WO2014002655A1 - Box for housing injection liquid container and picking system for injection liquid container - Google Patents

Abstract

[Problem] To provide: a box that is for housing injection liquid containers and that is favorable when image data is acquired from above of the state of injection liquid containers being housed randomly, and the injection liquid containers are picked one by one on the basis of the image data; and a picking system that is for injection liquid containers and that is provided with the box for housing injection liquid containers. [Solution] The housing box, which houses tubular injection liquid containers (1), is provided with: a box body (12) that has an open top end; and a wave-shaped carrying section (14) that is provided to the box body (12), carries the injection liquid containers (1), and has a wave-shaped surface (16) at which a plurality of convex sections (A) and concave sections (B) alternate successively. The wave-shaped carrying section (14) uses the wave-shaped surface (16) to cause the injection liquid containers (1) to be in a laterally prone position.

Description

Injection solution container storage box and injection solution container picking system

The present invention relates to a storage box used when storing a container for an injection solution dispensed to a medical site from, for example, a hospital pharmacy or the like, and in particular, to image data obtained by imaging these stored containers for injection solution. The present invention relates to an injection solution container storage box suitable for picking one by one, and an injection solution container picking system including the injection solution container storage box.

Conventionally, in a medical site such as a hospital, used and empty syringes, ampoules, vials, and other empty injection solution containers are disposed of, for example, with measures necessary for ensuring safety. Injected solution containers that have been paid out but are not opened due to changes in the condition of the patient (hereinafter referred to as “unused injection solution containers”) are collected and returned to, for example, the pharmacy department. And, regardless of the empty container for injection solution or the container for unused injection solution, grasping the drug price score of these injection solution containers is from the viewpoint of medical cost management in hospitals, drug billing to patients, etc. is important.

For this reason, in the medical field, the totaling work which totals the price points of these injection solution containers is performed. In this counting work, the information such as labels attached to the outer peripheral surface is visually read and counted from the storage box containing the container for the injection solution, one by one with each shape of the injection solution container. This was a complicated and difficult task. For this reason, a counting error due to a reading error or the like may occur.

In order to solve such problems, technical development is progressing to automate a series of operations of taking out an injection solution container from a storage box or the like and reading information attached thereto. For example, a picking system for an object placed at random in Patent Document 1 and an information reading device for an empty container for injection solution in Patent Document 2 are proposed. For example, a system in which the injection solution container picked by the picking system of Patent Document 1 is set in the information reading device of Patent Document 2 and information such as a label on the outer peripheral surface of the injection solution container is read.

On the other hand, as a storage box for storing the above-described injection solution container, for example, a medical waste box of Patent Document 3 or a container of Patent Document 4 has been proposed.

JP 2008-62376 A JP 2010-115339 A Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 10-328253 JP 2007-182240 A

As shown in Patent Document 3 and Patent Document 4, these medical disposal boxes and containers are formed so that the bottom thereof is horizontal and flat. Therefore, when the injection solution container is randomly inserted into a medical waste box or the like, the injection solution container may be in a self-supporting posture on the bottom. In particular, vials and ampoules tend to have a low center of gravity and become self-supporting when an injection remains in them.

However, the visual system for recognizing an object in the above-described picking system disclosed in Patent Document 1 captures an image of the inside from above a sorting box (bin) by a camera, and recognizes the object by performing image processing on the imaged data. Is.

In addition, injection liquid containers such as syringes, ampoules, and vials of syringes are formed in a cylindrical shape such as a cylindrical shape, and most of them are characterized by a side shape rather than a planar shape.

Furthermore, since the above-mentioned injection solution container tends to be longer in the cylinder direction than the cylinder diameter, the injection solution container in a self-supporting posture and the injection solution container in a lying posture are imaged from the same upper position. In this case, the image of the self-supporting posture has a smaller area than that of the lying-down posture, that is, the number of pixels is small. Therefore, there has been a problem that the image of the self-supporting posture is more difficult to process than the image of the lying posture.

Therefore, for example, as described above, for a visual system that recognizes an object based on image data captured from above, an injection solution container in a lying position is recognized rather than a self-supporting injection solution container. It tends to be easy.
That is, the medical waste box of Patent Document 3 or the container for injection solution collected in the container of Patent Document 4 may take a self-supporting posture. Therefore, there is a problem that picking may be difficult.

Therefore, the present invention has been made in view of the above-described conventional problems, and the object thereof is to acquire image data in a state in which an injection solution container is randomly stored from above, and based on this image data. An object of the present invention is to provide an injection solution container storage box suitable for picking injection solution containers one by one, and an injection solution container picking system including the injection solution container storage box.

The invention of claim 1 is a storage box for storing a cylindrical injection solution container, which is a box body having an open upper end and a mounting portion provided on the box body for mounting the injection solution container. A plurality of convex portions and concave portions having a corrugated surface having a continuous corrugated surface, the corrugated surface using the corrugated surface to cause the injection solution container to fall sideways. This is a container storage box for injection solution.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the injection solution container housing box according to the first aspect, the distance between the adjacent convex portions is formed to be larger than the cylinder diameter of the injection solution container.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the injection solution container storage box according to the first or second aspect, the shapes of the upper end portion of the convex portion and the lower end portion of the concave portion are formed in an arc shape.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, there is provided an injection solution container storage box according to any one of claims 1 to 3, an imaging unit that images the injection solution container from above the injection solution container storage box, and the imaging An injection solution container picking system comprising: an image processing unit that processes image data acquired by the unit; a robot hand that picks up the injection solution containers one by one; and a control unit that controls the operation of the robot hand. .

According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, in the injection solution container picking system according to the fourth aspect of the present invention, the injection solution container receiving box is provided with a swinging means for swinging the injection solution container storage box.

According to the present invention, in a storage box for storing a cylindrical injection solution container, a box body having an open upper end, and a mounting portion provided on the box body for mounting the injection solution container, A wavy placement portion having a wavy surface in which a plurality of convex portions and concave portions are alternately continuous, and the wavy placement portion is configured to cause the injection solution container to lie down using the wavy surface. Therefore, for example, even when a cylindrical injection solution container having a flat lower end portion is put in a posture in which the lower end portion is placed on the wavy placement portion of the injection solution container storage box, the wavy surface Therefore, the injection solution container becomes unstable and falls on its side, so that an image of the state in which the injection solution container is accommodated is acquired from above, and the injection solution containers are picked one by one based on this image. When this is done, it is possible to provide a container storage box suitable for an injection solution.

In addition, since the distance between the adjacent convex portions is configured to be larger than the cylindrical diameter of the injection solution container, the injection solution container has its lower end portion wavyly placed in the injection solution container storage box. Even when thrown in a posture to be placed on the part, the lower end thereof is not supported by the adjacent convex parts, so that the injection liquid container becomes more unstable and reliably falls down Therefore, an image of a state in which the injection solution container is accommodated can be obtained from above, and a more preferable injection solution container storage box can be provided when picking the injection solution containers one by one based on this image.

Moreover, since the shape of the upper end part of the said convex part and the lower end part of the said recessed part is a structure formed in circular arc shape, when the image of the state in which the container for injection solutions was accommodated was acquired from upper direction, a convex part and Compared to the case where the cross-sectional shape of the concave portion is formed in a triangle, the upper end portion of the convex portion and the lower end portion of the concave portion are prevented from appearing in the image in a streak shape. When picking one by one, it is possible to provide a container housing box for injection solution that can acquire a more suitable image.

An injection solution container storage box according to any one of claims 1 to 3, an imaging unit for imaging the injection solution container from above the injection solution container storage box, and an image acquired by the imaging unit An injection solution container picking system comprising: an image processing unit for processing data; a robot hand for picking the injection solution containers one by one; and a control unit for controlling the operation of the robot hand. Therefore, it is possible to provide an injection solution container picking system that can easily recognize the injection solution container stored in the container storage box and has high picking accuracy.

In addition, since the injection solution container housing box is provided with rocking means for rocking the injection solution container housing box, the injection solution container housing box is rocked by the rocking device even when there is a self-supporting injection solution container. Thus, the injection solution container can be taken in the horizontal position, so that the injection solution container picked up in the injection solution container storage box can be easily recognized, and an injection solution container picking system with high picking accuracy can be provided.

It is a figure explaining the container for injection solutions which concerns on embodiment of this invention. It is a perspective view of the container storage box for injection solutions concerning the embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view taken along line AA ′ in FIG. 2. It is a figure explaining the wavelike mounting part of the container storage box for injection solutions which concerns on embodiment of this invention. It is a figure explaining the wavelike mounting part of the container storage box for injection solutions which concerns on embodiment of this invention. It is a figure explaining the effect | action of the container storage box for injection solutions which concerns on embodiment of this invention. It is a figure explaining the container picking system for injection solutions concerning the embodiment of the present invention. It is a figure explaining the other example of the container picking system for injection solutions which concerns on embodiment of this invention.

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.
The present invention relates to a cylindrical empty container for an injection solution such as an ampoule that has been used in a medical field such as an operating room, or a storage box that accommodates a cylindrical unused injection solution container. is there. An injection solution container storage box of the present embodiment includes a box body whose upper end is open, and a placement portion that is disposed in the box body and places an injection solution container, and the placement portion includes a plurality of placement portions. The convex portion and the concave portion have a wavy surface in which the convex portion and the concave portion are alternately continued, and the injection solution container is laid sideways using the wavy surface. And the container container box for injection solutions of this embodiment is equipped with the container picking system for injection solutions mentioned later, and is suitable when picking the containers for injection solutions one by one.

A cylindrical injection solution container 1 in this embodiment will be described with reference to FIG.
The cylindrical injection solution container 1 means an injection solution container such as the vial 1a shown in FIG. 1A, the ampule 1b shown in FIG. 1B, and the syringe 1c of the syringe shown in FIG. 1C. The shape of these injection liquid empty containers is not limited to a cylindrical shape. For example, various shapes such as a hexagonal cylindrical shape having a substantially hexagonal cross-sectional shape, a cylindrical shape having a rectangular cross-sectional shape close to an elliptical shape, etc. It is formed with a cylindrical body. In addition, the injection solution container 1 is in an empty state in which there is no injection solution in the container, in which the injection solution remains to some extent, or in a state that is not opened like the above-described unused injection solution container Is included.

Then, as shown in FIGS. 1A to 1C, these injection solution containers 1 display information such as a barcode 5 on the side surfaces thereof. The bar code 5 includes identification information corresponding to the injection solution container, such as the name and cost of the injection solution.

After these injection liquid containers 1 are accommodated in the injection liquid container storage box 10, they are taken out one by one by, for example, injection liquid container picking systems 20 and 40, which will be described later, and are provided with a barcode reading function. (For example, refer to Patent Document 2), barcode information and the like are read, and this information is used for drug price billing, cost management or drug management.

Hereinafter, an example of the container container for injection solution according to the present embodiment will be described with reference to FIGS.
As shown in FIGS. 2 to 4, the injection solution container storage box 10 of the present embodiment includes a box 12 and a wave-like mounting portion 14 on which the injection solution container 1 is placed.
First, as shown in FIGS. 2 and 4, the box body 12 is formed in a rectangular parallelepiped shape having a size that can be held with both hands and having an open upper end. And the container for injection solutions is randomly thrown in into the box 12 from the open upper end of the box 12.
The shape of the box is not limited to the rectangular parallelepiped shape of the present embodiment, and for example, it may be formed in a cylindrical shape or an elliptical cylindrical shape with an open upper end. Moreover, the box may be provided with an openable / closable lid at the opened upper end.

Next, the corrugated mounting part 14 which is the principal part of this embodiment is provided with the corrugated sheet 17, as shown in FIG.3 and FIG.4.
As shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, the corrugated plate 17 of the present embodiment is formed of a corrugated plate member in which a plurality of convex portions A and concave portions B are alternately continuous, for example. As shown in FIG. 4, the corrugated plate 17 is formed in, for example, a rectangular shape in plan view having substantially the same size as the bottom portion 13 of the box 12, and as shown in FIG. It is placed on the bottom 13 of the box 12. The upper surface of the corrugated plate 17 constitutes the corrugated surface 16, and the above-described injection solution container 1 is placed on the corrugated surface 16. In FIG. 4, reference numeral 19 denotes a support plate that is suspended downward from both ends of the corrugated plate 17 and supports the corrugated plate 17.

More specifically, as shown in FIG. 3, the wavy surface 16 is formed such that the upper ends of the plurality of convex portions A have the same height. At that time, as shown in FIG. 5A, it is desirable that the distance P between the adjacent convex portions is formed larger than the cylinder diameter D of the injection liquid container 1. When the distance P is smaller than the cylinder diameter D, as shown in FIG. 5B, for example, even when the injection solution container 1 is put in a posture in which the lower end portion is placed on the corrugated surface 16, the lower end portion thereof. This is because the injection liquid container 1 may be self-supporting.

Moreover, the cross-sectional shape of the upper end part of the convex part A of this embodiment and the lower end part of the recessed part B is formed in circular arc shape, as shown in FIG.
The cross-sectional shape of the convex portion and the concave portion is not limited to the arc shape, and may be, for example, a triangular shape. However, when formed in a triangular shape, due to the difference in the light reflection mode between the apex of the triangle and the slope of the triangle, in the image acquired by the imaging unit of the picking system described later, the linear image along the apex is the above-mentioned There is a risk of appearing in the image. Such a linear image becomes a noise image unrelated to the image of the injection liquid container 1, and therefore, noise removal processing may be executed as necessary in the image processing.
On the other hand, when the cross-sectional shape of the convex part and the concave part is formed in an arc shape, the vicinity of the convex part and the lowermost point of the concave part are smoother than the case where it is formed in a triangular shape. ) And the slope of the convex part (or concave part) of the light is reduced, so that it is possible to prevent a linear image along the vertex (or the lowest point) from appearing in the above-described image. .

The corrugated surface is not limited to the upper surface of the corrugated plate 17 of the present embodiment. For example, the bottom of the box 12 is formed into a corrugated shape in which a plurality of convex portions A and concave portions B are alternately arranged, and the box body The structure which makes a twelve bottom upper surface wavy surface may be sufficient.
Further, as shown in FIG. 5, the length of the wave slope, more specifically, the vertical length L of the wave slope is preferably shorter than half the height of the injection solution container 1. This is because when the length L is longer than half of the height of the injection solution container 1, the injection solution container 1 may take a posture of leaning on the wave slope.

The effect | action of the container storage box 10 for injection solutions of this embodiment is demonstrated using FIG.
6A to 6C show an example of the container container box 10 for injection solution according to the present embodiment, and FIGS. 6D and 6E show examples of conventional medical waste boxes for comparison.
First, in the case of a conventional injection solution container box, as shown in FIG. 6D, for example, a vial 1a as an injection solution container is put into the injection solution container storage box 10 with its lower end directed downward As shown in FIG. 6E, the vial 1a may stand on the flat bottom of the injection solution container box. In particular, when there is a remaining injection solution in the ampoule 1b or the vial 1a, the center of gravity of the ampoule 1b or the vial 1a is easy to stand up because the center of gravity is lowered.

In contrast, according to the injection solution container storage box 10 of the present embodiment, as shown in FIG. 6A, the vial 1a is put into the injection solution container storage box 10 with its lower end portion directed downward. Even in this case, as shown in FIG. 6B, the lower end portion of the vial 1a is received by the corrugated surface 16, so that its posture is unstable and easy to fall down, and as shown in FIG. Become. Therefore, when the injection solution container 1 is imaged by the imaging unit of the injection solution container picking system, which will be described later, a suitable image can be acquired during image processing. This will be described later.
As described above, the injection solution container storage box 10 of the present embodiment uses the waved surface 16 when the waved mounting portion 14 receives the injection solution container 1 introduced from the open upper end of the box 12. Thus, the injection solution container 1 is laid down to a posture.

Next, the container picking system 20 for injection solution of this embodiment is demonstrated using FIG.
The injection solution container picking system 20 includes the injection solution container storage box 10, the imaging unit 22, the robot hand 24, the image processing unit 25, and the control unit 26 that controls the operation of the robot hand 24. .

The imaging unit 22 is configured by a known digital camera, for example. As shown in FIG. 7, the imaging unit 22 is disposed above the injection solution container storage box 10, and the injection solution container in the injection solution container storage box 10 from above the injection solution container storage box 10. 1 is imaged and the image data of the injection solution container 1 is transmitted to the control unit 26. Note that the imaging unit may include, for example, a plurality of digital cameras and acquire three-dimensional image data of the injection solution container 1.

Next, as shown in FIG. 7, the robot hand 24 includes, for example, a known indirect coupling arm portion 28 and a holding portion 30 that holds the injection solution container 1.
As shown in FIG. 7, the holding unit 30 of the present embodiment is configured to sandwich the side portion of the injection solution container 1 with, for example, two claw members 32, and is provided at the distal end of the arm unit 28. The holding unit is not limited to the configuration of gripping as in the present embodiment, and may be configured to adsorb the injection solution container 1 by vacuum, for example.

Next, the image processing unit 25 includes, for example, a known image processing CPU, and processes image data from the imaging unit 22 to recognize the injection solution container 1.

Next, the control part 26 is comprised, for example with a well-known computer. The control unit 26 corrects the posture of the robot hand 24 and the holding unit 30 while correcting the posture of the robot hand 24 based on the data processed by the image processing unit 25 and guiding the robot hand 24 to the injection solution container 1. And picking means 26b for moving and picking, and the operation of the robot hand 24 is controlled.

As described above, according to the injection solution container storage box 10 of the present embodiment, the injection solution container 1 put into the injection solution container storage box 10 is in a lying position. Here, when the injection solution container 1 is generally imaged from the same distance, the side view image is larger than the plan view image. That is, since the information amount of the image acquired from the upper side in the tilted posture is larger than the information amount of the image acquired from the upper side of the injection solution container 1 from the upper side, the image acquired from the upper side in the tilted posture However, in the case of image processing in the injection liquid container picking system 20, for example, it is easy to recognize the feature, and thus it is easy to recognize the injection liquid container 1, which is preferable.

Next, a modified example of the injection solution container picking system of this embodiment will be described with reference to FIG.
As shown in FIG. 8, the injection solution container picking system 40 of the present modification includes a swinging means 42 that swings the injection solution container storage box 10 in addition to the configuration of the injection solution container picking system 20. .

The swinging means 42 includes, for example, a base 44 on which the injection solution container storage box 10 is placed, a metal bar 48 that can be moved up and down while fitting in a through-hole formed in the base 44, and a metal bar 48. And a solenoid part that moves up and down.

The metal rod body 48 is moved up and down via the solenoid part, and the bottom portion 13 of the injection liquid container storage box 10 is pushed up by the upper end of the metal bar body 48 so that the injection liquid container storage box 10 swings. ing.
As described above, according to the present modification, the injection solution container 1 is more likely to lie down by swinging the injection solution container storage box 10, so that the image processing can be performed more favorably. A container picking system 40 can be provided.
The swinging means is not limited to the above-described configuration, and may be configured to vibrate the injection solution container storage box 10 to the left and right, for example.

As explained so far, according to the injection container storage box 10 and the injection liquid container picking systems 20 and 40 of the present embodiment, the image data in a state where the injection liquid containers are randomly collected An injection solution container storage box suitable for picking injection solution containers one by one based on the image data, and an injection solution container picking system including the injection solution container storage box are provided. it can.

As described above, some of the embodiments of the present invention have been described in detail with reference to the drawings. However, these are merely examples, and the present invention is variously modified and improved based on the knowledge of those skilled in the art. It is possible to carry out the invention.

1, 1a, 1b, 1c Injection solution container 12 Box 14 Wave-like placement unit 16 Wave- like surface 20, 40 Injection solution container picking system 22 Imaging unit 24 Robot hand 25 Image processing unit 26 Control unit 42 Oscillating means A Convex Part B Concave D Tube diameter

Claims (5)

1. In a storage box for storing a cylindrical container for injection solution,
   A box with an open top,
   A mounting portion provided on the box for mounting the container for injection solution, comprising a corrugated mounting portion having a wavy surface in which a plurality of convex portions and concave portions are alternately continuous;
   The container for container for injection solution, wherein the wave-like mounting part causes the container for injection solution to lie down by using the waved surface.
2. 2. The injection solution container housing box according to claim 1, wherein a distance between the adjacent convex portions is formed larger than a cylindrical diameter of the injection solution container.
3. The shape of the upper end part of the said convex part and the lower end part of the said recessed part is formed in circular arc shape, The container storage box for injection solutions of Claim 1 or 2 characterized by the above-mentioned.
4. An injection solution container storage box according to any one of claims 1 to 3,
   An imaging unit that images the injection solution container from above the injection solution container storage box;
   An image processing unit for processing image data acquired by the imaging unit;
   A robot hand for picking the injection solution containers one by one;
   And a controller for controlling the operation of the robot hand.
5. 5. The injection solution container picking system according to claim 4, further comprising a swinging means for swinging the injection solution container storage box.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   

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