Article Storage Position Correction via Selective Rear-Article Adjustment
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Solution Overview
Problem
In article storage facilities where multiple articles are stored aligned in the depth direction of a rack, the existing position correction processes can lead to a decrease in processing efficiency due to the need for additional processing steps, such as temporarily moving articles out of the way, which increases the time for conveying articles to or from storage sections and interrupts the conveying process.
Innovation Solution
The article storage facility includes a control apparatus that monitors the elapsed time or positional misalignment of articles in each storage section and performs correction processing only on the article at the first storage position if the monitoring target exceeds a set threshold, thereby selecting the appropriate section for correction and avoiding unnecessary additional processing steps.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Manufacturing precision
If position correction processing is performed on articles stored in depth direction by re-doing transfer processing, then article position accuracy is improved, but conveying processing efficiency deteriorates due to additional processing steps and interruptions
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the correction processing to apply only to the rearmost article in the depth direction, rather than re-doing transfer processing for all articles. This selective approach corrects position accuracy for the critical rear article while avoiding unnecessary interruptions for front articles, thus resolving the contradiction between position accuracy and conveying efficiency
Solution Approach 2:
Instead of performing complete re-transfer processing for all articles (excessive action), the patent applies partial correction only to the rearmost article that requires it. This partial action sufficient for maintaining position accuracy while minimizing disruption to the conveying process
2Manufacturing precision
If additional processing is performed to take out and return front articles during correction, then position correction completeness is improved, but processing time increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts and applies correction processing only to the rearmost article that requires it, rather than taking out and returning front articles. This extraction of the necessary correction action from the overall process eliminates unnecessary time-consuming operations while maintaining correction completeness for the critical article
Solution Approach 2:
The system monitors article positions continuously and identifies when the rearmost article requires correction before the conveying process is disrupted. This preliminary identification allows for targeted correction without needing to interrupt the flow for front articles
Data Source
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AI summary
An amount of time that has elapsed since an article was stored at a first storage position or an amount of positional misalignment from a reference position of the article stored at the first storage position is a monitoring target amount, and a control apparatus monitors the monitoring target amount for each of multiple storage sections and causes a conveying apparatus to execute correction processing with a storage section in which the monitoring target amount has exceeded the set threshold as a target storage section. Correction processing is processing for correcting the position of only the target article stored at a first storage position in a target storage section to a reference position.