US 12,753,016 B1Granted

Wear management system for monitoring conveyor-based systems

AssigneeAmazon Technologies, Inc.

InventorsFrancesco Pasti, Ioseph Abatematteo, Francesco Di Vietro, Riccardo Costa, Luca Viaro

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Abstract

A wear management system that monitors equipment of a conveyor-based system for scheduling the equipment for replacement and/or maintenance. The equipment may include carriers that operate on the conveyor-based system, such as a cross-belt sorter, and which diverts (e.g., sorts) item(s) from one location to another. The cross-belt sorter may include the carriers that traverse along tracks to convey the item(s). The carriers may include one or more wheels that engage with the tracks and imaging devices of the wear management system may be used to image the one or more wheels to determine whether any of the wheels are in need of replacement or maintenance. Such monitoring may occur while the carriers are in operation to reduce a downtime of the carrier, or more generally the cross-belt sorter.

Claims15

Dependent claims

A system comprising:

a carrier that traverses along a cross-belt sorter comprising a first track and a second track, the carrier including at least a first wheel, a second wheel, a third wheel, and a fourth wheel, wherein the first wheel and the second wheel engage with different surfaces of the first track, and wherein the third wheel and the fourth wheel engage with different surfaces of the second track;
a first imaging device arranged to image the first wheel;
a second imaging device arranged to image the second wheel;
a third imaging device arranged to image the third wheel;
a fourth imaging device arranged to image the fourth wheel;
a sensor;
one or more processors;
and
one or more non-transitory computer-readable media storing instructions that, when executed, cause the one or more processors to perform acts comprising:
receiving, from the sensor, sensor data;
determining, based on the sensor data, a presence of the carrier;
receiving, from the first imaging device and based on the presence of the carrier, first image data visually depicting the first wheel;
receiving, from the second imaging device and based on the presence of the carrier, second image data visually depicting the second wheel;
receiving, from the third imaging device and based on the presence of the carrier, third image data visually depicting the third wheel;
receiving, from the fourth imaging device and based on the presence of the carrier, fourth image data visually depicting the fourth wheel;
determining, based on the first image data, a first diameter of the first wheel;
determining, based on the second image data, a second diameter of the second wheel;
determining, based on the third image data, a third diameter of the third wheel;
determining, based on the fourth image data, a fourth diameter of the fourth wheel;
determining that at least one of the first diameter, the second diameter, the third diameter, or the fourth diameter is less than a threshold diameter;
and
generating, based on at least one of the first diameter, the second diameter, the third diameter, or the fourth diameter being less than the threshold diameter, a notification associated with replacing at least one of the first wheel, the second wheel, the third wheel, or the fourth wheel.

19 more elements

A method comprising:

receiving, from one or more sensors, sensor data;
determining a presence of a carrier disposed along a conveyor-based system;
causing, based at least in part on the presence of the carrier, a lighting element to illuminate a first wheel of the carrier;
causing, based at least in part on the presence of the carrier and while the lighting element illuminates the first wheel, an imaging device to capture image data associated with the wheel;
determining, based at least in part on the image data and the sensor data, one or more characteristics associated with the first wheel, the one or more characteristics comprising at least one of:
a size of the first wheel, a shape of the first wheel, one or more cracks in the first wheel, or one or more tears in the first wheel;
determining a defect of the first wheel based least in part on the one or more characteristics;
causing, based at least in part on the presence of the carrier, a second lighting element to illuminate a second wheel of the carrier that has a second orientation that is different than a first orientation of the first wheel;
causing, based at least in part on the presence of the carrier and while the second lighting element illuminates the second wheel, a second imaging device to capture second image data associated with the second wheel;
and
determining, based at least in part on the second image data, one or more second characteristics associated with the second wheel.

8 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Facts

Application: 18/678,187Filed 30 May 2024
Granted: 6 Oct 2026
Term ends: Not estimatedThe source records don’t support an estimate.

Classification13 codes

B65G 43/02
Control devices, e.g. for safety, warning or fault-correcting: detecting dangerous physical condition of load carriers, e.g. for interrupting the…
B07C 3/082
Using arrangements of conveyors: in which the objects are carried by transport holders and the transport holders form part of the conveyor belts
G01N 21/95
Investigating the presence of flaws or contamination: characterised by the material or shape of the object to be examined
G06T 7/0002
Image analysis: inspection of images, e.g. flaw detection