JP6360645B2 - Article storage and storage method and storage device - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a method of storing articles that are sequentially supplied in a line by a predetermined number, and an apparatus for carrying out the method.

  In an article production factory, a technique for aligning a predetermined number of articles that are sequentially manufactured in a manufacturing process and storing them in a transfer container in order to be transferred to the next process is an extremely important technique. (See, for example, cited document 1 and cited document 2).

  The thing shown in the cited document 1 was provided so that the articles | goods sent from the upstream one by one may be arranged in order to the several goods group, and this aligned several goods group might be enclosed so that the outer side might be enclosed here. The gap between two sets of gripping guides facing each other is narrowed and pressed from the surroundings to be collectively gripped and transferred to, for example, a pallet to be transferred to the next process.

  What is shown in the cited document 2 is a technique for transferring a plurality of articles to a load receiving device in a stable alignment state in which the plurality of articles are arranged in parallel to each other, and temporarily placing the plurality of articles in parallel on the receiving tray. Each temporarily placed article is held and held by a load holding device, and thereafter, each article is transferred to a load receiving conveyor in a parallel state.

JP 2004-323160 A JP-A-8-127423

  However, in the article transfer method of Patent Document 1, a plurality of aligned article groups are gripped by two sets of grip guides and transferred, and the article transfer method can be applied. If the article is a hard object such as a plastic container, for example, if it is a soft object, when the article is gripped by the grip guide, the article may be crushed or deformed due to the gripping force. And cannot be applied in terms of maintaining the quality of articles.

  Also, in the article transfer method of Patent Document 2, since each temporarily placed article is sandwiched and gripped by a load gripping device, the article is a soft material as in Patent Document 1. Not applicable in some cases.

  On the other hand, in the real world, the ratio of soft goods (for example, rice balls, baked goods, fresh confectionery, fruits, vegetables, etc.) to all goods is high, and at these production sites, these soft goods are crushed or deformed. Although it is desired to develop a technique for aligning in a line without causing them to be stored and storing (or transferring) in this aligned state, no technique capable of meeting such a request has been proposed.

  SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made with the object of providing an alignment storage method for storing soft articles in an aligned state without crushing or deforming them, and an alignment storage device used for carrying out the method.

  In the present invention, the following configuration is adopted as a specific means for solving such a problem.

In a first invention of the present application, in a method for aligning and storing articles in a tray in a state where a plurality of substantially triangular articles are aligned in a line, a substantially casing-shaped article receiving hand provided in a robot arm. At the end of the transfer of the plurality of articles to be transferred in an upright posture with the bottom surface of the article supply conveyor in contact with the article supply conveyor. Tilt to the side to be in a tilted posture and receive the tilted posture one by one in the article receiving hand, and each time the article is received, the article receiving hand is moved downward by a dimension substantially corresponding to the thickness of the article. The plurality of articles are aligned in a line in the vertical direction in the article receiving hand by moving, and then the article receiving hand is moved to the tray side, Is characterized in that housed was transferred to the plurality of articles aligned in a row to leave the tray side of the alignment.

  In a second invention of the present application, in the method for arranging and storing articles according to the first invention, when the article receiving hand is positioned in front of the article supply conveyor, the article receiving hand is positioned above the vertical line. The posture of the article receiving hand is set so as to incline in two directions, ie, the front side and the side side of the running direction of the article supply conveyor, and the article is received in the article receiving hand in this set posture. Yes.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, there is provided an article storage method for storing articles in a tray in a state where a plurality of articles are aligned in a line, and includes a substantially case-shaped article receiving hand for receiving a plurality of articles. Using the robot arm, the article receiving hand is positioned in front of the article supply conveyor in the traveling direction, and the articles sequentially supplied from the article supply conveyor are received one by one in the article receiving hand, and the articles are received. Each time the article receiving hand is moved downward by a dimension approximately corresponding to the thickness of the article, the plurality of articles are aligned in the vertical direction in the article receiving hand. in the hand is moved to the tray side, put housing transferred to the plurality of articles aligned in a row in the article receiving hand to remain above the tray side of the alignment, At least when the first row of articles is transferred, the opening surface of the article receiving hand is oriented toward one side wall of the tray, while at least when the last row of articles is transferred, the opening of the article receiving hand is opened. It is characterized in that it is performed in a posture in which the surface is directed toward the other side wall of the tray.

In a fourth invention of the present application, in a method for storing and storing articles in a tray in a state where a plurality of articles are aligned in a row, a robot having a substantially case-shaped article receiving hand for receiving a plurality of articles. Using the arm, with the article receiving hand positioned in front of the article supply conveyor in the traveling direction, the articles receiving hand receives the articles sequentially supplied from the article supply conveyor one by one, and each time the article is received By moving the article receiving hand downward by a dimension substantially corresponding to the thickness of the article, the plurality of articles are aligned in the vertical direction in the article receiving hand, and then the article receiving hand is moved. in the tray side is moved, placed in houses transferred the plurality of articles in the article receiving hands are aligned in a row to leave the tray side of the alignment, The serial was transferred insertion into the tray of a plurality of articles, and a distal end portion of the article characterized by performing while contacting the bottom surface of the tray.

In a fifth invention of the present application, an article supply conveyor that supplies articles in a substantially triangular shape one by one, a substantially case-shaped article receiving hand that receives articles supplied from the article supply conveyor, and the article at the tip of an arm An apparatus for storing and storing articles having a robot arm to which a receiving hand is attached , wherein the article supply conveyor feeds the article in an upright posture in which one bottom surface thereof is in contact with the article supply conveyor. In addition, at the end of feeding, the article is fed while being tilted to the side, and the robot arm receives the articles supplied in an inclined posture from the article supply conveyor one by one and each time the article is received. The article receiving hand is moved downward by a dimension substantially corresponding to the thickness of the article to align the plurality of articles in the article receiving hand in a vertical direction. A goods receiving operation, is characterized by being configured to perform the article storage operation a plurality of articles aligned in a row in the article receiving hand housing and was transferred to the left tray side of the alignment.

  According to a sixth invention of the present application, in the article storage device according to the fifth invention, two robot arms are arranged in parallel.

  In a seventh invention of the present application, in the article storage device according to the fifth or sixth invention, the article receiving hand is arranged with respect to a vertical line in the arrangement state of the article supply conveyor on the front side in the running direction. The article supply conveyor is inclined in two directions, ie, the front side and the side side in the running direction.

  In an eighth invention of the present application, in the article storage device according to the seventh invention, an inclination angle of the article receiving hand to the front side in the traveling direction of the article supply conveyor is 5 ° to 30 °, and a side thereof. The inclination angle to the side is 10 ° to 40 °.

In a ninth invention of the present application, an article supply conveyor for supplying articles one by one, a substantially case-shaped article receiving hand for receiving articles supplied from the article supply conveyor, and the article receiving hand attached to the tip of an arm The robot arm receives the articles supplied from the article supply conveyor one by one in a state where the article receiving hand is arranged on the front side in the running direction of the article supply conveyor. An article receiving operation in which the article receiving hand is moved downward by a dimension approximately corresponding to the thickness of the article to align the plurality of articles in a line in the vertical direction each time the article receiving hand is received, Executes an article storage operation for transferring a plurality of articles arranged in a line in the article receiving hand to the tray side in the aligned state and storing them. Is configured, furthermore, the article receiving hand, the depth dimension from the opening plane, is characterized in that it is set smaller than the width of the article in the該奥row direction.

In a tenth invention of the present application, an article supply conveyor for supplying articles one by one, a substantially case-shaped article receiving hand for receiving articles supplied from the article supply conveyor, and the article receiving hand attached to the tip of an arm The robot arm receives the articles supplied from the article supply conveyor one by one in a state where the article receiving hand is arranged on the front side in the running direction of the article supply conveyor. An article receiving operation in which the article receiving hand is moved downward by a dimension approximately corresponding to the thickness of the article to align the plurality of articles in a line in the vertical direction each time the article receiving hand is received, Executes an article storing operation for transferring a plurality of articles arranged in a line in the article receiving hand to the tray side in the aligned state and storing them. Configured urchin, further to the article receiving hand together with the article abuts article receiving surface is provided, is characterized in that a changeable shape of the article receiving surface.

  In the present invention, the following effects can be obtained.

(1) Effects in the method for arranging and storing articles
(1-1) An article is sandwiched or pressed between an operation process of receiving articles supplied from an article supply conveyor and aligning them in a line and an operation process of storing the articles aligned in a line in a tray in an aligned state. Because there is no action to do, even if the article is a soft object, such as rice balls, baked confectionery, fresh confectionery, fruit, etc., the original shape is maintained without being crushed or deformed. Can be stored.

(1-2) Since the plurality of articles are aligned in a line in the vertical direction in the article receiving hand, the alignment posture of the plurality of articles stacked sequentially is maintained by the friction force between the articles, and a stable alignment state is realized. The

(1-3) Every time the article is received, the article receiving hand is moved downward by a dimension substantially corresponding to the thickness of the article, so that the article receiving hand 4 linearly moves it in one direction. Therefore, the operation control of the article receiving hand in the article receiving process is simplified as compared with, for example, a configuration in which the article receiving hand 4 is moved on a plane.

(1-4) Since the article receiving hand is inclined with respect to the vertical line in two directions, ie, the front side and the side side in the traveling direction of the article supply conveyor, the article receiving hand is received by the article receiving hand from the article supply conveyor. The article is urged in a direction in which the article comes into contact with two surfaces of the article receiving hand by component forces in the above two directions. As a result, a plurality of articles that are aligned in a row in a vertically stacked state are linearly aligned without causing unevenness in the lateral direction, and the aligned form is held, so that the The reliability of the work of aligning articles is improved.

(1-5) When transferring at least the first row of articles, and at least transferring the last row of articles, the opening side of the article receiving hand is directed toward the corresponding side wall of the tray, thereby receiving the articles. The article can be transferred from the opening side of the article receiving hand to a position near the side wall without causing the hand to interfere with the side wall of the tray. Therefore, even when a tray having a high side wall (deep tray) is used, articles can be stored cleanly up to the corner of the tray, and the tray can be stored and the storage efficiency can be improved.

(1-6) Since the transfer of a plurality of articles to the tray is performed while the tip of the article is in contact with the bottom surface of the tray, the attitude of the articles at the time of transfer is stabilized, Can be arranged neatly.

(2) Effects in the apparatus for aligning and storing articles
(2-1) An article supply conveyor for supplying articles one by one, a substantially case-shaped article receiving hand for receiving articles supplied from the article supply conveyor, and a robot having the article receiving hand attached to the tip of an arm Each of the robot arm and the robot arm receives the articles supplied from the article supply conveyor one by one in a state where the article receiving hand is arranged on the front side in the traveling direction of the article supply conveyor. An article receiving operation in which the article receiving hand is moved downward by a dimension substantially corresponding to the thickness of the article to align the plurality of articles in a vertical direction in the article receiving hand, and the article receiving hand It is configured to execute an article storage operation for transferring a plurality of articles arranged in a row in the tray to the tray side in the aligned state and storing them. In the operation process of receiving the articles supplied from the article supply conveyor and aligning them in a line, and the operation process of storing the articles aligned in a line in the tray in the aligned state, the articles are sandwiched or pressed. As a result, even if the article is soft, such as rice balls, baked confectionery, fresh confectionery, fruits, etc., the original shape is maintained without being crushed or deformed. Aligned storage is possible.

(2-2) Since the plurality of articles are aligned in a line in the vertical direction in the article receiving hand, the alignment posture of the plurality of articles stacked in sequence is maintained by the frictional force between the articles, whereby a stable alignment state is achieved. Realized.

(2-3) By arranging two robot arms in parallel and using them alternately, the receiving and aligning operation of the articles in the article receiving hand and the transferring operation of the received articles to the tray are continuously performed. Therefore, the operation efficiency of the alignment storage device is improved.

(2-4 ) In the state where the article receiving hand is arranged on the front side in the running direction of the article supply conveyor, the two directions on the front side and the side in the running direction of the article supply conveyor with respect to the vertical line. By inclining, the articles received by the article receiving hand from the article supply conveyor are urged in the directions of contacting the two surfaces of the article receiving hand by component forces in the two directions of the weight of the articles. As a result, a plurality of articles that are aligned in a row in the stacked state in the vertical direction are linearly aligned without causing unevenness in the lateral direction, and the aligned form is held, and the articles are aligned in the article receiving hand. Work reliability is improved.

(2-5) The inclination angle of the article receiving hand to the front side in the traveling direction of the article supply conveyor is set to 5 ° to 30 °, and the inclination angle to the side is set to 10 ° to 40 °. The urging force to the two surfaces of the article receiving hand acting on the article becomes appropriate, and the effect described in (g) above can be obtained more reliably.

(2-6) Since the depth dimension from the opening surface of the article receiving hand is set to be smaller than the width dimension of the article in the depth direction, when the article is received by the article receiving hand, The tip of the article will protrude forward from the opening surface. As a result, when the article is transferred to the tray, the posture of the article is stabilized by bringing the tip of the article into contact with the bottom surface of the tray, and the article can be neatly arranged. The effect similar to the case of the method for aligning and storing articles in the fourth invention described above is obtained.

(2-7) Since the article receiving surface provided with the article abutting on the article receiving hand and the shape of the article receiving surface can be changed, various changes can be made by appropriately changing the shape of the article receiving surface. Therefore, the versatility of the apparatus is improved.

It is a top view of the alignment storage apparatus which concerns on this invention. It is a side view of the said alignment accommodation apparatus. It is structure explanatory drawing of a robot arm. FIG. 3 is an overall view of an article receiving hand attached to a robot arm. It is a arrow line view of FIG. It is b arrow line view of FIG. It is c arrow line view of FIG. It is a top view of an article supply conveyor apparatus. It is d arrow line view of FIG. It is a top view which shows the relative relationship of the goods supply conveyor apparatus and goods receiving hand in an goods receiving process. It is an ee arrow line view of FIG. FIG. 11 is a view taken along arrow ff in FIG. 10. It is a 1st operation explanatory view in an article storage process. It is a 2nd operation explanatory view in an article storage process. It is a 3rd operation explanatory view in an article storage process.

  1 and 2 show an article storage device Z according to an embodiment of the present invention. The aligning and storing apparatus Z includes an article aligning and storing unit B which is a main part thereof, an article supplying unit A installed on the upstream side of the article aligning and storing unit B, and a tray management unit C installed on the downstream side. Configured.

  The alignment storage device Z receives the articles 9 sequentially supplied from the article supply unit A in the article alignment storage unit B, and aligns them one by one in the article alignment storage unit B. A plurality of aligned articles 9 are stored in the tray 7 provided in the tray management unit C while maintaining the aligned state, and the tray management unit C is filled with the stored articles 9. By sequentially replacing the tray 7 with an empty tray 7, a series of operations from receipt of the article 9 to storage in the tray 7 can be performed continuously. Hereinafter, the configuration, operation, and the like of each of the operation units A to C configuring the alignment storage device Z will be specifically described.

  In this embodiment, as the article 9 that is the object of alignment storage in the alignment storage device Z, an “rice ball” that is gripped and formed in a substantially triangular shape is illustrated, and in the following, “article 9” is referred to as “rice ball”. 9 ”.

1: Article supply unit A
As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, the article supply unit A includes an upstream conveyor device 1 and an article supply conveyor device 2 that is connected to the downstream side of the upstream conveyor device 1.

1-1: Upstream conveyor device 1
The upstream conveyor device 1 is configured to transfer a rice ball 9 made on a production line (not shown) to the article supply conveyor device 2 and transfer it to the article supply conveyor device 2 side. A guide bar 16 is provided on both sides (see FIGS. 8 and 9).

  The rice ball 9 is in a state in which the outer side of the rice ball body 91 formed in a substantially triangular shape in the manufacturing process is encapsulated by a packaging bag 92 as shown in FIG. As it is, it is distributed from the aligned storage device Z to the end sales store. On the upstream conveyor device 1 side, the rice ball 9 is transferred in an upright posture (see the posture of the rice ball 9A shown by a chain line in FIG. 11) with the bottom surface 9b in contact with the conveyor 15. Further, it is transferred to the article supply conveyor 2 side.

1-2: Article supply conveyor device 2
The article supply conveyor device 2 is arranged with the upstream end 20a approaching the downstream end of the conveyor 15 of the upstream conveyor device 1, as shown in FIGS. 1, 2, 8, and 9. The rice balls 9 that are sequentially transferred in an upright posture from the conveyor 15 of the upstream conveyor device 1 are received by the conveyor 20 and sequentially transferred forward in the traveling direction. It is delivered to the receiving hand 4 side. At that time, at the end of the transfer of the rice ball 9, that is, after the rice ball 9 reaches a position near the downstream end 20b of the conveyor 20, the rice ball 9 is gradually tilted sideways from the upright posture. (Refer to the posture of the rice ball 9B shown in a chain line in FIGS. 10 to 12), the product is delivered to the article receiving hand 4 in this tilted posture.

  As described above, as means for gradually changing the posture of the rice ball 9 from the upright posture to the tilted posture during the transfer on the conveyor 20, in this embodiment, the conveyor 20 includes the first guide bar 21 and the second guide bar 21 described below. A guide bar 22, a third guide bar 23, and a fourth guide bar 24 are provided.

  As shown in FIGS. 8 and 9, the first guide bar 21 is provided on one side edge of the conveyor 20 over substantially the entire length of the conveyor 20, and its upstream end 21 a is upstream. The downstream end portion 21b is bent so as to approach the other side edge from one side edge side of the conveyor 20 toward the downstream side while being bent outward in the conveyor width direction.

  The second guide bar 22 is configured by a straight body, is provided on the other side edge of the conveyor 20, and the arrangement height thereof is substantially equal to the arrangement height of the first guide bar 21.

  The third guide bar 23 is positioned on the downstream side other edge of the conveyor 20 so as to correspond to the downstream end 21 b of the first guide bar 21 and at a lower position than the first guide bar 21. Is provided. The planar shape is bent outward in the width direction of the conveyor 20 so that the downstream end portion 23a is substantially parallel to the downstream end portion 21b of the first guide bar 21.

The fourth guide bar 24 is positioned on the other upstream edge of the conveyor 20 so as to correspond to the upstream end 21 a of the first guide bar 21 and at a lower position than the first guide bar 21. Is provided.

1-3: Operation of the article supply conveyor device 2 In the article supply conveyor device 2 configured as described above, as shown in FIGS. 10 to 12, the upstream end of the conveyor 20 from the upstream conveyor device 1 side. The rice balls 9 (rice balls 9A shown by chain lines in FIGS. 10 to 12) which are sequentially transferred to the portion 20a in an upright posture are guided by the first guide bar 21, the second guide bar 22, and the fourth guide bar 24. While being acted on, it is transferred to the downstream side of the conveyor 20 in an upright posture.

  Then, when the rice ball 9 reaches the downstream end 20b side of the conveyor 20 with the progress of the transfer, the first guide is placed on the upper portion of the side surface of the rice ball 9 that faces the first guide bar 21. The downstream end portion 21b of the bar 21 comes into contact, and a force that gradually tilts it to the side (that is, near the other side edge of the conveyor 20) acts, and at the same time, corresponds to the lower portion of the other side surface of the rice ball 9 The above-mentioned third guide bar 23 gradually shifts to the side, and the regulating force for the lower portion is reduced. By both of these actions, the rice ball 9 is changed in its posture from an upright posture indicated by reference numeral 9A in FIGS. 10 to 12 to a tilted posture indicated by reference numeral 9B. It is handed over to.

  The tilt angle of the rice ball 9 in the tilted posture is the tilt angle of the article receiving hand 4 described later (that is, the vertical direction of the article receiving hand 4 when viewed from the traveling direction of the conveyor 20 as shown in FIG. 12). The angle of inclination with respect to the line L (β) is substantially the same.

2: Article alignment storage section B
The article alignment storage unit B includes a pair of left and right robot arms 3 each having an article receiving hand 4 to be described later attached to the end of the arm, and a plurality of articles are sequentially supplied to the article receiving hand 4 from the article supply conveyor device 2. The individual rice balls 9 (10 in this embodiment) are aligned in a row, and the aligned rice balls 9 are stored in a separate tray 7 in the aligned state. In the following, for convenience of explanation, ten rice balls arranged in a row are referred to as “rice balls group 90”.

2-1: Robot arm 3
As shown in FIGS. 1 to 3, the robot arm 3 includes a revolving body 31, a first arm 32, and a second arm 33 and is configured to be movable in a multidimensional direction. 30 is fixed. An article receiving hand 4 described below is attached to the tip of the robot arm 3, that is, the tip of the second arm 33.

  In this embodiment, two robot arms 3 are arranged side by side, and by operating these two robot arms 3 in a linked manner, as will be described later, the upstream conveyor device 1 side is moved at a predetermined speed. An “article receiving operation” in which the rice balls 9 that are sequentially supplied are received one by one in the article receiving hand 4 and a plurality of rice balls 9 are aligned in a line to form a rice ball group 90, and the rice balls group 90 is placed in the aligned state in the tray. The “article storing operation” for transferring and storing to the 7 side can be continuously performed without interruption.

  Hereinafter, an article receiving operation and an article storing operation using the robot arm 3 will be described with a specific structure, a control method, and the like related to each operation.

2-2: Article Receiving Operation (a) Configuration of Article Receiving Hand 4 First, the configuration of the article receiving hand 4 used for receiving and aligning the rice balls 9 will be described.

  As shown in FIG. 4, the article receiving hand 4 includes a substantially rectangular back wall 41 and a substantially rectangular bottom wall 42 connected to one side edge of the long side of the back wall 41 in a substantially orthogonal state. And a two-sided opening box made up of a pair of side walls 43 respectively attached to both end edges of the back wall 41 and the bottom wall 42 is a basic shape, and the shape described below is formed on the back wall 41 side of the basic shape. The adjustment member 44 is attached and configured.

  The shape adjusting member 44 is set in shape and size in accordance with the shape of the rice balls 9 aligned in the article receiving hand 4, and has a substantially trapezoidal shape as shown in FIGS. A block body having a cross-sectional shape is integrally formed, and one side surface 44a thereof is fastened to the back wall 41 of the article receiving hand 4, and the other side surface 44b opposite to the one side surface 44a is received by the rice ball 9. The article receiving surface 45 is used.

  As shown in FIG. 7, when the rice balls 9 are sequentially received and aligned in the article receiving hand 4, the bottom surface 9b of the rice balls 9 is brought into contact with the bottom wall 42, and the bottom surface 9b The adjacent one side surface 9c is brought into contact with the article receiving surface 45 of the shape adjusting material 44, and the both surfaces (that is, the bottom wall 42 of the article receiving hand 4 and the article receiving surface 45 of the shape adjusting material 44) are regulated. The rice ball 9 is positioned with respect to the article receiving hand 4. In order to ensure the positioning of the rice ball 9, the article receiving surface 45 of the shape adjusting member 44 in the attached state to the back wall 41 is an inclined surface having an “angle θ” with respect to the bottom wall 42. In addition, the “angle θ” is set to “approximately 60 °” corresponding to the apex angle of the rice ball 9.

  Further, the depth dimension of the bottom wall 42 of the article receiving hand 4 is such that the rice ball 9 is placed between the bottom wall 42 of the article receiving hand 4 and the article receiving surface 45 of the shape adjusting material 44 as shown in FIG. When positioned, the tip 9 a of the rice ball 9 (that is, the top facing the one side surface 9 c) is set to protrude forward from the tip edge 42 a of the bottom wall 42.

  In this embodiment, as described above, ten rice balls 9 are arranged in the article receiving hand 4 (see FIGS. 5 and 6). For this reason, the pair of side walls 43 of the article receiving hand 4 are arranged. , I.e., the inner width dimension of the article receiving hand 4 is a dimension obtained by adding a space dimension when receiving the rice balls 9 to the thickness dimension of the ten rice balls 9, and a tray 7 described later. The size of the rice ball group 90 after the storage is taken into consideration. The margin dimension is preferably narrower than a dimension substantially corresponding to the thickness of the rice ball 9.

  As shown in FIGS. 3 and 7, the article receiving hand 4 configured as described above is attached to the robot arm 3 side by fastening the back wall 41 portion to the tip of the robot arm 3. .

(B) Operation of the article receiving hand 4 In the article receiving hand 4, the above-mentioned rice balls 9 sequentially supplied at predetermined intervals from the article supply conveyor device 2 side are received one by one, and a maximum of ten are arranged in a line. Let it be a rice ball group 90. in this case,
(A) Upon receiving the rice ball 9, the position and orientation of the article receiving hand 4 are set in relation to the article supply conveyor device 2 (initial setting of position and orientation),
(B) During the receiving operation of the rice ball 9 after the initial setting, the relative position of the article receiving hand 4 with respect to the article supply conveyor device 2 is changed following the increase in the number of received rice balls 9 (the position of the receiving position). Control). Hereinafter, the initial setting of the position / posture of the article receiving hand 4 and the control of the receiving position of the article receiving hand 4 will be described.

(B-1) Initial Setting of Position / Attitude First, the initial setting of the position and attitude of the article receiving hand 4 with respect to the article supply conveyor device 2 will be described.

  The article receiving hand 4 is attached to the tip of the robot arm 3 as described above, and the robot arm 3 is controlled to move in a multidimensional direction, so that the article receiving hand 4 is positioned at a predetermined position in a predetermined posture. The

  Here, as mentioned above, the rice balls 9 are supplied in an inclined posture from the conveyor 20 side of the article supply conveyor device 2 to the article receiving hand 4 side. On the other hand, the article receiving hand 4 needs to receive the ten rice balls 9 arranged in a line in the interior thereof, and as shown in FIGS. 10 and 11, the longitudinal direction (width direction) of the product receiving hand 4 is substantially vertical. The placement posture is the basic posture. However, in order to accurately receive the rice balls 9 delivered from the conveyor 20 in a tilted posture as described above without significant impact by the article receiving hand 4, between the conveyor 20 and the article receiving hand 4. Therefore, it is necessary to set appropriate “relative position” and “relative posture” as described below, based on the basic posture.

(B-1-1) Relative position The relative position is the relative position between the article receiving hand 4 and the conveyor 20. In this embodiment, the article receiving hand 4 is discharged from the conveyor 20 to the article receiving hand 4 side at a predetermined posture. In order to receive the rice ball 9 in the article receiving hand 4 in a state where the rice ball 9 is not impacted so much and is held in a tilted posture, as shown in FIG. , And the bottom wall 42 of the article receiving hand 4, as shown in FIG. 11, the upper surface of the conveyor 20 in the vertical direction and the lower side wall 43 of the article receiving hand 4 as shown in FIG. A vertical interval “H” between each of them is set.

  Furthermore, as shown in FIG. 12, when viewed from the front side in the running direction of the conveyor 20 (running direction front view), in the plane direction orthogonal to the running direction of the conveyor 20, the lower side of the article receiving hand 4 ( That is, it is set so that the portion near the receiving position of the first rice ball 9 substantially corresponds to the conveyor 20.

  In the following, for convenience of explanation, the positional relationship of the article receiving hand 4 with respect to the conveyor 20 defined by the horizontal interval “S” and the vertical interval “H”, and the traveling direction of the conveyor 20 as viewed from the front. The positional relationship is referred to as “initial setting position” of the article receiving hand 4.

(B-1-2) Relative posture The posture of the article receiving hand 4 with respect to the conveyor 20 (the posture at the “initial setting position”). The posture of the article receiving hand 4 is the item receiving from the conveyor 20 side. The rice balls 9 received on the hand 4 side are neatly aligned in a line along the two surfaces of the bottom wall 42 of the article receiving hand 4 and the article receiving surface 45 of the shape adjusting member 44, and this aligned state. It is set from the viewpoint of holding.

  First, as shown in FIG. 11, the article receiving hand 4 is inclined with respect to the vertical line L toward the front side in the traveling direction of the conveyor 20 by an inclination angle “α”. Corresponding to the inclination of the article receiving hand 4, the article receiving surface 45 of the shape adjusting material 44 facing the conveyor 20 in the traveling direction is also inclined forward with respect to the vertical line L in the traveling direction. It is inclined by the angle “α”. As a result, the rice ball 9 delivered from the conveyor 20 side to the article receiving hand 4 side has its one side 9c brought into contact with the article receiving surface 45 by the component force of its own weight to the front side in the traveling direction. (See FIG. 7).

  In addition, as shown in FIG. 12, the article receiving hand 4 is inclined with respect to the vertical line L on the side of the conveyor 20 in the traveling direction and in the direction opposite to the tilting direction of the rice ball 9. "Is tilted. With the inclination of the article receiving hand 4, the bottom wall 42 is also inclined with respect to the vertical line L by the inclination angle “β”. As a result, the rice ball 9 delivered to the article receiving hand 4 side in an inclined posture from the conveyor 20 side has a bottom surface 9b of the bottom wall 42 due to a component force of its own weight to the side in the traveling direction. It is urged in the direction in which it contacts (see FIG. 7).

  Thus, when handed over from the conveyor 20 side to the article receiving hand 4 side, one side surface 9c of the rice ball 9 is on the article receiving surface 45 of the shape adjusting material 44, and the bottom surface 9b is on the bottom wall 42. When the rice balls 9 are sequentially received in a line in the article receiving hand 4 one by one in the article receiving hand 4 by being biased to contact each other, as described later, the above-mentioned one side surface 9c of the rice ball 9 is Since the stop position on the article receiving surface 45 side and the stop position on the bottom wall 42 side of the bottom surface 9b are both restricted to a fixed position, a plurality of rice balls 9 that are sequentially received in the article receiving hand 4 are stacked. In this case, the articles are aligned in a straight line without causing unevenness in the lateral direction, thereby improving the reliability of the article alignment operation in the article receiving hand.

  Further, in this case, since the rice ball 9 has a frictional force due to its own weight acting on the contact surface between the rice balls 9 in addition to the biasing force toward the article receiving surface 45 and the bottom wall 42 side, Due to the cooperation of both, the positional deviation between the rice balls 9 is suppressed, and the alignment state of the rice balls 9 in the article receiving hand 4, that is, the shape of the rice ball group 90 is maintained.

  The inclination angle “α” and the inclination angle “β” need to be set so that the urging force acting on the rice ball 9 is appropriate (ie, the rice ball 9 is not excessively crushed or deformed). From such a viewpoint, the inclination angle “α” is preferably 5 ° to 30 °, and the inclination angle “β” is preferably 10 ° to 40 °.

(B-2) Control of receiving position After initial setting of the position / posture of the article receiving hand 4, the rice ball 9 is received. The rice ball 9 is received by the article receiving hand 4. As described above, the rice balls 9 supplied one by one from the conveyor 20 side are sequentially stacked one by one and aligned in a row.

  As described above, in order to stack the rice balls 9 one by one in the article receiving hand 4 and align them in a line, if the article receiving hand 4 is fixed in the initial setting position, it is received first. The onigiri 9 will be in the way and will not be able to receive the next onigiri 9. For this reason, in this embodiment, during the receiving operation of the rice ball 9 after the initial setting, as shown by the arrow P in FIG. As it is, it is moved to the lower side in the width direction of the article receiving hand 4 by a dimension substantially corresponding to the thickness of the rice ball 9.

  By moving the article receiving hand 4 in this way, a receiving space for the next received rice ball 9 is secured on the upper side of the previously received rice ball 9, so that one by one in the article receiving hand 4. The rice balls group 90 can be obtained by receiving the rice balls 9 and arranging them in a line.

  Accordingly, if the article receiving hand 4 is configured to move downward by a dimension substantially corresponding to the thickness of the rice ball 9 every time it receives the rice ball 9, the article receiving hand 4 simply moves it linearly. Therefore, for example, the operation control of the article receiving hand 4 in the receiving process of the rice ball 9 is simplified as compared with a case where the article receiving hand 4 is configured to move on a plane.

2-3: Article storage operation In the “article reception operation”, the article storage operation is performed by placing the rice ball group 90 in which ten rice balls 9 are arranged in a line in the article receiving hand 4 in a tray. This is an operation of moving to the side 7 and storing, and is performed using the robot arm 3 in the same manner as the “article receiving operation”.

  As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, a rectangular box-shaped tray 7 having an upper surface opened on a tray mounting table 8 provided on the rear side of the pair of left and right robot arms 3 is arranged in parallel with the pair of robot arms 3. Two are juxtaposed in the installation direction. In the loaded state, the tray 7 is inclined so that the end edge near the robot arm 3 is positioned lower as shown in FIGS. 13 to 15.

  Here, the storing operation to the tray 7 by the robot arm 3 will be described. The onigiri group 90 is held by the article receiving operation described above on the article receiving hand 4 attached to the tip of the robot arm 3. In the state where the rice ball group 90 is held by the article receiving hand 4, as shown in FIG. 7, the leading end portion 9 a of each rice ball 9 of the rice ball group 90 is the leading end of the bottom wall 42 of the article receiving hand 4. As described above, it protrudes forward from the edge 42a. In addition, it is preferable that the distance from the front-end | tip part 42a of the said bottom wall 42 to the front-end | tip part 9a of the said rice ball 9 is 0.25-0.5 with respect to the length of the longitudinal direction of the bottom face 9b of the said rice ball 9. FIG.

  Further, as shown in FIGS. 1 and 15, the tray 7 has a size capable of accommodating the above-mentioned rice ball groups 90 in which ten rice balls 9 are arranged in one row in five rows, and the height of the side wall of the tray 7 is as follows. In the state where the rice ball group 90 is housed in the tray 7 so that each rice ball 9 of the rice ball group 90 housed in the tray 7 is not crushed or deformed even if the rice balls 7 are stacked vertically. The height is set so that a sufficient free space can be secured (that is, the tray has a deep depth). Therefore, when the goods receiving hand 4 is moved to the tray 7 side and the rice ball group 90 in the goods receiving hand 4 is moved to the tray 7 side and stored, the goods receiving hand 4 and the tray 7 are stored. Therefore, it is necessary to control the operation of the article receiving hand 4 so as not to interfere with the side wall.

Therefore, in this embodiment, when the article receiving hand 4 is moved to the tray 7 side and the rice ball group 90 is moved to the tray 7 side, the posture of the article receiving hand 4 is changed to that of the rice ball group 90. The setting is changed according to the number of storage rows.
That is, at the time of transferring at least the first row of rice balls 90, as shown in FIG. 13, the transferring operation is performed in such a posture that the opening surface 4a of the article receiving hand 4 is directed to the lower side wall 7a side of the tray 7. On the other hand, when transferring at least the last row of rice ball groups 90, the opening surface 4a of the article receiving hand 4 is placed on the tray 7 as shown in FIG. The transfer operation is performed in a posture toward the upper side wall 7b (hereinafter referred to as “second operation direction”). In this embodiment, as shown in FIGS. 13 to 15, the “first operation direction” is adopted when transferring from the first row to the third row, and the transfer from the fourth row to the last row is adopted. Sometimes the “second operating direction” is adopted.

  In this way, by defining the posture of the article receiving hand 4 when the rice ball group 90 is transferred to the tray 7 side, the article receiving hand 4 is caused to interfere with the side walls 7a and 7b of the tray 7. Instead, the rice ball group 90 can be moved from the opening surface 4a side of the article receiving hand 4 to a position near the side walls 7a and 7b. Therefore, even when the tray 7 having a high side wall is used, articles can be stored neatly up to the corner close to the side wall of the tray 7, and the storage performance and storage efficiency of the tray 7 can be improved. become.

  Further, when the rice ball group 90 is transferred (stored) from the article receiving hand 4 to the tray 7 side, as shown in FIGS. 13 to 15, the leading end portions of the rice balls 9 of the rice ball group 90. 9a is performed while contacting the bottom wall 7c of the tray 7. By doing so, the posture of the rice ball group 90 at the time of transfer can be stabilized and can be arranged neatly.

3: Tray management department C
As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, the tray management unit C includes a robot arm 5 having a tray gripping hand 6 at the tip of the arm, and manages the tray 7 by the robot arm 5. It is.
That is, the robot arm 5 grips the empty tray 7 stocked in the tray stock unit 10 with the tray gripping hand 6 and places it on the tray mounting table 8 of the article alignment storage unit B. The tray 7 is held by the tray gripping hand 6 to take out the full tray 7 in which the rice ball group 90 has been stored and removes it from the tray mounting table 8. .

4: Work Flow in Alignment and Storage Device Z Work flow through the entire alignment and storage device Z configured to include the article supply unit A, the article alignment and storage unit B, and the tray management unit C as described above. Is as follows.

The rice balls 9 sequentially supplied from the article supply conveyor device 2 of the article supply section A by the conveyor 20 are sequentially received by the article receiving hand 4 attached to the tip of the robot arm 3 of the article alignment storage section B. Ten rice balls 9 are arranged in a line to form a group 90 of rice balls, which are held here.
The rice ball group 90 held by the article receiving hand 4 is placed on the tray placing table 8 of the tray management unit C by the robot arm 3 while the ten rice balls 9 are kept in a line. The trays 7 are sequentially stored.

The tray 7 that has become full due to the storage of the rice ball group 90 is taken out of the tray mounting table 8 by the robot arm 5 and temporarily placed in the tray temporary placement unit 11.
When the full tray 7 is removed from the tray mounting table 8, instead, the empty tray 7 stocked in the tray stock unit 10 is mounted on the tray mounting table 8 by the robot arm 5. The

  In this case, two robot arms 3 are provided in the article aligning and storing unit B, and the two robot arms 3 cooperate with each other to receive the rice ball 9 in the article receiving hand 4 and the articles. By alternately storing the rice balls 90 in the receiving hand 4 on the tray 7 side, the operations of receiving and aligning the rice balls 9 and storing them in the tray 7 are performed continuously. .

5: Others In the above embodiment, a triangular rice ball 9 is described as an example of an article to be processed by the alignment storage device Z, but the article in the present invention is not limited to this triangular rice ball 9. By changing the shape of the article receiving surface 45 in the shape adjusting member 44 of the article receiving hand 4, an article having a shape characteristic, such as a circular rice ball, a rectangular castella, or a spherical wharf It can be applied to the alignment storage.
The article receiving hand 4 is not necessarily provided with the shape adjusting material 44. For example, the goods receiving hand 4 is arranged with soft articles such as baked confectionery, fresh confectionery, fruit, and vegetables regardless of whether or not the shape adjusting material 44 is attached. It can be widely applied to storage.

  The aligning and storing apparatus and the aligning and storing method according to the present invention are used for aligning and storing articles in the field of manufacturing soft articles such as rice balls.

1 ..Upstream side conveyor device 2 ..Goods supply conveyor device 3 ..Robot arm 4 ..Goods receiving hand 5 ..Robot arm 6 ..Tray gripping hand 7 ..Tray 8 ..Tray mounting table 9 ..Goods (rice ball)
10 ..Tray stock part 11 ..Tray temporary storage part 15 ..Conveyor 16 ..Guide bar 20 ..Conveyor 21 to 24 ..Guide bar 30 ..Mounting base 31 ..Swivel body 32 to 33. 44 .. Shape adjustment material 45 .. Article receiving surface 90 .. Rice ball group A .. Article supply unit B .. Article alignment storage unit C .. Tray management unit Z.

Claims (10)

A method for aligning and storing articles that are stored in a tray in a state in which a plurality of substantially triangular articles are aligned in a row,
An upright posture in which a substantially case-shaped article receiving hand provided on the robot arm is positioned forward in the running direction of the article supply conveyor , and one bottom surface of the article supply conveyor is in contact with the article supply conveyor. At the end of the transfer, the plurality of articles to be transferred are tilted sideways to a tilted posture, and the tilted posture is received one by one in the article receiving hand, and the article receiving hand is received each time the article is received. To move the plurality of articles in a line in the vertical direction in the article receiving hand by moving downward by a dimension substantially corresponding to the thickness of the article,
Thereafter, the article receiving hand is moved to the tray side, and the plurality of articles aligned in a line in the article receiving hand are moved to the tray side and stored in the aligned state. To arrange and store articles to be stored. When the article receiving hand is positioned in front of the article supply conveyor,
The posture of the article receiving hand is set so that the article receiving hand is inclined with respect to a vertical line in two directions, ie, the front side and the side side in the traveling direction of the article supply conveyor. 2. The method for arranging and storing articles according to claim 1, wherein the articles are received in a receiving hand. A method for arranging and storing articles in a tray in a state where a plurality of articles are arranged in a line,
Using a robot arm equipped with a substantially case-shaped article receiving hand for receiving a plurality of articles,
With the article receiving hand positioned in front of the article supply conveyor in the traveling direction, the articles receiving hand receives the articles sequentially supplied from the article supply conveyor one by one, and each time the article is received, the article receiving hand is received. To move the plurality of articles in a line in the vertical direction in the article receiving hand by moving downward by a dimension substantially corresponding to the thickness of the article,
Thereafter, the article receiving hand is moved to the tray side, and the plurality of articles aligned in a line in the article receiving hand are moved to the tray side and stored in the aligned state.
At the time of transferring at least the first row of articles, the opening surface of the article receiving hand is set in the posture toward the one side wall of the tray, while at the time of transferring at least the last row of articles, the opening surface of the article receiving hand. In a posture toward the other side wall of the tray. A method for arranging and storing articles in a tray in a state where a plurality of articles are arranged in a line,
Using a robot arm equipped with a substantially case-shaped article receiving hand for receiving a plurality of articles,
With the article receiving hand positioned in front of the article supply conveyor in the traveling direction, the articles receiving hand receives the articles sequentially supplied from the article supply conveyor one by one, and each time the article is received, the article receiving hand is received. To move the plurality of articles in a line in the vertical direction in the article receiving hand by moving downward by a dimension substantially corresponding to the thickness of the article,
Thereafter, the article receiving hand is moved to the tray side, and the plurality of articles aligned in a line in the article receiving hand are moved to the tray side and stored in the aligned state. A method for aligning and storing articles, wherein the articles are transferred to the tray while the tip of the article is in contact with the bottom surface of the tray. An article supply conveyor for supplying substantially triangular articles one by one;
A substantially case-shaped article receiving hand for receiving articles supplied from the article supply conveyor;
An article aligning and storing apparatus comprising a robot arm having the article receiving hand attached to the arm tip ,
The article supply conveyor feeds the article in an upright posture with one bottom surface in contact with the article supply conveyor, and in the final stage of feeding, the article is fed in a state where the article is tilted sideways. And
The robot arm receives the articles supplied in an inclined posture from the article supply conveyor one by one, and each time the article is received, the article receiving hand is moved downward by a dimension substantially corresponding to the thickness of the article. An article receiving operation for aligning the plurality of articles in a line in the vertical direction in the article receiving hand;
An article aligning and storing apparatus configured to execute an article storing operation for transferring a plurality of articles arranged in a line in the article receiving hand to the tray side in the aligned state and storing them.   The apparatus for aligning and storing articles according to claim 5, wherein two robot arms are arranged side by side.   The article receiving hand is inclined in two directions on the front side and the side in the running direction of the article supply conveyor with respect to the vertical line in the arrangement state on the front side in the running direction of the article supply conveyor. The apparatus for storing and storing articles according to claim 5 or 6,   The inclination angle of the article receiving hand to the front side in the traveling direction of the article supply conveyor is 5 ° to 30 °, and the inclination angle to the side is 10 ° to 40 °. 2. An apparatus for storing and storing articles according to 1. An article supply conveyor for supplying articles one by one;
A substantially case-shaped article receiving hand for receiving articles supplied from the article supply conveyor;
A robot arm having the article receiving hand attached to the arm tip;
The robot arm receives the articles supplied from the article supply conveyor one by one in a state where the article receiving hand is arranged in the traveling direction front side of the article supply conveyor, and each time the article is received, the article receiving hand An article receiving operation in which the plurality of articles are vertically aligned in a line in the article receiving hand by moving downwards by a dimension substantially corresponding to the thickness of the article;
A plurality of articles arranged in a line in the article receiving hand are configured to execute an article storing operation for transferring and storing the articles in the aligned state to the tray side;
Further, the article receiving hand has a depth dimension from the opening surface set smaller than a width dimension of the article in the depth direction. An article supply conveyor for supplying articles one by one;
A substantially case-shaped article receiving hand for receiving articles supplied from the article supply conveyor;
A robot arm having the article receiving hand attached to the arm tip;
The robot arm receives the articles supplied from the article supply conveyor one by one in a state where the article receiving hand is arranged in the traveling direction front side of the article supply conveyor, and each time the article is received, the article receiving hand An article receiving operation in which the plurality of articles are vertically aligned in a line in the article receiving hand by moving downwards by a dimension substantially corresponding to the thickness of the article;
A plurality of articles arranged in a line in the article receiving hand are configured to execute an article storing operation for transferring and storing the articles in the aligned state to the tray side;
Furthermore, the article receiving hand is provided with an article receiving surface on which the article comes into contact, and the shape of the article receiving surface can be changed.