JPH09267078A - Clamping position discriminating device and object treating device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To smoothly inspect and treat long-sized objects by discriminating clamping positions for well clamping these objects and utilizing the discrimination information of the clamping positions in spite of a change in the positions and directions of the objects by relatively simple equipment. SOLUTION: The long-sized objects K positioned at a predetermined point (r) are subjected to image pickup by an image pickup means S in order to hold the objects K by clamping means 6 of a holding type, etc. The image regions corresponding to the objects K are extracted by region extracting means in accordance with the image pickup information. The clamping positions for the objects K are set at the centroid positions of the long-sized image regions corresponding to the objects K or the positions, etc., along the short side direction of the long-sized image regions past the positions near the positions described above by position setting means.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a gripping position discriminating apparatus for discriminating a gripping position for gripping a long object placed at a predetermined position by a gripping means, and processing of the long object. Regarding the device.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In the above-mentioned gripping position discriminating apparatus, conventionally, for example, a bucket for conveying fruits and vegetables such as cucumbers, which is an example of a long object, keeps its position and orientation as constant as possible. For an object that is stored (the storage position of this bucket is the planned position) and the position and orientation of the bucket are almost constant, set a fixed gripping position with the bucket position as a reference, and grip the object, for example. The gripping robot provided with a gripping arm or the like is operated to grip.

[0003]

However, in the above-mentioned prior art, the position of the object may be largely deviated from the target position or orientation due to the shape of the object (bending of fruits and vegetables such as cucumber). There was a risk of mistakes. In addition, there is a drawback that the facility for accommodating and transporting by a bucket is structurally complicated and large-scale.

The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and an object thereof is to satisfactorily grasp an object having a long shape even if the position or direction of the object changes with relatively simple equipment. It is to determine a gripping position for doing so and to smoothly inspect an elongated object by using the gripping position determination information.

[0005]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, an image area corresponding to an object is extracted from a picked-up image of a long object, and the barycentric position of the image area corresponding to the object or its vicinity is extracted. At the position, a gripping position for gripping the object positioned at the scheduled position by the gripping means is set.

Therefore, for example, it is not necessary to use a transporting bucket having a complicated structure for keeping the position and direction of a long object as constant as possible as in the prior art, and the position of the center of gravity of the long object is not required. Alternatively, the position near the gripping means can be accurately discriminated as the gripping position by the gripping means from the image information, so that the long object is gripped in a good condition at the center of gravity position which is a stable gripping position with good weight balance or in the vicinity thereof. be able to.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect, the center of gravity of the elongated image area is in a state of being along a direction intersecting the longitudinal direction of the elongated image area corresponding to the elongated object. The intersection of the straight line passing through the position or its vicinity and the peripheral edge portion in the lateral direction of the long image area is formed by a pair of holding arms that form a holding means for holding the long object from both sides. The grip position is determined.

Therefore, since the long object is gripped and gripped at both the center of gravity position and its vicinity and also in the lateral direction, the long object is gripped, for example, in the longitudinal direction. In comparison with, it is possible to use a smaller gripping means and grip in a more stable state,
Thus, the preferred measure of claim 1 can be obtained.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the above-mentioned second aspect, the center position in the lateral width direction of the long image area of the fruit or vegetable which is the long object is the vertical direction of the long image area. The direction of the approximate straight line obtained by connecting the center positions in the lateral width direction at the plurality of vertical positions is defined as the longitudinal direction of the fruit and vegetable image area.

Therefore, even if the shape of the fruit and vegetables is deformed, such as bending, the longitudinal direction can be determined in an appropriate state. Therefore, with respect to the longitudinal direction, the center of gravity of the fruit and vegetables or a position in the vicinity thereof can be shortened. It is possible to surely sandwich and grasp from both sides in the direction of the hand, so that the preferable means of claim 2 can be obtained.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, in the object processing apparatus including the gripping position discriminating device according to the first, second or third aspect, the long object to be inspected is gripped by the gripping means and the object is supplied. When it is transferred from the location to the receiving position on the starting end side of the transfer device, it is transferred to the inspection position on the end side of the receiving position by the transfer device, inspected at that inspection position, and imaged by the imaging means. When the inspected object whose gripping position is determined by the imaging information is conveyed from the inspection position to the take-out position on the terminal side, it is gripped by the gripping means and transferred from the take-out position to the object storage location.

Therefore, while the long object is transferred between the steps for inspection by the carrying device, the inspected long object is accurately grasped by using the grasping position information determined based on the image information. Then, for example, it can be sorted and stored in each storage container or the like provided for sorting according to the quality at the object storage location, and thus an object processing apparatus capable of performing a smooth inspection process can be obtained.

[0013]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Hereinafter, the gripping position discriminating apparatus of the present invention will be used as an object processing apparatus for inspecting and processing a cucumber K which is an example of a fruit and vegetable as a long object, that is, a cucumber sorter. The case where it is applied will be described.

As shown in FIG. 1, the sorting machine is a cucumber K.
A supply device A that continuously conveys a container 1 containing a container by a roller conveyor 2, an inspection device B that inspects a cucumber K transferred from the supply device A while the conveyance conveyor 3 conveys the same, and an inspection device B that inspects the container 1. In order to transfer the selected cucumber K from the supply device A to the inspection device B and from the inspection device B to the selection part D, a sorting part D having a plurality of sorting containers 4 for storing the sorted cucumber K according to ranks. And the transfer device C.

As shown in FIG. 1, the transfer device C is provided with a pair of holding arms 5 for holding the cucumber K from both sides, and has a swinging motion around the axis of the vertical axis and the front-back direction and the vertical direction. Articulated arms 6a, 6 that can move in any direction
The gripping robot 6 is configured as a gripping unit composed of b. Here, the base end of the lower arm 6a is the machine base 6c.
Is rotatable about the vertical axis X1 and swingable about the horizontal axis Y1, and the base end of the upper arm 6b swings about the horizontal axis Y2 with respect to the free end of the lower arm 6a. The holding arm 5 is movable, and is configured to be swingable about the horizontal axis Y3 and rotatable about the vertical axis X2 with respect to the free end portion of the upper arm 6b. Although not shown, each arm is provided with a driving motor and a rotary encoder that detects the operation amount of the motor.

The supply device A is constructed by arranging the roller conveyors 2 in a straight line, and the cucumbers K transported by the feeders A are placed in the container 1 with their longitudinal directions aligned in a direction orthogonal to the transportation direction of the roller conveyors 2. It is housed. Then, as shown in FIG. 2, the container 1 is formed such that the side walls 1A at the front and rear ends in the transport direction are inclined toward the inner side toward the bottom side, whereby the gripping robot 6 of the transfer device C is clamped. The arm 5 facilitates gripping the cucumber K that is in close contact with the side wall 1A. In addition, the object supply location (Fig. 1
Container 1 located at the position of container 1 indicated by the solid line
At the set height on the upper side of the, the distance sensor 7 that detects the distance to the upper surface of the cucumber K at each position along the transport direction of the roller conveyor 2 in the container 1 has a swing motor 7
It is installed in a state of being swung within a predetermined angle range around the horizontal axis P by a (see FIG. 2). That is, from the installation height of the distance sensor 7, the swing angle, and the detected distance information,
The height of the cucumber K at each position along the transport direction of the roller conveyor 2 in the container 1 is detected. Then, based on the height information, the cucumber K at the highest position in the container 1 is gripped by the gripping robot 6.

The inspection device B is driven by the conveyance motor 3a (see FIG. 2) to move the cucumber K from the starting end side to the terminating side, and the receiving position p, the inspection position q, and the taking-out position r.
The transport conveyor 3 as a transport device for transporting in this order, and the CCD video camera S as an imaging means for capturing an image of the cucumber K transported to the inspection position q by the transport conveyor 3. Then, the gripping robot 6
The cucumber K to be inspected is grasped and transferred from the object supply point (container 1) of the supply device A to the receiving position p, and the inspected cucumber K on the take-out position r is grasped to perform the sorting. Transfer to each sorting container 4 of the section D, that is, the object storage location. That is, the cucumber K transferred to the receiving position p is transferred to the inspection position q by the transfer conveyor 3, and is classified into five ranks by the length L (see FIG. 4) or the like based on the imaging information there, and the rank thereof is determined. When the inspected cucumber K is transported to the take-out position r by the transport conveyor 3, it is transferred to a predetermined sorting container 4 based on the rank information.

The control configuration is shown in FIG. A control device 10 utilizing a microcomputer is provided, and the control device 10
The image pickup information of the video camera S, the detection information of the distance sensor 7, the information of the rotary encoder in the gripping robot 6, and the like are input to the control device 10.
Drive signals are output to the motors for operating the arms 5, 6a, 6b of the gripping robot 6, the transport motor 3a, and the swing motor 7a.

Then, using the control device 10, the area extracting means 100 for extracting the image area corresponding to the cucumber K based on the image pickup information of the video camera S and the image area information of the area extracting means 100 are used. Based on this, the gripping position for gripping the cucumber K at the planned position (that is, the take-out position r of the conveyor 3) by the gripping robot 6 is set to the barycentric position of the image area corresponding to the cucumber K or a position in the vicinity thereof. Position setting means 101 for setting
Are configured.

Specifically, as shown in FIG. 4, the position setting means 101 is in a state of being along a direction intersecting (for example, orthogonal to) the longitudinal direction of the elongated image area corresponding to the cucumber K. A straight line LK passing through the position G of the center of gravity of the elongated image area and an intersection point kp of the peripheral portion of the elongated image area in the lateral direction are set as gripping positions by the pair of arms 5, and The center position cp in the horizontal width direction of the lengthwise image region is obtained at a plurality of vertical positions of the lengthwise image region, and the center positions cp in the widthwise direction at the plurality of vertical positions are obtained by connecting them. The approximate straight line LN is configured to be the longitudinal direction of the elongated image area.

Next, the determination of the length L and the setting process of the grip position by the control device 10 will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. First, the image of the video camera S is input (step 1). At this time, the posture of the cucumber K is such that its longitudinal direction is substantially along the direction (the vertical direction of the screen) intersecting the direction of the scanning lines on the imaging screen. Then, the image of the video camera S is binarized for each pixel based on the set threshold value, and the image area corresponding to the cucumber K and the other area are processed as different data (step 2). That is, the data of the image area corresponding to the cucumber K is set to “1”, and the data of the other areas is set to “0”. The cucumber K of this binarized image
The end image is removed within a set distance from both longitudinal end positions (that is, the data is set to "0") to remove the influence of the fruit pattern, petals, and the like.

Next, in the image of the video camera S, the distance X ₁ from the upper end of the screen to the upper end of the cucumber K and the distance X ₂ from the lower end of the screen to the lower end of the cucumber K (see FIG. 4) are obtained (step 3, 4) Obtain the vertical length X ₃ of the cucumber K from the vertical screen width X ₀ and the distances X ₁ and X ₂ (step 5).

Next, the central positions cp in the lateral width direction, that is, the middle point sequence at a plurality of positions in the longitudinal direction in the image area of the cucumber K are obtained (step 6). Specifically, for each pixel row along each scanning line, a point at the peripheral portion of the obtained image area, that is,
The points at which the data changes from "0" to "1" and the points at which the data changes from "1" to "0" are sequentially extracted to obtain the middle point for each scanning line. Then, each midpoint sequence thus obtained is linearly approximated based on the least square method to obtain one approximated straight line LN (step 7). Then, the length X ₃ obtained in step 5, the vertical direction and the approximate straight line LN
Based on the angle θ formed by and, the length L of the cucumber K along the approximate straight line LN is obtained by the equation L = X ₃ · arccos θ (step 8), and the length L is preset and stored. The standard values that are present are compared to determine which of the five ranks is present (step 9). This is the end of the process of determining the length L.

Next, the center of gravity position G in the image area of the obtained cucumber K is obtained (step 10), and the straight line LK which intersects (orthogonal to) the approximate straight line LN through the center of gravity position G is obtained (step 11). , Intersection points kp between the straight line LK and the peripheral portion of the image area of the cucumber K, that is, points at which the data switches from “0” to “1” and from “1” to “0” are extracted (step 12), which is the gripping position. The gripping position set here is for the cucumber K at the inspection position q, and is actually the cucumber K.
Although it is not relative to the take-out position r where the image is gripped, the image is conveyed from the inspection position q to the take-out position r by a preset distance, that is, the image is displayed on the right side of the screen so that the right end of the screen becomes the end position of the transfer conveyor 3. Assuming that the movement is parallel to the direction, the grip position for the cucumber K at the take-out position r is set.

[Other Embodiment] FIG. 5 shows another embodiment for setting the gripping position at the take-out position r based on the imaged image at the inspection position q. That is, the image end t located on the rightmost side (the end side of the transport conveyor 3) in the image area of the cucumber K at the inspection position q is identified, and then this cucumber K is located at the predetermined position on the end side of the transport conveyor 3. When it is detected by the photoelectric sensor 8 including the light emitting portion and the light receiving portion provided therein, when the conveyance is stopped, the image end portion t is located at the detection position of the photoelectric sensor 8, and therefore the reference is used as the reference. As a result, the holding arm 5 can be operated with respect to the holding position kp determined as described above.

In the above embodiment, the case where the long object K is a fruit or vegetable such as curie has been described, but the object is not limited to the fruit and vegetable, and various objects can be targeted.

In the above embodiment, the gripping means 6 is a holding robot which holds the object K from both sides by the pair of holding arms 5. However, as the holding means, for example, a suction pad is provided on the tip side. A suction robot or the like may be used.

In the above embodiment, the gripping position set for the long object K at the center of gravity of the image area or in the vicinity thereof is along the direction intersecting the longitudinal direction of the long image area. In the state, the intersection point between the straight line passing through the center of gravity of the image area and the peripheral edge portion of the long image area in the lateral direction was obtained, but the grip position is not limited to this. For example, when the gripping means 6 is a suction robot, a predetermined range including the barycentric position of the image area can be set as the gripping position.

In the case of fruits and vegetables, the position of the center of gravity may be shifted by a set amount along the longitudinal direction to the side opposite to the stem side. That is, the tip side tends to be thicker than the stem side, and the density is high. It should be noted that this correction amount (deviation amount) may be set based on statistical processing of past harvested products.

In the above embodiment, the gripping position discriminating device is applied to the case where the inspected object K is transferred by the processing device for inspecting and selecting the object K. However, the gripping position discriminating device is not limited to this. It can be applied to various devices.

In the claims, the reference numerals are used to facilitate comparison with the drawings, but the present invention is not limited to the configuration shown in the attached drawings.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing the arrangement of the entire sorter.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a control configuration.

FIG. 3 is a control flowchart.

FIG. 4 is a diagram of an image pickup screen for explaining length determination and grip position determination.

FIG. 5 is a plan view showing a carrying device according to another embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

 K Object 6 Gripping Means S Imaging Means 100 Area Extracting Means 101 Position Setting Means 5 Clamping Arms 3 Transfer Device

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A gripping position discriminating apparatus for discriminating a gripping position for gripping a long object (K) located at a predetermined position by a gripping means (6), and imaging the object (K). Image pickup means (S), an area extraction means (100) for extracting an image area corresponding to the object (K) based on the image pickup information of the image pickup means (S), and an image of the area extraction means (100) Based on the area information,
A grip position determining device provided with position setting means (101) for setting a grip position for the object (K) at a barycentric position of an image area corresponding to the object (K) or a position in the vicinity thereof. 2. The holding means (6) is configured to hold the object (K) from both sides by a pair of holding arms (5), and the position setting means (101) is configured to hold the object (K). A straight line passing through the position of the center of gravity of the long image area or a position in the vicinity of the long image area along a direction intersecting the longitudinal direction of the long image area, and the short direction of the long image area. 2. The gripping position discriminating device according to claim 1, wherein both intersections with the peripheral portion of the gripping position are set to gripping positions by the pair of arms (5). 3. The elongated object (K) is a fruit or vegetable, and the position setting means (101) defines the center position of the elongated image region in the lateral width direction of the elongated image region. Obtained at a plurality of locations in the vertical direction of the image area, and the direction of an approximate straight line obtained by connecting the center positions in the widthwise direction at a plurality of locations in the vertical direction is set to be the longitudinal direction of the elongated image area. The gripping position determination device according to claim 2, which is configured. 4. An object processing apparatus comprising the gripping position discriminating device according to claim 1, 2, or 3, wherein the object (K) is directed from a starting end side to a terminating end side in a receiving position, an inspection position, and a taking-out position. A transport device (3) for transporting in order of position is provided, the imaging means (S) is configured to capture an image of the object (K) transported to the inspection position, and the gripping means (6) is , The object to be inspected (K)
An object processing apparatus configured to grip and transport an object (K) that has been inspected (K) on the take-out position by gripping and transporting it from the object supply point to the receiving position.