Methods and systems for customizing hides are provided. In particular, one or more embodiments comprise a tanning control system that improves profitability and customer satisfaction by facilitating the customization of hides according to customer orders. Furthermore, one or more embodiments enable the tanning control system to improve efficiency and responsiveness by producing packages of hides that exactly match customer orders. Additionally, one or more embodiments enhance the traceability of hides by capturing data related to the customization of hides.

An article picking system includes a detection device which detects a position of a plurality of articles which are moved, and a control unit, and the control unit performs work data creation processing which creates work data having position data of each of the articles, work data storage processing which stores the plurality of the created work data, region determination processing which determines determination region on the periphery of watching-target work data, which should be paid attention to, among the stored work data, and order determination processing which determines picking order of the articles by using the watching-target work data and the peripheral work data, which are within the determination region.

A robot control apparatus includes a workpiece orientation calculation unit, an arrival prediction unit, a robot orientation calculation unit, and a trajectory data generation unit. The arrival prediction unit obtains a picking prediction position at which a workpiece that is conveyed by a conveyance apparatus may be picked up by a picking apparatus or the like, based on conveyance speed information supplied by the conveyance apparatus or the like and the sensing information supplied by an image acquisition apparatus.

A controller is provided with a machine learning device learning an operation start condition for storing motions for an article on the carrier device by means of the robot. The machine learning device observes operation start condition data showing the operation start condition and conveyance state data showing states of articles on the carrier device, as state variables indicating a current state of an environment. Further, the machine learning device acquires judgment data showing an appropriateness judgment result of the storing motion and learns the operation start condition in association with the conveyance state data, using the observed state variables and the acquired judgment data.

A carrier device includes a conveyor configured to carry objects supplied continuously; an object detection unit configured to detect the positions and orientations of the objects disposed in a predetermined area on the conveyor; a combination calculation unit, when a robot grasps multiple objects, out of the objects, with a hand and places the grasped objects in a container, configured to calculate combinations of sequences to grasp the objects by the hand; an index calculation unit configured to calculate an index for each combination using the distances and rotation amounts between the objects to be grasped by the hand based on the positions and orientations of the objects; and a robot control unit configured to determine the sequences to grasp the objects by the hand based on the indexes, and grasping the objects and placing the objects in the containers in accordance with the determined sequences.

A holding device for food includes a second posture detecting part configured to detect that all the plurality of foods fed to the given positions are in the second posture, and a control part configured to control operation of the second holding part to hold the plurality of foods in the second posture so that the foods are piled up in the given direction, when the second posture detecting part detects that all the plurality of foods are in the second posture at the given positions.

A temporary-storage system that includes a temporary-storage belt, a control unit and signalling means. The temporary-storage belt comprises a plurality of regularly distributed sensors. During a loading phase, the control unit receives information coming from at least one of the sensors when an object is deposited on the temporary-storage belt and records a trace of the deposition of the object in association with a reference to each of the sensors activated by the deposition. During an unloading phase, the control unit determines a sequence of removal of the objects and, for each object to be removed, identifies the sensors referenced, transmits to the signalling means signalling information identifying the position of the object, and receives information coming from at least one of the sensors when the object is removed.

A robot system includes a sensor, a robot equipped with a gripping device capable of gripping a detected article, and a controller. The controller includes a gripping area setting unit that, for each article, sets a gripping area in which the gripping device is to be positioned when it grips the article, a determination unit that determines presence or absence of interference between the gripping area and other articles, a storage unit that stores a result of determination on the presence or absence of interference determined by the determination unit in association with each detected article, a robot control unit that causes the gripping device to pick up an article for which no other article interferes with the gripping area thereof, and an updating unit that updates the result of determination stored in the storage unit every time an article is picked up by the gripping device.

A method for controlling a velocity of a conveyance path of a system including an industrial robot, a first conveyance path configured to transfer items within a working area (b2) of the robot with a velocity v.sub.1, and a second conveyance path configured to transfer empty places within the working area (b2) of the robot with a velocity v.sub.2. The method includes: obtaining position data for a plurality of items and for a plurality of empty places; creating one or more pairs including one of the empty places of the plurality of empty places and a respective item of the plurality of items; calculating, for one of the one or more pairs, a time t.sub.As for the empty place of the one pair and a time t.sub.Bk for the item of the one pair to reach a border of the working area (b2) based on position data for the one pair and the velocities v.sub.1 and v.sub.2; and controlling the velocity v.sub.2 of the second conveyance path based on a difference between the time t.sub.As and a time (t.sub.Bk+t), where t is a predetermined time difference.

Methods and systems for customizing hides are provided. In particular, one or more embodiments comprise a tanning control system that improves profitability and customer satisfaction by facilitating the customization of hides according to customer orders. Furthermore, one or more embodiments enable the tanning control system to improve efficiency and responsiveness by producing packages of hides that exactly match customer orders. Additionally, one or more embodiments enhance the traceability of hides by capturing data related to the customization of hides.