JPS5882903A - Circulation system - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide an automatic storehouse which can rearrange goods in an arbitrary order by previously placing an identification mark on goods in putting the goods in storage to interprete the mark in putting the goods out of the storehouse. CONSTITUTION:Application portions 61-6n are mounted at fixed intervals along the longitudinal direction of a unit 5. A position control portion 7 is adapted to cause the application portions 61-6n to operate sequentially every time a step signal is renewed, so that marks are placed on different parts of units. In putting the units out of a storehouse, a television camera 11 is adapted to image pick up the unit 5 to fetch only the mark part applied at a color filtering 12 and a mark pattern recognition portion 13. After that, a length detecting portion 14 is adapted to find a length from a reference point to the mark and the result is recognized by a permutation recognition portion 15 to indicate the array of the units to a rearray control portion 16. According to the indication, a rearray mechanism 17 is adapted to set in array the units arranged out of order in the marking order.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a distribution system, and particularly to a distribution system most suitable for use in an automated warehouse.

Conventionally, when handling rod-shaped or tubular items in an automated warehouse system, a plurality of items have been managed as a group.

Although it is originally desirable to manage one file at a time, it is actually difficult to store one file at a time because this leads to a decrease in storage efficiency and throughput.

Considering storage efficiency, it is necessary to store multiple books at once, but in this case.

After leaving the automated warehouse, it becomes impossible to individually process each product made of different materials, resulting in a decrease in management accuracy.

However, in reality, it is desirable for the order of arrival and departure to match, and especially in the case of temporary storage in a warehouse, where goods are brought in and out on a daily basis, it is desirable that the order of both the person and the person out of the warehouse be the same. .

An object of the present invention is to relate to a distribution system that allows items that have been mixed and stored out of order to be arranged in any order and delivered.

In the present invention, an identification mark is attached in advance to each item when it is stored in a warehouse or the like, and when the item is taken out of the warehouse, the identification mark is deciphered and the items are rearranged in an arbitrary order.

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram showing an example of an automated warehouse.

A warehouse entrance 1 is connected to a warehouse (and attached equipment such as a crane) 2, and a warehouse exit 3 is provided on the opposite side.

The flow of goods is through the warehouse entrance).Objects are entered into the warehouse, temporarily stored and stored in the warehouse, and then discharged from the warehouse upon request on the downstream side.

Assume that the object is a rod-shaped material (item) as shown in FIG. Since each of these objects has a different composition, it is originally
I would like to handle each book one by one, but it is inefficient to handle them one by one in temporary storage facilities such as warehouses or transportation equipment such as cranes, so I have no choice but to treat several books together as one slot. . This means that once a lot is organized at the time of storage, it cannot be divided into individual units again. It may be possible to store the products in a warehouse so as not to disrupt the order in which they arrive, but this would require a large amount of sensors, interlock mechanisms, etc.9, and would be extremely expensive. Become something. Furthermore, even if this is done, it is extremely difficult and virtually impossible to guarantee that the order will not be changed during the process.

Therefore, in one aspect of the present invention, materials are efficiently handled in a warehouse or conveyance facility without being aware of the order of the materials, and when the materials are taken out of the warehouse, they are rearranged in the requested order and then taken out of the warehouse. For this reason, each unit is marked one by one when it comes into stock.
We decided to recognize this and rearrange it when the products are delivered. ``Naturally, it is possible to rearrange the goods in the order of arrival, and it is also possible to rearrange them in any order according to the request for goods out.

Figure 3 shows the principle of marking for permutation detection in the present invention.
Apply a color mark that can be recognized by television cameras. It is assumed that one end of the material is in the same position both when entering and leaving the warehouse. This can be done with a positioning device suitable for the material. In this way, according to the permutations 51 to 54 of the materials, the distance from the reference point to the mark is 1. -14, and the permutation of materials is recognized by these 1 and -14 when leaving the warehouse.

FIG. 4 shows the marking mechanism of the present invention. This is material 1
A rabbit with a mechanism that marks each book one by one. Material (unit) 5
Applicable parts 6L to 6. is provided, and markings are placed at predetermined positions on the advancing unit 5. Application parts 61-6. The selection is made by the over mark application section positioning control section 7 which drives which one of the overlapping mark application section positions. The positioning control section 7 is controlled by a counter 8 that counts the number of passing units 5, and information for this is provided by a loft break detector 9 that detects the end of a lot and a unit detector 10 that detects the position of the unit. Based on the detection signal. Each time the unit flows, the unit detector 10 outputs a detection signal, the color/receiver 8 counts up, and outputs a positioning step signal 8s. Every time the step signal Sg is updated, the positioning control section 7 controls the application section 6. ~6. The markings are applied to different parts of each unit by shifting them one by one. The markings attached to each unit mean the permutation. Completion of 10 units is detected by the lot out detector 9 (detected when the next unit does not arrive even after a certain period of time), and the counter 8 is reset. For this purpose, the application section 61
61 is selected. Note that an inkjet type coating machine or the like can be applied to the coating units 61 to 6a.

The markings on the entrance side have been described above, but next, the permutation recognition mechanism on the exit side will be explained based on the block diagram of FIG. 5. For convenience of explanation, a case where the warehousing order and the warehousing order are the same will be exemplified. The unit 5 is placed on the permutation detection table 30. Naturally, the order of delivery is random, as shown in the figure (51, 54, 52).
, 53. Each unit is marked with a mark at the time of storage, and the entire 10 units are imaged by a television camera card 1 serving as an image sensor, and the image is applied to the color part of the mark using a color filter ring 12. If only the shaded area in FIG. 6 is extracted, the mark pattern recognition unit 13 can extract only the shaded area in FIG. Next, the distance detection unit 14 detects the distance t from the reference point to the mark.
seek.

The permutation of the materials can be recognized by the permutation recognition unit 15 based on the obtained t. According to this recognized order, the rearrangement control section 16 is instructed to arrange the units. Based on this instruction, the rearrangement mechanism 17 rearranges the units that are out of order into the marking order.

The processing in each of the above sections will be further explained in detail with reference to the flowchart of FIG. FIG. 7 shows the processing from the mark pattern recognition section 13 to the permutation recognition section 15.

First, in step 71, the image data is searched, and only the marked portion (the diagonally shaded portion shown in FIG. 6 painted with a specific color) is extracted. In this case, the image data in the specific color portion is a logic "'1" level signal.

The others are processed as logic "0" level signals and arranged in table 1 prepared on the memory of the computer. Next, in step 72, table 1 is searched in the X direction, a change point of the logic signal (0→1. or 1→0) is found from the leftmost reference point, and this is stored in table 2. Furthermore, in step 73, the table 1 is searched in the X direction to detect a change in the unit. At the same time, the length t from the reference point is calculated from the average value of the addresses from 0→1 and 1→0, and this is shown in Table 3.
Arrange in. Next, in step 74, the marking position table (table 4) stored in advance in the memory is compared with the actual measurement data stored in table 3. Determine which order of arrangement corresponds to the warehousing order,
The results are arranged in Table 5.

Next, the rearrangement mechanism 17 will be explained. As mentioned above, in this mechanism, the items are delivered in the same order as the order in which they are received. As shown in FIG. 8, the unit 5 is
Each part of 1, 54, 52, 53 is a stopper 31, 32, 3
3.34.35 The distribution classified by mechanism 41.4
It is placed at 2,43°44. The distribution mechanisms 41 to 44 are opened and closed by electromagnetic devices, and have a structure in which the units placed thereon can be dropped. Therefore, the distribution is from mechanisms 41 to 44.
If the units are activated in the order of 41→43→44→42, the units will be arranged in the order of 51, 52, 53, and 54.

The process in this case is as shown in Figure 9. First, step 1
At step 01, all the units on the table 31 are transferred to the rearrangement table 40, and one unit is placed on each of the mechanisms 41-44. Next, in step 102, the unit groups on the rearrangement table 40 are deposited in the order in which they are stored. The arrangement at the time of storage is Te, -Pull 5 as mentioned above.

According to this, the distribution is performed by sequentially operating the mechanisms 41 to 44 according to the arrangement 1 time and moving the mechanism to the lower table.
) performs a rearrangement. That is, as shown in FIGS. 1(a) and 1(b), the distribution is performed by operating the mechanism 41 to move the unit 5f to the lower stage, and the primary distribution is performed by operating the mechanism 43 to move the unit 5f to the lower stage.
Move 2 to the lower row. Thereafter, the work is continued according to the contents of table 5 until the arrangement of units 54 is completed.

In addition, in the above explanation, an example was shown in which the goods are taken out of the warehouse in the same order as the order in which they were put in. However, it is of course possible to take out the goods in any order regardless of the order in which the goods are put in. In this case,
The contents of the table in the memory of the permutation recognition unit 15 are changed to the desired shipping order.

Moreover, although the object to be handled has been explained using a rod-shaped object as an example, the shape is not limited as long as the marking can be detected.

Furthermore, the present invention can also be used as a monitoring device for the arrangement order of delivered items. In addition to directly marking information such as the composition of the material on the material, it is also possible to take out only the specified material at the exit and exit the warehouse simply by programming in the above-mentioned arrangement table. Moreover, it is applicable to a wide range of fields of warehouse and logistics systems.

As described above, according to the embodiment of the present invention, since it is possible to manage each piece of wood, it is possible to manage wood with high management accuracy. Furthermore, when storing in a warehouse or the like, it can be organized into relatively large lots, which increases storage efficiency and equipment operation efficiency. Furthermore, this makes it possible to simplify and downsize warehouses and transport equipment, making it possible to apply an economical logistics system with high management accuracy.

As is clear from the above, according to the present invention, permutation recognition and arrangement in an arbitrary order are possible, so it is possible to individually manage delivered items.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

Fig. 1 is a schematic diagram showing an example of an automated warehouse, Fig. 2 is a conceptual diagram of delivered items, Fig. 3 is an explanatory diagram of the 'marking for permutation detection of the present invention, and Fig. 4 shows the marking mechanism of the present invention. Figure 5 is a block diagram showing the permutation recognition mechanism of the present invention, Figure 6 is a diagram explaining the marking and recognition of the present invention, Figure 7 is a recognition process flowchart of the present invention, and Figure 8 is a flowchart of the recognition process of the present invention. FIG. 9 is a flowchart of the rearrangement process of the present invention, and FIGS. 10(a) and 10(b) are diagrams of the rearrangement table according to the present invention. 1... Warehouse entrance, 2... Warehouse and transportation equipment, 3...
Outlet, 4... lot, 5. 51-54... unit, 6. ~6゜... Mark application section, 7... Mark application section positioning control section, 8... Counter, 9... Lot break detector, 10... Unit detector, 11...
・Image sensor, 12...Filtering, 13・
...marked turn recognition section, 14...distance detection section,
15... Permutation recognition section, 16... Reordering control section, 17
. . . Rearrangement mechanism, 30 . . . Permutation detection table, 3
1 to 35...ston/each, 40...rearrangement table, 41 to 44...distribution is by mechanism. ￥, l Figure 2nd mouth 3fZ 4th-mouth S Figure ￥, 6 Figure 7th close

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1. In a distribution system in which covered goods are stored in a mixed manner, an identification mark is attached to a predetermined position of each of the physical goods in the order of arrival, and 1. Determining the arrangement order at the time of taking out based on image data captured by an image sensor of the identification mark at the time of leaving the warehouse, and determining the desired order for taking out the goods by comparing the order with the arrangement order of the physical goods at the time of warehousing. A logistics system featuring: 2. The distribution system according to claim 1, wherein the order of delivery is the same as the order of entry. 3. Claim 1, characterized in that the order in which the physical goods are delivered is set to an arbitrary order, regardless of the order in which they are received.
Logistics system described in section. 4. The arrangement order at the time of extraction is determined by converting the change in the marking portion appearing in the image data into a binary signal, and from the positional state of the change point of the binary signal. The logistics system described in Scope 1.