INSPECTION SYSTEM AND INSPECTION METHOD

• US 20100176964A1
• Filed: 03/27/2008
• Published: 07/15/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 06/01/2007
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Murata Machinery Limited (Muratec)
• Original Assignee: Murata Machinery Limited (Muratec)
• Inventors: Kobayashi, Kenichi, Ishida, Masato
• Application Number:
  US12/602,052
• Publication Number:
  US 20100176964A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 340/825.490
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/08 Logistics, e.g. warehousing, loading or distribution; Inventory or stock management

Abstract

The article IDs of a mixture mounting pallet being shipped are read out collectively by means of an ID reader and collated with the ID list on a shipment table. IDs and their positions are stored on the shipment table and the positions of IDs not read out by means of the ID reader are displayed on a handy ID reader and confirmed by a worker using the ID reader.

Claims

1. An inspection system comprising a memory for storing positions and IDs of articles stacked in a plurality of layers on a carrier, and an ID reader for reading IDs of the articles, the ID reader being configured to read the IDs of the articles on the carrier together, the inspection system further comprising:

collation means for collating the IDs read by the ID reader with IDs stored in the memory to extract IDs that have not been read by the ID reader, from the IDs stored in the memory; and

an output unit for outputting positions of articles having the extracted IDs, from the positions stored in the memory, to an operator.

2. The inspection system according to claim 1, the carrier being used for retrieval of the articles from a warehouse, the memory being a first memory, the inspection system further comprising:

a second memory for storing positions and IDs of articles on a carrier used for storage of the articles in the warehouse; and

transfer means for picking designated articles from the carrier used for storage of the articles and transferring the picked articles to designated positions of the carrier used for retrieval of the articles,

the first memory being configured to store transfer positions of the articles transferred by the transfer means, and store IDs of the transferred article stored in the second memory.

3. The inspection system according to claim 1, the output unit having a display unit for displaying positions of the articles of the extracted IDs three-dimensionally in colors or at brightness levels corresponding to heights of the articles relative to the carrier.

4. The inspection system according to claim 3, the display unit being configured to display a scale showing a height of the carrier by color coding or a difference in brightness.

5. An inspection method by storing positions and IDs of articles stacked in a plurality of layers on a carrier, and reading IDs of the articles using an ID reader to collate the read IDs with the stored IDs, the inspection method comprising the steps of:

reading the IDs of the articles on the carrier together using the ID reader;

collating the IDs read by the ID reader with the IDs stored in the memory to extract IDs that have not been read by the ID reader, from the IDs stored in the memory; and

outputting positions of articles having the extracted IDs, from the positions stored in the memory, to an operator.