US 11,897,648 B2
Adaptive quantitative sub-packaging method for fried rice with multiple side dishes in central kitchen and apparatus therefor
Xiaobo Zou, Jiangsu (CN); Chuang Li, Jiangsu (CN); Jiyong Shi, Jiangsu (CN); Xiaowei Huang, Jiangsu (CN); Zhihua Li, Jiangsu (CN); Tingting Shen, Jiangsu (CN); Xuetao Hu, Jiangsu (CN); Jiukai Zhang, Jiangsu (CN); Jianbo Xiao, Jiangsu (CN); and Zhiming Guo, Jiangsu (CN)
Assigned to Jiangsu University, Jiangsu (CN)
Appl. No. 17/767,446
Filed by Jiangsu University, Jiangsu (CN)
PCT Filed Dec. 3, 2021, PCT No. PCT/CN2021/135371
§ 371(c)(1), (2) Date Apr. 8, 2022,
PCT Pub. No. WO2023/097663, PCT Pub. Date Jun. 8, 2023.
Claims priority of application No. 202111455586.7 (CN), filed on Dec. 1, 2021.
Prior Publication US 2023/0331420 A1, Oct. 19, 2023
Int. Cl. B65B 57/14 (2006.01); B65B 25/00 (2006.01); B65B 1/06 (2006.01); B65B 1/32 (2006.01); B65B 43/52 (2006.01)
CPC B65B 57/145 (2013.01) [B65B 1/06 (2013.01); B65B 1/32 (2013.01); B65B 25/001 (2013.01); B65B 43/52 (2013.01); G06T 2207/30128 (2013.01)] 10 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. An adaptive quantitative sub-packaging method for fried rice with multiple side dishes in a central kitchen, comprising the following steps:
step I, self-construction of a key side dish recognition model, comprising the following processes:
process I, for fried rice with a standard formula comprising rice, edible oil, m kinds of side dishes, and n kinds of seasoning liquids, obtaining finished fried rice to be sub-packaged by frying with a standardized process and fixed equipment of the central kitchen, and selecting an i-th side dish H_i of the finished fried rice to be sub-packaged as a key side dish required for quantification;
process II, taking m1 kg of the finished fried rice to be sub-packaged as a fried rice sample A for model construction, and separating the key side dish H_i in the fried rice sample A for model construction from other fried rice ingredients to obtain a fried rice sample A&H_i containing only the key side dish H_i, and a fried rice sample A-H_i without the key side dish H_i;
process III, starting a central control module matched with the method, wherein the central control module comprises a model self-construction module, a model self-evaluation module, and an adaptive quantitative module for the fried rice, and the model self-construction module, the model self-evaluation module, and the adaptive quantitative module for the fried rice are electrically connected, and
the model self-construction module comprises a material box self-resetting module and a startup model self-construction module, the model self-evaluation module comprises a material box self-resetting module and a startup model self-evaluation module, and the adaptive quantitative module for the fried rice comprises an adaptive quantitative operation module;
first, starting the material box self-resetting module in the model self-construction module in the central control module, transmitting, by the material box self-resetting module, a signal to the central control module, so as to control movement of a position sensor and a main conveyor belt, and resetting a material box on the main conveyor belt to completely coincide with a predefined station; and then laying the fried rice sample A&H_i in a single-layer and non-overlapping manner in w material boxes in other stations before an imaging station, and laying the fried rice sample A-H_i in a single-layer and non-overlapping manner in w material boxes in stations before the imaging station to obtain w material boxes containing only thin layers of the fried rice sample A&H_i and w material boxes containing only thin layers of the fried rice sample A-H_i, wherein a is w positive integer;
process IV, inputting, to the model self-construction module, a product name of the fried rice to be sub-packaged X1, a name of the key side dish X2, a station number corresponding to the material boxes containing the thin layers of the fried rice sample A&H_i and a number of the key side dishes H_i contained in each of the material boxes, and relevant information of a station number corresponding to the material boxes containing the thin layers of the fried rice sample A-H_i; and clicking the startup model self-construction module in a boundary of the model self-construction module, transmitting a signal to the central control module to control a camera to self-acquire the fried rice samples A&H_i and A-H_i and images I_A&H_i_h_j, I_A-H_i_h_j, and I_O_h_j of w empty material boxes illuminated by b light sources with different bands λ1, λ2, . . . , λ(b−1), and λb, self-optimizing, by the central control module, an optimal band λ_A and an optimal segmentation threshold C for key side dish recognition, and self-calculating and displaying an optimal recognition rate for modeling of D, wherein h∈[1, b], j∈[1, w], and h and b are positive integers; and
process V, when the model recognition rate D is greater than or equal to an expected recognition rate E, proceeding to step II of an operation of “self-evaluation of the key side dish recognition model”; and when the model recognition rate D is less than the expected recognition rate E, repeating the processes II, III, IV, and V of the step I;
step II, self-evaluation of the key side dish recognition model, comprising the following processes:
process i, taking m2 kg of the finished fried rice as a fried rice sample B for model construction, and separating the key side dish H_i in 2*(m2)/3 kg of the fried rice sample B from other fried rice ingredients to obtain a fried rice sample B&H_i containing only a key side dish H_i, a fried rice sample B-H_i without a key side dish H_i, and (m2)/3 kg of a fried rice sample B_B containing all ingredients;
process ii, starting the material box self-resetting module in the model self-evaluation module in the central control module, and transmitting, by the material box self-resetting module, a signal to the central control module to control the position sensor to reset the material box on the main conveyor belt to completely coincide with the predefined station after one cycle of operation; and then laying, by workers, the fried rice sample B_B in a single-layer and non-overlapping manner in w material boxes in the stations before the imaging station, laying the fried rice sample B-H_i in a single-layer and non-overlapping manner in w material boxes in the stations before the imaging station, and laying the fried rice sample B&H_i in a single-layer and non-overlapping manner in w material boxes in the stations before the imaging station to obtain w material boxes containing only thin layers of the fried rice sample B_B, w material boxes containing only thin layers of the fried rice sample B-H_i, and w material boxes containing only thin layers of the fried rice sample B&H_i;
process iii, inputting, to the model self-evaluation module in the central control module, a station number of the material boxes containing the thin layers of the fried rice sample B_B and a number of the key side dishes H_i contained in each of the material boxes, a station number of the material boxes containing the thin layers of the fried rice sample B-H_i, a station number of the material boxes containing the thin layers of the fried rice sample B&H_i, and relevant information of a number of the key side dishes H_i contained in each of the material boxes;
process iv, clicking the startup model self-evaluation module in the model self-evaluation module in the central control module, transmitting, by the startup model self-evaluation module, a signal to the central control module to open a light source corresponding to the optimal band λ_A through the central control module according to the optimal band λ_A and the optimal segmentation threshold C obtained in the step I, and acquiring, by the camera, an image I_B_B_j of w fried rice samples B_B, an image I_B-H_i_j of w fried rice samples B-H_i, and an image I_B&H_i_j of w fried rice samples B&H_i illuminated by the light source corresponding to λ_A; and sequentially recognizing, by the central control module, numbers of the key side dishes H_i in the images I_B_B_j, I_B-H_i_j, and I_B&H_i_j according to the optimal segmentation threshold C, and comparing recognition results with numbers of the key side dishes H_i input by the workers to calculate an evaluation recognition rate F; and
process v, when the evaluation recognition rate F is greater than or equal to an expected recognition rate G, automatically saving, by control software, the optimal band λ_A and the optimal segmentation threshold C and proceeding to step III of adaptive quantification of the fried rice; and when the model recognition rate F is less than the expected recognition rate G, repeating all the processes of the step I; and
step III, adaptive quantification of batch fried rice sub-packaging, comprising the following processes:
process 1, starting batch production to obtain the finished fried rice to be sub-packaged according to the standard formula, standard process, and equipment of the process I in the step I, and inputting information of a number I of the key side dishes of a single portion of fried rice and a total weight L of a single portion of fried rice into the adaptive quantitative module for the fried rice in the central control module (304); and clicking the “adaptive quantitative operation” module in the adaptive quantitative module for the fried rice, and transmitting, by the “adaptive quantitative operation” module, a signal to the central control module, so as to control a quantitative device to start adaptive quantitative sub-packaging of the finished fried rice to be sub-packaged in a hopper;
process 2, after the quantitative sub-packaging starts, enabling the finished fried rice to be sub-packaged in the hopper to fall into the material box on the station corresponding to a surface of the main conveyor belt in a uniform movement state in the form of a single-layer waterfall, enabling rice in a single-layer thin-layer state in the material box to pass below the camera with the material box as a basic unit, sensing, by the central control module, a movement behavior of the material box on each station through the position sensor, and shooting, by the camera, image information of the finished fried rice in the material box corresponding to the imaging station under the optimal band λ_A every time the material box moves one station;
process 3, quickly recognizing, by the central control module, the product rice in the material box below the camera by using the segmentation threshold C determined in the step I to obtain a number J_c of the key side dishes H_i, so as to obtain numbers J−1, J−2, . . . , J−(f−1), and J−f of the key side dishes H_i corresponding to the fried rice in the material boxes on f stations to be sub-packaged between the imaging station and an unloading station; loading, by the central control module, the fried rice into the same packaging container by taking the fried rice in 2 material boxes as a group according to the numbers J−1, J−2, . . . , J−(f−1), and J−f of the key side dishes in the material box on the f sub-packaging stations to obtain a number I±Δg of the key side dishes of a single portion of fried rice as a target, determining an optimal matching combination of the key side dishes in any 2 groups of material boxes in all material boxes in an adaptive manner, and recording matching results in an array M; and every time the central control module senses through the position sensor that the material box moves one station, recognizing, by the central control module, the number J_c of the key side dishes newly entering the material box on the imaging station, and updating the array M recording the matching results accordingly, wherein
a method for constructing and defining the array M recording the matching results comprises: establishing the array M with 3 rows, f+2 columns, and an initial value of 0 for matching of pairwise combinations of the material boxes, wherein a 1st column to a (f+2)-th column of the array sequentially corresponds to the imaging station on the sub-packaging equipment, and the f stations to be sub-packaged, and the unloading station for the fried rice, a 1st row of the array M is used to store a number of particles of key side dishes in the material boxes on the stations corresponding to the column of the array, a 2nd row of the array M is used to record and store a falling path of the fried rice in the material boxes on the stations corresponding to the column of the array, a value of a certain column in the 2nd row being 0 indicates that there is no fried rice in the material boxes on the stations corresponding to this column, a value of a certain column in the 2nd row being 1 indicates that the fried rice in the material boxes on the stations corresponding to this column enters a falling path 1, a value of a certain column in the 2nd row being 2 indicates that the fried rice in the material boxes on the stations corresponding to this column enters a falling path 2, a value of a certain column in the 2nd row being 3 indicates that the fried rice in the material boxes on the stations corresponding to this column enters a falling path 3, a 3rd row of the array M is used to store a matching situation of the material boxes on the stations corresponding to the column of the array, matching is performed from the last column of the 3rd row to the first column, values of two certain columns in 3 rows being 1 and 2 respectively and values in the 2nd row of these two columns being both 1 or 2 at the same time indicate that the fried rice in the material boxes on the stations corresponding to these two columns is capable of being matched to one packaging container, and a value of a certain column in 3 rows being 0 indicates that the material boxes on the stations corresponding to this column have not been successfully matched, and
a method for updating the array M recording the matching results comprises: when the central control module obtains the number J_c of the key side dishes newly entering the material box on the imaging station, starting to update the array M; first, assigning values of the 2nd row and the 3rd row of the (f+2)-th column of the array M to primary quantitative control parameters P1=M(2, f+2) and P2=M(3, f+2); second, moving a value of the array M back by 1 column as a whole through M(:, (f+3)−k)=M(:, (f+2)−k), wherein values of k are 2, 3, . . . , f+1, and f+2 sequentially; saving the number J_c of the key side dishes newly entering the material box (201) on the imaging station into the array, such that M(1, 1)=J_c; when J_c=0, setting M(2, 1)=M(3, 1)=0; finally, when J_≠0, setting the values of k as f+2, f+1, . . . , 3, and 2 sequentially, and calculating M(1, k)+M(1, 1) when M(2, k)=3; if the value of k meets I−Δg≤M(1, k)+M(1, 1)≤I+Δg and M(2, 2:k)≠3−Temp, M(2, k)=M(2, 1)=3−Temp, M(3, k)=1, M(3, 1)=2, and Temp=M(2, 1), ending update of the array M; and if there is no value of k meeting I−Δg≤M(1, k)+M(1, 1)≤I+Δg and M(2, 2:k)≠3−Temp, M(2, 1)=3, and M(3, 1)=0, ending update of the array M;
process 4, while the array M is being updated, controlling, by the central control module, opening and closing of a No. 1 material guide plate and a No. 2 material guide plate according to the primary quantitative control parameters P1 and P2, so as to control a falling track of the fried rice on a slideway, thereby ensuring that the fried rice in the combined material box accurately falls into the packaging container corresponding to a first primary quantitative station or a second primary quantitative station; and
process 5, in order to ensure that the total weight of the fried rice in the packaging container of the first primary quantitative station or the second primary quantitative station is consistent with the set total weight L of a single portion of fried rice, conveying the fried rice in the packaging container of the first primary quantitative station or the second primary quantitative station to a secondary quantitative station along with the packaging container, and guiding, by the central control module, counterweight fried rice of a specific weight to fall into a packaging container on the secondary quantitative station according to a weight of the fried rice in the packaging container on the secondary quantitative station, such that the total weight of the fried rice in each packaging container after passing through the secondary quantitative station is the same, and the number of the key side dishes in each packaging container is also the same; and then, when the position sensor senses that the next material box enters the imaging station, repeating the process 2, process 3, process 4, and process 5 of the step III, wherein
an initial value of a global variable Temp is 2, and
the fried rice in a return hopper is conveyed to the hopper by air flow through a return tube; and
in the case where the central control module has saved the optimal band λ_A corresponding to the fried rice to be sub-packaged and the optimal segmentation threshold C, skipping, by the control software, the steps I and II, directly calling the saved optimal band λ_A and the optimal segmentation threshold C, and performing the step III; and if the control software is in capable of calling the optimal band λ_A corresponding to the fried rice to be sub-packaged and the optimal segmentation threshold C, performing the step I, step II, and step III sequentially.