Conveying Vehicle Control Using Optical Contact Position Detection
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Conveyance systems face challenges in accurately identifying the contact position between a conveying vehicle and an object during object conveyance, which affects the efficiency and stability of the conveyance process.
Innovation Solution
A conveyance system comprising a conveying vehicle, a sensor to acquire information about the object, and a control device that communicates with the sensor to identify the contact position and control the vehicle based on this information, using image and distance information to determine the precise contact point.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If robot-push conveyance is implemented without accurate contact position identification, then the conveyance system can operate, but the conveyance efficiency and stability deteriorate
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces mechanical contact-based detection with optical sensing. The sensor unit captures images of the conveying object, and the control device processes these images to identify the contact position between the robot and the object. This optical substitution eliminates the need for physical sensors on the robot, reduces mechanical complexity, and provides non-contact measurement with high precision, directly resolving the contradiction between conveyance efficiency and measurement accuracy.
2Measurement precision
If contact position identification is implemented using image processing, then measurement precision improves, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent makes the existing sensor unit (designed for general object detection) serve multiple functions: it detects the conveying object's position, identifies the robot's contact position, and provides visual feedback for control. By making the sensor unit multi-functional, the system achieves high measurement precision without adding dedicated contact sensors or complex hardware, thus improving accuracy while minimizing the increase in device complexity.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent creates a visual copy (image) of the physical scene and processes this copy to extract contact position information. Instead of directly measuring physical contact forces or positions with complex sensors, the system captures an optical copy of the scene and uses image processing algorithms to identify the contact point. This approach simplifies the physical system while maintaining high measurement precision through computational analysis of the visual copy.
Data Source
AI summary
A conveyance system including a conveying vehicle configured to convey a conveying object, a sensor configured to acquire the information relating to the conveying object, and a control device configured to control the conveying vehicle is designed to identify a contact position at which the conveying vehicle comes in contact with the conveying object when conveying the conveying object based on the information relating to the conveying object, and to control the conveying vehicle according to the contact position.