JP2021178732A - Inspection device - Google Patents

Abstract

To provide an inspection device capable of suppressing a sharp increase of a commodity cost while improving working efficiency by inspecting whether one or more packaged articles to be shipped are in agreement with shipping inventory information without manual operation.SOLUTION: An inspection device 11 for inspecting whether one or more packaged articles 3 to be shipped are in agreement with shipping inventory information comprises: a photographing unit 5 for photographing the one or more packaged articles 3; a database 14 for storing external appearance information of commodities for each commodity kind; and an image comparison unit 15 which compares the one or more packaged articles 3 photographed by the photographing unit 5 with the external appearance information stored in the database 14 to inspect whether the shipping inventory information is in agreement with the one or more packaged articles 3.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 2

Description

The present invention relates to an inspection device, and more particularly to an inspection device most suitable for inspection work at the time of product shipment in the logistics industry.

In recent years, storeless sales forms using TV and the Internet have become widespread, and sales forms for shipping products that meet the various needs of customers are also diversifying.

Further, at the time of product shipment, it is necessary to inspect whether the product desired by each customer is properly shipped.

Here, from the viewpoint of reducing the product cost, a technique for inspecting the product without human intervention is also considered (see, for example, Patent Document 1).

The technique disclosed in Patent Document 1 can inspect whether the number of shipped products and the product arrangement are appropriate by using the weights of a plurality of types of shipped products and camera images of the shipped products. can.

Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2014-21646

However, in the inspection device disclosed in such prior art documents, it is confirmed by weight whether a specific product is out of stock, and a sample is made of whether all the shipped products are in an appropriate arrangement. It is confirmed by comparing the image with the camera image.

However, the above-mentioned conventional technique has a problem that it can be applied only to a specific set product such as a trial set of cosmetics, and it is not possible to deal with different product shipments for each customer. Was there.

In other words, when diversifying product shipments, work efficiency can be improved if inspection work can be performed not only for uniform product shipments such as set sales, but also for product shipments that differ for each customer without human intervention. It is possible to suppress soaring product costs while improving.

The problem of the present invention is that, in order to solve the above-mentioned problems, it is possible to inspect whether one or more packed articles to be shipped match the shipping catalog information without human intervention, and work efficiency. It is an object of the present invention to provide an inspection device capable of suppressing a rise in product cost while improving the above.

The inspection device according to the present invention is an inspection device that inspects whether one or more packed articles to be shipped match the shipping list information in order to achieve the above object, and is one or more packed items. A photographing unit for photographing an article, a database unit for storing appearance information of a product for each product type, one or more packed articles photographed by the photographing unit, and the appearance information stored in the database unit. It is provided with an image comparison unit for inspecting whether or not the shipping list information and the one or more packed articles match each other.

Here, the appearance information of the product is information representing the appearance, and may be, for example, design information attached to the product, shape information, vertical / horizontal dimension information, or aspect ratio information. As a result, highly diverse appearance information can be stored in the database unit.

Further, the design attached to the product may include, for example, a part or the whole of a picture on the design, characters such as a product name and a product number, which are printed or attached to the front of the package. This causes confusion as to which barcode should be read for inspection even when two or more barcodes are written side by side on the front of the package to be the surface to be photographed. Instead, it is possible to simply treat the barcodes written side by side as a pattern.

Further, when there are a plurality of items to be packed, the image comparison unit may perform comparison individually or as a whole.

According to the present invention, it is possible to inspect whether one or more packed articles to be shipped match the shipping catalog information without relying on human hands, and it is possible to improve work efficiency and suppress soaring product costs. be able to.

It is a system diagram of an example which applied the inspection apparatus which concerns on this invention to a packing system. It is a block explanatory drawing which shows one Embodiment of the inspection apparatus which concerns on this invention.

Next, an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

As shown in FIG. 1, in a packing system including an inspection device, a shape-retaining member 2 conveyed by a belt conveyor 1 is, for example, one or more packed articles 3 to which an ordered product for each customer is to be shipped. The robot arm 4 to be relocated, the photographing unit 5 such as a digital photographing camera for photographing the packed article 3 transferred to the shape-retaining member 2 from above, and the packed article 3 after inspection are heat-shrinkable transparent films ( It is provided with a packing device 6 for packing by (not shown).

The shape-retaining member 2 has a function of protecting the packaged article 3 from damage, and is, for example, a sheet material having an air cap attached to the inner surface of a corrugated cardboard sheet, thick paper, an envelope, or other paper that can be folded in multiples. As described above, the present invention is not particularly limited as long as it has a function of protecting the enclosed packaged article 3 against an impact during transportation of the packaged article 3 after shipment.

Here, the robot arm 4 uses the belt conveyor 1 as a basket 8 in which the packed article 3 is stored in association with the sheet 7 on which the shipping list information (order slip, shipping slip, delivery note, invoice, etc.) is described. It is transferred to the shape-retaining member 2 of the belt conveyor 1 at a predetermined position by the belt conveyor 9 that conveys from the orthogonal direction to the approaching direction.

Therefore, the robot arm 4 first transfers the sheet 7 to the upper surface of the shape-retaining member 2, and then transfers each product to the same shape-retaining member 2 if necessary.

The robot arm 4 has a base shaft portion 4a capable of rotating 90 ° or more between the belt conveyor 1 and the belt conveyor 9, and the sheet 7 and the packed article 3 can be individually adsorbed up, down, left, right, front and back. It is provided with two or more joint arm portions 4b, 4c that rotate in a direction.

The robot arm 4 is computer-controlled so that all the packed articles 3 stored in the basket 8 conveyed by the belt conveyor 9 can be transferred to the shape-retaining member 2 according to the number or the like.

Here, the robot arm 4 uses computer control using shipping catalog information (order slip, shipping slip, delivery slip, billing slip, etc.) for information such as the number of packed articles 3 stored in the basket 8. Is desirable.

For example, various numbers (slip number, bar code, two-dimensional bar code, etc.) 7a are printed or attached to the sheet 7 on which the shipping list information is described, and a computer using the shipping list information by reading this is printed or attached. Control is possible.

The empty basket 8 after the packed article 3 is transferred to the shape-retaining member 2 is transferred to the collection table (which may be a belt conveyor or the like) 10 by the robot arm 4 and can be collected.

As shown in FIG. 2, the inspection device 11 includes a photographing unit 5 such as a photographing camera, a frame memory 12 for storing an image captured by the photographing unit 5, and an image identification unit 13 for identifying an image stored in the frame memory 12. A shipping list is compared between the database unit 14 that stores the appearance information of the product for each product type, and the appearance information of one or more packed articles photographed by the photographing unit 5 and the product stored in the database unit 14. The image comparison unit 15 determines whether the information matches one or more packed articles, the image determination unit 16 that determines the comparison result of the image comparison unit 15, and the display unit 17 that displays the image stored in the frame memory 12. A storage unit 18 that stores the shipping inventory information, an output unit 20 that outputs the determination result of the image determination unit 16 to the conveyor system 19 including the belt conveyors 1 and 9, and a storage unit 18 that stores the shipping inventory information. It is provided with a communication control unit 22 for controlling a connection with an external computer 21 for performing external operations and a connection with an Internet (cloud) NT, and can be controlled by the control unit 23.

The frame memory 12 is designed to store image data for one frame taken by the shooting unit 5. The stored image data is identified by the image identification unit 13. Here, the image identification unit 13 can specify which product is placed on the shape-retaining member 2 from the appearance information of the product stored in the database unit 14. For example, as shown in FIG. 2B, the result of photography by the photographing unit 5 is that when the packed article 3 is products A, B, C, the product A is based on its appearance (shape, dimensions, aspect ratio, etc.). , B, C. The information that the identified packed article 3 is the goods A, B, and C is output to the image comparison unit 15.

At the same time, the control unit 23 causes the image identification unit 13 to read various numbers (slip number, bar code, two-dimensional bar code, etc.) 7a printed (or attached) on the sheet 7, and stores the customer information in the storage unit 18. The shipping list information for specifying the item of the packed article 3 is acquired from the above.

The image comparison unit 15 compares the packed article 3 (for example, products A, B, C) specified by the image identification unit 13 with the shipping catalog information stored in the storage unit 18.

Based on the comparison result compared by the image comparison unit 15, the image determination unit 16 determines whether or not the products A, B, and C as the packaged article 3 immediately before packing taken by the image comparison unit 5 match the shipping list information. To judge.

When the control unit 23 determines that the determination results of the image determination unit 16 match, the control unit 23 causes the output unit 20 to continue the operation of the conveyor system 19 so that the packed article 3 immediately before packing is film-packed by the packing device 6.

On the other hand, if the control unit 23 does not determine that the determination results of the image determination unit 16 match, the control unit 23 stops the operation of the conveyor system 19 and notifies the output unit 20 of an inspection error. This error notification may be marked on the display unit 17, or a buzzer or the like (not shown) may be sounded.

By the way, the image identification unit 13, the image comparison unit 15, and the image determination unit 16 individually extract each function, and one control unit 23 may execute each function of identification / comparison / determination.

As a result, for example, when the packed article 3 is the goods A, B, C as shown in FIG. 2 (B), the packed article 3 is the goods A, A, C, as shown in FIG. 2 (C). In the case of C, as shown in FIG. 2D, even if the non-constant packing target such as the case where the packed article 3 is the goods A, A, D, C is the packed article, the packing target is It is possible to inspect whether or not the product matches the shipped product for each customer without human intervention.

The appearance information stored in the database unit 14 not only corresponds to an image of the packed article 3 photographed from above by one photographing unit 5, but also corresponds to the upper side and the side (vertical side and horizontal side) of the packed article 3. Both of the two sides may be included), and the product height may be included in the identification / comparison / judgment target by taking a two-dimensional image.

Further, for example, if a new product is included in the packed article 3 and its appearance information is not accumulated in the database unit 14, there is a possibility that an error (mismatch) will occur in a normal side boat. be.

Therefore, if there is a product (for example, product D) whose appearance information for comparison is not included in the database unit 14, the control unit 23 is not out of stock or duplicated, via the communication control unit 22. By connecting to the Internet NT and referring to the shipping list information of the sheet 7 stored in the storage unit 18, searching for a product corresponding to the manufacturer or product number, the design attached to the product, or the shape / vertical / horizontal dimension of the product -By acquiring appearance information such as aspect ratio, appearance information can be newly created.

By adding the newly created appearance information, the control unit 23 can also be used as a learning function without the operator or the like using an external computer 21 to additionally input the appearance information.

Here, the appearance information of the product used by the image comparison unit 15 (or the control unit 23) is information representing the appearance, for example, design information attached to the product, shape information, vertical / horizontal dimension information, and the like. It may be aspect ratio information. As a result, highly diverse appearance information can be stored in the database unit 14.

In addition, the design attached to the product may include, for example, a part or the whole of a design picture, characters such as a product name / product number, etc. printed or attached to a sticker on the front of the product package. good. This causes confusion as to which barcode should be read for inspection even when two or more barcodes are written side by side on the front of the package to be the surface to be photographed. Instead, it is possible to simply treat the barcodes written side by side as a pattern.

Further, when the image comparison unit 15 (or the control unit 23) has a plurality of packed articles 3, the image comparison unit 15 (or the control unit 23) may perform comparison individually or as a whole.

Further, the packed article 3 has been described as being transferred from the belt conveyor 9 to the belt conveyor 1 by the robot arm 4, but for example, the conveyor unit branched to the belt conveyor 9 on the upstream side according to the product type and the like. The robot arm 4 may be abolished by using the robot arm 4 or by manually performing the robot arm 4.

1 Belt conveyor 2 Shape-retaining member 3 Packed article 4 Robot arm 4a Base shaft part 4b Joint arm part 5 Imaging part 6 Packing device 7 Sheet 8 Basket 9 Belt conveyor 11 Inspection device 12 Frame memory 13 Image identification part 14 Database part 15 Image comparison Unit 16 Image judgment unit 17 Display unit 18 Storage unit 19 Conveyor system 20 Output unit 21 External computer 22 Communication control unit 23 Control unit

Thus, the robot arm 4 is, after transferred to the upper surface of the shape retaining member 2 of the sheet 7 to the first to transfer the respective required items in the same shape retaining member 2.

As shown in FIG. 2, the inspection device 11 includes a photographing unit 5 such as a photographing camera, a frame memory 12 for storing an image captured by the photographing unit 5, and an image identification unit 13 for identifying an image stored in the frame memory 12. A shipping list is compared between the database unit 14 that stores the appearance information of the product for each product type, and the appearance information of one or more packed articles photographed by the photographing unit 5 and the product stored in the database unit 14. An image comparison unit 15 that compares whether the information matches one or more packed articles, an image determination unit 16 that determines the comparison result of the image comparison unit 15, and a display that displays an image stored in the frame memory 12. Unit 17, a storage unit 18 that stores shipping inventory information, an output unit 20 that outputs the determination result of the image determination unit 16 to a conveyor system 19 including belt conveyors 1 and 9, and a storage unit 18 that stores shipping inventory information. It is provided with a communication control unit 22 that controls a connection with an external computer 21 and a connection with an Internet (cloud) NT that performs an external operation such as making the user perform an external operation, and can be controlled by the control unit 23.

Claims (5)

An inspection device that inspects whether one or more packed items to be shipped match the shipping catalog information.
A photography unit that photographs one or more of the items to be packed, and
A database section that stores product appearance information for each product type,
The one or more packed articles photographed by the photographing unit are compared with the appearance information stored in the database unit, and it is inspected whether the shipping list information and the one or more packed articles match. An inspection device characterized by being provided with an image comparison unit. The inspection device according to claim 1, further comprising an image determination unit for determining whether or not the packed article matches the shipping catalog information based on the comparison result compared by the image comparison unit. The inspection device according to claim 2, wherein the image determination unit does not pack the packaged article when it determines that the packaged article does not match the shipping catalog information. Any of claims 1 to 3, wherein the image comparison unit uses a pattern attached to the product or any of the shape, the aspect dimension, and the aspect ratio of the product as the appearance information. Inspection device described in. When the appearance information to be compared by the image comparison unit is not stored, the database unit refers to the product information described in the shipping list information and obtains the appearance information from the product information published on the Internet. The inspection device according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein the inspection device is acquired and newly accumulated.

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