Automatic article sorting system

• US 4,058,217 A
• Filed: 12/10/1975
• Issued: 11/15/1977
• Est. Priority Date: 05/01/1973
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Unisearch Limited (University Of New South Wales)
• Original Assignee: Unisearch Limited (University Of New South Wales)
• Inventors: Vaughan, Richard, Cole, Peter Harold
• Primary Examiner(s): Reeves, Robert B.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Rolla, Joseph J.
• Application Number:
  US05/639,466
• Time in Patent Office: 706 Days
• Field of Search: 209/73, 209/74, 209/111.5, 209/111.6, 209/111.7 R, 209/111.8, 209/DIG. 1, 198/38, 198/DIG. 16, 214/11 R, 221/73
• US Class Current: 209/559
• CPC Class Codes: B07C 3/02 Apparatus characterised by the means used for distribution
• CPC Class Codes: B07C 3/12 using electric or electronic detecting means B07C3/14 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: B65G 47/49 without bodily contact between article or load carrier and automatic control device , e.g. the destination marks being electrically or electronically detected
• CPC Class Codes: B65G 47/50 according to destination signals stored in separate systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 11/001 Texturing; Colouring; Generation of texture or colour inpainting G06T5/77

Abstract

The invention consists of a method and apparatus for article sorting wherein an electronically interrogatable label is provided for and attached to each article, the label bearing indicia indicative of a serial number, instructions relating to the routing of the label bearing those indicia being fed into a suitable computing system arranged to control the operation of sorting devides on receipt of a signal from a reader arranged to interrogate the label. The term "label" is intended to include any device such as, for example, a tag, capable of carrying the necessary indicia and of being attached to an article to be sorted.

Claims

1. Apparatus for sorting articles such as airline baggage comprising at least one ticket issuing machine (TIM) containing a predetermined plurality of interrogatable labels each bearing indicia indicative of a serial number taken from a closed and limited set of serial numbers, means in each said TIM for issuing said labels in consecutive order, label interrogation means responsive to said serial numbers on said labels, baggage sorting means constructed and arranged to direct each article of baggage being sorted along a desired one of a plurality of alternate routes, conveyor means arranged to carry articles of baggage from each said TIM past the label interrogation means to the baggage sorting means, said articles passing through said baggage sorting and conveyor means without additional machine readable sorting information therewith, said articles being transported on said conveyor means between said TIM and said sorting means a computing system linked with each said TIM, with said label interrogation means and with said article sorting means, means for entering routing instructions into the computer in relation to each serial number, said serial number related instructions being entered into the computing system when the TIM issues an interrogatable label to an article of baggage, the computing system being programmed to actuate said sorting means in accordance with a serial number on receipt of a signal from said interrogating means indicating the presence in said interrogating means of an article of baggage carrying a label bearing indicia indicative of that serial number.

2. Apparatus as claimed in claim 1 wherein baggage spacing means is provided adjacent said conveyor to space baggage thereon at not less than a predetermined spacing distance prior to passage of the baggage past the label interrogation means.

3. Apparatus as claimed in claim 1 wherein diverter means are provided adjacent said conveyor means to divert automatically an article of baggage carrying a label of improper condition, which condition includes at least one of the following conditions, having damaged label, having no label and having a label carrying a serial number which is known to be duplicated within the group of articles being sorted, interrogation means for sending a signal to the computing system on the passage of such an article, the computing system being programmed to cause operation of said diverter means on receipt of such a signal, and a branch line of said conveyor to convey an article thus diverted to a station for manual sorting.

4. Apparatus as claimed in claim 1 including a bulk storage unit, means under the control of said computing system to transfer baggage to and from said conveyor means and from and to said bulk storage unit.

5. A method of article sorting comprising the steps of attaching at a first physical location a machine readable interrogatable label to each article to be sorted, the label bearing indicia indicative of a serial number, said serial number being selected from a closed and limited set of serial numbers, feeding information relating to the sorting of each article to a first computing means at the time the label is allocated, said information being correlated with the serial number of the article, randomly loading a group of articles on a transport means, physically transporting a group of said articles with their attached machine readable interrogatable labels in a container, and in association with each container, a data storage medium prepared by the first computing means listing the serial number and correlated sorting instructions of every article in the container, feeding, prior to the sorting operation, the data on said data storage medium into a second computing means at a second physical location at which the articles are to be sorted, the second computing means being programmed to recognize repeated serial numbers among said data, passing the articles one by one through a label interrogating means, feeding the serial number extracted by said interrogating means to said second computing means, programming said second computing means to control the operation of sorting devices upon receipt of said serial number so as to route for manual sorting any article whose serial number is recognized as repeated and to route any other article according to its serial number-correlated sorting information, and, thereafter, passing the articles to the sorting devices for sorting accordingly.

6. A method of article sorting as claimed in claim 5 wherein the articles are postal parcels.

7. A method of article sorting as claimed in claim 5 wherein the articles are airline baggage.

8. A method of article sorting as claimed in claim 5 wherein the articles are airline baggage and each machine - readable, interrogatable label bears sufficient bits of information and permit each article of baggage in an industrywide airline system to be allocated a unique serial number at any point of time within a predetermined time cycle.

9. A method of article sorting comprising the steps of allocating to each article to be sorted an interrogatable label, the label bearing indicia indicative of a serial number, said serial number being selected from a closed and limited set of serial numbers, feeding information relating to the sorting of each article to a computing system at the time the label is allocated, said information being correlated with the serial number of the article, randomly loading a group of articles on a transport means, physically transporting such articles together with allocated interrogatable label with no additional machine readable sorting information therewith in a group, passing articles one by one through label interrogating means, feeding the serial number elicited by said interrogating means to the computing system which has been supplied with sorting information correlated with the allocated serial numbers, programming said computing system to control the operation of sorting devices in accordance with said sorting instructions on receipt of the related serial number, and thereafter passing the articles to the sorting devices for sorting in accordance with the routing instructions for each article, wherein the computing system is programmed to cause said sorting means to route any articles having the same serial number, presented for sorting within a predetermined period, for manual sorting and wherein the articles are postal parcels, parcels to be sorted being bagged in a bag having associated with it a data storage medium containing the serial numbers of each parcel in the bag and the related routing instructions, the data on the data storage medium being fed into the computing system prior to the sorting operation, the computing system being programmed to recognize identical serial numbers among said data.

10. Apparatus for sorting articles such as postal parcels comprising conveyor means, a station on said conveyor means for receiving the contents of an incoming bag of parcels, each parcel of which bears an interrogatable label bearing indicia indicative of a serial number and bearing no additional machine readable sorting information, label interrogating means in the path of said conveyor means, said parcels being randomly arranged on said conveyor means and being moved along said conveyor means between said station and said label interrogating means, parcel sorting means constructed and arranged to sort parcels passing on said conveyor means from said label interrogating means, a computing system linked with said interrogating means and said sorting means, means for entering in said computing system the serial number associated with each parcel in the bag and corresponding address instructions, said serial number and address instruction being entered into the computing system at the time of issuance of an interrogatable label and prior to the entry of parcels from said incoming bag of parcels to said conveyor means, the computing system being programmed to actuate said parcel sorting means in accordance with address instructions associated with a serial number on receipt of a signal from said interrogating means indicating the presence in said interrogating means of a parcel carrying a label bearing indicia indicative of that serial number and to actuate said sorting means to leave any parcels associated with the same serial number on said conveyor means and a manual sorting station adjacent said conveyor means for manually sorting parcels passing said sorting means on the conveyor means.

11. A method of article sorting comprising the steps of allocating to each article to be sorted an interrogatable label, the label bearing indicia indicative of a serial number, said serial number being selected from a closed and limited set of serial numbers, feeding information relating to the sorting of each article to a computing system at the time the label is allocated, said information being correlated with the serial number of the article, physically transporting such articles together with allocated interrogatable label with no additional machine readable sorting information therewith in a group, passing articles one by one through label interrogating means, feeding the serial number elicited by said interrogating means to the computing system which has been supplied with sorting information correlated with the allocated serial numbers, programming said computing system to control the operation of sorting devices in accordance with said sorting instructions on receipt of the related serial number, and thereafter passing the articles to the sorting devices for sorting in accordance with the routing instructions for each article and wherein said computing system includes a first portion at a first physical location for receiving information relating to the sorting of each article and a second portion at a second physical location remote from said first physical location for receiving the serial number elicited by said interrogating means.

12. Apparatus for sorting articles such as postal parcels comprising conveyor means, a station on said conveyor means for receiving the contents of an incoming bag of parcels, each parcel of which bears an interrogatable label bearing indicia indicative of a serial number and bearing no additional machine readable sorting information, label interrogating means in the path of said conveyor means, said parcels being randomly arrnged on said conveyor means at said receiving system and being moved along said conveyor means between said station and said label interrogating means parcel sorting means constructed and arranged to sort parcels passing on said conveyor means from said label interrogating means, a computing system linked with said interrogating means and said sorting means, means for entering in said computing system the serial number associated with each parcel in the bag and corresponding address instructions, said serial number and address instruction being entered into the computing system prior to the entry of parcels from said incoming bag of parcels to said conveyor means, the computing system being programmed to actuate said parcels sorting means in accordance with address instructions associated with a serial number on receipt of a signal from said interrogating means indicating the presence in said interrogating means of a parcel carrying a label bearing indicia indicative of that serial number and to actuate said sorting means to leave any parcels associated with the same serial number on said conveyor means for manually sorting parcels passing said sorting means on said conveyor means and also including a preparing station for preparing tags for parcels for transport to said receiving station including means for issuing said interrogatable labels to said parcels, said computing system including a portion associated with said preparing station and a portion associated with said receiving station and means for entering serial number information into said transporting computing system portion at the time of issuance of said interrogatable labels.