HK1237305A - A detecting means for transmitting the article to the grasping means - Google Patents

Description

Article gripping system and method

Technical Field

The invention relates to an article grasping system and method.

Background

In the society with highly developed productivity, no matter in industrial production or in logistics industry driven thereby, a large number of articles need to be distributed and transported through a sorting link, the sorting system is larger and larger in scale, and the sorting capacity is stronger and stronger.

Sorting can be broadly divided into two activities, sorting and sorting, including manual sorting and mechanical sorting, as well as intelligent automated sorting. The manual sorting efficiency is low, and the operation cost is high; mechanical sorting still requires manual operation; only intelligent automatic sorting realizes automatic, mechanized, good continuity, high efficiency and low error sorting of articles by a computer-controlled robot.

Traditional in-line intelligent robotic sorting can only be directed to articles of consistent size, shape, or the like. Specifically, the robot can only establish 2D plane coordinates for the articles, and cannot distinguish the height of the articles, which directly results in that the sorting of the articles with the same height, even the same shape and size, can only be limited in the logistics sorting operation.

With the rapid development of scientific and technical information, the logistics industry enters a rapid development period, and sorting of large-volume articles with different heights gradually becomes huge pressure of the industry.

Disclosure of Invention

One aspect of the present invention provides an article grasping system including a grasping device, a conveying device, and a detecting device, wherein: the conveying device conveys the article past the detecting device; the detection device acquires height information of the article; the conveying device conveys the object from the detection device to the grabbing range of the grabbing device; and the grabbing device grabs the article according to the height information after the article enters the grabbing range.

Optionally, the grasping apparatus includes a robot and a robot controller.

Optionally, the robot comprises a Delta robot.

Optionally, the detection device comprises: a 3D measuring device for performing 3D measurement on an article to obtain 3D measurement data; the 3D measurement controller is used for controlling the 3D measurement device to carry out 3D measurement on the article, and processing the 3D measurement data to obtain the height information of the article; and the 3D measurement trigger is used for triggering the 3D measurement device to carry out 3D measurement on the object when the object is detected to reach the preset position.

Optionally, the 3D measuring device includes a 3D laser 3D detector or a photographing type 3D scanner; and the 3D measurement controller further determines, from the 3D measurement data, relative positional information of the article with respect to the 3D measurement device at the time the 3D measurement data of the article was acquired.

Optionally, the conveying means comprises a conveyor belt; the 3D measurement controller sends the relative position information and the height information to the grabbing device; and the grabbing device judges when the article enters the grabbing range according to the relative position information, the position of the 3D measuring device and the moving distance of the conveyor belt.

Optionally, the gripping device comprises a robot and a robot controller, the robot comprises an end-effector, and when the article reaches the gripping range, the robot controller controls the end-effector of the robot to move with and over the article at the same speed as the article.

Optionally, the article gripper system further comprises a code bar for determining the distance traveled by the conveyor belt and the speed of the article based on the readings from the code bar.

Another aspect of the present invention provides an article grasping method, including: conveying the article past the detection device by a conveyor; acquiring height information of the article through a detection device; transferring the object from the detecting device to a gripping range of the gripping device by the transferring device; and after the article enters the grabbing range, grabbing the article according to the height information through a grabbing device.

Optionally, the grasping apparatus includes a robot and a robot controller.

Optionally, the robot comprises a Delta robot.

Optionally, the obtaining height information of the article comprises: when the object reaches a preset position, performing 3D measurement on the object to obtain 3D measurement data; and obtaining height information of the article according to the 3D measurement data.

Optionally, the method further comprises: relative position information of the item with respect to the 3D measuring device when the 3D measurement data of the item is acquired is determined from the 3D measurement data.

Optionally, the conveyor comprises a conveyor belt, the method further comprising: and judging when the article enters the grabbing range according to the relative position information, the position of the 3D measuring device and the moving distance of the conveyor belt.

Optionally, the grasping apparatus comprises a robot comprising an end effector, the method further comprising: when the article reaches the gripping range, the end effector of the robot is controlled to move with and over the article at the same speed as the article.

Optionally, the article grasping system further includes an encoder, the method further comprising: the distance traveled by the conveyor belt and the speed of the article are determined from the encoder readings.

Optionally, the method further comprises: and controlling the end effector to move to the height of the article according to the height information and move along with the article until the end effector grabs the article.

Drawings

FIG. 1 schematically illustrates an overall view of an article grasping system according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 2 schematically illustrates a gripping range diagram of an article gripping system according to an embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 3 schematically illustrates a block diagram of an article grasping system according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 4 schematically shows a flow chart of an article gripping method according to an embodiment of the invention.

Detailed Description

Other aspects, advantages and salient features of the invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art from the following detailed description, which, taken in conjunction with the annexed drawings, discloses exemplary embodiments of the invention.

In the present invention, the terms "include" and "comprise," as well as derivatives thereof, mean inclusion without limitation; the term "or" is inclusive, meaning and/or.

In this specification, the various embodiments described below which are meant to illustrate the principles of this invention are illustrative only and should not be construed in any way to limit the scope of the invention. The following description with reference to the accompanying drawings is provided to assist in a comprehensive understanding of exemplary embodiments of the invention as defined by the claims and their equivalents. The following description includes various specific details to aid understanding, but such details are to be regarded as illustrative only. Accordingly, those of ordinary skill in the art will recognize that various changes and modifications of the embodiments described herein can be made without departing from the scope and spirit of the invention. Moreover, descriptions of well-known functions and constructions are omitted for clarity and conciseness. Moreover, throughout the drawings, the same reference numerals are used for similar functions and operations.

Some block diagrams and/or flow diagrams are shown in the figures. It will be understood that some blocks of the block diagrams and/or flowchart illustrations, or combinations thereof, can be implemented by computer program instructions. These computer program instructions may be provided to a processor of a general purpose computer, special purpose computer, or other programmable data processing apparatus, such that the instructions, which execute via the processor, create means for implementing the functions/acts specified in the block diagrams and/or flowchart block or blocks.

Accordingly, the techniques of this disclosure may be implemented in hardware and/or software (including firmware, microcode, etc.). Additionally, the techniques of this disclosure may take the form of a computer program product on a computer-readable medium having instructions stored thereon for use by an instruction execution system. In the context of this disclosure, a computer-readable medium may be any medium that can contain, store, communicate, propagate, or transport the instructions. For example, the computer readable medium can include, but is not limited to, an electronic, magnetic, optical, electromagnetic, infrared, or semiconductor system, apparatus, device, or propagation medium. Specific examples of the computer readable medium include: magnetic storage devices, such as magnetic tape or Hard Disk Drives (HDDs); optical storage devices, such as compact disks (CD-ROMs); a memory, such as a Random Access Memory (RAM) or a flash memory; and/or wired/wireless communication links.

Fig. 1 schematically illustrates an overall view of an article grasping system 100 according to an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in fig. 1, the article grasping system 100 includes: robot 101, robot controller 102, 3D detector 103, detector controller 104, opto-electronic switch 105, conveyor belt 106, encoder 107, end effector 108. The article 200 is an article to be gripped.

As shown in fig. 1, the article grasping system 100 may further include an apparatus frame 109, the 3D detector 103 and the detector controller 104 being mounted on the apparatus frame 109. The robot 101 and the robot controller 102 are located on one side of the conveyor belt 106. The article gripper system 100 further includes an end effector support 110 positioned above the conveyor belt 106 proximate to the robot 101. the end effector support 110 may be used to position end effectors 108 of different sizes, and when the conveyor belt 106 detects articles 200 of different weights, the robot 101 may be controlled by the robot controller 102 to automatically swap the corresponding size of end effector 108 on the end effector support 110 for the weight of the article 200. The apparatus frame 110, the robot 101, and the end effector support 110 are sequentially arranged at a predetermined distance along the conveyor belt 106.

It will be appreciated that the above arrangement is illustrative only and is not intended to limit the scope of the present invention.

According to an embodiment of the invention, the 3D detector 103 may be a non-contact 3D detector, for example comprising a laser 3D detector or a grating 3D detector. The laser 3D detector calculates the distance between an object and a laser by using a laser ranging principle, calculates the 3D coordinate of the object by combining a reference coordinate, and has the characteristics of high measuring speed, high accuracy and the like. The grating 3D detector usually adopts white light grating scanning, and takes a picture of an article on the basis of combining an optical technology, a phase measurement technology, and a computer vision technology. The photogrammetry is similar to a camera taking a picture of an article in a field of view, except that the camera takes a two-dimensional image of the article, and the surveying instrument obtains three-dimensional information of the article. During measurement, the grating projection device projects a plurality of specifically coded structured lights onto an object to be measured, two cameras forming a certain included angle synchronously acquire corresponding images, then the images are decoded and subjected to phase calculation, and three-dimensional coordinates of pixel points in a common visual area of the two cameras are calculated by utilizing a matching technology and a triangle measurement principle, so that the three-dimensional coordinate measuring device is also called a photographing type 3D scanner. The photographing type 3D scanner can be moved to the position of an article at will to carry out field measurement, can be adjusted to any angle to carry out omnibearing measurement, can carry out block measurement on large articles, can automatically splice measurement data in real time, and is very suitable for measurement of articles with various sizes and shapes. The scanner has high accuracy, long service life, high stability and relatively low cost.

As shown in fig. 1, when the conveyor belt 106 carries an article 200 past the photoelectric switch 105, the photoelectric switch 105 sends a trigger signal to the detector controller 104. In response to receiving the trigger signal, the detector controller 104 controls the 3D detector 103 to perform 3D detection of the item 200. According to an embodiment of the invention, the 3D detector 103 may comprise a photo 3D scanner, acquiring a 3D image of the item 200. The detector controller 104 processes the 3D image of the article 200 and may obtain height information of the article 200, as well as relative position information of the article 200 with respect to the 3D detector 103. According to an embodiment of the present invention, the 3D detector 103 may also include a laser 3D detector, and the detector controller 104 processes the laser 3D measurement data to obtain height information of the article 200 and relative position information of the article 200 with respect to the 3D detector 103. The 3D detector 103 transmits the height information and the relative position information to the robot controller 102.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, while the 3D detector 103 is making measurements, the 3D detector 103 sends a recording signal to the robot controller 102, and the robot controller 102 receives the recording signal and records the current reading of the encoder 107. The encoder 107 records the movement of the conveyor belt 106, the readings of which vary with the distance of movement of the conveyor belt 106.

The robot controller 102 determines when the article 200 enters the gripping range of the robot 101 based on the position of the 3D detector 103, the moving distance of the conveyor belt 106, and the received relative position information.

Fig. 2 schematically shows a gripping range diagram of an article gripping system according to an embodiment of the invention. As shown in fig. 2, the robot controller 102 knows the position a of the 3D detector 103 and receives the relative position of the article 200 when 3D measured with respect to the 3D detector 103 from the detector controller 104, and thus, can determine the position B of the article 200 when 3D measured. Accordingly, the distance L0 from the position B to the grasp range R can be determined. Since the robot controller 102 has recorded the readings of the encoder 107 when the article 200 is being 3D measured (i.e. located at position B), the robot controller 102 can determine the distance L the article 200 has moved from position B, depending on the change in the readings of the encoder 107. When L equals L0, the article 200 reaches the edge of the grasp range R.

According to embodiments of the invention, the robot controller 102 and the detector controller 104 may use different coordinate systems. The relationship between these two coordinate systems may be known. Since the robot controller 102 and the detector controller 104 are arranged at a distance, their coordinate systems may be offset from each other in, for example, the X-axis direction, while the Y-axis and the Z-axis are the same. The height information and relative position information of the article 200 acquired by the detector controller 104 may be based on a coordinate system of the detector controller 104. After the robot controller 102 acquires the height information and the relative position information, a transformation may be performed according to the correlation between the two coordinate systems to obtain the height information and the position information of the article 200 in the coordinate system used by the robot controller 102. Then, the grasping is performed using the height information and the position information obtained by the change.

After the article 200 enters the gripping range R, the robot controller 102 controls the robot 101 to perform gripping. According to an embodiment of the invention, the robot 101 may be, for example, a Delta robot including three main arms and one rotating small arm, the three main arms of the Delta robot 101 mainly implement the movement of the terminal point of the Delta robot 101 in space, and the one rotating small arm implements the attitude change of the terminal point of the Delta robot 101 in space. An end point of the Delta robot 101 may be connected with an end pick 108, and the article is grabbed by the end pick 108. For example, a different number of vacuum cups may be provided on the end effector 108, which may be used to attract the articles 200 to complete the gripping operation. An end effector having a different number of vacuum cups may be placed on the end effector support 110 and the Delta robot 101 may be controlled by the robot controller 102 to automatically swap the end effector 108 on the end effector support 110 for weight when the conveyor belt detects different weights of articles.

From the readings of the encoder 107 over time, the robot controller 102 may determine the speed of movement of the conveyor belt 106, i.e., the speed of the article 200. After the article 200 enters the gripping range R, the robot controller 102 controls the end effector 108 of the robot to follow the article 200 and be above the article 200 at the same speed as the article 200. In addition, the robot controller 102 controls the end effector 108 to move to the location of the article 200 based on the height information of the article and to follow the article 200 until the end effector 108 grasps the article 200.

According to the invention, the height of the articles is detected through the detection device, and after the horizontal position information is integrated, the classified sorting of the articles with different heights is realized by combining the conveying device and the gripping device.

It is to be understood that although the robot 101 and the robot controller 102 are shown as different devices, they may be integrated into one device. Further, although the 3D detection unit 103 and the detector controller 104 are illustrated as different devices in the drawing, they may be integrated into one device. In addition, the robot controller 102 and the detector controller 104 may also be integrated into one device. The various devices shown in the figures may be combined in various ways or one and the same device may be split into a plurality of different devices cooperating with each other without departing from the spirit and gist of the present invention.

Fig. 3 schematically illustrates a block diagram of an article grasping system 300 according to an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in fig. 3, the article grasping system 300 includes a grasping device 310, a conveying device 320, and a detecting device 330. In operation, the conveyor 320 conveys articles past the detection device 330. The detection device 330 acquires height information of the article. The conveyor 320 transports the item from the detection device 330 to the gripping area of the gripping device 310. The grasping device 310 grasps the object according to the height information after the object enters the grasping range.

According to an embodiment of the invention, the grasping device 310 may include, for example, the robot 101 and the robot controller 102 described above with reference to fig. 1. The robot 102 may comprise a Delta robot.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, the detection device 330 may include a 3D measurement device 331, a 3D measurement controller 332, and a 3D measurement trigger 333.

The 3D measuring device 331 performs 3D measurement on the article to obtain 3D measurement data. The 3D measurement device 331 may for example comprise the 3D detector 103 described above with reference to fig. 1, and the 3D detector 103 may comprise a 3D laser 3D detector or a photo 3D scanner to acquire 3D measurement data of the item.

The 3D measurement controller 332 controls the 3D measurement device 331 to perform 3D measurement on the article, processes the 3D measurement data to obtain height information of the article, and is also able to determine, from the 3D measurement data, relative position information of the article with respect to the 3D measurement device 331 when the 3D measurement data of the article is acquired. The 3D measurement controller 332 may include, for example, the detector controller 104 described above with reference to fig. 1.

The 3D measurement trigger 333 triggers the 3D measurement device 331 to perform 3D measurements on the item upon detecting the item reaching the predetermined location, and the 3D measurement trigger 333 may include, for example, the photoelectric switch 105 described above with reference to fig. 1.

The conveyor 320 may include, for example, the conveyor belt 106 described above with reference to fig. 1.

The 3D measurement controller 332 transmits the relative position information of the article with respect to the 3D measurement device 331 and the height information of the article to the grasping device 310.

The grasping device 310 determines when the article enters the grasping range based on the relative position information, the position of the 3D measuring device 331, and the moving distance of the conveyor belt.

The grasping device 310 includes, for example, the robot 101 described above with reference to fig. 1 and the robot controller 102, the robot 101 including, for example, the end effector 108 described above with reference to fig. 1, the robot controller 102 controlling the end effector 108 of the robot 101 to move with and over the article at the same speed as the article when the article reaches the grasping range.

The article grasping system also includes an encoder 107, such as described above with reference to fig. 1, that determines the distance traveled by the conveyor belt 106 and the velocity of the article based on readings from the encoder 107.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, the robot controller 102 controls the end effector 108 to move to the height of the article based on the height information and to follow the article until the end effector 108 grasps the article.

Fig. 4 schematically illustrates a flow chart of an article grasping method 400 according to an embodiment of the present invention. The method may be implemented by the article capture system 300 described above with reference to fig. 3.

As shown in fig. 4, the article grasping method 400 begins at step S401.

In step S402, the item is conveyed past the detection device 330 by the conveyor 320.

In step S403, height information of the article is acquired by the detection device 330.

In step S404, the article is transferred from the detecting device 330 to the grip range of the gripping device 310 by the transfer device 320.

In step S405, after the article enters the gripping range, the article is gripped by the gripping device 310 according to the height information.

The method ends in step S406.

According to an embodiment of the invention, the grasping apparatus 310 may include a robot and a robot controller. The robot comprises a Delta robot.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, acquiring height information of an article may include: when the object reaches a preset position, 3D measurement is carried out on the object to obtain 3D measurement data, and height information of the object is obtained according to the 3D measurement data. For example, height information for an item may be determined from 3D coordinates of the item.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, the relative position information of the article with respect to the 3D measuring device 331 when the 3D measurement data of the article is acquired may also be determined from the 3D measurement data. For example, relative position information of the item may be determined from the 3D coordinates of the item.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, the conveying device 320 may include a conveyor belt. It is possible to determine when the article enters the grip range based on the relative position information, the position of the 3D measuring device 331, and the moving distance of the conveyor belt. For example, the distance from the object to the gripping range when the object is 3D measured may be determined based on the relative position information and the position of the 3D measuring device 331, and then, when the object enters the gripping range may be determined based on the moving distance of the conveyor belt.

Optionally, the gripping device comprises a robot comprising an end-effector, the end-effector of the robot being controlled to follow the article and to be above the article at the same speed as the article when the article reaches the gripping range.

Optionally, the article grasping system further includes an encoder, and the distance traveled by the conveyor belt and the speed of the article are determined from readings of the encoder.

Alternatively, the end effector may be controlled to move to the height of the article based on the height information and follow the article until the end effector grasps the article.

The application range of the article grabbing system based on the 3D detection technology comprises but is not limited to logistics unmanned bins and industrial production lines.

The above-mentioned embodiments are intended to illustrate the objects, technical solutions and advantages of the present invention in further detail, and it should be understood that the above-mentioned embodiments are only exemplary embodiments of the present invention and are not intended to limit the present invention, and any modifications, equivalents, improvements and the like made within the spirit and principle of the present invention should be included in the protection scope of the present invention.

Claims (18)

1. An article grasping system comprising a grasping device, a conveying device, and a detecting device, wherein:

the conveying device conveys the article past the detecting device;

the detection device acquires height information of the article;

the conveying device conveys the object from the detection device to the grabbing range of the grabbing device;

and the grabbing device grabs the article according to the height information after the article enters the grabbing range.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the grasping device comprises a robot and a robot controller.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the robot comprises a Delta robot.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the detection device comprises:

a 3D measuring device for performing 3D measurement on an article to obtain 3D measurement data;

the 3D measurement controller is used for controlling the 3D measurement device to carry out 3D measurement on the article and processing 3D measurement data to obtain height information of the article; and

and the 3D measurement trigger triggers the 3D measurement device to perform 3D measurement on the object when the object is detected to reach the preset position.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein: the 3D measuring device comprises a laser 3D detector or a photographing type 3D scanner; and

the 3D measurement controller also determines, from the 3D measurement data, relative positional information of the item relative to the 3D measurement device at the time the 3D measurement data for the item was acquired.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein:

the conveying device comprises a conveying belt;

the 3D measurement controller sends the relative position information and the height information to the grabbing device;

and the grabbing device judges when the article enters the grabbing range according to the relative position information, the position of the 3D measuring device and the moving distance of the conveyor belt.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein:

the grabbing device comprises a robot and a robot controller, the robot comprises an end picking device, and when an article reaches the grabbing range, the robot controller controls the end picking device of the robot to move along with the article at the same speed as the article and be located above the article.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the article grasping system further comprises an encoder, and the distance traveled by the conveyor belt and the speed of the article are determined from readings of the encoder.

9. The system of claim 7, wherein the robot controller controls the end effector to move to the height of the article based on the height information and to follow the article until the end effector grasps the article.

10. An article grasping method comprising:

conveying the article past the detection device by a conveyor;

acquiring height information of the article through a detection device;

transferring the object from the detecting device to a gripping range of the gripping device by the transferring device;

and after the article enters the grabbing range, grabbing the article according to the height information through a grabbing device.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the grasping device comprises a robot and a robot controller.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the robot comprises a Delta robot.

13. The method of claim 10, wherein obtaining height information for an item comprises:

when the object reaches a preset position, performing 3D measurement on the object to obtain 3D measurement data; and

and obtaining the height information of the object according to the 3D measurement data.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising: relative position information of the item with respect to the 3D measuring device when the 3D measurement data of the item is acquired is determined from the 3D measurement data.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the conveyor comprises a conveyor belt, the method further comprising:

and judging when the article enters the grabbing range according to the relative position information, the position of the 3D measuring device and the moving distance of the conveyor belt.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the grasping device comprises a robot comprising an end effector, the method further comprising:

when the article reaches the gripping range, the end effector of the robot is controlled to move with and over the article at the same speed as the article.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the article grasping system further comprises an encoder, the method further comprising:

the distance traveled by the conveyor belt and the speed of the article are determined from the encoder readings.

18. The method of claim 17, further comprising: and controlling the end effector to move to the height of the article according to the height information and move along with the article until the end effector grabs the article.