Abstract:
In order to promote the efficiency and decrease the error rate in stacking of irregular cigarette parcels into caged-vehicles, an automatic stacking system was designed. The system was mainly composed of a correcting device, buffer areas and a stacking robot. The moving route of cigarette parcels was determined by pre-layering algorithm, and the position and orientation of the parcels were adjusted by the correcting device. The articulations of the robot were fit with 3-5-3 spline interpolation function to stack cigarette parcels into caged vehicles automatically. A modified genetic algorithm was adopted to optimize the interpolation function parameters and shorten the running time. A test was carried out in Yichang Tobacco Logistics Distribution Center, and the results showed that the system was able to handle more than 800 parcels per hour, both the damage rate of cigarette cartons and stacking error rate were less than 0.1%, and the noise was below 72 dB. The system provides a technical support for promoting the automation of tobacco logistics.