Device and process for the orientation of containers

A device for the orientation of containers comprising:

• a rotating carousel rotating about a carousel vertical axis thereof having a circumferential plurality of seats each of which rotates about a seat axis to impart to each container housed therein a rotation about a container vertical axis and jointly with said rotating carousel a movement of rotation-revolution,
• a fixed illuminator of said container and a single fixed recording device recording multiple sequential images of said container during said movement of rotation-revolution, said recording device being in a position to acquire the light reflected from said container illuminated by said illuminator,
• an electronic controller comprising a learning device, a validation device and an operating device, the learning, validation, and operating devices operating together in a temporal sequence, said learning device being adapted to carry out a step of learning the entire lateral surface of one said container in a number N of positions within the field framed by said recording device, in which, when said carousel is stationary, for each learning in each of the N positions said container is positioned with a random initial orientation, and during a rotation of 360° about the container axis a number R of images of said container being acquired, said validation device being adapted to carry out a validation step in which said electronic controller acquires from said recording device only one current image of said container in each position N, said electronic controller processing a similarity function representing the similarity between each current image Ni and the R images recorded in the same position N in said learning step, phase synchronizing and summing said similarity functions;
• an operating means active during the rotation of said rotating carousel, in which for each of said containers said electronic controller acquires from said recording device only one current image in each position N, processes a similarity function representing the similarity between each current image Ni and the R images recorded in the same position N in said learning step, calculates and sums the similarity functions and the angle αm corresponding to the maximum value of this sum is used for the orientation of said container.