Connector assembly (100), system and method for converting a batch wise supply of insects (102) to a continuous supply of insects (102). A container unit is present (105) having an internal volume, a water inlet unit (106-109, 117), and a suspension outlet unit (110-113). A receiving unit (101) has a top opening (101a) arranged for receiving batch wise quantities of insects (102) and a bottom opening (114). A conveyor unit (104) has a receiving part (104b) arranged near the bottom opening (114) of the receiving unit (101), and an outlet end (119) extending into the container unit (105). By suspending the insects (102) in water it is possible to transport the suspension of insects (102) in water, e.g. to a buffer container (300).

In a method of operating a dimensioning system with a plurality of laser scanners, a processor controls the operations of the scanners and processes the scanner signals, and further with memory for storing data delivered by the processor, the data acquired by the dimensioning system in its regular mode of operation are used to construct a three-dimensional model of surface points of the object including spatial coordinates and image intensity for each surface point. The three-dimensional model is stored in the memory. Based on the three-dimensional model, two-dimensional images from any desired viewing angle that was exposed to the scanner rays can be produced on demand to document the appearance of the object at the time the scan was taken.

A plurality of three-dimensional (3D) cameras is deployed about a zone through which freight is conveyed to a shipping container. The 3D cameras have sensors with fields of view over which a plurality of point clouds of voxels are captured from the freight. A server combines the point clouds to obtain a composite point cloud of the freight, encloses the composite point cloud with a bounding box having dimensions, and dimensions the freight from the dimensions of the bounding box. An optional scale weighs the freight while it is being dimensioned and moved through the zone.

The invention relates to an optimization method for improving the reliability of a collection and discharge of articles in a picking process using a robot. An article is collected from or out of a first article carrier and is placed down or thrown into or onto a second article carrier by means of a gripping unit on the robot head. In an image processing step, a gripping position for the gripping unit is calculated for collecting the article(s) by determining at least one dimension based on a captured image and by a range allocation being determined by means of a comparison with dimension ranges. Depending on a confidence value, a dimension value is determined, from stored article reference data or from a normalization value of the dimension range and allocated to the determined dimension. In a preparation step, a mathematical scattering measure function is applied for the determined dimension and for the dimension ranges, and normalization values and confidence values of the dimension ranges are determined therefrom.

An article transport facility includes a transport conveyor (34) and a weighing device (24), which includes a support portion (28) for supporting a container (C1) and a measuring portion (30) configured to measure a weight of the container (C1) supported by the support portion (28). The article transport facility is configured to perform a state change between a withdrawn state in which the support portion (28) is withdrawn downward relative to a transport surface (34A) and a protruding state in which the support portion (28) protrudes upward relative to the transport surface (34A) by moving the support portion (28) and the transport conveyor (34) relative to each other in a vertical direction (Z). A support surface (28A) of the support portion (28) is inclined such that one corner portion (8A) of multiple corner portions (8) located at corners of the container (C1) is lower than the other corner portions (8).

A handling robot, a material fetching method, a material replenishing or returning method, and an intelligent warehousing system, the handling robot comprises a vertical bracket (19); a pallet (22) for storing a material box; and a handling system installed to the vertical bracket (19), where the pallet (22) is installed to the handling system, and the handling system is used for fetching a material box from one of a warehouse shelf (24) and the pallet (22), storing it onto the other, and/or fetching out a material from a material box stored on the pallet (22). With the configuration of the handling system, a material can be fetched out from a material box stored on the pallet, and after the material is fetched out, the material box is placed back onto the warehouse shelf, such manner of material fetching is flexible, and has high efficiency.

A method for storing product items in storage bins in a storage system includes a bin storing grid in which storage bins are stored above each other in columns. The method includes: inserting product items to or retrieving product items from the respective storage bins at a port; determining a weight for each storage bin after one or more product items have been inserted to or retrieved from the storage bin; determining a storage position for the storage bin in the bin storing grid based on the weight; and transporting the storage bin from the port to the determined storage position by means of a vehicle and a bin lift device provided on each vehicle.

A system for transferring parcels made in accordance with the present invention includes: a first conveyor for conveying a bulk flow of parcels; a second conveyor positioned adjacent to the first conveyor; a robot positioned adjacent to the first conveyor and the second conveyor; and a rejection member. The robot engages and transfers select parcels in the bulk flow of parcels on the first conveyor to the second conveyor. The rejection member is positioned as to receive parcels offloaded from the first conveyor and/or the second conveyor and directs such parcels out of the system. Parcels within the bulk flow of parcels with characteristics which make it difficult for one or more of the components of the system or downstream systems to handle or process can be directed to the rejection member by operation of the first conveyor and/or the second conveyor to reduce system processing delays and stoppages.

A combination weighing apparatus includes a retaining hopper that retains an article and supplies the retained article onto a transport path. The retaining hopper has a coupling portion adapted to be inserted in along the support rails and pulled off from support rails disposed in a pair. The retaining hopper is thus supportable by the support rails and is readily mounted to and dismounted from the apparatus without using any tool for cleaning and other purposes.

In a system and a method for detecting a number of articles in a placement region of a load carrier in an article storage, the load carrier is provisioned in an analysis region, and an image of the placement region of the load carrier is captured by an image capturing system and transmitted to a data processing unit, whereupon the image is evaluated by an algorithm for object recognition, in order to recognize the articles arranged in the placement region of the load carrier as objects and to ascertain the number of articles in the placement region of the load carrier.