KR100922495B1 - Container detection method, Device and Transfer vehicle system - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: A container detection method, a device and a transfer vehicle system are provided to extract the information necessary for own sorting to pick up the relevant container. CONSTITUTION: A container detection device comprises a scanner and a data analysis part. The container detection device is installed at the container transfer vehicle, and detects the location of container, and transmits the information to the control system of the container transfer vehicle. The scanner(110) scans the container and outputs the result. The data analysis part(120) distinguishes the container using the information scanned from the scanner. The data analysis part computes an angle and a location of the distinguished container and outputs the results. The data analysis part includes the size determining unit, and the condition determination part. The size determining unit determines the size of an object using the information scanned from a scanner. The condition determination part(122) computes an angle and the location in which a container is placed and outputs the result.

Description

Container detection method, apparatus and transfer vehicle system having same {Container detection method, Device and Transfer vehicle system}

The present invention relates to a method for detecting a container, and more particularly, to a container detecting method, an apparatus and a transport vehicle system having the same for detecting and transferring an accurate position of a container located in a yard.

Automation of container terminal equipment is underway to improve the productivity and economics of container terminals. Container transport vehicles can be automatically loaded with the introduction of self-loading devices, and automatic driving is possible with a location information system using GPS & INS and a four-wheel drive system using electric motors. According to the automation of such a container transport vehicle, a technology for recognizing a container is required.

Container cranes, unlike cranes, are machines that can run freely without a fixed rail or course. Thus, the container on the yard floor viewed by the vehicle may be placed in any direction. Existing container transport vehicles can pick up containers by man seeing them and driving them, but if they become unmanned equipment due to automation, they need a system that can receive the information of containers that were recognized by people.

The technical problem to be achieved by the present invention is a container detection method, apparatus for providing information necessary to determine the exact position of the container and determine the driving direction of the vehicle in accordance with the unmanned container transport vehicle of picking up the container and It is to provide a transport vehicle system having it.

Container detection apparatus according to a feature of the present invention for solving the above technical problem,

A container detection device mounted on a container transport vehicle and detecting the position of the container and transmitting information to the control system of the container transport vehicle,

A scanner for scanning and outputting the container;

And a data analyzer for identifying a container using the information scanned by the scanner and calculating and outputting an angle and a position on which the identified container is placed.

Container detection apparatus according to another aspect of the present invention for solving the technical problem,

A container detection device mounted on a container transport vehicle and detecting the position of the container and transmitting information to the control system of the container transport vehicle,

A first scanner for scanning and outputting the container;

A second scanner for scanning and outputting the container;

A data analyzer which identifies a container using information scanned by the first and second scanners, and calculates and outputs an angle and a position at which the container is placed using scan information in which at least two sides of the scanned information are identified. Include.

Container transport vehicle system according to another feature of the present invention for solving the above technical problem,

A container transport vehicle system that receives target container location information from an external container terminal operating system,

A first scanner for scanning and outputting the container;

A second scanner for scanning and outputting the container;

A data analyzer for identifying a container using information scanned by the first and second scanners, and calculating and outputting an angle and a position at which the container is placed using scan information in which at least two surfaces are identified from the scanned information. ;

And a control system for receiving the target container position information from the container terminal operating system and moving the command to a corresponding position, and then, if the angle and position information of the container are input from the data analysis unit, to control the container to be picked up. .

Container detection method according to a feature of the present invention for solving the above technical problem,

A container detection method of a container detection apparatus mounted on a container transport vehicle and detecting the position of the container and transmitting information to the control system of the container transport vehicle,

Scanning the container;

Extracting an object from the scanned information;

Determining whether the size of the extracted object falls within the size range of the container;

Calculating the state of the container if the size of the extracted object belongs to the size range of the container;

Determining whether the state of the container meets the condition of the container;

If the state of the container meets the condition of the container, sending the state of the container to the control system.

Calculating the state of the container,

Each surface is divided by an edge point, and the angle of the surface is obtained by using a predetermined linear equation.

The condition of the container is characterized in that it is determined by determining that the plurality of planes to form 90 degrees.

Container detection method according to another aspect of the present invention for solving the technical problem,

A container detection method of a container detection device mounted on a container transport vehicle and detecting the position of the container and transmitting information to the control system of the container transport vehicle,

Scanning the container with a plurality of scanners;

Extracting an object from the plurality of scanned information;

Determining whether the size of the extracted object falls within the size range of the container;

If the size of the extracted object belongs to the size range of the container, calculating a state of the container using a plurality of scanned information;

Determining whether the state of the container meets the condition of the container;

If the state of the container meets the condition of the container, calculating the state of the container and transmitting it to the control system.

In an embodiment of the present invention, the object is recognized through a scanner attached to the vehicle, so that the moving path setting of the unmanned equipment and the picking up of the container are possible, and even if a person does not directly check the container, the container recognizes the position and direction of the container. It is possible to build an unmanned control system for picking up containers by extracting information necessary to perform self-alignment to pick up containers and transferring the extracted information to a control system of a container transport vehicle.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION Hereinafter, exemplary embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings so that those skilled in the art may easily implement the present invention. As those skilled in the art would realize, the described embodiments may be modified in various different ways, all without departing from the spirit or scope of the present invention. In the drawings, parts irrelevant to the description are omitted for simplicity of explanation, and like reference numerals designate like parts throughout the specification.

Throughout the specification, when a part is said to "include" a certain component, it means that it can further include other components, without excluding other components unless specifically stated otherwise.

1 is a block diagram of a container detection apparatus according to a first embodiment of the present invention.

1, the container detecting apparatus according to the first embodiment of the present invention,

A container detection device mounted on a container transport vehicle and detecting the position of the container and transmitting information to the control system of the container transport vehicle,

A scanner (110) for scanning and outputting the container; It includes a data analysis unit 120 to identify the container by using the information scanned by the scanner 110, and to calculate and output the angle and position on which the identified container is placed.

The data analyzer 120 uses the information scanned by the scanner 110 to determine whether the object corresponds to the size of the container and whether the condition of the identified object corresponds to the condition of the container. If it is determined that the condition is met, the condition determination unit 122 that calculates and outputs the angle and position on which the container is placed is included.

The operation of the container detecting apparatus according to the first embodiment of the present invention having such a configuration will be described below.

2 is a block diagram of a container detection apparatus according to a first embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 2, first, the scanner 110 scans and outputs an object within a predetermined distance of a predetermined angle, that is, 180 degrees (S201).

Then, the size determination unit 121 of the data analysis unit 120 classifies and extracts the object from the scanned information (S202).

Then, it is determined whether the size of the extracted object falls within a range of the size that can be recognized as a container (S203).

When the size of the extracted object falls within the size range of the container, the condition determining unit 212 regards the object as a container and calculates a state of the container. That is, each surface is divided by an edge point (S204), and the angle of the surface is obtained by a linear equation (S205).

Then, it is determined whether the calculated state of the container meets the condition of the container, i.e., the two surfaces form 90 degrees and the length of the container.

If the two sides are 90 degrees and the same length of the container, the condition determination unit 122 recognizes the object as a container (S207), and determines whether there is another object (S208), if there is no other object among the detected containers The position and direction information of the target container is transmitted to an external control system. The detected angle and position of the container are transmitted to the control system so that the container can be properly aligned and aligned.

The principle of recognizing a container for information scanned by the scanner 110 in the above process will be described in more detail as follows.

Referring to FIG. 3, data received through the laser scanner 110 attached to the outside of a vehicle is an object distance detected in each direction at a scan point according to an angle of 0 to 180 degrees. Since the X and Y coordinates are simply converted from angles and distances, the data used in the analysis are the X, Y and distance data.

By looking at the scan points shown on the X and Y coordinates, you can check the outline of objects around the vehicle. Each object must be distinguished individually in order to detect a container among several objects around it.

When multiple objects are detected as shown in FIG. 4, a simple method of distinguishing each object is to distinguish the distances between the objects. Since the laser scanner scans using a laser having straightness, if any one object is detected by the scanner, the object looks at the scanner as a continuous scan point to form a contour. For different objects at different distances, an area where nothing is detected as the space between the two objects occurs or another object at a greater distance than the two objects is detected.

Therefore, the discontinuity point of the scan point may be a criterion for distinguishing an object. If two or more objects are stuck together (in the case of P201), it becomes difficult to distinguish them and the scanner recognizes them as one object. However, if the container is in close proximity to other objects, it is impossible for the vehicle to pick it up. Therefore, it is not a problem to recognize two objects as one object because the container to be picked up is not attached to another object.

The object corresponding to the container should be selected from the scan data divided into each object. Containers are of the same standard and have a rectangular shape. Analyzing all detected objects will increase processing time, so analyze only objects that may be containers. The condition that an object can be judged as a container is that the size of the object must be larger than the length of the shortest width of the container, and must be smaller than the maximum size according to the type of container, that is, the diagonal length of the container. To find out whether the object is a real container among the objects that can be judged as a container, the characteristics of the detected objects are analyzed. If the object is a container, the object consists of two sides that form 90 degrees, each of which will be the same length as the container. In order to analyze the shape of an object, it is first necessary to classify the object into linear components. For accurate analysis, it is better to analyze the scan points of the objects one by one. However, since the processing time is long, it is advantageous to analyze the objects with minimal processing.

The environment of use of the vehicle is limited to the terminal, so complex objects are not detected. Objects other than containers may be cranes, yard trucks, other vehicles, buildings, etc., and there may be no objects similar or the same size as the containers. Therefore, it is possible to distinguish a container by checking whether the container has a rectangular shape with respect to an object of a size that can be estimated as a container.

When a container having a rectangular shape is detected by the scanner, the shape of the object that appears may be classified into two cases as shown in FIG. 5. The first is when only one side appears (P301) and the second is when two sides appear (P302). This is the same principle that the maximum number of faces that can be seen when looking at the rectangle from one side is two, and only one side of the front is visible from the front of the rectangle.

Analyzing how many faces the shape of an object can be known by the presence or absence of an edge where the faces meet. When two faces are detected by the shape of the object such as 'B' or '>' (P302), the scan points farthest from the line connecting the start and end points of the set of scan points forming the object It can be determined by the corner point where they meet. This can be explained by measuring the distance to the corner point far from the base when measuring the height of the triangle. On the other hand, if only one face appears in the 'ㅡ' shape (P301), the edge point determined as described above becomes a point adjacent to the line connecting the start point and the end point, thereby recognizing the shape of the object as a single line segment having no edge point.

6 shows an example of how an edge, which is a point of separation between two faces, is determined in the shape of an object detected by the scanner.

As shown in FIG. 7, an error may occur in which an object P401 having a shape of three or more faces or an object P402 having a curved face is recognized as a container. In contrast, it is necessary to measure the straightness of the surface separated by corners. It is to be recognized as a container only when two separated faces consist of straight lines. This can be measured by checking whether the scan points constituting the plane are distributed on a straight line so that the point furthest from the straight line appears adjacent to the straight line, similarly to determining the shape P301 where the single line segment is measured.

To determine whether the shape of an object divided into two sides or one side is a container, the length of each side is obtained and compared with the actual container length. If two faces are detected, it is necessary to add whether the angle of the two faces is 90 degrees to the condition recognized as a container for more accurate detection. The length comparison tells us which part of the container the plane of the object corresponds to, which provides clues as to which direction the container is placed.

In order to find the length and angle of the detected face, it is necessary to find the equation of the straight line corresponding to the face. Since the separated object data on the scan data includes the shape information of the actual object surface, the surface state information should be excluded to extract only the shape of the object from such data. The surface of the object will not be perceived as a straight line, but will have large and small bends, including the scanner's own error.

Therefore, in order to check the angle of the straight line formed by the scan point, the linear equation of the corresponding part is obtained by using least-squares regression. Least-squares regression is a method of solving the equation of a line in which the sum of the squares of the distances between the lines at each point in the set of points is the minimum.

The equation of a straight line is expressed as Y = M * X + B, where M represents the slope of the straight line, so the angle of the straight line can also be found.

FIG. 8 shows the shape of a straight line obtained by using least squares regression analysis on an object separated by a corner, and is an actual example of a situation where two straight lines form 90 degrees. By gathering this information, you can know the shape and location of the object and the length of the surface from the start point, the corner point, and the end point of the object.The angle of the object placed in a straight line from the start point to the edge and a straight line from the edge to the end point Able to know. This compares whether the length of the surface of the object is the same as the container and detects the container by determining whether the angle formed by the two straight lines is 90 degrees.

In order to increase the accuracy of the detected position, if two sides of the container are detected, the intersection of the two straight lines is selected as a new corner point, and the position opposite the container width along the straight line in front of the container is selected as the opposite edge. This is because the edge of the container is curved and the detection distance is long, so the effect of the scanner's resolution is so large that the shape of the object is not detected correctly. Even if the location is inferred as a virtual point from a long distance, the closer the object is to near field, the less influence of the scanner resolution. Therefore, the shape of the object is completely detected and analyzed, so the exact location is recognized just before picking up the container.

An example of using two scanners to more accurately recognize containers than the first embodiment will be described below.

9 is a block diagram of a container detection apparatus according to a second embodiment of the present invention.

9, the container detection apparatus according to a second embodiment of the present invention,

A container detection device mounted on a container transport vehicle and detecting the position of the container and transmitting information to the control system of the container transport vehicle,

A scanner (110) for scanning and outputting the container; A second scanner 111 for scanning and outputting the container; The container is identified using the information scanned by the first and second scanners 110 and 111, and the angle and position at which the container is placed are calculated using the scan information in which at least two surfaces are identified from the scanned information. It includes a data analysis unit 120 to output.

The data analyzer 120 may determine a size of the object corresponding to the container by using the information scanned by the first and second scanners 110 and 111 and the size determiner 121.

The condition determination unit determines whether the condition of the identified object corresponds to the condition of the container by using scan information in which at least two planes are identified from the scanned information, and if the condition is met, calculates and outputs the angle and position at which the container is placed. (122).

Referring to the operation of the container detection apparatus according to the second embodiment of the present invention having such a configuration as follows.

10 is a flowchart illustrating the operation of the container detection apparatus according to the second embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 10, first and second scanners 110 and 111 scan an object within a predetermined angle, that is, within a predetermined distance of 180 degrees, and output each of them (S101).

Then, the size determiner 121 of the data analyzer 120 classifies and extracts objects from the scanned information (S102).

Then, it is determined whether the size of the extracted object falls within a range of the size that can be recognized as a container (S103). In this case, only one scanner may be determined as necessary.

If the size of the first and second scanners 110 and 111 are both within the size range of the container, the condition determining unit 212 regards the object as a container and divides each surface by a corner point. (S104).

In operation S105, it is determined whether there is information of a scanner that divides the surface.

When the faces are separated, the angle of the faces is obtained by a straight line equation using scan data in which the faces are divided (S106). At this time, if both sides of the scanner are separated, only one gets the angle of the face.

On the other hand, if there is no scanner that separates the faces, both are single-sided, so the two data are integrated to analyze the container length. In this case, because there is a synchronization problem of both scanners, only one side is analyzed without integration (S111). However, this rarely happens.

Then, it is determined whether the calculated state of the container satisfies the condition of the container, that is, two surfaces form 90 degrees and is equal to the length of the container (S107).

If the two sides are 90 degrees and the same length as the container, the condition determination unit 122 recognizes the object as a container (S108), determines whether there is another object (S109), and if there is no other object among the detected containers The position and direction information of the target container is transmitted to an external control system. The detected angle and position of the container are transmitted to the control system so that the container can be properly aligned and aligned. This second embodiment has the advantage that it can be more accurate than the first embodiment. In other words, the laser scanner can perform tomographic analysis based on the detection distance in each direction by two-dimensional scanning, and one laser scanner detects only the object section corresponding to the cross section of the object, that is, the direction the scanner is looking at In the second embodiment, two scanners were used in different positions for detection. This complements each other by allowing other scanners to see invisible parts of one scanner.

An example of applying the container detecting apparatus according to the first or second embodiment to a container transport vehicle will be described below. For convenience, an example in which the second embodiment is applied will be described. If one scanner is omitted, the first embodiment is applied.

11 is a view showing the appearance of a container transport vehicle system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 11, the first and second scanners 110 and 111 are positioned at the lower end of the front of the transport vehicle, so that the scan is easily mounted, and the data analyzer 120 is located at the upper end. It can be changed accordingly.

12 is a block diagram of a container transport vehicle system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

12, the container transport vehicle system according to an embodiment of the present invention,

GPS & INS system 520, control system 500, steering device 541, drive device 542, unloading device 551, the control system 500 includes a travel control unit 540, unloading control unit ( 550, a central control unit 531, a transport vehicle position information storage unit 521, a position and angle information storage unit 511, and a target position storage unit 502.

The transport vehicle location information storage unit 521 stores location information of the transport vehicle calculated by the GPS & INS system 520. The position and angle information storage unit 511 stores the position and angle information of the scanned and calculated container. The target location storage unit 502 stores the target location of the container received from the container terminal operating system. The GPS & INS system 520 calculates location information of the transport vehicle. The driving controller 540 controls the steering device 541 and the driving device 542 to move to the target position. The unloading control unit 550 controls the unloading device 551 to be unloaded. The central control unit 531 performs overall control of moving and unloading the vehicle, and stores the position and angle information of the container obtained from the position analysis unit 120 and its position stored in the transport vehicle position information storage unit 521 ( Using the position and angle information of the container of the 511 to align the container and the transport vehicle itself, and determines the entry path to the position where the unloading device 551 can pick up the target container. The steering apparatus 541 controls the movement direction of the transport vehicle by steering. The driving device 542 drives to move the transport vehicle. The unloading device 551 unloads the container.

Referring to the operation of the container transport vehicle system according to an embodiment of the present invention having such a configuration as follows.

First, a location of a container to be worked on by the container terminal operating system 600 is stored in the container target location information storage unit 502. If necessary, the container transfer vehicle central control unit 531 may receive a position of a container to be worked from the container terminal operating system 600 and store the container target position information storage unit 502.

Next, the central control unit 531 compares the position of the input container with its own position obtained by the GPS & INS system 520 and reads it from the vehicle position information storage unit 521 to determine the driving route. That is, determine the path to go from the current position to the target position.

Next, the driving controller 540 controls the steering device 541 and the driving device 542 according to the determined path and moves to the target container.

Until this stage, we know the approximate position of the target container, but the exact position of the container and the shape of the container (direction, angle) are not known.

When the transport vehicle approaches the target container within the detection distance of the scanner, the scanners 110 and 111 detect the container corresponding to the target container, and the data analyzer 120 extracts the information of the container to determine the correct position and You will find out what the form is.

The central control unit 531 uses its position stored in the transport vehicle position information storage unit 521 and the position and angle information of the container of the container obtained from the data analysis unit 120 and the position and angle information of the container of the angle information storage unit 511. The self-alignment of the container and the transport vehicle is performed, and the entry path to the position where the unloading device 551 can pick up the target container is determined.

When the driving control unit 540 controls the steering unit 541 and the driving unit 542 to move the vehicle along the entry path to reach a position where the container can be picked up, the loading and unloading unit 551 is controlled by the loading control unit 550. Will load the container.

By this process, the container can be loaded and unloaded unmannedly.

It will be appreciated that various changes and modifications can be made by those skilled in the art to which the present invention pertains without departing from the technical spirit of the present invention. The scope of the present invention is shown in the claims rather than the foregoing description, and all differences within the scope will be construed as being included in the present invention.

1 is a block diagram of a container detection apparatus according to a first embodiment of the present invention. Drawing.

2 is a flowchart illustrating the operation of the container detection apparatus according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

3 shows a scan range of a scanner.

4 is a diagram illustrating an example of a shape of an object detected by the scanner.

5 is a diagram illustrating two types of shapes of containers detected by a scanner.

6 is a diagram illustrating an example of a method of classifying corner points in a detected object.

FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating an example in which a corner is divided into two sides but does not correspond to a container.

8 is a diagram illustrating an example of calculating a linear equation by least squares regression analysis.

9 is a block diagram of a container detection apparatus according to a second embodiment of the present invention. Drawing.

10 is a flowchart illustrating the operation of the container detection apparatus according to the second embodiment of the present invention.

11 is a view showing the appearance of a container transport vehicle system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

12 is a block diagram of a container transport vehicle system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Claims (14)

A container detection device mounted on a container transport vehicle and detecting the position of the container and transmitting information to the control system of the container transport vehicle, A scanner for scanning and outputting the container; A data analysis unit for identifying a container by using the information scanned by the scanner and calculating and outputting an angle and a position at which the identified container is placed; The data analysis unit, A size determination unit for identifying whether an object is a size corresponding to a container by using the information scanned by the scanner; If it is determined that the condition of the identified object corresponds to the condition of the container, if the condition is met, includes a condition determination unit for calculating and outputting the angle and position the container is placed, The condition determining unit divides each surface by a corner point and obtains an angle of the surface by using a predetermined linear equation. delete delete The method of claim 1, The container detection apparatus of claim 1, wherein the condition of the container is determined by determining that a plurality of surfaces form 90 degrees. A container detection device mounted on a container transport vehicle and detecting the position of the container and transmitting information to the control system of the container transport vehicle, A first scanner for scanning and outputting the container; A second scanner for scanning and outputting the container; A data analyzer which identifies a container using information scanned by the first and second scanners, and calculates and outputs an angle and a position at which the container is placed using scan information in which at least two sides of the scanned information are identified. Including, The data analysis unit, A size determination unit identifying whether an object is a size corresponding to a container by using the information scanned by the first and second scanners; The condition determination unit determines whether the condition of the identified object corresponds to the condition of the container by using scan information in which at least two surfaces are identified from the scanned information, and if the condition is correct, calculates and outputs an angle and a position at which the container is placed. Including, The condition determining unit divides each surface by a corner point and obtains an angle of the surface by using a predetermined linear equation. delete delete A container transport vehicle system that receives target container location information from an external container terminal operating system, A first scanner for scanning and outputting the container; A second scanner for scanning and outputting the container; A data analyzer for identifying a container using information scanned by the first and second scanners, and calculating and outputting an angle and a position at which the container is placed using scan information in which at least two surfaces are identified from the scanned information. ; And a control system that receives the target container position information from the container terminal operating system and moves the command to a corresponding position, and controls to pick up the container when the angle and position information of the container are input from the data analyzer. , The data analysis unit, A size determination unit identifying whether an object is a size corresponding to a container by using the information scanned by the first and second scanners; The condition determination unit determines whether the condition of the identified object corresponds to the condition of the container by using scan information in which at least two surfaces are identified from the scanned information, and if the condition is correct, calculates and outputs an angle and a position at which the container is placed. Including, The condition determining unit divides each surface by an edge point, and obtains the angle of the surface by using a predetermined linear equation. delete A container detection method of a container detection device mounted on a container transport vehicle and detecting the position of the container and transmitting information to the control system of the container transport vehicle, Scanning the container; Extracting an object from the scanned information; Determining whether the size of the extracted object falls within the size range of the container; Calculating the angle and position of the container if the size of the extracted object falls within the size range of the container; Determining whether the angle and position of the container match the condition of the container; If the angle and position of the container match the condition of the container, transmitting the angle and position of the container to the control system. The method of claim 10, Calculating the angle and position of the container, A container detection method, characterized in that each surface is divided by an edge point and the angle of the surface is obtained by using a predetermined linear equation. The method of claim 11, The condition of the container is a container detection method, characterized in that determined by determining that a plurality of planes to form a 90 degrees. A container detection method of a container detection device mounted on a container transport vehicle and detecting the position of the container and transmitting information to the control system of the container transport vehicle, Scanning the container with a plurality of scanners; Extracting an object from the plurality of scanned information; Determining whether the size of the extracted object falls within the size range of the container; If the size of the extracted object belongs to the size range of the container, calculating a position and an angle of the container using a plurality of scanned information; Determining whether the position and angle of the container meet the condition of the container; If the position and angle of the container match the condition of the container, calculating and transmitting the position and angle of the container to the control system. A recording medium mounted on a container transport vehicle and recording the container detection method of the container detection device for detecting the position of the container and sending information to the control system of the container transport vehicle, Receiving scan information of a scanner and extracting an object from the scan information; Determining whether the size of the extracted object falls within the size range of the container; Calculating the position and angle of the container if the size of the extracted object falls within the size range of the container; Determining whether the position and angle of the container meet the condition of the container; And storing a program in which a function of transmitting the position and angle of the container to the control system is implemented if the position and angle of the container match the condition of the container.

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