Automated sorting apparatus and system
AssigneeRosebay Terrace Pty Ltd.
InventorMario Matkovich
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An apparatus for sorting from a group of different articles at least one batch of articles where members of the batch are either the same of have some unifying visual characteristic, said apparatus including: (a) a conveying means for transporting the articles along a predetermined path; (b) at least one vision recognition unit; (c) removal means for selectively removing those articles from the conveying means which have been recognised by the vision recognition unit as having the one or more predetermined visual characteristics.
Claims16
An apparatus for sorting from a group of different articles at least one batch of articles where members of the batch are either the same or have one or more unifying visual characteristic, said apparatus including:
- (a) a conveying means for transferring the articles along a predetermined path;
- (b) alignment means adapted to align each of the articles in substantially the same orientation on the conveying means;
- (c) at least one vision recognition unit for recognizing the articles which are the same or have the one or more unifying visual characteristic after being aligned by the alignment means;
- and
- (d) removal means for selectively removing the recognized articles from the conveying means.
An apparatus for sorting from a group of different articles at least one batch of articles where members of the batch are either the same or have one or more unifying visual characteristic, said apparatus including:
- (a) conveying means for transporting articles along a first predetermined path, said path including a portion which is curved;
- (b) at least one vision recognition unit;
- (c) removal means for selectively removing articles from the conveying means which have been recognized by the at least one vision recognition unit as being the same or having the one or more unifying visual characteristic;
- (d) article processing means for separately activating the removal means;
- and
- (e) transport means for transporting the article processing means along a curved second predetermined path which is substantially parallel to at least part of the curved portion of the first predetermined path;
- wherein the transport means is adapted to move the article processing means in concert with an article being transported along the curved portion on the first predetermined path parallel to the second predetermined path such that there is substantially no relative movement of the article processing means relative to the article and wherein the at least one vision recognition unit is adapted to individually identify articles transported along the first predetermined path and activate the removal means for removal from the conveying means of all articles identified by the at least one vision recognition unit as being the same or having the one or more unifying visual characteristic.
An apparatus for sorting from a group of different garment hangers at least one batch of hangers where each hanger of the batch has either the same or one or more unifying visual characteristic, said apparatus including:
- (a) a conveying means for transporting garment hangers along a first predetermined path, said path including a portion which is curved;
- (b) at least one vision recognition unit;
- (c) removal means for selectively removing garment hangers from the conveying means which have been recognized by the at least one vision recognition unit as being the same or having the one or more unifying visual characteristic;
- (d) hanger processing means for separately activating the removal means;
- (e) transport means for transporting the hanger processing means along a curved second predetermined path which is substantially parallel to at least part of the curved portion of the first predetermined path;
- wherein the transport means is adapted to move the hanger processing means in concert with a garment hanger being transported along the curved portion of the first predetermined path parallel to the second predetermined path such that there is substantially no relative movement of the hanger processing means relative to the garment hanger and wherein the at least one vision recognition unit is adapted to individually identify the garment hangers transported along the first predetermined path and activate the removal means for removal from the conveying means of all garment hangers identified by the at least one vision recognition unit as being the same or having the one or more unifying visual characteristic.
The apparatus as claimed in clam 15 wherein the apparatus further includes a plurality of sizing indicator removal mechanisms adapted to remove from the article transporters sizing indicators deposited thereon and wherein the at least one vision recognition unit is adapted to individually identify the sizing indicators whilst on the garment hangers and to activate the respective sizing indicator removal mechanisms designated for different types of sizing indicators identified so to remove from the article transporters all sizing indicators identified by the at least one vision recognition unit as being of one or more particular types.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.