A METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR IDENTIFYING ANOMALIES DURING OPERATION OF A CONVEYOR SYSTEM, IN PARTICULAR OF AN AIRPORT LUGGAGE CAROUSEL

Abstract

Airport luggage carousels are usually operated in a run-to-failure approach that necessarily leads to failures. Anomalies are detected during operation of a conveyor system having a revolving drive chain, a drive unit and a conveyor belt. The drive chain serves to transmit force and motion from a drive unit to a conveyor belt, and has chain elements and pins connecting them. At least one of the pins is a force measurement pin that registers the forces acting thereon during movement of the drive chain. The registered forces are transmitted wirelessly to the background system together with a timestamp and/or a location stamp and an identity of the force measurement pin. The transmitted data are analyzed in the background system and, in the event of deviations, identified as an anomaly and signaled by a notification. The measurement results are evaluated to derive maintenance measures in a targeted manner.

Claims

1-15. (canceled)

16. A method for identifying anomalies during an operation of a conveyor system for transporting piece goods, the conveyor system including a revolving drive chain, a drive unit, and a conveying section, the drive chain serving to transmit a driving force from the drive unit to the conveying section, the drive chain having chain links and pins connecting the chain links; the method comprising: providing at least one of the pins as a force measuring pin configured for contactless transmission of forces acting on the pin to a background system; registering the forces acting on the force measuring pin when the drive chain is moved; wirelessly transmitting the registered forces from the force measuring pin to the background system together with at least one of a time stamp or a location stamp and an identity of the force measuring pin; in the background system, subjecting data transmitted in the transmitting step to an analysis and, when deviations are detected, identifying the deviations as an anomaly and signaling the anomaly with a message.

17. The method according to claim 16, which comprises identifying the deviations by a statistical comparison with preceding registrations or by a comparison with a fixed value.

18. The method according to claim 16, which comprises continuously or almost continuously registering continuously the forces acting on the force measuring pin analogously or at a high sampling rate.

19. The method according to claim 16, wherein the force measuring pin is battery-operated or is supplied with current via cabling.

20. The method according to claim 16, wherein the force measuring pin comprises a shaft having a Wheatstone bridge for measuring shear deformation.

21. The method according to claim 16, which comprises transmitting status data of each force measuring pin, in addition to the registered forces.

22. The method according to claim 21, which comprises transmitting at least one of a remaining battery capacity or a temperature of the force measuring pin.

23. The method according to claim 22, which comprises, when a defined battery capacity is undershot or when a certain temperature is overshot, transmitting a corresponding a message.

24. The method according to claim 16, which comprises transmitting the data from the force measuring pin to the background system via a gateway, wherein the gateway is installed at a fixed location of the conveying system and a zero time is set at each maximum approach of the force measuring pin.

25. In a conveyor system for transporting piece goods, the conveyor system comprising a revolving drive chain, a drive unit and a conveying section, wherein the drive chain serves for transmitting force and movement from the drive unit to the conveying section and the drive chain is formed with chain links and pins connecting the chain links, a system for identifying anomalies during an operation of the conveyor system comprising: at least one of the pins being a force measuring pin configured for a contactless transmission of the forces acting on the at least one pin to a background system; and said background system being configured to receive from said force measuring pin, by way of wireless transmission, forces acting on said force measuring pin during an operation when the drive chain is being moved, together with at least one of a time stamp or a location stamp and an identity of said force measuring pin; and said background system being configured to subject data received from said force measuring pin via the wireless transmission to an analysis and, when deviations are detected, to identify the deviations as an anomaly and to signal the anomaly by way of a message.

26. The system according to claim 25, wherein the conveying section comprises lamellae forming a conveying surface, the drive unit and the drive chain are formed by a chain drive, and the drive chain is configured to pull the lamellae.

27. The system according to claim 25, wherein said force measuring pin is configured to continuously or almost continuously register the forces acting on it with high sampling rate and to transmit the forces to the background system.

28. The system according to claim 25, wherein said force measuring pin comprises a battery.

29. The system according to claim 25, wherein said force measuring pin is configured to be supplied with current via cabling.

30. The system according to claim 25, wherein said force measuring pin comprises a shaft with a Wheatstone bridge for measuring shear deformation.

31. The system according to claim 25, wherein said force measuring pin is configured for capturing status data and to transmit the captured status data to said background system.

32. The system according to claim 31, wherein the status data to be captured are at least one of a remaining battery capacity or a temperature of said force measuring pin.

33. The system according to claim 31, further comprising a gateway installed at a fixed location of the conveyor system for transmitting the registered data from the force measuring pin to the background system, and wherein said gateway is configured to set a zero time at each maximum approach of said force measuring pin.

Description

[0041] Embodiments of the invention will be explained in more detail, by way of example, below with reference to the figures. In the drawings:

[0042] FIG. 1 shows a detail of a drive chain; and

[0043] FIG. 2 shows a force diagram of force measuring pins with and without an anomaly.

[0044] The embodiment described in detail below relates to a reclaim carousel 2. The invention is not limited to an airport baggage carousel, but is applicable to every type of conveyor systems having a revolving drive chain 4. All anomalies A which manifest themselves in a change in the chain tension can be identified, with the duration and/or severity of the change in the chain tension being dependent on the type of anomaly A.

[0045] FIG. 1 shows a detail of a drive chain 4 of a baggage conveying carousel according to one embodiment of the invention. The individual chain links 6.sub.n−i, 6.sub.n, 6.sub.n+i are held together by pins 8′, 8. In the case of a drive chain 4, at least one of the pins 8′ is a force measuring pin 8. The force measuring pin 8 measures the forces between two chain links 6.sub.n, 6.sub.n+i and, during the revolution of the drive chain 4, contactlessly transmits the force which acts on the drive chain 4 and thus on the force measuring pin 8 in the direction of movement to a background system. Since the drive chain 4 is a revolving drive chain 4, the force measuring pin 8 cyclically reaches all points of the baggage conveying carousel by its movement. Any over-tensioning or under-tensioning of the drive chain 4, which are an indication of anomalies A of the conveyor system 2 to be maintained, are measured and transmitted to the background system. In order to achieve a high degree of accuracy and/or to enable an instantaneous evaluation, the force measuring pin 8 can register the forces acting on it analogously or with a high sampling or sampling rate and thus enable a continuous or almost continuous measurement. In the case of immediate transmission to the background system, which can be integrated into a SCADA system, this system can then identify anomalies A almost instantly and a maintenance worker can respond to this identified anomaly A. Maintenance can thus be planned better, depending on the type of identified anomaly, an immediate interruption of operation for maintenance can also take place in order to prevent worse damage that would otherwise occur during ongoing operation.

[0046] The background system can visualize the measured values for maintenance personnel via software, so trained employees can identify excessively high and excessively low tensioning as anomalies A and can derive suitable measures. If the baggage carousel has more than one drive unit, the distribution of the drive forces can be observed in this way.

[0047] FIG. 2 shows a force diagram F as a function of the location x of the measurement of different force measuring pins 8a, 8b, 8c. The force measuring pin 8c has an anomaly A, more precisely an error in a drive unit. A drive unit operates incorrectly, as a result of which the other drive unit is overloaded. Other anomalies A (faults of the friction drive, blocked rollers, states of the motor of a drive unit, track disruptions, jammed interfering parts, etc.) can be identified, with disruptions of different types being expressed in different force diagrams and it thus being possible to infer the type of anomaly A on the basis of the configuration of the force diagram.

[0048] Typically, a force measuring pin 8 comprises a rotary part, for example a hollow shaft, and an internal strain gauge for force measurement.

[0049] According to a further embodiment, the measured forces can be automatically summarized into error messages. For this purpose, in addition to the maximum registered force F and the minimally registered force F, their difference can also be identified. In addition to the triggering of maintenance instructions, a baggage carousel can thus also be protected by way of automated shutdowns from longer-term overloads (such as occur, for example, with jamming of the scales).

[0050] The deviations of the forces from the normally occurring forces are identified by a statistical comparison with preceding registrations or by a comparison with a fixed size. A comparison of the force diagrams of different force measuring pins 8 and/or different baggage carousels is also used to identify anomalies A. A trained maintenance worker with experience or a well programmed background system supplied with parameters of the baggage carousel can sometimes also identify anomalies on the basis of the force diagram of a single force measuring pin 8.

[0051] The data is transmitted from the force measuring pin 8 to the background system according to one embodiment via a gateway installed at a fixed location of the conveyor system, with a zero time being set at each maximum approach of the force measuring pin 8. The data received by the gateway, that is to say, at least the triple identity of the force measuring pin, the measured force and a time or location stamp are transmitted to the background system, for example to a Cloud, and are analyzed there by means of a signal processing server by— [0052] comparison with previously received triples (of the same force measuring pin 8 and/or the same measuring position); [0053] statistical evaluation over time. The same signal processing server can analyze the data of different baggage carousels and compare them with one another—at least when the baggage carousels have a comparable structure. If a clear deviation is identified in this analysis, a message can be transmitted to the operator with an indication of the installation and the location of the identified anomaly in order to be able to summon maintenance personnel. Further plant parameters are stored in the background system.

[0054] The force-measuring sensors 8 can preferably transmit further status data of each force measuring pin 8 in addition to the data triple, for example a remaining battery capacity and its temperature. With this additional data, the state of the force measuring pin 8 itself can thus also be monitored by the signal processing server in the background system. As a result, the availability of the proposed method and system for identifying anomalies A during operation of a conveyor system is improved once again and without significant additional effort.

[0055] Due to the dynamic detection, problems are identified more quickly and the wear is reduced. Maintenance intervals can be planned and optionally extended. Problems that occur only during ongoing operation can be identified solely by the dynamic measurement. This includes overloading and blockage of a wheel. Up to now, the additional wear and the risk of a chain crack were tolerated. Automatic evaluation of the measurement results allows the maintenance engineers to easily derive targeted maintenance measures.

LIST OF REFERENCE NUMERALS

[0056] 4 drive chain [0057] 6 chain link [0058] 8 force measuring pin [0059] 8′ pin [0060] A anomaly