OBJECT LOCATION DETECTOR

摘要

The invention relates to an apparatus for and a method of determining the relative position and orientation of an object by way of mechanical procedure. The objects are transported in a first movement direction by a conveyor belt. A line array of photodiodes is arranged transversely to the translucent conveyor belt. The information of these diodes is scanned in synchronism with the movement of the belt. The extreme signals in the longitudinal and the transverse direction of the belt indicate the tangent points of two sets of mutually parallel, but transverse relative to each other, tangents to the objects. The relative positions of the points are compared with a stored system of coordinates for regularly spaced orientation directions of the objects. The closest correspondence offers the orientation and position of the object. Thus, it is not necessary to memorize each time the positions of objects in an object handling apparatus or similar, so that the processing is simplified.