Back to results
US 12,612,265 B1Granted
Stable positioning of product for robotic picking off roller table
OwnerDaniel Goodrick, Beau Tippettsinventors
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
In a roller conveyor system in which a product is being conveyed on rollers, a rotational arrestor may be used to dampen and/or stop rotation of rollers after a camera captures an image of the product where such image will be used to predict a location of the product at a subsequent time for picking or other manipulation. The rotational arrestor may comprise a shortened or limited-length traction bar that allows the rotational friction of the rollers to dampen and/or stop rotation of the rollers when the traction bar is not interacting with the rollers.
Claims10
A roller conveyor system comprising:
- a track comprising a roller rotation segment and a roller non-rotation segment;
- two rollers configured to move along the track in a movement direction and in sufficient proximity to each other to directly support an item between them;
- a sensor device having a data capture area comprising at least some of the path that the two rollers cover as they move along a segment of the track;
- an item manipulation device configured to manipulate the item in an area that is, according to the movement direction, after the roller rotation segment;
- and
- a processing module;
- wherein:
- the sensor device is configured to capture both (i) at least two rotating images (“rotating images”) of the item in the roller-rotation segment of the track and (ii) a second image (“second captured image”) of the item after the roller rotation segment of the track;
- the processing module is configured to determine, based on the rotating images, the second captured image, and on movement of the two rollers along the track:
- (i) an item manipulation location in or after (according to the movement direction) the roller non-rotation segment and (ii) an item manipulation time;
- and
- the processing module is further configured to direct the item manipulation device to manipulate the item at the item manipulation location at the item manipulation time.
9 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.