JP2002039947A - Appearance inspecting apparatus for agricultural product - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To reduce expense load of excessive facilities by satisfying a market or producer's demand, while preceding an efficiency of a selectively sorting processing. SOLUTION: An appearance inspecting apparatus for an agricultural product comprises a conveyor 1 for conveying many agricultural products 2 longitudinally separately, an appearance imaging means having a sensor camera 3 for imaging the appearance of the conveyed product 2, and an image signal processing system for acquiring selected information of the product from an imaged picture signal. In the apparatus, the imaging means has an optical system for imaging respective side images of the conveyed product from obliquely forward and from obliquely backward, and a signal-capturing system for capturing the side image signals. The apparatus also comprises an image-separating means for inhibiting contacting of the side image signals of the product captured by the capturing system of the side image between the products so as to be conveyed adjacently in the longitudinal direction of the conveying direction.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an apparatus for inspecting the appearance of agricultural products used in a facility for sorting and packaging agricultural products such as oranges and apples, and more particularly, to an agricultural product which is continuously transported on a conveyor or the like at a high speed. The present invention relates to an apparatus that can reliably extract information on the appearance of each agricultural product.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, the size and quality of agricultural products such as fruits and vegetables have been criteria for evaluation in a market, and the evaluation is reflected in the handling price in the market. In order to reflect the value of the market in the income of producers, each agricultural product is handled in such a way that it is sorted and packaged according to the items that have almost the same evaluation.

[0003] In order to effectively realize such handling, the agricultural products are produced at a fruit sorting place adjacent to an area close to the production site where the producers leave the hands of the producers and shift to the distribution process of the trade. Has been evaluated above. Sorting and sorting of agricultural products brought in from producers has recently been performed by mechanized and automated equipment.

Elements for sorting and sorting agricultural products are class elements such as the size and shape of agricultural products, and grade elements such as surface scratches and colors, and these elements are distinguished by mechanical or automated equipment. To judge), it is common to image the appearance of agricultural products.

[0005] An apparatus for imaging the appearance of agricultural products includes an imaging system comprising various cameras, an illuminating means for effectively performing imaging, and an optical system such as a mirror provided for imaging an area as large as possible of the appearance of the agricultural product. Various means have been proposed in the related art.

[0006] For example, in order to capture the appearance of the agricultural product as much as possible, a total of five screens of a top image of the transported agricultural product and a side image from the right and left oblique front sides to the right and left oblique rear sides are displayed. There is a proposal for an imaging device (Japanese Patent Publication No. Hei 7-99326, Japanese Patent Publication No. Hei 6-1031).
No. 70).

Further, when a transporting means such as a ball-shaped or the like, which is easy to roll, is sometimes transported in an overlapped manner, the degree of flatness is examined in relation to a flat area and a height, and the degree of flatness exceeds a predetermined value. In such a case, an apparatus for judging an abnormal conveyance state in which adjacent agricultural products are overlapped has been proposed (Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 62-266188). This device is effective for discriminating whether or not the images of agricultural products to be transported are individual ones.However, the transport target and the mode are special, and the agricultural products are separated from each other. It is not very useful in recent facilities where it is common to transport the products in a line.

[0008]

By the way, although the situation is completely different from the problem of Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. Sho 62-266188, the appearance information obtained by imaging the agricultural products which are continuously conveyed by a conveyor or the like is not included. The present inventor has found that the independence of each of the agricultural products may cause a problem in recently improved appearance inspection devices.

This is explained as follows. That is,
There is a demand for efficient and accurate inspection of the appearance of agricultural products, and various proposals described above have been made. For this reason, for example, in order to realize the efficient operation of the former inspection work, a conveyor conveyor is required. The number of processed products per unit time has been improved by increasing the transport speed (speeding up) due to such factors as increasing the distance between agricultural products before and after the transport direction. Further, in order to improve the accuracy of the inspection, it has been adopted that the area of the appearance to be imaged is made as wide as possible by the above-described five-screen imaging method or the like.

[0010] However, the method of imaging the side surface image of the agricultural product by the five-screen imaging method is not performed from the direction perpendicular to the transport direction, but from the diagonally front and oblique rear of the agricultural product to be transported. Is generally detected by a line sensor as a scanning direction. In general, a direction inclined at about 45 ° with respect to the transport direction is set as the imaging field of view. In this case, even if the agricultural products are transported in a row, the size of the agricultural products, the displacement of the agricultural products in the lateral direction, etc., so that the front or rear agricultural products do not block the visual field of view of the appearance of one agricultural product. As is clear from the geometrical analysis to perform, it is necessary that the front and rear agricultural products are separated by a certain length (distance) in the transport interval.
The distance (separation interval) between the front and rear agricultural products is preferably larger as the risk of obstructing the visual field is reduced as the distance is larger. On the other hand, the larger separation distance means that the number of processed products per unit time is reduced. Is not preferred. In addition, the above-mentioned "obstructed view" means
This means that the side image of a certain agricultural product and the side image of the agricultural product before or after it are connected and cannot be distinguished. In addition, this problem is peculiar to a side image in which the appearance is imaged obliquely to the transport direction, and does not occur to a top (planar) image.

To cope with the above-mentioned problem, for example, the separation interval is set to such an extent that connection of side images of agricultural products before and after transportation hardly occurs, and exceptionally, when such connection of side images occurs. It is conceivable to return (return) the agricultural product corresponding to this to the start end of the transport path of the visual inspection as a measurement failure, but it is not always easy to make such setting with the actual device, and the number of returns Increases, the amount of processing per unit time is reduced.

In addition, depending on the transport method, the distance between the front and rear of the agricultural product to be transported may be changed by the vibration of the conveyor, and there is a problem that the displacement in the lateral direction of the transport affects. However, even if the same oranges have a small diameter and a large diameter, there is also a problem that the influence on the "obstruction of the visual field" is different even if the distance between the front and rear is the same.

[0013] In addition, products produced in a production area where the management of the field is well managed are relatively stable in quality, so that it is possible to reduce the cost burden of installing excessive or excessive equipment. In some cases, priority is given.

The present invention has been made in view of the various problems described above, and has been made to provide a more effective agricultural product appearance inspection device within a required range.

[0015]

Means for Solving the Problems In order to achieve the above object, the invention (1) of the present invention of a visual inspection apparatus for agricultural products has the following configuration. (1) Conveying means for transporting a large number of agricultural products at a distance back and forth, appearance imaging means for imaging the appearance of each transported agricultural product, and said agricultural product from an electronic image signal indicating the imaged appearance of the agricultural product. An image signal processing system that obtains selection information of the side view, wherein the external appearance imaging means captures each side image of the side surface of the transported agricultural product from obliquely forward and obliquely rearward, and the side image imaging system A signal capturing system for capturing a digitized side image signal of the side image obtained from the optical system; and a side surface appearance inspection device including a side surface appearance imaging unit, the side image of the agricultural product captured by the signal capturing system for the side image. A configuration having an image separating means for preventing a signal from being connected between agricultural products conveyed adjacent to each other in the front-rear direction.

In the above, the conveying means may be any of a conveyor of a belt type, a bucket type, or the like, or a free tray type for transporting agricultural products placed on a tray called a so-called free tray.

The appearance photographing means is the above-mentioned Japanese Patent Publication No. Hei 7-9932.
No. 6 discloses a combination of an image pickup optical system including a reflection mirror and the like and a signal acquisition system such as a line sensor type CCD camera for replacing an optical signal from the optical system with electronic information. It can be preferably used, and at least as the side image capturing means, the agricultural product to be transported is continuously scanned in the vertical direction as a horizontal scanning line using the movement in the transport direction from obliquely forward and obliquely rearward in the agricultural product transport direction. 2 screens (four screens on both sides). The side images captured by these are, in the case of imaging of a spherically shaped agricultural product, in order to make the resolution of the captured image the same as the planar image, the length of the imaged screen is larger than the diameter 2r (r is a radius). Since πr is long, if the plane image is assumed to be circular, the side image (both obliquely forward and obliquely rearward) is oblong in the transport direction and becomes long.

The image separating means can be constructed as various types. For example, in the simplest case, a method is used in which the intermediate point between the connected side images obtained before and after the image is taken is a separation point between the images of the front and rear agricultural products. For example, when capturing the appearance of agricultural products conveyed at high speed, the latter capture signal itself is separated between the preceding and following agricultural products. This method is preferably adopted in order to quickly perform the subsequent image processing. As such a method for separating and capturing the side images of the front and rear agricultural products, for example, a sensor (hereinafter, referred to as a “passage detection sensor”) that detects whether or not the agricultural product is present on the transport means is used. By setting a slight expansion area before and after the detection area, the detection area limit is determined, and a method in which the expanded detection limit area overlaps between the front and rear agricultural products and the image non-detection range is cited. it can.

The apparatus for inspecting the appearance of agricultural products according to the present invention may further have the following characteristic configurations (2) to (7). (2) The agricultural product appearance inspection device according to (1), wherein the side image capturing optical system is installed on both sides of the transport path of the agricultural product in the transport lateral direction. (3) The side surface appearance imaging means having the side image pickup optical system and the signal acquisition system, the signal acquisition system is constituted by a line sensor, and the field of view of the side image pickup optical system that guides the image pickup optical image to the line sensor. The agricultural product appearance inspection device according to (1) or (2), wherein the device is installed at an angle of approximately 45 ° with respect to the agricultural product transport direction. (4) The image separating means for preventing the side image signals between the agricultural products conveyed in front and rear in the transport direction from being connected to each other detects the passage of the agricultural product installed on the upstream side of the transportation from the side image capturing position. Any one of the above (1) to (3), comprising: a passage detection sensor that performs the detection, and an image separation signal output unit that outputs a control signal for image separation by using detection information of the passage detection sensor as a trigger. Apparatus for inspecting the appearance of agricultural products. (5) The image separation signal output means sets the predetermined range in the agricultural product transport direction before and after the detection of the trigger signal as a removal range of the agricultural product side image signal, using the detection signal of the passage detection sensor as a trigger. The visual inspection device for agricultural products according to the above (4), comprising: (6) The appearance inspection of the agricultural product according to (5), wherein the image signal removing unit is a unit for outputting a side image capture range signal for setting a capture range of the side image signal when a trigger signal is detected. apparatus. (7) The external appearance imaging means is provided on both sides of the transport path of the agricultural product in the horizontal direction of the transport of the agricultural product, and a planar image capturing optical system for capturing a planar image of the agricultural product to be transported. (1) to (5), characterized in that it is a five-sided image pickup type including four side image pickup optical systems for picking up each side image from the side and obliquely from behind.
(6) The agricultural product appearance inspection device according to any of (6).

[0020]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Embodiment 1 The apparatus for inspecting the appearance of agricultural products according to this embodiment shown in FIGS.
Except for the configuration of the side image signal capturing system, the imaging optical system and the like are substantially the same as those disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication No. 7-99326 described above, and therefore will be briefly described with reference thereto.

In FIG. 1, 1 is a conveyor, 2 is an agricultural product whose appearance is to be inspected, such as an apple, 3 is a camera,
An appearance image of the agricultural product 2 illuminated by an illumination optical system (not shown) is guided to the camera 3 by an imaging optical system including a large number of mirrors, and is captured as an electronic image signal. Reference numerals 51 to 53 denote mirror systems for a plane image, 61 and 62 denote mirror systems for capturing a side image of the agricultural product 2 from the diagonally forward direction in the transport direction, and 71 and 72 denote the mirror system for the agricultural product 2 from the diagonally backward direction. Mirror systems 81 and 82 for capturing side images are mirror systems 61 and 62.
And a reflection mirror system for guiding the images from 71 and 72 to the camera 3, and these are arranged in pairs symmetrically on the left and right in the transport direction.

The state of capturing the side image of the agricultural product in the appearance inspection apparatus having the above-described configuration will be described with reference to the case of capturing the image from the diagonally left front in the transport direction shown in FIG. The vertical line-shaped image formed by the light rays reflected by the surface is first reflected from the first side mirror 61 to the second side mirror 62, and then from the third side mirror 81 arranged above to the fourth side mirror 81. The line sensor 30 passes through the side mirror 82 and the lens 301 of the camera 3.
An image is formed on the assigned image sensor surface on the second 2 and is captured as an electronic signal. This image is formed on the conveyor 1
Is taken in as a continuous image along with the conveyance by.

In the same manner, a side image of the diagonally right front and a side image of the diagonally rear right and left are formed on the assigned image sensor surface on the line sensor 302 through the lens 301 of the camera 3 and are digitized signals. As shown in FIG. 3, five screens (a plane image A, a left oblique front image B _L , a right oblique front image B _R , and a left oblique image) as shown in FIG. Appearance captured images of the rear image C _L and the right oblique rear image C _R ) are captured as digitized signals.

The limit to which the side images of the agricultural product 2 before and after being continuously conveyed in the conveying direction are connected is, as shown in FIG. 4, whether or not the field of view obliquely taken with respect to the conveying direction is interrupted. If the actual separation distance is greater than the length D, the side images of the front and rear agricultural products will be interrupted, but there is actually an influence of the lateral displacement d of the front and rear agricultural products in the transport lateral direction. Unless the distance is set to be larger, the influence of image connection cannot be avoided.

The above configuration has a feature in this embodiment that the following configuration is adopted for capturing a side image.

That is, in this example, when the agricultural product 2 is transported from the left to the right in FIG. 5, the passage detection sensor 4 (the transport A sensor that detects the presence of an object by intercepting a light beam in the horizontal direction is disposed, and a signal (a) in which the presence of an object is detected by the sensor 4 is detected. Then, together with the signal output during the length L of the agricultural product indicated by the detection signal, a signal shifted by + α to the front of the signal (b: the signal length indicating the length of the agricultural product is the same ( L), but a signal shifted to the front side in the transport direction by α) and a signal shifted rearward by a length of −α (c: the signal length indicating the length of the agricultural product is the same (L). However, a shift signal that is shifted to the rear side in the transport direction by α is generated, and from these three signals (a) to (c),
Exclusive OR of signals (b) and (c) (X in terms of circuit)
OR circuit) and the logical sum of the signal (a),
An area for capturing an image is set.
The information of these signals (a) to (c) is sent to an image capture control system at the appearance imaging position, and the feed control means such as an encoder or a pulse motor that strictly controls the feed speed of the transport conveyor is used. The operation timing is managed.

That is, (a) to (c) in the above configuration
Are used to determine an image area in which the side image of the agricultural product is to be captured, and the camera 3 always captures the appearance side image of the agricultural product in the area where the signal is output.

On the other hand, in an area outside this area, whether or not the side view image of the agricultural product is captured by the camera 3 depends on the output state of the signal (b) and the output state of the signal (c). Become.

To further explain these, as shown in FIG. 6, when the distance between the conveyed agricultural products is sufficiently large (long), the length of the image A of the planar image of one agricultural product is obtained. The relationship between the length of the side images B and C, which are obtained by expanding the image in the length direction, and the length of the image actually captured as the captured image is as follows.

That is, the signal (a) of the length L of the agricultural product in the transport direction detected by the physical presence detection sensor 4 at a predetermined position on the upstream side of the above-described imaging position of the camera 3 and the front of the transport direction. And the length L shifted by α later, from the same signal (b) and signal (c), [(a) OR [(b)
XOR (c)]], the signal in the captured image area obtained by extraction using the logical formula of (XOR (c)) has a length of (α + L + α) when the side images of the agricultural product before and after transport are not connected. Therefore, images of five screens (including side images) of the entire area can be captured for each agricultural product.

On the other hand, as shown in FIG. 7, when the distance between the agricultural products to be transported is narrow (short), the signal (c) shifted backward from the agricultural product being transported before (preceding). In contrast, the signal (b) shifted to the front of the agricultural product conveyed behind it overlaps, and according to the logical expression of [(b) XOR (c)], the overlapping portion (△ α ₁ ) Is canceled and no signal (a) is output to the same part, so [(a) OR
The output from [(b) XOR (c)]] is zero (no image capture signal). Note that α− △ α ₁ =
△ alpha ₂ parts signals of the image capture is output.

In this way, when the side images of the agricultural products before and after transportation are connected, the area of the apparatus of the present embodiment where the image is not automatically taken in is set. The side images are not linked. Then, when such an image capture mode satisfies the requirement of accuracy required for sorting and sorting based on the appearance imaging of agricultural products, processing can be performed without reducing the processing amount per unit time, From the viewpoint of cost-effectiveness, the performance required by inexpensive equipment can be satisfied, and extremely excellent effects can be obtained industrially.

If the length of the connection portion is too large (long), an inappropriate agricultural product is detected by comparing it with a predetermined threshold value, and if necessary, return to the starting end side. It can also be processed.

As described above, according to the present embodiment, it is possible to execute an effective appearance inspection that balances the accuracy of the appearance inspection of agricultural products and the processing efficiency, and has an excellent effect in industrial agricultural product sorting. Can be.

[0035]

According to the invention of the present application, priority is given to the processing capability of the appearance inspection apparatus, and the separation distance before and after the continuously transported agricultural products is made as small as possible, while the front and rear side images are continuously connected. There is an effect that the captured image related to the side image of the agricultural product can be separated without bias to any side.

The adoption of such a method and apparatus has the effect that the processing ability and accuracy of the appearance inspection of agricultural products can be improved in a balanced manner without being biased to one side. For agricultural products produced in a field where is stable, an extremely excellent processing speed can be realized, and the advantage of reducing required cost for required processing capacity can be obtained.

In other words, even if there is an error in the separation interval between the agricultural products before and after the transportation and a deviation in the lateral direction of the transportation, etc.
There is an effect that efficient processing can be realized without significantly affecting the accuracy of sorting and sorting of agricultural products.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective explanatory view showing an outline of an example of an agricultural product appearance inspection apparatus to which the present invention is applied;

FIG. 2 is a perspective explanatory view illustrating an imaging mode of a farm product side image in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a 5-screen imaging region of agricultural products.

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating a case where side images of agricultural products before and after transportation are connected.

FIG. 5 is a view for explaining an operation state of image pickup of agricultural products in the first embodiment.

FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram in the case where the distance between agricultural products before and after transportation is long in the first embodiment.

FIG. 7 is an explanatory diagram in the case where the distance between agricultural products before and after transport is short in the first embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

1: Conveyor 2: Agricultural products 3: Camera 301: Lens 302: Line sensor 61, 62: Mirror system that captures side images of agricultural products from diagonally forward in the transport direction 71, 72: Captures side images of agricultural products from diagonally backward in the transport direction Mirror systems 81 and 82: Reflection mirror system A: Plane image B: Oblique front side image C: Oblique rear side image

Continuation of the front page F term (reference) 2F065 AA49 BB15 CC00 FF04 JJ02 JJ25 LL12 MM03 PP15 QQ31 UU07 2G051 AA05 AB07 AB20 CA03 CA04 CB01 CC11 DA17 EA02 EA30 EB01 EC01 3F079 AC21 CA21 CA23 CA42 CB25 ABC CB25 ACB CB25 ACB CB25 ACB CB25 ACB CB25 ABC CB23

Claims (7)

[Claims] 1. A transport means for transporting a large number of agricultural products at a distance back and forth, an external appearance imaging means for imaging the external appearance of each transported agricultural product, and a computerized image signal showing the external appearance of the captured agricultural products. An image signal processing system for obtaining the sorting information of the agricultural product, wherein the appearance imaging means captures each side image of the side surface of the transported agricultural product from obliquely forward and obliquely backward; And a signal capturing system for capturing a digitized side image signal of the side image obtained from the image capturing optical system. An apparatus for inspecting the appearance of agricultural products, comprising an image separating means for preventing a side image signal from being connected between agricultural products which are transported adjacently in the transport direction. 2. The visual inspection apparatus for agricultural products according to claim 1, wherein the side image capturing optical systems are installed on both sides of the agricultural product transport path in the transport lateral direction. 3. A side surface imaging unit having the side image capturing optical system and a signal capturing system, wherein the signal capturing system is constituted by a line sensor, and the side image capturing optical system for guiding an image capturing optical image to the line sensor. The agricultural product appearance inspection device according to claim 1, wherein the visual field is installed at an angle of approximately 45 ° with respect to the agricultural product transport direction. 4. The image separating means for preventing a side image signal between agricultural products conveyed adjacently in the front and rear in the conveying direction from being connected to each other, the passage of the agricultural product installed upstream of the conveyance from the side image capturing position. 4. A sensor according to claim 1, further comprising: a passage detection sensor for detecting the image signal; and image separation signal output means for outputting a control signal for image separation by using detection information of the passage detection sensor as a trigger. Appearance inspection device for agricultural products described. 5. An image signal for setting a predetermined range in the direction of transport of agricultural products before and after detection of the trigger signal as a removal range of the agricultural product side image signal, using the detection signal of the passage detection sensor as a trigger. The apparatus for inspecting the appearance of agricultural products according to claim 4, further comprising a removing unit. 6. The appearance of an agricultural product according to claim 5, wherein the image signal removing unit is a unit for outputting a side image capture range signal for setting a capture range of the side image signal when a trigger signal is detected. Inspection equipment. 7. The external appearance imaging means is provided with a planar image capturing optical system that captures a planar image of the agricultural product to be transported, and installed on both sides of the transport path of the agricultural product in the transport lateral direction, and scans the side of the transportable agricultural product from both sides. 7. A five-sided image pickup type comprising four side image pickup optical systems for picking up respective side images from obliquely forward and obliquely rearward, according to any one of claims 1 to 6, wherein A visual inspection device for agricultural products.