Daifuku Co., Ltd.

Atsushi Minoo

Masami Iwai

Takuya Gondoh

Shigeru Sugano

Wataru Kiyokawa

Atsushi Kurayama

Kazutoshi Ito

Yoshikazu Tai

Mitsuo Morikubo

Yusuke Vincent Fujii

Tadasuke Ogawa

Kiyoji Mori

Hiroyuki Kusube

Osamu Futami

Takeshi Sugimoto

Keigo Takahashi

Manabu Onayama

Kenichi Ukisu

Kazuyoshi Ohgita

An inversion mechanism inverts a first container held by a holding mechanism with a first opening directed upward, and directs the first opening downward. A movement mechanism moves the holding mechanism so that the first opening directed downward faces a second opening from above. The opening and closing drive mechanism brings an opening and closing member into the closed state while the holding mechanism is inverted by the inversion mechanism and while the holding mechanism is moved by the movement mechanism, and brings the opening and closing member into the open state in response to the first opening facing the second opening.

Inter-container transfer apparatus and inter-container transfer method

An article processing apparatus includes: a configuration determination unit configured to determine a configuration of at least one transport unit including articles and stacked article groups each including a pallet, and at least one of the articles placed on the pallet, wherein first article groups are article groups excluding uppermost one of the stacked article groups; a palletizing mechanism configured to place the at least one of the articles on the pallet so as to form each of the stacked article groups; and a stacking mechanism configured to stack the article groups formed by the palletizing mechanism so as to form the transport unit, wherein the configuration determination unit is configured to determine the configuration of the at least one transport unit such that a load applied to each of the first article groups is smaller than a load index set to each of the first article groups.

Article processing apparatus

An article transfer facility () includes a transfer device () that performs a first operation to take out an article (W) that are supported by a first container (C), from the first container (C), and a second operation to load the article (W) taken out from the first container (C), onto a second container (C); and an inclination device () that supports the second container (C) at a predetermined position (P), wherein the second container (C) has a rectangular mounting surface (S) onto which the articles (W) are to be mounted, and is formed in a box shape with an open upper surface, and the inclination device () supports the second container (C) in an inclined state such that a target corner portion (Sct) that is one of a plurality of corner portions (Sc) of the mounting surface (S) is located lower than the other corner portions (Sc).

Article transfer facility

An unloader includes a suction device including a suction portion, a mover, a controller, and an article detector. The controller moves the suction portion relative to a mount in a first predetermined direction to switch from a state in which a vertical relative distance is greater than a greater one of an article height or a predetermined distance and is less than a total length of the article height and the predetermined distance and in which a detection line is located in a second predetermined direction from a target article group to a state in which the detection line is located in the first predetermined direction from the target article group, and prohibits an operation to move the suction portion in a vertical direction toward the target article group when the article detector detects an article.

Unloader

A control unit executes first loading control if it is determined that a loaded article is not present above a loading surface region based on captured image information, and second loading control if it is determined that it is uncertain whether the loaded article is not present above the loading surface region based on the captured image information. The first loading control causing a holding unit to release a target article when the target article is directly above the loading surface region and the lower surface of the target article is higher than the upper surface of the loading surface region by a first specified distance, and the second loading control causing the holding unit to release the target article when the target article is directly above the loading surface region and the lower surface of the target article is higher, by a second specified distance, than a specified height.

Article loading facility

An article transport facility includes a transport conveyor () and a weighing device (), which includes a support portion () for supporting a container (C) and a measuring portion () configured to measure a weight of the container (C) supported by the support portion (). The article transport facility is configured to perform a state change between a withdrawn state in which the support portion () is withdrawn downward relative to a transport surface (A) and a protruding state in which the support portion () protrudes upward relative to the transport surface (A) by moving the support portion () and the transport conveyor () relative to each other in a vertical direction (Z). A support surface (A) of the support portion () is inclined such that one corner portion (A) of multiple corner portions () located at corners of the container (C) is lower than the other corner portions ().

Article transport facility

A transfer device and a control device for controlling the transfer device are provided. The control device is configured to execute setting control to set a storing position, in a container, of each of a plurality of articles to be stored in the container, storage control to control the transfer device so as to store each of the articles at the storing position, and replacement control to replace one of a first holding portion and a second holding portion attached to the attachment portion with the other one. The setting control is control to set the storing position in accordance with an order of transferring the plurality of articles so as to sequentially place the articles from a reference position that is set at a position adjacent to a side wall portion.

A picking facility includes a first conveyor for transporting a container that includes an opening portion provided on an upper side thereof and can contain an article, and a second conveyor for transporting a target article. The height level of a transport face of the first conveyor is set to be lower than the height level of a transport face of the second conveyor, and a difference between the height level of the transport face of the second conveyor and the height level of the transport face of the first conveyor is determined based on the height of the container.

Picking facility

A picking facility is realized that can shorten the time required to transfer an article from a first support body to a second support body. Of a plurality of articlessupported by the first support body, the articlelocated at the highest position and the articlewhose upper face Tis present in a range of a set distance D downward from the upper face Tof the articlelocated at the highest position are set as transfer-target articlesA, and the control device performs a selection control to preferentially select, from the transfer-target articlesA, a transfer-target articleA in the normal orientation SC, and a transfer control to control the transfer device so as to transfer the transfer-target articleA selected through the selection control from the first support bodyto the second support body.

An article processing apparatus includes: a configuration determination unit configured to determine a configuration of at least one transport unit including articles, and stacked article groups each including a pallet, and at least one of the articles placed on the pallet, wherein the at least one of the articles is placed on the pallet in a manner that allows a pallet of another article group to be placed thereon, excluding uppermost one of the stacked article groups; a palletizing mechanism configured to place the at least one of the articles on the pallet so as to form each of the article groups included in the transport unit whose configuration is determined by the configuration determination unit; and a stacking mechanism configured to stack the article groups formed by the palletizing mechanism so as to form the transport unit determined by the configuration determination unit.

An article distinguishing system includes: an identification information acquisition unit, an image capture unit that captures an image of an exterior of a target article, a determination unit that derives a degree of matching between the captured image of the target article and exterior image data stored in a storage unit, and determines whether or not the current state is a normal state in which exterior image data for which the degree of matching is a determination threshold value or more is present, and a learning processing unit that executes learning processing if it has been determined by the determination unit that the current state is not the normal state. The learning processing is processing for storing the data of the captured image as new exterior image data in the storage unit in association with the identification information acquired by the identification information acquisition unit.

Article distinguishing system

A control device () of an article transfer facility () determines the size of a first dead space surrounded by a set article (Wd) and a target article (Wc) located at a first candidate position (P). If the size of the first dead space is smaller than a first threshold (TH), the control device () sets the first candidate position (P) as the arrangement position of the target article (Wc). If the size of the first dead space is greater than or equal to the first threshold (TH), the control device () determines the size of a second dead space surrounded by the set article (Wd) and the target article (Wc) located at a second candidate position (P). If the size of the second dead space is smaller than a second threshold (TH), the control device () sets the second candidate position (P) as the arrangement position of the target article (Wc).

A picking facility includes a first conveyor that transports a container containing an article, a picking apparatus that takes out a target article from the container, a second conveyor that transports the target article that has been taken out, and a working space. The working space is provided on a side opposite to the second conveyor with the first conveyor being located between the working space and the second conveyor. The picking apparatus is arranged at a position that overlaps at least one of the first conveyor and the second conveyor and does not overlap the working space in a plan view.

A control unit performs first loading control that is to be performed when a target article that has been determined by a determination unit as being an article that is in an appropriate orientation is to be loaded onto a first supporting member in the appropriate orientation, and second loading control that is to be performed when a target article that has been determined by the determination unit as being an article that is in an inappropriate orientation is to be loaded onto the first supporting member in the appropriate orientation. The first loading control is performed to control a loading operation unit to suck and support a first sucking-target surface of a target article that is supported by the second supporting member, from above, then move a sucking portion, and thereafter release the target article from the state of being sucked by the sucking portion, and the second loading control is performed to control the loading operation unit to perform an orientation changing operation, and thereafter release the target article from the state of being sucked by the sucking portion when the target article is located immediately above the first supporting member and the first sucking-target surface faces upward.

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Tokyo, Japan

Atsushi Minoo