JPH057072B2 - - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed description of the invention] The present invention relates to an article sorting device.

For example, in order to distribute chicken eggs to the market, eggs collected from production sites are usually washed, dried, sorted by weight, and packaged, but in the process, defective eggs such as dirty eggs, cracked eggs, bloody eggs, etc. be selected. Defective eggs are detected visually by workers, and their removal is done manually, but as equipment speeds have become faster in recent years, the combination of visual inspection and manual labor has become a major obstacle to increasing speed. This is a cause of decreased work efficiency due to worker fatigue.

In view of this point, the present invention achieves faster sorting and improved work efficiency by having workers perform only the specific work of visual inspection of defective products and automating the sorting such as removal or marking work. The equipment was provided.

According to the present invention, a plurality of articles are transferred in a fixed direction along a predetermined transfer path, and a predetermined area of the transfer path is specified directly above a specific article among the plurality of articles being transferred. positioning a light source with a specific wavelength, temporarily emitting light with a specific wavelength from the light source, and using this light to recognize the position of the specific article at a specific time in the area by image recognition means;
The current position of the specific item on the transfer path is calculated from the transport speed of the specific item and the recognized position within the area, and the specific item is sorted at this current position.

This sorting can be done, for example, by removing specific items from the transport path or by marking them.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment in which the present invention is applied to selecting defective eggs from a large number of chicken eggs will be described below with reference to the drawings.

In FIG. 1, a conveyor 1 rotates and transports a large number of eggs 2 placed thereon to be inspected. Since a known conveyor 1 can be used, details of the specific configuration will be omitted. 3
4 is a conveyor driving device, and 4 is a conveyor running speed detector.

Since the eggs 2 are placed in a matrix on the conveyor 1, assuming a constant detection area R on the conveyor 1, the position of each egg at a certain time t within this area R is at right angles. It can be defined by coordinates.

Reference numeral 5 denotes a lighting device disposed below the detection area R of the conveyor 1, which illuminates at least the eggs within the detection area R from below. A worker visually observes the illuminated eggs to detect defective eggs.

Reference numeral 6 denotes a defective egg position indicator, which is manually operated by an operator to position the light-emitting part 6a at the tip above the defective egg 2' in the detection section R of the conveyor 1 and turn on the switch 6b.
Operate to make it emit light. The light from the light emitting section 6a has a different wavelength to be distinguished from the light from the illumination device 5. Normally, the light from the illumination device 5 includes the entire wavelength range of visible light, so the light emitting part 6a of the position indicator 6
It is desirable to use invisible light, for example infrared light, as the light from the lighting device 5, but if the light from the lighting device 5 is visible light of a specific wavelength (or wavelength range), the light emitting unit 6
The light source in a may be visible light of other wavelengths (or wavelength ranges). 6c is the detection confirmation indicator and light source 6
This is to display that the microcomputer 20 (to be described later) has confirmed the indication of the position of the defective egg by the light emitted by a.

7 is at least the detection section R on the conveyor 1;
A video sensor 8 has a field of view corresponding to the field of view, and 8 is a filter provided at the incident light entrance of the video sensor, which allows only light of a specific wavelength from the light source 6a of the position indicator 6 to pass through. Therefore, visually detected defective eggs 2'
By causing the light emitting part 6a of the position indicator 6 to emit light, the position coordinates (x _a , y _b ) of the defective egg 2' within the detection area R at the time t are determined based on the detection signal from the video sensor 7. can be specified.

Reference numeral 9 denotes a defective egg removing device provided on the side of the conveyor 1 downstream of the detection area R in the transfer direction X of the conveyor 1, and includes a main shaft 9a and a lifting mechanism 9b.
a horizontal base arm 9c rotatably attached to the main shaft 9a; a rotating means 9d for rotating the base arm 9c relative to the main shaft 9a; A rotation angle detector 9e, a horizontal tip arm 9f connected to the tip of the base arm 9c so as to be rotatable with respect to the arm 9c, and a rotation that rotates the tip arm 9f with respect to the base arm 9c. means 9g, a second rotation angle detector 9h that is arranged in association with the rotation means 9g and detects the rotation angle of the tip arm 9f with respect to the base arm 9c, and an egg suction device attached to the tip of the tip arm 9f. 9i and a vacuum pump 9j that supplies vacuum to this egg absorber 9i.
It consists of

Assuming a defective egg sorting area R' corresponding to the downstream side of the detection area R in the transport direction of the conveyor 1, the defective egg 2' at the position coordinates (x _a , y _b ) in the detection area R at the time t is At time t' after a time period corresponding to the transfer speed of the conveyor has elapsed from time t, the corresponding position coordinates (x' _a ,
y′ _b ).

The adsorber 9j of the defective egg removal device 9 is placed in the sorting area.
The removal device 9 is constructed and arranged so that it can be positioned at any position within R', and between the time t and t' the adsorber 9i is moved to the position coordinates (x' _a , y' _{b )} within the area R'. ), it is possible to adsorb defective eggs at that position and remove them from the conveyor 1.

10 is a tray for the defective eggs thus removed, and 11 is a conveyor for transporting normal eggs from the conveyor 1 to the next process.

Reference numeral 12 denotes an operating unit which incorporates a control circuit including a microcomputer, which will be described later.The operating panel 12a is provided with various operating switches 12b, a display 12c, and the like.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of the control circuit built into the operating unit 12, where the same reference symbols as in FIG. , 21 is its input port, 22
is the output port, 30 is the defective egg removal device 9
CPU, RAM,
It is composed of a ROM, and 31 is its input port, and 32 is its output port.

The operation of the above configuration will be explained.

When a worker holds the indicator 6 in his hand and visually inspects the eggs on the conveyor 1 in the detection area R using downward lighting and finds a defective egg, a light source 6a is placed directly above the egg.
position and press switch 6b to temporarily emit light. In response to the operation signal from the switch 6b, the video sensor 7 performs a detection operation, detects light from the light source 6a, and provides a corresponding signal to the microcomputer 20. Based on this detection signal, the microcomputer 20 specifies the coordinates of the current position of the light source 6a (defective egg) within the detection area R and generates a corresponding position coordinate signal.

The conveyor transport speed detector 4 constantly detects the transport speed (egg transport speed) while the conveyor 1 is running, and sends a corresponding transport speed signal to the microcomputer 20.
give to The microcomputer 20 constantly corrects the position coordinate signal during the detection operation of the video sensor 7 using this transfer speed signal, outputs a current position coordinate signal corresponding to the coordinates of the current position of the specific egg 2', and detects defective eggs. It is transmitted to the control microcomputer 30 of the removal device 6.

Based on the current position coordinate signal and the angle signals from the rotation angle detectors 9e and 9h, the control microcomputer 30 moves the egg sucker 9i of the defective egg removal device 6 to the specific egg indicated by the current position coordinate signal. The control circuits 23 and 23 respectively send control signals to move the adsorber to the current position coordinates, lower the adsorber to perform the adsorption operation, then raise it, transfer the adsorbed eggs to the tray 10, and release the adsorption there. 24,
25 and 26 to operate the lifting mechanism 9b of the main shaft 9a, the rotation mechanism 9d of the base arm 9c, the rotation mechanism 9g of the tip arm 9f, and the vacuum pump 9j according to a predetermined sequence.

The image recognition microcomputer 20 counts the number of times the operation signal of the switch 6b of the indicator 6 is generated (the number of defective eggs) and sends the count signal to the indicator 1.
2c to display the number, and a response signal corresponding to the identification of the position coordinate signal of the defective eggs to the control circuit 28 to display on the indicator 6c of the indicator 6.

Although the illustrated embodiments of the present invention have been described above, the present invention is not limited thereto, and various modified embodiments are possible. For example, in the illustrated example, defective eggs are removed on the conveyor 1, but this may be done on the conveyor 11. Further, in the illustrated example, there is one defective egg removal device, but a plurality of devices may be provided. Further, the specific configuration of the removal device is not limited to the illustrated example. For example, defective eggs may be classified into dirty eggs and cracked eggs, counted, and collected in separate trays. For this purpose, the indicator 6 can be provided with two indicator switches.

Furthermore, instead of the defective egg removal device, a marker device may be used to mark defective eggs. In this case too, dirty eggs and cracked eggs can be provided with different markings, for example with different shapes and/or colors. Multiple marker devices may be used. The number of indicators is not limited to one, but two or more may be provided and used with both hands, or may be used by a plurality of workers.

The invention may also be directed to articles other than eggs.

As described above, according to the present invention, only the identification of the articles to be sorted from a large number of articles is carried out by a simple manual operation, and the sorting work such as removal or marking is automated, thereby increasing speed and work efficiency. Improvements are achieved. In addition, since item identification is performed using light with a specific wavelength and image recognition using this light, the indicator is lightweight and has a high degree of freedom of movement, and can be stored in a place where it will not interfere with work even when not in use. This is advantageous in terms of work.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing a schematic configuration of an apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a control circuit. 1... Conveyor, 4... Conveyor running speed detector, 5... Lighting device, 6... Defective egg position indicator,
7...Video sensor, 8...Filter, 9...
...Defective egg removal device, 12...Control unit.

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1. Means for transporting a plurality of articles along a predetermined transport path; A means for emitting light of a specific wavelength that can be moved and placed at a desired position within a predetermined area of the transport path; means for recognizing the position of a specified article among the articles in a predetermined area using light from the light emitting means; and a position coordinate signal corresponding to the position of the specific article at the time when the light emitting means emits light. means for detecting the transport speed of the article by the transport means and generating a corresponding speed signal; and means for detecting the transport speed of the article by the transport means and generating a corresponding speed signal; means for generating a current position coordinate signal corresponding to the current position; article sorting means disposed in association with the article transport means; and means for causing the article sorting means to sort the specific article based on the current position coordinate signal. 1. A device for sorting articles, comprising: a means for operating the product in a manner that allows the product to be sorted; 2. The article sorting device according to claim 1, wherein the article sorting means is means for removing a specific article from the article transfer means. 3. The article sorting device according to claim 1, wherein the article sorting means is means for marking the specific article.