Unloading apparatus and unloading method
AssigneesKabushiki Kaisha Toshiba, Toshiba Infrastructure Systems & Colutions Corp.
InventorYoshihide Otsuru
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An unloading apparatus for unloading cargo items from a cargo group on a cargo bed includes a cargo bed lifting and lowering mechanism, a first detection unit that measures heights of cargos items and detects positions of cargo items forming the upper surface of the cargo group, a moving device that moves the cargo items to an unloading position, a second detection unit that detects whether a lower end of a cargo item being held by the moving device is above a position that is higher than the highest position of the cargo items at the upper surface of the cargo group, and a controller. The controller controls the raising and lowering of cargo bed in conjunction with the lifting of cargo items. The controller also controls the moving of the cargo items to the unloading position.
Claims20
An unloading apparatus that unloads cargo items from a cargo group on a cargo bed, the unloading apparatus comprising:
- a cargo bed lifting and lowering mechanism that lifts and lowers a cargo bed;
- a first detection unit that measures heights of cargo items forming an upper surface of a cargo group and positions, in plan view, of the cargo items forming the upper surface of the cargo group;
- a moving device that moves the cargo items to an unloading position by individually holding and lifting a cargo item based on a measurement by the first detection unit;
- a second detection unit that detects whether a lower end of a cargo item being held by the moving device is above a position that is higher than the highest position of the cargo items at the upper surface of the cargo group;
- and
- a controller configured to:
- control the cargo bed lifting and lowering mechanism to lower the cargo bed in conjunction with the lifting of cargo items by the moving device, and stop the lowering of the cargo bed based on a detection result of the second detection unit, and
- control the moving device to move the cargo items to the unloading position.
A method of unloading cargo items from a cargo group on a cargo bed to an unloading position, the method comprising:
- measuring heights of the cargo items at an upper surface of the cargo group;
- detecting positions of the cargo items in the cargo group in a plan view;
- holding and then lifting an individual cargo item with a moving device using detected positions and measured heights of the cargo items;
- lowering the cargo bed during the lifting of the individual cargo item;
- stopping the lowering of the cargo bed once a detected height of a lower end of the individual cargo item being lifted by the moving device is above a measured height of an adjacent cargo item which was adjacent to the individual cargo item within the cargo group, the position being above the measured height of the adjacent cargo item by a predetermined distance;
- and
- moving the individual cargo item to the unloading position using the moving device.
An unloading system that unloads cargo items from a cargo group on a cargo bed, the unloading system comprising:
- a cargo bed on which a cargo group can be disposed, the cargo group comprising a plurality of cargo items;
- a cargo bed lifting and lowering mechanism configured to raise and lower the cargo bed relative to an unloading position for the plurality of cargo items;
- a camera disposed above the cargo bed in a vertical direction and configured to acquire images of the cargo group on the cargo bed;
- a robot arm configured to grasp an individual cargo item in the plurality of cargo items, lift the individual cargo item in the vertical direction, and move the individual cargo item in a horizontal direction to an unloading position;
- a laser range finder on a guide rail adjacent to the cargo bed, the laser range finder being configured to translate along the guide rail in a vertical direction;
- and
- a controller configured to:
- determine heights of cargo items at an upper surface of the cargo group;
- detecting positions of the cargo items in the cargo group in a plan view;
- control the robot arm to grasp, lift, and move the individual cargo item according the detected positions and determined heights of the cargo items;
- lower the cargo bed during the lifting of the individual cargo item;
- and
- stop the lowering of the cargo bed once a detected height of a lower end of the individual cargo item being lifted is above a measured height of an adjacent cargo item which was adjacent to the individual cargo item within the cargo group by a predetermined distance.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.