EP3750125A1

EP3750125A1 - Device and method for preparing ingredients for at least one dish

Info

Publication number: EP3750125A1
Application number: EP19704781.4A
Authority: EP
Inventors: Mathias OTTITSCH; Michal RYCHARD; Anton DAIGELER; Ralph SIEGEL
Original assignee: Marley Spoon AG
Current assignee: MARLEY SPOON SE.
Priority date: 2018-02-09
Filing date: 2019-02-08
Publication date: 2020-12-16
Also published as: US20200394603A1; WO2019155009A1; AU2019219224A1

Abstract

According to the invention, a method is provided for preparing, in particular for assembling and packing, ingredients for at least one dish. This method comprises the following steps: - a reading-in step in which ordering data for a customer are read in, said ordering data comprising at least recipe data for the ingredients contained in the dish, and customer data; - an assigning step in which at least one ingredient container is assigned to predefined customer data; - a conveying step in which the ingredient container is conveyed to a transportation apparatus of a packaging line; - a positioning step in which at least one ingredient container is positioned in the region of a sorting station of the packaging line by means of the transportation apparatus, said sorting station having at least two ingredients or three or four or more ingredients held ready in corresponding ingredient compartments; - an indicating step in which it is indicated whether the ingredients are contained in the recipe data, by means of corresponding indicators of the ingredient container and the ingredient compartments; - a sorting step in which, if the ingredients are contained in the recipe data, the corresponding ingredient(s) of the sorting station are sorted into the ingredient container; - repeating and carrying out the positioning step, the indicating step and the sorting step until all ingredients contained in the recipe data are located in the ingredient container.

Description

Apparatus and method for providing ingredients for at least one dish

The present invention relates to an apparatus and a method for providing ingredients for at least one dish.

US 2007/0150375 A1 discloses a method and a device for the efficient dispensing of food. It is intended that customers online a meal, e.g. order at a restaurant. Using a server, the order is forwarded to a corresponding restaurant. It is envisaged that the restaurants bring the food to a mobile pick-up station, with the mobile pick-up station then positioning itself for a predetermined period of time near several customers so that they can pick up their meal.

EP 2 525 309 A1 discloses a stationary or mobile station for the provision of consumer goods, in particular fresh and frozen foodstuffs. In particular, a decentralized pick-up station is provided, which is designed to store commissioned shopping carts and issues a specific shopping basket to a correspondingly identified customer. The goods are provided in a central order-picking station by means of a largely automated logistics system which compiles shopping carts for end consumers from individual goods units. This picking system accesses a central warehouse and removes the ordered goods.

DE 10 2013 225 476 A1 provides a method and a system for improving an intelligent merchandise management.

From DE 20 2014 008 283 Ul an automated, needs-based food preparation and dispensing system should emerge. In this case, it is provided to have a customer compile a customized food dispensing package from a computer as required by a recording program and to output it via a food vending machine.

In DE 20 2015 103 841 Ul a goods depot for handling and / or distribution of goods is disclosed. It is envisaged that stored on shelves goods, for example by means of a To remove storage robot according to an order of a customer and then deliver an output to deliver it to a customer.

DE 697 23 007 T2 discloses a method and a device for providing meals and / or meal components. It is provided to store base products, pretreat them, which z. B. means that they are vacuum-packed, vacuum-cooked and then the cooked products are stored. Furthermore, some intermediate cooling processes can be provided.

WO 2009/120262 A1 discloses a system for preparing and packaging food. It is provided on the basis of an order, for. For example, in a restaurant using the system, a container may be fed to a conveyor belt and equipped with foodstuffs at successive stations. Corresponding intermediate steps in the food preparation can be outsourced in order to increase the efficiency.

EP 1 844 663 A1 discloses a method for preparing fresh foods.

DE 10 2008 056 541 A1 discloses a method and a system for producing a spittoon. In this case, it is intended to pre-portion uncooked ingredients according to the selection of a user and, if necessary, to cut them. These should then be individually packaged and then sent by the customer in a condition not yet prepared, ie not yet precooked or pre-fried. In this way, it should be possible for the customer to independently prepare a fresh food menu without having to buy it for themselves or portioning and / or chopping the ingredients. The order should be made on the basis of a corresponding menu selected by the customer. Furthermore, it is envisaged that raw ingredients should be portioned on the basis of a selection of an end user, wherein the portioning also takes place in accordance with the persons participating in a meal.

Furthermore, "paperless" picking methods, such as pick-by-light systems (in German as "picking for light") known. Instead of a picking or picking list, the order picker receives the articles and quantities to be picked or picked, via a light display arranged directly on the picking compartment. The term pick-by-light often uses the same terms Pick-to-Light or Pick-2-Light.

A pick-by-light compartment display usually consists of at least one widely visible eye-catching light and an acknowledgment button, via which the order picker confirms the removal and reports the stock change in real time to the warehouse management system. In most cases, the shelf displays also have a numeric or alphanumeric display to the Order pickers to display the removal quantity and, if necessary, additional information.

The term put-to-light refers to the reverse process to pick-by-light. In this case, the picker performs no removal, but a controlled by a light display storage of the item to be picked by. The same compartment displays are used as with a pick-by-light system.

Put-to-light systems are used in two-stage picking. For this purpose, several orders are first combined in a so-called "batch" (batch) and picked at the same time to save travel times and picking times.Then the articles are split into individual sales orders using the put-to-light system Sorting station is equipped with one or more racks equipped with shelves, the order picker then scans the items from the batch container one after the other, and the compartment display of the corresponding distribution tray lights up.The order picker can quickly and safely allocate and store the item.

Pick-by-light systems and put-to-light systems can also be combined for additional efficiency. For this purpose, a shelf display is again installed on the back of the put-to-light distribution shelves. This indicates to the packaging employee which of the distribution parts already contains all the articles associated with the order, that is to say that they have already been picked. For this purpose, the eye-catching light (for example in green) is switched on. The packer picks up the items and confirms this with the acknowledgment key. The eye-catching lamp goes off and the compartment is free for the next customer order.

Pick-by-light systems achieve their maximum efficiency with short running distances and high picking frequency per storage location. In the opposite case, for example, a spare parts store with long running distances and low picking frequency per storage location, mobile picking systems offer a suitable solution. For this purpose, standardized or customer-specific vehicles are equipped with a power supply, WLAN connection, user guidance and compartment displays.

The control software bundles a number of picking orders corresponding to the number of available trays on the picking vehicle. The order picker then "marries" the individual orders with the compartments on the vehicle.The order picker with the vehicle is guided via the operator guidance (visually via a display) from one removal point to the next, with the compartment displays on the vehicle showing the correct storage compartment and the The file is returned to the host system via the acknowledgment key, and the next removal point is displayed via the user prompting function, enabling a commissioner to execute several customer orders in a route-optimized trip. pick at the same time. The number of orders depends on the volume of the article and the execution of the picking vehicle.

In order to be able to exploit all the advantages of a pick-by-light system, the connection to the higher-level system (usually a warehouse management system or ERP program) is of vital importance. The order data must be transmitted quickly and securely, as well as the acknowledgment, correction or special function messages. The processes and processes must first be well-defined and usually customized.

The object of the present invention is to provide a method and a device by means of which a simple and efficient provision of ingredients for at least one dish is possible.

This object is solved by the features of the independent claims. Advantageous embodiments are specified in the dependent claims.

The present invention relates to a method for providing, in particular for distributing, ingredients at a plurality of loading stations of a packing line, wherein a plurality of sequentially arranged in a transport direction loading station are provided and at the placement stations each at least two or more ingredients (ZI to Zm) are kept, and wherein a predetermined assignment of the ingredients (ZI to Zm) for recipes (RI to Rn) is carried out according to order characteristics (Ol to Om), of which it is known with what frequency they are ordered, wherein

- the ingredients (ZI to Zm) of a part of the recipes (RI to Rn), which have a predetermined high frequency of orders, are first assigned to the equipping stations according to a first order feature, and

- these ingredients (ZI to Zm) are assigned according to a second order feature according to their weight descending in the transport direction to the several successively arranged placement stations, and

- Then the ingredients of the recipes with a lower frequency the placement stations are assigned according to predetermined order characteristics.

By evenly combining the ingredients of the most frequently ordered recipes, the most common ingredients are evenly distributed to the placement stations. This ensures that when gripping or picking the ingredients at the placement stations, they are gripped evenly at the individual placement stations, so that the packaging line is used very evenly or is utilized equally. Since a uniform distribution of all ingredients from all recipes is virtually impossible or at least the necessary computational effort is immense, the method according to the invention becomes a solution which is easy and quick to implement and, as a result, comes very close to an absolutely optimal solution. Because the subsequent assignment of the ingredients of the not so popular recipes can not always be carried out perfectly evenly, so that this results in an uneven utilization of the packing line. However, their influence is low because the low levels of ingredients of the less popular recipes are still reasonably evenly distributed and, on the other hand, are not as important in the farm as these ingredients are less often used than the ingredients of popular recipes.

The assignment can be quickly adapted to changing customer behavior. This is especially true when offering a new recipe that is very popular. With the method according to the invention can be reacted to this in no time.

An ingredient in the context of the present invention is a unit of an ingredient, i. understood a required amount of a food in a recipe. Accordingly, an ingredient may comprise a single piece of food (e.g., a pepper) or even two or more pieces of food (e.g., peas), or several different foods (e.g., greens) grouped together to form an ingredient unit.

The invention can also be combined with a device or with a method for pre-portioning foods. In particular, a cutting device for automatically cutting food in desired portions can be provided. In this regard, reference is made in full to the initially described DE 10 2008 056 541 A1.

Furthermore, a device for pre-portioning or automatic selection of Richti conditions size of the ingredients may be provided, which, for example, automatically ejects too large or too small portions of ingredients.

However, an ingredient can also be any other object, e.g. a holiday card or kitchen utensil used for the court. This can be, for example, a zucchini slicer for preparing zucchini noodles.

Two packs of the same ingredient, e.g. For example, for different portion sizes, two different ingredients can represent. In this way, it is avoided that an employee to adjust a serving size of the number of people must resort twice in the same ingredients tray to stock a corresponding ingredients container. This would be disadvantageous in terms of control of the equipment.

According to the first order feature (frequency) it is provided that a uniform distribution of the ingredients (ZI to Zm) of at least a part of the recipes (RI to Rn), which the frequent figste Number of orders to be placed on the assembly stations. The frequency of ordering individual recipes can be determined by evaluating order numbers. The order numbers can be determined by evaluating current order numbers for a specific time range, such as daily, weekly or monthly orders and / or based on older order numbers and / or on the basis of market research results or empirical studies.

In particular, this is intended to achieve that the ingredients of the recipes are distributed at the loading stations of the packing line in such a way that approximately the same number of picks p or picks per picking station is carried out. Thus, in the ideal case, an assembly is provided for each recipe at a placement station, whereby an efficient picking of the ingredients is possible.

First of all, therefore, the ingredients (ZI to Zm) of at least part of the recipes (RI to Rn) that have the most frequent number of orders are distributed evenly to the placement stations.

Equally means that for each placement station an equal number of ingredients of a recipe and preferably only a single ingredient of a recipe is arranged in an ingredient compartment such that the ingredients in the ingredient compartments of the placement station are distributed such that all employees along the packing line are approximately the same Number of picks or picks. In addition, a stable or even workload of the employees is achieved, which allows an effective and pleasant work. In this way, a high and stabi le clock rate is achieved in assembling and packaging the ingredients in the ingredient container.

The stocking quantity for all ingredient compartments is thus determined on the basis of the frequency of the orders of the respective recipes.

Thus, the placement of the ingredient compartments is determined by determining the most commonly used recipes. Then, the frequency with which each ingredient is used is assigned to the corresponding recipes. The ingredients of the recipes are then assigned to the placement stations. This starts with the ingredients of the recipe with the highest frequency.

The most frequently used recipes preferably comprise no more than 30% of the number of all prescriptions and preferably no more than 20% of the number of all prescriptions. Twice is referred to all recipes, please check

The portion of the recipes (RI to Rn) that have the most number of orders can contain 5 or 6 or 7 or 8 or 9 or 10 or 11 recipes. Since the total number of recipes that are available in principle can vary widely, it may also be appropriate to define the most common recipes by a percentage of the total number of all available recipes. The most common recipes, whose ingredients are distributed evenly to the placement stations, are therefore no more than 10% or 15% or 20% or 25% of all available recipes.

With particularly numerous ingredients used, it may also be appropriate to provide these in house in two or more placement stations.

According to the second order feature, arranging the ingredient units (ZI to Zm) according to their weight is provided on the several sequentially arranged loading stations according to their weight in descending direction in the transport direction. The weight of each ingredient is known.

By following the second order feature, damage to the individual ingredients is avoided, as the ingredients with the highest weight per "unit" are first packed in a suitable ingredient container, so the risk is much lower and the heavier ingredients lighter in weight due to their own weight to damage.

It is preferably provided that the weight of the ingredients contained in the sequentially arranged loading stations decreases in the transport direction. This means that ingredients with a higher weight, such as cans or the like, are placed first in the ingredient container so that the lighter ingredients, such as vegetables or the like, can not damage during transport and packaging.

Preferably, it is provided that in a placement station, the number of equations equal to the number of arranged in the region of this placement station and to be stocked ingredients container. In the optimal case, this means p = z in the area of a component placement station, where p indicates the number of components and z the number of component containers.

This ideal case is difficult to implement in reality. Therefore, preferably p +/- 1 = z.

This is called balanced timing.

Preferably, a clock rate t of about two seconds (s) to 5 s and preferably three seconds per placement or pick is provided. This means that a clock rate of three seconds per fixture and a buffer time of five seconds results in a total clock rate p * t + 5s = t _tot (total clock rate per fixture station). This means that the ingredients should be distributed to the loading stations in such a way that the packing line is efficiently stocked and in particular balanced clocking is achieved.

According to a third order feature, it is possible to arrange the same ingredients (ZI to Zm) of different recipes (RI to Rn) at the same placement station. What is the third order feature? Please check again.

Identical ingredients of different recipes can thus be provided at the same placement station in the same ingredients tray, whereby the number of necessary ingredient compartments can be kept low.

In this way, the efficiency of the method according to the invention is further increased, since fewer placement stations must be provided to provide the ingredients of all recipes, since the same ingredients of different recipes are arranged in the same ingredient compartment.

Thereafter, the ingredients of the recipe are assigned to the next lower frequency. This is repeated until the ingredients, for example, are assigned to all recipes. The allocation of the ingredients is carried out according to the rules explained above, with each ingredient being kept as possible only in a single ingredients compartment. However, this can not always be done.

The ingredients of the less frequently used recipes can be distributed by first checking whether an ingredient already exists in a loading station. Only if this is not the case, then the corresponding ingredient in an ingredient compartment is supplemented according to the above-described order characteristics in a corresponding placement station. In this way, ingredient compartments are saved and the efficiency of the process is increased. This allows assembly stations to be saved.

In addition, it can be provided that certain ingredients, such as birch trees, are summarized in advance to form a single unit and do not have to be removed individually in a loading station. In this way, fewer assembly steps are necessary and the loading of the ingredients container can be performed faster.

Optionally, further ordering features can be used to populate the ingredient compartments of the individual placement stations. If the gripping (= pecking) and depositing (= putting) of the ingredients is monitored with a camera, then it may be useful to provide ingredients that look similar, such as red tomatoes and red apples, at different placement stations. so that it is not necessary to distinguish between visually similar ingredients at a placement station. This facilitates automatic optical recognition and increases its reliability. Furthermore, the most common ingredients could be located in easily accessible areas. Ingredients that occur in almost every recipe, such as noodles or potatoes, should preferably be easily accessible to the employee.

Another relief would be for the employee if particularly heavy ingredients are also arranged in easily accessible areas, so that the employee can grab the ingredient with as little effort as possible.

Additionally and / or alternatively, a method for providing, in particular for assembling and packaging, ingredients for at least one dish may comprise the following steps:

a read-in step in the order data of a customer is read in, the order data comprising at least recipe data of the ingredients and customer data contained in a dish,

an association step in which at least one ingredient container is assigned to predetermined customer data,

a feed step in which the ingredient container is fed to a transport device of a packing line,

an arrangement step in which at least one ingredient container is arranged by means of the transport device in the region of a loading station of the packing line, wherein the loading station is provided with at least two ingredients or three or four or more ingredients in corresponding ingredient compartments;

a display step in which by means of appropriate displays of the ingredients container and the ingredient compartments is displayed, whether they are included in the recipe data,

- An assembly step, in which, if the ingredients are included in the recipe data, the ingredients container is equipped with the or the corresponding ingredients of the placement station,

- repeating and executing the arranging step, the displaying step and the fitting step, until all the ingredients contained in the recipe data are arranged in the ingredient container.

In the context of the present invention, picking means a handle of an employee with which a pre-portioned ingredient from the loading station or an ingredient compartment in the loading station is arranged in an ingredient container. In principle, the ingredients could also be supplied by machine to the ingredient container. However, the mechanical gripping of different, pre-portioned foods involves the risk that some of the food will be damaged. For example, it is very difficult to grab and deposit tomatoes without causing pressure sores. If with such a robotic arm other ingredients, such. B. red apples that look similar to tomatoes, However, much stronger, then the gripping becomes even more complex. Therefore, the ingredients containers are manually equipped with the inventive method. However, this does not mean that the ingredient containers need to be stocked manually only. It can also easy to handle ingredients such. For example, cans, noodle packs or the like can be machine-fed to the ingredient container. For this purpose, robot arms or other feed devices, such. For example, dispensers may be used to deliver cans or other low-sensitivity foods such as garlic.

The method according to the invention provides a high-frequency compilation and packaging of ingredients for one or more dishes.

The frequency is determined by the number of ingredient containers, the number of placement stations, the time for placement and the number of ingredient slots per placement station. The aim is to optimize the ingredient compartments according to the frequency that occurs in the recipes and their combinations (menu plans) in order to ensure the best possible, in particular uniform utilization of the placement stations, to minimize throughput times and thus to increase throughput maximize.

The reading step can, for example, be carried out directly from an enterprise resource planning (ERP system).

The display step may preferably be carried out by means of appropriate light or color coding of the ingredient container, for example by means of a pick-by-light device. A corresponding display device can have a plurality of display elements that are assigned to the individual ingredient compartments of the placement stations. The display elements may be designed to display specific colors, predetermined pictograms or predetermined strings. However, the display device can also be a projection device, which can illuminate the ingredients subjects individually. Such projection devices are z. For example, conventional video projector or laser pointer.

Furthermore, the loading of the individual ingredients containers can also be controlled with a corresponding display device (put-to-light device).

Preferably, the ingredient compartments or the ingredients held therein and the corresponding ingredients containers, which are to be equipped with this ingredient, with the same code (color, pictogram or string) are marked.

This considerably reduces the search time for an employee who bottles the ingredients, as he only has to bring the ingredients into the ingredient container marked with the same code using the code. Withdrawal or picking errors in the form of incorrectly picked items are thus virtually ruled out. Likewise, the risk of picking mistakes in the form of overlooked ingredients is considerably reduced.

Due to the low susceptibility to error in the removal of the ingredients from the ingredient compartments and the placement of the ingredients container according to the method according to the invention also results in a higher customer satisfaction and there are fewer returns.

In this way, the ingredients can be put together extremely efficiently and quickly.

In addition, due to the simplicity of the process, an employee only needs an extremely short learning time, which also results in a high level of personnel flexibility.

Due to the associated greatly reduced order or order throughput times, the method can be performed with a relatively high clock rate and also cost.

In this way, the error rate when assembling the ingredients in the ingredients container is minimized and a high cycle rate is possible.

With the method according to the invention, flexible serial production of ingredient containers containing ingredients for a corresponding dish is thus possible.

The number of possible dishes that can be mass-produced depends directly on the ingredients provided on the packing line. A dish that can be made with the ingredients provided can be produced with the same productivity, regardless of the number of units, since no recipe-specific set-up times are required.

In this way, an efficient timing is possible, so that such a packing line over known packaging lines is designed to be about twice to four times more productive.

In a closure step can be provided to close the ingredients container by sewing, welding or gluing or the like. In this way, the food is protected during transport.

Optionally, in the closing step, the ingredient container could be filled shortly before sealing with an inert gas, such as nitrogen (N ₂ ) or carbon dioxide (C0 ₂ ). This increases the shelf life of the food. For example, a protective gas atmosphere could also be maintained by adding dry ice. This would have the further advantage that the ingredients are cooled. Ralph Why do not we use dry ice? In a packaging step, the ingredient container can be packed in a transport packaging in order to then transmit this to a customer. Thus, the ingredients can be shipped immediately after completion of the procedure.

It can preferably be provided that the read-in step is repeated at least two or three and preferably four times or even several times with further order data so that two or three and preferably four ingredient containers are loaded simultaneously in each of the loading stations of the packing line. The read-in step may also include the simultaneous or synchronous or else a temporally offset reading in of several order data.

The read-in step can be triggered by reading an appropriate marking on an ingredient supplied to the transport means container, so that in each case the order data are read in to the supplied ingredients container. On the other hand, the order data can also contain the ingredients z. B. be kept using an RFID card and read directly from the ingredients containers.

On the other hand, ingredient containers can be supplied, each of which has a specific, in particular machine-readable, license plate, this license plate being read and then the license plate being provided with the order data stored in the system. With such a method, a few different markings suffice to obtain and maintain a clear association between the order data and the ingredients. The labels on the ingredient containers can easily repeat regularly or irregularly.

Furthermore, it can be provided that, after the allocation step, a control step is carried out, in which the customer information of the ingredient containers is checked to see whether the correct ingredient containers have been supplied to the system in accordance with the order. For this, the ingredients containers with appropriate characteristics, such. ID numbers.

The ingredients are already pre-portioned in the ingredient compartments for one dish for one and preferably for two or more persons.

Along the packing line one or more successive loading stations B or one to x, where x is the number of loading stations, can be arranged along a transport direction.

Furthermore, it can be provided that the ingredient containers are detected at the individual loading stations in a detection step. For this purpose, receiving sections for receiving the ingredients container can be provided on the transport device. Each receiving section may be provided with a QR code.

The corresponding ingredient containers may be provided with ID numbers. These are linked to the QR codes of the recording sections.

In this way, each ingredient container and in particular its position can be detected during the process.

In the following, rules are shown which underlie the method according to the invention in advantageous embodiments.

1. Preferably, a recipe should not contain more ingredients than placement stations are provided in the packing line to avoid Doppelbestückungen that would involve only with great effort in the process and detect. Under a Doppelbestü- ckung twice the gripping is understood _ges in a ingredients compartment of a loading station within the overall clock rate t.

2. The number of recipes should normally be greater than the number of ingredient compartments per feed station. This is possible because several recipes always have an intersection of common ingredients.

3. The filling of the ingredient compartments of Bestückungsstationen is preferably such that the arranged at the beginning of the packing line picking stations or their ingredients compartments are equipped with heavier ingredients and decreases the weight of the ingredients in the transport direction along the packing line in the ingredient compartments. In this way, it is avoided that heavier ingredients, e.g. Canned tomatoes, damage lighter weight ingredients by their own weight.

4. Furthermore, it is preferably provided to distribute the often needed and the little needed ingredients evenly across the placement stations in the packing line. In this case, it can also be provided that the ingredients, which are needed more frequently and the ingredients which have a higher weight, are arranged in the ingredient compartments lying downwards in the vertical direction, so that an employee can quickly grasp them in order to obtain the corresponding ingredients - to equip containers.

5. At a placement station, the number of picks per total cycle may preferably correspond to the number of ingredient containers or the number of ingredient containers +/- 1. 6. Furthermore, an average frequency of the recipes or the recipes to be selected (ZI, Z2 ... Zn) may be known. This, like 1. to 5., helps to balance out the ingredient compartments of the placement stations.

7. In addition, additional ingredient compartments may be provided to place certain ingredients, which are more commonly needed, in multiple placement stations to accommodate the portion size.

8. Ingredients of the same type but different serving sizes are considered as different ingredients and are each to be arranged in separate ingredient compartments.

Furthermore, according to the invention, a method for the optical detection of ingredients in a packing line is provided, wherein the packing line comprises a plurality of loading stations arranged successively in a transport direction and a transport device arranged along the loading stations for moving ingredient containers along the transport direction, and wherein at least two or more ingredients (ZI to Zm) are kept at the placement stations, and wherein the placement stations are scanned with at least one camera and an image is generated, and the image is analyzed by means of optical object recognition in order to obtain a gripped ingredient recognize.

In the context of the present invention, a pattern representing an ingredient object is described by a list with several features of the optical representation of an ingredient. This list of features forms a feature vector.

Feature vectors facilitate automatic classification because they systematize the properties to be classified.

In the context of the present invention, an ingredient object is understood to be the data-technical description of the ingredients. This comprises an identification for the respective object, as e.g. their respective designation (e.g., tomato, cucumber, banana, noodles) and a corresponding characteristic pattern described by a feature vector. A characteristic pattern is determined from a variety of patterns of ingredients, for example, by averaging or otherwise selecting the patterns typical of that ingredient.

In the context of the present invention, a characteristic pattern can be created for the ingredient "apple", but it is also possible to create characteristic patterns for individual apple varieties which are substantially more specific a certain group of ingredients as well as for subgroups of these particular groups of ingredients. A position of the ingredient object can be determined in the images captured by the camera, whereby the direction of the ingredient object can be determined on the basis of this position in the image, the focal length or the magnification and the position and viewing direction of the camera.

In this way, the direction of the location of the gripped ingredient with respect to the camera can be determined.

Furthermore, at least two images can be generated simultaneously with at least two cameras, wherein the two cameras form a stereo camera, so that the coordinates of the ingredient object are determined by means of triangulation.

According to one embodiment, for example, the position of the accessory object in the images captured by the camera can be determined from these image pairs, and the location can be determined on the basis of these positions, the viewing directions, the focal lengths or the image scales and the positions of the cameras of the ingredient object. The location can be determined by the intersection of the directions of the ingredient object.

In addition, a plurality of image pairs of a stereo camera can be recorded spaced apart from one another and the spatial coordinates of the ingredient object can be determined on the basis of these image pairs so that the space-time coordinates of the ingredient objects are known for the individual image pairs.

Temporally spaced means that the images are taken at a different time.

In principle, it is also possible to determine the spatial coordinates of the ingredient object by means of a single camera (direction) and a distance measuring device, such. B. with an ultrasonic sensor. However, the use of multiple stationary cameras alone as a sensor is preferred because they are much less prone to errors and require less maintenance because there are no moving parts. In addition, the cameras can scan a relatively large area of a packing line.

A gripping element can be used with a predetermined mark, wherein the marking of the gripping element is detected. The gripping element may be the arm of an operator gripping the ingredient. Within the scope of the invention, the gripping element can also be a robot arm.

Such a marking can be formed by an easily recognizable "pattern", for example transverse and / or longitudinal strips on the sleeve of an employee, preferably with color markings his. Preferably, easy-to-detect colors are provided, ie colors as possible in the monitored area by clothing employees, ingredients objects and machinery or equipment not occurrence, such as unusual signal colors in yellow, green, orange, purple, etc.

The signal colors are colors that are not otherwise present in the environment of the packing station.

The methods described above relate to the loading of ingredient container. The individual process steps of these processes can be combined with one another as far as is technically expedient.

According to a further aspect of the present invention, a device for providing ingredients for at least one dish is provided. This includes:

a transport device,

a plurality of placement stations arranged successively along the transport means in a transport direction, wherein at least two ingredients and preferably at least four ingredients are held in a placement station,

a position determination device for determining the position of the ingredient container with respect to the placement stations,

- A display device which marks a predetermined by a recipe ingredient of the placement station when the ingredients container is located at the corresponding placement station.

With this device, there is a coordinated display of the ingredient to be gripped and transporting the corresponding ingredient container. This allows for an efficient filling of the ingredient containers with ingredients.

Furthermore, transport containers can be provided in which ingredient containers are arranged,

wherein a separate cooling ingredient container is provided for the cooling transport device, which is equipped with cooled ingredients at the cooling loading station,

wherein a separate ingredient container is provided for the transport device, which is equipped at the loading station with uncooled ingredients, and wherein the cooling ingredient container and the ingredient container are arranged in a transport container.

Furthermore, a freezing line can be provided with a freeze transport device and with a plurality of picking stations arranged successively along the freeze transport device in a transport direction, wherein at least two or more ingredients are held in each picking station and the freezing line is formed separately or as a part of the cooling line. The transport device and / or the cooling transport device and / or the freezer transport device can extend along a linear transport direction or extend along branched transport directions.

Preferably, it can be provided that cooled protein ingredients, such as milk or meat, in a separate packing line, the cooling and / or freezing line, the ingredients container or preferably the transport packaging are supplied. Protein ingredients can be protected with thermal insulation, in particular an insulated packaging.

In particular, several packing lines or production lines according to the invention can be combined with one another in order, for example, to pack protein ingredients (meat, fish, milk products, etc.) from a cooling device or another cooled packing line into a separate insulating package (Woolcool or the like with cooling package) , which is then populated like an accessory container.

The ingredient compartments for chilled ingredients, such as As protein ingredients, may be arranged in a cold room. Adjacent to the refrigerator, the transport device is arranged. In the area of the ingredient compartments, openings are provided in the cold room, so that the ingredients can be picked out of the ingredient compartments. In the area of these openings, an air curtain, a curtain formed of cords or ribbons may be provided to minimize the exchange of air between the cool air of the cold room and the warmer air of the adjoining room in which the conveyor is located.

In a transport packaging can then be a, preferably reusable, Isolierverpackung with protein ingredients for one or more dishes, for example, two, preferably reusable, contain ingredients containers.

Furthermore, printed prescription descriptions for the dishes contained therein can be arranged in the transport container.

In particular, a computer system or a control device is provided which receives the order from the customer and accordingly drives the packing line.

Furthermore, additionally and / or alternatively a device is provided for providing ingredients for at least one dish, which can preferably be combined with the device described above. This device comprises a read-in device for reading in order data of a customer, a transport device, several loading stations arranged along the transport device in a transport direction, at least two ingredients and preferably at least four ingredients being present in one loading station Position determining device for determining the position of the ingredient container with respect to the placement stations, a display device which marks an ingredient of the placement station predetermined by a recipe when the ingredients container is located at the corresponding placement station.

The above-indicated advantages of the method according to the invention apply analogously to the device according to the invention and are therefore not listed again at this point.

The display device may comprise a pick-by-light device and / or a put-by-light device and / or the display device may have a plurality of respective display elements associated with an ingredient compartment of the placement station, in particular for displaying predetermined colors and / or predetermined pictograms and / or predetermined strings, and / or the display device may comprise a projection device with which the ingredient compartments of the placement station can be illuminated individually.

Furthermore, the position determination device can have one or more sensors in order to determine the position of the respective ingredient containers in the region of each placement station, and / or have one or more sensors in order to

to recognize an ingredient while gripping it by means of automatic image analysis,

- to check the quality of an ingredient using automatic image analysis,

- to determine the space-time coordinates of a seized ingredient.

The position of each ingredient container with respect to the transport device can be determined at least once and more positions along the transport device can be determined by a controlled transport of the ingredients container.

In addition, a removal detection device can be provided to detect removal of the accessories from ingredient compartments at the placement stations.

The removal detection device may comprise a proximity sensor, in particular a capacitive proximity sensor, and / or a camera.

Furthermore, a placement detection device may be provided to detect a loading of the ingredient container with ingredients at the placement stations.

The assembly detection device may comprise a proximity sensor, in particular a capacitive proximity sensor, and / or a camera. In particular, an optical monitoring device can be provided with one or more cameras and an evaluation device with which one or more of the following actions can be detected:

- taking an ingredient out of an ingredient tray,

- equipping one of the ingredient containers,

Positioning one of the ingredient containers along the conveyor,

Recognition of an ingredient while gripping it by means of automatic image analysis,

- checking the quality of an ingredient using automatic image analysis,

- Determination of the space-time coordinates of a gripped ingredient and / or one of the ingredient containers.

The optical monitoring device can have a module for recognizing the individual ingredients and / or for recognizing the ingredient containers.

The monitoring device may comprise a machine learning system, such as e.g. a neural network, in order to learn in particular patterns of the individual ingredients.

The evaluation device can be provided with a module with which the actual stocking is compared with a predetermined stock of the respective ingredients container and in the event of a deviation a message is issued or a predetermined action is initiated.

This means that with a single monitoring system, both the extraction of the ingredients from the ingredient compartments and the stocking of the ingredient containers as well as the positioning of the ingredient containers can be recorded and evaluated. With such an optical monitoring system it is thus possible to detect which ingredients are in which ingredient container.

The device may have a monitoring module for determining the ingredient and / or the coordinates of the ingredient by means of automatic image analysis, wherein this monitoring module is coupled to a trigger module and / or a control device for driving the display device such that either when detecting a gripping action The monitoring module is started by the trigger module and / or when marking an ingredient to be gripped by the display device.

The automatic image analysis can cause a considerable need for computing capacity. The fact that the monitoring module is triggered on a gripping process, the required computing capacity can be significantly reduced and it can simultaneously several monitoring modules are operated to monitor several Bestückungsstationen. The monitoring module can detect the individual ingredients and / or the ingredients container, for example. With a pattern comparison.

Such a monitoring module can be used as a machine-learning system, such. As a neural network, be formed. Such a machine-learning system can teach the individual ingredients once, so that the optical monitoring module then automatically recognizes the ingredients each time they come into the field of view of the camera.

Preferably, for the users of this device, a garment is provided which has one or more markings on the sleeves, which are easily recognizable by machine. If this mark is included in the image captured by the camera, then the pattern recognition module can easily determine the area of the image in which the ingredient is located so that the analysis of the pattern recognition module can be concentrated thereon.

The device may have a plurality of cameras with which a respective monitoring cell of a placement station is scanned. The monitoring cell comprises the region of the transport device at the placement station and ingredient compartments arranged at the placement station, the cameras being arranged such that sections of the respective surveillance cells are scanned by at least two cameras each. On the one hand, this allows the determination of the spatial coordinates of the detected object, whereby the two cameras are used like a stereo camera. On the other hand, the ingredient can still be detected and identified even if the ingredient is hidden from the viewing direction of one of the two cameras, since it can be detected with the other camera.

The cameras which are provided for providing the image data for the automatic image analysis are preferably stationary cameras and / or cameras with a fixed focal length. Stationary cameras, especially with a fixed focal length, are very low maintenance because there are no moving parts.

The monitoring device can be connected to the control device such that the monitoring device in the automatic image analysis, the information is available with which ingredients the respective placement station is filled and / or which ingredient is marked with the display device, this information in the image analysis with be - is considered. This information can be taken into account, for example, such that a comparison of the detected pattern takes place only with the ingredient objects of which the corresponding ingredients are present at the placement station or the ingredient object that corresponds to the ingredient that is to be grasped. This considerably reduces the number of comparisons, thus saving computing power and making detection much faster and more reliable. The monitoring device can have a selection module which receives the image data of the individual cameras and for the monitoring modules, which are each assigned to a placement station or monitoring cell, selects if necessary, filters and / or preprocessing, and forwards them to the monitoring modules , By selecting only image data are passed that show at least a portion of a monitoring cell, which is to be monitored by the respective monitoring module. The image data can also be reduced by reducing the number of images of the respective image data stream and / or creating a section and merely forwarding this section. This ensures efficient forwarding and processing of the image data streams.

The evaluation device can be provided with a module with which the actual population is compared with a predetermined population of the respective ingredients container. In the event of a deviation, a message can be output. It can also be caused a predetermined action in case of a deviation, such. For example, an incorrectly loaded ingredient container is removed and the loading of the corresponding job is restarted.

The loading step in a loading station can be checked by means of corresponding sensors in an ingredient detection step. For this purpose, a camera is preferably provided with or without a motion sensor for a removal detection device, which detect whether the correct ingredient and / or the correct quantity of ingredients for an accessory container have actually been removed from the placement station. Alternatively and much less reliably, motion sensors for the removal detection device can also be provided.

By means of such a removal detection step in the individual placement stations, the clock rate of the ongoing process can also be adapted to prevent accessory containers, which are not yet fully packed, from being removed from a placement station and already being supplied to the next placement station.

By means of such a removal detection step, a direct feedback can also be given to a warehouse management system in order to confirm the withdrawal, to stock up stocks and ingredient compartments of a placement station and, if necessary, to make corrections in the event of a defect.

As explained above, the removal detection device can have a movement or proximity sensor, which is designed in particular as a capacitive proximity sensor. The removal detection device can also have a camera with which the corresponding ingredients are optically detected. It can also be provided an assembly detection device to detect the loading of the ingredients container with ingredients at the placement stations. The assembly detection device may in turn comprise a proximity sensor, in particular a capacitive proximity sensor, and / or a camera.

Preferably, an association device can be provided for associating at least one ingredient container with customer data, wherein the association device is an identification device, such as a printing device for printing a machine-readable code, or a storage device for storing the customer data in one with the accessory container connected or connectable machine-readable memory or is a detection device which reads a label attached to the ingredient container and assigns the se certain customer data.

In a preferred embodiment, however, only cameras are provided to monitor the gripping (= picking) and / or putting (= putting) of the ingredients. With the cameras many aspects can be monitored simultaneously, e.g. the identification of the gripped ingredients, their movement during gripping and depositing, the correct placement of the ingredient containers, quality control and the movement of the ingredient containers. In addition, the data recorded here can be stored in a merchandise management system, e.g. for automatic orders of ingredients. The cameras form a very reliable, precise, versatile and permanently functioning sensor system. You can even barcode the ingredients or identify them on the packing trays. Therefore, no further sensors are necessary.

In addition, a control device may be provided after the last loading station in the transport direction in order to check the contents of the respective ingredients container, wherein the control device is preferably a balance.

One or more placement stations may include cooling means for cooling ingredients or foods and / or fumigants for gassing ingredients or foodstuffs with nitrogen or carbon dioxide.

An assembly station can have several ingredient compartments arranged side by side and one above the other.

According to a particularly preferred aspect of the present invention, a system for providing ingredients for at least one dish is provided. Such a system comprises at least two devices which are designed in accordance with the device shown above, wherein each device is designed to equip an ingredient container and a packaging device for automatic packaging of the ingredients assigned to a dish ingredient is provided in a common transport packaging.

Such a system may include a second device, e.g. comprise a cooled packing line for protein ingredients, which is for example arranged mirrored to the first packing line in such a way that a "marriage" or a combination of the ingredients and the cooled protein ingredients takes place in the area of the packaging device.

The present invention will be explained in more detail below with reference to FIGS. This show in:

According to a further aspect of the present invention, a method for monitoring piece goods on a transport device is provided, wherein each element of the piece goods is provided with a specific identification marker. The number of different identification markers is limited and the order in which the different identification markers are provided on the individual elements of the piece goods is maintained. The method comprises the following steps:

Detecting the identification markers with at least one camera from a sequence of successive elements of the piece good, and

Identifying at least one of the elements whose identification marker has been detected based on a comparison of the identification markers of the detected sequence with the reserved order of identification markers.

Because the identification markers are detected by a sequence of successive elements of the piece goods with a camera, this sequence of identification marks can be determined in the reserved order of identification markers with which the identification markers are applied to the elements of the piece good , As a result, the sequence can be uniquely identified in a sequence of elements of the article that is substantially larger than the sequence, and if the sequence is uniquely identified, the individual element can also be uniquely identified.

The reserved order of identification markers is preferably designed so that a sequence with a predetermined number of identification markers occurs only once. However, this does not mean that the individual identification markers need only be included once. These may be provided several times in the reserved order, but may each be contained in different sequences. This makes it possible to clearly mark and identify a significantly larger number of elements with a relatively small number of identification markers. If the approximate location of the sequence of elements from which the identification markers are detected is determined on the basis of the cameras and their viewing direction, then taking into account this location, a specific sequence can be used several times along the transport device as long as a certain minimum distance between the individual identical sequences are maintained in the reserved order, so that by taking into account the location of the sequence on the transport device, the corresponding location in the reserved order of identification markers can be limited. This detected location can thus be used to eliminate ambiguity. It suffices for this to grasp the place very roughly. Since the position and the viewing direction of the cameras is usually known, the location they capture is usually known. If several cameras are arranged along the transport device, the camera with which the parcel has been scanned can already suffice as an indication of location as a location.

Since the number of identification markers can be kept small, relatively simple identification markers can be used, which can be easily and reliably identified from a long distance by means of a camera. These identification markers can be, for example, different colors or line elements. The lines have, for example, a line thickness of at least 3 mm, preferably at least 4 mm or at least 5 mm. Such line thicknesses or point sizes can be detected reliably by means of commercially available cameras from a relatively long distance (for example 5 m) without the need for special lenses.

Preferably, each identification marker of the reserved order is assigned an identi cation number for identifying one of the elements of the piece good. Based on the water identification number, the respective element of the piece good can then be identified and, if necessary, with further information, such as. linked to a specific order or recipe.

This method can be used in combination with the above-described method for providing ingredients and / or with the above-described device for providing ingredients, wherein the ingredient containers form the elements of the piece goods, which are to be monitored or identified while being transported along the transport.

FIG. 1 shows a flowchart of a method according to the invention for providing ingredients for at least one dish,

Figure 2 is a schematic representation of a device according to the invention for providing ingredients for at least one dish FIG. 3 shows a schematic representation of a further embodiment of a device according to the invention for providing ingredients for at least one dish,

FIG. 4 shows a schematic illustration of a monitoring software according to the invention, which is formed from a plurality of modules,

FIG. 5 a schematic representation of monitoring cells of a packing line with the cameras attached thereto,

FIG. 6 shows a schematic illustration of a monitoring software according to the invention designed for a single monitoring cell from a plurality of modules, and

FIG. 7 shows a flow diagram of a method according to the invention for the optical monitoring of ingredients.

In the following, a device 1 according to the invention for providing, in particular for assembling and packaging, ingredients for dishes will be described with reference to an exemplary embodiment (FIG. 2).

The device 1 comprises a detection device (not shown) which receives, analyzes and evaluates orders placed by customers, for example on the Internet on a web page. For this purpose, the detection device has at least one corresponding interface.

The detection device then transmits order data, which comprise the recipe data and the customer data, to a control device (not shown) of the device 1.

In addition, the detection means is adapted to provide a corresponding machine-readable coding such as e.g. create a QR code, a bar code, an RFID card. The code contains the information or data on the ingredients contained in the court ordered.

Alternatively, this information can also be forwarded to the production line by means of the control device even without a QR code, for example by scanning information applied to ingredient containers by means of this information or ordering data to drive the device.

Furthermore, an allocation device is provided. The allocation device is designed to allocate the corresponding customer data to at least one or more ingredient containers. The allocation device can have a marking device, such as, for example, a printing device for printing a machine-readable code, so that the corresponding assignments of the customer data on the ingredient container can be read on the ingredient container with a corresponding reading device.

Additionally and / or alternatively, the allocation means may be implemented as a storage means, e.g. RFID chip, be formed for storing the customer data in a connected to the ingredient container or connectable machine-readable memory.

Additionally and / or alternatively, the allocation device can be designed as a detection device which reads a label attached to the ingredient container 17 and assigns the specific customer data to this identification.

The detection device is arranged, for example, in the area in front of a first loading station 7 of the packing line 6, which checks the ingredient containers 17 as to whether the correct ingredient containers 17 have been supplied to the packing line 6.

By means of a labeling device 2 ingredients container 17 are marked with the customer data in the form of ID numbers. This is done by printing and sticking a Eti kett on the respective ingredients container 17. The label can be used later for closing the container 17 ingredients. The customer data or information include, for example, the name and address of the customer, the date of the order, the desired delivery date, etc. This marking device is part of the above-described allocation device.

The ingredients container 17 may, for example, be designed as paper bags or as recyclable plastic container.

Furthermore, a feed device 3 is provided for feeding the ingredient containers 17 to a transport device 4. The feeder 3 is optional and may be a conveyor or robotic device. The feeding of the ingredient container 17 to the transport device 4 can also be carried out manually.

The transport device 4 is preferably designed as a conveyor belt to transport the ingredients container 17 in a transport direction 5 along a packing line 6 or to promote.

The transport device 4 has receiving sections for receiving the ingredient container 17 for receiving an ingredient container 17. Each recording section is provided with a QR code. Such a receiving section is formed, for example, as a stable transport tray. The transport device may be a belt conveyor or a conveyor belt or else a roller conveyor or a roller or ball track or a pneumatic conveyor.

These QR codes of the intake sections are linked to the ID numbers of the ingredients container 17.

The packing line 6 comprises, for example, ten loading stations 7 arranged successively along the transport device 4 in the transport direction 5. The loading station is a shelf with ingredient compartments in which the ingredients are held, and a corresponding section of the transport device in the area of the shelf. In Fig. 2, the packing line 6 is shown in two sections for ease of graphical representation. In reality it is a single packing line 6.

In the present embodiment, four ingredient containers 17 can be arranged by means of the transport device 4 by means of the transport device 4 in the region of each placement station 7 at the same time.

In the loading station 7, for example, twelve ingredient compartments 8 are formed on a shelf. In the individual ingredient compartments 8 different foods or pre-portioned ingredients for a particular recipe, preferably in exchangeable inserts, arranged or held. An insert is, for example, a receptacle for an open-topped box. The ingredient compartments 8 are, for example, arranged in three rows, each with four ingredient compartments 8.

The shelves are, for example, designed as gravity racks. In a shelving system of this kind, a gravity drain of the goods is used. The flow of the products can be controlled by the appropriately chosen storage racks built from the gravity racks. An advantage of such shelves is effective utilization of the storage area as well as the possibility of using the shelves for storing both heavy and light loads.

Each placement station 7 has a display device 9, which preferably comprises a pick-by-light device 18 and a put-by-light device 19. The display device is designed to mark an ingredient or an ingredient compartment of the stocking station predetermined by a recipe when the ingredient container 17 is located at the corresponding stocking station.

As an alternative to the put-by-light device 19, the ingredients container 17 can also be identified by means of corresponding stickers or the like. Furthermore, it is also possible to identify the receiving sections or transport shells of the transport device. One each of the receiving section may, for example, be adapted to a predetermined number of Zu-. to take up containers 17. The corresponding places for receiving each one of the ingredients containers are provided with a mark corresponding to the mark, which is generated by the put-by-light device. So the ingredient container itself must not be marked. The markings on the reusable receiving sections may be permanently attached thereto.

The display device 9 is designed such that the ingredients container 17 by means of the put-by-light device 19 with four different colors indicate or mark or mark and the recipe data are evaluated by the controller so that the ingredient compartments by means of the pick-by-light device 18 are displayed in such color or marked or marked that an employee is displayed in color, which ingredients are to be arranged in the corresponding ingredient containers 17.

Alternatively and / or additionally, the display device may comprise a plurality of respective display elements assigned to an ingredient compartment of the placement station or arranged thereon, which display elements are designed in particular for displaying predetermined colors and / or predetermined pictograms and / or predetermined strings. Corresponding markings can also be provided on the ingredient containers 17 and / or the receiving sections of the transport device. The display elements may be small screens, e.g. LCD or OLED screens, or have light-emitting diodes.

Alternatively and / or additionally, the display device may also comprise a projection device with which the ingredient compartments of the placement station can be illuminated individually. Such a projection device is relatively expensive, but can be used to mark several ingredient compartments simultaneously.

In addition, a removal detection device 10 is provided in each placement station 7, which, for example, comprises two sensors (not shown) per ingredient compartment in order to detect the grasping movement of the employee into the ingredient compartment. In this way, it is checked whether an employee has also taken the appropriate ingredients from the ingredient compartments 8. It is then assumed that the employee has arranged the corresponding ingredient in the indicated ingredient container 17.

The removal detection device can each have a proximity sensor, in particular a capacitive proximity sensor, a light barrier and / or one or more cameras.

Furthermore, an optical monitoring device with one or more cameras and an evaluation device is provided with which one or more of the following actions can be detected: - taking an ingredient out of an ingredient tray,

- equipping one of the ingredient containers 17,

- Positioning of the ingredient container 17 along the transport device.

The optical monitoring device has a pattern recognition module for recognizing the individual ingredients and / or for recognizing the ingredient containers 17.

The evaluation device can be provided with a module, with which the actual Bestück- is compared with a predetermined population of the respective ingredients container 17 and output a message or a predetermined action is initiated in case of deviation.

In the transport direction, an optical monitoring device 11 is preferably provided after or in the region of each placement station in order, for example, to detect the QR codes of the receiving sections. Thus, for example, the position of each ingredient container 17 can easily be tracked since the QR codes are linked to the ID numbers of the ingredient containers 17 as long as they are arranged on the receiving portions.

One or more of the placement stations 7 may be provided with cooling means to cool the ingredients held therein.

One or more of the placement stations 7 may be equipped with gassing devices to keep the ingredients held therein fresh by means of gas, for example, carbon dioxide or nitrogen.

Furthermore, a control device is provided according to the last loading station in the transport direction in order to check the contents of the respective ingredient container, wherein the control device is preferably a balance.

In the transport direction 5, a closure device 13 for closing the ingredient container 17 is provided at the end of the packing line 6. The closing can be done, for example, by gluing, gluing the labels, sewing, welding, etc. The closure device is accordingly a welding device for welding plastic bags, and / or a sewing device for sewing bags and / or an adhesive device.

In the transport direction 5, after the closure device, a packaging device is provided to package the ingredient containers 17 in transport containers. In particular, according to the invention, a system is provided for providing ingredients for at least one dish, wherein the system comprises at least two or more devices in the manner of the device described above. Each device is designed for loading at least one ingredient container 17 and the packaging device for automatically packaging the food container 17 associated with a dish is then provided to package the ingredients 17 in a common transport packaging.

According to a not shown and particularly advantageous embodiment, it is provided that a further device is a protein packing line independent of the packing line 6, which has cooling devices and in which perishable protein ingredients, such as milk or meat, are put together.

These protein ingredients can be isolated with a suitable insulating packaging, for example with so-called Wool-Cool-Packs and provided a cooling element and the ingredients container 17 in the area of a packaging device 14 in a transport container 20 are merged.

In this transport container 20 then put together in the packing line 6 in the ingredients container 17 and the protein ingredients are arranged.

In addition, a further final control device 16 is provided to check, for example by scanning the corresponding bar codes, that one or more ingredient containers 17 are arranged in the correct transport container with the corresponding order data according to a predetermined customer order.

For shipping food, it is common today to use cooling elements. These cooling elements are disposable or reusable cooling elements which are filled with a cooling liquid or a cooling gel. However, a cooling element may also be a cooling container for receiving dry ice. This cooling container has walls with a thermal insulation layer, wherein preferably one cooling wall is less thermally insulated than the other walls. This cooling wall dissipates the cold of the dry ice to the outside. The cooling container has one or more openings through which the C0 ₂ gas formed during sublimation of the dry ice can escape. An atmosphere of enriched C0 ₂ causes further delayed aging in some foods.

The cooling container may, for example, be formed from a particle foam (for example, ePS, ePP), since such a particle foam part can be produced cost-effectively and, moreover, can be insulated with excellent thermal insulation. The cooling wall may be formed of another material, such as an injection molded plastic part, which is thin-walled, stable and, in comparison with the particle Foam conducts much more heat. Such a cooling container can be used repeatedly in a reusable system.

The ingredients container 17 should have a certain gas permeability when using dry ice to avoid overpressure.

In the following, a method according to the invention for providing or for assembling and packaging ingredients for dishes is described (FIG. 1).

It is envisaged that the ingredients in the ingredient compartments of the loading stations should be displayed in such a way that food that is required frequently or in many dishes is evenly distributed over the individual packing stations of the packing line. Among other things, this contributes to the fact that not one employee has to continuously fill all ingredient containers and other employees rarely have to equip them.

In particular, it is provided that the placement stations of the packing line are designed such that it is ensured over a wide range of recipes that in approximately an equal number of populations p or picks per assembly station is performed. Thus, in the ideal case, an assembly is provided for each recipe at a placement station.

This means that it is preferably provided that in a placement station the number of components equals the number of components arranged and to be loaded in the region of this assembly station. In the optimal case, this means p = z in the region of a placement station, where p indicates the number of components and z the number of ingredient containers.

This ideal case is difficult to implement in reality. Therefore, p +/- 1 = z. This is called a ba- lanced clocking.

Preferably, a clock rate t of about two seconds (s) to 5 s and preferably three s per placement or pick is provided. At a clock rate of three seconds per component and a buffer time of five seconds, this means that p * t + 5s = t _tot (total time per placement station).

This also helps to achieve a high and stable cycle in the assembly and packaging of the ingredients in the ingredients container, since all employees along the packing line in about the same number of picks or Picks run. In addition, a stable workload of employees is achieved. This means that the ingredients have to be distributed to the loading stations in such a way that the packing line is efficiently stocked and in particular that balanced balances are achieved.

2. The number of recipes should generally be greater than the number of ingredient compartments per placement station. This is possible because several recipes always have an intersection of common ingredients.

5. At a placement station, the number of picks per total cycle may preferably correspond to the number of ingredient containers or the number of ingredient containers +/- 1.

6. Furthermore, an average frequency of the recipes or the recipes to be selected (ZI, Z2 ... Zn) may be known. This, just like 1. to 5., helps to balance out the ingredient compartments of the placement stations.

7. In addition, additional ingredient compartments may be provided to place certain ingredients, which are more commonly needed, in multiple placement stations to accommodate the portion size. 8. Ingredients of the same type but different serving sizes are considered as different ingredients and are each to be arranged in separate ingredient compartments.

From this it is also possible to derive a method for equipping the ingredient compartments in the equipping stations. This method is controlled by the control device by automatically determining the placement of the ingredient compartments and correspondingly outputting it to a display device. The display device may comprise one or more screens and / or a printer. Preferably, the display device is arranged in the vicinity of or directly on the ingredient compartments so that an operator is informed which ingredient compartment is to be filled with which ingredient. Instead of the output on a display device and an automatic transport system can be controlled, for example, includes self-propelled car, which drive from a warehouse and / or Umladestation one or more Kis th with ingredients to the ingredient compartments and there the ingredient compartments either independently or manually loaded with the help of an operator. In the second case, it is expedient if a display device is provided on the car, which indicates which box is to be loaded in which ingredient tray.

The determination of the placement of the ingredient compartments can, for example, be carried out according to the following rules: a) First, the ingredients of the most frequently used recipes are distributed uniformly, taking into account the rules listed above. Heavy ingredients are preferably placed at the first three placement stations. Identical ingredients of different recipes are preferably provided at the same placement station in the same ingredient compartment, whereby the number of necessary ingredient compartments can be kept low. The most common recipes preferably comprise no more than 30% of the number of all recipes and preferably no more than 20% of the number of all recipes. b) The ingredients of the less frequently used recipes are distributed, whereby it is first determined which ingredients are already assigned to an ingredient tray. The other ingredients to be distributed are then distributed to other placement stations so that the already assigned ingredients can be used in the composition of this less frequently used recipe. c) The number of components for all ingredient compartments is determined by the frequency of the respective recipe. d) Within a placement station, heavy ingredients, preferably lower-lying ingredient compartments, and light ingredients are placed in higher-lying ingredient compartments. Ingredients, which are used more often, are preferred in the lower ingredient compartments. arranges, which are usually closer to the transport device, as the higher-lying ingredient compartments.

In an alternative procedure, the ingredient compartments are determined as follows: a) The most commonly used ingredients are determined. Then, the frequency with which each ingredient is used is assigned to the corresponding recipes. b) The ingredients of the recipes are then assigned to the placement stations. This starts with the ingredients of the recipe with the highest frequency. Thereafter, the ingredients of the recipe are assigned to the next lower frequency. This is repeated until the ingredients of all recipes are assigned. The ingredients are assigned in accordance with the rules outlined above, with each ingredient preferably being kept in only one single ingredient compartment. However, this can not always be done. In a first step, a customer places an order for one or more courts for one or more persons on the Internet on a website of a provider (order step). Alternatively, the order can also be placed by e-mail or by phone.

By means of a provisioning and processing device, a QR code is created. The QR code contains recipe data or information about the ingredients needed for the ordered dishes.

Once the ingredient compartments have been filled, the individual ingredients can be packed in the ingredient containers. Hereinafter, a corresponding method will be explained with reference to FIG.

In an order step, a customer orders a dish, whereby order data are generated (step S1).

In a read-in step, customer order data are read in, the order data comprising at least recipe data of the ingredients and customer data contained in a dish (step S2).

In an assignment step, the ingredients containers are assigned and labeled predetermined customer data (step S3).

In this case, it can be provided that the ingredient containers, for example paper bags, are dispensed by a dispensing machine. In addition, self-adhesive labels are printed with a printing device on the basis of the order data, which are applied to the ingredients containers. Each label includes a QR code for the corresponding recipe and an order number. The initially uniform ingredient containers dispensed by the dispenser would be individualized according to the order data. This can also be done by directly printing on site on the ingredient container.

After the associating step, a check step is executed in which the customer information of the ingredient containers is checked as to whether the correct supply containers corresponding to the order have been supplied to the system (step S4).

In a feeding step, the ingredients are fed to containers of a conveyor of a packing line (step S5).

The transport device is, for example, a conveyor belt designed as a linear conveyor or a roller conveyor. The Linearfördere is linear in the field of placement stations or straight. Outside the assembly stations curves and / or Verwzwiggungen be provided. For receiving the ingredients container can be arranged on the conveyor packs. Preferably, crates are provided for receiving the ingredients container, wherein such a box has several compartments for receiving a corresponding number of ingredients containers. For example. The box has two to six or three to five, and in particular five compartments, with a single ingredient container being placed in each compartment. The compartments are marked, for example, with the colors pink, yellow, red, green and blue.

The color coding can be provided to indicate to an employee which bag is to be arranged in which compartment of the box. For this purpose, the barcode on the bag can first be scanned. Subsequently, the employee is displayed by means of a color display, which bag is to be arranged in which tray.

In an arrangement step, four or five ingredient containers are arranged by means of the transport device in the region of a loading station of the packing line, wherein twelve ingredients are held at the loading station (step S6).

In a display step, it is indicated by means of a corresponding display device which of the ingredients at the placement station are contained in the recipe data and can be taken (= pecked) from the ingredient compartment (step S7).

In several equipping steps, the ingredients containers are fitted with the respectively displayed accessory (step S8).

In the next steps, repeating and executing the arranging step with arranging the ingredient container in another loading station, the displaying step, and the loading step until a predetermined number of the ingredients contained in the recipe data are arranged in the ingredient container (step Sil). The display step may preferably take place by means of appropriate light or color coding of the respective ingredient compartment, for example by means of a pick-by-light device.

The loading of the individual ingredient containers can optionally be controlled with a put-to-light device.

With the removal detection device (e.g., a camera), the grasped ingredient can be optically detected.

By means of a placement detection device 20, the loading of the ingredients container is detected with ingredients at the placement stations. The placement detection device 20 is, for example, a capacitive proximity sensor.

By using an optical system with several cameras with a monitoring device, the removal of an ingredient from an ingredient compartment, the placement of one of the ingredient containers, and the positioning of the ingredient containers along the transport device can be detected.

The loading step in a loading station can be performed by means of appropriate sensors, e.g. a light barrier, a motion sensor and / or a proximity sensor, in an ingredient detection step (step S9) are checked. For this purpose, motion sensors of a removal detection device 10 are preferably provided, which detect whether the correct ingredient and / or the correct quantity of ingredients for an ingredient container have actually been removed from the placement station. The removal detection device is designed in such a way that a spatial resolution makes it possible to detect whether an employee has seized the ingredient from the correct location or from the correct compartment. Additionally and / or alternatively, it can also be provided in the removal detection device that an employee confirms at a confirmation means arranged on the ingredient compartment, for example a switch or a button, that the correct ingredient has been removed.

By means of such a removal detection step in the individual placement stations, the clock rate of the current process is adjusted to prevent ingredients containers that are not yet fully packed, are removed from a loading station and are already fed to the next placement station.

By means of the removal detection step, a direct feedback is also sent to a warehouse management system in order to acknowledge the removal, to fill stock levels and ingredient compartments of a placement station and, if necessary, to make corrections in the event of a shortage. Furthermore, it can be provided that the ingredient containers are detected at the individual loading stations in a detection step (step S10).

The read-in step is repeated at least two, three, and preferably four or even more times with further order data, so that two or three and preferably four ingredient containers are loaded at the same time in each of the loading stations of the packing line. The read-in step may also include the simultaneous or synchronous or also a time-shifted reading of several order data.

The order data, which comprise at least the recipe data of the ingredients contained in a dish and the customer data, are then forwarded to a control device of a device 1 according to the invention. This is called a read-in step.

In a mapping step, the ingredients containers are assigned predetermined customer data and it will be marked in a labeling device 2, the ingredients container with the customer data. The identification with customer data may be, for example, a barcode (ID number).

Subsequently, the ingredients are containers in a feed step corresponding receiving sections of a transport device 4 of the packing line 6 supplied.

The feeding step can be carried out automatically by an employee or by a corresponding feeder automatically.

In a scan or check step, four ingredient containers are initially scanned by means of an optical monitoring device 22 in order to confirm to the system that the correct accessory containers 17 have been supplied to the transport device in accordance with the present orders.

In an arrangement step, four ingredient containers are simultaneously arranged in the region of a first loading station 7 of the packing line 6 by means of the transport device 4. In a display step, the ingredients container 8 are marked by means of a put-by-light device 18 of a display device 9, if the ingredients arranged in the ingredient compartments of the loading station 7 are to be arranged in one of the ingredients container 17.

At the same time, the ingredient compartments 8 of the placement station 7 are appropriately illuminated in the display step by means of a pick-by-light device 19 of the display device 9, so that an employee can quickly and efficiently remove the ingredients from the ingredient compartments 8 and the corresponding one due to the simple light marking Ingredients containers 17 can supply or stock.

After such a loading step of a loading station 7 is completed, it is checked by means of a control device whether the ingredients containers are still correctly arranged on the conveyor 5 or whether, for example, an ingredient container has fallen off during loading of the transport device 4.

When all employees have carried out the corresponding equipping of the ingredients containers at all placement stations, the four ingredient containers 17 are fed to the loading station 7 following in the direction of transport 5 of the packing line 6, and new ingredient containers are fed according to the first loading station 4.

These steps are repeated until the ingredient containers have passed through the entire packing line 6.

Subsequently, the ingredients container is closed by means of a closure device in a closing step (step S12).

In parallel, if proteins, such as milk or meat, are contained in the dish, they are arranged in the same way in a corresponding insulating packaging.

Then, the ingredient container (s) and the protein ingredients are placed in the transport container, and also the transport container is closed (step S13).

Before closing the transport container, it is checked by means of a final inspection device whether the ingredients container and the protein ingredients match the recipe data and the customer data in order to ensure that the correct ingredient container is arranged in the transport container. In addition, the necessary recipes for preparing meals are added to the transport container.

Subsequently, the transport container can be shipped (step S14). In the following technical details as well as preferred or alternative embodiments of the present invention are shown.

According to the present embodiment, for example, such a packing line has a length of approximately 28 m.

For example, there are ten loading stations along the packing line in the direction of transport, in each of which one employee loads the ingredients containers with the corresponding ingredients.

Each placement station is about 1.8 m long and includes ingredient compartments arranged in three rows of four compartments each.

The clock rate per container is preferably about two to three seconds, so that all four arranged in a loading station ingredients container after about nine to twelve seconds per placement station can be equipped. In this way it is possible with the present invention to provide approximately 1200 to 1800 ready-made transport containers per hour.

In particular, it is provided that individual ingredients are already combined to form a corresponding ingredient, for example if soup green is contained in a recipe, it is provided that the parsley, celery and carrots are already arranged in a single ingredient compartment, so that they are not assembled individually Need to become. The same applies to spices that are already pre-packaged, for example, in the ingredient compartments.

In particular, it is provided that the heavy foodstuffs are first arranged in the ingredient container, that is, the heavier foods are arranged in the front packing lines of the packing line, and the lighter foods are held in the transport direction in the rear region of the packing line.

This allows a completely individual production and composition of ingredients containers possible.

Preferably, two separate packing lines are provided for packaging protein ingredients and the ingredients provided in the ingredient containers. The protein ingredients are packed in appropriate insulating packaging.

The two packing lines can be arranged, for example, mirrored. The labeling of the ingredient container and the protein ingredients is carried out automatically and with a corresponding barcode.

Furthermore, the prescriptions for the dishes contained therein are arranged in the transport container.

In particular, the control device, which includes a computer, is provided, which receives the order of the customer and accordingly drives the packing line.

In this way, an efficient timing is possible, so that such a packing line over known packaging lines by about 40 to 50% is more productive.

In the context of the present invention, a system or a method for refilling or refilling the ingredient compartments of the equipping stations is also provided. However, this represents a separate inventive idea.

By sequentially providing different, rare ingredients in the same shelf, the number of available SKUs (SKU stands for Stock Keeping Unit, an individual registration number, or QR code, etc, assigned to a product to identify and track it) massively increased. Thus, a high degree, much more flexible product variety can be achieved and the number of generatable recipes can be significantly increased.

This z. B. a delivery station may be provided, the standardized ingredient units or ingredient containers are supplied by a supplier.

In this case, a transport device, such as. B. a flexible conveyor belt may be provided to supply the ingredients to the appropriate placement stations.

Alternatively, a receipt of the ingredients and a loading of the ingredients container can be provided by autonomously moving robot.

In order to avoid supply bottlenecks and to ensure a sufficient stock, a high-bay warehouse can be provided to stock the ingredients.

The arrangement of the ingredients in the high-bay warehouse can z. This can then be automatically refilled as part of a so-called "kit- ting". I do not understand what kitting is, should that be briefly explained? A dynamic or chaotic storage is a method of warehousing and offers an alternative to the fairground system.

This is a principle of storage, in which a part to be stored, for example a foodstuff, does not have a fixed storage place but is stored in any places not occupied at all (free space system).

The fairground system, in which the parts to be stored have a fixed storage space, and the chaotic storage can also be mixed and combined, depending on the article or product group.

Basic advantages over the fairground system are:

- Better use of the storage area, as the unoccupied spaces are available for all goods to be stored - in contrast to the fairground system - this leads to a better utilization of the warehouse's capacity and thus optimizes the use of the storage area. In the fixed-seat system - when items are used up - free spaces remain locked for other items; The space saved by the free space system is considered worth mentioning.

- Easy storage of new parts and execution of assortment changes, since in a fairground system, e.g. In the case of non-pre-planned storage, it is only necessary to rearrange new, fixed storage areas with empty spaces or to dispose of old storage areas in order to be able to maintain the system and to be able to pick up these parts.

- Employees do not need a warehouse knowledge about fixed storage bins because the computer-based storage vouchers specify these. This shortens the induction period for new staff. However, some see the advantage here in the fairground system; Accordingly, the employees there are familiar with the storage spaces in a short time.

- If, for example, the outsourcing - such as the failure of a rack conveyor - in an alley of a high-bay no longer possible, then the likelihood is still high, all articles - albeit in a reduced amount - available. In the fairground system, however, it can quickly lead to complete failure in the picking of an article when the disturbed lane is its only fixed storage space.

- A goods rotation and its change can be taken into account in the space occupancy, whereby the routes - and thus the storage and retrieval time - are optimized because fast-moving items can be stored in free spaces near the warehouse exits. In order not to lose track of the arbitrary rather than fixed allocation of storage bins, it has proved "imperative" to use a warehouse management system which maintains an occupancy list responsible for the allocation of a storage space.

In the warehouse, a coordinate system of the storage bins has to be defined and applied, in order to keep the warehouse clear, numerically possible storage bins may be latent, so they are no longer available as storage bins. As a result, the symmetry of the order system of homogeneous storage zones is maintained and order picking is facilitated since, in particular, defined shelf sections in each row begin at the same height of the shelf sections of the neighboring shelves. In this way, then e.g. In addition, cantilever racks can be used next to pallet racks in a storage zone and the matrix remains intact. The latency of storage bins can also be used, in particular, to compensate for bulges in the outer dimensions of the articles, which is only to a certain extent lower when non-automated storage technology is used Goods rotation by convertible shelves and cabinets by removal and relocation of side walls and floors is possible.

For the stored goods, a system of labeling must be defined, applied and, if possible, (at least (semi-) automatically) legibly marked.

In order to operate this storage optimally, it is necessary to provide standardized storage bins in order to prevent u. a. If shelves are used, ensure sufficient loading capacity of all shelves for all packages.

The same outer dimensions of the articles and the permissible weight per unit area in homogenous storage zones also facilitate the automation of this type of storage, which is why it is used primarily in central distribution warehouses with a high turnover rate and plays out their advantages there. It is typical for high-bay storage.

In order to avoid media breaks, automatic identification of the article at the identification point (I point) is common, which is made possible today by attached to the pallets RFID transponder and / or attached barcodes. The controlling detection of the corresponding information of the identity of the stored goods and the actual storage space can be carried out automatically, for example, by the stacker crane or the truck. In addition, the use of PDA or WLAN-based scanners (barcode reader, RFID, etc.) is often used as part of mobile data collection.

Thanks to mixing concepts or consideration of other criteria, a further optimization of the allocations of the storage bins can be carried out despite dynamic storage. there For example, some of the stocks are stored chaotically in open spaces and, for example, further parameters are taken into account to optimize the routes for storage and retrieval.

Ideally, the choice of location should be made according to material-specific compartment sizes and the shortest distance from the warehouse entrance. In particular, a shortening of the mean driveway is possible by applying an ABC classification:

Often needed items are stored there, where you can reach them quickly; rarely used items are stored in the back of the warehouse; heavy items rather below, light items rather above.

With automatic refilling, the problem with "pick and drop" is that a large number of foods or ingredients, such as tomatoes or strawberries, are sensitive to pressure, which makes automation more difficult to accomplish Add ingredients in standardized containers as a complete unit to the appropriate ingredient compartments of the placement station.

In the following, a device 1 designed according to a further aspect of the present invention for providing ingredients for at least one dish is described. Unless otherwise described, this device 1 has the same components with the same characteristics as the device 1 described above and shown in FIG. Identical components are provided with the same reference numerals.

When refilling the ingredient compartments of the placement stations, it is also possible to use a barcode reader which is provided in the area of the placement stations to read a barcode attached to standardized ingredient units or ingredient containers and to display on a display device which ingredient compartment this ingredient unit or these ingredients container is to be supplied.

On the other hand, upon delivery of the ingredient units or ingredients container this can be provided with a trade mark, which is printed for example directly on the ingredients container or on the ingredient unit or glued by means of a label, provided at the appropriate ingredient compartments of Bestückungsstationen the corresponding subject labels are. As a result, an operator can simply allocate the ingredient containers or ingredient units to the correct ingredient compartments and refill them.

This device 1 thus comprises a packing line 6 or an assembly line with a transport device 4, and several loading stations 7 arranged successively along the transport device 5 in a transport direction 5, wherein at least two or more ingredients are provided in each loading station 7 (FIG. 3). According to this aspect, only a pick-by-light device 18 and an optical monitoring device 22 with cameras 100, as described in detail below, are provided for equipping the ingredient containers.

Furthermore, the apparatus comprises a cooling assembly line 23 with a cooling transport device 24 and a plurality of cooling equipment stations 26 arranged successively along the cooling transport device 24 in a cooling transport direction 25, wherein at least two or more cooled ingredients are present in each cooling equipment station 26 are held.

According to the present aspect, two cooling component stations 26 each having 12 cooling ingredient compartments 27 are provided, wherein in each case four cooling ingredient containers (not shown) can be arranged in the region of a cooling stocking station 26 on the cooling conveyor 25 in order to equip them.

At least two or more cooled ingredients are provided in the cooling loading station 23. These cooling loading stations 27 are arranged in a cooling space 30 so that the cooling loading stations 26 are maintained at a temperature of between 0 ° C and 2 ° C.

Adjacent to the cooling space, the cooling conveyor 25 is arranged. In the area of the cooling ingredient compartments 27, openings are provided in the cooling space 31 so that the ingredients can be picked out of the cooling ingredient compartments 27. In the area of these openings, an air curtain and / or a curtain, formed of cords or ribbons, be provided to minimize the exchange of air between the cool air of the cold room and the warmer air of the adjacent room in which the transport device is located.

The transport device 4 and the cooling transport device 25 are combined to form a single overall transport device 28. In the area of a Zusammenführbereiches 29 in which the transport device 4 is married to the cooling conveyor 25, the cooling ingredient container is placed in the ingredients container.

It is envisaged that chilled protein ingredients, such as milk or meat, in a separate packing line, the cooling line, the ingredients container or preferably the transport packaging are supplied. Protein ingredients are protected by thermal insulation by means of an insulated packaging, the cooling ingredient container.

The overall transport device 28 has an exchange station 30 in which incorrectly stocked ingredients and / or allergenic and / or other ingredients are exchangeable according to customer orders or can be added additionally. Thus, one or more employees may be provided who exchange and / or add ingredients at the replacement station 30 and / or during the assembly between the individual placement stations. This is especially useful if it is a quick replacement or a quick addition. This is the case, for example, when a customer is given a bag of sweets at his first order. There is no need to set up a separate loading station for the bag of sweets, but an employee can quickly add the bag "in progress." Preferably, the responsible employee is informed of the processes in progress and in need of attention, such as a tablet or smartphone and an application running on it.

In the further course of the overall transport device 28, the ingredients container with the cooling-ingredient containers in a common transport container (not shown) are arranged.

Furthermore, a freezing line can be provided with a freeze transport device and with a plurality of picking stations arranged successively along the freeze transport device in a transport direction, wherein at least two or more ingredients are provided in each loading station, and wherein the freezing line is formed separately or as part of the cooling line.

The transport device and / or the cooling transport device (and / or the freezer transport device) may extend along a linear transport direction or extend along branched transport directions.

Furthermore, printed prescription descriptions for the dishes contained therein are arranged in the transport container. The printing of the recipe card can take place just-in-time, when the corresponding ingredient containers 17 are completely filled. He can z. B. only be started when the ingredient container or Dishbag was placed with the protein in the box or the transport container and / or a further scan of the ID number (bar code) of the ingredients container was executed.

In particular, the computer system or the control device is provided, which receives the order from the customer and accordingly drives the packing line.

The transport device and the cooling transport device are combined to form a single overall transport device.

In particular, a plurality of packing lines or production lines according to the invention can be combined with one another in order, for example, to obtain protein ingredients (meat, fish, milk products, etc.) a cooling device or a further cooled packing line in a separate Isolierverpa- ckung (Woolcool or the like with cooling element) to pack, which is then equipped similar to an access to container.

Similar to the embodiment explained above, this device 1 has a transporting device 4 in order to convey ingredients in the transporting direction 5 along a packing line 6 (FIG. 5). The transport device 4 may be a conveyor belt or a roller or ball track. On the transport device 4 packing trays are transported with ingredient containers 17, in each of which one or more ingredients container 17 are arranged. The accessory containers can be paper bags, which can be damaged by the immediate arrangement on the transport device 4 or impose on projections. Therefore, the packing shells are provided, which are stiff, flat shells, so that they can be reliably transported on the one hand on the transport device 4 and on the other hand correctly position the ingredient containers 17 permanently on the transport device 4. Preferably, the trays are cooled or provided with a cooling element. In the case of transport devices 4 which are suitable for the direct transport of paper bags or paper bags, it is of course also possible to transport them without packing trays. The packing shells can also be referred to as receiving sections.

Along the transport device sequential placement stations 7 are arranged, which each have some ingredients compartments in which the ingredients are kept. An operator must then take 8 ingredients from the ingredient compartments and place them in a food container 17.

The present embodiment differs from the preceding exemplary embodiments in that only cameras 100 are used as sensors. These cameras 100 are stationary cameras 100 with a fixed viewing direction. That is, the cameras 100 are not panned. The cameras 100 have a fixed focal length lens. There are several cameras 100 arranged, which overlap with the field of view. The area of each placement station 7 and the adjacent area of the transport device 4 are each detected by at least two cameras 100. The cameras 100 are video cameras, e.g. Record 50 frames per second.

In the following, the area of the ingredient compartments 8 of a loading station 7 and the adjacent area of the transport device 4 will be referred to as monitoring cell 99. Within such a monitoring cell 99, the removal of the ingredients from the ingredient compartments 8 and the tray in the ingredients container 17 takes place. Each section of the monitoring cell 99 is scanned with at least two cameras 100. The monitoring cell 99 can also be divided into several sub-sections, which are scanned with different camera pairs. However, this does not mean that each camera 100 only has a single monitor cell 99 scans. The cameras may be arranged to detect a plurality of monitor cells 99. However, it is advantageous if their location is detected in the surveillance cells of at least two cameras 100, then the two cameras 100 can form a stereo camera with which the spatial coordinates of the objects detected by the cameras 100 can be determined.

Preferably, the cameras 100 are arranged such that at least three cameras 100 collectively scan a specific scanning area within the monitoring cells 99. As a result, problems can be eliminated when an object to be scanned is obscured by another object for one of the three cameras 100. He can then still be captured with the other two cameras 100.

In the present exemplary embodiment, cameras 100/1 are arranged above the transport device 4 and on the side of the operator, in each case adjacent to the boundary of adjacent placement stations, which completely scan the two adjacent placement stations 7 or their surveillance cells 99 (FIG. 5). Thus, each monitor cell 99 is detected by two of these operator-side cameras 100/1. Cameras 100/2 are arranged in each case above the ingredient compartments 8 in the transport direction of the transport device 4, which each detect a single monitoring cell 99. The ingredient compartments 8 are designed as shelves in the present exemplary embodiment, which is why the cameras 100/2 arranged above the ingredient compartments 8 are referred to as shelf-side cameras.

The cameras are connected via a data network to the control device which has a computer. The data network is a BUS system via which the image data captured by the cameras 100 are transmitted to the computer.

A monitoring software 101 is stored and executable on the computer, which is explained in more detail below (FIGS. 4 and 6). The software 101 is formed of several modules which exchange data via channels. The channels are logical data connections between the individual modules.

A selection module 102 is provided for receiving the image data generated by the cameras. Each camera is connected to the selection module 102 with an input channel 103.

The selection module 102 is used to sort the incoming image data and to generate new image data streams to other modules.

For each monitor cell 99, a separate trigger module 105 is provided. The trigger module 105 monitors whether a gripper arm of the operator is located in the area of the monitoring cell 99. If this is the case, then a precise monitoring of the monitoring cell 99 is triggered by means of a monitoring module 106. For each survey a monitoring module 106 is provided. The triggering of the monitoring takes place by transmitting a corresponding trigger signal via a trigger channel 114 to the corresponding monitoring module 106.

The trigger modules 105 are each connected to the selection module 102 via a trigger channel 104, via which the trigger modules 105 each receive an image data stream from the selection module 102. Via the respective status channel 114, the respective trigger module 105 communicates its decision El as to whether a gripper arm has been detected.

The monitoring modules 106 are used to recognize the gripped ingredients and for detecting the coordinates of the ingredients when they are removed from the ingredients tray 8, until they are placed in an ingredient container 17.

The coordinates of the ingredients are passed by the monitoring module 106 via an evaluation channel 115 to an evaluation module 112, which bundles and evaluates the various information.

The monitoring modules 106 are each connected to the selection module 102 via a monitoring channel 107.

Furthermore, an ingredient container monitoring module 108 is provided which continuously receives image sections from the selection module 102 via an ingredient container monitoring channel 108. As a result, the assembly of the individual ingredients container 17 is monitored.

The method of packing ingredients into an ingredients container 17 and monitoring them in the packing line 6 described above will be explained below (FIG. 7).

During the entire packaging process, the monitor cell 99 is monitored by cameras 100 (step S15). The cameras 100 are video cameras and produce image sequences, or films, with e.g. 50 frames per second. The images of the image sequences are analyzed individually. The images of the camera 100 are passed to the selection module 102. A reduced number of images (in this exemplary embodiment every 50th) is continuously forwarded to the corresponding trigger module 105 by the selection module 102 via the trigger channels 104. In parallel, images are passed to the accessory container monitoring module 108 via the ingredient container monitoring channel 109.

Since each trigger module 105 is designed to monitor a specific monitoring cell 99, the selection module 102 selects the images of the cameras 100 for the respective trigger channel 104, which scan this monitoring cell 99 as a whole or at least a part thereof. Because the cameras 100 have a variety of images (eg 50 frames per second or more) and multiple cameras 100 simultaneously scan a monitor cell 99, the amount of image data would be enormous if all the images showing the respective monitor cell 99 are transmitted to the trigger module 105. To reduce the amount of data in trigger channel 104, the data streams are filtered and only every nth image is transmitted. In the present exemplary embodiment, every 50th image is transmitted, n is typically at least 10, in particular at least 20, and preferably at least 40.

By providing a plurality of such trigger modules 105, a multiplicity of monitoring cells 99 can be monitored simultaneously as to whether a gripping process takes place, the computing power required here being low, since on the one hand the data volume of the image data is considerably reduced by the selection module 102 and, on the other hand, a very high simple object recognition method can be used, which only scans the images according to a specific pattern.

If an arm of an operator is recognized with the trigger module 105, the monitoring of the respective monitoring cell 99 is triggered by means of the corresponding monitoring module 106. This is symbolized in FIG. 6 by means of the decision El. While the monitoring module 106 is active, the monitoring of the respective monitoring cell 99 is set by means of the trigger module 105.

The trigger module 105 analyzes the incoming images by means of an automatic object recognition method. Such object recognition methods are known, for example, from "Carsten Steger, Markus Ulrich, Christian Wiedemann: Machine Vision Algorithms and Applications. 2nd Edition. Wiley-VCH, Weinheim 2018 "or" Bernd Jähne: Digital Image Processing, 6th Edition Springer-Verlag, Berlin Heidelberg 2005 ". This object recognition method of the trigger module 105 is designed such that a forwardly extended arm of the operator is recognized. To recognize the forwardly extended arm, a gripping element marking unit is detected. A gripping element marking unit are elements which have an optical marking. The operators usually wear white work coats. If the images show a white stripe of predetermined size and orientation, then this can be evaluated as an extended arm. The jacket itself is thus a gripping element marking unit. Such a pattern comprising only a single broad stripe can be determined easily and quickly. Alternatively, it is also possible for a specific optical mark, which is very specific, to be arranged on the operator's arm. It may, for example, on the sleeve a strip-shaped pattern of colors, which otherwise not occur in the environment of the packing system 1, be applied. Then the corresponding image can be searched for at least one such specific color or color combination. If the color cutout is located within such a pattern, then it can also be reliably recognized that the operator extends an arm in the direction of the ingredient compartment 8. Alternative Greifelementmar- kierungseinheit are eg colored, and / or specially marked gloves of employees; farbi- ge and / or specially marked bracelets and / or watches or LEDs or LED arrangements. The gripping element marking units could also be made of a special reflective material that reflects special light, eg UV light, particularly well and is perceived by the cameras.

At the same time, the ingredient container monitoring module 108 monitors the loading of the individual ingredient containers 17. The ingredient container monitoring module 108 continuously receives from the selection module 102 via the ingredient container monitoring channel 109 low-frequency image sections which show the transport device 4 and ingredient containers 17 located thereon. Since the movement of the ingredients container 17 is comparatively slow and also straight and even, can be done with a small amount of image data reliable determination of the location of the respective ingredients container 17. The ingredient container monitoring module 108, similar to the monitoring module 106, determines accessory objects to be monitored and the location of the ingredient containers 17.

According to a modification of the present invention, the monitoring of the ingredient containers 17 can take place by providing the ingredient containers 17 with identification markers, which can be easily detected by the cameras 100. In comparison to conventional barcodes, these identification markers are large-area, simply structured markings which can be reliably detected even from a greater distance. They cover on the ingredients containers preferably an area of at least 2 cm ² , in particular at least 3 cm, or at least 4 cm ² and more preferably at least 5 cm ² from. They can also be a size of at least 10 cm ² .

A small number of different identification markers is sufficient, whereby the number of different identification markers should be at least three. However, they can also be more than three different identification markers, such as at least five or at least eight or at least ten, or at least 20 or at least 30.

The ingredients container 17 are preferably placed on the transport device 4 such that the ingredient container 17 always have the different identification markers in the same order.

For example, three different identification markers are provided, which comprise an A, B and C, the ingredient containers 17 are placed on the transport device 4 such that the first ingredient container holds the identification marker A, the second ingredient containers Identification marker B, the third ingredient container the identification marker C, the fourth ingredient container turn the identification marker A, the fifth accessory container the identification marker B, the sixth ingredients container the identification markers C, the seventh ingredient container turn the identification marker A, etc. have , By the observance of a particular sequence can be determined that, for example, an access to 17 is missing, if it is removed from the transport device 4. As a result, it can be monitored in a simple manner that the individual ingredient containers are transported correctly along the transport device 4 and are processed in accordance with the specifications.

Furthermore, if a transport container enters the field of vision of a camera and the identification mark is first detected, the respective ingredient container or its identification number can be assigned an ID number for the ingredient container or for a packaging order. This identification number can be read out, for example, by means of a bar code reader from a barcode printed on the ingredients container. Such a barcode is not always reliably identifiable by means of the cameras 100, but the much larger and coarser identification mark. In this way, the individual accessory container 17, while it is being processed in the area of the packing line 6, can at any time be assigned its ID number by detection by means of one of the cameras 100 of the identification mark. This is possible even if a certain identification marking is used several times simultaneously in the area of a packing line 6, since the sequence of the identification markers is known and the corresponding sequence of ID numbers is also present and can be assigned accordingly.

It may even be advantageous if the identification numbers are not always provided in a predetermined order, but in a random order on the ingredients container 17, wherein the control device knows the random order and holds.

Preferably, so many different identification markers are present that the same sequence of the identification mark does not occur twice in all of the ingredient containers 17 located in the packing line 6. Since the identification markers can be arranged in individual permutations in individual sequences, even with a small number of identification markers, a multiple number of ingredient containers 17 can be clearly marked in their sequence.

The ingredients container 17 are usually designed as paper bags, which have two broad side surfaces. Preferably, in each case the same Identificati onsmarker on one of the ingredients container 17 is arranged on both broadside surfaces. As a result, the ingredients container 17 can be arranged basically arbitrarily on the transport device 4. If one of the broadside faces is recognized by one of the cameras 100, the ingredients container 17 can be identified and its ID number uniquely assigned to it.

The identification markers can be letters, numbers, binary numbers, simple barcodes or other markings. For example, you can also use advertising blends with different to be colored background. If these advertising emblems have a specific shape, for example circular or rectangular, in which a promotional text is contained, the differently colored background of the individual advertising emblems can represent the identification mark. The text is then irrelevant. An unbiased observer of the ingredients container 17 does not even recognize the identification marker as such, but perceives it as a promotional emblem which has a different colored background on the different ingredients.

As soon as the ingredient container 17 has left a predetermined area of the packing line 6, which is monitored by the cameras 100, preferably the assignment of its ID number to the respective identification markers is canceled, so that the number of ID numbers that belong to one are assigned to the same identification mark, is as small as possible. At the latest when the ingredient container 17 is arranged in the transport container 20, this assignment can be canceled or deleted and again assigned to another ingredient container 17.

With this method, the ingredients container 17 in the packing line 6 (FIG. 5) can thus be monitored and identified in a simple manner, with the cameras 100 marking the identification from far away, for example at least 5 m, in particular at least 10 m , recognize, without the need for expensive cameras or expensive lenses are necessary. The trick is to use a small number of identification markers, which are provided repeatedly on the individual ingredient containers 17. You can hereby be provided in a particular order on the ingredients container 17. Preferably, however, they are provided in a random order on the ingredient containers 17, so that on a control device, in which the order of the identification mark is maintained, by detecting several successive ingredient container on the basis of their sequence of Identifi- kationsmarker by comparison with the entire series of identification markers each individual ingredients container of this detected sequence can be clearly identified.

This method can be modified to the effect that no further machine-readable codes are provided on the individual ingredient containers, but instead an ID number is assigned to the respective ingredients container when the ingredients are introduced into the packing line 6 on the basis of the identification marker corresponds to a specific recipe. Once the ingredient container is packaged in the transport container, there is no further need to provide or maintain a machine-readable code that identifies the recipe or order.

This method can not only be used in one packing line, but in all other conveying devices for conveying piece goods, whereby the piece goods are conveyed on the conveyor belt. should be linear and identifiable and monitored by one or more cameras.

With the method explained above, it is also possible for the individual stations in which a barcode is scanned by means of a scanner (eg at the entrance of the packing line 6, on the printing device for printing the recipes, etc.) completely by the automatic identification by means of the identification markers to replace.

The method of packing is described here by way of example at a loading station 7. The process is carried out in parallel at all placement stations 7. It starts with step S16 (FIG. 7). As described above, images are taken at this time and passed from the selection module 102 to the trigger modules 105, or the accessory container monitoring module 108 (see step S15).

In step S17, the ingredients are in the ingredient compartment 8. The trigger module 105 does not recognize a gripping arm. The decision El is negative and the monitoring module 106 is not active, or receives no images.

In the next step (step S18), a gripping arm moves into the area of the monitoring cell 99. The decision El thus becomes positive. As a result, the monitoring module 106 is activated or the monitoring module 106 receives images via the monitoring channel 107.

The monitoring module 106 begins monitoring the ingredient object.

Alternatively, the activation of the monitoring module 106 (decision El) can also be carried out by a connection to a pick-by-light device 18. If the lamp illuminates for a specific ingredient, the monitoring module 106 is activated together with the lighting up, or the monitoring module 106 receives images via the monitoring channel 107. In such an embodiment, the trigger modules may be omitted.

The gripper arm monitored by the monitoring module 106 grips the ingredient object (step S19).

The monitoring modules 106 receive from the selection device 102 the image data of the cameras, which in each case scan the corresponding monitoring cell 99 (in the present exemplary embodiment, three cameras 100 per monitoring cell 99). Also, this image data can be reduced by filtering and transmitting only every nth image of the respective camera 100. Since a much more precise monitoring of the monitoring cell 99 is to take place with the monitoring module 106, image data should be transmitted in the monitoring channel 107 from substantially more images than in the trigger channel 104, then n is preferably not greater than 20, in particular not greater than 15 or 10 or 5 in cameras 100, which produce 50 frames per second. In other words, at least 2.5 images per camera should be used Second, in particular at least 5 or at least 10 frames per second are transmitted. In addition, images of the different cameras, each monitoring a cell, should be transmitted, which were recorded as synchronously or simultaneously as possible, so that the corresponding image pairs are suitable for stereo image analysis. The image data are preferably transmitted together with time information indicating when the individual images were taken. This time information does not have to have any relation to the absolute time, but it is sufficient to have a relative time information which describes the temporal relationship of the individual images to one another.

The setting of these filters depends on different parameters. On the one hand, there are cameras 100 that generate image data streams with images of different high frequencies. On the other hand, it also depends on the local conditions of the packing system 1 and how long it takes for an ingredient to be gripped from an ingredient compartment 8 and placed in an ingredient container 17. Furthermore, it depends on the subsequent evaluation and what resolution of the location requires this.

In step S20, the gripper arm moves the ingredient object to the storage bin 17. The monitoring module 106 is active.

The monitoring module 106 is intended to recognize the particular ingredient object that is gripped. This is done with an object recognition method similar to the trigger module 105. Alternative object recognition methods are possible. First, the respective object area in the images in which the object is located, and then extracted features of the object. The recognition of the object area can be determined, for example, on the basis of the recognition of the gripping hand. The object area may also include the gripping hand itself.

For these monitoring modules 106, therefore, only the image sections are relevant, in which the ingredients are shown. The selection module 102 can reduce the amount of data in that only the images are transmitted in sections, wherein the section is to show the ingredient object. If the marking explained above is arranged on the sleeve of the operator at the end adjacent to the hand, then in the selection module 102 this mark can be recognized by means of a simple object recognition method and the cutout of the image adjacent to this marking or around this marking cut out and transmitted to the monitoring module 106 only via the respective monitoring channel. This also makes it possible to considerably reduce the amount of data to be transmitted from the selection module 102 to the respective monitoring modules 106.

The monitoring module 106 analyzes the images by extracting features of the ingredient object and composing them into a feature vector describing the respective pattern. These patterns are compared with patterns of ingredient objects stored in a database 110. In this comparison, the similarity of the respective patterns is determined. The accessory object is the one whose pattern is most similar to the pattern shown in the captured image.

The comparison of the detected pattern with the patterns of the ingredient objects stored in the database 110 can be performed on all ingredient objects. However, since there are ingredient objects that have very similar patterns, such as the ingredient objects of a red apple or a red tomato, it may also be useful to consider only the ingredient objects actually present at the placement station 7 in the comparison , Corresponding information is available from a merchandise information system 113 and can be read in. The quantity of the ingredient objects to be compared is therefore limited in advance to the ingredients actually present at a placement station 7. When equipping the individual placement stations 7, it may also be expedient to provide ingredients with a similar pattern in different placement stations, so that the automatic object recognition of the individual ingredients is facilitated.

In general, the object recognition can be performed syntactically, statistically or structurally. The creation of artificial neural networks no longer requires matching with a database since the features are stored in the neural network itself. The neural networks can be exercised supervised or not supervised. This means that during the learning process, the results of the object recognition are checked and assessed for correctness.

Since a plurality of images of the gripped ingredient are detected as a monitoring module 106 during a single gripping operation, the automatic object detection can be performed separately for each image. If different results result for the ingredient object to be recognized, then the different results can be analyzed. For example, such an analysis can be done statistically, so that, for example, the most frequently determined result is evaluated as the correct result. This is particularly useful if its frequency is at least 70%, in particular at least 80% of all results. On the other hand, the quality of the individual images can also be assessed in terms of how well they reproduce the ingredient object. Images in which the ingredient object is obscured or largely obscured can be discarded or assessed only with reduced relevance. Thus, the relevance of the individual images and the ingredients objects determined from them can be weighted.

The monitoring modules 106 serve not only to recognize the individual ingredient objects, but also to detect the location of the ingredients during the gripping process. Of the individual cameras 100 each of the location, the direction of view and the focal length or the magnification is known. From this, if the object is determined in an image, the direction in which the object is located with respect to the camera 100 with which the image was taken can be determined. These object directions are extracted to the individual images in the monitoring module 106 and associated with the time at which the image was created. By combining two object directions, which were created at the same time, the location of the ingredient object in three-dimensional space can be determined. The two cameras 100, with which the two images have been generated, from which the object directions have been extracted, therefore function like a stereo camera. By considering the object direction of the third camera, the measured position error can be reduced.

The space-time coordinates 111 of the ingredient objects are thus detected during the gripping process, which describes the movement of the ingredient object during the gripping process in predetermined steps.

The monitoring module thus generates during a gripping process the information as to which accessory object is gripped and which movement is carried out with it. This information is forwarded to an evaluation module 112 via an evaluation channel 115.

The space-time coordinates 11 are forwarded to an evaluation module 112 which, on the basis of the movement of one of the ingredient objects and the movement coordinates of the ingredient containers 17, determines which ingredient object gets into which ingredients container 17. As a result, the assembly of the individual ingredient container 17 is monitored.

Among other things, the following actions can be detected with the evaluation module 112:

Taking an ingredient out of an ingredient compartment 8,

Tracking the movement of the ingredient object from the ingredient compartment 8 into a corresponding ingredient container 17,

Equipping the ingredient container 17,

Detecting the position of an ingredient container 17 along a transport direction. 5

If the ingredient object has been placed in the storage bin, the process is ended with step S21.

With this system, a complete monitoring of the contents of the ingredient container from the gripping of the ingredient in the ingredients tray to storage in the ingredients container. Any incorrect assembly can be detected early and the corresponding ingredient containers can be sorted out or repackaged before they are delivered. The equipment of the Ingredients containers can also be adjusted with the information from the merchandise management system, so that also other processes are thereby automatically controlled, such as the reordering of ingredients.

This system requires no moving parts. The only sensors are cameras 100. The cameras 100 may also be used to read bar codes or other information, such as bar codes. Textual information may be used on the transport trays, ingredient trays 17 and / or the ingredients themselves (e.g., cans). For recorded text information, it is expedient if the se be implemented with an OCR module in text data.

An advantageous extension of the invention is that the bracelets, watches, sleeves, and / or gloves, which trigger the trigger signal of the trigger module 105, have active markers. This could e.g. small LED lights that shine in a special color. This simplifies the object recognition and reduces interference by changing lighting.

It is expedient that the monitoring module 106 is connected to a merchandise management system (WWS or WaWi) 113 in order to create a model for mapping the flows of goods in the business process of the enterprise. The merchandise management system comprises one or more of the following modules:

- Goods receipt module

- Goods issue module

- Disposition and Ordering Module

- Output of scheduling aids and order proposals

- Ordering and monitoring

- Marketing / Management Information Module.

Furthermore, it may be appropriate for each of the last image of the ingredient object as a reference image, before it enters the ingredients container, a certain time, e.g. a few weeks to store between, in order to be able to understand in the case of complaints by a customer, which ingredients and / or with what quality ingredients actually got into the ingredient container 17 and to be able to prove this.

It is particularly advantageous to link the reference images with the employees. Possibly the goods come only damaged to the customer. By correlating the complaints in connection with the reference pictures and the employees, it is possible to check the wrong steps of individual employees. For example, an employee may over-grip the fruit, creating undesirable pressure marks. Or an employee throws sensitive ingredients, such as eggs, into the ingredient containers 17, causing them to fail to arrive properly. It is particularly advantageous if the devices, such as shelving systems, camera systems, or ingredient containers, have a specific color, in particular blue. This makes it easier to filter out the devices from the images being analyzed. If most of the devices have the same color, then only the image channels of the complementary colors have to be selected. Images of a camera 100 typically have three color channels: red, green and blue. For example, if the devices are blue, the blue portion of the images can be filtered out by examining only the green and red channels. Blue is therefore particularly suitable as a device color, as organic materials or foods are characterized by a lack of blue. If the green and red color channels are selected, organic materials appear particularly rich in contrast.

As an alternative to the embodiment described above, the trigger module 105 may also perform a simple motion detection. For this purpose, two successive images are subtracted from each other in an image operation. Each image or each color channel has a value for each pixel. For each pixel, the two values of successive images can be subtracted. If two successive images are the same, or at least very similar, the result for each pixel of the difference image is a value of almost zero. If the sum of all remaining values of all the pixels after the subtraction is above a predetermined threshold value, there was a movement within the image area because the images are too different from each other. This motion detection is easy to implement and fast in the calculation, but can not distinguish between the movement of a gripper arm and an employee walking away. The cameras could therefore be positioned accordingly so that as far as possible no external movement is detected. It could also be detected when detecting a movement, whether this movement originates from the gripping arm, by checking certain properties of the gripping arm in the image.

In an alternative embodiment, instead of the trigger module 105, all images of the camera are forwarded from the selection module to the monitoring module. First, a zero image is taken. In this null image no gripper arm or a moving ingredient object is visible. However, the selection module 102 performs a subtracting image operation as explained in the previous section. In the process while the gripper arm puts an ingredient in the ingredients container 17, the zero image is now subtracted from each incoming image. If there is no change or movement in the picture, the sum of all pixels is below a predetermined threshold (see above). If there is an action or movement, the image area of the action can be recognized, since there the pixel values are increased in the difference image. This image area is now cut out on the incoming image and analyzed with an object identifier, as described above for the monitoring module 106. Subtraction considerably reduces the data volume of the image data and the computational effort. The object recognition of the monitoring module 106 can preferably also be used for quality assurance. Poor or lazy areas on the ingredients, such as crushed boxes, dented or dark spots on the fruit or vegetables, or moldy spots, can be detected automatically if training and / or database entries are made. Later, the identified ingredient containers 17 may be manually checked and the ingredient items may be replaced accordingly.

An advantageous extension of the invention lies in the measurement and analysis of various steps. For example, object recognition can identify how and how long an employee needs to perform an action step. This time tracking can be stored and correlated with other events. This can be used, for example, to review the improvement of a new employee. It can also generate alerts should the speed and accuracy of an employee decrease over time. The employee can then be made to take a break. Furthermore, comparisons could increase employee motivation. An employee of the month could easily be identified. It can also be used to measure deeper correlations. For example, instructing employees to "work faster" may lead to an expedited process, but at the same time the error rate could increase.Another example could be the analysis of the seasons.Temperature in the warehouse and light quantity / quality could possibly influence The time and attendance of such connections makes it very easy and inexpensive to check, so adjustments not only improve employee well-being, but also the speed and quality of the handling.

A further alternative to the embodiment described above is to leave the monitoring module 106 active for a predetermined time after activation of the monitoring module 106 by the trigger module 105. Thus, unwanted pauses in the monitoring module 106 can be avoided by a faulty detection in the trigger module 105.

An advantageous modification of the invention is to individualize the monitoring cell 99 to a worker. For example, it is likely that left-handers use the ingredients differently than right-handed people. The grip and speed may vary between employees. The more individualized the monitor cell is set, the more accurate the image recognition becomes.

In an alternative embodiment, the monitoring module 106 may additionally monitor the ingredients in the ingredients compartment. As a result, maladministration and missing ingredients can be detected independently and / or in addition to a merchandise management system. This deficiency information can be directed to appropriate personnel who fill the ingredient compartments 8. A further alternative to the embodiment described above is that the above-mentioned monitoring by cameras 100 also applies to an upstream quality check. For example, ingredients can be monitored when filling ingredient boxes. The ingredient boxes will later be placed on the shelves of Packing Line 6 to form the ingredient compartments 8. The upstream quality check can detect, among other things, the quality, size and texture, and it can be checked that the ingredients have been placed in the right ingredient boxes and whether sufficient ingredients have been put Here, too, a link with a merchandise management system 113 makes sense, which can thereby automatically match the actual state with the target state. This advance can take place both when the ingredients are delivered to the location of the device 1, an upstream location or even at the site of the production of the ingredients. For example, it might be possible to monitor and record the placement of the ingredient crates in the field of a farmer or at the packaging location of the producer. In particular, sensitive ingredients are picked by hand and placed in appropriate ingredient boxes. This process can be monitored with the present invention. In the case of a quality check on the field, therefore, the number / quantity of the ingredients, their size, their weight, the quality and their quality can be monitored. The condition can eg describe the degree of ripeness, the form and / or the cleanliness of the ingredient. For example, a potato may be absolutely edible, but it is rejected by some customers if too much dirt or soil sticks to the potato.

Furthermore, the monitoring described above can be used for an inventory of a storage system. In this case, the system is preferably switched to an inventory mode. With workers, the individual ingredient compartments 8 then pull out one after the other and the cameras 100 pick up the ingredients compartment 8. In the monitoring module 106, or an extra inventory module, the image of the ingredient compartment 8 is analyzed and the number of ingredients calculated. This calculated number can then be compared with the merchandise management system 113. The individual extraction of the ingredient compartments 8 is much faster than the manual counting by the employees.

In order to increase the production efficiency, it may be provided that production of the accessory containers is controlled by a predetermined selection of recipes according to predetermined rules.

It can be provided to produce the ingredient containers 17 according to the logistics company which carries out the shipping. This means that all ingredients are first produced 17, which are delivered by a specific logistics company. Then the ingredients 17 are produced, which are produced by another logistics Company to be delivered. As a result, you can keep the amount of intermediate ingredients container small.

Additionally and / or alternatively it may be provided to produce the ingredients container 17 according to the different delivery areas from which the orders have been received.

Also a production according to production quantity or according to the number of persons for whom the recipe is intended is possible, for example families, couples and singles.

Furthermore, it can be provided to balance the recipe orders according to the utilization.

This means that the order of the recipes is determined so that the consumption of the ingredients is controlled in such a way that the individual ingredients are replenished at the placement stations at different times. Thus, a balanced production with regard to the consumption of individual ingredients should take place, so that the refilling of the placement stations is made uniform.

According to a development of the device according to the invention, preferably in conjunction with the optical object recognition, the device has an individualization station in an area along the packing line before the ingredient containers are closed.

At this is intended to replace special, already wrapped ingredients by others to meet special needs of customers. For example, special requests may involve the replacement of one or more ingredients due to allergies or food intolerances.

For example, one or more employees may be provided to collect special ingredients in a warehouse and then add an ingredient, e.g. on the basis of the customer's special request, exchange with another ingredient and / or add. The collection can e.g. with the aid of a carriage, in particular a carriage, with a display connected to the control device, wherein the display indicates to the operator which ingredient he has to take up in the store or which ingredient he has to place in the ingredient bin at the customizing station.

As a result, all recipes or ingredient containers 17 can continue to be produced in a similarly efficient manner and it is still possible to respond flexibly to special requests of individual customers. Monitoring the produced recipes, in particular in connection with the optical object recognition, makes it possible in a simple manner to to detect the ingredient containers or the recipes and to exchange one or more individual ingredients according to the customer's request. Preferably, the entire device according to the invention can be arranged in a cold room.

It could be advantageous to mark a certain area of the device 1 as a blocking area in which only specially trained and / or specially authorized employees have access. In this blocking area, a packing line 6 or one or more loading stations 7 of a packing line 6 may be arranged, which may contain valuable ingredients, such as e.g. Caviar, sensitive ingredients, such as Gold leaf, and / or hazardous ingredients, such as Dry ice, include.

Restricting to specially trained and / or specially authorized personnel can reduce work-related accidents, careless packaged ingredients and thefts.

Bezuaszeichenliste Device 27 Cooling ingredients compartment

Labeling device 28 Overall transporting device Feeding device 29 Mating area

Transport device 30 Exchange station

Transport direction 31 Refrigerator

packing line

Assembly station 99 Monitoring cell

Ingredients 100 camera

Display device 101 Monitoring software

Collection detection device 102 Selection module

Detection device 103 Input channel

Control device 104 trigger channel

Locking device 105 trigger module

Packaging device 106 Monitoring module

Mapping device 107 Monitoring channel

Final control device 108 ingredient container monitoring ingredients dul

Pick-by-Light Setup 109 Ingredient Container Monitoring Channel Put-by-Light Setup 110 Database

Equipment detection means 111 Space-time coordinate

Position determining device 112 evaluation module

optical monitoring device 113 goods / economic system

Cooling station 114 Status channel

Cooling transport device 115 Evaluation channel

Refrigerated transport direction

Cooling assembly station

Claims

claims

A method of assembling and packaging ingredients for at least one court comprising the following steps:

a read-in step in which a customer's order data is read in, the order data comprising at least recipe data of the ingredients and customer data contained in a dish,

a mapping step in which at least one ingredient container is assigned to predetermined customer data,

a feed step in which the ingredient container is fed to a linear conveyor (4) of a packing line (6),

- An arrangement step in which the at least one ingredient container (17) by means of the linear conveyor at a predetermined clock rate in the region of a loading station of the packing line (6) is arranged, wherein at the placement stations (7) at least two ingredients or three or four or more ingredients are held in appropriate subjects,

a display step in which by means of a corresponding display device it is indicated which of the ingredients at the loading station is contained in the recipe data,

a loading step in which the ingredient container is filled with the indicated ingredient,

a removal detection step in which extraction of the ingredient from the corresponding ingredient compartment at the placement stations with a sensor is automatically detected by means of a removal detection device,

Repeating and executing the arranging step with arranging the add container in another loading station, the displaying step and the loading step until a predetermined number of the ingredients contained in the recipe data are arranged in the ingredient container.

2. Method according to claim 1,

characterized, that in further steps of the ingredients container is closed and packaged in a subsequent step of the ingredient container in a transport packaging.

3. The method according to claim 1 or 2,

characterized,

the read-in step is repeated at least two or three times, and preferably four times, with further order data, so that two or three and preferably four ingredient containers are loaded simultaneously in the loading stations of the packing line.

4. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 3,

characterized,

After the assignment step, a control step is carried out in which customer information of the ingredient containers is checked as to whether the system has been supplied with the correct ingredient containers.

5. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 4,

characterized,

that in a loading station different quantities for a different number of persons, for example, two, three, or four persons are kept, so that the court is intended for several people.

6. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 5,

characterized,

that five or more loading stations are arranged successively along the packing line in a transporting direction.

7. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 6,

characterized,

that the ingredient containers are detected in the individual placement stations in one detection step.

8. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 7,

characterized,

the placement step is checked in a placement station by means of corresponding sensors in an ingredient detection step.

9. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 8,

characterized, that in the first loading stations of the packing line ingredients with a higher weight are arranged.

10. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 9,

characterized,

that certain ingredients are grouped together

11. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 10,

characterized,

that cooled protein ingredients are added to the ingredient container in a separate packing line.

12. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 11,

characterized,

in that a particular ingredient to be gripped or an ingredient compartment in which this ingredient is located is marked with the display device during the display step.

13. A method for providing ingredients at a plurality of loading stations of a packing line, in particular for a method for assembling and packaging of ingredients for at least one court according to one of claims 1 to 12, wherein a plurality of sequentially arranged in a transport direction loading station provided and at the placement stations at least two or more ingredients (ZI to Zm) are kept in each case, and in the allocation of the ingredients (ZI to Zm), the frequency of ordering the recipes (RI to Rn), which contain the ingredients, taken into account being, being

- The ingredients (ZI to Zm) of a part of the recipes (RI to Rn), which have a predetermined high frequency of orders, are first allocated to the equipping stations after a first order feature, and

these ingredients (ZI to Zm) are assigned according to their second weight according to their weight to the successively arranged placement stations descending in the transport direction, and

14. The method according to claim 13,

characterized, that same ingredients (ZI to Zm) of different recipes (RI to Rn) are assigned only once to a single one of the placement stations, unless this conflicts with the first or second allocation feature.

15. The method according to claim 13 or 14,

characterized,

that the part of the prescriptions (RI to Rn), which have the predetermined high frequency of orders, comprise only the most frequent 5 or 6 or 7 or 8 or 9 or 10 or 11 prescriptions.

16. The method according to any one of claims 13 to 15,

characterized,

that optically similar ingredients are each assigned to different placement stations.

17. The method according to any one of claims 13 to 16,

characterized,

that the assignment of the ingredients to the loading stations and the filling of the loading stations with the ingredients is controlled by means of a control device.

18. Device for providing ingredients for at least one dish comprising

a transport device,

a plurality of placement stations arranged successively along the transport device in a transport direction, wherein at least two ingredients and preferably at least four ingredients are held in a placement station,

a display device which marks an ingredient of the placement station predetermined by a recipe when the ingredient container is located at the corresponding placement station.

19. Device according to claim 18,

characterized,

that the display device comprises a pick-by-light device and / or a put-by-light device and / or

the display device has a plurality of display elements which are each assigned to an ingredient compartment of the placement station and which in particular display predetermined positions Colors and / or predetermined pictograms and / or predetermined strings is formed, and / or

the display device comprises a projection device with which the ingredient compartments of the placement station can be illuminated individually.

20. Device according to claim 18 or 19,

characterized,

that the position-determining device

Has one or more sensors to determine the position of the respective ingredient container in the region of each placement station, and / or

a sensor to identify each ingredient container at a particular position of the transport means (4) and to determine further positions along the transport means by a controlled transport of the ingredients container.

21. Device according to one of claims 18 to 20,

characterized,

a read-in device is provided for reading in order data of a customer, according to which the display device is controlled to mark the respective ingredient.

22. Device according to one of claims 18 to 21,

characterized,

a removal detection device is provided in order to detect a removal of the ingredients from ingredient compartments at the placement stations.

23. Device according to claim 22,

characterized,

the removal detection device has a proximity sensor, in particular a capacitive proximity sensor, and / or a camera.

24. Device according to one of claims 18 to 23,

characterized,

in that a placement detection device is provided in order to detect a loading of the accessory containers with ingredients at the placement stations.

25. Device according to claim 24,

characterized, in that the placement detection device has a proximity sensor, in particular a capacitive proximity sensor, and / or a camera.

26. Device according to one of claims 18 to 25,

characterized,

an optical monitoring device is provided with one or more cameras and an evaluation device with which one or more of the following actions can be detected:

- taking an ingredient out of an ingredient tray,

- equipping one of the ingredient containers,

Positioning one of the ingredient containers along the conveyor,

- checking the quality of an ingredient using automatic image analysis,

- Determination of the space-time coordinates of a seized ingredient.

27. The device according to claim 26,

characterized,

the optical monitoring device has a module for detecting the individual accessories and / or for detecting the ingredient containers.

28. Device according to claim 26 or 27,

characterized,

in that the monitoring device comprises a machine-learning system, e.g. a neuronal network, in order, in particular, to train patterns of the individual ingredients.

29. Device according to one of claims 26 to 28,

characterized,

in that the evaluation device is provided with a module with which the actual assembly is compared with a predetermined assembly of the respective ingredient container and in the event of a deviation a message is issued or a predetermined action is initiated.

30. Device according to one of claims 26 to 29,

characterized,

a monitoring module for determining the ingredient and / or the coordinates of the ingredient is coupled by means of automatic image analysis with a trigger module and / or a control device for driving the display device such that either upon detection of a gripping action by the trigger module and / or marking of an ingredient to be gripped by the display device, the monitoring module is started.

31. Device according to one of claims 26 to 30,

characterized,

in that a plurality of cameras (100) are provided, with which in each case a monitoring cell of a placement station (7) is scanned, wherein the monitoring cell (99) comprises the area of the transport device (4) at the placement station (7) as well as ingredient compartments arranged at the placement station wherein the cameras are arranged such that portions of the respective monitoring cells (99) are scanned by at least two cameras (100).

32. Device according to one of claims 26 to 31,

characterized,

in that the cameras (100) which are provided for providing the image data for the automatic image analysis are fixed cameras and / or cameras with a fixed focal length.

33. Device according to one of claims 26 to 32,

characterized,

that the monitoring device is connected to the control device in such a way that in the automatic image analysis the information is available with which ingredients the respective placement station is filled and / or which ingredient is marked with the display device, this information being used in the image analysis is taken into account.

34. Device according to one of claims 26 to 33,

characterized,

in that the monitoring device has a selection module (102) which receives the image data of the individual cameras (100) and selects for the monitoring modules, which are respectively assigned to a placement station (7) or monitoring cell (99), and if necessary filters and / or pre-processed and forwarded to the monitoring modules.

35. Device according to one of claims 18 to 34,

characterized,

that at the equipping stations (7) there are ingredient compartments for storing the ingredients with the ingredient compartments being arranged in the region of an opening to a cooling space, so that the ingredients in the ingredient compartments are cooled and the transport device (4) is arranged outside the refrigerated space.

36. Device according to one of claims 18 to 35,

characterized,

the device has at least two packing lines, each packing line having a transporting device, and a loading station (7) arranged successively along the transporting device in a transporting direction, and the packing lines being brought together with their ends in the transporting direction, preferably one of the two packing lines Packing of chilled or frozen ingredients is formed.

37. Device according to one of claims 18 to 36,

characterized,

in that an association device is provided for assigning customer data to an ingredient container, wherein the association device is a labeling device, such as a printing device for printing a machine-readable code, or a storage device for storing the customer data in or connected to the accessory container connectable machine-readable memory, is or is a detection device which reads an attached to the ingredient container label and this assigns the customer data.

38. Device according to one of claims 18 to 37,

characterized,

that a closure device for closing the ingredients container, such. a welding device is provided for welding plastic bags, and / or a sewing device for sewing bags and / or an adhesive device.

39. Device according to one of claims 18 to 38,

characterized,

a packaging device is provided for automatic packaging of the ingredient containers in a transport packaging.

40. Device according to one of claims 18 to 39,

characterized,

at least 5 and preferably at least 10 loading stations are arranged successively along the transport device.

41. Device according to one of claims 18 to 40,

characterized,

in that a control device is provided after the last loading station in the transport direction in order to check the contents of the respective ingredients container, wherein the control device is preferably a balance.

42. System for providing ingredients for at least one court

characterized,

that it comprises a plurality of devices according to any one of claims 18 to 41, wherein each device is designed for loading an ingredient container and a packaging device for automatically packaging the food to a court associated ingredient is provided in a common transport packaging container.

43. Method for monitoring piece goods on a transport device (4), wherein each element (17) of the article is provided with a specific identification marker, the number of different identification markers is limited and the order with which the different identification markers the individual elements of the piece goods are provided, comprising the following steps:

Detecting the identification markers with at least one camera (100) of a sequence of successive elements (17) of the piece good,

- Identifying at least one of the elements (17) whose identification marker has been detected, based on a comparison of the order of the identification markers of the detected sequence with the reserved order of identification markers.

44. The method according to claim 43,

characterized,

that an identification number for identifying one of the elements (17) of the piece good is assigned to each identification marker of the reserved order.

45. The method according to claim 43 or 44,

characterized,

that the identification markers have one or more of the following properties:

The identification markers have a size of at least 2 cm ² or at least 5 cm ² .

The number of different identification markers is less than 100, in particular less than 50, and preferably less than 9.

The identification markers are arranged in a predetermined order on the elements (17) which are respectively repeated or in a random order on the elements (17).

46. The method according to any one of claims 43 to 45,

characterized,

in a method according to one of claims 1 to 17 and / or in a device according to one of claims 18 to 42 is used to monitor and identify ingredient containers (17) on a transport device (4).