US 2003/0233166 A1Published application

Method for locating articles on a support plane

AssigneeSick AG

InventorsAchim Nuebling, Thomas Kaltenbach

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Abstract

With a method of locating articles on a carrier plane on the basis of data which were obtained by a relative movement extending in a transport direction parallel to the carrier plane between a scanning plane and the articles and by a repeated carrying out of a total scan of the position of points on the articles and which include information on the position of the article points detected in the scanning plane, and on the basis of information on the relative position of the scanning plane and the articles in the direction of transport during a total scan, the steps are carried out repeatedly: reading of the data on the position of the article points on the articles in the scanning plane and detection of information on the relative position of the scanning plane and articles in the transport direction for a current total scan, determination of positions and extents of flanks of the articles, which substantially form a right angle with the carrier plane, from the data of the current total scan, determination of positions and lengths of edges of the articles parallel to the carrier plane on the basis of the positions and extents of the flanks as well as of the information on the relative position of the scanning plane and the articles in the transport direction in the current total scan and in preceding total scans, and defining of objects corresponding to articles from the positions and lengths of the edges parallel to the carrier plane

A method of locating articles (20, 20′, 20″) with a base surface of a pre-determined type of surface shape, a top surface substantially parallel to the base surface and one more side surfaces extending substantially orthogonally to the base surface, in particular of articles of right parallelepiped shape (20, 20′, 20″), on a support plane (10) on the basis of data which were obtained by a relative movement extending in a transport direction (F) parallel to the support plane (10) between a scanning plane (26), which includes a pre-determined angle with the support plane (10), and the articles (20, 20′, 20″) and by repeated carrying out of a total scan of the location of points (28) on the articles (20, 20′, 20″) within a detection region (24, 30) in the scanning plane (26), and which include information on the location of the points detected in the scanning plane (26) and on the basis of information from which the relative position of the scanning plane (26) and articles (20, 20′, 20″) in the transport direction (F) can be derived during a total scan, the method comprising the repeated performing of the steps of:

reading of the data on the location of the points (28) on the articles (20, 20′, 20″) in the scanning plane (26) and detection of information on the relative position of the scanning plane (26) and articles (20, 20′, 20″) in the transport direction (F) for a current total scan;
determination of positions and extents of flanks of the articles, which substantially form a right angle with the support plane, from the data of the current total scan;
determination of positions and lengths of edges (40, 40′, 44, 44′, 46, 46′) of the articles (20, 20′, 20″) substantially parallel to the support plane (10) on the basis of the positions and extents of the flanks as well as of the information on the relative position of the scanning plane (26) and the articles (20, 20′, 20″) in the transport direction (F) in the current total scan and in preceding total scans;
and
defining of objects (42, 48) corresponding to articles (20, 20′, 20″) from the positions and lengths of the edges (40, 40′, 44, 44′, 46, 46′) parallel to the support plane (10).

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Abstract

Claims25