초록 ▼

The movement of an article such as a product carried by a conveyor is monitored by providing a patterned target, preferably striped with contrasting lines, to move with the object. A solid state line scan camera views the pattern of the target as it moves relative to the camera and the electronic ou

The movement of an article such as a product carried by a conveyor is monitored by providing a patterned target, preferably striped with contrasting lines, to move with the object. A solid state line scan camera views the pattern of the target as it moves relative to the camera and the electronic output of the camera representing the light and dark areas of the target is analyzed by an electronic circuit to determined the movement of the target and therefore of the object being monitored. The resulting electronic signal representing the motion of the object is useful for coordinating the movement of a robot which is operating upon the object during its movement.

대표청구항 ▼

An optical and electronic motion tracking system for measuring movement of an object comprising a pattern of contrasting light and dark regions on the object for movement therewith, a lens focused on the pattern to produce an image of the pattern in an image plane, a linear array of equally spaced p

An optical and electronic motion tracking system for measuring movement of an object comprising a pattern of contrasting light and dark regions on the object for movement therewith, a lens focused on the pattern to produce an image of the pattern in an image plane, a linear array of equally spaced photosensor elements in the plane of the focused image wherein the element spacing corresponds to a certain object displacement, and each element is energized to a high or low state according to the brightness of the image focused thereon, whereby movement of the object effect a change of state of at least one of the elements, scan means for interrogating the energization state of the elements and generating output signals representing the states of the elements and for periodically repeating the interrogation for subsequent array scans, means responsive to the output signals for generating a transition signal representing each image transition between light and dark regions, a circuit responsive to the transition signals for comparing the transition signals for each scan with that of a preceding scan to thereby detect a difference in transition signals which denotes the amount and direction of movement of the focused image relative to the photosensor elements, and means responsive to said detected difference to produce a signal representing net object movement over a time period encompassing many scans.