JPH0741285A - Cargo handling device and object position recognizing device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To dispense with any exclusive base board such as image processing base board at detecting a transported object and make possible accurate detecting processing with a simple control constitution by using laser type distance measuring devices as a detecting device for transported object loaded on a movable carriage. CONSTITUTION:The position information of a transported object is detected, and the detected information is converted to control the information necessary for handling the transported object so as to control a cargo handling device. At this time, the laser distance measuring devices 1, 2 as a detecting part for obtaining information such as shape and size of a coil are provided, and they are loaded on a movable carriage 3. For detecting the existing positions of respective measuring parts 1, 2, a motor 6 running the movable carriage 3 (in the X-axis direction), a motor 7 extending/contracting an arm 10 (in the Y-axis direction), and a motor 8 moving the arm 10 up and down (in the Z-axis direction), are respectively provided with encoders 6E-8E, respective output signals are input to a programable controller 4, and information necessary for coil handling is obtained and sent to a host computer 9.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a cargo handling apparatus for providing a computer controlling the cargo handling apparatus with information necessary for handling a conveyed object by the cargo handling apparatus and an object position detecting apparatus for the cargo handling apparatus.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Automation is achieved by providing a computer controlling a crane with information necessary for handling an object to be conveyed, such as a coil wound with a steel plate, by an automatic crane (overhead crane). There is.

As an example of conventional technology, Sumitomo Heavy Industries Technical Report Vol. 35 No. 105December 1987, a self-propelled coil position detecting device combining an ITV and an ultrasonic range finder described in the coil center position detecting system by image processing, and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Technical Report Vol. 28 N
o. 6 (1991-11) Development of Coil Position Detection Device by Light Projection Method and Application of Crane Automation to Combine Mirror Control Device for Changing Laser and Laser Direction and Two-Dimensional Measuring Device (Camera) One of them is installed on the trolley of the crane.

[0004]

The above-mentioned method uses an image processing method, so that illumination is required to improve the S / N ratio, and a board dedicated to image processing is required for high-speed image processing. is there. Further, in terms of processing, highly accurate positioning of the moving carriage is required.

Further, the above method requires an image processing board as in the above method. Also, since it is installed on the trolley, it is necessary to have the host computer give the approximate position information of the coil to be handled, and when installing it on the existing crane equipment, the crane itself must be modified.

An object of the present invention is to enable highly accurate detection processing with a simple control configuration without using a dedicated board such as an image processing board in detecting a conveyed object.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a cargo handling device and an object position detection device for the cargo handling device that do not require a dedicated cargo bed and can be easily installed on an existing crane facility.

[0007]

A feature of the present invention is that a laser-type distance measuring device for detecting an object to be conveyed is mounted on a moving carriage that is self-propelled on the ground, and the control means on the moving carriage is the laser-type distance measuring device. This is because the cargo handling apparatus automatically creates object position information for handling a conveyed object using the information of the measuring device.

Another feature of the present invention is that the control means on the moving carriage uses the data in the vicinity of the apex of the cylindrical conveying object to obtain information on the center Xc of the X axis, radius r and inclination θ of each conveying object. To calculate.

[0009]

Since the object detecting device is of a type that runs on the ground by itself, it can be installed in the existing cargo handling equipment without modification of the cargo handling equipment and building, and the detection accuracy is high because of detection from a low value. Moreover, since the laser system is used, a dedicated processing substrate is not required, and control and control configuration are simplified.

According to the position calculating method which is another feature of the present invention, the influence of the inclination θ of the cylindrical conveying object is small, and the laser reflection is stable.

[0011]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS FIG. 1 shows an external view of the present invention, and FIG. 2 shows a control block diagram. As shown in FIG. 1, the object detecting apparatus of the present invention includes a laser distance measuring device 1 oriented in the horizontal direction and a laser distance measuring device 2 oriented vertically downward in an arm that extends and contracts in the Y-axis direction and moves up and down in the Z-axis direction. The movable carriage 3 is mounted on the rail 10, and travels in the X-axis direction on a rail 4 laid on the ground. 20
(20A, 20B, 20C) are coils, and 30 is a reflector for the laser distance measuring instrument 1. 40 is a gripping device of the automatic crane.

As shown in FIG. 2, the movable carriage 3 serves as control means, and laser distance measuring devices 1 and 2 for obtaining information on the shape and size of the coil and the existing positions (X, Y) of the laser distance measuring devices. , Z-axis direction) encoder 6E,
7E, 8E, a motor 6 for moving the moving carriage (X-axis direction), a motor 7 for extending / contracting the arm 10 (Y-axis direction), a motor 8 for vertically moving the arm 10 (Z-axis direction) and those motors for each processing. Contactors 6C, 7C,
8C and the inverter 5 which controls those motors are mounted. Further, the programmable controller 4 is provided, and this controller provides commands to the inverter 5 and laser distance measuring devices 1 and 2 encoders 6
Information necessary for coil handling is calculated from the information from E, 7E, and 8E, and the information is provided to the host computer 9 that controls the crane via the communication means. This computer 9 is installed outside the mobile carriage 3.

FIG. 3 shows a positional relationship diagram of the laser distance measuring device, the coil, and the reflecting plate. Point G in FIG. 3 is the origin of the laser distance measuring devices 1 and 2. The reflector plate 30 in this figure is provided so that the laser distance measuring instrument 1 can measure between L shown in the figure. Since the distance between L is long, the distance measurement becomes impossible without a reflector because the reflected light of the laser is small.

The processing flow of the host computer 9 will be described below with reference to FIG. 4, and the processing flow of the programmable controller 4 will be described with reference to FIGS. First, the host computer 9 outputs a recognition start command to the programmable controller 4 (F1). Programmable controller 4
Always waits for a recognition start command from the host computer 9, and when the recognition command is received, the recognition process is started (F2).

The details of this recognition process F2 are shown in FIG. As the processing, first, the arm 10 is extended, and then 1a in FIG.
The laser distance measuring devices 1 and 2 are moved to the point (FIG. 5, steps F22a to 22C). Since the size of the coil and the range of placement are fixed, it is determined in advance that the point 1a is about the center of the coil width (Y-axis direction). Next, the laser distance measuring instruments 1 and 2 are raised to the point 3a (steps F23a to 23d). Point 3a is a point obtained by adding Z1 to the maximum coil height 2a. Z1 is a value set in advance so that the coils and the laser distance measuring devices 1 and 2 and the arm are not mechanically hit in the processes b and c described later. In this example, the coil 20B
Is the largest coil.

The input information from the laser distance measuring device 1 when the position is raised from point 1a to point 3a is the horizontal axis (L1), and the position information obtained by counting up the input information from the encoder 8E in the Z-axis direction is the vertical axis (Z). 8) is the graph of FIG. 8 (1). As can be seen from this figure, the point when the value of L1 becomes maximum can be obtained as the maximum coil height 2a. In this way, laser distance measuring devices 1 and 2 up to point 3a
The process of moving the is referred to as process a.

Next, as shown in FIG. 9, point 1b (= point 3a)
To the point 2b from the moving carriage in the X-axis direction (F
24a-24d).

At this time, the vertical axis (L2) represents the input information from the laser distance measuring device 2, and the horizontal axis (X) represents the position information obtained by counting up the input information from the encoder 6E in the X-axis direction. It is a graph of 8 (2). First, the centers xc1, xc2, xc3 and radii r1, r2, r3 of the X-axis of each coil are obtained from this information, and then each coil and the rail of the moving carriage (X of the coil position detection device are obtained from this information.
The angle (tilt) θ of the axis is calculated (FIG. 5, step F2).
5).

This calculation method will be described with reference to FIG. This figure is an enlarged view of the coil portion of the graph of FIG. 8 (2). As shown in the figure, the laser distance measuring device 2 outputs the measurement information at every measurement cycle (measurement time = about 25 msec). Therefore, the vertex P of the coil is not always measured. Therefore, in order to improve the accuracy, xc, z can be calculated from the circle equation of the following equation (Equation 1).
c, r (finally multiplied by 2 to obtain the diameter) are obtained. Further, the delay error due to the measurement time is obtained from the measurement time and the moving speed and corrected. (Z−zc) ² + (x−xc) ² = r …………………… (Equation 1) However, in reality, the inclination θ between the coil and the X and Y axes of the coil position detection device (Fig. 3) (see coil 20B in FIG. 3), it is an ellipse instead of a clean circle as shown in the figure, but here the influence of the coil inclination θ is small and laser reflection is stable. Data around the vertex) is used.

Next, H1 is greatly influenced by the inclination θ of the coil.
The coil inclination θ is calculated from the following equation (Equation 2) using the partial data.
Ask for. (Z−zc) ² + (x−xc) ² · cos ² θ = r ² (Equation 2) Since xc, zc, and r in this equation have already been calculated, θ can be easily calculated. I can. However, if the data in the H1 portion is uncertain because the reflection of the laser is unstable, the data in the H1 portion is used as much as possible in the H2 portion. These processes are processed b
And

Next, as shown in FIG. 11, 1c point (= 2b point)
→ 2c point → 3c point → 4c point → 5c point → 6c point → 7c point →
Move to point 8c (origin = G) (FIGS. 5 to 6, steps F26a to 26p). This is the width W of each coil when moving from 2c point to 3c point, 4c point to 5c point, 6c point to 7c point.
1, W2, W3 Y-axis center yc1, yc2, yc3
Is a process for obtaining (step F27 in FIG. 6,). 2c points, 4c points, 6 which are stop points in the X direction for each coil
Point c is the center point xc1, xc2, xc3 of the X-axis of each coil obtained in the above-described processing b.

The input information from the laser distance measuring device 2 when moving from the 2c point to the 3c point is the vertical axis (L2), and the position information obtained by counting up the input information from the encoder 7E in the Y-axis direction is the horizontal axis (Y). 8) is a graph of FIG. 8 (3). In the figure, w3 is the width of the coil 20C and yc
3 becomes the center in the Y-axis direction and can be easily obtained.
In this case, since the moving speed is relatively slow, the influence of the measurement cycle as in the process b is ignored. However, the delay error due to the measurement time is calculated and corrected from the measurement time and the moving speed. Also, in this example, the same coil is measured only once,
The coil inclination θ previously obtained can also be obtained by measuring two different points on the same coil on the X axis.

By the above processing a, b, c, X of each coil
The center coordinates of the axes, Y-axis, Z-axis, inclination, diameter, and width can be obtained. These processes are performed by a command from the host computer 9 that controls the crane (FIG. 4, F1), and the processing results are transferred to the host computer 9 (FIG. 6, step F28). The host computer 9 receives this processing result (FIG. 4, F3), outputs an operation command to the automatic crane based on this processing result (FIG. 4, F4), and handles the coil.

[0024]

In the coil position detecting device, since the detector is a laser type distance measuring device, a dedicated substrate is not required, and the image processing is not performed, so that the processing is simplified.

Further, since the data near the apex of the coil is used to calculate the center coordinate of the X axis of the coil, the inclination, and the diameter,
The influence of the coil tilt is small, and the laser reflection is stable.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing an appearance of an object position recognition device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a control unit in the apparatus of FIG.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a positional relationship (origin) between the movement of the laser distance measuring instrument and the coil.

FIG. 4 is a processing flow chart of a host computer.

FIG. 5 is a processing flowchart of a programmable controller.

FIG. 6 is a processing flowchart of a programmable controller.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing a positional relationship between a movement of a laser distance measuring device and a coil (processing a).

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing input information from a laser distance measuring device for each process.

FIG. 9 is a diagram showing a positional relationship between a movement of a laser distance measuring device and a coil (processing b).

10 is an enlarged view of a part of the input information of FIG.

FIG. 11 is a diagram showing a positional relationship (process c) between the movement of the laser distance measuring device and the coil.

[Explanation of symbols]

1, 2 ... Laser distance measuring device, 3 ... Moving carriage, 4 ... Ray
Le, 6E, 7E, 8E ... Encoder, 20A, 20B,
20C ... coil

 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (72) Inventor Ichiro Nakajima 794 Higashitoyoi, Kudamatsu City, Yamaguchi Prefecture Nitate Manufacturing Co., Ltd. Kasado Factory

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A detection unit for a conveyed object mounted on a moving carriage, and position information from the detection unit is converted into control information necessary for a cargo handling apparatus to handle the conveyed object, and the control information is stored in the cargo handling apparatus. In an object position detection device for a cargo handling device, which comprises a control means provided to a control computer, the detection unit is a laser-type distance measurement mounted on a self-propelled movable carriage that can move to an arbitrary position. An object position detecting device for a cargo handling device, comprising: a container. 2. A detection unit for a conveyed object mounted on a moving carriage, and position information from the detection unit is converted into control information necessary for the cargo handling apparatus to handle the conveyed object, and the control information is used. In a cargo handling device provided with a control means provided to a control computer, the control means is a laser distance measuring device installed on an arm of a moving carriage to obtain information such as the shape and size of a conveyed object, An encoder for obtaining the existing position information of the laser distance measuring device, and a carriage driving means for moving the moving carriage,
Arm driving means for driving the arm, and calculation of information necessary for moving processing of the conveyed object based on information from the laser distance measuring device and encoder, and providing the information to a host computer controlling the cargo handling device. A cargo handling device comprising a programmable controller. 3. The cargo handling apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the encoder of the control means, the carriage driving means, the arm driving means, and the programmable controller are installed on the movable carriage. 4. The control means uses the data in the vicinity of the vertices of the cylindrical conveyed objects to measure the center Xc of the X-axis of each cylindrical conveyed object,
The cargo handling apparatus according to claim 2, wherein information on the radius r and the inclination θ is calculated.