CN107953338B

CN107953338B - Method and device for sorting articles by robot and mechanical arm

Info

Publication number: CN107953338B
Application number: CN201711487185.3A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 郎需林; 刘培超; 刘主福
Original assignee: Shenzhen Yuejiang Technology Co Ltd
Current assignee: Shenzhen Yuejiang Technology Co Ltd
Priority date: 2017-12-29
Filing date: 2017-12-29
Publication date: 2023-04-11
Anticipated expiration: 2037-12-29
Also published as: CN107953338A

Abstract

The invention is suitable for the technical field of mechanical arms, and provides a method and a device for sorting articles by a robot and the mechanical arms, wherein N mechanical arms arranged along a conveyor belt are provided, each mechanical arm comprises an execution end and a gripping device arranged at the execution end, the gripping device comprises at least two clamping jaws simultaneously acting on the side wall of a target article, and the method comprises the following steps: when the X mechanical arm controls the gripping device to grip a target article, gradually increasing pressure is applied to the target article through the clamping jaw, the coordinate change value of the clamping jaw is recorded in real time, and when the coordinate change value reaches a preset value, the pressure at the moment is recorded as X pressure; comparing the relation between the Xth pressure and the Xth threshold value, and judging whether to take or not; x is any natural number less than or equal to N. Whether the clamping jaw meets the requirement or not can be judged by applying gradually increased pressure to the coordinate change of the clamping jaw in the appointed value acquisition process.

Description

Method and device for sorting articles by robot and mechanical arm

Technical Field

The invention belongs to the technical field of automation, and particularly relates to a method, a device and a mechanical arm for sorting articles by a robot.

Background

A robotic arm is an automated device that mimics certain movements of a human hand and arm to grasp, carry objects or manipulate tools in a fixed sequence.

However, in the existing mechanical arm application, for the mixed sorting of a plurality of articles, most of the articles need to be finished by manually controlling the mechanical arm, the operation is complex, and the sorting efficiency is low.

Disclosure of Invention

In view of this, the invention provides a method, a device and a mechanical arm for sorting articles by a robot, which can distinguish the types of the articles according to the hardness of the articles, reduce manual intervention and effectively improve the sorting efficiency.

The invention provides a method for sorting objects by a robot, which is used for sorting target objects from a conveyor belt and comprises N mechanical arms arranged along the conveyor belt, wherein each mechanical arm comprises an execution end and a gripping device arranged at the execution end, the gripping device comprises at least two clamping jaws simultaneously acting on the side wall of the target object, a plurality of mechanical arms are a first mechanical arm, a second mechanical arm … … and an Nth mechanical arm in sequence, N is a natural number, and the method comprises the following steps: when the X-th mechanical arm controls the grabbing device to grab a target object, gradually increased pressure is applied to the target object through the clamping jaw, the coordinate change value of the clamping jaw is recorded in real time, and when the coordinate change value reaches a preset value, the corresponding X-th pressure is recorded; if the Xth pressure is less than or equal to the Xth threshold value, removing the target article from the conveyor belt, and if the Xth pressure is greater than the Xth threshold value, abandoning the removal; x is any natural number less than or equal to N.

A second aspect of the present invention provides an apparatus for sorting articles by a robot arm, for sorting articles from a conveyor belt, comprising a plurality of robot arms, each robot arm comprising an actuating end and gripping means mounted at the actuating end, the gripping means comprising at least two gripping jaws acting simultaneously on a side wall of the target article, each robot arm further comprising:

the control module is used for applying gradually increased pressure to the target object through the clamping jaws and recording the coordinate change value of the clamping jaws in real time when the target object is grabbed by the grabbing device, and recording the corresponding pressure value at the moment when the coordinate change value reaches a preset value;

and the classification module is used for determining whether to take the target object from the conveyor belt according to the pressure value and the corresponding threshold value.

A third aspect of the invention provides a robot arm comprising a memory, an execution end, a gripping device mounted on the execution end, and a computer program stored in the memory and executable on the execution end, the execution end implementing the steps of the method as described above when executing the computer program.

A fourth aspect of the invention provides a computer-readable storage medium having a computer program stored thereon, characterized in that the computer program realizes the steps of the aforementioned method when executed by a processor.

Compared with the prior art, the embodiment of the invention has the following beneficial effects: when any arm took target article on to the conveyer belt, the coordinate variation value of in-process real-time recording clamping jaw through applying crescent pressure, when reaching the default, can judge that this target article takes place deformation at current pressure value, compare pressure value and threshold value this moment, if accord with the hardness requirement of snatching of this arm then take target article from the conveyer belt, if not accord with then not take, set up different threshold values to each arm in advance, can carry out automatic sorting to the article of different hardnesses on the conveyer belt, the efficiency of letter sorting has been improved. The method is simple to operate, reduces manual intervention, is low in implementation cost, and has high usability and practicability.

Drawings

In order to more clearly illustrate the technical solutions in the embodiments of the present invention, the drawings required to be used in the embodiments or the prior art description will be briefly described below, and it is obvious that the drawings in the following description are only some embodiments of the present invention, and for those skilled in the art, other drawings may be obtained according to these drawings without inventive labor.

Fig. 1 is a schematic flow chart illustrating an implementation of a method for sorting an article by a robot arm according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a schematic view of a robot arm of an apparatus for sorting articles provided by a robot arm according to a second embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 3 is a schematic view of a robot arm according to a third embodiment of the present invention.

Detailed Description

In the following description, for purposes of explanation and not limitation, specific details are set forth such as particular system structures, techniques, etc. in order to provide a thorough understanding of the embodiments of the invention. It will be apparent, however, to one skilled in the art that the present invention may be practiced in other embodiments that depart from these specific details. In other instances, detailed descriptions of well-known systems, devices, circuits, and methods are omitted so as not to obscure the description of the present invention with unnecessary detail.

It will be understood that the terms "comprises" and/or "comprising," when used in this specification and the appended claims, specify the presence of stated features, integers, steps, operations, elements, and/or components, but do not preclude the presence or addition of one or more other features, integers, steps, operations, elements, components, and/or groups thereof.

It is also to be understood that the terminology used in the description of the invention herein is for the purpose of describing particular embodiments only and is not intended to be limiting of the invention. As used in the specification of the present invention and the appended claims, the singular forms "a," "an," and "the" are intended to include the plural forms as well, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise.

It should be further understood that the term "and/or" as used in this specification and the appended claims refers to and includes any and all possible combinations of one or more of the associated listed items.

As used in this specification and the appended claims, the term "if" may be interpreted contextually as "when", "upon" or "in response to a determination" or "in response to a detection". Similarly, the phrase "if it is determined" or "if a [ described condition or event ] is detected" may be interpreted contextually to mean "upon determining" or "in response to determining" or "upon detecting [ described condition or event ]" or "in response to detecting [ described condition or event ]".

In order to explain the technical means of the present invention, the following description will be given by way of specific examples.

Fig. 1 is a schematic flow chart of an implementation of a method for sorting an article by using a robot arm according to an embodiment of the present invention, the method is used for sorting a target article from a conveyor belt, and includes N robot arms disposed along the conveyor belt, each robot arm includes an execution end and a gripping device mounted at the execution end, the gripping device includes at least two jaws acting on a sidewall of the target article simultaneously, for convenience of description, a plurality of robot arms are sequentially denoted as a first robot arm, a second robot arm … … nth robot arm, where N is a natural number, and as shown in fig. 1, the method may include the following steps:

step S101, when the X mechanical arm controls the grabbing device to grab a target object, gradually increased pressure is applied to the target object through the clamping jaw, a coordinate change value of the clamping jaw is recorded in real time, and when the coordinate change value reaches a preset value, the corresponding X pressure is recorded;

step S102, if the X pressure is less than or equal to the X threshold value, the target object is taken down from the conveyor belt, and if the X pressure is greater than the X threshold value, the taking is abandoned

If X is any natural number less than or equal to N, for example 1, 1 is substituted into the above steps, i.e., the first arm, the first pressure, and the first threshold.

When the X-th mechanical arm takes the target object on the conveying belt, the applied pressure is gradually increased, the coordinate change of the clamping jaw in the process is obtained and compared with a preset value, if the change exceeds the preset value, deformation is judged to occur, the pressure value at the moment is recorded as the X-th pressure, an X-th threshold value is set for the X-th mechanical arm, the X-th pressure and the X-th threshold value are compared to judge whether the pressure value is the grabbing target of the X-th mechanical arm, if the pressure value is taken away from the conveying belt, and if the pressure value is not consistent with the preset value, the pressure value is not taken. Set up different pressure threshold values to each arm in advance, can carry out automatic sorting to the article of different hardnesses on the conveyer belt, whether the automatic judgement is the hardness scope that oneself corresponds when each arm snatchs, what will accord with snatchs, nonconformity stays the conveyer belt and waits for other arms to snatch, and this kind of automatic mode of snatching the letter sorting has improved the efficiency of letter sorting. The method is simple to operate, reduces manual intervention, is low in implementation cost, and has high usability and practicability.

In addition, the embodiment of the invention can obtain the coordinate change of the clamping jaw in various ways, for example, a related vision collector can be installed, a certain point on the clamping jaw is selected as a monitoring point, and the coordinate change is judged according to the position change of the point. By way of example, the coordinates of the pressure exerted by the gripping device can also be detected and recorded by means of a sensor mounted on the gripping jaws, which can be a displacement sensor, by means of which the displacement in the direction of the pressure is detected.

Optionally, in this embodiment, the value gradually increases from the first threshold to the nth threshold. The first mechanical arm is defined as the first mechanical arm along the conveying direction of the conveying belt, a mode of gradually increasing threshold value setting is adopted, the technical effect is that the range corresponding to the target object taken by the first mechanical arm is the lowest hardness, namely the softest target object is taken away from the conveying belt, and so on, compared with other mechanical arms, the N mechanical arm takes the hardest object, and therefore the problem that the softer target object is damaged due to the fact that larger pressure is applied to the softer target object is solved. It will be readily appreciated that it is possible to provide: the grabbing judgment range of the first mechanical arm and the grabbing judgment range of the second mechanical arm … … cover or exceed the hardness range of the target articles, namely all the target articles on the conveyor belt can be sorted and taken, and a part of the hardness range can be covered, namely the target articles meeting the requirements are taken, and the target articles not meeting the requirements are left on the conveyor belt.

In the embodiment of the present invention, the types of the target articles may be two or more. For example, the coordinate change value may be compared with a preset coordinate change range, and the coordinate change value is divided into a plurality of intervals, each interval corresponds to the same type or a combination of the intervals corresponds to the same type, for example, the coordinate change value may be divided into a qualified type and an unqualified type, or divided into four types of severe damage, moderate damage, mild damage and perfect damage according to the coordinate change, so as to classify the target object and determine the type of the target object.

Optionally, after a mechanical arm determines that the target object is the grabbing object, marking information corresponding to the target object is made on the target object, and the mechanical arm is controlled to sort the target object provided with the marking information to a corresponding outlet channel

Optionally, the mechanical arm may further include a shooting device, and before the grabbing device grabs the target object, the mechanical arm is controlled to accurately grab the target object through the collected graph information.

For example, the image information of the target object in the embodiment of the present invention may include, but is not limited to, position information, color information, shape information, and the like of the target object. For example, the image information collected by the shooting device can be processed through visual recognition, and the target objects are distinguished according to the image information, for example, the target objects with the surface color change area reaching a preset value are distinguished first, and then the target objects are distinguished again by combining the detected coordinate change value, so that the sorting precision is improved.

It should be understood that, the sequence numbers of the steps in the foregoing embodiments do not imply an execution sequence, and the execution sequence of each process should be determined by its function and inherent logic, and should not constitute any limitation to the implementation process of the embodiments of the present invention.

Fig. 2 is a schematic view of a robot arm sorting apparatus according to a second embodiment of the present invention, in which the sorting apparatus includes a plurality of robot arms, and since the plurality of robot arms do not have any difference in structure except for positions, for convenience of explanation, only portions of the robot arms related to the second embodiment of the present invention are shown, and the entire apparatus is not shown.

In an embodiment of the present invention, each robot arm may include an execution end and a gripping device installed at the execution end, the gripping device includes at least two gripping jaws acting on a sidewall of a target object at the same time, and the gripping device further includes:

the control module 32 is used for applying gradually increased pressure to the target object through the clamping jaws and recording the coordinate change value of the clamping jaws in real time when the target object is grabbed by the grabbing device, and recording the corresponding pressure value at the moment when the coordinate change value reaches a preset value;

and a sorting module 33, configured to determine whether to take the target object from the conveyor belt according to the pressure value and a corresponding threshold value.

The device in this embodiment includes a plurality of arms, and the target article on the conveyer belt is picked and judged, then the mode of letter sorting, and the concrete implementation process is basically the same with the method of preceding robot letter sorting article, and is not repeated.

Therefore, the device in the embodiment can intelligently and automatically sort, reduces manual participation, and has the characteristics of low cost, easiness in operation and the like.

Optionally, in the apparatus of this embodiment, the corresponding preset pressure is gradually increased by a plurality of robot arms arranged along the conveyor belt.

Optionally, the apparatus may further include:

and the generating module is used for generating mark information corresponding to the target object, setting the mark information on the target object and controlling the mechanical arm to sort the target object with the mark information to the corresponding outlet channel.

Optionally, the apparatus may further include:

and the shooting device is used for acquiring the image information of the target object and controlling the mechanical arm to accurately grab the target object.

Accordingly, the classification module 33 is specifically configured to determine the type of the target object according to the image information of the target object and the corresponding threshold.

Fig. 3 is a schematic view of a robot arm provided in the third embodiment of the present invention, and only the portions related to the third embodiment of the present invention are shown for convenience of explanation.

As shown in fig. 3, the robot arm 4 of this embodiment includes: an execution end 40, a memory 41, a gripping means 43 mounted at the execution end, and a computer program 42 stored in the memory and executable on the execution end. The steps in the embodiments of the method for sorting items by the respective robotic arms described above, such as steps 101 and 102 shown in fig. 1, are implemented when the computer program 42 is executed by the processor 40. Alternatively, the processor 40, when executing the computer program 42, implements the functions of the various modules/units in the above-described apparatus embodiments, such as the functions of the modules 31 to 33 shown in fig. 3.

Illustratively, the computer program 42 may be partitioned into one or more modules/units, which are stored in the memory 41 and executed by the processor 40 to implement the present invention. One or more of the modules/units may be a series of computer program instruction segments capable of performing specific functions that describe the execution of the computer program 42 in the robot arm 4. For example, the computer program 42 may be divided into a plurality of control modules and a classification module, and the specific functions of the modules are as follows:

The robotic arm 4 may include, but is not limited to, a processor 40, a memory 41. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that figure 3 is merely an example of a robotic arm 4 and does not constitute a limitation of the robotic arm 4 and may include more or fewer components than shown, or some components may be combined, or different components, e.g., the robotic arm may also include control circuitry, servo motors, network access devices, buses, etc.

The Processor 40 may be a Central Processing Unit (CPU), other general purpose Processor, a Digital Signal Processor (DSP), an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), an off-the-shelf Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) or other Programmable logic device, discrete Gate or transistor logic, discrete hardware components, etc. A general purpose processor may be a microprocessor or the processor may be any conventional processor or the like.

The memory 41 may be an internal storage unit of the robot 4, such as a hard disk or memory of the robot 4. The memory 41 may also be an external storage device of the robot arm 4, such as a plug-in hard disk provided on the robot arm 4, a Smart Media Card (SMC), a Secure Digital (SD) Card, a Flash memory Card (Flash Card), and the like. Further, the memory 41 may also include both an internal storage unit of the robot arm 4 and an external storage device. The memory 41 is used for storing computer programs and other programs and data required by the robot arm. The memory 41 may also be used to temporarily store data that has been output or is to be output.

It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that, for convenience and brevity of description, only the above-mentioned division of the functional units and modules is illustrated, and in practical applications, the above-mentioned function distribution may be performed by different functional units and modules according to needs, that is, the internal structure of the apparatus is divided into different functional units or modules, so as to perform all or part of the functions described above. Each functional unit and module in the embodiments may be integrated in one processing unit, or each unit may exist alone physically, or two or more units are integrated in one unit, and the integrated unit may be implemented in a form of hardware, or in a form of software functional unit. In addition, specific names of the functional units and modules are only used for distinguishing one functional unit from another, and are not used for limiting the protection scope of the present application. For the specific working processes of the units and modules in the system, reference may be made to the corresponding processes in the foregoing method embodiments, which are not described herein again.

In the above embodiments, the description of each embodiment has its own emphasis, and reference may be made to the related description of other embodiments for parts that are not described or recited in any embodiment.

Those of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that the various illustrative elements and algorithm steps described in connection with the embodiments disclosed herein may be implemented as electronic hardware or combinations of computer software and electronic hardware. Whether such functionality is implemented as hardware or software depends upon the particular application and design constraints imposed on the technical solution. Skilled artisans may implement the described functionality in varying ways for each particular application, but such implementation decisions should not be interpreted as causing a departure from the scope of the present invention.

In the embodiments provided in the present invention, it should be understood that the disclosed apparatus/terminal device and method may be implemented in other ways. For example, the above-described embodiments of the apparatus/terminal device are merely illustrative, and for example, a module or a unit may be divided into only one logical function, and may be implemented in other ways, for example, a plurality of units or components may be combined or integrated into another system, or some features may be omitted or not executed. In addition, the shown or discussed mutual coupling or direct coupling or communication connection may be an indirect coupling or communication connection through some interfaces, devices or units, and may be in an electrical, mechanical or other form.

Units described as separate parts may or may not be physically separate, and parts displayed as units may or may not be physical units, may be located in one place, or may be distributed on a plurality of network units. Some or all of the units can be selected according to actual needs to achieve the purpose of the solution of the embodiment.

In addition, functional units in the embodiments of the present invention may be integrated into one processing unit, or each unit may exist alone physically, or two or more units are integrated into one unit. The integrated unit can be realized in a form of hardware, and can also be realized in a form of a software functional unit.

The integrated modules/units, if implemented in the form of software functional units and sold or used as separate products, may be stored in a computer readable storage medium. Based on such understanding, all or part of the flow in the method according to the embodiments of the present invention may also be implemented by a computer program to instruct related hardware, where the computer program may be stored in a computer readable storage medium, and when the computer program is executed by a processor, the computer program may implement the steps of the embodiments of the method. . Wherein the computer program comprises computer program code, which may be in the form of source code, object code, an executable file or some intermediate form, etc. The computer readable medium may include: any entity or device capable of carrying computer program code, recording medium, U-disk, removable hard disk, magnetic disk, optical disk, computer Memory, read-Only Memory (ROM), random-access Memory (RAM), electrical carrier wave signals, telecommunications signals, software distribution media, and the like. It should be noted that the computer readable medium may contain other components which may be suitably increased or decreased as required by legislation and patent practice in jurisdictions, for example, in some jurisdictions, in accordance with legislation and patent practice, the computer readable medium does not include electrical carrier signals and telecommunications signals.

The above examples are only intended to illustrate the technical solution of the present invention, and not to limit it; although the present invention has been described in detail with reference to the foregoing embodiments, it will be understood by those of ordinary skill in the art that: the technical solutions described in the foregoing embodiments may still be modified, or some technical features may be equivalently replaced; such modifications and substitutions do not substantially depart from the spirit and scope of the embodiments of the present invention, and are intended to be included within the scope of the present invention.

Claims

1. A method for robot sorting of objects, for sorting of objects from a conveyor belt, comprising N robot arms arranged along the conveyor belt, each robot arm comprising an execution end and a gripping device mounted at the execution end, the gripping device comprising at least two gripping jaws acting simultaneously on a side wall of the object, the plurality of robot arms being in turn a first robot arm, a second robot arm … … Nth robot arm, N being a natural number, the method comprising:

when an X mechanical arm in the multiple mechanical arms controls the grabbing device to grab a target article, at least two clamping jaws of the X mechanical arm apply gradually increased pressure to the target article simultaneously and record a coordinate change value of the clamping jaws in real time, and when the coordinate change value reaches a preset value, the corresponding X pressure at the moment is recorded;

if the Xth pressure is less than or equal to the Xth threshold value, taking the target object off the conveyor belt, and if the Xth pressure is greater than the Xth threshold value, abandoning the taking;

x is any natural number less than or equal to N.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the pressure thresholds for the first arm to the Nth arm are increased.

3. The method of claim 2, after determining that the target item is a grab target, further comprising:

and when the target object is taken down from the conveyor belt, generating mark information corresponding to the target object, and controlling the corresponding mechanical arm to sort the target object to a corresponding outlet channel.

4. A method according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the robotic arm further comprises a camera, and prior to the grasping means grasping the target item, the method further comprises:

the image information of the target object is collected through the shooting device, and the mechanical arm is controlled to accurately grab the target object.

5. A robotic arm article sorting apparatus for sorting articles from a conveyor belt, comprising a plurality of robotic arms, each of said robotic arms comprising an actuation end and a gripping device mounted at said actuation end, said gripping device comprising at least two gripping jaws simultaneously acting on a sidewall of a target article, each of said robotic arms further comprising:

6. The apparatus of claim 5, wherein the threshold is progressively increased for a plurality of robotic arms arranged along the conveyor belt.

7. The apparatus of claim 6, wherein the apparatus further comprises:

and the generating module is used for generating mark information corresponding to the target object, setting the mark information on the target object and controlling the mechanical arm to sort the target object with the mark information to a corresponding outlet channel.

8. The apparatus of claim 5, wherein the apparatus further comprises:

9. A robot arm comprising a memory, an execution end, a grasping device mounted on the execution end, and a computer program stored in the memory and executable on the execution end, wherein the execution end implements the steps of the method according to any one of claims 1 to 4 when executing the computer program.

10. A computer-readable storage medium, in which a computer program is stored which, when being executed by a processor, carries out the steps of a method according to any one of claims 1 to 4.