Disclosed herein is a robotic product unscrambler apparatus which is capable of operating with ultra high efficiency and with minimum environmental impact. Efficiency and energy saving are achieved thanks to the possibility of processing products regardless of their preliminary orientation, so to remit sorting of the products to a subsequent unscrambling device of the product unscrambler. This results in the substantial absence of non-processed products due to preliminary orientation reasons, and accordingly very littleif at allenergy input to recirculate non processed products.

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.

An article induction system for preparing a stream of articles, such as mail parcels, for processing employs a series of conveyors operating under control of a controller for feeding articles to an operator at a cull belt at an optimal paced rate. The article induction system includes a destacking section, a separation and alignment section, a buffer section and a culling section manned by an operator. A controller controls the speed of each component based on measurements provided by sensors so as to feed articles to the operator at a desired paced rate.

Disclose herein are an automated article singulator and a method thereof. The singulator according to one embodiment includes a measuring unit configured to measure positions and postures of articles being transferred, an arranging unit configured to receive randomly supplied articles, transfer the articles using a transfer apparatus, and change moving directions of the articles using a plurality of direction changing apparatuses, and a control unit configured to control the direction changing apparatuses one at a time or in groups to arrange flows of the articles according to information measured by the measuring unit.

A system (100) for delaminating a stream (110) of articles (A, B, C, D, E) includes a delamination unit (130) with a plurality of individually controlled rollers (134) configured to carry a stream (110) of articles (A, B, C, D, E), a detection unit (150) with a sensor (152), and a control unit (160) with a processor (162) and interfacing with the delamination unit (130) and the detection unit (150), wherein the detection unit (150) is configured to detect a position of each of the articles (A, B, C, D, E) and to transmit position data to the control unit (160), and wherein the control unit (160) is configured, through operation of the processor (162), to correlate positions of the articles (A, B, C, D, E) with the plurality of individually controlled rollers (134), and to individually control the rollers (134) based on the position data to delaminate the stream (110) of articles (A, B, C, D, E).

A dispensing apparatus for dispensing articles includes a housing and a drive system. The housing defines a hopper chamber to hold the articles, a dispensing outlet, and a dispensing path between the hopper chamber and the dispensing outlet. The drive system includes a belt and a belt actuator operable to drive the belt. The dispensing apparatus is configured such that articles disposed in the hopper chamber are directed onto the belt and the belt, when driven by the belt actuator, conveys the articles received from the hopper chamber in a dispensing direction along the dispensing path toward the dispensing outlet to be dispensed.

A method and apparatus wherein a flow of elongated product, such as wooden boards, oriented transverse to the direction of travel; having abutted stacks or piles with numerous layers in a variously misaligned fashion, is received onto the first and uppermost of a series of generally horizontal conveyors arranged in a single vertical array one above the other with each subsequent level operating in a direction opposite of the level above it. The flow of product is transferred off the end of each conveyor into and through a gap between the conveyor and a declined reversal ramp system wherein gravity acts with the product's momentum to move it across and past a series of adjacent, planar surfaces angled relative to one another in the general direction of product travel such that the product is aligned more perpendicular to its travel, dispersed more into a single layer, and reversed in its direction of travel with each successive transition to the next lower conveyor resulting in a singulated, aligned array of pieces flowing onto the last and lower-most conveyor from which they are presented to a subsequent process or machine.

Parcel processing systems and methods. A parcel processing system includes a parcel singulation transport configured to transport a stream of singulated parcels. The parcel processing system includes a parcel sorter configured to sort individual parcels in the stream of singulated parcels into a plurality of buffers. Multiple buffers comprise a set of buffers corresponding to a single load builder, and each buffer accumulates and buffers sorted parcels before transfer to the load builder. The parcel processing system includes a parcel flow merge configured to selectively receive buffered parcels from each of the buffers in the set and feed the received parcels to the load builder. The parcel processing system includes the load builder, configured to receive the parcels from the parcel flow merge and build successive stacks of parcels on a parcel pallet.

A pipette tip supply mechanism includes: a pipette tip storage unit for storing a plurality of tapered shaped pipette tips; a belt for transporting a pipette tip supplied from an opening of the pipette tip storage unit; and a belt drive unit that drives the belt in a transport direction. The belt is inclined upwards toward the transport direction so that the pipette tip is rotatable around a longitudinal axis of the pipette tip on a surface of the belt and the pipette tip is rolled to orient the longitudinal axis of the pipette tip along the transport direction in conjunction with the drive of the belt in the transport direction.

A food patty aligning and separating apparatus with a conveyor belt having horizontal cleats extending through a hopper beneath patties. Dividers extend longitudinally through the hopper to form lanes. The conveyor belt's cleats urge patties along lanes up a vertical span of the conveyor, thereby aligning the patties horizontally in a line. The patties pass over a peak and slide down a curved plate to distance the aligned group of patties from a next upstream group of patties. Guide members are spaced from the conveyor belt on hopper side to shear combined patties or pivot outward and cause combined patties to roll back into the hopper.