Robot system and production system

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10346940-B2
Application number	US-201715843861-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 15, 2017
Priority date	Dec 21, 2016
Publication date	Jul 9, 2019
Grant date	Jul 9, 2019

Abstract

A robot system includes an image pickup apparatus that picks up images of a plurality of kinds of articles conveyed by a conveyor; an article controlling portion that controls time and a position of each of the plurality of kinds of articles being supplied onto the conveyor, to limit kinds of articles to be image-picked-up by the image pickup apparatus in advance; a detecting portion that detects the plurality of kinds of articles from among images picked up by the image pickup apparatus, on the basis of the kinds of articles limited in advance by the article controlling portion; and a robot that is configured to take out the plurality of kinds of articles detected by the detecting portion from the conveyor.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A robot system comprising:
an image pickup apparatus that picks up images of a plurality of kinds of articles conveyed by a conveyor;
an article controlling portion that controls time and a position of each of the plurality of kinds of articles being supplied onto the conveyor to limit kinds of articles to be image-picked-up by the image pickup apparatus in advance;
a detecting portion that detects the plurality of kinds of articles from the images picked up by the image pickup apparatus of the kinds of articles limited in advance by the article controlling portion; and
a robot that is configured to take out the kinds of articles detected by the detecting portion from the conveyor,
wherein the article controlling portion is configured to transmit information about the limited kinds of articles to the detecting portion.

2. The robot system according to claim 1 , wherein the robot conveys each of the plurality of kinds of articles taken out from the conveyor to a corresponding dispensing device among a plurality of dispensing devices prepared for the plurality of kinds of articles, respectively.

3. The robot system according to claim 1 , wherein the article controlling portion controls the time and the position of each of the plurality of kinds of articles being supplied onto the conveyor so that mutually different kinds of articles among the plurality of kinds of articles are not mixed.

4. The robot system according to claim 1 , wherein the number of the kinds of articles to be image-picked-up by the image pickup apparatus is one.

5. A production system comprising:
a conveyor that conveys a plurality of kinds of articles;
a plurality of production apparatuses that supply the plurality of kinds of articles to the conveyor;
an image pickup apparatus that picks up images of the plurality of kinds of articles conveyed by the conveyor;
an article controlling portion that controls time and a position of each of the plurality of kinds of articles being supplied onto the conveyor, to limit kinds of articles to be image-picked-up by the image pickup apparatus in advance;
a detecting portion that detects the plurality of kinds of articles from the images picked up by the image pickup apparatus of the kinds of articles limited in advance by the article controlling portion; and
a robot that is configured to take out the plurality of kinds of articles detected by the detecting portion from the conveyor,
wherein the article controlling portion is configured to transmit information about the limited kinds of articles to the detecting portion.

6. The production system according to claim 5 , further comprising a plurality of dispensing devices for the kinds of articles, respectively; wherein
the robot conveys each of the plurality of kinds of articles taken out from the conveyor to a corresponding dispensing device among the plurality of dispensing devices prepared for the kinds of articles, respectively.

7. The production system according to claim 5 , wherein each of the plurality of production apparatuses is an injection molding machine.

8. The production system according to claim 5 , wherein the article controlling portion controls the time and the position of each of the plurality of kinds of articles being supplied onto the conveyor so that mutually different kinds of articles among the plurality of kinds of articles are not mixed.

9. The production system according to claim 5 , wherein the number of the kinds of articles to be image-picked-up by the image pickup apparatus is one.

Assignees

• Fanuc Corp

Inventors

• Koga Kentaro

Classifications

• B29C45/7686 Primary

  the ejected articles, e.g. weight control · CPC title

• B29C2945/7629

  Moulded articles · CPC title

• B29C2945/76464

  cameras · CPC title

• B29C45/1769

  Handling of moulded articles or runners, e.g. sorting, stacking, grinding of runners · CPC title

• G06T1/0014 Primary

  Image feed-back for automatic industrial control, e.g. robot with camera (robots B25J19/023) · CPC title