An image processing apparatus, connected to an imaging part to capture an image of workpieces conveyed on a conveyer, includes an interface that receives a signal indicating a travel distance of the conveyer, an interface that communicates with a control device for controlling a moving machine disposed downstream of an imaging area of a imaging part, a positional information acquisition unit that processes the image captured by the imaging part and thereby acquiring positional information of a pre-registered workpiece in the image, a travel distance obtaining unit that obtains the travel distance of the conveyer synchronized with the control device, an initiating unit that initiates the capturing by the imaging part in response to an imaging command, and a transmission unit that transmits, to the control device, the positional information and the travel distance upon the capturing of the image used to acquire the positional information.

A method for manufacturing control of machining of workpieces in a manufacturing hall that includes providing a plurality of image acquisition devices configured to acquire image sequences of allocated observation areas, identifying an object to be tracked in a first image of a first image sequence using at least one object feature, determining positions of the object feature in images of subsequent image sequences, determining a current position of the object by localizing the object feature in a temporally current image of one of the image sequences, and assigning the position of the object feature in the temporally current image to a current position in the observation area of the image sequence that includes the temporally current image, and integrating the determined current position of the object into the manufacturing control of the hall.

A method for reconciliation in a drug filling line includes providing a batch number relating to a predetermined batch of containers to be filled with a drug. Each one of the containers is marked with a unique identifier differentiating and/or identifying each container among others. Each unique identifier is stored and associated with the batch number by a processing and control unit, before starting the filling step of each container. Filled containers are flashed by at least one identifier reader to check correspondence between the batch number being processed and each filled container, in order to validate or reject in real time each container with respect to a predetermined batch being processed by the filling line.

The present application concerns a system for tracing a product item (102, 104) on a production line (100) comprising a control unit (10) and a timestamp counter (11), wherein the control unit (10) is configured to receive a product signal related to the product item (102, 104) from at least one peripheral device (12, 14, 16, 18, 20, 22, 24, 26). According to the invention, the control unit (10) is further configured to carry out the method steps of receiving a plurality of product signals each relating to a product item (102, 104) and a peripheral device (12, 14, 16, 18, 20, 22, 24, 26), generating a plurality of event signals, wherein each event signal is based on one of the product signals, arranging the event signals in a sequence corresponding to an order in which the product signals were received, and associating a timestamp generated by the timestamp counter (11) with the sequence.

A server and a controlling method therefor are provided. The server includes a communicator, a memory, and a processor configured to receive first log information related to a first material generated in a first facility among facilities, the first facility belonging to a first process for manufacturing a product through the communicator, generate an identifier (ID) regarding the first material, generate tracking information on the first material based on the first log information, assign the ID to the tracking information, receive pieces of second log information generated in a second facility among the facilities, the second facility belonging to a second process following the first process through the communicator, identify second log information corresponding to the first material among the pieces of second log information based on the first log information included in the tracking information, and update the tracking information based on the identified second log information.

A control apparatus for controlling a packaging machine that includes a conveyance mechanism for conveying an item to be packaged includes: an acquirer configured to acquire a detection result from a sensor for detecting an item to be packaged; a determiner configured to obtain elapsed time from a predetermined time point until when the item to be packaged is detected by the sensor, based on the detection result acquired by the acquirer, and determine a shift direction in which the item to be packaged is shifted from a predetermined position, based on the elapsed time; and a controller configured to control, for the item to be packaged for which detection is performed by the sensor, implementation of any one of downstream units that are downstream of a unit in which the detection is performed by the sensor, based on the shift direction that is determined by the determiner.

A machine learning device provided in a control unit observes, as state variables representing a current state of an environment, conveyance operation data indicating a state of a conveyance operation of a conveying machine and conveyance article state data indicating a state of the conveyance article, and acquires, as determination data, conveyance speed determination data indicating an appropriateness determination result relating to a conveyance speed of the conveyance article and conveyance article state determination data indicating an appropriateness determination result relating to variation in the state of the conveyance article. The conveyance operation data and the conveyance article state data are then learned in association with each other by using the state variables and the determination data.

A manufacturing execution system (MES) that provides tools for modeling and determining information about physical production lines made up of arrangements of entities. The MES includes configuration tools for modeling the entities in a physical production line. The MES also includes configuration tools for modeling the physical production line. Entity data models and line data models conform to the data structure of respective model templates. Line data models include line definition models and line layout models. Line layout models include an entity link model for each of the entities in the physical production line. The MES includes tools for dynamically determining the bottleneck for the physical production line. Other production metrics are also calculated using the MES.

A method for manufacturing control of machining of workpieces in a manufacturing hall that includes providing a plurality of image acquisition devices configured to acquire image sequences of allocated observation areas, identifying an object to be tracked in a first image of a first image sequence using at least one object feature, determining positions of the object feature in images of subsequent image sequences, determining a current position of the object by localizing the object feature in a temporally current image of one of the image sequences, and assigning the position of the object feature in the temporally current image to a current position in the observation area of the image sequence that includes the temporally current image, and integrating the determined current position of the object into the manufacturing control of the hall.

Signals are transmitted between a device placed on an object and at least one further device. Based on measurement of the signals transmitted between the device and the at least one further device, a position of the object is determined. Further, data associated with the object are stored in the device. The stored data are then transmitted from the device.