CELL AUDITING SCHEME FOR STORAGE LIBRARY SYSTEM

摘要

A method and apparatus is provided for auditing cartridges and empty cells (28, 34) in a storage library system including a plurality of cells (28, 34) for storing cartridges and further including a robotically actuated hand assembly (10). A line-scan camera (20, 22) is secured to the hand assembly (10), and a visible pattern (30) is positioned within each cell (28, 34) such that the visible pattern (30) is readable by the line-scan camera (20, 22) when the line-scan camera (20, 22) is moved to a position adjacent the particular cell (28, 34) if the cell (28, 34) is empty. The visible pattern (30) is positioned such that the presence of a cartridge within the particular cell (28, 34) would prevent viewing of the visible pattern (30) within the cell (28, 34) by the line-scan camera (20, 22). The line-scan camera (20, 22) is operated in a manner to search for the visible pattern (30) within each cell (28, 34) for auditing numbers of cartridges and empty cells (28, 34) in the storage library system.