A method and device for treating containers with at least two container treatment machines, between which a transport device for transporting the containers is arranged, where the transport device is divided into several transport sections, where the flow of containers is changed from containers of type A to containers of type B, where a separating device is activated once the first transport section has run empty of containers of type A, where containers of the type B are transported into the first transport section and backed up at the separating device, while containers of type A are transported from the second transport section to the second container treatment machine, and where the separating device is deactivated once the second transport section has run empty of containers of the type A, so that the containers of type B are transported through the second transport section to the second container treatment machine.

The invention relates to a method for managing a module for sorting units, which involves arranging said units loose in a reservoir; sorting said units according to a specific orientation into a batch inserted into a housing, by lifting from said reservoir towards an exit at an elevation speed; expelling said batch of sorted units from said outlet towards an entrance of a supply column, said expelled units passing through a circulation area situated between said exit and said entrance. The method comprising, at said circulation area, detecting the number of units expelled in each batch; accelerating or decelerating the elevation speed depending on said number of units detected. The invention also concerns a corresponding management device.

Telescopic conveyor with integrated indexing and measuring conveyor is described, the telescopic conveyor having a frame, at least one telescopic segment mounted so as to be extendable with respect to the frame and a transport conveyor, the transport conveyor is driven at a first conveying speed (v.sub.1) and is supported on the at least one telescopic segment and on the frame and wherein the indexing and measuring conveyor is arranged on a delivery side of the transport conveyor. The telescopic conveyor enables the packet items located thereon to be automatically separated while taking up as little space as possible. The indexing and measuring conveyor is mounted on the same frame and is driven at a second conveying speed (v.sub.2), the second conveying speed (v.sub.2) being greater than the first conveying speed (v.sub.1).

A system is provided. The system includes a conveyor apparatus configured for conveying a material and a water content measurement system positioned about the conveyor apparatus for determining water content in the material. A dimension characteristic measurement system for detecting one or more dimension characteristics of the material is provided and a computer device is configured to manipulate data received from the water content measurement system and the dimension characteristic measurement system to determine a water content of the material.

An air seeder assembly that has a tank for containing commodity, a meter assembly coupled to the tank and configured to selectively distribute commodity there through, a first conduit coupled to the meter assembly to direct commodity provided to the first conduit from the meter assembly to a tool assembly, a diverter that selectively diverts commodity to the first conduit, and a sensor coupled to the diverter to identify when commodity is passing thereby.

A system and method for estimating aspects of target objects and/or associated task implementations is disclosed.

A vacuum cup damage detection system detects vacuum cup damage or absence in a robot singulator including a vacuum-based end effector with one or more vacuum cups. The system generally comprises a plate and a control subsystem. The plate provides a potential point of engagement for the one or more vacuum cups of the vacuum-based end effector when the robot singulator is moved to a predetermined position in which, if present, at least one of the one or more vacuum cups of the vacuum-based end effector is in contact with the plate. The control subsystem includes: one or more sensors configured to obtain readings indicative of the engagement of the one or more vacuum cups with the plate or lack thereof; and a controller configured to determine whether any one of the vacuum cups is damaged or missing based on the readings obtained by the one or more sensors.

A method for forming aggregates of food pieces by arranging a plurality of food pieces such that the food pieces at least partially overlap one another is provided. The method automatically changes the number of food pieces forming each aggregate and a pitch at which the food pieces are arranged so as to limit the weights of the aggregates within a predetermined permissible range and to form each aggregate such that the total length of the aggregate is a preset length. The method also automatically changes the number of food pieces forming each aggregate and the pitch at which the food pieces are arranged according to the length of the food piece in the arrangement direction.

A method in which a probability of the occurrence of a disruption is issued and/or a measure is initiated which reduces the probability of the occurrence of this disruption if the occurrence of a disruption is probable, bases the probability on unit load properties of a conveyed unit load. In this method, the transport of this unit load is classified with regard to whether or not a disruption occurs during the transport of this unit load. The unit load properties are fed into a learning algorithm together with the transport classification. By repeating the steps for a number of unit loads, the probability of the occurrence of a disruption during the transport of the unit loads can be computed. Further, a picking system carries out the method presented.

Methods and systems for automated detection of carton damage are disclosed. One method includes capturing one or more images of a carton via a camera system at a routing location within a warehouse of a retail supply chain, and applying a machine learning model to determine a likelihood of damage of the carton. The method can include, based on the likelihood of damage being above a particular threshold, identifying the carton as damaged. A carton assessment record can be stored in a carton damage tracking database, including the one or more images of the carton alongside the likelihood of damage and the routing location.