Orientation Adjustment Apparatus

An orientation adjustment apparatus that adjusts an orientation of a conveyance target, the orientation adjustment apparatus comprising:

• an orientation adjustment conveyor configured to adjust the orientation of the conveyance target while conveying the conveyance target along a conveyance direction;
• a characteristic determination device configured to determine at least one characteristic of the conveyance target on an upstream side with respect to the orientation adjustment conveyor;
• an upstream orientation detection device configured to detect the orientation of the conveyance target at an upstream end portion of the orientation adjustment conveyor;
• and
• a control device configured to control the orientation adjustment conveyor, and
• wherein:
• the orientation adjustment conveyor comprises a first conveyor part and a second conveyor part that are disposed in parallel to be adjacent to each other in a conveyance width direction and is configured to cause the first conveyor part and the second conveyor part to have respective conveyance speeds different from each other, the conveyance width direction being a direction orthogonal to the conveyance direction,
• the control device is configured to perform orientation adjustment control for controlling a speed difference between the respective conveyance speeds of the first conveyor part and the second conveyor part to change the orientation of the conveyance target that is conveyed in a state of being placed on both of the first conveyor part and the second conveyor part,
• the conveyance target has an intended orientation as an orientation intended at a downstream end portion of the orientation adjustment conveyor and an upstream actual orientation as an actual orientation that the upstream orientation detection device has detected,
• changing the speed difference in accordance with a degree of a pre-adjustment orientation difference as a difference between the upstream actual orientation and the intended orientation and increasing the speed difference with an increase in a characteristic value indicative of a degree of difficulty of an orientation change which difficulty corresponds to the at least one characteristic of the conveyance target determined by the characteristic determination device-.