Daifuku Co., Ltd.

Takuya Gondoh

Masami Iwai

Atsushi Minoo

Shigeru Sugano

Atsushi Kurayama

Yoshikazu Tai

Mitsuo Morikubo

Nobuhiko Sato

Yasuhiro Suzuki

Manabu Onayama

Kiyoji Mori

Kazuyoshi Ohgita

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

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

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.

Picking facility

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.

An article loading facility includes: a transport unit; a loading unit; a setting unit; a first control unit; and a second control unit. The transport unit transports second supporting members from storage units to a transfer position. The loading unit loads target articles that are supported by the second supporting members, onto the first supporting member. The setting unit performs an arrangement setting process to set arrangement information for each of the plurality of target articles that are to be loaded onto the first supporting member, the arrangement information indicating the orientation and the position of the corresponding target article relative to the first supporting member, and performs an arrangement order setting process to set a type arrangement order that, when target articles of a plurality of types are to be loaded according to the arrangement information, indicates the order in which the plurality of types are to be arranged. The second control unit controls the transport unit to transport the second supporting members to the transfer position according to the type arrangement order. The first control unit controls the loading unit to load the target articles onto the first supporting member according to the arrangement information that has been set in the arrangement setting process.

An article loading facility includes an imaging device configured to capture an image of an article in a support member, and a weighing device configured to measure a weight of an article W in the support member. A controller is configured to perform a first determining operation, a second determining operation, and a third determining operation. The first determining operation is an operation in which an attitude and position of an article placed in the support member is determined based on image information from the imaging device. The second determining operation is an operation in which it is determined whether it is possible to place a target article in the support member in an attitude and position indicated by arrangement information based on arrangement information and attitude and position information obtained in the first determining operation. The third determining operation is an operation in which it is determined whether an article W is properly placed in the support member based on the arrangement information, weight information, the attitude and position information, and measured weight information measured by the weighing device.

A control unit performs a first loading control and a second loading control. The first loading control is performed to control a loading operation unit to load a plurality of target articles onto a first supporting member according to arrangement information. The second loading control is performed to execute a second determination process based on at least one of: the arrangement information; detection information obtained by the detection unit; and information regarding a loading area, to determine whether or not the remaining articles are loadable onto the first supporting member, and to control the loading operation unit to load the remaining articles onto the first supporting member if the remaining articles are determined as being loadable in the second determination process. While performing the first loading control, if the control unit does not determine in the first determination process that the target articles are in a different state, the control unit continues performing the first loading control, and while performing the first loading control, if the control unit determines in the first determination process that the target articles are in the different state, the control unit performs the second loading control instead of the first loading control.

An arranging section is provided to rearrange the order of articles received by a receiving portion into a specified order. When distributing and collecting a plurality of articles, that are being rearranged, among and in a plurality of upstream collecting branch portions, the operations of the arranging section are controlled such that the articles are classified into article groups of the same number of articles as the number of the last collecting branch portions, and such that, for each article group, elements of a subsequence representing the specified order assigned to a plurality of articles forming an article group are elements of a consecutive subsequence for the articles forming the article group, so that the articles in one article group are distributed and collected before the articles in any other article group. And when transporting the plurality of articles being rearranged, from the upstream collecting branch portions to the last collecting branch portions, the operations of the arranging section are controlled such that articles in an article group formed by the articles to which earlier positions in the specified order are assigned are distributed among the last collecting branch portions before articles in any other article group formed by articles to which later positions in the specified order are assigned, and such that the articles that form any one given article group are distributed among, and collected in, the last collecting branch portions, one by one in accordance with the specified order.

Growing community of inventors

Tokyo, Japan

Takuya Gondoh