System for conveying articles

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11034533-B2
Application number	US-201916754157-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 20, 2019
Priority date	Dec 21, 2018
Publication date	Jun 15, 2021
Grant date	Jun 15, 2021

Abstract

The invention relates to a system ( 1 ) for conveying articles ( 3 ), which system comprises an article conveyor ( 2 ) extending from an upstream end ( 4 ) to a downstream end ( 5 ), and a motor-driven shuttle trolley ( 6 ) having an article carrier deck ( 7 ) and designed to dock with said ends of the conveyor so as to transfer an article between the trolley and the conveyor. The conveyor is a gravity conveyor under which a ramp ( 12 ) extends, and the trolley is suitable for travelling under the conveyor and is provided with a lever ( 11 ) that is mounted to move vertically relative to the deck and that is designed to co-operate with the ramp while the trolley is moving under the conveyor so that, by following the ramp, the lever moves between a retracted position in which it is retracted under the conveyor and a deployed position in which it projects above the conveyor so as to drive an article along the conveyor. The method of matching digital images of the same article in a data processor unit comprises the steps of: transforming each digital image of an article into a local divergence topographic map of the luminance gradient vector field; detecting singularities or extrema of local divergence in the luminance gradient vector field, such singularities corresponding to points of interest in said digital image; and, for each detected point of interest, encoding the values for the singularity of the gradient field that are located on a plurality of concentric rings centered on the point of interest so as to derive a digital data vector ( 210 ); and transforming said vector into a digital hash key ( 220 ) by means of a family of hash functions of the cosine Locality-Sensitive Hashing (LSH) type.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A system for conveying articles, which system comprises an article conveyor extending from an upstream end to a downstream end, and a motor-driven shuttle trolley having an article carrier deck, said trolley being designed to dock with the downstream and upstream ends of the conveyor so as to transfer an article between the trolley and the conveyor, wherein the conveyor is a gravity conveyor under which a ramp extends, in that the trolley is suitable for travelling under the conveyor and is provided with a lever that is mounted to move vertically relative to the deck, said lever being designed to co-operate with the ramp while the trolley is moving under the conveyor so that, by following the ramp, the lever moves between a retracted position in which it is retracted under the conveyor and a deployed position in which it projects above the conveyor so as to drive an article along the conveyor, in that the conveyor is provided at its downstream end with a first retractable abutment designed to block an article at the downstream end of the conveyor, and in that the trolley is provided with a pusher member designed to co-operate with the first abutment as it moves under the downstream end of the conveyor so that, on coming into contact with the pusher member, the first abutment is retracted to the sides of the conveyor to allow the article to be transferred to the deck of the trolley.

2. The system for conveying articles according to claim 1 , wherein the conveyor includes an ascending conveyor portion (PCA) that extends from its upstream end, and in that the ramp is designed to maintain the lever in the deployed position along said ascending conveyor portion.

3. The system for conveying articles according to claim 2 , wherein the conveyor includes a descending conveyor portion (PCD) that extends on from the ascending conveyor portion to the downstream end of the conveyor.

4. The system for conveying articles according to claim 3 , wherein the descending conveyor portion of the conveyor is provided with a ramp having a slope that goes back up towards the downstream end of the conveyor so as to position the lever from the retracted position to the deployed position.

5. The system for conveying articles according to claim 3 , wherein the conveyor is provided with a second retractable abutment upstream from the downstream end of the conveyor, said second abutment being designed to be moved between a retracted position in which it allows an article to move towards the downstream end of the conveyor, and a closed position in which it blocks an article upstream from the downstream end of the conveyor, the second abutment having an element projecting over the conveyor and designed to co-operate with an article disposed at the downstream end of the conveyor so as to go from the retracted position to the closed position.

6. The system for conveying articles according to claim 3 , wherein the deck of the trolley is in the form of a fork and the conveyor is in the form of two parallel sections, the fork being designed to engage comb-like between the sections of the conveyor while the trolley is moving under the upstream end and/or under the downstream end of the conveyor.

7. The system for conveying articles according to claim 3 , wherein the lever of the trolley is in the form of a fork designed to engage comb-like between the sections of the conveyor while the trolley is moving under the conveyor.

8. The system for conveying articles according to claim 1 , wherein the conveyor includes a descending conveyor portion (PCD) that extends on from an ascending conveyor portion to the downstream end of the conveyor.

9. The system for conveying articles according to claim 1 , wherein a descending conveyor portion of the conveyor is provided with a ramp having a slope that goes back up towards the downstream end of the conveyor so as to position the lever from the retracted position to the deployed position.

10. The system for conveying articles according to claim 1 , wherein the conveyor is provided with a second retractable abutment upstream from the downstream end of the conveyor, said second abutment being designed to be moved between a retracted position in which it allows an article to move towards the downstream end of the conveyor, and a closed position in which it blocks an article upstream from the downstream end of the conveyor, the second abutment having an element projecting over the conveyor and designed to co-operate with an article disposed at the downstream end of the conveyor so as to go from the retracted position to the closed position.

11. The system for conveying articles according to claim 1 , wherein the deck of the trolley is in the form of a fork and the conveyor is in the form of two parallel sections, the fork being designed to engage comb-like between the sections of the conveyor while the trolley is moving under the upstream end and/or under the downstream end of the conveyor.

12. The system for conveying articles according to claim 1 , wherein the lever of the trolley is in the form of a fork designed to engage comb-like between the sections of the conveyor while the trolley is moving under the conveyor.

Assignees

• Solystic

Inventors

• Kara Karim
• Danjaume Alain
• Moullard Eric

Classifications

• B65G1/1378 Primary

  the orders being assembled on fixed commissioning areas remote from the storage areas · CPC title

• B65G47/90 Primary

  Devices for picking-up and depositing articles or materials · CPC title

• B65G47/8892

  Stops acting independently of each other · CPC title

• B62B5/0033

  Electric motors · CPC title

• B65G47/82

  Rotary or reciprocating members for direct action on articles or materials, e.g. pushers, rakes, shovels {(means for pushing glass articles onto a conveyor C03B9/453)} · CPC title