Device and method for loading a store

Abstract

The present invention relates to a device (1) for loading generally parallelepiped-shaped flat elements (30) having four corners (300), an upper face (31) and a lower face (32), said elements (30) being stacked in the form of a pile (3), the loading being carried out by a successive transfer from said pile (3) to a processing station (2), said processing station (2) having an inlet (20) for receiving the successive elements (30), optionally held by a link (90) or similar to form a batch, said device (1) comprising at least: - a gripping tool (4) adapted for lifting and moving said flat elements (30) from the pile (3) to the inlet (20), said gripping tool (4) comprising at least one gripping member (40), - a control unit (5) configured to execute a routine for loading said inlet (20) of said processing station (2) from the pile (3) of (30) flat elements,- a robotic arm (6) designed and arranged to move said gripping tool (4) at least between the stack (3) and the inlet (20) of the station (2), said tool (4) being positioned at the distal end of said robotic arm (6), the device (1) being characterized in that it comprises: - optical detection means (7), said means (7) comprising at least one camera (70) enabling the detection, for each flat element (30) to be moved by said gripping tool (4), of at least one marker (8), said marker (8) being located on one of the faces (31, 32) of said element (30),and in that - the control unit (5) is configured to determine and / or receive coordinates of said at least one detected reference frame (8) and to transmit instructions to control means (60) of an actuator of said robotic arm (6) in order to adjust the displacement of said gripping tool (4) according to the coordinates of said at least one reference frame (8). The invention also relates to a loading method and an element (30) comprising at least one reference frame (8) on one of its faces (31, 32). Figure for the abstract: Fig. 2,

Claims

Demands

1. A device (1) for loading generally parallelepiped-shaped flat elements (30) having four corners (300), a top face (31), and a bottom face (32), said elements (30) being stacked in the form of a pile (3), the loading being effected by successive transfer from said pile (3) to a processing station (2), said processing station (2) having an inlet (20) for receiving successive elements (30), optionally held by a link (90) or similar to form a batch, said device (1) comprising at least: - a gripping tool (4) adapted for lifting and moving said flat elements (30) from the pile (3) to the inlet (20), said gripping tool (4) comprising at least one gripping member (40), - a control unit (5) configured to execute a routine for loading said inlet (20) of said processing station (2) from the pile (3) of (30) flat elements,- a robotic arm (6) designed and arranged to move said gripping tool (4) at least between the stack (3) and the inlet (20) of the station (2), said tool (4) being positioned at the distal end of said robotic arm (6), the device (1) being characterized in that it comprises: - optical detection means (7), said means (7) comprising at least one camera (70) capable of detecting, for each flat element (30) to be moved by said gripping tool (4), at least one marker (8), said marker (8) being located on one of the faces (31, 32) of said element (30), and in that - the control unit (5) is configured to determine and / or receive coordinates of said at least one detected marker (8) and to transmit instructions to control means (60) of an actuator of said robotic arm (6) in order to adjust the displacement of said gripping tool (4) according to the coordinates of said at least one marker (8).,

2. Loading device (1) according to the preceding claim, characterized in that at least one marker (8) is pre-positioned at a corner (300) of said flat element (30).

3. A loading device (1) according to the preceding claim, characterized in that the optical detection means (7) are configured to detect and / or determine the position of at least one marker (8) located on one of the faces (31, 32) of a flat element (30), said flat element (30) comprising on at least one face (31, 32) four markers (8a, 8b, 8c, 8d), said markers (8a, 8b, 8c, 8d) being located each respectively at the level of a corner (300) and being each located at the same distance from the outer edge (301) of said flat element (30).

4. Device (1) according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the control unit (5) is configured to determine and / or receive the coordinates of the center (80) of the flat element (30) on the stack as a function of the coordinates of said at least one detected marker (8).

5. Device (1) according to any one of the preceding claims characterized in that each marker (8) consists of one or more alphanumeric characters and / or symbols and / or geometric representations and / or pictograms and / or Unicode characters.

6. Device (1) according to the preceding claim, characterized in that each marker (8) is a high-intensity two-dimensional barcode.

7. Device (1) according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that each marker (8) is printed on at least one of the faces (31, 32) of each flat element (30), preferably on the upper face (31) of each element (30).

8. Device (1) according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that it comprises means for determining the relative distance (d) separating the gripping tool (4) and the flat element (30) to be grasped.

9. Device (1) according to the preceding claim, characterized in that said means for determining the distance (d) comprise at least one laser rangefinder (71) attached to the gripping tool (4) or the robotic arm (6).

10. Device (1) according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the control unit (5) is configured to transmit instructions to the control means (60) of the actuator of said robotic arm (6) to automatically adapt the grasping trajectory of the gripping tool (4) according to the coordinates of said at least one detected reference frame (8).

11. Device (1) according to the preceding claim, characterized in that the control unit (5) is configured to transmit instructions to the control means (60) to determine the orientation of the gripping tool (7) for grasping one or more flat elements (30) of the stack (3).

12. Device (1) according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the camera (70) comprises a lens with a short focal length and distortion correction means to obtain a wide field of view at short distance.

13. Device (1) according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that it comprises a cutting means (9) when the flat elements (30) are held together by a link (90) or similar to form a batch.

14. A method for loading flat elements (30) into an inlet (20) of a processing station (2), each flat element (30) being generally parallelepiped-shaped and having four corners, an upper face (31) and a lower face (32), said method comprising a step essentially consisting of transferring flat elements (30) from a stack (3) into said inlet (20), using a gripping tool (4) of a loading device (1), the method characterized in that it comprises steps consisting of: - detecting at least one marker (8) located on one of the faces (31, 32) of the first flat element (30) of the stack using optical detection means (7) of said loading device (1),- to process the detection data using determination means to determine the coordinates of said detected markers (8) and - to adjust the displacement of said gripping tool (4) using control means (60) according to the coordinates of said at least one detected marker (8).

15. A generally parallelepiped-shaped flat element (30) comprising an outer edge (301), four corners (300), an upper face (31) and a lower face (32), said element (30) being characterized in that it comprises at least one marker (8) positioned on one of its faces (31,32).

16. Flat element (30) according to the preceding claim, characterized in that said at least one marker (8) consists of one or more alphanumeric characters and / or symbols and / or geometric representations and / or pictograms and / or Unicode characters.

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