JPH01284994A - Egg counting device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To grasp the egg-laying number of a hen's egg by providing a lifting device to move the egg and counting the egg from a picture in a checking area to be provided in a direction which is orthogonal to the carrying direction of this device. CONSTITUTION:A laid egg 1 is carried to a lifting conveyor 8 by respective egg-collecting conveyors 3, 5 and 7. This carried egg 1 is loaded on a finger 9. When the egg 1 goes into a checking area 11, a video sensor 12 image-picks up the checking area 11. For the obtained picture, the presence and absence of the egg 1 is decided in a data processing part 16 and addition is executed in a counter part 17.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION (Field of Industrial Application) The present invention relates to an egg counting device that automatically counts chicken eggs transported by an egg collecting device provided for each row of cages.

(Prior Art and Problems to be Solved) A device that has been used in the past as a device for individually counting eggs transported by an egg collection conveyor that is provided for each row of cages and runs in front of the cages is as follows. A limit switch was installed near the discharge end of the egg collection conveyor, and counting was performed by operating the limit switch.

By the way, the eggs that roll out from the cage onto the egg collection conveyor often overlap with the eggs already on the egg collection conveyor, and it is rare for individual eggs to be conveyed evenly. In addition, since chicken eggs are elliptical spheres, they are not stable on the egg collection conveyor, and when airflow is generated by the ventilation fan that controls the temperature inside the chicken house, the eggs will not be transported on the egg collection conveyor. It often rolls back. In other words, when eggs are transported in succession.

The limit switch did not operate correctly, and the egg rolled back, causing fj to be counted again.

Therefore, in multi-stage cages, the eggs are transported from the egg collection conveyor corresponding to each stage of the cage, and are placed on an elevator-like elevating conveyor, one for each stage, and then transferred to the transport conveyor adjacent to the lower part. Therefore, the elevator
Eggs placed and transferred on a vertical conveyor are separated one by one on this vertical conveyor, and are not shaken by external influences, and depending on which row the eggs are placed, The objective of this project was to solve the difficult task of counting chicken eggs by taking advantage of the feature of being able to identify whether eggs were transported from a row of cages.

(Means for Solving the Problems) Accordingly, the present invention provides an egg collecting device that receives eggs carried out from each cage and transports them in one direction, which is positioned in front of the row of cages and runs parallel to the row of cages. Let's set it up. A lifting device is provided on the discharge end side of the egg collecting device to receive eggs transported by the egg collecting device provided for each row of cages, separately for each row, and to transfer them to the same location. An egg conveyor is provided in order to collectively convey the eggs transferred to the same location by the lifting device. In the egg collection device for a chicken house configured as described above, the lifting device includes the lifting device on the side facing the egg transport conveyor in order to sequentially transfer the chicken eggs placed on the lifting device to the egg transport conveyor. An inspection area is provided on the plane -F having an arbitrary width in a direction perpendicular to the conveying direction of the lifting device. Further, a detection means is provided facing the surface of the lifting device in the inspection area, for simultaneously capturing eggs in each cage row conveyed to the inspection area as images and outputting a detection signal. Thereby, eggs are counted based on the detection signal from the detection means.

Further, in the rabbit counting device having the above configuration, an exposure window is provided at the egg placement position of the lifting device, and a light source is provided to illuminate the inspection area from the back side of the lifting device. As a result, the detection means, instead of directly imaging the eggs that have been transported to the inspection area,
It is designed to detect whether or not there is an exposure window blocked by the egg. As a result, it is possible to count eggs based on the detection signal output from the detection means.

(Example) An example of the present invention will be described based on the drawings. The egg collection device of this embodiment has the following configuration. That is, in each of the three gauge rows, an egg collection conveyor is provided parallel to each cage row to receive the chicken eggs 1 that roll out after laying and convey them in the direction of arrow A toward the discharge end. Therefore, the first egg collection conveyor 3 is opposed to the lower cage row 2, the second egg collection conveyor 5 is opposed to the middle cage row 4, and the third egg collection conveyor 7 is opposed to the upper cage row 6. In addition, each egg collecting conveyor 3.5.7 is provided on the discharge end side of each egg collecting conveyor 3.5.7.
There is an elevating conveyor 8 that receives eggs 1 discharged from each stage and moves them up and down, and fingers 9 are placed on the surface of the elevating conveyor 8 to place eggs 1 in each row corresponding to the egg collecting conveyor of each stage. It is fixedly provided. Therefore, on the conveyance surface of the lifting conveyor 8.

They are fixed in three rows and are neatly arranged vertically and horizontally. Furthermore, on the discharge end side of the elevating conveyor 8, there is a ton of chicken eggs placed on the fingers 9 of the elevating conveyor 8! : A conveyor 10 is arranged adjacently to receive the eggs at the bottom, and the conveyor 10 collects the eggs 1 from each cage and conveys them collectively to the next processing section (not shown).

Then, the chicken eggs 1 placed on the elevating conveyor 8 in the egg collecting device are placed on the surface of the elevating conveyor 8 on the side facing the conveyor 10 in the direction of arrow B, which is the conveying direction of the elevating conveyor 8. An inspection area 11 having a width up to the adjacent upper and lower fingers 9 is set in a direction perpendicular to the upper and lower fingers 9. Then, the egg 1 transported to the inspection area 11
A video sensor 12 that simultaneously captures images is mounted on the inspection area 11 so as to face the surface of the elevator container 8. Further, a pulse generator 14 is installed in the driving section 13 of the elevating conveyor 8 in order to determine the conveying position of the egg 1 placed on the finger 9 of the elevating conveyor 8. A control section 15 is provided for controlling the timing of imaging by the video sensor 12 based on the pulse signal input from the pulse generator 14.
a data processing unit 16 for processing the data of the chicken egg 1 imaged by the video sensor 12 according to the timing from 5 to determine the presence or absence of the chicken egg 1; Then, based on the check signal for the presence or absence of the chicken egg 1 output from the data processing section 16, the chicken egg 1 is checked.
A counter part 17 is provided to count the number of times.

In this embodiment, the operation of the egg counting device configured as described above will be explained along with the movement of the egg collecting device.

Chickens are housed in three rows of cages.
The laid chicken eggs 1 are conveyed to the elevating conveyor 8 by each egg collection conveyor 3, 5.7. and lower cage row 2
Eggs 1 transported by the first egg collection conveyor 3 provided on the front side of the cage are placed on one finger 9 of the finger row of the elevating conveyor 8 provided on the front side of the cage. The chicken eggs 1 transported by the second egg collecting conveyor 5 are placed on one finger 9 of the central finger row of the lifting conveyor 8, and then transferred to the third egg collecting conveyor provided in front of the upper cage row 6. The egg 1 conveyed by the conveyor 7 is placed on one finger 9 of the other finger row of the elevating conveyor 8.

The egg 1 placed on the finger 9 of the elevating conveyor 8 rises and begins to descend from the top as the elevating conveyor 8 turns around. When the egg 1 in the descending state enters the inspection area 11, the control unit 15 sends a signal to the video sensor 12 by counting pulse signals from the pulse generator 14.
The video sensor 12 that receives the timing signal 9 that outputs a timing signal for imaging images an inspection area 11 set on the elevating conveyor 8 . The image of the chicken egg 1 received by the video sensor 12 is obtained by the data processing unit 16.
It is determined whether there is egg 1 or not. In the inspection area 11 shown in FIG. 3, there are eggs 1 transferred from the second egg collection conveyor 5 and eggs 1 transferred from the third egg collection conveyor 7, and the data processing According to the judgment made by the department 16, the number of eggs 1 in the lower cage row 2 is 0. The counter part 17 adds one item for the middle cage row 4 and one item for the upper cage row 6.

Another embodiment according to the present invention has the following configuration.

That is, when the egg 1 is placed on the finger 9 on the elevator conveyor 8 in the egg collecting device described above,
A rectangular exposure window 18 is provided on the elevating conveyor 8 which is hidden by the egg 1.

Therefore, the exposure windows 18 are similarly arranged in three rows with respect to the fingers 9. Then, one fluorescent lamp is positioned parallel to the inspection area 11 on the back side of the elevator conveyor 8 in correspondence with the inspection area 11 provided on the surface of the elevator conveyor 8. The video sensor 12 is mounted facing the surface of the elevating conveyor 8 in order to capture the image.

In this way, the exposure window 18 is provided in the egg collecting device at the egg placement position of the elevating conveyor 8. An inspection area 11 that is set to simultaneously include each exposure window 18 in the same row. One fluorescent lamp illuminates this inspection area 11 from the back side of the lifting conveyor 8, and a video sensor detects the presence or absence of the exposure window 18 blocked by the egg 1 placed on the lifting conveyor 8 and outputs a detection signal. The operation of the egg counting device composed of 12 and 12 will be explained together with the movement of the egg collecting device. In this embodiment, when the egg 1 in the descending state enters the inspection area 11, light emitted from the fluorescent lamp 10 provided on the back side of the elevator conveyor 8 passes through the exposure window 18 in the inspection area 11. Then, it is input to the video sensor 12. At this time, the exposure window 1
8 is blocked by egg 1, video sensor 1
The light injected into 2 is suppressed. That is, depending on the brightness of the exposure window 18 captured by the video sensor 12, -
The presence or absence of three chicken eggs 1 is detected at a time 4, and the chicken eggs 1 that have descended to the bottom of the elevator conveyor 8 are transferred to the conveyor 10.
Transfer to.

Is Figure 5 the 4th one? The side view of the egg collecting device and the egg counting device shown in Fig. 1 and 1 are shown in Fig. 1, and the three points captured by the video sensor 12 are shown in Fig. Integration processing is performed in section 20, and the number of eggs for each row of elevating conveyor 8 is calculated as counter section 2.
Count by 1. Figure 6.

7 and 8 illustrate the video signal of the video sensor 12 which captures the brightness and darkness of the exposure window 8 in order to count the eggs 1 within the inspection area 11. That is, when the exposure window 18 is "bright -1", it is determined that there is no egg, and when it is "dark", it is determined that there is an egg.

In the inspection area 11 shown in FIG. 6(a), two exposure windows 18 are covered with chicken eggs 1, and the video signal is as follows.
As shown in FIG. 6(b), the presence or absence of eggs 1 is expressed as the brightness and darkness of the exposure window 18. Therefore, in this case, the lower cage row 2 is in O1.

1st stage cage row 6 is = - (Add the interval with counter: There is, though.

One of them is a tiny egg 22 and has no commercial value.

Since it will be extracted in the next processing section, it is judged as -shi.

That is, in the video signal as shown in (I) of FIG. 7, it is determined that there is egg 1 only in the upper row of cages 6, and the counter part 2] is added. In addition, in the case of (a) in FIG. 8, the exposure window 18 is blocked by a broken chicken egg shell 23, but in this case, the light emitted from one fluorescent lamp is
to pass through.

As shown in the video signal of FIG. 8(b), it can be determined that there is no signal.

Although a fluorescent lamp was used as a light source in this embodiment, other types of ultraviolet light may also be used.

(Effects of the Invention) As described above, the counting device of the present invention can handle eggs transported from raw egg devices corresponding to each stage of a multi-stage cage.
On 4 elevator-like descending devices that transfer to the same location,
By capturing the image, it is detected as a 0 image. This has made it possible to grasp the number of eggs laid by chickens, which was difficult to do with conventional technology.7 It has also become possible to simultaneously measure the number of eggs laid in each row.9 Also, very small eggs and broken chicken eggs with no commercial value It is now possible to obtain an accurate number of eggs laid without adding shells.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view illustrating an embodiment of the present invention. 21''2I is a side view illustrating the outline of FIG. 1, and FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating a chicken egg in the inspection area and a received image. FIG. 4 is a perspective view 1 illustrating another embodiment. Figure 5 is a side view showing the outline of Figure 4, and Figures 6 and 7.
8 and 8 illustrate the state in which the exposure window in the inspection area is closed and the detection results thereof. 11. Chicken eggs 21. Lower cage row 3゜1.
First egg collection conveyor 411. Middle gauge row 5, second egg collecting conveyor 6, , upper gauge row 71. Third egg collection conveyor

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] (1) An egg collection device that runs in front of each cage row in multiple stages parallel to the cage row and transports chicken eggs taken out from each cage in one direction, and is provided for each cage row. an elevating device that receives the eggs transported by the egg collecting device separately for each row and transfers them to the same place at the same time; and a lifting device that collectively transports the eggs transferred to the same place by the elevating device. In the egg collecting device for a chicken house, the eggs of each cage row placed on the elevating device are placed on the surface of the elevating device on the side facing the egg transporting conveyor in the conveying direction of the elevating device. An inspection area is provided with an arbitrary width in a direction perpendicular to the inspection area, and a detection means for simultaneously capturing eggs in each cage row conveyed to the inspection area as an image and outputting a detection signal is installed in the inspection area. An egg counting device, characterized in that the egg counting device is provided facing the surface of the lifting device in a region, and counts chicken eggs based on the detection signal from the detection means. (2) The egg counting device according to claim 1, wherein an exposure window is provided at the egg placement position of the lifting device, and a light source is provided that illuminates the inspection area from the back side of the lifting device, and the detection means is configured to detect the inspection area. 1. An egg counting device that detects the presence or absence of an exposure window that is blocked by eggs that have been transported to an egg, and outputs a detection signal. (3) The egg counting device according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the detection means is a video sensor.