative to the carrier conveyor carrier.

Therefore, it is desirable to collect images of poultry at the time when the vision-guided robot has picked up the poultry from the feed line and the poultry is hanging from the vision-guided robot, and control the vision-guided robot based on the images of the poultry that is hanging from the vision-guided robot . The images are provided by the imaging device or devices.

The control reliability of the vision-guided robot can be improved by ensuring that at least one imaging device is mounted on the vision-guided robot. However, this is not essential; the imaging device or devices may be free-standing device(s) located adjacent to the image-guided robot.

The system of the invention allows poultry to be hung in any desired orientation, however, it is preferred that the desired orientation of the poultry be one with the poultry's breast facing the wearer or one with the poultry's breast facing away from the wearer. For all practical purposes, these options are suitable for most poultry processing plant situations. Both are preferably achieved by ensuring that the decision maker selects a predetermined orientation of the poultry depending on the type of carrying conveyor on which the poultry will or should be suspended. In most embodiments, the poultry will be grabbed and suspended from the carrier with the breast facing the carrier. This applies in particular to buffer stations.

Preferably, the orientation of the breast is determined by detection of a characteristic feature of the poultry, such as a beak.

The invention will now be further illuminated with reference to a drawing of an exemplary embodiment of a system according to the invention, which is not intended to be limiting to the appended claims.

On the figures:

in fig. 1 shows a supply station and a supply line forming part of the system according to the invention;

in fig. 2 and fig. 3 shows the system of the invention with a feed line, a visually controlled robot and a carrying conveyor, with poultry being fed onto the feed line with a breast engaging the feed line; and in fig. 4 and 5 show the system of the invention, with FIG. 4 shows a situation where a poultry catches the feed line with its back, and FIG. 5 shows a situation where a poultry catches the feed line with its breast.

Whenever the same reference numerals are used throughout the figures, the numerals refer to the same parts.

The invention relates to a system and method for automatically hanging poultry on a carrier conveyor. The system contains several parts, in particular the poultry feed line 1 8, which is shown in FIG. 1 together with feeding station 3 for poultry. The system further comprises a vision-guided robot 4 and said carrier conveyor 5, both of which are shown in FIG. 2 and 3. The carrier conveyor 5 contains a number of carriers 6, only one of which is shown. The carriers 6 can be moved in the transport direction of the carrier conveyor 5 in a manner that is fully known to the person skilled in the art and therefore does not require further explanation.

The feed line 1 receives poultry 8 from the feed station 3, which receives the poultry 8, for example, in containers 7, and releases the poultry 8 from the containers 7 to the feed line 1. Accordingly, the feed line 1 can receive a plurality of poultry 8 in an unorganized manner , preferably without neighboring households touching each other

- 3 045203 birds received on feed line 1.

The feeding station 3 is equipped with a transfer section 9 for feeding poultry 8, which is released from containers 7 to the feed line 1. The transfer section 9 is equipped with guide channels 10 for providing the birds 8 of the feed line 1 in separate lines or moving queues of poultry.

For reasons of clarity, FIG. 2-5 only the supply line 1 is shown, while FIG. 2 and 5 show that poultry 8 is fed to the vision-guided robot 4 with the breast 8' engaging the feed line 1. In FIG. 4 shows a situation where, while approaching the visually controlled robot 4, the poultry 8 is engaged with the feed line 1 with its back. In this latter situation, which can be detected by the imaging device 11, a decision making means 12 is provided to control the vision-guided robot 4 to move said poultry 8 such that eventually the breast 8' of said poultry 8 engages with supply line 1, as shown in FIG. 2 and 5.

When the poultry 8 engages the feed line 1 with the breast 8', the decision maker 12 controls the vision-guided robot 4 to grip said poultry 8 in another random orientation with the feed line 1 by engaging the poultry 8 by the legs 8, and then hangs the poultry 8 by the legs 8 onto the carrier 6 of the carrying conveyor 5. The position of the legs 8 when the bird 8 engages the feed line 1 is well defined since the poultry legs 8 are then always on top of the feed line 1. In FIG. 3 shows that the vision-guided robot 4 can hang a poultry by its legs 8 on a carrier 6 in a predetermined orientation relative to said carrier 6.

The decision maker 12 controls the vision-guided robot 4 based on images of poultry 8 that are obtained from a free-standing imager 11 (see FIG. 2) or an imager 13 mounted on the vision-guided robot 4 (see FIG. .3).

The intended orientation of poultry 8 in which it will be suspended is one of poultry breast 8' facing the carrier 6 and poultry breast 8' facing away from the carrier 6. The first embodiment is shown in FIG. 3. Preferably, the orientation of the breast 8' is determined by detection of a characteristic feature of the poultry 8, such as a head, especially a beak. Decision means 12 are provided for selecting a given orientation of the poultry 8, typically depending on the type of carrying conveyor 6 on which the poultry 8 will or should be suspended.

Returning to FIG. 2, which shows a free-standing imaging device 11 adjacent to the vision-guided robot 4, many embodiments require that the imager 11 be provided with a tracking element for tracking the poultry 8 after it has been captured by the vision-guided robot 4 Another option is to use an additional imaging device 13, which is preferably mounted on the vision-guided robot 4, as shown in FIG. 3. This can be particularly advantageous when controlling the movement of the vision-guided robot 4 by inducing it to accurately suspend the poultry 8 by the legs 8 in the corresponding carrier 6 of the carrying conveyor 5.

Embodiments of the present invention may include each combination of features disclosed herein independently of each other. Although the invention has been discussed above with reference to an exemplary embodiment of the method of the invention, the invention is not limited to this particular embodiment, which can be modified in many ways without departing from the invention. Therefore, the exemplary embodiment discussed should not be used to construe the attached claims in strict accordance with them. On the contrary, this embodiment is intended merely to clarify the language of the appended claims, without intending to limit the claims to this exemplary embodiment. Therefore, the scope of protection of the invention should be construed only in accordance with the attached claims, while possible ambiguity in the wording of the claims should be eliminated by this exemplary embodiment.

Variations and modifications of the present invention will be apparent to those skilled in the art, and the appended claims are intended to cover all such modifications and equivalents. Unless specifically stated above to be essential, none of the various components or their interrelationships are essential to the operation of the invention. Rather, the desired results can be achieved by replacing various components and/or reconfiguring their relationships with each other.

Optionally, embodiments of the present invention may include a general purpose or special purpose computer or distributed system programmed with computer software implementing the steps described above, wherein the computer software may be in any suitable computer language, including, but not limited to, C++, FORTRAN , ALGOL, BASIC, Java, Python, Linux, assembly language, microcode, race languages

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Claims (13)

limit programming, etc. The device may also include a plurality of such computers/distributed systems (eg, connected via the Internet and/or one or more intranets) in different hardware implementations. For example, data processing may be performed by an appropriately programmed microprocessor, a computing cloud, an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA), or the like. in combination with appropriate memory, network and bus elements. One or more processors and/or microcontrollers may operate through computer code instructions, and the software is preferably stored on one or more tangible non-temporary memory storage devices. CLAIM 1. A system for automatically hanging poultry (8) by the legs (8) on the carrier (6) of the carrying conveyor (5), containing a feed line (1) for the suspended poultry (8), and the system contains an image forming device (11 , 13) connected to the decision-making means (12) to process images of poultry (8) on the feed line (1) obtained from the image forming device (11, 13), and an image-guided robot (4) to capture poultry poultry (8) from the feed line (1) and hanging poultry (8) by the legs on the carrier (6) of the carrying conveyor (5), characterized in that a decision-making means (12) is provided for detecting and selecting poultry (8) with the breast (8') engaging the feed line (1), and controlling the vision-guided robot (4) to grasp such selected poultry (8) from the feed line (1) by engaging the poultry (8) by the legs (8) and subsequently hang the poultry (8) by the legs (8) on the carrier (6) of the carrying conveyor (5). 2. System according to claim 1, characterized in that the decision means (12) is provided to detect and select poultry (8) with a position different from the position in which the breast (8') engages the feed line (1), and to control the vision-guided robot (4) to move such selected poultry (8) so that the breast (8') engages the feed line (1), after which the decision making means (12) controls the vision-guided robot ( 4) to grab said poultry (8) from the feed line (1) by hooking the poultry (8) by the legs (8) and subsequently suspending the poultry (8) by the legs (8) on the carrier (6) of the carrying conveyor (5 ). 3. System according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that the feed line (1) is equipped with a feed station (3) for releasing a plurality of poultry (8) in an unorganized manner onto the feed line (1). 4. System according to claim 3, characterized in that the feeding station (3) is equipped to receive poultry (8) one after another or in containers (7), such as boxes. 5. The system according to claim 4, characterized in that the feed station (3) is equipped for releasing poultry (8) from containers (7) onto and through the transfer section (9) to the feed line (1), wherein the transfer section ( 9) is equipped with guide channels (10) to provide poultry (8) to the feed line (1) in separate lines or moving queues of poultry, preferably without contact with each other of neighboring poultry received on the feed line (1). 6. System according to any one of claims 1 to 5, characterized in that the decision maker (12) controls the vision-guided robot (4) to engage and grab the poultry (8) from the feed line (1) in a random orientation. 7. A system according to any one of claims 1 to 6, characterized in that the decision making means (12) controls the visually guided robot (4) to hang the captured poultry (8) by the legs (8) in a given orientation of the captured poultry along in relation to the carrier (6) of the carrying conveyor (5). 8. System according to any one of claims 1 to 7, characterized in that the decision-making means (12) controls the visually controlled robot (4) based on images of poultry (8), which are obtained from the image forming device (11, 13) . 9. System according to any one of claims 1 to 8, characterized in that the image forming device (13) is mounted on a visually controlled robot (4). 10. System according to any one of claims 7 to 9, characterized in that the predetermined orientation of the poultry (8) is one of the poultry breast (8') facing the carrier (6) and the poultry breast (8') , facing away from the carrier (6). 11. The system of claim 10, wherein the orientation of the breast is determined by detecting a characteristic poultry element such as a beak. 12. System according to any one of claims 7 to 11, characterized in that the decision making means (12) is provided for selecting a given orientation of the poultry (8) depending on the type of carrying conveyor (6) on which the poultry (8) will be or should be suspended. 13. Method for automatically hanging poultry on a carrier (6) of a carrying conveyor (5), containing -