Object conveying system

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10703577-B2
Application number	US-201816205726-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 30, 2018
Priority date	Jan 25, 2018
Publication date	Jul 7, 2020
Grant date	Jul 7, 2020

Abstract

Provided is an object conveying system including: a conveying apparatus that conveys an object; one or more cameras that capture images of feature points of the object; a position measuring portion that measures positions of the feature points from the acquired images; a detecting portion that detects a position or a movement velocity of the object; a position correcting portion that corrects the positions of the feature points so as to achieve positions at which the feature points are disposed at the same time; a line-of-sight calculating portion that calculates lines of sight that pass through the feature points on the basis of the corrected positions of the feature points and the positions of the cameras; and a position calculating portion that calculates a three-dimensional position of the object by applying a polygon having a known shape to the calculated lines of sight.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. An object conveying system comprising:
a conveying apparatus that conveys an object provided with three or more feature points that are disposed in known positional relationships with respect to each other;
a camera that captures images of the individual feature points of the object being conveyed by the conveying apparatus;
a position measuring portion that measures positions of the individual feature points from the images acquired by the camera;
a detecting portion that detects the position of the object or a movement velocity thereof achieved by the conveying apparatus;
a position correcting portion that corrects, on the basis of the position or the movement velocity detected by the detecting portion and differences in times at which the individual images were acquired by the camera, the positions of the individual feature points measured by the position measuring portion so as to achieve positions at which the feature points are disposed at the same time;
a line-of-sight calculating portion that calculates lines of sight that pass through the individual feature points on the basis of the positions of the individual feature points corrected by the position correcting portion and the position of the camera; and
a position calculating portion that calculates at least a three-dimensional position of the object by applying a polygon having a known shape, in which the positions of the individual feature points serve as apexes thereof, to the three or more lines of sight calculated by the line-of-sight calculating portion.

2. The object conveying system according to claim 1 ,
wherein the object is provided with three of the feature points, and
the position calculating portion calculates the three-dimensional position and orientation of the object by applying a triangle, in which the positions of the individual feature points serve as the apexes thereof, to the three lines of sight calculated by the line-of-sight calculating portion.

3. The object conveying system according to claim 2 ,
wherein three of the cameras are provided, and
each of the three individual cameras are disposed at positions at which each one of the three individual cameras can capture an image of a different one of the feature points.

4. The object conveying system according to claim 1 , further comprising:
a robot that is capable of moving the camera to a position at which it is possible to capture the images of the individual feature points.

5. The object conveying system according to claim 1 , wherein the detecting portion is an encoder provided in the conveying apparatus.

6. The object conveying system according to claim 1 , wherein the detecting portion detects a position or a movement velocity of the object on the basis of the images captured by the camera.

Assignees

• Fanuc Corp

Inventors

• Ooba Masafumi

Classifications

• B25J9/0093 Primary

  co-operating with conveyor means · CPC title

• B65G2201/0294

  Vehicle bodies · CPC title

• B65G43/00 Primary

  Control devices, e.g. for safety, warning or fault-correcting · CPC title

• G05B2219/37563

  Ccd, tv camera · CPC title

• B25J9/1697

  Vision controlled systems · CPC title