Computer control system and method for scanning and loading articles on a conveyor

摘要

A system and method and loading articles onto a sorting conveyor. An exemplary embodiment of the system includes a computer processor to control system function, a scanning device for identifying articles to be sorted, a conveyor for transporting articles loaded thereon, and a loading device for accomplishing the physical loading of articles onto the conveyor. The computer processor controls the motion of the conveyor, receives information from the scanning and loading devices and builds a database therewith useful for sorting the articles loaded onto the second conveyor. An exemplary method concerns conveying a sequence of one or more articles to be sorted; scanning the articles in the sequence with a scanning system to determine the identification of the articles; communicating the identification of the scanned articles from the scanning system to a processor; storing in memory article identification information; communicating commands from the processor to a loading device to effect the loading of articles onto a conveyor, each article being loaded at a conveyor location; communicating conveyor position information from the loading device to the processor; and storing in memory the location at which an identified article is loaded on the conveyor and associating with the location the identification of the loaded article.