JP2002255340A - Cargo sorting system - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To read written information of a radio tag securely to sort cargoes, to reduce sorting error, to add new item information easily, and to recover the radio tag from the cargo for reuse. SOLUTION: The radio tag 1 in which destination information is written is detachably attached to the cargo 4 to convey it on a conveyance line 11. This conveyance line is provided with an information receiving system 12 having an antenna 16 to receive the written information of the radio tag attached to the cargo, convert it into required information, and then transmit it to a sorting handling system 13. This sorting handling system is a cargo sorting system determining destination based on the received information, sorting and handling cargoes depending on destination, and conveying them depending on destination.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a baggage sorting system used for sorting checked baggage and the like.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In the postal service, courier service, and other distribution industries, etc., checked-in luggage is sent out to specific individuals, companies, or prefectures, and luggage collected at a local collection point is collected by a local collection center. Although shipment is performed separately for each city and town, a package sorting system is used because a large number of packages need to be sorted according to destinations, which are shipping destinations.

Conventionally, this baggage sorting system sticks paper or the like on which a barcode or the like is printed at an appropriate place of the checked baggage, and optically reads the barcode printed on the paper or the like with a barcode reader. Sorting is performed for each destination, or sorting is performed so that the checked luggage can be easily picked up.

[0004]

However, the following problems have been pointed out in the baggage sorting system using a barcode as described above.

If the package does not have a fixed portion such as a handle, it is very difficult to attach a barcode-printed paper or the like. In addition, if the barcode paper is glued, the glue remains after the paper is peeled off, part of the paper does not peel off, or if the barcode is wrinkled when pasted, the barcode is read by the reader. There is a problem that reading is difficult.

Further, even if a tag attached with a barcode is attached to the checked baggage, it becomes unnecessary after the baggage is picked up and cannot be reused.

When a new item is added to a barcode that has already been printed, a new barcode must be printed on paper again, and there is a problem of lack of expandability or flexibility.

The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and writes information such as a destination to a wireless tag, reads the information and determines the destination, and sorts the destination while identifying the destination without mistakes. Another object of the present invention is to provide a baggage sorting system in which items can be easily added.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a baggage sorting system capable of collecting and reusing packages after sorting.

[0010]

Means for Solving the Problems (1) In order to solve the above problems, a luggage sorting system according to the present invention comprises a wireless tag detachably attached to luggage, on which information including a destination is written; An information receiving system that receives write information of a wireless tag attached to the package when the package is transported on the transport line, and a sorting processing system that sorts the package by destination based on the information received by the information receiving system And destination-specific transport means for transporting the packages sorted by the sorting system by destination.

According to the present invention having the above-described configuration, a wireless tag on which information including a destination is written is detachably attached to a package to be sorted. It can be used, and because it is a wireless tag, it can be reused many times over,
It is possible to save resources.

Also, the information receiving system receives the write information of the wireless tag attached to the package, determines the destination of the package based on the received information, sorts the package according to the destination, and transports the package by destination-specific transport means. It is possible to carry the checked baggage properly according to the required destination.

[0013]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

First, prior to describing the luggage sorting system (see FIG. 1) according to the present invention, it is necessary to attach a wireless tag 1 in which required information such as a destination and an article name is written to checked luggage to be sorted. An example of writing required information to the wireless tag 1 will be described with reference to FIG.

The wireless tag 1 includes, for example, a coil that receives external magnetic energy to induce electric energy,
It is composed of an IC or the like that converts electric energy induced in the coil into required data and stores the data.

Writing necessary information including a destination to the wireless tag 1 is performed by an information registration processing terminal 2 such as a computer having input means such as a keyboard and a mouse, and a magnetic field corresponding to transmission information from the terminal 2. A transmitter 3 with a transmitting antenna for transmitting energy, and when a destination, a product name and other necessary information are input from an input means and a write command is given, the destination, a product name, and other necessary information are transmitted from the transmitter 3 with the transmitting antenna. The transmitted magnetic energy is written to the IC of the wireless tag 1.

Then, the wireless tag 1 in which the destination, the name of the article, and other necessary information are written is attached to the baggage 4 to be sorted as shown in FIG.

The means for attaching the wireless tag 1 to the checked baggage 4 is as shown in FIG.
The tag case 5 is detachably attached using a string or other hanging members 7.

If there is no easy-to-attach portion such as the handle 6 in the checked baggage 4, a detachable belt 8 is wrapped around the checked baggage 4, as shown in FIG. Attach the tag case 5 via
The wireless tag 1 may be stored in the tag case 5.

Although the RFID tag 1 is stored in the tag case 5, it is not always necessary to use the tag case 5, and in other words, any case may be used as long as the tag 1 is stored.

Next, an embodiment of a package sorting system according to the present invention will be described with reference to FIG.

The luggage sorting system comprises a conveyor 11 comprising a belt conveyor or the like for sequentially transporting luggage 4 to be sorted to which a wireless tag 1 in which necessary information such as a destination and an article name is written is attached. An information receiving system 12 (see FIG. 5) for receiving write information of the wireless tag 1 attached to the package 4 when the package 4 is transported on the transport line of the transport device 11, and the information receiving system 12 From the information received by the sorting processing system 13 for opening and driving the gate of the determined destination.
The luggage 4 branched from the transfer device 11 for each destination and passing through the gate opened by the sorting processing system 13 (see FIG. 5) is sorted, for example, by a destination sorter (not shown).
, And the like, and transport paths 14a, 14b,...

As shown in FIG. 5, the information receiving system 12 includes an antenna 1 for receiving write information of a wireless tag 1 attached to a package 4 which is transported on a transport line of a transport device 11.
6 and the switching of the antenna 16 and the antenna 1
And a wireless tag information processing terminal 17 which is a wireless tag information processing means for converting the information received in 6 into required information so as to be suitable for processing of the subsequent device.

The antenna 16 transports each of the surfaces facing the transport line of, for example, the inverted concave hollow body 18 erected so as to straddle the transport line of the transport device 11 and the transport so as not to be affected by the movement of the transport line of the transport device 11. A coil-shaped antenna element group is arranged on the line surface. In other words, a coil-shaped antenna element group is arranged so as to surround the package 4 being transported, and the write information of the wireless tag 1 can be received even if the tag case 5 is located on any surface of the package 4. ing.

The radio tag information processing terminal 17 switches the above-described antenna elements on each surface to prevent the reception of the write information of the radio tag 1 from being reduced in accordance with the position of the tag case 5. It converts information received by the antenna element into required information, and is installed at an appropriate location of the inverted concave hollow body 18 or at an appropriate space location below the transport device 11.

The sorting processing system includes the information receiving system 12
A sorting information processing terminal 19 for determining the destination of the package 4 based on required information sent from the wireless tag information processing terminal 17 and outputting gate control information of the determined destination; A sorting device 20 that opens and drives a destination gate based on gate control information output from the information processing terminal 19 is provided. Note that a configuration may be adopted in which a partition plate is provided instead of the gate, the partition plate is operated for each destination, and the package 4 is guided to the corresponding destination-specific transport path.

Next, the operation of the above system will be described.

First, using the information registration processing terminal 2 shown in FIG. 2, necessary information including the destination of the package 4 is input from the input means, and the necessary information is transmitted from the transmitter 3 with the antenna. Write to. The wireless tag 1 in which necessary information is written is stored in a tag case 4 attached to the package 4 as shown in FIGS. That is, the wireless tag 1 having information such as a destination is attached to each of the checked luggage 4.

In the state described above, when the checked luggage 4 is sequentially loaded into the transport device 11 of the luggage sorting system shown in FIG. 1, each luggage 4 passes through the inverted concave hollow body 18 on the transport line. At this time, the wireless tag information processing terminal 1
7 sequentially switches the antenna element group arranged in the inverted concave hollow body 18 and the like, and receives the write information of the wireless tag 1 through the antenna element closest to the wireless tag 1 attached to the package 4.

The information received by the antenna 16 is sent to the wireless tag information processing terminal 17, where it is converted into information suitable for subsequent processing and sent to the sorting information processing terminal 19 constituting the sorting processing system 13.

In this sorting information processing terminal 19, the relationship between destinations and destination-specific transport paths or gates corresponding to sorters at the end of destination-specific transport paths is defined in advance. The destination is determined based on the information sent from the device, and the control information of the required gate or partition plate is transmitted to the sorting device 20. Upon receiving the control information of the gate or the partition plate, the sorting device 20 drives the gate or the partition plate according to the control information, and determines the destination-specific transport path of the load 4, for example, 14.
By leading the luggage 4 to the destination a, the luggage 4 can be stored in a destination, for example, a sorter or the like, by appropriately selecting the destination transport path that is the write information of the wireless tag 1.

Therefore, according to the above-described embodiment, the RFID tag 1 is stored in the tag case 5 detachably attached to the baggage 4, and the destination is determined based on the write information of the RFID tag 1. Therefore, the wireless tag 1 including the tag case 5 can be easily collected from the luggage 4 after the luggage has been sorted, and can be reused.

The wireless tag 1 can write information over and over again, so that not only resources can be saved, but also new information can be easily added, and not only destinations but also various information can be stored. By writing, it can be used for various uses that are rich in expandability and flexibility.

Further, the wireless tag 1 is attached to the package 4 and the write information of the wireless tag 1 is received and judged by using the three-dimensional antenna 16 to sort the destination according to the destination of the package. As compared with the case of (1), sorting errors are eliminated, and the sorting operation can be performed efficiently.

(Other Embodiments) In the above embodiment, the destination of the baggage 4 is written as the main information in the wireless tag 1. For example, if the ticket information of the individual is written, when the baggage is picked up, If the checked baggage 4 is collected and collated with the tally, the checked baggage can be accurately delivered to the custodian.

In addition, the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment, and can be variously modified and implemented without departing from the gist thereof. Further, the embodiments can be implemented in combination as much as possible, and in that case, the effect of the combination can be obtained. Furthermore, each of the above embodiments includes various upper and lower stage inventions, and various inventions can be extracted by appropriately combining a plurality of disclosed components. For example, if an invention is extracted because some constituent elements can be omitted from all the constituent elements described in Means for Solving the Problems, the omitted part may be omitted when implementing the extracted invention. Is appropriately supplemented by well-known conventional techniques.

[0037]

As described above, according to the present invention, it is possible to sort the package by reliably reading the write information of the wireless tag, reduce sorting errors by comparing with the bar code, and facilitate new item information. Can be added to

Further, according to the present invention, after sorting of the package, the wireless tag can be easily collected from the package and reused, which can greatly contribute to resource saving.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram showing an embodiment of a baggage sorting system according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 illustrates an example of writing information to a wireless tag to which a package is attached.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example of attaching a wireless tag to a package.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing another example of attaching a wireless tag to a package.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram illustrating a receiving system for writing information of a wireless tag and a sorting processing system for sorting packages based on information received by the receiving system in the package sorting system according to the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Wireless tag 2 ... Information registration processing terminal 3 ... Transmitter with antenna 4 ... Luggage 5 ... Tag case 6 ... Handle part 8 ... Belt 11 ... Transport device 12 ... Information receiving system 13 ... Sorting processing system 14a, 14b, ... Destination-specific transport path 16 Antenna 17 Radio tag information processing terminal 19 Sorting information processing terminal 20 Sorting device

 ────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuing on the front page (72) Katsumi Hirano, Inventor Katsumi Hirano 1-1-1, Shibaura, Minato-ku, Tokyo F-term in the head office of Toshiba Corporation 3F015 AA06 HA01 JC02 JC08 JC12 JC15 JC23

Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. A luggage sorting system for sorting luggage by destination while transporting luggage on a transportation line, comprising: a wireless tag removably attached to the luggage, on which information including a destination is written, and luggage transportation on the transportation line. An information receiving system for receiving write information of a wireless tag attached to the package, a sorting system for sorting the packages by destination based on the information received by the information receiving system, and a sorting system. A destination-specific transport unit for transporting the packages sorted by destination according to destinations. 2. The luggage sorting system according to claim 1, wherein the information receiving system receives an antenna for receiving write information of a wireless tag attached to a luggage carrying the carrying line, and the information received by the antenna. A luggage sorting system comprising: a wireless tag information processing means for converting information into required information. 3. The luggage sorting system according to claim 1, wherein the sorting processing system determines a destination of the package based on information received by the information receiving system, and the drive control information of the determined destination. And a sorting device for driving a destination gate or a partition plate based on the drive control information output from the sorting information processing means. 4. The luggage sorting system according to claim 1, wherein said means for writing information including the destination to said wireless tag is information registration processing means for inputting and registering information including the destination of said luggage; A luggage sorting system, comprising: a writing antenna for writing the information including the input destination into the wireless tag based on the registration processing of the information registration processing means. 5. The luggage sorting system according to claim 1, wherein the means for attaching a wireless tag to the luggage comprises a wireless tag attached to a holding portion of the luggage or a tag case removably attached to a belt wound around the luggage. A luggage sorting system characterized by storing tags.