초록 ▼

A control system for a needle infeed device for automatically transferring needles randomly positioned on an indexing conveyor to an engagement device for subsequent conveyance to a processing location. The needle infeed device comprises one or more robots each having a gripper means for picking and

A control system for a needle infeed device for automatically transferring needles randomly positioned on an indexing conveyor to an engagement device for subsequent conveyance to a processing location. The needle infeed device comprises one or more robots each having a gripper means for picking and placing the needles in the engagement device. The control system comprises a control device for pausing the indexing conveyor to create a dwell cycle for the infeed device, vision tracking apparatus in communication with the control device for imaging needles at one or more predetermined locations on the indexing conveyor and for determining positional and orientation data for each recognized needle during the dwell cycle, a memory device for temporarily storing the positional and orientation data received from the vision tracking device, and, a robot control device for accessing the stored positional and orientation data corresponding to the imaged needles from the memory means and for enabling one of the robots to pick up the imaged needle in accordance with its respective positional and orientation data in order to place the needle in the engagement device.

대표청구항 ▼

A control system for a needle infeed device for automatically transferring needles randomly positioned on a conveyor means to a precision engagement device at a further processing location, said needle infeed device comprising one or more robots each having a gripper means for picking and placing sa

A control system for a needle infeed device for automatically transferring needles randomly positioned on a conveyor means to a precision engagement device at a further processing location, said needle infeed device comprising one or more robots each having a gripper means for picking and placing said needles, said control system comprising: (a) control means for pausing said conveyor means to create a dwell cycle for said infeed device; (b) at least one vision tracking means for each infeed device, each vision tracking means in communication with said control means for creating an image of said needles during each dwell cycle at one or more predetermined locations on said conveyor means and for calculating positional and orientation data for each needle from the image obtained at said predetermined location during said dwell cycle; (c) memory means for temporarily storing said positional and orientation data received from said vision tracking means; and (d) robot control means for accessing said stored positional and orientation data to select one of said imaged needles, the positional and orientation data stored in said memory means, and enabling said one of said robots to pick up one of said imaged needles in accordance with its respective positional and orientation data and to place said needle in said precision engagement device.