STORAGE RACK WITH AUTOMATIC STORAGE LOCATION ACQUISITION

• US 20110035045A1
• Filed: 04/02/2009
• Published: 02/10/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 04/11/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Haenel & Company, HNEL & Company
• Original Assignee: HNEL & Company
• Inventors: Walter, Franz
• Granted Patent: US 9,205,980 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 700/214
• CPC Class Codes: B65G 1/137 with arrangements or automatic control means for selecting which articles are to be removed
• CPC Class Codes: B65G 1/1373 for fulfilling orders in warehouses
• CPC Class Codes: F02M 2200/306 using mechanical means
• CPC Class Codes: F02M 2200/8069 involving removal of material from the fuel apparatus, e.g. by punching, hydro-erosion or mechanical operation
• CPC Class Codes: F02M 47/027 Electrically actuated valves draining the chamber to release the closing pressure
• CPC Class Codes: F02M 63/0015 electrical, e.g. using solenoid
• CPC Class Codes: F02M 63/0036 with spherical or partly spherical shaped valve member ends

Abstract

A storage shelf (10) has a plurality of supports (14) arranged on top of each other for supporting stock carriers (15) which can be moved by means of an automatic transfer and removal device (13), has at least one access opening (18) for supplying and removing the stock carriers (15), and has a computer (20) in which information about the stored goods (17, 17a) is saved. At least one image sensing device (24) is provided which is suitable for the optical detection of goods placed on the stock carriers (15) and can produce digital image information, wherein the digital image information can be stored in the computer (20) and called up by means of a display unit (22, 23). The display unit (22) is associated with a selection device which uses the digital image information to allow selection of a stock carrier (15) and movement thereof to the access opening (18) by means of the computer. The computer (20) has an image data archive (34) for archiving the digital image information of the stock carrier (15), and an image data processing unit (38) which is designed for the detection and/or recognition of modification to the loading state of stock carriers (15) and/or for the detection and/or recognition of free storage places using the digital image information from the image data archive (34).

Claims

1. A storage rack having a plurality of carrier supports arranged on top of each other for supporting carriers which can be moved by means of an automatic loading and removal device,

including at least one access opening for inserting and removing the carriers, and

a computer wherein information about stored storage goods is stored,

wherein at least one image capture device is provided which is suitable for optical recording of storage goods placed in the carriers and is able to produce digital image information thereof, wherein the digital image information can be stored in the computer and recalled by means of a display unit,

wherein a selection device which allows selection of a carrier by means of the digital image information and movement thereof to the access opening by means of the computer is assigned to the display unit, wherein,

the computer comprises an image data archive for archiving the digital image data of the carriers and an image data processing unit which is designed for detection and/or recognition of changes to the occupancy state of the carriers and/or for the detection and/or recognition of free storage spaces using the digital image information from the image data archive.

2. The storage rack according to claim 1, wherein the storage rack comprises a contactless sensing device allowing recognition of storage goods.

3. The storage rack according to claim 2, wherein the stored goods comprise a wireless transponder device to allow identification thereof, and in that a communication device for wireless transponders designed for transferring identification data to the computer is associated with the storage rack.

4. The storage rack according to claim 3, wherein the wireless transponder unit comprises an RFID-tag.

5. The storage rack according to claim 3, wherein the communication unit comprises an RFID receiver.

7. The storage rack according to claim 1, the display unit is designed for displaying a preview of the determined free storage space.

8. The storage rack according to claim 1, wherein the storage rack comprises a LAN and/or a CAN bus to allow communication between units.

9. A method for storing or removing storage goods in a storage rack according to claim 1, comprising the steps of:

(a) identifying storage goods to be stored by an operator or by means of the contactless sensing device;

(b) detecting of free storage space or of the storage location by the computer based on stored occupancy information or stored image data;

(c) transferring the carrier including the detected free storage space to the access opening;

(d) storing storage goods and

(e) reconciling occupancy information.

10. The method according to claim 9, wherein the storage space determined by the computer during a storage operation is displayed to an operator by means of the display unit and may be rejected by said operator, in which case another free storage space will be determined.

11. The method according to claim 9, wherein the storage space determined by the computer during the removal operation is displayed to an operator by means of the display unit.

12. The method according to claim 10, wherein the image data processing unit splits the digital image data into a raster, the raster elements of which can be marked as free or occupied in the occupancy information memory.

13. The method according to claim 12, wherein the image capture device generates an image of the carrier before and after storage or removal respectively and will transfer it to the image data archive for reconciling the occupancy information memory.

14. The method according to claim 13, wherein the image data processing unit compares the raster elements of the image generated before storage or removal to those of the image generated after storage or removal in order to reconcile the occupancy information memory and in case of a change in a raster element will adjust an occupancy status associated with this raster element.

15. The method according to claim 14, wherein the image data processing unit calculates a difference for each pixel of a raster element between the pixel of the image generated before storage or removal and the pixel of the image generated following storage or removal and totals the pixels within a raster element in order to calculate a similarity value.

16. The method according to claim 12, wherein the image capture device performs a method comprising the following steps in order to detect free raster elements:

(a) determining the percentage of pixels the color values of which are within an identification range;

(b) marking the raster element as unoccupied if the percentage exceeds a defined threshold value.

17. The method according to claim 16, that wherein the image capture device performs the method to detect free raster elements for each raster element of a carrier.

18. The method according to claim 9, wherein the computer comprises a storage data base wherein the storage locations and/or amounts of the storage goods are stored.

19. The method according to claim 18, wherein when the occupancy information memory is reconciled the computer will store the storage location and the identification of the storage goods determined based on the digital image information in the storage data base.

20. The method according to claim 18, wherein the computer generates a list of the storage goods contained in the carrier before and after the storage or removal operation respectively and will determine storage goods which have been removed or stored by comparison of the lists.

21. A computer program product for performing the method according to any of claim 9.

6. The storage rack according to claim, wherein the computer comprises a size data memory containing data representing the storage space requirements of storage goods in order to allow determination of a free storage space.