JP2001206309A - Method and apparatus for turning eggs - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an apparatus to detect the arrangement direction to arrange eggs. SOLUTION: In the apparatus for turning eggs E in the predetermined direction while the eggs are carried by a roller conveyor 11, a detection device 1 picks up the image of the egg, and compares the image signal with the signal related to the predetermined position to judge the direction of the egg, and controls the apparatus for turning the egg. The detection device comprises a light source 2 to illuminate the egg on the roller, and an image pick-up surface having a surface parallel to the axis of the roller conveyor and extending at least over the axis of the egg, and forms substantially the image of the shadow of the egg. The image pick-up surface is preferably divided into two portions at the center of each roller.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

The present invention relates to an apparatus and a method for rotating a substantially spherically symmetric object such as an egg. In particular, the present invention relates to an apparatus and a method for rotating an egg. The device has a detecting device for detecting the direction of arrangement of each egg while transporting eggs placed on a roller attached to a shaft of a roller conveyor, and a direction changing unit attached to an endless chain. Things. The direction changing unit rotates the egg so that the tip is oriented in a predetermined direction during transportation by the roller conveyor, and then places the egg on the next transportation device.

[0002] It is customary to rotate the eggs as soon as they are placed on a roller in a supply row from a supply device such as a pallet, box or container. The egg also follows the rolling movement, but with the rotating movement, the long axis or main axis of the egg is positioned parallel to the axis of the rollers of the roller conveyor. This will prevent the eggs from being skewed or turned up,
It prevents the risk of damage and breakage increasing. By the way,
Both the egg shape and the roller shape are generally hourglass shaped, but consequently the egg tip is oriented in one of two axial directions. Further, as the egg rotates, the center of the egg is displaced to the center of the roller on which the egg is placed.

[0003]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION It is generally known that uniform placement of eggs is necessary to ensure the shelf life of eggs and the safe packaging of eggs. Various devices have been invented and implemented in the past to achieve such a uniform arrangement.

[0004] Such a device is disclosed, for example, in US Pat.
No. 747,453, which describes a method of distributing eggs to a so-called rotating machine. The eggs placed on the rollers of the roller conveyor reach a stop on the saddle upstream of the rotating machine. The large end of the stop always pushes the eggs in the direction of travel of the roller conveyor.
Immediately thereafter, the egg was picked up by the gripper of the rotating machine,
It is rotated in the desired direction during the rotation of the machine and then placed on the next roller conveyor for further processing.

[0005]

The new generation of egg sorters is subject to sufficient hygiene requirements. This requires the use of smaller rollers, which makes it possible, for example, to insert a device for removing broken eggs.

[0006] The eggs stopped at the stops are not always oriented in the right direction, so that these small rollers impair the reliability of the device described above in its use.

[0007]

In order to solve the above-mentioned drawbacks, the apparatus according to the present invention has the following features. The detection device acquires an image of the egg passing on the roller conveyor,
It is composed of a device that performs image processing electrically. A directional signal is formed indicating the direction in which the tip of the egg is pointing, and each signal is compared with a predetermined signal characteristic associated with the predetermined direction and a rotation to rotate the egg in the desired direction. A signal is sent to the rotating device.

[0008] In this way, not only are the tips of all eggs oriented in the same direction, but also a high processing speed is achieved in an effective manner. In the mechanical handling described above,
It could only be processed at a rate of up to 10,000 eggs per hour.

[0009]

In a further exemplary embodiment of the egg rotator according to the invention, the detection device further comprises a light source for illuminating each egg on the roller as the egg passes, and an imaging surface. Prepare. The imaging surface is parallel to the axis of the roller conveyor and has a surface that extends at least on the major axis of the egg, forming at least one substantially shadow image of the passing egg.

In a specific embodiment of the present invention, the imaging surface is divided into two at the center of each passing roller. According to this method, one-time imaging is sufficient, especially when the center of each egg on a plurality of rollers is off the center of the roller, and when the eggs are arranged asymmetrically with respect to the center of the roller. Can also be used.

Further, the present invention provides a method characterized by the following processing. Imaging the eggs passing over the roller conveyor and electrically processing the image obtained by the imaging, thereby forming a directional signal indicating the direction in which the tip of the egg is facing, and defining the respective directional signals A rotation signal is transmitted to rotate the egg in a desired direction, comparing with a predetermined signal characteristic associated with the determined position.

In particular, the present invention includes an exemplary embodiment comprising the following method. Illuminating each egg passing on the roller, acquiring an image of the egg on an imaging surface parallel to the axis of the roller conveyor, wherein the imaging surface has a surface extending at least on the main axis of the egg, and substantially the egg passing therethrough; At least one shadow image is formed.

In a further specific embodiment, the acquisition of a linear image of the egg is performed parallel to the axis of the roller conveyor, thereby forming a linear image of at least a part of the egg parallel to the main axis.

In a specific embodiment of the present invention, an egg image is acquired on an imaging plane divided into two at the center of each of the rollers passing therethrough.

[0015] Thus, a more appropriate and simpler method provides reliable and easily processable information, which uniformly indicates the location of the eggs.

In a specific embodiment of the present invention, the following method is characterized. To obtain a direction signal, the length or a part of the length of each linear image is compared, the direction signal is compared with a predetermined signal characteristic, and then a rotation signal is generated.

Further effects and details or individual points will be clarified with reference to the accompanying drawings. In the accompanying drawings, there is shown a schematic elevational view of a roller conveyor on which an egg is placed, depicting passing through a sensing device according to the invention.

In a specific embodiment according to the present invention, sensing device 1 includes a light emitting diode (LED) 2. The light emitting diode 2, which is regarded as a substantially point-like light source, projects a light beam on an egg E traveling on a rotating roller 11 of the conveyor. The roller 11 is attached to, for example, a shaft of the classifier 10, that is, a shaft 12. The axis is shown in broken lines. Normally, this part of the classifier has 6 to 12 supply rows. In the drawings, three of them are shown in cross section. In many cases, each of the opposing surfaces of the rollers is connected to the endless chain of the roller conveyor, but the direction of movement of these rollers is perpendicular to the plane of the paper. A camera 5 is arranged above the egg E. In this specific embodiment, a plurality of so-called CCD cameras are arranged so that the linear imaging surfaces 6 and 7 extend in parallel with the axis 12. The cameras are individually considered a single unit, with each camera forming part of an array of cameras. The cameras are provided such that each unit is located between the centers of adjacent rollers. In the figure, dividing line 4 between units
However, it is depicted just above these centers.

When the LED adjacent to the illumination area 6 illuminates the imaging surface, a shadow area 7 is formed. By selecting this component, the region of the boundary portion is substantially not included. The sharp boundaries allow the lengths of the shadow areas to be determined and compared. In this exemplary embodiment, each egg is split into two components. These image areas (for such eggs)
Are not split symmetrically when the egg is rotated as described above. This means, for example, that the ratio of these lengths is always greater than or equal to 1 or a number between 0 and 1. This output result is compared with predetermined signal characteristics in further image signal processing. As a result, a rotation signal is generated based on the comparison and transmitted to the rotation device. For example, a rotating device is energized only when the output is one or more.

In the above-described example, each of the plurality of CCD cameras has an imaging surface of 1 × 512 pixels. And
Each of the pixel surfaces has a size of 120 × 70 μm and a relative distance of 125 μm, and one fourth of the pixels recorded in the imaging terminal circuit is used. The LED light used is 9
It has a wavelength of 50 nm.

Although not shown in the figures, in a specific embodiment of the invention, more than two linear images are formed for each egg. Subsequently, by calculating the difference in relative position at both the tip and the puffy end of the egg, in other words, by calculating the difference in length, the tip and puffy end of the egg are calculated. You can determine where you are located. According to this determination method, there is no need to divide into two. This is because the asymmetric position plays no role in this determination method.

It will be obvious to a person skilled in the art that the outlined ranges include further possibilities. Thus, the lighting is preferably uncoupled, eg intermittent, so that each successive passing egg can be clearly distinguished. Furthermore, by using other light sources,
A sharp shadow boundary can likewise be obtained. As the light source, for example, there is a linear light source. Set the imaging surface to 2
It will be self-evident that the splitting can be done physically or virtually. In the latter case, either by electrical control or software control,
The division can be controlled.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 shows a sectional view of a roller conveyor on which an egg passing through a detection device according to the invention is placed.

 ──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continuing on the front page (72) Inventor Jansen, Jos The Netherlands 3771 Vee Bernberg Stationsweg 117 (72) Inventor Moaieri, Hossein The Netherlands 3771 Vee Bernberg Stationsweg 117

Claims (11)

[Claims] 1. A detecting device for detecting the direction of arrangement of each egg while being transported by a roller conveyor, and a direction changing unit attached to an endless chain, wherein a tip of the egg is transported while being transported by the roller conveyor. Having a direction changing unit for rotating the egg so as to face a predetermined direction, and then placing the egg on the next conveying device, wherein the egg placed on a rotating roller attached to the shaft of the roller conveyor is provided. In a device for rotating a substantially spherically symmetric object, the detection device is configured to acquire an image of an egg passing through the roller conveyor, and to electrically process the image. Once a directional signal indicating the direction the tip is pointing is formed, each signal is compared to a predetermined signal feature in connection with a predetermined arrangement to rotate the egg in the desired direction. An egg rotation device for transmitting a rotation signal for rotation to the rotation device. 2. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the detecting device comprises: a light source for illuminating the egg passing over the roller when the egg passes; and an imaging surface of a camera parallel to an axis of the roller conveyor. Wherein the imaging surface has a surface extending at least on the main axis of the egg, and at least one substantially shadow image of the passing egg is formed. 3. The egg rotating apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the imaging surface is divided into two parts near the center of each of the rollers passing therethrough. 4. The apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the imaging surface has an elongated shape parallel to an axis of the roller conveyor, and forms a linear image of at least a part of the egg parallel to a main axis of the egg. An egg rotating device, characterized by: 5. The egg rotation device according to claim 4, wherein said camera is a CCD camera. 6. The egg rotating apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the light source is a point-like light source, and is disposed close to a center between the rollers. 7. Eggs are supplied on rotating rollers of a roller conveyor, wherein each egg is arranged during transportation on said roller conveyor;
That is, in the method of detecting the direction in which the tip of the egg is facing, and rotating the egg to rotate the tip of the egg so as to face in a predetermined direction while being transported by the roller conveyor, the egg passes over the roller conveyor. Imaging the eggs to be processed, and electrically processing the image obtained by the imaging, thereby forming a directional signal indicating a direction in which the tip of each egg is facing, and disposing each directional signal in a predetermined arrangement. Transmitting a rotation signal to rotate the egg in a desired direction, comparing the signal with a predetermined signal characteristic associated with the method. 8. The method of claim 7, illuminating each egg passing on a roller, acquiring an image of the egg at least once on an imaging surface parallel to an axis of the roller conveyor, A method of rotating an egg, characterized in that at least one surface extending over the main axis of the egg is formed therein, wherein at least one substantially shadow image of the passing egg is formed. 9. The method of rotating an egg according to claim 8, wherein an image of the egg is obtained on an imaging surface divided into two at the center of each roller passing therethrough. 10. The method according to claim 8 or 9, wherein an egg is linearly imaged in parallel with an axis of the roller conveyor,
A method of rotating an egg, thereby forming a linear image of at least a part of the egg parallel to the main axis of the egg. 11. The method according to claim 8, wherein in order to obtain the direction signal, a length of each of the linear images or a partial length thereof is compared, and the direction signal is obtained. A method of rotating an egg, comprising comparing the predetermined signal characteristics and then generating the rotation signal.