A method for adapting motion profiles of a plurality of individually controllable transport elements for transporting containers in a container treatment system along a transport path, wherein the plurality of transport elements are movably arranged along the transport path, the method includes the following steps: determining a treatment state of at least one container carried along by a first transport element, and/or determining an operational state of at least one first container treatment unit which is arranged downstream with respect to a position of the first transport element along the transport path, wherein the first transport element is moved by an open- and/or closed-loop control unit of the container treatment system as part of a stream of transport elements, and wherein the motion profile of the first transport element is adapted by the open- and/or closed-loop control unit in response to the determined treatment state and/or the determined operational state.

A motorized drive roller conveyor includes an upstream zone and a downstream zone, with each zone having a drive roller, an idler roller that is driven by the drive roller, and a sensor. The upstream zone and the downstream zone are controlled by a card, which measures a gap between a first item on the conveyor and a second item on the conveyor by beginning a counter when a trailing edge of the first item passes the sensor of the upstream zone and stopping the counter when a leading edge of the second item passes the sensor of the upstream zone to generate a counter value. If the first item is stopped in the downstream zone, the card of the upstream zone causes the drive roller of the upstream zone to advance the second item into the downstream zone for a distance derived from the counter value before stopping the transportation of the second item.

A control includes a control device configured to execute a plurality of types of processing including assignment processing of assigning one or more movement tasks for transporting the article, to one of the plurality of transport vehicles. In response to a processing load on the control device exceeding a predetermined reference load, the control system reduces the processing load on the control device by enabling a restriction mode in which the control device is restricted from executing target processing including one or more of the types of processing executed by the control device other than the assignment processing.

Embodiments provide methods, systems, and apparatuses for loading workpieces in a flow direction into the spaced apart lugs on a lugged conveyor with the workpieces oriented transverse to the flow direction. The lug loader includes an array of pairs of endless conveyors configured to convey workpieces toward a lugged conveyor. The first and second endless conveyors of each pair are spaced laterally apart across the flow direction and aligned substantially in the flow direction. The array can form a continuous or discontinuous transport surface. Some pairs of endless conveyors in the array may overlap one or more other pairs of endless conveyors in the array. At least one pair of endless conveyors in the array may include two or more endless conveyors that are independently driven at different speeds and/or in different directions to de-skew a workpiece.

A camera based vision system that recognizes and maximizes belt area utilization. A plurality of cameras are positioned at flow entry points of feed conveyors and at the singulator. The control algorithm recognizes individual items area, the rate at which individual objects are passing, and the area utilization of the collector belt. The video camera and computer based conveyor package management system monitor and control the number and size of the packages present on the infeed conveyors, collector conveyor, singulator conveyor and sorting conveyor in a package handling system wherein the camera data is used to measure the available area or space on the conveyors to maintain a desired density of packages on selected conveyor(s). The conveyor speed is controlled as a function of occupancy on a collector or just prior to a singulator or receiver.

In order to be able to plan and control the movement of a transportation unit of a conveying device along a conveying line more easily and more quickly, provision is made so that at least part of the conveying line (2) is assigned at least one logical sector (LSi), wherein the at least one logical sector (LSi) is allocated to one or more conveying segments (FSi) or parts thereof, a movement profile for the transportation unit (TEi) is allocated to the at least one logical sector (LSi), the transportation unit (TEi) is moved in accordance with the specified movement profiles along the at least one logical sector (LSi) and in doing so a new setpoint (S) of the movement is ascertained in each cycle step of the setpoint selection, and the setpoint (S) is transferred via the allocation to one or more conveying segments (FSi), or parts thereof, to the allocated conveying segment(s) (FSi) for adjustment.

To make it possible to operate a conveyor installation (1) in the form of a long stator linear motor in a simple manner, a first trigger point (Tx) is defined in at least one first position (Px) on the conveying track (2) and a first program code (Fx) which can be executed in the system controller (6) and with which a transport unit (TEn) is moved along a track section of the conveying track (2) in accordance with a defined movement profile is assigned to the first trigger point (Tx), and this program code (Fx) is executed for each transport unit (TEn) that reaches the first trigger point (Tx).

Embodiments of a system and method for sorting and delivering articles in a processing facility based on image data are described. Image processing results such as rotation notation information may be included in or with an image to facilitate downstream processing such as when the routing information cannot be extracted from the image using an unattended system and the image is passed to an attended image processing system. The rotation notation information may be used to dynamically adjust the image before presenting the image via the attended image processing system.

A motorized drive roller conveyor includes an upstream zone and a downstream zone, with each zone having a drive roller, an idler roller that is driven by the drive roller, and a sensor. The upstream zone and the downstream zone are controlled by a card, which measures a gap between a first item on the conveyor and a second item on the conveyor by beginning a counter when a trailing edge of the first item passes the sensor of the upstream zone and stopping the counter when a leading edge of the second item passes the sensor of the upstream zone to generate a counter value. If the first item is stopped in the downstream zone, the card of the upstream zone causes the drive roller of the upstream zone to advance the second item into the downstream zone for a distance derived from the counter value before stopping the transportation of the second item.

A conveyor system including a fixed, non-powered rail defining a conveyor path, and a plurality of automated conveyor carriers supported on the rail. Each carrier includes an on-board motor, at least one wheel forming an interface with the rail, and an on-board power source selectively powering the on-board motor to drive the ACC along the rail. Each of the plurality of carriers operates to power the on-board motor from the on-board power source under the direction of instructions programmed to a local controller. Each of the local controllers is programmed with an algorithm for independent wear monitoring of the at least one wheel and further programmed to take at least one responsive action based on an identification of the at least one wheel being worn.