JPS6274832A - Palletizing for articles by robot - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To permit the reasonable palletizing to each pallet for assorting articles by distribution-arranging various kinds of articles onto the pallet on the basis of the operation information corresponding to the article arrangement pattern. CONSTITUTION:A number of arrangement patterns P1, P2..., corresponding to the combinations in the number of areas consisting of different kinds of articles are memorized in the memory M1 of a controller 17, and a suitable arrangement pattern is determined from these arrangement patterns. Further, the robot operation information (transfer timing, transfer distance of a girder 4, raising arm 5, etc.) corresponding to the arrangement patterns P1, P2... is memorized into the memory M2 of the controller 17, and an operation instruction is transmitted to a robot on the basis of the information. When the loading of a prescribed number of articles in A kinds is completed, B, C, and D kinds of articles are loaded, and when all the loading is completed, a small pallet 8 is sent to a carrying-out station 13 immediately without stopping on the next conveyor 11.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention mainly relates to a method for palletizing different types of articles using an industrial robot.

[Conventional technology]

Loading different types of goods on separate pallets,
There is work in which industrial robots debarret the desired number of each product type (per pallet) and mix and load the products onto small pallets for final stacking. However, there is no problem if the external shape of the product is the same (for example, if different types of food and drink are stacked in boxes, buckets, etc. of the same size and shape), but if the product is If the external shape of the article changes depending on the type of article, the following problems arise when stacking the articles on small pallets for final stacking.

[Problem that the invention seeks to solve]

In other words, since articles of different sizes are placed in the column f11, it is necessary to place articles of different sizes and shapes in the column f11 above and below.
However, if the placement position 11't on the pallet is specified for each product type, rational palletizing is not possible.

In other words, if the placement position is specified, for example, the right corner of the pallet for type A, the left corner for type B, etc., the number of product types that can be placed on the pallet is extremely limited, and
Load bias may occur depending on the combination of products to be loaded.

Furthermore, the method of specifying the pallet mounting position for each type of product as described above is not practical when there are many types of products.

However, in the case of industrial robots other than intelligent robots,
The movements of the hand and arm for grasping and carrying objects are taught in advance, and in order to depalletize and transport objects on a certain pallet and stack them onto a small pallet, the movements must be taught in advance. Before executing
It is necessary that the route is determined, that is, the placement position on the pallet is specified.

Therefore, even when there are many types of articles with different sizes and shapes, the present invention enables the use of hands or robots to rationally transfer the articles onto pallets for small portions without the above-mentioned inconveniences. This is an attempt to provide a method for retizing.

[Means for solving problems]

The method of the present invention that solves the above-mentioned problems stores in advance in the robot's control device a plurality of types of article arrangement patterns in which articles of similar size and shape are sorted and arranged on pallets together with robot operation information. First, based on the number information for each type inputted at the start of the operation, one of the above article arrangement patterns is determined, and then a suitable one is determined on the pallet based on the operation information corresponding to the article arrangement pattern. This is a method of distributing and placing a wide variety of items on the floor.

〔Example〕

Examples will be described below based on the drawings.

FIG. 1 is an overall plan view of a robot system for carrying out the palletizing method of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a longitudinal side view (the cross section is taken from ■-1I?J in FIG. 1) includes a girder (4) that moves on a rail (3) installed at a constant height above the floor by a support (2);
Lifting arm (5) that moves horizontally on the girder (4)
It consists of a vacuum pad type hand (6) attached to the lower end of the lifting arm (5), and a rail (6) on the floor.
3), a large number (8 in this example) of pallet cutting stations (7) are provided along with a conveyor (9j (II)) for transporting small pallets (8). In the example, the girder (4) and the lifting arm (
5) and two sets of hands are provided corresponding to the conveyor (9) f++). :I2+(+3) is a loading station for empty pallets to the conveyor, and a loading station for playful pallets, respectively, and (14) is a buffer station for adjusting the timing of feeding the pallet (8) to the conveyor (land). .

As shown in the second figure, the t2 loading station (7) is equipped with a large number of free-rotating balls 115) on its surface, and is loaded with goods from the side (direction perpendicular to the rail (3)) by a forklift or the like. Pallets (+C) can be easily carried in and out, and in this example, the same type (type A) is placed at two stations (7) in Figure 1.
A pallet (16) containing goods Ma is placed on the pallet (16), and different types (B type, C type, etc.) are placed one pallet at a time toward the right.

All of the articles (i) in this example are stored in rectangular parallelepiped containers made of cardboard, and are of the type (A, B).

C...) The shape and size of the container are different for each type.

In other words, for example, type A has length x width x height of 300.
It is stored in a container with dimensions of x 210 x 200 (mm), and the B type is 200 x 200 x 150 mm.
(mm), etc. They are stored in containers of different sizes and shapes.

Then, when this system starts operating, the number of each product type to be loaded onto the small pallet (8) is input into the control device (computer) 0'7) that controls the entire system.
For example, 20 items of type B, 15 items of type B, 5 items of type C, 3 items of D type, etc.) Empty valentines (8) are sent from the loading station (12) onto the conveyor (9), and the robot ) (1) uses the vacuum hand (6) to suction and transport a predetermined number of articles from the pallet (16) on each loading station (7), and transfers them to the conveyor (9).
Small pallet (8) temporarily positioned and stopped above
Even if the vacuum hand (6) on the left side of Figure 1 finishes loading the goods, the loading using the right hand (6) on the preceding pallet (8) ends. If not, the preceding pallet (8) is transferred to the conveyor (foo) by the buffer station (14+).
Wait until it is sent out from above, and then move to the conveyor (11)
Loading is performed by the hand (6) on the right side of Figure 1 above and sent to the unloading station (13), but the input information (number of pieces by type) at the start of operation is processed as follows. In other words, the control device (I7) is equipped with a similar system to the extent that there is no risk of the cargo collapsing even if the objects are stacked one on top of the other. A group of goods (groups ■～■
), and the corresponding article group (groups ■～■) is divided into small pallets (
8) Various arrangement patterns for separating and arranging strawberries on the top are memorized, and the robot movement (
In other words, information on movement timing and movement distance of the girder (4), lifting arm (5), etc. is also stored.

To explain more specifically, in this example, the number of types of articles handled is seven types: A, B, C...G,
In order to prevent an unnecessary increase in the number of placement patterns, for items that are stacked one on top of the other without any risk of collapse etc. (that is, items whose vertical and horizontal lengths differ within 30 mm and 20 mm, respectively), the placement pattern As shown in Figure 3, types C and E are considered to be the same product group (Group ■F and C types are classified as the same product group (Group ■hereinafter referred to as A and B). , each variety of D constitutes one article group (croup),
Various arrangement patterns are constructed for these groups ① to ②.

Figure 3 shows the corresponding size of each variety in a table divided by 30 mm and 20 mm for vertical and horizontal lengths, and even if the number of varieties handled increases further, the same squares in this table will be used. Items that fall under the category shall be classified into the same group of goods.

Then, regarding the five article groups that were reorganized based on the convenience of configuring the arrangement pattern as described above,
The number of IJA (the number of mountains to be piled up) is as follows:
is determined, and an arrangement pattern is selected and determined based on the number of areas.

In other words, the height of the items that can be stacked on the small pallet (8) is limited depending on the operating range of the Robot Hunt 61 (Figure 2), the size of the bottom area of the items in contact with the pallet surface, etc. The maximum height of the bond raising is known in advance, and the number of areas for each article group is an integer derived from the following formula based on the value of the maximum eye socket height.

Maximum humidity height However, if the value on the right side of the above formula is not an integer, round it up to the nearest whole number.

In other words, for example, if 5 and 10 pieces are respectively input as the number of items to be loaded for C and E types in group ■, the container height for C type is 200mm%, and the container height for E type is 150mmN. Assuming that the maximum eye socket for group (■) is 200 (] mm, the above formula becomes as follows, and the number of areas to be obtained is 2.

In the same way, the number of areas is calculated for each article group (group), and the number of areas obtained (for example, 2 areas for group (■, 2 areas for group ■, 1 area for group ■, 0 for group GD). , one placement pattern (PL) corresponding to 2 areas for group
(Select and decide from a large number of arrangement patterns (circles) (1'2)... stored in the memo IJ (Ml) within 1η (Fig. 4).

That is, in the memory (Ml) of the control device (1η), as illustrated in FIG. ) (P2) (P3)... are memorized (for example, the arrangement pattern (circle) is glue-y (
Dzx rear, group ■2 area, croup (■1 area, group ■0 area, croup ■2 area, arrangement pattern (P2) is group ■1 area, group ■0 area, group ■2 area, group ■2 area, Group ■2 area, arrangement pattern (P3) is group ■3
area, group ■0 area, group ■3 area, group ■0 area, group ■1 area, etc.), determine one suitable placement pattern (in the above example, the placement pattern (PL)). That's what I do.

In addition, the above arrangement pattern (PL) (P2) (P3)
For items with the same number of areas in each group of items, the load balance when items are loaded on the pallet (8) is unified to one pattern that is as unbalanced as possible, and in practice, this does not occur. For example, if the upper part of the palette (8) is filled with an area only for group ■, and there are no areas for other groups, the arrangement pattern is not stored, but the arrangement pattern to be stored in advance is There are about 20 to 30 types.

Furthermore, the memory (N12) of the control device (17)
) are each of the above arrangement patterns (PL) (P2) (P
3) Robot motion information (girder (
4), movement timing and movement distance of the lifting arm (5), etc. are also stored, and operation commands are issued to the robot based on this information.

That is, for example, if the arrangement pattern (Pl) in the above example is selected and decided, the robot (1) will move according to the arrangement pattern (Pl).
According to the operation report in the memory (M2) that is set with pl), the inputted number of articles of type A, for example 20, are placed on the conveyor (9) from the loading station (7) at the far left in FIG. ) onto the small pallet (8). The transfer position is of course the lower right corner of the upper pallet in Figure 1 according to the placement pattern (Pl), and as far as this pattern is concerned, the transfer position of the article is fixed at π, so the leftmost placement station ( Determined movement information (mainly horizontal ↑ζ information) of the elevating arm (5), that is, the hand (6) between the small pallet 7) and the lower right corner of the small pallet is emitted from the υ control device (17). The lifting and lowering of the hand (G) is controlled by directly detecting the upper end of the article using a limit switch, a proximity switch, etc. attached to the hand (Gl).

In addition, the reason why the two leftmost places of the loading station (7) in Figure 1 are used as loading places for the A type is because there is a high demand for the A type.
This is to store a large number of A types, and also to place A, B, C, and D types along the conveyor (9) on the conveyor (1).
By setting all types as having higher demand (higher frequency of separate items) than the E, F, and C types according to 1), the A to D types are pickled and loaded while moving along the conveyor (9). Many of the small pallets (8) whose work has been completed are immediately sent to the unloading station (13) without stopping on the next conveyor (II), thereby shortening the overall cycle time. .

After loading a predetermined number of types, the B type is then loaded in the same way. This B type (group ■) spans two areas, and is divided into two piles for loading. To go.

Similarly, the C variety (group ■) and D variety (group ■) are divided into two areas and two mountains, respectively, and '11 a'
In this example, all the loading work is completed by loading the above A-D types, so the small pallet (8) does not stop on the next conveyor (11), that is, the A-D types.
Immediately move to the unloading station (13) without loading G.
be sent to.

Of course, if the number of products to be manually controlled is different, the control device 1
7), another arrangement pattern is selected and determined, and the loading pallet f of each type is selected based on another operation information (program).
Depalletizing a predetermined number of articles from 16) to small pallets) (8) is performed.

Note that the placement pattern is determined by the number of areas for each product group as described above, so for example, regarding the placement pattern (PL) above, if the two areas of group In some cases, it is made up of a mixture of C and E types, and in cases where two or more types are mixed as described above, they are simply piled up and palletized as shown in Figure 5. However, as mentioned above, the multiple varieties have Pas above and below each other.
,I? 9. Since the material has been selected so that there is no risk of it collapsing even if the material is pressed, there will be no problem during the loading operation or during transportation after the bond is completed.

The operation information (program) for placing goods on the small pallet (8) by the robot (+) is based on the operation information (program) for placing goods on the small pallet (8), even if goods of different types are stacked one on top of the other in the same area. The centers of the articles being stacked are always aligned on the same vertical line, forming what is called a stacked stack, in order to prevent inter-layering.

As described above, the exact number of articles of each type manually selected is loaded onto the small pallet (8) according to the selected layout pattern.This palletizing process is illustrated in a flowchart as shown in Figure 6. become that way.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As is clear from the above explanation, according to the palletizing method of the present invention, even if the robot is of a type in which the movements of hands, arms, etc. are taught in advance, it is possible to can be palletized in various combinations without causing load imbalance.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

Fig. 1 is an overall plan view of a robot system for carrying out the method of the present invention, Fig. 2 is an ll-ff sectional view of Fig. 1, and Fig. 3 is a cross-sectional view of a robot system for carrying out the method of the present invention. FIG. 43 is an example of a layout pattern, FIG. 5 is a side view showing how articles are loaded on a small pallet, and FIG. 6 is a flowchart. fi+...Rohot (6)...Hand (
8)...Small pallet (+7)...;l1lJ (1
11+ Equipment (w) -... Goods (A) (B) (c
) (D) (E) (f) (G) -... Variety (PL) (
P2) (pa)...Arrangement pattern (Ml) (M2)
··memory

Claims (1)

[Claims] It is a method in which various items of different sizes and shapes are stacked on pallets using industrial robots.
A plurality of types of arrangement patterns are stored in advance in which articles of similar shapes are sorted and arranged on pallets, and one of the above arrangement patterns is adapted based on the number information of each type inputted at the start of operation. 1. A method for palletizing articles using a robot, the method comprising: determining a layout pattern, and then distributing and placing various articles on a pallet in accordance with the arrangement pattern.