JP2002087541A - Article control system - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To take highly reliable control of articles by predetecting the existence of plural defective articles in an unknown number and an IC card of reading failure. SOLUTION: When a first piece of a fixed quantity of collected articles housed in one product packing box comes to an IC card reader-writer 16, a proper ID is read out, required information is written in, and the article 12a is held by a replacing mechanism part 20. In the articles 12b, 12c, etc., on and after a second piece, the proper ID is read out, the required information is written in, and ID information on the article preceding by one is written in as a related ID. When finishing reading and writing processing of the last article, the first article 12a held in the replacing mechanism part 20 is returned to the IC card reader-writer 16, and is packed in the product packing box 22 by writing in ID information on the last article as the related ID.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an article management system, and more particularly, to an article management system for managing a plurality of articles attached to an IC card in a fixed amount.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a card on which a certain amount of data is written is carried around, and the data is read from the card by using a card reader / writer, so that the card can be used as various information cards or identification cards, or a new card can be used. It is used in various fields by using a data update type card on which data can be written. This type of card includes magnetic cards used for prepaid cards and credits, and recently, the amount of information that can be read and written is large,
IC cards having excellent security performance have been put to practical use. The IC card reader / writer for reading and writing data on the IC card is provided with an electrode pad exposed on the IC chip, and a contact type for exchanging data by contacting a terminal such as a probe with the electrode pad. There is a non-contact type in which data is exchanged in a non-contact manner by using a non-contact type. In recent years, the above-described IC card has been attached to each article to be managed, and necessary information such as an article name and destination information has been written into the IC card, and the information has been read out as necessary, thereby managing the article. Is being developed.

[0003]

However, in such a conventional article management system, when a plurality of articles to which an IC card is attached are packed and managed collectively, the number of packed articles is reduced. Unless known in advance, there is a problem that it is not possible to detect a missing item or to detect the presence or absence of an IC card having poor reading. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and provides a highly reliable article management system capable of detecting the absence of a plurality of articles whose number of members is not known in advance or the presence or absence of a poorly read IC card. It is intended to provide.

[0004]

According to one aspect of the present invention, there is provided an article management system for managing a plurality of articles attached with an IC card in a fixed amount. Individual I attached to the plurality of articles
A read / write means for sequentially reading and writing data to and from the C card; and a control means for controlling the read / write means. As at least one of the data to be written by the read / write means, control is performed such that data associated with each other is written. According to this, a plurality of ICs
When managing a certain amount of goods with a card,
Data is sequentially read and written to individual IC cards attached to a plurality of articles by writing means,
As at least one of the write data, data associated with each other is written. For this reason, even if the number of articles is not known in advance,
Since it is known based on the related information that there is a corresponding article, it is possible to accurately manage whether there is a missing item or an IC card reading error. According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the article management system according to the first aspect, an article holding unit for temporarily holding data writing to an arbitrary article with an IC card processed by the read / write unit. The method further comprises the steps of: first processing the plurality of articles in the predetermined amount by the read / write means, and then holding the articles by the article holding means; The stored information is written in an IC card, and information related to the last article is controlled to be written in the first article held by the article holding means. According to this, there is provided an article holding means for temporarily holding data writing to an arbitrary article with an IC card processed by the read / write means, and the first article of a fixed amount is read / written. After that, the information is stored on the IC card for the second and subsequent articles, and the information on the last article is written on the IC card. Write on the first item on hold.
Various types of information can be used as the item-related information. For example, in addition to an ID unique to an IC card, a unique serial number or time data different from the ID can be given as an example. In short, by sharing information related to the partner between the articles, it becomes easy to find out that even if one article is missing, the article with the corresponding information remains. As described above, even for a plurality of articles of which the number of members is not known in advance, an IC with a missing item or a poor reading can be used.
It is possible to easily detect the occurrence of a card and the like.

[0005]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings. In the present embodiment, as an example, the present invention is implemented as an article management system for managing articles when mass-produced industrial products are automatically packed and shipped. 1 to 3 are diagrams illustrating a schematic configuration and operation of an article management system 10 according to the present embodiment. The feature of the article management system according to the present embodiment is that, when a plurality of articles are packed in one box, data relating the articles in the same package to each other is attached to the articles even if the number of members inside is not known. The point is that the data is written in the IC card. By doing so, even if a shortage or a reading failure of the IC card occurs after writing the data, it can be easily detected only by reading the IC card data. In this embodiment, as one means for writing data to be associated with each other between articles of the same package in an IC card, in the article management system 10 shown in FIG. 1, a plurality of industrial products 12a and 12b with an IC card 14 attached thereto. , 12c, 12d, 12e, 12f,
.. Are sequentially conveyed on the belt conveyor 18,
An IC card reader / writer 16 is provided as read / write means for reading and writing data to and from the IC card 14 of each industrial product 12.
The control of the write operation is performed by the CPU 3
Performed by 0. In addition, on the downstream side of the IC card reader / writer 16 of the present embodiment, a replacement mechanism unit 20 as an article holding means capable of temporarily holding a desired industrial product is provided.
Are provided branched from the belt conveyor 18. Here, the exchange mechanism unit 20 is configured by a belt conveyor capable of normal rotation / reversal control, but is not necessarily limited to this. The industrial product is temporarily held, and the IC card reader / writer 16 is again stored. Anything that can be returned to is acceptable. As shown in FIG. 1, the unique ID “01” of the IC card of the first industrial product 12a of the same package is read out using the article management system 10, and necessary information (for example, product name and destination information) is read. After writing, it is conveyed in the direction of arrow A and temporarily held in the exchange mechanism unit 20 (see FIG. 1).

The second and subsequent industrial products 12b, 12c,.
.. for the previous ID information "01 to 1"
5 ”is sequentially written by the IC card reader / writer 16, and
It is stored in the product packaging box 22 (see FIG. 2). The last industrial product 12p in the same package is an IC card reader / writer 16
Reads the unique ID “16” and writes the previous ID information “15”. Thereafter, the industrial product 12a held in the exchange mechanism unit 20 is returned to the IC card reader / writer 16, and the ID information "16" is written. As described above, in the present embodiment, by using the exchange mechanism unit 20, the unique ID and the related ID, which is the previous ID, are assigned to all the IC cards attached to the industrial products of the same package.
D information (in the case of the first industrial product 12a, ID information “16” of the last industrial product 12p). FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of a unique ID and a related ID given to an IC card of an industrial product in the same package.
Here, in order to make the mutual relationship easily understandable, the ID is set to 10
Although it is expressed in a binary system, it is of course possible to use an ID such as a binary system.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an example of the configuration of the IC card 14 and the IC card reader / writer 16 shown in FIGS. IC card 1 attached to each industrial product in FIG.
Reference numeral 4 denotes a non-contact type IC card, in which a coiled antenna 52 is connected to the IC chip 50, and in the IC chip 50, in addition to necessary information such as a product name and destination, a unique ID
And a memory 54 for writing data such as the above-mentioned related ID and the like. The IC card reader / writer 16 shown in FIG. 5 includes a CPU 30 for controlling the entire system, a memory 34 for storing various data such as write data and read data (previous ID information), parameters, and the like.
A modulator 36 for modulating data to be written to the card 14, a power amplifier 38 for amplifying a modulated wave, the IC card 1
4, transmitting antenna 42 for transmitting write data, IC
A reception antenna 44 for receiving data read from the card 14, a detection circuit 40 for detecting a reception wave, and a CPU 3
The display unit 46 is provided with a display unit 46 for displaying an instruction for 0, a processing status in the CPU 30, and the like on a screen to notify an operator. As shown in FIG. 5, the IC card reader / writer 16 writes a product name, a destination, and the like as necessary information in the memory 54 of each IC card 14 attached to a plurality of industrial products, and reads a unique ID and Memory 34
And the previous ID from the memory 34
The information is read and written into the memory 54 of the IC card 14 as a related ID. Thus, the unique ID
The IC card reader / writer 16 that controls so as to write the related ID together with it generates an AC magnetic field with respect to the IC card 14, thereby generating power in the antenna 52 and driving the IC chip 50 during that time. . Along with this, the CPU 30 reads out the necessary information and the immediately preceding ID information from the memory 34, modulates the same with the modulator 36, amplifies it with the power amplifier 38, and transmits data from the transmitting antenna 42. When the IC chip 50 of the IC card 14 receives the data with the antenna 52, it writes it in the memory 54 and holds it. Also, when the IC chip 50 transmits the unique ID data stored in the memory 54 via the antenna 52 in parallel with the above operation, the IC chip 50 receives the unique ID data with the receiving antenna 44 of the IC card reader / writer 16 and outputs the data to the detection circuit. 40
Are sequentially stored in the memory 34.

FIG. 6 shows a state in which collective identification processing for individual IC cards is performed by an IC card reader / writer together with a box packed with a plurality of industrial products to which an IC card storing a unique ID and a related ID is attached. FIG. FIG.
May be used as the IC card reader / writer 16 shown in FIG. 5, but here, a dedicated IC card reader / writer for performing batch identification processing is used. The product packing box 22 is sequentially moved by the arrow D on the belt conveyor 64.
By reading the data of each IC card in the product packaging box 22 with the IC card reader / writer 62 while transporting in the direction, it is possible to easily and accurately detect a missing item or an IC card reading failure. That is,
As shown in FIG. 4, all the IC cards in the product packaging box 22 are accessed, the unique ID and the related ID are read out and rearranged, and the mutual relationship can be checked. here,
If the industrial product 12b is out of stock, the industrial products 12a and 1
It can be easily inferred that there is no industrial product to enter between 2c and 2c from the relation ID indicating the mutual relation. In addition, the reading failure of the IC card is the same as that of the missing item, so that it can be easily estimated from the related IDs before and after.

Next, the operation will be described. FIG. 7 is a flowchart illustrating the operation according to the present embodiment. As shown in FIG. 7, it is determined whether or not the first of a fixed quantity of articles (industrial products) to be put in one product packaging box has arrived at the IC card reader / writer 16 (step S10).
0) If it is the first one, read out the unique ID,
After writing necessary information such as an article name and destination information (step S102), the article (industrial product) 12a is held by the exchange mechanism unit 20 (step S104: see FIG. 1). Next, the second and subsequent articles (industrial products) 12
For b, 12c,..., the unique ID is read, necessary information is written, and the immediately preceding article (industrial product)
Is written as the related ID (step S
106: see FIG. 2), and packed in the product packaging box 22. Then, it is checked whether the reading and writing processing (R / W processing) of the last article 12p of the articles (industrial products) in a fixed quantity has been completed, and if not the last article, the process returns to step S106 to return to the above processing. (Step S1)
08). R / W of last article 12p in step S108
When it is confirmed that the processing is completed, the first article (industrial product) 12a held in the exchange mechanism section 20 is returned to the IC card reader / writer 16 in the direction of arrow C, and the last article 1
2p ID information is written as a related ID (step S110: see FIG. 3). This first article 1
2a is finally packed in the product packaging box 22 and closed. next,
With reference to the flowchart of FIG. 8, a description will be given of an operation in a case where a plurality of industrial products to which the IC card to which the related ID is written as described above are packed and closed in the product packaging box 22, and then inspected in box units. . First, as shown in FIG.
The product packing box 22b is conveyed by the belt conveyor 64 and the IC
The data written in each IC card is read out at once by the card reader / writer 62 (step S200). CPU of IC card reader / writer 62
Arranges the read data as shown in FIG. 4, and determines whether or not the articles have ID information related to each other (step S202). If all the items have ID information that are related to each other, even if the number of members is not known in advance, there are no missing items or IC card reading errors in the items in the package, and the items in the package are normal. It can be determined that there is (step S204). As a result, a normal display such as "package is normal" is displayed on the display unit of the IC card reader / writer (step S206). Further, assuming that the second industrial product 12b is out of stock in step S202, as shown in FIG.
It turns out that the ID information related between and is missing. In that case, it is determined that the article in the package has a missing item or an IC card reading error (step S208). As a result, an abnormal display such as "out of stock or reading failure of the IC card" is displayed on the display unit of the IC card reader / writer (step S210) to notify the operator.

As described above, according to the present embodiment, even if the number of articles is not known in advance, a missing item or IC
Since it is possible to reliably detect and manage the presence or absence of a card reading error, a highly reliable article management system can be provided. Further, according to the present embodiment, since it is possible to adopt the management process for packing and managing a plurality of industrial products without making a significant change, it is possible to perform efficient and accurate article management at low cost. . In the present embodiment, the previous ID information is provided as data for associating the articles with each other, but the present invention is not necessarily limited to this, and the data may be associated with each other. Various data can be used as long as the data can be processed. For example, an ID unique to the IC card, a unique serial number, or time data can be used. Further, in the present embodiment, when writing data for associating the articles with each other, the order of transporting the articles is changed by using the exchange mechanism unit 20 including a belt conveyor capable of normal rotation / reversal. , The immediately preceding data (ID information) is sequentially written. However, the configuration and procedure of the exchange mechanism unit 20 are not limited to the above example.
The C card reader / writer may write data for associating the articles with each other. further,
In the present embodiment, when writing data for associating with each other between articles, in addition to shifting the data in a loop as described in the above example to have the association, writing data associated with each other or between groups Of course, it may be.

[0011]

As described above, according to the first aspect of the present invention, when a plurality of articles with IC cards are collectively managed in a fixed amount, each of the articles attached to the plurality of articles by the read / write means is controlled. Data is sequentially read from or written to the IC card, and data associated with each other is written as at least one of the write data. Therefore, even if the number of articles is not known in advance, the related information , It is possible to know that there is a corresponding article, and it is possible to accurately manage whether there is a missing item or an IC card reading error. According to the second aspect of the present invention, there is provided an article holding means for temporarily holding the writing of data to an arbitrary article with an IC card processed by the read / write means, and the first piece of the article in a fixed amount is provided. After processing by the read / write means, the goods are held by the goods holding means. For the second and subsequent goods, the relevant information of the previous goods is written in the IC card, and the related information of the last goods is stored in the goods. Since the writing is performed on the first article reserved by the means, even if the number of articles is unknown in advance, it is possible to easily detect the presence or absence of a missing or erroneous IC card. be able to.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating a schematic configuration and operation of an article management system according to an embodiment.

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a schematic configuration and operation of an article management system according to the present embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating a schematic configuration and operation of an article management system according to the present embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of a unique ID and a related ID given to an IC card of an industrial product in the same package.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a configuration example of the IC card and the IC card reader / writer of FIGS. 1 to 3;

FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating a state in which collective identification processing for individual IC cards is performed on an IC card reader / writer together with a box packed with a plurality of industrial products to which an IC card storing a unique ID and a related ID is attached. .

FIG. 7 is a flowchart illustrating an operation according to the present embodiment.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart illustrating an operation in a case where a plurality of industrial products attached with an IC card to which a related ID is written are packed in a product packaging box and inspected in box units;

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 article management system, 12a-12p industrial product (article), 14 IC card, 16 IC card reader / writer, 18 belt conveyor, 20 exchange mechanism part, 22 product packing box, 30 CPU, 34 memory, 36 modulator, 38 Power amplifier, 40 detection circuit, 42 transmission antenna, 44 reception antenna, 46 display unit, 50 IC chip, 52 antenna, 54 memory, 60 article management system, 62 IC card reader / writer, 64 belt conveyor.

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. An article management system for managing a plurality of articles attached to an IC card in a fixed amount, wherein data is read from or written to individual IC cards attached to the plurality of articles. And a control means for controlling the read / write means, wherein at least one of data to be written by the read / write means to the plurality of IC card-attached articles in a predetermined amount is provided. First, an article management system that controls to write data associated with each other between articles. 2. An apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising an article holding means for temporarily holding data writing to an arbitrary article with an IC card processed by said read / write means, wherein the first article of said plurality of articles in a predetermined amount is provided. Is processed by the read / write means, and then stored by the article storage means. Information relating to the immediately preceding article is written in the IC card for the second and subsequent articles, and the last article is written to the IC card. 2. The article management system according to claim 1, wherein related information is controlled so as to be written in a first article held by said article holding means.