Automatic paper file sorting device, method and system

Abstract

The invention relates to the technical field of paper file sorting and sorting, in particular to an automatic paper file sorting device, method and system.The automatic paper file sorting device comprises a paper feeding unit, a conveying and sorting unit, a paper discharging unit and a control unit; linkage control over a paper feeding unit (a paper rubbing mechanism and a scanning mechanism), a conveying and sorting unit (a main conveying mechanism, an auxiliary conveying mechanism and a shifting mechanism) and a paper discharging unit is achieved through a control unit. According to a preset sorting rule, effective content, namely key information needed by sorting, on a scanned paper file is extracted for operation, a sorting instruction is obtained, then, a main conveying mechanism, an auxiliary conveying mechanism and a stirring mechanism are controlled to carry out sorting adjustment, the paper files are arranged on the main conveying mechanism after being adjusted according to the sorting instruction, and then the paper files are sent to the main conveying mechanism. The automatic sorting of the paper files is realized, the labor cost is low, and the efficiency and the accuracy rate are relatively high.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The present invention relates to the technical field of paper document sorting, and in particular to a device, method and system for automatically sorting paper documents. Background Art

[0002] Sorting and organizing paper documents, such as files, archives, and papers, is a common task across various industries. For example, in archiving, binding publications, compiling examination papers, and counting banknotes by serial number, large numbers of unorganized paper documents need to be sorted into ascending (smallest to largest), descending (largest to smallest), or other ordering requirements. Currently, these tasks are primarily performed manually, which is costly, inefficient, and inaccurate when dealing with large volumes of documents. Summary of the Invention

[0003] The present invention provides an automatic paper document sorting device, method and system to solve the defects of the prior art of relying on manual sorting of a large number of disordered paper documents, which has high cost, low efficiency and poor accuracy, and realizes mechanized automatic sorting of paper documents.

[0004] The present invention provides an automatic sorting device for paper documents, comprising a paper feed unit, a transport sorting unit, a paper output unit and a control unit. The paper feed unit comprises a paper feed box, the paper feed box is provided with a first paper feed port and a first paper output port, the first paper feed port is provided with a paper feeding mechanism, the first paper output port is provided with a scanning mechanism, a paper transfer channel is formed between the first paper feed port and the first paper output port, and the paper feed channel is suitable for feeding the paper documents entering the first paper feed port page by page into the scanning mechanism for scanning to generate a scanned copy through the paper feeding mechanism, and outputting the paper documents through the first paper output port.

[0005] The conveying and sorting unit includes a main conveying mechanism, at least one auxiliary conveying mechanism and a toggle mechanism. The main conveying mechanism is located below the first paper outlet. A plurality of sorting boxes are movably provided on the main conveying mechanism. The sorting boxes are used to receive paper documents output from the first paper outlet and transmit them on the main conveying mechanism. The toggle mechanism is used to toggle the sorting boxes so that the sorting boxes can be switched between the main conveying mechanism and the auxiliary conveying mechanism.

[0006] The paper discharge unit is arranged at the turning end portion of the main conveying mechanism, and is used for receiving the paper documents in the sorting box on the main conveying mechanism.

[0007] The control unit is electrically connected to the paper feeding unit, the transmission sorting unit and the paper discharging unit respectively. The control unit is used to receive the scanned paper documents generated by the paper feeding unit to obtain the sorting information of the paper documents, and control the transmission sorting unit to sort the paper documents based on preset sorting rules, and at the same time control the paper discharging unit to receive the sorted paper documents.

[0008] According to an automatic sorting device for paper documents provided by the present invention, the main conveying mechanism includes a main conveyor belt, and the auxiliary conveying mechanism includes a first auxiliary conveyor belt and a second auxiliary conveyor belt. The first auxiliary conveyor belt and the second auxiliary conveyor belt are parallel to the main conveyor belt and are respectively located on both sides of the main conveyor belt. The first auxiliary conveyor belt has the same conveying direction as the main conveyor belt, and the second auxiliary conveyor belt has an opposite conveying direction to the main conveyor belt.

[0009] The toggle mechanism includes a plurality of telescopic push rods. The first secondary conveyor belt and the second secondary conveyor belt are respectively arranged in parallel on one side away from the main conveyor belt. The telescopic push rods are suitable for extending toward or away from the main conveyor belt to push the sorting box to switch between the main conveying mechanism and the secondary conveying mechanism.

[0010] According to an automatic paper document sorting device provided by the present invention, a plurality of insulating positioning strips are arranged in parallel and spaced apart along the conveying direction on the main conveyor belt, the first auxiliary conveyor belt and the second auxiliary conveyor belt, and an electromagnet is fixed between two adjacent insulating positioning strips.

[0011] The top of the sorting box is open, and a magnetic base is provided at the bottom of the sorting box. The sorting box is adsorbed on the electromagnet through the magnetic base.

[0012] According to an automatic paper document sorting device provided by the present invention, a plurality of T-shaped positioning strips are arranged in parallel and spaced apart along the conveying direction on the main conveyor belt, the first auxiliary conveyor belt and the second auxiliary conveyor belt, and a mortise and tenon groove is formed between two adjacent T-shaped positioning strips.

[0013] The top of the sorting box is open, and an inverted T-shaped base is provided at the bottom of the sorting box. The sorting box is movably connected to the mortise and tenon groove through the inverted T-shaped base.

[0014] According to an automatic sorting device for paper documents provided by the present invention, the transport sorting unit is arranged in a main body shell, the main body shell is provided with a second paper inlet and a second paper outlet, the paper feed box is fixed on the main body shell, and the first paper outlet is connected to the second paper inlet; the second paper outlet is located below the front end of the transport direction of the main transport mechanism.

[0015] The paper output unit includes a paper receiving box and a retractable paper receiving board. The paper receiving box is fixed to the side of the main body shell and is located below the second paper output port. The retractable paper receiving board is connected to the paper receiving box and passes through the second paper output port. The retractable paper receiving board extends toward the main conveying mechanism at an inclined angle.

[0016] According to an automatic paper document sorting device provided by the present invention, the paper pickup mechanism includes a paper pickup wheel, which is used to fit the surface of the paper document entering the first paper feed port and pick up the paper document entering the first paper feed port page by page into the scanning mechanism.

[0017] The scanning mechanism includes a shooting and imaging element, a storage module and a data transmission module electrically connected in sequence, the shooting and imaging element is used to generate a scanned copy of the paper document entering the first paper feed port, the storage module is used to store the scanned copy generated by the shooting and imaging element, and the data transmission module is used to transmit the scanned copy generated by the shooting and imaging element to the control unit.

[0018] According to an automatic paper document sorting device provided by the present invention, the control unit includes an identification and filtering module, an algorithm management module and an instruction control module. The identification and filtering module is electrically connected to the scanning mechanism to receive the paper document scans generated by the scanning mechanism and extract the information required for sorting on the paper document scans.

[0019] The algorithm management module is electrically connected to the identification and filtering module. The algorithm management module calculates and generates a sorting control instruction based on a preset sorting rule and information required for sorting on the scanned paper document extracted by the identification and filtering module.

[0020] The instruction control module is electrically connected to the algorithm management module, and the instruction control module controls the transmission sorting unit to execute the sorting instruction based on the sorting control instruction generated by the algorithm management module.

[0021] According to an automatic paper document sorting device provided by the present invention, the control unit also includes a simulation sorting module, which is electrically connected to the scanning mechanism and the algorithm management module. The simulation sorting module simulates the operation of the transmission sorting unit based on the initial order of all paper documents scanned by the scanning mechanism and the sorting control instructions of each paper document generated by the algorithm management module, obtains the most efficient sorting algorithm, and feeds it back to the algorithm management module.

[0022] The present invention also provides a method for automatically sorting paper documents, which is applicable to any of the above-mentioned automatic paper document sorting devices, and the method for automatically sorting paper documents includes: The paper feeding mechanism in the paper feeding unit feeds the paper documents entering the first paper feeding port page by page into the scanning mechanism, and the control unit controls the scanning mechanism to scan the paper documents and generate scanned copies; The control unit receives the scanned paper documents generated by the scanning mechanism to obtain sorting information of the scanned paper documents, and generates a sorting control instruction based on a preset sorting rule; The paper documents enter the main conveying mechanism of the conveying and sorting unit from the first paper outlet; The transport sorting unit controls the paper documents to switch positions between the main transport mechanism and the auxiliary transport mechanism based on the sorting control instruction generated by the control unit, so as to sort the paper documents; The sorted paper documents are transported to the paper output unit through the main transport mechanism, and the control unit controls the paper output unit to receive the sorted paper documents.

[0023] The present invention also provides an automatic paper document sorting system, comprising any one of the automatic paper document sorting devices described above, or executing the automatic paper document sorting method described above.

[0024] The automatic paper document sorting device, method and system provided by the present invention respectively realize linkage control of the paper feeding unit (paper feeding mechanism and scanning mechanism), the transmission sorting unit (main transmission mechanism, auxiliary transmission mechanism and toggle mechanism) and the paper discharging unit through the control unit. Based on the scanned paper document scanned by the scanning mechanism, the effective content on the scanned paper document, that is, the key information required for sorting, is extracted and calculated according to the preset sorting rules to obtain the sorting instruction. Then, the main transmission mechanism, auxiliary transmission mechanism and toggle mechanism are controlled to perform sorting adjustment, and the paper documents are arranged on the main transmission mechanism after adjustment according to the sorting instruction, and finally transmitted to the paper discharging unit, thereby realizing automatic sorting of paper documents with low labor cost and high efficiency and accuracy. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0025] In order to more clearly illustrate the technical solutions in the present invention or the prior art, a brief introduction is given below to the drawings required for use in the embodiments or the description of the prior art. Obviously, the drawings described below are some embodiments of the present invention. For ordinary technicians in this field, other drawings can be obtained based on these drawings without paying any creative work.

[0026] Figure 1 It is a structural schematic diagram of the automatic paper document sorting device provided by the present invention.

[0027] Figure 2 This is one of the schematic diagrams of the matching structure of the sorting box and the conveyor belt provided by the present invention.

[0028] Figure 3This is the second schematic diagram of the matching structure of the sorting box and the conveyor belt provided by the present invention.

[0029] Figure 4 It is a schematic diagram of the paper discharging process of the paper discharging unit provided by the present invention.

[0030] Figure 5 It is a schematic diagram of the process of the transmission sorting unit provided by the present invention exchanging the positions of two sorting boxes.

[0031] Figure 6 It is a schematic diagram of the operation simulation of the automatic paper document sorting device provided by the present invention executing the example algorithm 1.

[0032] Figure 7 It is a schematic diagram of the operation simulation of the automatic paper document sorting device provided by the present invention executing the example algorithm 2.

[0033] Figure 8 It is a schematic diagram of the operation simulation of the automatic paper document sorting device provided by the present invention executing instructions regardless of nodes.

[0034] Figure numerals: 1. Paper feed box; 101. First paper feed port; 102. First paper output port; 2. Main conveying mechanism; 201. Main conveyor belt; 3. Auxiliary conveying mechanism; 301. First auxiliary conveyor belt; 302. Second auxiliary conveyor belt; 4. Sorting box; 401. Magnetic base; 402. Inverted T-shaped base; 5. Telescopic push rod; 6. Insulating positioning strip; 7. Electromagnet; 8. T-shaped positioning strip; 9. Mortise and tenon groove; 10. Main body housing; 1001. Second paper feed port; 1002. Second paper output port; 11. Paper receiving box; 12. Telescopic receiving paper board; 13. Monitoring radar. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0035] To make the objectives, technical solutions, and advantages of the present invention more clear, the technical solutions of the present invention will be clearly and completely described below in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. Obviously, the embodiments described are only some embodiments of the present invention, not all embodiments. Based on the embodiments of the present invention, all other embodiments obtained by ordinary technicians in this field without making creative efforts shall fall within the scope of protection of the present invention.

[0036] In the description of the embodiments of the present invention, it should be noted that the terms "center", "longitudinal", "lateral", "up", "down", "front", "back", "left", "right", "vertical", "horizontal", "top", "bottom", "inside", "outside", etc., indicating the orientation or positional relationship, are based on the orientation or positional relationship shown in the accompanying drawings, and are only for the convenience of describing the embodiments of the present invention and simplifying the description, and do not indicate or imply that the device or element referred to must have a specific orientation, be constructed and operate in a specific orientation, and therefore should not be understood as limiting the embodiments of the present invention. In addition, the terms "first", "second", and "third" are used for descriptive purposes only and should not be understood as indicating or implying relative importance.

[0037] In the description of the embodiments of the present invention, it should be noted that, unless otherwise specified or limited, the terms "connected" and "connection" should be understood in a broad sense. For example, they can refer to fixed connections, detachable connections, or integral connections; mechanical connections, electrical connections; and direct connections or indirect connections through an intermediary. Those skilled in the art will understand the specific meanings of the above terms in the embodiments of the present invention based on the specific circumstances.

[0038] In the embodiments of the present invention, unless otherwise expressly specified or limited, a first feature being "above" or "below" a second feature may mean that the first and second features are in direct contact, or that the first and second features are in indirect contact through an intermediate medium. Furthermore, a first feature being "above," "above," or "above" a second feature may mean that the first feature is directly above or diagonally above the second feature, or simply means that the first feature is at a higher level than the second feature. A first feature being "below," "below," or "below" a second feature may mean that the first feature is directly below or diagonally below the second feature, or simply means that the first feature is at a lower level than the second feature.

[0039] In the description of this specification, the reference terms "one embodiment", "some embodiments", "example", "specific example", or "some examples" mean that the specific features, structures, materials or characteristics described in conjunction with the embodiment or example are included in at least one embodiment or example of the embodiment of the present invention. In this specification, the schematic representations of the above terms do not necessarily refer to the same embodiment or example. Moreover, the specific features, structures, materials or characteristics described can be combined in any one or more embodiments or examples in a suitable manner. In addition, those skilled in the art can combine and combine different embodiments or examples described in this specification and features of different embodiments or examples without contradiction.

[0040] The following combination Figures 1 to 8 The present invention describes an automatic paper document sorting device, method and system.

[0041] One embodiment of the present invention provides an automatic paper document sorting device, see Figure 1 As shown, the automatic paper document sorting device includes a paper feeding unit, a transport sorting unit, a paper discharging unit and a control unit.

[0042] The paper feeding unit of the automatic paper document sorting device includes a paper feeding box 1, which is provided with a first paper feeding port 101 and a first paper outlet 102. The first paper feeding port 101 is provided with a paper feeding mechanism, and the first paper outlet 102 is provided with a scanning mechanism. A paper transfer channel is formed between the first paper feeding port 101 and the first paper outlet 102, which is suitable for feeding the paper documents entering the first paper feeding port 101 page by page into the scanning mechanism for scanning to generate a scanned copy, and outputting the paper documents from the first paper outlet 102.

[0043] It is understood that the first paper inlet 101 of the paper feed tray 1 is used to place paper documents to be sorted. Paper documents placed in the first paper inlet 101 are fed page by page by the paper feed mechanism into the paper conveying channel, and then enter the scanning mechanism. The scanning mechanism, in coordination with the paper feed mechanism, scans the documents page by page, generates and caches the scanned copies, and transmits the scanned copies to the control unit. After the paper documents are scanned and the scanned copies are transmitted to the control unit, they enter the conveying and sorting unit through the first paper outlet 102.

[0044] The conveying and sorting unit of the automatic sorting device for paper documents includes a main conveying mechanism 2, at least one auxiliary conveying mechanism 3 and a toggle mechanism. The main conveying mechanism 2 is located below the first paper outlet 102. A plurality of sorting boxes 4 are movably arranged on the main conveying mechanism 2. The sorting boxes 4 are used to receive the paper documents output from the first paper outlet 102 and transmit them on the main conveying mechanism 2. The toggle mechanism is used to toggle the sorting boxes 4 so that the sorting boxes 4 can be switched between the main conveying mechanism 2 and the auxiliary conveying mechanism 3.

[0045] It is understandable that the paper documents output from the first paper outlet 102 of the paper feed box 1 will enter the sorting box 4 of the transport sorting unit page by page. To facilitate the analysis of the device principle, Figure 1 The proportion and spacing of the sorting boxes 4 are enlarged, and the number is reduced. In actual application, the sorting boxes 4 are produced according to the thickness that can accommodate one page of paper. The overall size of the hardware equipment is customized according to industry needs. It can realize the sorting of hundreds of pages of documents with the same size as common commercial printers.

[0046] The transport sorting unit is used to carry and move the sorting boxes. The main transport mechanism 2 runs from the paper feed box 1 to the paper discharge unit and has three functions: first, it moves the sorting boxes 4 along the direction of the conveyor belt so that the sorting boxes 4 are aligned with the first paper discharge port 102 one by one, allowing paper documents to enter each sorting box 4 page by page; second, it serves as a loading platform for exchanging the positions of the sorting boxes 4 when stationary; and third, it moves the sorting boxes 4 along the direction of the conveyor belt so that the documents in the sorting boxes 4 fall one by one into the paper discharge unit. The auxiliary transport mechanism 3 includes a conveyor belt that transmits in the same and opposite directions as the main transport mechanism 2. Its function is to move the sorting boxes along the direction of the conveyor belt and, by cooperating with the toggle mechanism, to exchange the positions of the sorting boxes 4 on the main transport mechanism 2, thereby achieving sorting on the main transport mechanism 2.

[0047] The paper discharge unit of the automatic sorting device for paper documents is arranged at the turning end of the main conveying mechanism 2. The turning end of the main conveying mechanism 2 refers to the position where the conveyor belt of the main conveying mechanism 2 wraps around the conveying shaft. The sorting box 4 rotates around the axis of the conveying shaft at this position, so that the paper documents in the sorting box 4 fall into the paper discharge unit. The paper discharge unit is used to receive the paper documents in the sorting box 4 after sorting on the main conveying mechanism 2.

[0048] The control unit of the automatic paper document sorting device is electrically connected to the paper feeding unit, the transmission sorting unit and the paper discharging unit respectively. The control unit is used to receive the scanned paper documents generated by the paper feeding unit to obtain the sorting information of the paper documents, and control the transmission sorting unit to sort the paper documents based on the preset sorting rules, and at the same time control the paper discharging unit to receive the sorted paper documents.

[0049] It can be understood that the automatic sorting device for paper documents in this embodiment realizes linkage control of the paper feeding unit (paper feeding mechanism and scanning mechanism), the transport sorting unit (main transport mechanism 2, auxiliary transport mechanism 3 and toggle mechanism), and the paper discharging unit through the control unit. Based on the scanned paper documents scanned by the scanning mechanism, the effective content on the scanned paper documents, that is, the key information required for sorting, is extracted and calculated according to the preset sorting rules to obtain the sorting instructions. Then, the main transport mechanism 2, the auxiliary transport mechanism 3 and the toggle mechanism are controlled to adjust the sorting, and the paper documents are arranged on the main transport mechanism 2 after adjustment according to the sorting instructions, and finally transported to the paper discharging unit, thereby realizing automatic sorting of paper documents with low labor costs and high efficiency and accuracy.

[0050] In some specific embodiments of the paper document automatic sorting device of the present invention, see Figure 1As shown, the main conveying mechanism 2 includes a main conveyor belt 201, and the sub-conveyor mechanism 3 includes a first sub-conveyor belt 301 and a second sub-conveyor belt 302. The first sub-conveyor belt 301 and the second sub-conveyor belt 302 are parallel to the main conveyor belt 201 and are respectively located on both sides of the main conveyor belt 201. The first sub-conveyor belt 301 has the same conveying direction as the main conveyor belt 201, and the second sub-conveyor belt 302 has an opposite conveying direction to the main conveyor belt 201.

[0051] It is understood that the conveying and sorting unit in this embodiment includes three conveying mechanisms, each of which includes two parallel conveying shafts and a conveyor belt wound around the two conveying shafts, forming a main conveyor belt 201, a first sub-conveyor belt 301, and a second sub-conveyor belt 302 arranged in parallel. The main conveyor belt 201 is centered, and the first sub-conveyor belt 301 and the second sub-conveyor belt 302 are arranged on either side of the main conveyor belt 201. The main conveyor belt 201 is driven from the paper feed unit to the paper discharge unit. The first sub-conveyor belt 301 and the main conveyor belt 201 have the same conveying direction, while the second sub-conveyor belt 302 has the opposite conveying direction. It is understood that the main conveyor belt 201, the first sub-conveyor belt 301, and the second sub-conveyor belt 302 are independently controlled to be in motion or stationary. Through the coordination of the operation and stationary of the three conveying mechanisms, and based on the toggle mechanism's push and switch of the sorting box 4 on different conveying mechanisms, the sorting of the sorting box 4 on the main conveyor belt 201 can be switched.

[0052] The toggle mechanism includes multiple telescopic push rods 5. Multiple telescopic push rods 5 are respectively arranged in parallel on the side of the first auxiliary conveyor belt 301 and the second auxiliary conveyor belt 302 away from the main conveyor belt 201. The telescopic push rods 5 are suitable for telescoping toward or away from the main conveyor belt 201 to push the sorting box 4 to switch between the main conveying mechanism 2 and the auxiliary conveying mechanism 3.

[0053] It can be understood that multiple telescopic push rods 5 are deployed on the outside of the first sub-conveyor belt 301 and the second sub-conveyor belt 302, and the telescopic push rods 5 are perpendicular to the direction of movement of the conveyor belts. The number of telescopic push rods 5 is consistent with the number of sorting boxes that can be accommodated above the conveyor belt and perpendicular to the ground. The telescopic push rods 5 can be controlled to retract by the control unit to push the sorting box 4 to move laterally between different conveyor belts along the retraction direction of the telescopic push rods 5. Based on the preset sorting rules and the sorting instructions of the control unit, the telescopic push rods 5 first push the sorting box 4 from the main conveyor belt 201 into the first sub-conveyor belt 301 or the second sub-conveyor belt 302, and then wait until the main conveyor belt 201 and the first sub-conveyor belt 301 or the second sub-conveyor belt 302 are misaligned to the appropriate position, and then push the sorting box 4 from the first sub-conveyor belt 301 or the second sub-conveyor belt 302 into the main conveyor belt 201, so as to achieve correct sorting of the sorting box 4 on the main conveyor belt 201.

[0054] The process of sorting paper documents by the conveyor sorting unit is the process of adjusting the position of the sorting box 4 through the coordination of the telescopic push rod 5 and the three conveyor belts. The telescopic push rod 5 pushes the sorting box 4 on the main conveyor belt 201 to a slot flush with it on the first auxiliary conveyor belt 301 or the second auxiliary conveyor belt 302, then moves the first auxiliary conveyor belt 301 or the second auxiliary conveyor belt 302 to the new position. The telescopic push rod 5 is used again to push the sorting box 4 on the first auxiliary conveyor belt 301 or the second auxiliary conveyor belt 302 back to the main conveyor belt 201. The specific sorting box to be moved, in which direction, and how many steps to move are determined by the control instructions generated by the control unit based on the scanned paper documents generated by the paper feed unit to obtain the sorting information of the paper documents, and automatically controlled after precise calculation based on preset sorting rules.

[0055] Taking the adjustment and exchange of the positions of the two sorting boxes 4 as an example, the coordination process of the telescopic push rod 5 and the three conveyor belts can be seen in Figure 5 As shown, Figure 5 The process of exchanging positions of two sorting boxes 4 on the main conveyor belt 201 is shown. Figure 5 The upper left corner of the figure shows the initial positions of the two sorting boxes 4 on the main conveyor belt 201. Figure 5 The upper right corner of the diagram shows that two sorting boxes 4 are pushed into the first secondary conveyor belt 301 and the second secondary conveyor belt 302 respectively by two telescopic push rods 5. Figure 5 The lower left corner of the diagram shows that the first secondary conveyor belt 301 and the second secondary conveyor belt 302 convey the sorting box 4 in opposite directions. Figure 5 The lower right corner of the diagram shows that two sorting boxes 4 are pushed from the first secondary conveyor belt 301 and the second secondary conveyor belt 302 into the main conveyor belt 201 by two telescopic push rods 5. Figure 5 The upper left corner shows the initial position and Figure 5 As can be seen from the final position shown in the lower right corner of , the positions of the two sorting boxes 4 on the main conveyor belt 201 are interchanged, that is, the desired sorting result is achieved.

[0056] The sorting box 4 should be able to be fixed on the main conveyor belt 201, the first auxiliary conveyor belt 301 and the second auxiliary conveyor belt 302 and move along with the conveyor belt, and can also move smoothly and accurately between different conveyor belts under the push of the telescopic push rod 5. Figure 2As shown, the main conveyor belt 201, the first auxiliary conveyor belt 301, and the second auxiliary conveyor belt 302 (hereinafter collectively referred to as the conveyor belts) are all provided with a plurality of insulating positioning strips 6 arranged parallel to and spaced apart from each other along the conveying direction. Electromagnets 7 are fixed between adjacent insulating positioning strips 6. The top of the sorting box 4 is open, and a magnetic base 401 is provided at the bottom of the sorting box 4. The sorting box 4 is attracted to the electromagnets 7 via the magnetic base 401.

[0057] It is understood that the matching structure of the sorting box 4 and the conveyor belt in this embodiment is a magnetic structure. The conveyor belt is separated by multiple parallel and spaced insulating positioning strips 6 to form multiple electromagnet slots. Each electromagnet slot is equipped with an electromagnet 7. The width of the electromagnet 7 is consistent with the thickness of the magnetic base 401 of the sorting box 4. The sorting box 4 can use a lightweight acrylic box body and an iron magnetic base 401, which has a low center of gravity and minimal friction with the paper. During installation, the sorting boxes 4 are placed one by one on the electromagnet 7 located on one side above the conveyor belt. Whether the electromagnet 7 is energized is controlled by the control unit software system. Each electromagnet 7 is independently powered on and off. When the sorting box 4 is required to be fixed to the conveyor belt, the relevant electromagnet 7 is energized to firmly attach the sorting box 4. When the sorting box 4 is required to be pushed to another conveyor belt by the telescopic push rod 5, the relevant electromagnet 7 is de-energized to ensure smooth movement. The magnetic structure of this embodiment has the advantage of being easy to disassemble and install, making it suitable for scenarios that require frequent cleaning and maintenance, as well as scenarios where sorting boxes 4 of different sizes need to be frequently replaced.

[0058] In other embodiments of the paper document automatic sorting device of the present invention, see Figure 3 As shown, multiple T-shaped positioning strips 8 are arranged parallel and spaced along the conveying direction on the main conveyor belt 201, the first auxiliary conveyor belt 301, and the second auxiliary conveyor belt 302. Mortise and tenon grooves 9 are formed between adjacent T-shaped positioning strips 8. The top of the sorting box 4 is open, and an inverted T-shaped base 402 is provided at the bottom of the sorting box 4. The sorting box 4 is movably engaged with the mortise and tenon grooves 9 via the inverted T-shaped base 402.

[0059] It is understood that the matching structure between the sorting box 4 and the conveyor belt in this embodiment is a mortise and tenon structure. The conveyor belt is separated by multiple parallel and spaced T-shaped positioning strips 8 to form a plurality of inverted T-shaped mortise and tenon grooves 9. The bottom of the sorting box 4 is provided with an inverted T-shaped base 402, which can be installed in an adapted manner with the mortise and tenon grooves 9. The sorting box 4 can be made of a lightweight acrylic box body and an iron inverted T-shaped base 402, which has a low center of gravity and minimal friction with the paper. During installation, the sorting box 4 can be deployed one by one in each mortise and tenon groove 9 on the conveyor belt through the inverted T-shaped base 402. The matching structure of the inverted T-shaped base 402 and the mortise and tenon groove 9 allows the sorting box 4 to be fixed to the conveyor belt and follow the movement of the conveyor belt, and can also be moved smoothly and accurately laterally between different conveyor belts under the push of the telescopic push rod 5.

[0060] In some embodiments of the paper document automatic sorting device of the present invention, see again Figure 1 As shown, the transport and sorting unit is disposed within a main housing 10, which is provided with a second paper inlet 1001 and a second paper outlet 1002. A paper feed tray 1 is fixed to the main housing 10, and the first paper outlet 102 communicates with the second paper inlet 1001. The second paper outlet 1002 is located below the front end of the main transport mechanism 2 in the transport direction. The paper outlet unit includes a paper delivery tray 11 and a retractable paper delivery plate 12. The paper delivery tray 11 is fixed to the side of the main housing 10 and is located below the second paper outlet 1002. The retractable paper delivery plate 12 is connected to the paper delivery tray 11 and extends through the second paper outlet 1002, extending at an inclined angle toward the main transport mechanism 2.

[0061] It is understood that the automatic paper document sorting device of this embodiment can form an automatic paper document sorting machine. The main body of the automatic paper document sorting machine is a main body housing 10. A second paper inlet 1001 is provided on the top of the main body housing 10. A paper feed box 1 is provided at the second paper inlet 1001. The first paper outlet 102 of the paper feed box 1 is connected to the second paper inlet 1001. Paper documents to be sorted are placed through the first paper inlet 101 of the paper feed box 1. After passing through the paper feeding mechanism and the scanning mechanism, they enter the conveying and sorting unit from the first paper outlet 102 and the second paper inlet 1001 for sorting. A second paper outlet 1002 is provided on the side of the main body housing 10. A paper outlet unit is provided at the second paper outlet 1002. After being sorted by the conveying and sorting unit, the paper documents are output from the second paper outlet 1002. The output paper documents are received by the retractable receiving cardboard 12 and fall into the receiving box 11.

[0062] See also Figure 4 As shown, Figure 4The diagram illustrates the process of discharging sorted paper documents. It is understood that after sorting is complete, the control unit controls the main conveyor belt 201 to drive and controls the retractable catch plate 12 to extend to receive the paper documents dropped from the sorting box 4 on the main conveyor belt 201. The angle formed by the retractable catch plate 12 and the sorting box 4 is such that the paper documents can slide out of the sorting box 4. When the sorting box 4 rotates along with the main conveyor belt 201 to the position of the retractable catch plate 12, the control unit controls the main conveyor belt 201 to pause for a period slightly longer than the time required for the documents to slide out. The control unit then controls the retractable catch plate 12 to retract, and the main conveyor belt 201 to start again. After the previously empty sorting box 4 rotates, the retractable catch plate 12 extends again to receive the next sorting box 4. This process is repeated until all paper documents have been discharged. The paper receiving tray 11 receives the sorted paper documents. The paper documents that slide out of the sorting box 4 are guided by the retractable catch plate 12 and slide into the paper receiving tray 11 in order from the second paper outlet 1002.

[0063] Furthermore, in some specific embodiments of the automatic paper document sorting device of the present invention, monitoring radars 13 are respectively installed on the inner wall of the main housing 10 at positions corresponding to one end of the main conveyor belt 201, the first auxiliary conveyor belt 301, and the second auxiliary conveyor belt 302. These three monitoring radars 13 are used to monitor the positions of the three conveyor belts. It is understood that alignment between the sorting box 4 and the paper inlet and outlet, and between the sorting box 4 and the conveyor belt slots, is necessary for the hardware device to function properly. Considering that even if the conveyor belt rotates as accurately as possible, there will always be slight errors. These errors will accumulate with the number of operations and may eventually be magnified to the point where the components are misaligned. Coupled with factors such as equipment wear, aging, and parts replacement, over- or under-rotation of the conveyor belt becomes an unavoidable problem. Therefore, this embodiment forms a mechanism for actively correcting errors through the monitoring radar 13, and monitors the degree of conveying deviation of the conveyor belt compared to the initial position (whether the sorting box 4 and the paper inlet and outlet, and the sorting box 4 and the conveyor belt slot can be aligned one by one during the conveying process) through the conveyor belt position monitoring radar (monitoring radar 13), records and feeds back to the control unit, and the control unit automatically analyzes and controls the conveyor belt that has deviated to complete the reset.

[0064] In some specific embodiments of the automatic sorting device for paper documents of the present invention, a paper transfer channel is formed between the first paper inlet 101 and the first paper outlet 102 of the paper feed box 1 of the paper feed unit, and the first paper inlet 101 is provided with a support plate. The paper documents to be sorted can be placed horizontally or obliquely on the support plate. The paper pickup mechanism in the paper feed box 1 includes a paper pickup wheel, which is used to fit the surface of the paper document entering the first paper inlet 101 and rotate the paper pickup wheel to pick up the paper document entering the first paper inlet 101 page by page into the scanning mechanism. The paper pickup wheel can be located above the paper document so as to pick up the paper from the top of the stacked paper documents. The paper pickup wheel can also be located on the support plate and at the bottom of the paper document so as to pick up the paper from the bottom of the stacked paper documents.

[0065] The scanning mechanism within the paper feed tray 1 includes a camera element, a storage module, and a data transmission module, all electrically connected in sequence. The camera element is used to generate scans of paper documents entering the first paper feed port 101. The camera element can be a camera device based on optical character recognition (OCR) or other imaging technologies. When a paper document enters the first paper feed port 101, the camera element captures the document's image and converts it into a digital scan. High-quality image capture is ensured by the OCR or other imaging technology. The storage module is used to store the scans generated by the camera element. Once the paper document is converted to digital format by the camera element, the scans are temporarily or permanently stored in the storage module, which can be a built-in flash memory, a hard drive, or other non-volatile storage medium. The data transmission module is used to transmit the scans generated by the camera element to a control unit. The data transmission module can be a computer, server, or other type of processing device. Data transmission can be achieved via a wired connection (such as USB, SATA, etc.) or a wireless connection (such as Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, etc.).

[0066] In some embodiments of the paper document automatic sorting device of the present invention, the control unit includes an identification and filtering module, an algorithm management module, and an instruction control module.

[0067] The control unit's recognition and filtering module is electrically connected to the scanning mechanism, receiving scanned paper documents generated by the scanning mechanism and extracting the information required for sorting from the scanned paper documents. This module provides scanned document recognition based on optical character recognition (OCR) technology. When the scanning mechanism in paper feed tray 1 transmits the scanned document to the control unit, the recognition and filtering module extracts the values ​​to be sorted from the scanned document according to pre-set rules and records the position of sorting box 4 corresponding to each value.

[0068] The recognition and filtering module presets corresponding recognition and filtering rules for the file content, numerical format, page size, and sorting requirements of each task scenario. Taking the publication binding task as an example, the sorting requirement is to sort in ascending order by the publication date. Therefore, it is necessary to set the OCR recognition area based on the publication size and the position where the date appears on the page. Then, according to the date format "XXXX year XX month XX day", the three Chinese characters "year", "month", and "day" can be used as the positioning points for OCR recognition to further narrow the range where key information appears. At the same time, since the dates are all Arabic numerals, when setting the filtering rule, characters other than Arabic numerals are excluded, which can effectively avoid misidentifying the number "1" as "l", "丨", "I", "Ⅰ", etc., which interfere with the recognition rate.

[0069] The algorithm management module of the control unit is electrically connected to the recognition and filtering module. The algorithm management module calculates and generates a sorting control instruction based on the preset sorting rule and the information required for sorting extracted from the scanned copy of the paper document by the recognition and filtering module. The algorithm management module converts the software algorithm into an instruction that can be executed by the hardware device. Specifically, based on the characteristics of the sorting algorithms of different preset sorting rules, the algorithm management module sets several hardware (paper feeding unit, transmission and sorting unit, paper output unit) operation nodes respectively. After calculating by nodes, the algorithm management module gives the goals that each hardware device should complete at each node and generates corresponding operation instructions, and each hardware device can execute the instructions sequentially by nodes.

[0070] The following takes a specific algorithm as an example to elaborate on the method of managing the algorithm by nodes. Suppose the task requirement is to sort a number of values to be sorted in ascending order. The method is as follows.

[0071] Example algorithm 1: Starting from the first value, compare the sizes of two adjacent values in turn. If the previous value is greater than the latter value, exchange their positions; otherwise, do not exchange. Repeat this process until the last value is compared. The algorithm management module takes the new queue obtained through the above process as the first node. Based on the queue formed by the first node, continue to start from the first value and repeat the above comparison and exchange process until a new queue is formed again as the second node. From the above process, it can be seen that the maximum value in the entire queue at the first node will be located at the last position, and the second largest value will be located at the penultimate position at the second node, and so on. Keep adding nodes until all values are arranged in the correct position. When using this algorithm, each time a node exists, the hardware device runs once. The hardware device is responsible for adjusting the state of the paper document to be sorted from the state of the previous node to the state of the next node. When the algorithm management module calculates that the positions of the values in the queue no longer change after a certain node, then this node is used as the final node for the hardware device to execute the task instruction for this time.

[0072] Example Algorithm 2: Let m be a variable and n be the number of files to be sorted. The algorithm management module determines the size of n. If n ≥ 8, m = 4; otherwise, m = 2. During execution, the algorithm management module divides n by m, retaining the integer portion as the increment Δ. It then marks the rank of each value in the queue as a natural number, 1, 2, 3, 4, ..., n. Starting with the value at position 1, sort it and all values ​​whose distance from it is an integer multiple of Δ in ascending order. This means sorting the values ​​at positions 1, 1+Δ, 1+2Δ, ..., and updating the positions until the newly obtained values ​​at positions 1, 1+Δ, 1+2Δ, ..., are already in ascending order. Then, starting with the value at position 2, sort it and all values ​​whose distance from it is an integer multiple of Δ in ascending order. This means sorting the values ​​at positions 2, 2+Δ, 2+2Δ, ..., and updating the positions until the newly obtained values ​​at positions 2, 2+Δ, 2+2Δ, ..., are already in ascending order. This process continues in this way until the last value, position n, has been sorted once. The resulting queue is used as the first node. Next, subtract 1 from the variable m and repeat the process based on the queue obtained at node 1, resulting in a new queue as the second node. This process continues in this way until m = 1, and the final round of processing is repeated. When using this algorithm, each hardware device runs once for each node. The hardware device is responsible for adjusting the paper documents to be sorted from the state of the previous node to the state of the next node. When the algorithm management module calculates m=1, the node obtained by this sorting is used as the final node for the hardware device to execute the task instruction.

[0073] The two example algorithms above are merely examples of how to construct the algorithm management module of this embodiment. They do not represent all compatible algorithms, nor do they necessarily represent the algorithms that will be used to solve actual tasks. In actual implementation, the algorithms to be stored can be selected based on the specific business needs. The algorithm management module does not limit the number of algorithms that can be stored, and any ascending, descending, or other sorting algorithms are compatible.

[0074] The control unit's instruction control module is electrically connected to the algorithm management module. Based on the sorting control instructions generated by the algorithm management module, the instruction control module controls the transmission sorting unit to execute the sorting instructions. The instruction control module is responsible for converting the hardware execution nodes of each algorithm in the algorithm management module into specific instructions for execution by the hardware device. Specifically, assume that the number of values ​​to be sorted is n, and the positions of each value in the queue are 1, 2, 3, ..., n, in order. At each node, the new queue generated by that node is compared with the old queue of the previous node to identify the positions that have changed compared to the old queue. These positions and the amount of change are marked using the (x, y) format. For example, if a value ranked 1 in the previous node moves to position 3 at the current node, it is recorded as (1, +2); if a value ranked 5 in the previous node moves to position 4 at the current node, it is recorded as (5, -1); and if a value ranked 6 in the previous node remains at position 6 at the current node, it is recorded as (6, 0). For the hardware, when y < 0, (x, y) means that the sorting box 4 at position x on the main conveyor 201 needs to be pushed to the first secondary conveyor 301 via the telescopic push rod 5. The first secondary conveyor 301 then moves y slots of sorting boxes 4. Finally, after ensuring that there are no other sorting boxes 4 at position x + y on the main conveyor 201, the telescopic push rod 5 is used to push the sorting box 4 back to the main conveyor 201. When y > 0, (x, y) means that the sorting box at position x on the main conveyor 201 needs to be pushed to the second secondary conveyor 302 via the telescopic push rod 5. The second secondary conveyor 302 then moves y slots of sorting boxes 4. Finally, after ensuring that there are no other sorting boxes 4 at position x + y on the main conveyor 201, the telescopic push rod 5 is used to push the sorting box 4 back to the main conveyor 201. When y = 0, the sorting box 4 at position x on the main conveyor 201 does not need to be moved at this node.

[0075] To achieve the above process, further methods are as follows.

[0076] Taking ascending sorting as an example, first, control the telescopic push rod 5 to push all the sorting boxes 4 with y < 0 from the main conveyor belt 201 to the first sub-conveyor belt 301, and push all the sorting boxes with y > 0 from the main conveyor belt 201 to the second sub-conveyor belt 302. The sorting box 4 with y = 0 remains on the main conveyor belt 201 and does not move. The above process is the first group of running instructions. Then, the non-zero y values ​​appearing in (x, y) of each sorting box of this node are sorted in ascending order according to the absolute value. If there are repeated absolute values, only one is retained. Suppose there are N non-zero and non-repeating absolute values, which are N in total, from small to large: |y1|, |y2|, |y3|, ..., |y N|. Finally, the control hardware device executes the remaining instructions in N steps. The second group of operating instructions is: when controlling the first sub-conveyor 301 and the second sub-conveyor 302, they move a distance of |y1| sorting boxes 4 in their respective running directions. After the movement is completed, all sorting boxes 4 on the first sub-conveyor 301 and the second sub-conveyor 302 whose absolute value of y is equal to |y1| are pushed to the main conveyor 201 through the telescopic push rod 5, and the other sorting boxes 4 are not processed; the third group of operating instructions is: when controlling the first sub-conveyor 301 and the second sub-conveyor 302, they move a distance of |y2|-|y1| sorting boxes 4 in their respective running directions. After the movement is completed, all sorting boxes 4 on the first sub-conveyor 301 and the second sub-conveyor 302 whose absolute value of y is equal to |y2| are pushed to the main conveyor 201 through the telescopic push rod 5. Conveyor belt 201, other sorting boxes are not processed; the fourth group of operation instructions is: control the first conveyor belt 301 and the second conveyor belt 302 to move the distance of |y3|-|y2| sorting boxes 4 in their respective running directions, and after the movement is completed, all sorting boxes 4 with the absolute value of y equal to |y3| on the first conveyor belt 301 and the second conveyor belt 302 are pushed to the main conveyor belt 201 through the telescopic push rod 5, and other sorting boxes are not processed; and so on, the distance the conveyor belt moves each time in the subsequent instructions is the distance of "the absolute value of the position equal to (the group number - 1)" minus "the absolute value of the position equal to (the group number - 2)", until the N+1th group of operation instructions is executed, that is, all the absolute values ​​of y are equal to |y N |The sorting box is pushed to the main conveyor belt 201. At this time, all the sorting boxes on the main conveyor belt 201 are moved to the position required by this node.

[0077] When all node instructions are completed, the sorting box has completed sorting on the main conveyor belt 201 according to the task requirements. The instruction control module automatically controls the main conveyor belt 201 to start, and coordinates the control of the retractable paper receiving plate 12, guiding the sorted paper documents through the retractable paper receiving plate 12 and sliding them into the paper receiving box 11 through the second paper outlet 1002.

[0078] In addition, in some specific examples, the command control module can also provide two one-key shortcut commands: reverse order and random shuffle.

[0079] When executing the reverse order instruction, the control unit controls the hardware device to swap the order of the first and last sorting boxes 4 in the queue to be sorted one by one. Assume that there are M queues to be sorted. The order of swapping is: the sorting boxes with positions 1 and M, the sorting boxes with positions 2 and M-1, and so on, until all the swaps are completed or only one sorting box remains.

[0080] When executing the random scramble command, the user can set a minimum scramble ratio according to production requirements. Suppose there are M queues to be sorted. First, the software system generates a random number ξ, which must satisfy 0<ξ<M, and then randomly generates ξ random numbers y1, y2, y3, ...y that also satisfy greater than 0 and less than M. ξ Then, the control hardware device will be equal to y1, y2, y3, ... y ξ After the movement is completed, a new random number is generated and the above process is repeated until the proportion of the sorting boxes 4 that are not in the initial position to the total sorting boxes 4 reaches the minimum scramble ratio set by the user.

[0081] Furthermore, in some embodiments of the automatic sorting device for paper documents of the present invention, the control unit also includes a simulation sorting module, which is electrically connected to the scanning mechanism and the algorithm management module. The simulation sorting module simulates the operation of the transmission sorting unit based on the initial order of all paper documents scanned by the scanning mechanism and the sorting control instructions for each paper document generated by the algorithm management module, obtains the most efficient sorting algorithm, and feeds it back to the algorithm management module.

[0082] It should be understood that this embodiment supports combining the initial order of the files to be sorted, the structural characteristics and functional logic of the hardware device through the simulation sorting module, simulates the operation of the hardware device according to the stored algorithm node, and automatically selects the most efficient sorting algorithm.

[0083] Taking the two example algorithms described above (Example Algorithm 1 and Example Algorithm 2) as an example, assume that there are 5 files to be sorted, numbered 6, 3, 11, 5, and 1, respectively, and they are required to be sorted in ascending order by number. The simulation sorting method is as follows (the present invention also supports descending sorting or other sorting types. Since the principles are the same, this embodiment only takes ascending order as an example. The present invention is not affected by the number of values ​​to be sorted. For the convenience of analyzing the method, this embodiment only takes 5 values ​​as an example).

[0084] Substituting the node partitioning method of example algorithm 1, we get the following process. For details, see Figure 6 shown.

[0085] First, compare [6, 3] and swap to get [3, 6, 11, 5, 1]; compare [6, 11] and do not swap; compare [11, 5] and swap to get [3, 6, 5, 11, 1]; compare [11, 1] and swap to get [3, 6, 5, 1, 11]. Therefore, [3, 6, 5, 1, 11] is the goal that the hardware device needs to achieve when running node one. Next, compare [3, 6] and do not swap; compare [6, 5] and swap to get [3, 5, 6, 1, 11]; compare [6, 1] and swap to get [3, 5, 1, 6, 11]; compare [6, 11] and do not swap. Therefore, [3, 5, 1, 6, 11] is the goal that the hardware device needs to achieve when running node two. Then, comparing [3, 5], no swap; comparing [5, 1], swapping yields [3, 1, 5, 6, 11]; comparing [5, 6], no swap; comparing [6, 11], no swap. Therefore, [3, 1, 5, 6, 11] is the target that the hardware device needs to achieve when running node three. Furthermore, comparing [3, 1], swapping yields [1, 3, 5, 6, 11]. Comparing [3, 5], no swap; comparing [5, 6], no swap; comparing [6, 11], no swap. Therefore, [1, 3, 5, 6, 11] is the target that node four needs to achieve. According to this method, there's no need to adjust the positions of the numbers after this node, indicating that the sorting is complete. Node four is the final node for the hardware device to execute the instructions for this task.

[0086] Based on the nodes of the example algorithm 1 obtained in the previous step, the following instructions are obtained according to the method described above for converting the hardware operation nodes of each algorithm into specific instructions for hardware devices to execute. Figure 6As shown, the initial queue is known to be [6, 3, 11, 5, 1], and the target queue of node one is [3, 6, 5, 1, 11]. The positions of the initial queue and their changes at node one can be marked as (1, +1), (2, -1), (3, +2), (4, -1), and (5, -1), respectively. The absolute values ​​of the non-zero changes after deduplication are sorted in ascending order as follows: 1, 2. Therefore, the first set of instructions for node one in example algorithm one is to control the telescopic push rod 5 to push the sorting box 4 with the value [3, 5, 1] ​​from the main conveyor belt 201 to the first secondary conveyor belt 301, and to push the sorting box 4 with the value [6, 11] from the main conveyor belt 201 to the second secondary conveyor belt 302. The second set of instructions is: first control the first and second sub-conveyor belts 301 and 302 to move in their respective running directions by the distance of one sorting box 4. After the movement is completed, the sorting box 4 with the value [3, 5, 1] ​​on the first sub-conveyor belt 301 and the value [6] on the second sub-conveyor belt 302 are pushed to the main conveyor belt 201 through the telescopic push rod 5. The other sorting boxes 4 are not processed. The third set of instructions is: first control the first and second sub-conveyor belts 301 and 302 to move in their respective running directions by the distance of 2-1=1 sorting box 4. After the movement is completed, the sorting box with the value

[11] on the second sub-conveyor belt 302 is pushed to the main conveyor belt 201 through the push rod. At this point, the hardware device has completed the task of the first node, and the sorting boxes have been rearranged on the main conveyor belt 201 in the order [3, 6, 5, 1, 11].

[0087] Given that the target queue of node 2 is [3, 5, 1, 6, 11], the positions of node 1 and their changes in node 2 can be marked as (1, 0), (2, +2), (3, -1), (4, -1), and (5, 0), respectively. The absolute values ​​of the non-zero changes after deduplication are sorted in ascending order as 1 and 2. Therefore, the first set of instructions for node 2 in example algorithm 1 is to control the telescopic push rod 5 to push the sorting box 4 with the value [5, 1] ​​from the main conveyor belt 201 to the first secondary conveyor belt 301, and to push the sorting box 4 with the value [6] from the main conveyor belt 201 to the second secondary conveyor belt 302. The second set of instructions is: first control the first and second sub-conveyor belts 301 and 302 to move in their respective running directions by the distance of one sorting box 4. After the movement is completed, the sorting box 4 with the value [5, 1] ​​on the first sub-conveyor belt 301 is pushed to the main conveyor belt 201 through the telescopic push rod 5. Other sorting boxes 4 are not processed. The third set of instructions is: first control the first and second sub-conveyor belts 301 and 302 to move in their respective running directions by the distance of 2-1=1 sorting box 4. After the movement is completed, the sorting box 4 with the value [6] on the second sub-conveyor belt 302 is pushed to the main conveyor belt 201 through the telescopic push rod 5. At this point, the hardware device has completed the task of the second node, and the sorting boxes 4 have been rearranged on the main conveyor belt 201 in the order [3, 5, 1, 6, 11].

[0088] Given that the target queue of node three is [3, 1, 5, 6, 11], the positions of node two and their changes in node three can be marked as (1, 0), (2, +1), (3, -1), (4, 0), and (5, 0) in order, where the absolute values ​​of the non-zero changes after deduplication are sorted in ascending order as: 1. Therefore, the first set of instructions for node three in example algorithm one is to control the telescopic push rod 5 to push the sorting box 4 with the value [5] from the main conveyor belt 201 to the first sub-conveyor belt 301, and to push the sorting box 4 with the value [1] from the main conveyor belt 201 to the second sub-conveyor belt 302. The second set of instructions is to first control the first sub-conveyor belt 301 and the second sub-conveyor belt 302 to move in their respective running directions by the distance of one sorting box 4. After the movement is completed, the sorting box 4 with the value [5] on the first sub-conveyor belt 301 and the value [1] on the second sub-conveyor belt 302 are pushed to the main conveyor belt 201 by the telescopic push rod 5. At this time, the hardware device has completed the task of the third node, and the sorting boxes 4 have been rearranged on the main conveyor belt 201 in the order of [3, 1, 5, 6, 11].

[0089] Given that the target queue of node 4 is [1, 3, 5, 6, 11], the positions of node 3 and their changes in node 4 can be marked as (1, +1), (2, -1), (3, 0), (4, 0), and (5, 0) in order. The absolute values ​​of the non-zero changes after deduplication are sorted in ascending order as follows: 1. Therefore, the first set of instructions for node 4 in the example algorithm 1 is: control the telescopic push rod 5 to push the sorting box 4 with the value [1] from the main conveyor belt 201 to the first sub-conveyor belt 301, and push the sorting box 4 with the value [3] from the main conveyor belt 201 to the second sub-conveyor belt 302. The second set of instructions is: first control the first sub-conveyor belt 301 and the second sub-conveyor belt 302 to move the distance of one sorting box 4 in their respective running directions. After the movement is completed, the sorting box 4 with the value [1] on the first sub-conveyor belt 301 and the value [3] on the second sub-conveyor belt 302 are pushed to the main conveyor belt 201 by the telescopic push rod 5. At this time, the hardware device has completed the task of the fourth node, that is, all sorting tasks, and the sorting boxes 4 have been rearranged on the main conveyor belt 201 in the order of [1, 3, 5, 6, 11].

[0090] Substituting the node partitioning method of example algorithm 2, we get the following process. For details, see Figure 7 shown.

[0091] First, the control unit determines that the number of values ​​n in the queue to be sorted [6, 3, 11, 5, 1] ​​is 5, so m=2. Then, starting from [6], all values ​​whose distance from it is 2 and an integer multiple of 2 are sorted in ascending order, that is, [6, 11, 1] is sorted in ascending order to obtain [1, 6, 11], where [1] is ranked 1, [6] is ranked 3, and

[11] is ranked 5. Then, starting from [3], all values ​​whose distance from it is 2 and an integer multiple of 2 are sorted in ascending order, that is, [3, 5] is sorted in ascending order to obtain [3, 5]. The ranking has not changed, where [3] is still ranked 2 and [5] is still ranked 4. Since the last value [1] in the queue has already participated in the sorting, the re-sorted values ​​are arranged in the new ranking order of 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 to form a new queue [1, 3, 6, 5, 11]. Then [1, 3, 6, 5, 11] is the goal that the hardware device needs to achieve when running node one. Then subtract 1 from m to get m=1, and repeat the above operation based on the queue [1, 3, 6, 5, 11] obtained based on node one. Specifically, starting from [1], all values ​​with a distance of 1 and an integer multiple of 1 are sorted in ascending order, that is, the entire queue [1, 3, 6, 5, 11] is directly sorted in ascending order to obtain [1, 3, 5, 6, 11]. Then [1, 3, 5, 6, 11] is the goal that the hardware device needs to achieve when running node two. According to the requirements of this method, when m=1, the node is the final node for the device to execute the instructions of this task, indicating that the sorting has been completed, and node two is the final node for the hardware device to execute the instructions of this task.

[0092] Based on the nodes of the example algorithm 2 obtained in the previous step, the following instructions are obtained according to the method described above to convert the hardware running nodes of each algorithm into specific instructions for the hardware device to execute. Figure 7As shown, the initial queue is known to be [6, 3, 11, 5, 1], and the target queue of node one is [1, 3, 6, 5, 11]. The positions of the initial queue and their changes at node one can be marked as (1, +2), (2, 0), (3, +2), (4, 0), and (5, -4), respectively. The absolute values ​​of the non-zero changes after deduplication are sorted in ascending order as follows: 2, 4. Therefore, the first set of instructions for node one in example algorithm 2 is to control the telescopic push rod 5 to push the sorting box 4 with the value [1] from the main conveyor belt 201 to the first sub-conveyor belt 301, and to push the sorting box 4 with the value [6, 11] from the main conveyor belt 201 to the second sub-conveyor belt 302. The second set of instructions is: first control the first and second sub-conveyor belts 301 and 302 to move in their respective directions by a distance of two sorting boxes 4. After the movement is completed, the sorting box 4 with the value [6, 11] on the second sub-conveyor belt 302 is pushed to the main conveyor belt 201 via the telescopic push rod 5. The other sorting boxes 4 are not processed. The third set of instructions is: first control the first and second sub-conveyor belts 301 and 302 to move in their respective directions by a distance of 4-2=2 sorting boxes 4. After the movement is completed, the sorting box 4 with the value [1] on the first sub-conveyor belt 301 is pushed to the main conveyor belt 201 via the telescopic push rod 5. At this point, the hardware device has completed the task of the first node, and the sorting boxes 4 have been rearranged on the main conveyor belt 201 in the order [1, 3, 6, 5, 11].

[0093] Given that the target queue of node 2 is [1, 3, 5, 6, 11], the positions of node 1 and its changes in node 2 can be marked as (1, 0), (2, 0), (3, +1), (4, -1), and (5, 0) in order, where the absolute values ​​of the non-zero changes after deduplication are sorted in ascending order as: 1. Therefore, the first set of instructions for node 2 in example algorithm 2 is to control the telescopic push rod 5 to push the sorting box 4 with the value [5] from the main conveyor belt 201 to the first sub-conveyor belt 301, and to push the sorting box 4 with the value [6] from the main conveyor belt 201 to the second sub-conveyor belt 302. The second set of instructions is to first control the first sub-conveyor belt 301 and the second sub-conveyor belt 302 to move the distance of one sorting box 4 in their respective running directions. After the movement is completed, the sorting box 4 with the value [5] on the first sub-conveyor belt 301 and the value [6] on the second sub-conveyor belt 302 are pushed to the main conveyor belt 201 by the telescopic push rod 5. At this time, the hardware device has completed the task of the second node, that is, all sorting tasks, and the sorting boxes 4 have been rearranged on the main conveyor belt 201 in the order of [1, 3, 5, 6, 11].

[0094] After obtaining results based on the two example algorithms, the simulation sorting module first analyzes the efficiency of each solution on the hardware. The simulation process and simulation diagrams show that, in this task context, nodes using Example Algorithm 1 require 10 sets of instructions to complete the task, while nodes using Example Algorithm 2 require 5 sets of instructions. Executing instructions regardless of node also requires 5 sets of instructions. Therefore, in this task context, Example Algorithm 2 and the solution that executes instructions regardless of node are more efficient than Example Algorithm 1.

[0095] Furthermore, the simulation sorting module performs an energy consumption analysis on solutions with equal efficiency. As shown in the simulation process and diagram above, in this task context, using Algorithm 2 requires the first and second conveyor belts 301 and 302 to be activated three times, each with a total travel distance of 5, and the telescopic push rod 5 to be activated ten times. Executing the instruction regardless of the node requires the first and second conveyor belts 301 and 302 to be activated four times, each with a total travel distance of 4, and the telescopic push rod 5 to be activated eight times. For magnetic structures, the conveyor belt activation also requires the electromagnet 7 to be energized, so these factors must be considered comprehensively. The control unit supports pre-setting a formula to calculate the total energy consumption of each solution based on the characteristics of each component. The simulation sorting module also allows the user to set an energy consumption threshold based on production requirements. If multiple solutions with the same and optimal efficiency are presented during the simulation sorting, the solution with the fewest conveyor belt activations will be automatically selected to extend the hardware lifespan, provided the energy consumption difference does not exceed the energy consumption threshold. If the number of conveyor belt activations is the same, the solution with the lowest energy consumption will be automatically selected.

[0096] By combining the above methods, the control unit's simulation sorting module automatically selects the optimal solution that balances efficiency and energy consumption. After selecting the solution, the control unit issues an operating instruction to the hardware device through the instruction control module to start sorting paper documents.

[0097] In addition, each time the simulation sorting module simulates, the control unit will not only substitute the stored algorithm nodes, but also simulate a special case: skipping the nodes and directly letting the hardware device execute the running instructions with the final queue as the target. Figure 8As shown, the initial queue is known to be [6, 3, 11, 5, 1], and the final queue is [1, 3, 5, 6, 11]. The positions of the initial queue and their changes relative to the final queue can be marked as (1, +3), (2, 0), (3, +2), (4, -1), and (5, -4), respectively. The absolute values ​​of the non-zero changes after deduplication are sorted in ascending order as follows: 1, 2, 3, 4. Therefore, when the sorting task is not divided into nodes, the first set of instructions is: control the telescopic push rod 5 to push the sorting box 4 with the value [5, 1] ​​from the main conveyor belt 201 to the first secondary conveyor belt 301, and push the sorting box 4 with the value [6, 11] from the main conveyor belt 201 to the second secondary conveyor belt 302. The second set of instructions is: first control the first sub-conveyor 301 and the second sub-conveyor 302 to move in their respective running directions by the distance of one sorting box 4. After the movement is completed, the sorting box 4 with the value [5] on the first sub-conveyor 301 is pushed to the main conveyor 201 through the telescopic push rod 5. The other sorting boxes 4 are not processed. The third set of instructions is: first control the first sub-conveyor 301 and the second sub-conveyor 302 to move in their respective running directions by the distance of 2-1=1 sorting box 4. After the movement is completed, the sorting box 4 with the value

[11] on the second sub-conveyor 302 is pushed to the main conveyor 201 through the telescopic push rod 5. The other sorting boxes 4 are not processed. The fourth set of instructions is: first control the first sub-conveyor 301 and the second sub-conveyor 302 to move in their respective running directions by the distance of 3-2=1 sorting box 4. After the movement is completed, the sorting box 4 with the value [6] on the first sub-conveyor 301 is pushed to the main conveyor 201 through the telescopic push rod 5. The other sorting boxes are not processed. The fifth set of instructions is: first, control the first and second secondary conveyor belts 301 and 302 to move in their respective directions by a distance of 4-3 = 1 sorting box 4. After the movement is completed, the sorting box 4 with the value [1] on the first secondary conveyor belt 301 is pushed to the main conveyor belt 201 via the telescopic push rod 5. At this point, the hardware device has completed all sorting tasks, and the sorting boxes 4 have been rearranged on the main conveyor belt 201 in the order [1, 3, 5, 6, 11].

[0098] The control unit of this embodiment makes the software system growable and intelligent through the linkage of the algorithm management module, the instruction control module, and the simulation sorting module. On the one hand, the more algorithms stored, the higher the compatibility with complex sorting tasks. On the other hand, when faced with different tasks, the control unit can automatically find the one that best balances efficiency and energy consumption.

[0099] Furthermore, the control unit may also include a device reset module, an interactive interface module, and a log recording module. Among them, the device reset module is used to receive the position information of each of the three conveyor belts sent by the conveyor belt position monitoring radar 13, and supports the user to set an offset threshold according to production requirements. When the conveyor belt position monitoring radar 13 detects that the real-time position of a conveyor belt reaches the offset threshold relative to the default position, it will automatically rotate to the default position and reset when the conveyor belt is started next time. The interactive interface module is used to provide an interactive interface to show the user the operating status of each component of the equipment. The user can set and control the software and hardware through the interactive interface. The log recording module is used to record and save the operation logs of the control unit and other hardware devices, so that the user can continuously optimize the algorithm through the log. In addition to the above core functional modules, the control unit also includes basic support functions such as user management, authority management, and industry preferences.

[0100] Another aspect of the present invention provides a method for automatically sorting paper documents, applicable to the automatic paper document sorting device of any of the aforementioned embodiments. In some embodiments, the method includes the following steps: a paper feed mechanism in a paper feed unit feeds paper documents entering the first paper feed port 101 page by page into a scanning mechanism; a control unit controls the scanning mechanism to scan the paper documents and generate scanned copies. The control unit receives the scanned copies of the paper documents generated by the scanning mechanism, obtains sorting information for the scanned copies, and generates sorting control instructions based on preset sorting rules. The paper documents enter the main conveying mechanism 2 of the conveying and sorting unit through the first paper outlet 102. Based on the sorting control instructions generated by the control unit, the conveying and sorting unit controls the paper documents to switch positions between the main conveying mechanism 2 and the auxiliary conveying mechanism 3 to sort the paper documents. The sorted paper documents are conveyed to the paper outlet unit via the main conveying mechanism 2, and the control unit controls the paper outlet unit to receive the sorted paper documents. The specific process by which the control unit generates the sorting control instructions based on the preset sorting rules and controls the conveying and sorting unit to sort the paper documents can be found in the operating procedures of the various modules of the control unit described above and will not be described in detail here.

[0101] Another aspect of the present invention provides an automatic paper document sorting system, which includes the automatic paper document sorting device of any one of the above embodiments, or can execute the automatic paper document sorting method.

[0102] The automatic paper document sorting device, method and system of the present invention achieve the goal of universal automatic sorting of paper documents for multiple industries by establishing a hardware device that can complete paper document scanning, recognition and spatial position adjustment, establishing a software system that is compatible with multiple sorting algorithms and can intelligently select the optimal algorithm in different situations, and automatically generates operating instructions based on the structural characteristics of the hardware device.

[0103] Finally, it should be noted that the above embodiments are only used to illustrate the technical solutions of the present invention, rather than to limit it. Although the present invention has been described in detail with reference to the aforementioned embodiments, those skilled in the art should understand that they can still modify the technical solutions described in the aforementioned embodiments, or make equivalent replacements for some of the technical features therein. However, these modifications or replacements do not deviate the essence of the corresponding technical solutions from the spirit and scope of the technical solutions of the various embodiments of the present invention.

Claims

1. A paper document automatic sorting device, characterized in that: include: A paper feed unit, comprising a paper feed box (1), the paper feed box (1) being provided with a first paper feed port (101) and a first paper outlet (102), the first paper feed port (101) being provided with a paper feeding mechanism, the first paper outlet (102) being provided with a scanning mechanism, a paper transfer channel being formed between the first paper feed port (101) and the first paper outlet (102), and being adapted to feed paper documents entering the first paper feed port (101) page by page into the scanning mechanism for scanning to generate scanned copies, and outputting the paper documents from the first paper outlet (102); A conveying and sorting unit comprises a main conveying mechanism (2), at least one auxiliary conveying mechanism (3) and a toggle mechanism, wherein the main conveying mechanism (2) is located below the first paper outlet (102), a plurality of sorting boxes (4) are movably provided on the main conveying mechanism (2), the sorting boxes (4) are used to receive paper documents output from the first paper outlet (102) and transmit them on the main conveying mechanism (2), and the toggle mechanism is used to toggle the sorting boxes (4) so ​​that the sorting boxes (4) are switched between the main conveying mechanism (2) and the auxiliary conveying mechanism (3); A paper discharge unit, arranged at the turning end of the main conveying mechanism (2), and used for receiving paper documents in the sorting box (4) on the main conveying mechanism (2); A control unit is electrically connected to the paper feed unit, the transmission sorting unit and the paper output unit, and is used to receive the scanned paper documents generated by the paper feed unit to obtain sorting information of the paper documents, and control the transmission sorting unit to sort the paper documents based on preset sorting rules, and at the same time control the paper output unit to receive the sorted paper documents.

2. The automatic paper document sorting device according to claim 1, characterized in that: The main conveying mechanism (2) includes a main conveying belt (201), and the auxiliary conveying mechanism (3) includes a first auxiliary conveying belt (301) and a second auxiliary conveying belt (302), wherein the first auxiliary conveying belt (301) and the second auxiliary conveying belt (302) are parallel to the main conveying belt (201) and are respectively located on both sides of the main conveying belt (201), the first auxiliary conveying belt (301) and the main conveying belt (201) have the same conveying direction, and the second auxiliary conveying belt (302) and the main conveying belt (201) have a conveying direction opposite to that of the main conveying belt (201); The shifting mechanism comprises a plurality of telescopic push rods (5), and the plurality of telescopic push rods (5) are respectively arranged in parallel on the side of the first auxiliary conveyor belt (301) and the second auxiliary conveyor belt (302) away from the main conveyor belt (201). The telescopic push rods (5) are suitable for being extended toward or away from the main conveyor belt (201) to push the sorting box (4) to switch between the main conveying mechanism (2) and the auxiliary conveying mechanism (3).

3. The automatic paper document sorting device according to claim 2, characterized in that: The main conveyor belt (201), the first auxiliary conveyor belt (301) and the second auxiliary conveyor belt (302) are all provided with a plurality of insulating positioning strips (6) arranged in parallel and spaced apart along the conveying direction thereof, and an electromagnet (7) is fixed between two adjacent insulating positioning strips (6); The top of the sorting box (4) is open, and a magnetic base (401) is provided at the bottom of the sorting box (4). The sorting box (4) is adsorbed on the electromagnet (7) via the magnetic base (401).

4. The automatic paper document sorting device according to claim 2, characterized in that: The main conveyor belt (201), the first auxiliary conveyor belt (301) and the second auxiliary conveyor belt (302) are all provided with a plurality of T-shaped positioning strips (8) arranged in parallel and spaced apart along the conveying direction thereof, and a mortise and tenon groove (9) is formed between two adjacent T-shaped positioning strips (8); The top of the sorting box (4) is open, and an inverted T-shaped base (402) is provided at the bottom of the sorting box (4). The sorting box (4) is movably connected to the mortise and tenon groove (9) through the inverted T-shaped base (402).

5. The automatic paper document sorting device according to claim 1, characterized in that: The transport sorting unit is arranged in a main body housing (10), and the main body housing (10) is provided with a second paper inlet (1001) and a second paper outlet (1002). The paper feed box (1) is fixed on the main body housing (10), and the first paper outlet (102) is connected to the second paper inlet (1001); the second paper outlet (1002) is located below the front end of the main transport mechanism (2) in the transport direction; The paper output unit comprises a paper receiving box (11) and a retractable paper receiving board (12), wherein the paper receiving box (11) is fixed to the side of the main body housing (10) and is located below the second paper output port (1002); the retractable paper receiving board (12) is connected to the paper receiving box (11) and is passed through the second paper output port (1002), and the retractable paper receiving board (12) extends toward the main conveying mechanism (2) at an inclined angle.

6. The automatic paper document sorting device according to any one of claims 1 to 5, characterized in that: The paper pickup mechanism comprises a paper pickup wheel, which is used to adhere to the surface of the paper document entering the first paper inlet (101) and to pick up the paper document entering the first paper inlet (101) page by page into the scanning mechanism; and / or, The scanning mechanism comprises a photographing and imaging element, a storage module and a data transmission module which are electrically connected in sequence, wherein the photographing and imaging element is used to generate a scan of a paper document entering the first paper feed port (101), the storage module is used to store the scan generated by the photographing and imaging element, and the data transmission module is used to transmit the scan generated by the photographing and imaging element to the control unit.

7. The automatic paper document sorting device according to any one of claims 1 to 5, characterized in that: The control unit comprises: an identification and filtering module electrically connected to the scanning mechanism, configured to receive scanned paper documents generated by the scanning mechanism and extract information required for sorting from the scanned paper documents; an algorithm management module, electrically connected to the identification and filtering module, and configured to calculate and generate a sorting control instruction based on a preset sorting rule and information required for sorting on the scanned paper documents extracted by the identification and filtering module; An instruction control module is electrically connected to the algorithm management module, and controls the transmission sorting unit to execute the sorting instruction based on the sorting control instruction generated by the algorithm management module.

8. The automatic paper document sorting device according to claim 7, characterized in that: The control unit also includes a simulation sorting module, which is electrically connected to the scanning mechanism and the algorithm management module. The simulation sorting module simulates the operation of the transmission sorting unit based on the initial order of all paper documents scanned by the scanning mechanism and the sorting control instructions of each paper document generated by the algorithm management module, obtains the most efficient sorting algorithm, and feeds it back to the algorithm management module.

9. A method for automatically sorting paper documents, characterized in that: The automatic paper document sorting device according to any one of claims 1 to 8 is applicable, wherein the automatic paper document sorting method comprises: The paper feeding mechanism in the paper feeding unit feeds the paper document entering the first paper feeding port (101) into the scanning mechanism page by page, and the control unit controls the scanning mechanism to scan the paper document and generate a scanned copy; The control unit receives the scanned paper documents generated by the scanning mechanism to obtain sorting information of the scanned paper documents, and generates a sorting control instruction based on a preset sorting rule; The paper document enters the main conveying mechanism (2) of the conveying and sorting unit from the first paper outlet (102); The transport sorting unit controls the paper documents to switch positions between the main transport mechanism (2) and the auxiliary transport mechanism (3) based on the sorting control instructions generated by the control unit, so as to sort the paper documents; The sorted paper documents are transported to the paper output unit via the main transport mechanism (2), and the control unit controls the paper output unit to receive the sorted paper documents.

10. An automatic paper document sorting system, characterized in that: The invention comprises the automatic paper document sorting device according to any one of claims 1 to 8, or executes the automatic paper document sorting method according to claim 9.

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