SORTING FACILITY FOR ITEMS TO BE SORTED WITH DECENTRALIZED FUNCTIONAL UNITS FOR THE DETECTION OF FAULT STATES

Abstract

A sorting facility for items to be sorted, such as postal items, parcels, packages, baggage, suitcases, etc., includes carrying elements, conveyor paths at which the carrying elements are transported to target positions, to empty the items from a carrying element into a target position, a facility controller controlling movement of the carrying elements along the conveyor paths and emptying at the target positions, and a decentralized functional unit receiving process information regarding the conveyor paths and/or the carrying elements and, by comparison with nominal process information, detecting deviation from the nominal process information and reporting it to the controller. The functional units, which monitor the facility or surroundings, have computer-aided intelligence detecting and reporting deviations to the controller. Faults and/or impending faults, which can only be detected with difficulty or not at all, even in sorting facilities, are detected reliably and be reported timely to the controller.

Claims

1. A sorting facility for postal items, parcels, packages, baggage items, suitcases and other items to be sorted, the sorting facility comprising: a) a plurality of carrying elements for the items to be sorted; b) a plurality of conveyor paths at least one of on which or along which said carrying elements can be transported to target positions in order to empty the items to be sorted from a respective carrying element into a target position; c) a facility controller controlling movement of said carrying elements along said conveyor paths and controlling emptying at the target positions; and d) at least one decentralized functional unit receiving process information regarding at least one of said conveyor paths or said carrying elements, detecting a deviation from nominal process information by comparison with the nominal process information and reporting the deviation to said facility controller.

2. The sorting facility according to claim 1, wherein the process information is at least one of optical or acoustic information.

3. The sorting facility according to claim 1, wherein said at least one decentralized functional unit includes at least one of a microphone or a camera.

4. The sorting facility according to claim 1, wherein said at least one decentralized functional unit stores the nominal process information as at least one of images or frequency spectra.

5. The sorting facility according to claim 1, wherein said at least one decentralized functional unit includes an evaluation unit examining captured process information as at least one of an image comparison or a Fourier analysis.

6. The sorting facility according to claim 1, wherein said at least one decentralized functional unit has a catalogue of collateral environmental information and detects the collateral environmental information in the process information as part of an evaluation of the process information.

7. The sorting facility according to claim 1, wherein said at least one decentralized functional unit has a catalogue of process information indicating a fault, and upon detecting a deviation of captured process information from the nominal process information, the deviation is compared with the content of the catalogue of the process information indicating a fault.

8. The sorting facility according to claim 7, wherein if the detected deviation matches an item of process information indicating a fault, the fault to which the match refers is transmitted to said facility controller.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING

[0022] The figure of the drawing is a diagrammatic, top-plan view of a sorting facility for items to be sorted.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0023] Referring now in detail to the single figure of the drawing, there is seen a diagrammatic view from above of a section of a sorting facility 2 for items to be sorted, in this case suitcases 4, 8 and a package 6. A sorting facility 2 of this kind is located, for example, in an airport or a parcel center.

[0024] The sorting facility 2 for items to be sorted, such as postal items, parcels, packages 6, baggage items, suitcases 4, 8 and the like, includes a number of transport trolleys 10 to 14 (carrying elements) for the suitcases 4, 8 and packages 6. The transport trolleys 10 to 14 can have tilt-tray elements or cross-belt elements which are not shown in further detail herein. Furthermore, the sorting facility 2 includes a number of conveyor paths 16, 18, on which and/or along which the transport trolleys 10 to 14 can be transported to target positions 20 to 28, in order to empty the items to be sorted from the respective transport trolley 10 to 14 into the proper target position 20 to 28 according to a sorting target. Furthermore, there is provision for a facility controller 30, which controls the movement of the transport trolleys 10 to 14 along the conveyor paths 16, 18 and the emptying into the target positions 20 to 28. In this case, there can be provision, for example, for the facility controller to transmit a signal which triggers the emptying of a suitcase 4, 8 into one of the target positions 20 to 28 by way of a wireless communication 32 to the transport trolleys 10 to 14. The transport trolley 10 to 14 can then, for example, automatically tilt the tilt-tray element in order to tip the suitcase 4, 8 or it can drive the cross-band element to pass on the suitcase 4, 8. It is likewise also conceivable for a rocker of the transport trolleys 10 to 14 to be guided into a connecting member allocated to the conveyor path 16, 18, in order to tip the suitcase 4, 8 at the desired target position 20 to 28 from the transport trolley 10 to 14 as a result. It should be noted in this case that these procedures follow particular automatic behaviors and therefore can also follow particular patterns which can be predefined and also recognized with regard to an optical and/or acoustic representation.

[0025] Furthermore, the sorting facility 2 includes two decentralized functional units 34, 36, which receive process information regarding the conveyor paths 16, 18 and/or the transport trolleys 10 to 14. This process information is acoustic and/or optical process information and is recorded by the decentralized functional units 34 by using microphones and/or cameras (not shown in further detail). Furthermore, acceleration and vibration sensors are also conceivable. By way of comparison with nominal process information, such as the patterns referred to above, the decentralized functional units can detect deviation of the captured process information from the nominal process information and report it to the facility controller 30. In this case, an item of process information can be the tipping height of a tilt-tray element of a transport trolley 10 to 14 achieved when tipping an item to be sorted, for example. Furthermore, the process information can also be the tipping noise of a tilt-tray element and/or the running noise of a transport trolley 10 to 14 on the conveyor path 16, 18. While the achievement of a nominal tipping height can be monitored by using a light barrier or by evaluating a video image, for example, the captured acoustic process information can be subjected to a Fourier analysis and the frequency spectrum detected can be compared with a nominal frequency spectrum. This nominal process information can be stored on the decentralized functional unit 34, 36 in the form of video images and/or frequency spectra, for example. This means that the decentralized functional unit 34, 36 can be configured freely at any time with regard to its intended purpose.

[0026] In addition to this important nominal process information, the decentralized functional unit 34, 36 can also further include a catalogue of collateral environmental information. Typically, this collateral environmental information is noise or objective incidents, which are not directly related to the actual process information regarding the sorting process, such as the beep of a fork-lift truck or a warning or break siren and the like. Environmental information of this kind, which is contained in the process information, is detected by way of the evaluation of the process information by a comparison with the collateral process information contained in the catalogue. The deviation from the nominal process information occurring in this way thus does not lead to a notification from the decentralized functional unit 34, 36 to the facility controller 30.

[0027] Furthermore, the decentralized functional units 34, 36 can also have a catalogue of process information indicating a fault. Typical entries of this catalogue can, for example, be the frequency spectrum of the noise or the vibrations caused by damage to a ball bearing, which is triggered by a break or an interruption to a rail of the conveyor path 16, 18 or by a flat spot on the wheel of a transport trolley 10 to 14. If such a phenomenon arises in the captured process information, this leads to a detected deviation of the captured process information from the nominal process information. This deviation is then compared with the content of the catalogue of the process information indicating a fault and, if it matches one of these entries, an accordingly allocated fault notification is sent from the decentralized functional unit 34, 36 to the facility controller 30 (e.g. to the server or in the cloud thereof), for example by way of a wireless communication (e.g. WLAN) 38, 40.

[0028] Through the use of the two latter measures, the volume of fault notifications can be prefiltered to a very significant degree and thus limited to just the amount necessary, which is very welcome in modern automated industrial facilities, such as in the sorting facility 2 described herein, due to the large number of data to be transmitted and processed.