A method and a system for detecting consignments or items which cannot be conveyed by a conveying system cost-effectively detect non-conveyable items for a materials handling system. A conveyor section and a light grid or curtain or comparable measuring assembly are configured and disposed in such a way that a consignment or item can be conveyed on the conveyor section through the light grid or curtain, so that a data structure characterizing the consignment or item can be generated by the light grid or curtain and fed into the detection system. The detection system is adapted to judge whether the consignment or item is conveyable or not based on the data structure.

According to the present embodiment, a control device of a conveyor system controls a moving device and a suction device to suction the transport target article so that an approximate center of an opening of at least one suction unit is located on a first imaginary line, and remaining suction unit is located on one end side in a longitudinal direction of the transport target article with respect to the first imaginary line, controls a turning-over section to be in a front-back reversing orientation, and performs control so that suction of the transport target article by the suction units is released after the suction device is in the front-back reversing orientation.

A shaker table for settling randomly oriented items in a generally rectangular container with sidewalls prone to bulge at lower portions thereof, including a pan with a generally horizontal bottom for supporting the container and an underlying pallet while being shaken, a power drive for shaking the pan, container, and pallet, and side restraints limiting lateral movement of the container during shaking movement.

A parcel processing system and related process. The parcel processing system includes a bulk transport conveyor (702), a multi-stage bulk transport accumulator (701), a singulator (710), and a control system. A process includes receiving a bulk flow of parcels (720) at a bulk transport conveyor (702) to be transported from the bulk transport conveyor (702) through a multi-stage bulk transport accumulator (701) to a singulator (710), determining a speed setting of the singulator (710), operating a first stage (708) of the multi-stage bulk transport accumulator (701) according to the speed setting of the singulator (710), operating a second stage (706) of the multi-stage bulk transport accumulator (701) according to a fill state of the first stage (708) of the multi-stage bulk transport accumulator (701), and operating the bulk transport conveyor (702) according to a fill state of the immediate downstream stage of the multi-stage bulk transport accumulator (701).

System and method are provided where parcels or packages are associated or grouped, into logical group or logical containerization of parcels or packages, without need for physical container, such that parcels or packages can be tracked as a group, for example with a unique group ID. Logical group may be tracked within specified logical zone on conveyor, transported, sorted and/or otherwise processed as unique logical group without need to be contained in physical container. System and method for automated sortation can accumulate set number or set volume of packages, and then process the accumulated set number or volume of packages.

A system (500) for distributing a stream of articles (100) at a fix pitch (P) includes a belt assembly (250) with belt segments (252) carrying a stream of articles (100), a sensor assembly (510) with sensors (512), a control system (550) interfacing with the belt assembly (250) and the sensor assembly (510), wherein the sensor assembly (510) provides measurements of initial positions of each article of the stream of articles (100) and transmits the measurements to the control system (550), wherein the control system (550) utilizes the measurements to determine deficits of the initial positions to final positions for each article based on a predefined pitch value (P), and wherein the control system (550) controls a speed of the plurality of belt segments (252) to provide the final positions for each article according to the predefined pitch value (P).

Systems, methods, and computer-readable media are disclosed for directed palletization using lights. In one embodiment, an example system may include a conveyor configured to support packages, a first set of LEDs disposed along a first side of the conveyor, the first set of LEDs having a first LED, a second set of LEDs disposed adjacent to the first set of LEDs, the second set of LEDs having a second LED, and a first sensor configured to identify packages. The system may include a second sensor disposed on the first side of the conveyor, and a third sensor disposed on the first side of the conveyor. A first color of the first LED may indicate the first package is to be scanned at the second sensor, and a second color of the second LED may indicate the second package is to be scanned at the third sensor.

An installation for sorting articles comprises a carousel sorting conveyor having transport bins, an article feed magazine in which articles stored loosely are put into series and then injected one-by-one into the transport bins of the conveyor by an injection device, and a monitoring and control unit that acts on the bins so as to open each of them over a receptacle that corresponds to a delivery address of the article, the injection device comprising piston pushers and a system of sensors being provided to generate data representative of an outline of the article seen in plan so as to enable the data processing unit to detect inappropriate positioning of the article before it is injected into a bin, and, in such a situation, direct the improperly positioned article towards a reject receptacle.

There is provided a parcel recognition device that recognizes a parcel based on a color image including the parcel, the device including: a processor; and a memory, in which by cooperating with the memory, the processor subtracts a color of a projection image from a color of an image projection surface of the parcel on which the projection image is projected, in the color image, and sets a color obtained by the subtraction as a color of a recognition target, and recognizes the parcel.

According to the present embodiment, a picking system includes a control device configured to control a suction device and a moving device, wherein when it is determined that a transport target article needs to be moved to a transport target position with a front side and back side of the transport target article turned over, the control device causes a suction unit to suction the transport target article, the moving device to transport the transport target article to a position above the transport target position, a turning-over section to set the suction hand to an orientation in which the transport target article is positioned above the suction unit and a direction substantially orthogonal to the suction surface is inclined with respect to the gravity direction.