AETEC
AETECAI Online Bottle QC and Marking System
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STATION 10 · EXISTING-LINE INTEGRATION

Control & Integration

From machine handshake to a verified carton at the correct exit.

R8 · Proposed design basis
For joint OEM / customer review
The process reflects our latest Station 10 discussion. Signal names, network choices, device counts outside S10 and timeouts below are proposals to confirm during detailed design. The earlier overall-system proposal provides upstream context; its equipment quantities are not S10 quantities.

01 / CONTROL OWNERSHIP

One coordinated line. Clear command ownership.

Separate safety systemOEM / AETEC agreed zones → safety-rated motion permission and stop functions. Standard PLC / PC messages provide diagnostics; safety implementation must be independently validated.

Machine control

The PLC owns deterministic sequencing, permissives and actuator feedback. The robot executes approved motion jobs. No motion starts from a vision result alone.

Inspection and identity

Vision services own image acquisition and inspection. The ledger commits bottle / carton associations before a good-route permission is issued. Every response carries the current job and identity.

02 / PLC STATE FLOW

Station 10 movement, from arrival to release

S00 · Ready / dock

Auto permitted, safety healthy, downstream available. Read CarrierID / BatchID; confirm eight slot states and positive dock lock.

↓ Recipe accepted by PLC, robot and Vision
S10 · Position / grip

Select recipe XY pickup position and Z height. Grip all occupied slots; confirm product / grip feedback before lifting.

↓ Eight grips confirmed
S20 · Lift and transfer

Z clearance → coordinated XYZ transfer → recipe scan pose. Transfer module remains docked and waiting.

↓ At scan pose + focus in-position + stability ready
S30 · Illuminate / inspect independently

All 32 lighting bars ON. Eight rotary axes search independently, each stopping on detection. Each channel makes two separate captures; matching reads switch its four lights OFF.

↓ All eight channels terminal: verified or recorded NG
S40 · Commit / return

Store eight results against carrier + slot. Keep each detected angle. Lift clear → XY return → lower bottles into their original holders.

↓ Placement confirmed + gripper released + robot clear
S50 · Complete / release

Latch CycleComplete with the same sequence ID. Release the transfer module only after result commit and line-master acknowledgement.

Known quality failure

QR not found by the 185° limit / deadline, image blur preventing a valid read, mismatching reads or an invalid code → latch the affected slot NG; return it safely and carry its status to the assigned carton for rejection.

Machine / identity uncertainty

Lost grip, failed focus, stability never ready before scanning, missing identity, no acknowledgement or motion fault → controlled HOLD. Preserve the current sequence and all pending carton records; no blind automatic restart.

Reusable command handshake

  1. RequestSender latches Req + SeqID + payload.
  2. AcknowledgeReceiver validates freshness and latches Ack + SeqID.
  3. CompleteReceiver holds Done / ResultValid with the same SeqID.
  4. Consume / clearSender commits once, sends DoneAck; both clear flags before a new request.

A duplicate request returns the stored response, without repeating motion. Unexpected SeqID, stale result or watchdog expiry enters the agreed hold path. Motion, focus, vision and transfer timeouts are individually measured and approved.

03 / VISION SOFTWARE

Acquisition jobs by physical location

Recipe / commissioning setup

Load approved bottle geometry, pickup / scan poses, per-head ROI, focus position, exposure, gain, lighting intensity, QR rules and calibration version. Check working distance, lens / focus range and image sharpness with real samples. Calibration validation is not the same as mechanically moving every cycle.

Each scan cycle

Move motorised focus tracks to the recipe target; acquire readiness / stability feedback. Start all lighting together. After settle, search, stop, acquire and validate each channel independently. Abort affected acquisition if grip, focus, light or motion readiness is lost.

Per-bottle worker · 8 parallel state machines

Implementation pseudocode · vendor APIs TBC
on ScanStart(batch, recipe, scanSeq):
  validate recipe hash, dock, grip, focus and stability
  clear previous frame queues; enable all 32 light bars
  parallel for slot in 1..8:
    rotate(slot) within recipe limits (maximum search: 185°)
    if valid QR candidate detected:
      stop axis(slot); wait StopAck + image stability
      frame1 = acquire_fresh(slot, scanSeq, captureNo=1)
      frame2 = acquire_fresh(slot, scanSeq, captureNo=2)
      require distinct FrameIDs and ordered timestamps
      require both frames belong to this batch / slot / scanSeq
      if both reads valid and payloads match approved rule:
        latch VERIFIED; switch OFF this slot's 4 light bars
      else: latch NG_READ_MISMATCH / NG_INVALID_READ
    else if angle limit or search deadline reached:
      latch NG_UNABLE_TO_CHECK
  wait for 8 terminal results; switch remaining lighting OFF
  commit all results; publish ResultValid + matching scanSeq
  keep each final angle; return to original holder positions

The two opposed heads per bottle provide alternative views. Detailed design must define whether both heads must agree, how a usable head is selected and how conflicting decodes are rejected. Two matching captures must be two fresh images; replaying one buffer does not count. Timing depends on exposure, readout, processing, stop latency and settling trials.

Result envelope for every camera job

JobID · RecipeID / hash · BatchID · CarrierID · SlotID · CameraID · ScanSeq · FrameID · Timestamp · CaptureNo · QR payload · Read quality · Status / reason · Image reference

04 / INTERFACE REGISTER

Logical I/O and exchanged data

Directions below are relative to the named sender / receiver. A fieldbus bit or structured message is not automatically a physical wired I/O point. Final terminal counts, safety I/O, expansion reserve and cabinet hardware follow the agreed device list.

Candidate communication interfaces

No protocol is declared to be the customer's installed protocol. Confirm actual controller compatibility before assigning tags, update rates or trigger timing.

05 / END-TO-END LOGIC

Keep bottle identity through packaging and sorting

1 · Carrier ledger

CarrierID + load epoch + SlotID maps to BottleID, QR evidence and S10 status. Reload creates a new epoch; previous contents cannot be reused.

↓
2 · Packaging reservation

Station 11 reserves eight carton QR identities against PackCycleID / lanes. AI observes the eight-bottle pick and placement from their source slots.

↓
3 · Atomic association

Commit BottleID ↔ CartonID after confirmed placement and the approved matching rule. Duplicate IDs, missing bottles or wrong pairs never receive a PASS.

↓
4 · Post-close verification

Track each carton with sensors / encoder. Re-read its code, inspect presence / closure and agreed condition criteria; append reasons to its existing record.

↓
5 · Meter and route

Hold following carton and front carton. Confirm divert zone clear; select GOOD / REJECT, verify gate position, then release one carton.

↓
6 · Confirm the physical exit

Hold route until tail-clear. Correlate exit sensor with expected carton and route; record GOOD CONFIRMED or REJECT CONFIRMED.

GOOD permissionTwo matching bottle reads AND unique approved carton association AND placement present AND post-close ID valid AND closure / condition PASS AND record committed

Every released GOOD carton requires the complete chain. “100% matching” is the inspection coverage target; actual acceptance performance must be tested.

Known carton NG → REJECT

Unreadable / wrong QR, bottle drop, empty carton, incorrect association, open box or agreed packaging defect. Preserve evidence and reason; repeated NG cartons retain the reject gate direction.

Unknown position / identity → HOLD

Track loss, stale result, gate not in position, jam, full reject branch, exit not confirmed, communication loss or unreconciled restart. Stop upstream metering; recover from verified physical positions.

Startup / fault recovery

Load the durable ledger and freeze affected zones. Reconcile occupied holders and cartons against sensors and readable IDs. Quarantine uncertain items through the approved recovery procedure. A reset clears an alarm only after its cause is resolved; it does not clear identity records or automatically restart a robot.

Timing target

8 bottles / cycle · 100 bottles / minute · 0.6 s equivalent / bottle. Available batch takt: 4.8 s. This includes all handshakes and exchange; 0.6 s is not an individual bottle's scan duration.

Three-module concept

The current simulation assumes a 13.2 s local loop. Minimum = ceil(13.2 / 4.8) = 3 modules. Extra upstream delay, slower packaging or inspection can increase the required fleet or reduce output.

06 / JOINT DESIGN-REVIEW BOARD

Confirm before detailed design is frozen

Use this register in the OEM / customer workshop. All items start as To confirm; checking a box here records a local review note, not engineering approval.

Proposed acceptance scenarios

Normal eight-bottle cycle · Mixed bottle designs / recipe change · Independent early reads · 185° no-read · Two-read mismatch · Duplicate QR · Glare / focus loss · Dropped bottle · Empty carton · Carton QR mismatch · Open carton · Consecutive NG · All-NG train · Full reject branch · Gate / exit fault · Network loss · Power loss and identity recovery
Reference basis

Latest Station 10 discussion and supplied 3D model govern this concept. Q909525011A provides earlier overall upstream QC / marking context. Interface choices are design proposals, not confirmed installed equipment.

Official references reviewed 27 September 2026. Confirm actual supported features with the selected vendors.