A fruit intelligent detection device

Abstract

The present invention belongs to the technical field of intelligent fruit detection and sorting, and specifically relates to an intelligent fruit detection device, comprising a frame, a pear fruit grabbing mechanism, a first and second conveyor chains, and a detection mechanism. The pear fruit grabbing mechanism comprises four sprocket assemblies, wherein four upper sprockets are connected by an upper chain, and four lower sprockets are connected by a lower chain. A horizontal track is provided between the upper and lower chains, and a curved slideway is provided above or below the horizontal track, which is aligned with the horizontal track. Multiple gripper assemblies are slidably mounted on the curved slideway, and the curved slideway is a continuously transitioned closed-loop slideway with lower left and right sides and higher front and back sides. A pneumatic suction head is located directly above the first and second conveyor chains, and the pneumatic suction head sucks up the pears and delivers them to the detection mechanism for detection of their appearance quality. The present invention has unified detection standards, can achieve 360-degree continuous detection, and has high detection efficiency.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The invention belongs to the technical field of intelligent fruit detection and sorting, and particularly relates to intelligent fruit detection equipment. Background Art

[0002] When the pears are ripe, farmers transport the harvested pears to a purchasing station, where they are manually removed from the packaging, the stems are trimmed, and defective products are visually inspected for appearance. The pears are then repacked, boxed, and weighed, and sorted. Finally, the sealed boxes are transported to cold storage. This manual operation presents the following problems: 1. It relies entirely on manual experience, responsibility, and frequency of action. This subjective factor leads to inconsistent standards for evaluating appearance defects, resulting in significant deviations during boxing, impacting product prices and customer satisfaction. 2. The sorting and boxing process requires the participation of farmers, operators, and appraisers, consuming significant labor and time costs and resulting in low overall efficiency.

[0003] Some existing intelligent sorting equipment can greatly improve the efficiency of fruit sorting, but machine sorting is generally relatively violent. It can be used for fruits that are relatively resistant to damage, such as apples and citrus, but it is not suitable for pears that are relatively fragile.

[0004] Manual inspection of the appearance quality of pears is inefficient and has inconsistent inspection standards. Existing technologies for inspecting apples and citrus fruits typically involve placing the fruit on a conveyor line or tray and photographing it flat. The photos are then used to analyze defects in the fruit. However, 360-degree photography of the fruit is not possible, making it difficult to photograph the bottom of the fruit. Consequently, intelligent appearance inspection through photography still suffers from inaccuracies. Summary of the Invention

[0005] The purpose of the present invention is to provide a fruit intelligent detection device that can continuously detect the appearance of pears in 360° all-round manner and has high detection efficiency to address the defect of low efficiency of manual sorting of pears with delicate and crisp appearance.

[0006] The technical solution adopted by the present invention to solve its technical problem is:

[0007] A fruit intelligent detection device is characterized in that it includes a frame, a pear fruit grabbing mechanism installed on the frame, a first conveyor chain and a second conveyor chain respectively arranged on the left and right sides of the pear fruit grabbing mechanism, and a detection mechanism installed at the front end of the pear fruit grabbing mechanism; the pear fruit grabbing mechanism includes four sprocket assemblies arranged in a square, the sprocket assembly includes an upper sprocket and a lower sprocket arranged coaxially, the four upper sprockets are connected by an upper chain, the four lower sprockets are connected by a lower chain, a horizontal track is provided between the upper chain and the lower chain, and a curved slideway with the same direction as the horizontal track is provided above or below the horizontal track; a Multiple gripper assemblies, the gripper assemblies include: a mounting plate whose two ends are respectively fixed on the upper chain and the lower chain, a guide rod slidably connected to the mounting plate in the vertical direction, a first slider fixedly connected to the guide rod and slidably connected to the curved slide, and a pneumatic suction head installed at the lower end of the guide rod for sucking up pears; the mounting plate is slidably connected to the horizontal track; the curved slide is a closed-loop slide with continuous transition that is low on the left and right sides and high on the front and back sides; the pneumatic suction head is located directly above the first conveyor chain and the second conveyor chain, and the pneumatic suction head sucks up the pears and sends them to the detection mechanism to detect the appearance quality of the pears.

[0008] Furthermore, it also includes a driving motor installed at the rear end of the frame and a first sprocket connected to the output shaft of the driving motor; the lower sprockets of the two sprocket assemblies located at the rear end of the driving frame are coaxially connected to the second sprocket through a rotating shaft; the first sprocket is respectively connected to the second sprockets of the two sprocket assemblies located at the rear end of the frame through a chain.

[0009] Furthermore, a third sprocket is connected between the first sprocket and the second sprocket via a chain.

[0010] Furthermore, a driving bevel gear is connected to the output shaft of the driving motor, and a first driven bevel gear and a second driven bevel gear are respectively engaged on the left and right sides of the driving bevel gear. The first driven bevel gear drives the first conveying chain, and the second driven bevel gear drives the second conveying chain.

[0011] Furthermore, the first conveyor chain and the second conveyor chain are both provided with a plurality of evenly distributed positioning blocks for positioning the trays containing the pears.

[0012] Furthermore, the detection mechanism includes a detection box, which is equipped with four surrounding camera devices for detecting the front, back, left, and right sides of the pear fruit and a bottom camera device for detecting the lower part of the pear fruit.

[0013] Furthermore, the upper surface of the detection box is provided with a channel for the suction head or the guide rod to pass through.

[0014] Furthermore, a vertical slide rail is fixed on the mounting plate, a second slider is slidably connected to the vertical slide rail, and the guide rod is fixedly connected to the second slider.

[0015] Furthermore, the rear end of the second conveyor chain is provided with a tray conveyor device, and the tray with the pears placed thereon naturally falls onto the positioning block on the conveyor chain of the second conveyor chain wound around the sprocket through the tray conveyor device and is then transported forward.

[0016] Furthermore, the tray conveying device is provided with a top photographing device for monitoring the tops of the pears.

[0017] The beneficial effects of the fruit intelligent detection device of the present invention are:

[0018] The gripper assembly is forced to rise and fall along a curved slideway, allowing the pneumatic suction head to descend toward the pear, pick it up, and then rise to the inspection mechanism to capture images of the pear's top, bottom, and sides. This completes the process of capturing images from all five angles of the pear. The images are then transmitted to the control system, combined with images taken of the pear's top before it enters the inspection equipment. The control system then analyzes the pear's appearance and sorts out defective items. Unified inspection standards enable continuous, 360-degree inspection, resulting in high efficiency.

[0019] A driving motor simultaneously drives the second conveyor chain moving forward and the first conveyor chain moving backward after the inspection is completed, and the driving motor simultaneously drives the sprocket assembly to move, ensuring that there is a pneumatic suction head above each tray. The pneumatic suction head and the tray always maintain a one-to-one correspondence, and the pneumatic suction head will not fail to attract the pears when moving downward, or fail to place the pears on the tray when they are put down.

[0020] The pears are placed on a tray before entering the inspection device of the present application. When entering the second conveyor chain, the tray naturally falls onto the positioning block and moves forward through the rotation of the conveyor chain. During the entire inspection process, no hard parts touch the pears, and no damage is caused to the pears. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0021] The present invention will be further described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings and specific embodiments.

[0022] Figure 1 This is a three-dimensional structural diagram of an embodiment of the present invention;

[0023] Figure 2 This is a front view of an embodiment of the present invention;

[0024] Figure 3 is a top view of an embodiment of the present invention;

[0025] Figure 4 yes Figure 1 Enlarged view of part A in the middle;

[0026] Figure 5 yes Figure 1 Enlarged view of middle part B;

[0027] Figure 6 It is a partial structural diagram of an embodiment of the present invention;

[0028] Figure 7 This is a driving principle diagram of an embodiment of the present invention;

[0029] Figure 8 It is a structural diagram of the detection box according to an embodiment of the present invention.

[0030] In the figure: 1. frame, 2. first conveyor chain, 3. second conveyor chain, 5. upper sprocket, 6. lower sprocket, 7. upper chain, 8. lower chain, 9. horizontal track, 10. curved slide, 11. mounting plate, 12. guide rod, 13. first slider, 14. pneumatic suction head, 15. drive motor, 16. first sprocket, 17. second sprocket, 18. pallet, 19. vertical slide rail, 20. second slider, 21. pallet conveyor, 22. inspection box, 221. channel, 23. surrounding photography equipment, 24. bottom photography equipment, 25. pear, 26. gas distribution system, 27. third sprocket, 28. driving bevel gear, 29. first driven bevel gear, 30. second driven bevel gear, 31. positioning block. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0031] The present invention will now be described in further detail with reference to the accompanying drawings, which are simplified schematic diagrams that illustrate the basic structure of the present invention in a schematic manner.

[0032] like Figures 1-8 A specific embodiment of the fruit intelligent detection equipment of the present invention is shown. In this embodiment, the pear fruit 25 is transported on the second conveyor chain 3 toward the detection mechanism as the front, and after the detection is completed, it is placed on the first conveyor chain 2 and transported away from the detection mechanism as the back. The so-called "front", "back", "left" and "right" are only for the convenience of understanding the technical solution. The technical solution that can achieve the technical effect of this application by changing the direction of each component should also be within the scope of protection of the present invention.

[0033] In this embodiment, pears 25 are used as an example. The technical solution of the present application is also applicable to fruits similar in appearance to pears, such as apples, tangerines, grapefruits, oranges, etc. that can be sucked up by the pneumatic suction head 14. The solution of the present application is also applicable to the detection of other fruits besides pears.

[0034] See also Figure 1-8The fruit intelligent detection equipment includes a frame 1, a pear fruit grabbing mechanism installed on the frame 1, a first conveyor chain 2 and a second conveyor chain 3 respectively arranged on the left and right sides of the pear fruit grabbing mechanism, and a detection mechanism installed at the front end of the pear fruit grabbing mechanism; the pear fruit grabbing mechanism includes four sprocket assemblies arranged in a square, the sprocket assembly includes an upper sprocket 5 and a lower sprocket 6 arranged coaxially, the four upper sprockets 5 are connected by an upper chain 7, and the four lower sprockets 6 are connected by a lower chain 8, a horizontal track 9 is provided between the upper chain 7 and the lower chain 8, and a curved slide 10 with the same direction as the horizontal track 9 is provided above or below the horizontal track 9; a plurality of gripper assemblies are slidably installed on the curved slide 10 The gripper assembly includes: a mounting plate 11 whose two ends are respectively fixed on the upper chain 7 and the lower chain 8, a guide rod 12 slidably connected to the mounting plate 11 in the vertical direction, a first slider 13 fixedly connected to the guide rod 12 and slidably connected to the curved slide 10, and a pneumatic suction head 14 installed at the lower end of the guide rod 12 for sucking up the pear fruit 25; the mounting plate 11 is slidably connected to the horizontal track 9; the curved slide 10 is a closed-loop slide with a continuous transition that is low on the left and right sides and high on the front and back sides; the pneumatic suction head 14 is located directly above the first conveyor chain 2 and the second conveyor chain 3. The pneumatic suction head 14 sucks up the pear fruit 25 and sends it to the inspection mechanism to inspect the appearance quality of the pear fruit 25.

[0035] See also Figure 1 、 Figure 2 、 Figure 3 、 Figure 6 and Figure 7 The first conveyor chain 2, the second conveyor chain 3 and the pear fruit grabbing mechanism are all driven by the same drive motor 15, and the drive motor 15 is installed at the rear end of the frame 1 through a bracket. The first sprocket 16 and the active bevel gear 28 are coaxially mounted on the output shaft of the drive motor 15. The lower sprocket 6 of the two sprocket assemblies at the rear end of the frame 1 is coaxially connected to the second sprocket 17 through a rotating shaft; a third sprocket 27 for guiding the chain is also provided between the first sprocket 16 and the second sprocket 17. The first sprocket 16 is respectively connected to the second sprockets 17 on both sides by chains, and the third sprocket 27 is connected to the chain between the first sprocket 16 and the second sprocket 17.

[0036] The left and right sides of the driving bevel gear 28 are respectively engaged with the first driven bevel gear 29 and the second driven bevel gear 30. The first driven bevel gear 29 is coaxially connected to the drive sprocket of the first conveyor chain 2; the second driven bevel gear 30 is coaxially connected to the drive sprocket of the second conveyor chain 3. The first driven bevel gear 29 and the second driven bevel gear 30 have opposite rotation directions, so the first conveyor chain 2 conveys from front to back, and the second conveyor chain 3 conveys from back to front and they convey synchronously.

[0037] See also Figure 4The rear end of the second conveyor chain 3 is provided with a tray conveyor device 21. The tray 18 with the pears 25 placed thereon naturally falls through the tray conveyor device 21 onto the positioning block 31 on the conveyor chain wound on the sprocket at the front end of the second conveyor chain 3 and is then transported forward. Both the first conveyor chain 2 and the second conveyor chain 3 are provided with a plurality of evenly distributed positioning blocks 31 for positioning the tray 18 containing the pears 25. When the tray 18 enters the second conveyor chain 3, as the positioning block 31 on the conveyor chain wound on the driving sprocket of the second conveyor chain 3 rotates upward, the positioning block 31 naturally clamps the tray 18 on the tray conveyor device 21. As the positioning block 31 continues to rotate upward, it drives the tray 18 to the horizontal backward conveying section of the conveyor chain. The detection equipment is automatically connected to the other previous processes through the tray conveyor device 21.

[0038] See also Figure 5 , both ends of the mounting plate 11 are fixedly connected to the upper chain 7 and the lower chain 8, a vertical slide rail 19 is fixed on the mounting plate 11, and a second slider 20 is slidably connected to the vertical slide rail 19, the guide rod 12 is fixedly connected to the second slider 20, the upper end of the guide rod 12 is fixedly connected to the first slider 13, the first slider 13 is slidably connected to the curved slide 10 through two V-shaped nylon guide wheels, and the second slider 20 is slidably connected to the horizontal rail 9 through two V-shaped nylon guide wheels. The curved slides 10 on the left and right sides are parallel to the first conveyor chain 2 and the second conveyor chain 3. In order to realize the suction and placement of fruits on the conveyor chain, the left and right sections of the curved slide 10 are lower, the front section and the rear section are higher, and the higher section of the curved slide 10 and the lower section of the curved slide 10 have a natural arc transition.

[0039] See also Figure 8 The inspection mechanism is an inspection box 22 located at the front end of the frame 1. Within the inspection box 22 are four perimeter cameras 23 for inspecting the front, back, left, and right sides of the pear fruit 25, as well as a bottom camera 24 for inspecting the lower portion of the pear fruit 25. The upper surface of the inspection box 22 has a passage 221 for the suction head or guide rod 12 to pass through. In this embodiment, a perimeter camera 23 is positioned at each of the four corners of the inspection box 22, and a bottom camera 24 for upward-facing photography is positioned at the bottom of the inspection box 22. This allows for full-scale image capture of the fruit from five directions. Before entering the inspection device of this application, the fruit is always facing up, and a top camera captures the top appearance of the fruit. These six images of the fruit's appearance are transmitted to a controller, which overlays and compares the images to identify fruit with appearance defects. A top camera can be installed on the tray conveyor 21 to monitor the top of the pear fruit 25.

[0040] The air distribution system 26 is arranged on the top of the rack 1. The air distribution system 26 adopts 28-way integrated air distribution slip rings, which just correspond to 28 sets of pneumatic suction heads 14, and can realize the appearance inspection of 6 pears per second.

[0041] The specific working process of the present invention is:

[0042] The tray 18 with the pears 25 is transported to the tray conveyor 21, and the positioning block 31 lifts the trays 18 one by one to the second conveyor chain 3. As the pneumatic suction head 14 descends along the curved slide 10, the pneumatic suction head 14 sucks up the pears 25 and continues to move forward. The pneumatic suction head 14 with the pears 25 is transported to the inspection box 22 at the front end of the frame 1 and rises along the curved slide 10. The guide rod 12 passes through the slide in the middle of the inspection box 22. At this time, the surrounding camera equipment 23 and the bottom camera equipment 24 take pictures of the pears 25 and send the collected images to the controller. The pneumatic suction head 14 moves along the curved slide 10 to the top of the first conveyor chain 2 and then gradually descends. After the pneumatic suction head 14 descends to a certain height, the pears 25 are released, and the pears 25 naturally fall onto the tray 18 on the first conveyor chain 2. The inspected pears 25 are transported to the next process through the first conveyor chain 2.

[0043] In this embodiment, a driving motor 15 is used to simultaneously drive the second conveyor chain 3 moving forward and the first conveyor chain 2 transporting backward after the inspection is completed. The driving motor 15 also drives the sprocket assembly to move, ensuring that there is a pneumatic suction head 14 above each tray 18. The pneumatic suction head 14 and the tray 18 always maintain a one-to-one correspondence, and there will be no phenomenon that the pneumatic suction head 14 fails to attract the pears 25 when moving downward, or fails to place the pears 25 on the tray 18 when putting them down. The pears 25 are placed on the tray 18 before entering the inspection equipment of this application. When entering the second conveyor chain 3, they naturally fall onto the positioning block 31 and move forward through the rotation of the conveyor chain. During the entire inspection process, no hard parts come into contact with the pears 25, and no damage is caused to the pears 25.

[0044] The embodiment of the present invention uses image comparison and analysis for detection, has a unified detection standard, can achieve 360-degree continuous detection in all directions, and has high detection efficiency.

[0045] It should be understood that the specific embodiments described above are only used to explain the present invention and are not intended to limit the present invention. Obvious changes or modifications derived from the spirit of the present invention are still within the scope of protection of the present invention.

Claims

1. A fruit intelligent detection device, characterized by: The invention comprises a frame (1), a pear fruit grabbing mechanism installed on the frame (1), a first conveying chain (2) and a second conveying chain (3) respectively arranged on the left and right sides of the pear fruit grabbing mechanism, and a detection mechanism installed at the front end of the pear fruit grabbing mechanism; the pear fruit grabbing mechanism comprises four sprocket assemblies arranged in a square, the sprocket assembly comprises an upper sprocket (5) and a lower sprocket (6) arranged coaxially, the four upper sprockets (5) are connected by an upper chain (7), the four lower sprockets (6) are connected by a lower chain (8), a horizontal track (9) is provided between the upper chain (7) and the lower chain (8), and a curved slideway (10) having the same direction as the horizontal track (9) is provided above or below the horizontal track (9); a plurality of gripper assemblies are slidably installed on the curved slideway (10), and the gripper assemblies comprise: a plurality of gripper assemblies respectively arranged at two ends; ... A mounting plate (11) fixed on the upper chain (7) and the lower chain (8), a guide rod (12) slidably connected to the mounting plate (11) in a vertical direction, a first slider (13) fixedly connected to the guide rod (12) and slidably connected to the curved slideway (10), and a pneumatic suction head (14) mounted at the lower end of the guide rod (12) for sucking up the pear fruit (25); the mounting plate (11) is slidably connected to the horizontal track (9); the curved slideway (10) is a closed-loop slideway with a continuous transition, which is low on the left and right sides and high on the front and back sides; the pneumatic suction head (14) is located directly above the first conveyor chain (2) and the second conveyor chain (3); the pneumatic suction head (14) sucks up the pear fruit (25) and sends it to the detection mechanism to detect the appearance quality of the pear fruit (25); The fruit intelligent detection device further comprises a driving motor (15) mounted at the rear end of the frame (1) and a first sprocket (16) connected to the output shaft of the driving motor (15); the lower sprockets (6) of the two sprocket assemblies located at the rear end of the frame (1) are coaxially connected to the second sprocket (17) via a rotating shaft; the first sprocket (16) is respectively connected to the two second sprockets (17) located at the rear end of the frame (1) via chains; and a plurality of evenly distributed positioning blocks (31) for positioning a tray (18) containing pears (25) are provided on the first conveyor chain (2) and the second conveyor chain (3).

2. The fruit intelligent detection device according to claim 1, characterized in that: A third sprocket (27) is also connected between the first sprocket (16) and the second sprocket (17) via a chain.

3. The fruit intelligent detection device according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that: An active bevel gear (28) is connected to the output shaft of the driving motor (15), and a first driven bevel gear (29) and a second driven bevel gear (30) are respectively engaged on the left and right sides of the active bevel gear (28), the first driven bevel gear (29) drives the first conveying chain (2), and the second driven bevel gear (30) drives the second conveying chain (3).

4. The fruit intelligent detection device according to claim 1, characterized in that: The detection mechanism comprises a detection box (22), wherein the detection box (22) is provided with four peripheral camera devices (23) for detecting the front, back, left, and right sides of the pear fruit (25) and a bottom camera device (24) for detecting the lower part of the pear fruit (25).

5. The fruit intelligent detection device according to claim 4, characterized in that: The upper surface of the detection box (22) is provided with a channel (221) for the pneumatic suction head (14) or the guide rod (12) to pass through.

6. The intelligent fruit detection device according to claim 1, characterized in that: A vertical slide rail (19) is fixed on the mounting plate (11), a second slide block (20) is slidably connected to the vertical slide rail (19), and the guide rod (12) is fixedly connected to the second slide block (20).

7. The fruit intelligent detection device according to claim 1, characterized in that: The rear end of the second conveyor chain (3) is provided with a tray conveyor device (21), and the tray (18) on which the pears (25) are placed naturally falls onto the positioning block (31) on the second conveyor chain (3) wound around the sprocket through the tray conveyor device (21) and is then transported forward.

8. The intelligent fruit detection device according to claim 7, characterized in that: The tray conveying device (21) is provided with a top photographing device for monitoring the top of the pear fruit (25).

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