Automated system for locating and transferring objects on a conveyor belt

A method for picking up objects from a moving conveyor belt and moving them to a destination, comprising:

• receiving a series of overlapping images of vision window portions of said belt using image-receiving means, said windows being fixed on the belt and moving therewith;
• digitizing each of the vision window images in said series, said digitizing including assigning a coordinate location to pixels in said image;
• electronically determining and transmitting, utilizing first data transmission means, the locations of at least some of said objects to a first motion controller directing a first robot means, said determining and transmitting being done a vision window image at a time for each vision window image in said series;
• picking up at least one of said objects using said first robot means at the time it moves within the reach of said first robot means;
• transmitting, utilizing second data transmission means, the locations of at least one of the objects which were not picked up by said first robot means from said first motion controller to a second motion controller directing a second robot means located in the direction of belt travel with respect to said first robot means;
• and
• picking up at least one of said objects using said second robot means at the time the object moves within the reach of said second robot means.

A system for picking up and transferring objects located on a moving conveyor belt, comprising:

• image-receiving means to receive pixel images of a series of vision window portions of said belt;
• image processing means electronically connected with said image receiving means for assigning a location to objects represented in said images;
• a plurality of robot means in series adjacent to said belt, each with a directing motion controller, wherein the motion controller directing the first robot means receives the locations of objects from said image processing means and the motion controller directing each subsequent robot means receives the locations of objects not picked up by any preceding robot means from the motion controller directing the immediately preceding robot means;
• and
• means associated with each motion controller for directing each robot which the motion controller directs, to pick up at least some of the objects not picked up by any preceding robot.