Method and apparatus for gripping and transferring pieces of luggage

• US 8,473,094 B2
• Filed: 10/27/2008
• Issued: 06/25/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 10/31/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Grenzebach Maschinenbau GmbH (Rudolf Grenzebach,)
• Original Assignee: Grenzebach Maschinenbau GmbH (Rudolf Grenzebach,)
• Inventors: Becker, Felix, Rosenmeyer, Peter
• Primary Examiner(s): Crawford, Gene
• Assistant Examiner(s): LOGAN, KYLE O
• Application Number:
  US12/739,799
• Publication Number:
  US 20100239408A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,702 Days
• Field of Search: 700/213
• US Class Current: 700/213
• CPC Class Codes: B65G 47/914 provided with drive systems incorporating rotary and rectilinear movements
• CPC Class Codes: B65G 47/918 with at least two picking-up heads

Abstract

A method and an apparatus for automatically removing pieces of luggage that have different surface properties and dimensions and getting the pieces of luggage ready for further transport by means of a gripper that is hingedly connected to a robot arm is described. The method includes: a) moving the gripper and the container that is to be emptied close together; b) determining the first piece of luggage to be removed; (c) gripping the piece of luggage using a horizontal suction elements (3) and withdrawing the luggage horizontally; d) if the vertical suction elements (4) are not yet able to sufficiently grip the luggage, the vertical suction elements (4) are repositioned and turned off, the vertical suction elements (5) are repositioned, and then turned on to re-grip the piece of luggage.

Claims

1. An apparatus for automatically removing pieces of luggage which differ in terms of their surface composition and their specific dimensions and for preparing for onward transportation by means of a gripper housing which is articulated to a robot arm and has suction elements, comprising:

a) a robot arm articulated to a gripper housing (2), comprising a horizontal suction element carrier (6) with at least one horizontal suction element (3) and a vertical suction element carrier (5) with at least one vertical suction element (4), wherein the vertical suction element carrier (5) comprises a push rod in the vertical direction, and the horizontal suction element carrier (6) is horizontally displaceable relative to the gripper housing (2),

b) the suction elements (3, 4) that are individually controlled and actively provide information to a control center by way of respective suction processes,

wherein both the horizontal suction element carrier (6) and the vertical suction element carrier (5) have in adjacent regions differently configured suction elements,

wherein at least one suction element (3, 4) has at least one activatable adjusting element (18) for setting a spring bias, and

wherein removal of the pieces of luggage is visualized in 3D and real time by an image recognition system.

2. The apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein the horizontal suction element carrier (6), the vertical suction element carrier (5), or both, comprise arrays of suction elements.

3. The apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein at least one suction element (3, 4) comprises at least one flow meter (16) for measuring the suction air flow, a measuring means for measuring pressure of the suction air flow, or both.

4. The apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein at least one suction element (3, 4) has at least one activatable adjusting element (18) for setting the spring bias, wherein this setting can be detected in real time.

5. The apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein at least one suction element (3, 4) has at least one suction extraction channel (19), the cross section of which can be set in a variable manner, wherein this setting can be detected in real time.

6. The apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein at least one suction element (3, 4) has at least one distance meter (17), wherein a measurement result of the at least one distance meter (17) can be detected in real time.

7. The apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein the vertical suction elements (4) are shaped differently from the horizontal suction elements (3).

8. The apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein tilting elements are located at the base point of the respective suction element carriers, at the base point of individual suction elements (3, 4), or both.

9. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the control center comprises a controller for controlling horizontal movement of the horizontal suction element carrier (6) between an extended position for gripping a side of an object and a retracted position for pulling the object toward the gripper housing.

10. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the control center comprises a controller comprising machine-readable carrier comprising a non-transitory computer program for causing the apparatus to carry out the method steps of claim 11.

11. A method for automatically removing pieces of luggage which differ in terms of their surface composition and their specific dimensions and for preparing for onward transportation comprising a gripper housing which is articulated to a robot arm and has suction elements, comprising:

a) moving the gripper housing (2) and the container to be emptied close to each other, wherein a plurality of pieces of luggage are disposed within said container,

b) determining a piece of luggage to be removed from the container,

c) gripping the piece of luggage with the horizontal suction element carrier (6) in combination with the horizontal suction elements (3) and withdrawing the piece of luggage from the container by retracting the horizontal suction element carrier (6) toward the gripper housing (2) from an extended position,

d) if the vertical suction elements (4) are not yet able to sufficiently grip the piece of luggage;

repositioning the vertical suction element carrier (5) and deactivating the vertical suction elements (4),

regripping the piece of luggage by moving the vertical suction element carrier (5) at least one of sideways, forward and backward, and reactivating the vertical suction elements (4) again, and

if necessary, repeating step d) until the piece of luggage is securely gripped by both the horizontal suction element carrier (6) and the vertical suction element carrier (5).

12. The method as claimed in claim 11, wherein the suction elements (3, 4) have means for measuring air throughput (16) and transmitting measured values of air throughput, and also means for setting and providing feedback on a spring bias (18).

13. The method as claimed in claim 11, wherein at least one of said horizontal suction elements (3) comprises a suction cup, and a contact pressure of the suction cup is detected as a parameter by way of preliminary tests with surface materials used for luggage.

14. The method as claimed in claim 11, further comprising, determining how low front faces of individual pieces of luggage are positioned in the container during the determining step via a terrain model by detecting vertical positions using corresponding sensors.

15. The method as claimed in claim 11, wherein the method is used for unloading and/or loading stationary or movable containers, or moving containers.

16. The method as claimed in claim 11, wherein at least one of the gripper housing, the vertical suction element carrier (5) and the horizontal suction element carrier (6), comprise sensors, which function as scales.

17. The method as claimed in claim 11, wherein a loading situation is detected by a computer system and is made using a data-related basis of an automatic detection process.

18. The method according to claim 11, wherein the first piece of luggage to be removed is not the top piece of luggage.

19. The method according to claim 11, wherein the withdrawing step comprises, withdrawing said piece of luggage horizontal as tar as possible without the piece of luggage falling out of the container.

20. A non-transitory, machine-readable carrier with a program code of a computer program for carrying out the method as claimed in claim 11 when the program is run in a computer.