WO1993002001A1

WO1993002001A1 - Method and device for displacing objects in a sorting installation or in a game apparatus

Info

Publication number: WO1993002001A1
Application number: PCT/FR1992/000686
Authority: WO
Inventors: Maurice Lechevallier
Original assignee: Maurice Lechevallier
Priority date: 1991-07-24
Filing date: 1992-07-16
Publication date: 1993-02-04
Also published as: AU2387992A; EP0550738A1; FR2679538A1

Abstract

Method and device for displacing objects, each object resting on a platform, with respect to a flat surface, provided with a plurality of complementary mechanisms displacing said platforms so that they are engaged with two neighbouring pivoting mechanisms which are mechanically controlled to advance them inside the surface area from mechanism to mechanism, according to a succession of linear or non linear paths in multiple directions; the device is comprised of: the surface area (1) arranged with all means allowing to facilitate the simultaneous displacement of the platforms (10) from an assembly of input stations to an assembly of output stations representing their destination after sorting; automated means (2, 20) arranged as a bidimensional meshed network on said surface (1), cooperating in order to route the platform laden with objects to be sorted and gathered, from any one of the loading stations towards the station of destination of said objects; means for identifying each of the platforms and each of the positions of each automated means (2, 20) on the meshed network; electromechanical means (31, 35, 36, 37, 38) for accurately controlling the rotation position of the platforms in one rotation direction or the other, as well as means (23) for controlling the partial rotation of the automated means (2, 20) and means for limiting the rotation torque of the automated means (2, 20), and finally a computer (24) with its software for the management and optimization of the simultaneous routing of each platform during its displacement from the input station towards the destination station.

Description

METHOD AND DEVICE FOR MOVING OBJECTS IN A SORTING INSTALLATION OR IN A GAME APPARATUS

The present invention makes it possible to obtain displacements of objects with respect to an area and, this, for purely utility purposes such as for sorting objects or for playful purposes, to create games which, according to the variants chosen, can be used by a single player or by several. For this mistletoe is sorting of objects, the problem which the present invention reems is that of the rationalization of sorting of objects coming from at least one origin and having different destinations.

This distribution problem, sometimes designated by the word T5 "dispatching" is particularly acute in the field of the distribution of various articles, more or less heterogeneous and having numerous and geographically dispersed recipients.

This is the case, in particular for the press messaging services, 0 which must send parcels whose composition is practically individual to thousands of wind points.

The routing itself is done by various means which will not be described because they are not part of the invention: trucks, trains, cars, etc.

On the other hand, the invention relates to the raw operation 5 which is located upstream, namely immediately after labeling, when it is necessary to group the packages according to major destinations. Although the invention has no theoretical limits, ideas can be fixed by evaluating the number of groupings, that is to say the number of "destinations", at around twenty. The origin, for its part, can be single (the outlet of a conveyor belt, for example) or multiple: several conveyor belts, several distribution stations, etc. But we can just as easily imagine a hundred distribution stations and a hundred regrouping points.

An essentially manual process is currently known which comprises the following steps:

- reception of articles from the unloading of transport vehicles, handling of these articles and transport to a storage area where they are stored, counted and checked; - making packages to be sent, from an individual selection of these items according to different requests; - establishment of means of identification and recognition (labeling, marking, etc.) indicating the nature of the articles, the name and address of the recipient supplier and customer as well as the destination or other information likely to be used when sorting the article;

- manual sorting of packages and grouping by main destinations;

- loading of packages in vehicles and shipping. This rough process implements simple but slow and painful means because they essentially call for manpower.

In particular, due to the imposed rates, human errors are frequent so that a pre-shipment verification of the sorted items constituting the order is often necessary. This results in the need for an additional work station which reduces the sorting rate and the yield of the device while increasing the cost thereof. To overcome these drawbacks and in particular in order to reduce the cost of sorting, an automated mechanical device has been designed which includes fixed dispensers or "feeders" and fixed boxes for performing direct grouping of the articles.

However, this device requires the use of a large number of feeders (in theory as many feeders as customers), so that such a solution proves to be difficult to use in practice. In addition, when the boxes and feeders are mobile, handling movements are very numerous. For example, in the case of 1,000 customers and for 64 distinct articles with a distribution coefficient of 30% of articles per customer, we perform: 64 x 1,000 x 30/100 = 19,200 different movements per day.

Because of the high number of movements of the mechanical members, these devices are very noisy, which makes the working conditions of the personnel difficult.

Another solution consists in providing mobile feeders in association with fixed boxes.

This solution has the advantage of requiring very little movement of the feeders, thereby saving appreciable time. The distribution of articles according to the orders of each customer is simplified, so that customers who should not receive an article because they did not order it, are not taken into account in the sorting cycle.

However, this device has the drawbacks of requiring a displacement of a large mass of articles and a supply of articles which must be integral with the feeder, so that its movement must be synchronized with that of said feeder.

In addition, it appears during operation of frequent interference of feeders between them, which poses many problems on the efficiency and safety of sorting. One can also provide a device which includes movable cages associated with fixed feeders.

This solution is however very complex to implement and has numerous drawbacks which considerably reduce its practical use. The movement of the cages is very long and reduces the rate, so the rende¬ ment. This phenomenon is all the more accentuated as the number of cages is large, a number which increases with the size of the storage store and therefore with the volume of articles to be sorted. The only advantage provided by this device is a simplified supply of articles.

A device is also known which comprises movable cages in combination with movable feeders.

This device has the advantage of limiting the movements of feeders and boxes and of reducing the displacement travel of these members. This results in an increase in yield and a gain in productivity generating a decrease in the cost of sorting operations.

One can, moreover, carry out a linear displacement of the feeders and thus eliminate the interference of feeders between them and increase the efficiency of sorting.

Furthermore, this device comprises a supply of articles secured to the feeders and a little distribution, according to a predetermined distribution, of the supply of articles at fixed points according to the orders of the customers, which facilitates sorting, limits errors and increases the speed of operations.

However, these techniques call on complex and precise mechanical members which are expensive, very fragile and must be associated with regulating and servicing members requiring qualified personnel for their operation and maintenance.

Other devices use the technique of "deferred grouping" which has many advantages of use. This is due to the fact that it provides for a simplified and rapid supply of articles.

However, although allowing simplified management of the articles according to the orders of the intended customers, a major drawback of these devices lies in the length of movement of the articles and in the need to reinforce them by means of packaging. , twine or other means of protection.

The result is a new operation at an additional workstation, a slower sorting rate and an increase in the cost of operations.

It therefore appears that 1 ^• automation of sorting of articles still has many drawbacks which lead to finding a compromise between the cost of the automation and the productivity gain provided by it.

In addition, these difficulties are accentuated if the nature and the number of articles to be treated vary and if the sorting rates differ according to the type of articles to be sorted. Problems are encountered in the various mechanical organs which are necessary for the automatic realization of this sorting.

For example, the feeders currently in use are designed for regular, continuous and constant speed operation. However, in practice, due to the frequent variation of the flow rate resulting in particular from the diversity of the treated objects (articles of different natures and of different formats, etc.), it is necessary to add mechanical organs to them. 'sequential stop in order to modulate their speed as a function of the supply of articles and an intermediate storage of the articles to be sorted. The operating speed is thus considerably reduced and the rate achieved is reduced by one or two articles per second. The other mechanical parts of the automatic sorting chain: a pounder, labeling machine, plastic film wrapping machine, an article or a batch of articles are often of a complex design and must be constantly monitored in order to avoid any disruption in the progress of all sequential and successive sorting operations.

Another drawback of the current automated sorting of articles results from the need to place the articles in trays. Indeed, in the technique of delayed regrouping which requires a transfer to a point of grouping of the articles, automation is delicate and it is preferable when several customers are served at the same time to have recourse to intervention human to carry out the sorting and storage of the articles inside of bins, cartons, boxes, bags, or the like before their dispatch, prior to their final sorting.

The direct grouping technique allows the stacker to be removed, the packaging to be reinforced and the articles to be transferred to a grouping point for final sorting. However, it cannot be implemented when it is desired to fill the containers other than in bulk, which is necessary for certain types of articles. This results, in fact, in a poor presentation of articles intended for customers, an irregular and random filling of boxes or receiving containers, and an impossibility of controlling and verifying the accuracy of sorting based on the information appearing on the labels. .

The difficulty of these problems increases with the variety of formats and types of articles to be sorted and it therefore appears that automation has limits set by the profitability of the sorting installation. In particular, human intervention, although limited, cannot be abandoned because of the complexity of the various sorting operations which require significant oversight.

Furthermore, one of the essential characteristics of all the prior devices resides in the use of a linear sorting route with which there are permanently and unchangingly different stations for loading the articles to be sorted and for unloading the sorted articles, this rigid structure not taking into account the possible variations of the articles and the flow thereof.

Indeed, these devices all have a loading point at one end of the route with one or more lanes and an unloading point located at the other end of the route with one or more lanes, which prevents any possibility intervention during sorting or any possibility of adapting the flow according to needs. In addition, in this case, it is quite impossible to vary the number of loading or unloading points according to the flow rates, although these vary according to the hours of the day, the days of the week, etc.

The present invention provides a new solution to sorting articles which overcomes the drawbacks of the devices currently known by allowing sorting based on the circulation of several articles along a closed route within a mesh network. .

In addition, the invention allows for a storage instal¬, dynamic storage can accommodate many applications.

For these purposes, the invention relates to a method for moving objects relative to a substantially flat surface, characterized in that an area is established equipped with at least two complementary displacement mechanisms , so that objects are engaged with two neighboring mechanisms, so that the movement mechanisms are controlled so that the objects can progress inside the area following a non-linear course. According to other characteristics of this process: - for the distribution of objects from at least one entry station to one of several destination stations _4, an area is established equipped with movement mechanisms arranged according to a network mesh in two dimensions and likely to cooperate each with all its neighbors, that we identify each mechanism, that we assign at least one of them to 1 * entry of objects, that we assign at least two others to the destination of at least one object each and control the movement mechanisms so that the objects progress gradually within the area, from neighboring mechanism to neighboring mechanism, each following a non-linear, more or less extensive and complex path depending on the relative position of the mechanism assigned to its entry and of the mechanism assigned to its destination;

- the same object is passed at least twice through a mechanism assigned to the entry;

- the mechanisms assigned to a destination are killed on the edge of the area, the objects being intended to be extracted there from their course;

- the mechanisms assigned to a destination are killed either on the edge of the area or inside it, the objects being intended to remain for a more or less long time between a mechanism assigned to the entry into the area and a mechanism assigned to exit from the area.

The invention also relates to an installation intended for moving objects relative to a substantially flat surface, characterized in that it comprises an area equipped with at least two complementary displacement mechanisms, for objects to be engaged with two neighboring mechanisms, and means for selectively controlling the movement mechanisms so that the objects can progress within the following area, an unrelated course born.

According to other characteristics of this installation:

- it comprises a plurality of adjacent displacement mechanisms, arranged in a mosaic according to a two-dimensional area;

each mechanism is positioned in relation to the neighboring mechanisms in such a way that the same object can be engaged with two adjacent mechanisms; - Each mechanism comprises a part pivotally mounted in its center in a circle and the centers of two neighboring mechanisms are spaced apart by a distance less than the diameter of the circle, each part having at least one peripheral notch which constitutes both a housing for an object and a passage for the room of a neighboring mechanism;

- The pivotally mounted part of each mechanism has three notches delimited by radial arms;

- The radial arms two by two determine a curved notch whose radius of curvature is substantially equal to the radius of the part itself;

each object is a platform intended to receive at least one article;

- Each platform has the shape and extent, apart from the game, of two notches of mechanisms, considered opposite one another;

- It comprises a light base and at least two wheels as well as means for controlling the pivoting of the wheels and constitutes a clearance;

- the spinning wheels and any platforms are made of a transparent material;

- the spinning wheels and platforms carry a graphic representation which can be composed and broken down into fragments according to ^' the relative position of the spinning wheels and platforms; - The base carries marks coordinated with other marks made mobile by maneuvering the impellers.

The invention will be better understood from the detailed description below made with reference to the accompanying drawing. Of course, the description and the drawing are given only by way of an indicative and nonlimiting example.

Figures 1 to 12 illustrate the general principle of the invention, applied to the transfer of an object.

Figure 13 is a schematic plan view of a movement mechanism consisting of a impeller with three radial arms.

FIG. 14 is a diagram of the virtual mesh network according to which the displacement mechanisms are arranged on an area.

Figure 15 is a schematic sectional view of a movement mechanism and associated command and control elements.

Figure 16 is a schematic plan view of a displacement mechanism.

Figure 17 is a schematic view with partial section of a game produced in accordance with the invention. FIG. 18 is a schematic plan view of the game in FIG. 17.

Figures 19 and 20 are two schematic plan views showing a game according to the invention applied to the realization of complete figures from fragments, recalling puzzles.

Referring to Figures 1 to 16, we see that we assign to sorting an area 1 on which there are displacement mechanisms 2 each constituted by a tourni¬ quet comprising a vertical axial pivot 3 which is integral with radial arms 4, 5 and 6 and which is kinematically connected to an individual motor. The ends of the arms 4, 5 and 6, by pivoting, run through a circle and the arms 4, 5 and 6 determine between them cells which, from a geometric point of view, can be analyzed as constituting as many notches to the circle.

In theory, the invention can materialize with turnstiles comprising only a single notch, but it will be seen later that in practice the invention has real economic interest only if each turnstile has at least three notches, reason for which we have chosen the solution which consists in making the turnstiles in the form of "spinning wheels" which each have three radial arms 4, 5 and 6 oriented at 120 ° from one another.

The spinning wheels are arranged in a mosaic, their central pivots 3 being placed according to a virtual mesh network, that is to say at the points of intersection of a regular network. The distance between two points of intersection, whatever the orientation considered in the plane of the area 1, therefore corresponds to the center distance of the pivots 3 and must be less than the diameter of the virtual circle which circumscribes arms 4, 5 and 6. Arms 4, 5 and 6 have faces in an arc which determine three "notches" 7, 8 and 9 whose radius of curvature is equal to that of the virtual circle which circumscribes arms 4 , 5 and 6.

We see that each spinning wheel can rotate along its axis 3 because the arms 4, 5 and 6 pass into the notch of the neighboring spinning wheel, a clearance being provided between the end of the arms 4, 5 and 6 and the curved face of the notch.

Two notches are located opposite each other when they are exactly opposite by their concavity. They then determine, together, a housing for an object to be transferred.

Figures 1 to 12 show very schematically the transfer of an object A and, given that all of the impellers 2 are identical, we have chosen to number not the spinning wheels but the "posts" or locations that the spinning wheels determine in area 1 when they are all stationary and in position corresponding to the facing of the notches two by two for all the spinning wheels.

The notches being determined by two adjoining arms, we chose to designate them references formed by the references of the two arms in question. Example: notch 4-5 is the one located between arms 4 and 5.

It is considered here that the location numbered 1 is the departure station, or "entry station".

By rotating the corresponding spinning wheel anticlockwise, according to the arrow FI, its arm 4 pushes the object A towards the station 4 constituted by the space formed between them two notches of spinning wheels and the we see in Figure 2 that the arm 5, which precedes the object A relative to the scr___ of the pivoting, passes freely in the vicinity of the curved face of the notch 4-5 belonging to the stationary impeller.

By rotating this second impeller clockwise, according to arrow F2, its arm 4 pushes the object A towards the station 7 formed by the space formed between them two notches of impellers. Here again, the arm which precedes the object A passes freely in the vicinity of the curved face of the notch 4-5 belonging to the neighboring immo¬ bile impeller.

Figures 6 to 10 show the successive locations of the object A which, by successive swiveling of the impellers, passes from station 7 to station 11, from station 11 to station 14, from station 14 to station 15, from station 15 to station 16 and arrived at station 12.

Here, an important phase of the process according to the invention takes place:

- if the arrival station of object A is station 17 (which is on the edge of area 1), the spinning wheel serving the stations 16, 12 and 17 will be pivotally controlled clockwise to move object A from station 12 to station 17 according to arrow F8. There, object A can be removed by any known means (including manual) to be definitively directed to its destination:. intermediate grouping, loading aboard a vehicle, etc. This operation is illustrated in Figure 11.

- if the arrival station of object A is not station 17, or if object A must not reach it immediately (for various reasons which will be explained below), the object A must remain in circulation in area 1, in which case the spinning wheel serving stations 12, 9 and 8 will be ordered by pi¬ vote anticlockwise to move object A from station 12 to item 9 according to arrow F9. From there, object A will be moved along a more or less complex route, for a more or less long time, until it can be driven to its arrival station. This is illustrated in Figure 12.

It is understood, by this simple example, that the invention allows object A to stay for a longer or shorter period depending on whether it must be driven as quickly as possible from its departure station to its arrival station or, at on the contrary, that he must wait for an event before being led to his arrival post. Such an event may depend on departure conditions and / or arrival conditions.

One can imagine, in fact, that the object A is a receptacle having to group articles of various origins and intended for a common destination. Several entry stations are provided in this case and it is highly probable that all the articles will not be available at the precise moment when the receptacle arrives at the corresponding entry stations, so that, according to the invention, the receptacle remains in area 1, passing from post to post and passing through 1'instant optimum by the where the entry stations where he must receive items and it is only after full loading that he will be taken to his exit station.

So that the objects can stay on the area 1, it is of course necessary that the periphery thereof is surrounded by a border comprising as many curves equal to that of the notches as there are "posts " peripheral devices. Thus, an object reached against the edge can be picked up by the spinning wheel which led it there to resume a course of waiting or progression towards an entry station or an exit station.

Naturally, the installation receives numerous objects at the same time and the spinning wheels are controlled according to the occupation of area 1 and the requirements for entry, stay and exit. The management of a large installation in practice requires the use of data processing and, for this purpose, mechanical control means are controlled, controlled by electronic organs subjected to optimization software.

FIG. 13 shows an embodiment of the invention according to which the installation includes not only impellers but also platforms 10, one per station, for which they have a shape and a extension of two notches on the spinning wheel considered opposite one another. This shape is here substantially oval and we see a play x _. to avoid excessive friction, or even blockages.

The dimensions of the platforms 10 are dictated by those of the impeller notches and all these elements must be calculated as a function of the dimensions of the objects to be moved.

Here, the platforms are intended to receive bins 11 in which articles B are placed during the passage of the bin 11 to the corresponding entry station. These articles B are here represented in the form of packages, for example of newspapers, magazines, periodicals, etc.

For this, each platform 10 or each tray 11 is identified so that when passing through the entry station, the item (s) B ready for departure are placed in the desired tray 11. If the loading of articles B into the trays 11 is manual, a display device is placed in front of each person responsible for loading.

The indications displayed can be either markers such as numbers, or the plain names of the destinations. For example, for a sorting installation located in the Paris region, the bin 11 which must contain the articles B intended for Biarritz causes each of its passages in front of the loading stations to display its number or the name of the destination . When staff have items for Biar¬ ritz, they place them in the corresponding bin 11.

The software can, of course, take into account all of the items B arriving at the sorting center and can determine when the tray (s) 11 intended for Biarritz is full, which ipso facto causes its transfer to the Corresponding exit station.

On the contrary, as long as a bin is not complete, it remains in transfer and returns to each desired entry station as many times as necessary. When a bin 11 is full, it is led to its exit station, regardless of whether all the articles B corresponding to its destination have been loaded or not, because it is clear that in practice the shipment of all the articles B to a given destination may require multiple bins. Figure 13 shows that the trays 11 can be more or less filled (one of them is even empty), at a given time, depending on whether they correspond to a frequented destination or not, to bulky items B or not . The trays 11 commonly have an outside length of 60 centimeters and an outside width of 40 centimeters. The platforms 10 then have a length of approximately 112 hundred meters and a width of approximately 60 centimeters. The platforms therefore have dimensions coordinated with those of the objects they receive.

Thus, for example, if they are intended to receive pallets or pallet boxes whose standard dimensions are 120 centimeters on a side, the platforms have a length of approximately 300 centimeters and a width of approximately 160 centimeters.

The invention can be applied to the parking of cars in order to gain a considerable space compared to that which is necessary for the storage of cars by the driver himself: access routes, clearances necessary for maneuvers, etc. It is even possible to win over the height due to the possible precision of the mechanisms used. For a European type car with an overall length of 5 meters, the platforms have a length of around 7 meters and a width of around 3.5 meters.

The "mosaic" arrangement of the spinning wheels means that they are organized according to a mesh network, that is to say, for example, that the object A in FIG. 1 must pass through stations 2 and 5 to reach station 9 and cannot pass obliquely from station 4 to station 9.

The spinning wheels are arranged in a mosaic and their centers as well as the centers of the posts are on virtual lines of which an example has been shown in FIG. 14. The intersections of these lines, or "nodes", correspond to the centers posts. The centers of the spinning wheels are therefore in the center of the triangles while the elementary hexagons are each occupied by six halves of stations. _We see that these virtual lines have three orientations: oblique to the right, oblique to the left and horizontal. They thus determine a large hexagon having a total of sixty four peripheral stations and we have indicated by arrows F10 thirty two entry stations and by arrows Fi _l thirty two exit stations, that is to say that half of the peripheral stations are assigned to the entry and the other half to the exit.

An area thus equipped includes [***] spinning wheels and [***

X 3] posts.

The operation of the installation presupposes, of course, that the objects to be moved, with or without platforms, do not interfere with each other, which implies in the first place that the impellers are not rotated all at the same time.

_To this end, we consider the impellers according to two groups located in an overlapping pattern so that when the impellers of one group are pivoted, those of the other group are kept stationary and serve as lateral guidance for the objects (or platforms). ) displaced.

To avoid shocks and friction between the notches of the impellers and the objects, or the platforms, intermediate members can be placed on the vertical faces of the notches: rollers, ball bearings, elastic seals and others.

Of course, it is also possible to provide rolling or sliding members on the area 1 to facilitate the movement of objects or platforms. We can also adopt the air cushion technology.

FIGS. 15 and 16 show schematically a displacement mechanism comprising a impeller as well as its command and control means. As is clear from the above description, each spinning wheel includes its own command and control means, so that the description below of a single one of them is sufficient for all, the only common element being a computer which manages the overall functioning by means of a program specific to each installation. The impeller 20 is freely mounted on a shaft 21 of a geared motor 22, of the standard type with reversal of direction of rotation, controlled by means known to the skilled person, designated by the reference 23, which are themselves controlled by a computer 24, according to a program which takes account of the conditions specific to each application.

In order to avoid operating incidents, it is good to provide a force limiter 25 of any known type, interposed between the gearmotor shaft and the impeller proper, this limiter allowing the impeller 20 to stop alre the rotation of the shaft 21 when an object or a platform, accidentally diverted, wedge the impeller 20.

The force limiter is schematized here by a res¬ spell 26 which is fixed to the shaft 21 and which has two ends 27 and 28 extending radially to be in contact, at two diametrically opposite points, with a pin 29 secured to the impeller 20.

During operation, the shaft 21 rotates the spring 26 and one of its ends 27 or 28, depending on the direction of pivoting, pushes the pin 29 which forces the impeller 20 to pivot.

If the movement of the impeller 20 is prevented while the shaft 21 is rotating, the spring 26 is deformed radially and less tightens the shaft 21 which can continue to rotate until the end of its movement but which no longer drives the spring 26, so that the spinning wheel remains stationary.

The impeller 20 is integral with a hollow shaft 30 coaxial with the shaft 21 and carrying a disc 31 having three notches 32, 33 and 34 located 120 ^e from each other. Near the disc 31, there is a contactor 35 which has an arm 36 carrying at its free end a roller 37 mounted idly on an axis 38, this arm 36 is permanently stressed, in particular by a spring (not shown), towards its position of separation of the contactor 35 and, therefore, towards the disc 31.

Such a spinning wheel works in the following way: When the program of the computer 24 determines that the spinning wheel 20 must rotate, the information is received by the control means 23, which cause the closing of a switch 39 and the power supply of the geared motor 22 so that the latter drives the shaft 21 in the desired direction. The end 27, or the end 28 according to the direction, of the spring 26 pushes the pin 29 and thus causes the pivoting of the impeller 20. This drives the disc 31 and the inclined edges of the notch 32 pushes the roller 37 and the arm 36, against the spring which urges the latter. The roller 37 rolls on the edge of the disc 31 while the latter rotates and as soon as the next notch (33 or 34 depending on the direction of pivoting) is placed opposite the roller 37, the latter pushed by the arm 36 and its res¬ fall, falls into the notch. The arm 36, by pivoting, causes the opening of the switch 39 and, thereby, the interruption of the electrical supply of the geared motor 22.

It is thus certain that the rotation of the impeller is done exactly according to the number of desired degrees, here 120 °.

The computer program therefore consists in managing the individual pivotings of all the impellers of the installation, taking account of the requirements for movement of the various objects 11 (and / or platforms 10). The program can vary according to the hours of the day and in particular the start and end of the day, the number of loading (or entry) and unloading (or exit) stations to ensure start of the day quick start-up of the installation by a large number of loading points for sorting objects and at the end of the day by a large number of unloading points.

Thus, the saturation phenomena encountered in the devices currently used for sorting objects are avoided and the throughput is increased by adapting it to the flow of the objects to be sorted.

Upon receipt of the objects to be sorted, the most suitable program is established, according to parameters such as the nature of the objects, their number, the contact details of suppliers and customers, the destination of the objects, etc. , in order to assign a number of loading points and a number of unloading points. As soon as the initialization is complete, each loading point and each unloading point are identified by assigning them a number or other particular reference (code, distinctive sign, etc.).

This assignment is taken in management by the computer to optimize the sorting rate while avoiding errors since at each loading point is associated a parent assigned to an object or to a series of objects, and at each unloading point ²⁰ is associated with a reference corresponding to a defined command from a client.

Similarly, level 10 assigns each individual marker consisting of a reference and a separate code from that of the points of loading and unloading to Pu ^{* 2} ^ see every moment monitor said platform 10 (position, filling, etc.) and manage its route on the ire.

Thanks to this double identification of the points of the network and of the platforms, the computer 24 can at any time determine 30 with precision the position of each of the platforms 10, control the rate of sorting and ensure optimum efficiency thereof while reducing object sorting errors since it manages both the source of supply and the destination of objects.

The objects to be sorted are introduced selectively after their recognition, that is to say after the identification of their nature, of the supplier and of the customer by a person or by automated techniques (detection by optical barcode reader, video camera and associated visualization optical system, etc.), either in bulk individually or in packages, or in containers or on a pallet, by conventional handling techniques within the reach of those skilled in the art who cannot will not be described.

Naturally, the program is of parametric type, in order to modify the parts which depend on variable circumstances, all of which are within the reach of a skilled person. It should be noted that if the invention has been described with spinning wheels with three arms, it should be understood that this is not the case. there as an example because we can adopt other morphologies.

It is the same for the layout of the mesh network which can vary depending on the applications. Referring now to Figures 17 and 18, we see another application of the invention which relates to games.

We have retained here the example of a simple and inexpensive game, without motors and without mechanisms of any kind, but one can, of course, also make games mechanized and even controlled by computers.

The game comprises a base 100 hollowed out of a cell 101 in which there are two impellers 102 and 103 having each three arms 104, 105, 106 and 107, 108, 109, determining, as already mentioned explained above, three peripheral periphery notches.

Each spinning wheel has a central operating button respectively 110 and 111 hollow and containing a screw 112-113 intended to retain the corresponding spinning wheel relative to the bottom of the socket 101, that is to say relative to the base 100.

As for the sorting of objects, platforms are provided, but here it is rather pucks 115, 116, 117, 118 and 119, placed in the notches created by two adjacent arms. We have seen above that the coordination of the wheels is very important to ensure normal operation of the system. Here, the spinning wheels are controlled by hand, by rotating them by means of the buttons 110 and 111. Also it is necessary to facilitate the task of the players by avoiding them having to, during each movement, be concerned with the positioning of the spinning wheel worked.

For this, means are provided which ensure a slight engagement, which is obtained by providing housings 120 on the underside of the impeller 102 and 121 on the underside of the impeller 103, arranged at 120 ° from one another. others according to a virtual circle coaxial with each spinning wheel and vertically in line with each of which is a hemispherical relief 122 fixed in the bottom of the cell 101. It is understood that by making a spinning wheel, the housing 120 (121 ) must escape the relief 122 which it contains and must therefore be able to rise above the bottom of the cell 101 over a height at least equal to that of the relief 122.

This freedom of movement is obtained by interpolating a spring 125 between each impeller 102-103 and the lower face of the screws 112 and 113, this lower face being killed higher than the upper face of the impeller.

Thus, by rotating a spinning wheel 102-103, its lower face meets the relief 122-123 whose spherical shape favors its lifting against the spring 125, so that the spinning wheel can pivot freely until the housing The next 120-121 is plumb with the relief 122, in which case the impeller 102-103 the housing 120-121 covers the relief 122 and the impeller 102-103 returns to its original level under the effect of the spring 125. From this elementary structure, we can imagine various game variations.

One of them may consist in removing the pucks 115 to 119 in order to have the empty notches. The players place tokens or countermarks therein and various game rules make it possible to allocate points to the players according to their address and / or their perspicacity to make judiciously rotate the spinning wheels to accumulate tokens or to place them. judiciously compared to fixed benchmarks. According to another variant, an image is arranged in fragments on the pallets 115 to 119 and possibly on the arms of the impellers and partly on the base 100, as shown in FIG. 19.

The game consists in reconstructing the image of FIG. 20 by successive swiveling of the wheels.

According to another variant, the base 100 carries pins, for example colored surfaces, coordinated with other pins constituted by the pucks 115 to 119, or by tokens, or by objects placed on the pucks. The objects, the pucks or the tokens can be variously colored, the game consisting solely in rotating the impellers 102 and 103 to make these objects, pucks or tokens coincide with the marks carried by the base 100.

The bottom of the cell 101 can be used by making the impellers 102-103 and the pucks 115 to 119 in a transparent material.

It is possible to provide more than two spinning wheels, to associate them with motors and other mechanisms possibly controlled by a computer, the game then comprising a computer part, in particular programming.

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Claims

CLAIMS:

1 - Method and device for moving objects relative to a substantially flat surface comprising an area equipped with a plurality of complementary mechanisms for moving objects, each placed on a platform, along a trajectory in an arc of a circle, so that said platforms are engaged with two pivoting neighboring mechanisms, controlled manually or mechanically to advance them inside the area of mechanism into mechanism, characterized in that it comprises:

- an area (1) arranged with all means making it possible to facilitate the simultaneous movement of platforms (10) from a set of entry station (F10) to a set of exit station (Wire) representing their destination after sorting , - automated means (2, 20) arranged in a two-dimensional mesh network on said area (1), cooperating to route the platforms loaded with objects to be sorted and grouped, from any of the loading stations to the destination station for said objects, - means for identifying each of the platforms and each of the positions of each of the automated means (2, 20) on the mesh network,

- electromechanical means (31, 35, 36, 37, 38) for precise control of the position of rotation of the platforms in one or the other direction of rotation,

means (23) for controlling the partial rotation drive of the automated means (2, 20),

- means for limiting the torque of the automated means (2, 20), - a computer (24) and its software for managing and optimizing the simultaneous routing of each of the platforms in the process of moving from their workstation entry to their destination station.

2 - Device according to claim 1, characterized in that a part of the automated means or impellers (2, 20) arranged at the periphery of the area (1) acts as loading stations (F10) of objects to be sorted and to be grouped together to be routed to at least one exit station (Wire) where they are unloaded, in that the other part of the impellers (2, 20), also arranged at the periphery of the area (1), functions as exit stations (Wire) or unloading of the sorted and grouped objects for the same destination. 3 - Device for moving objects according to claims 1 and 2, characterized in that said mechanisms (2, 20) cooperate for the movement of the platforms (10) by partial rotation on an axis (3), in that '' they are each equipped with an electromechanical means (22) for driving in rotation in either direction by 1/3 or 1/4 of a turn depending on the shape of the impeller, in that the drive of said electromechanical means (22) is controlled by the computer (24), in that each spinning wheel notch is equipped with means promoting the transfer of platforms from one spinning wheel to another. 4 - A method of moving objects according to claims 1, 2 and 3, characterized in that the computer software (24) includes the coding of each of the positions of each loading station and each unloading station (2 , 20) corresponding to that of all possible platform positions so that it can:

- optimize the movement of the platforms on the area (1) towards their destination by precisely determining at any time the rotational position of each of the platforms (10) in transit on the area, - control the rate of sorting by modulating the number of loading and unloading stations put into service according to the flow of objects to be sorted and transported to their destination,

5 - Method according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that upon receipt of the objects to be sorted, using the software, the most suitable program is established according to parameters such as the nature of the objects, their number, the address of the supplier and of the customer (s) in order to affect the number of loading and unloading stations that are initialized with the types of objects to be transited there t with their destination and the corresponding coding means of the platforms -forms and code readers controlling the passage through the different spinning wheels (2, 20) and the arrival of said platforms at the various destinations to manage their travel on the area

(1). 6 - Method according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the computer program for managing the simultaneous movement of a greater or lesser number of platforms on the area, defines the groups of spinning wheels to pivot and those must remain stationary to allow this pivoting, which leads to the choice of simultaneous indirect parallel paths.

7 - Method according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the platforms are arranged, depending on the nature of the installation, to receive the objects to be sorted either directly, or grouped in bins, containers or pallets of all existing types.

8 - Device for moving objects according to claim 1, characterized in that it is produced at a very reduced size to constitute a game in which each of the impellers is automated for moving parts replacing the platforms, in that it is computer controlled.

9 - Device for moving objects according to claims 1 and 8, characterized in that it includes or not image fractions according to predefined configurations or not between the players,

10 - Device for moving objects according to claims 1, 8 and 9, characterized in that the moving parts are colored and / or transparent or carrying a code and must be moved over the corresponding areas of the area (1 ) with the same marking.