SOLVING PARTS BIN-PICKING PROBLEMS WITH ADAPTIVE ROBOTICS Design Energy, one of EN210 New Zealand’s leading automation specialists, believes a new generation of 3D camera systems, combined with robot grippers that adapt to the shape of the payload, will make automated production feasible where never before. The company’s services include robotic automation projects, manufacturing engineering consulting and equipment sales and service; all activities which require a high level of engineering capability, access to the latest technology and a strong understanding of where automation will work. Mike Shatford, Design Energy’s managing director and an engineer of 20 years’ experience says, “As an engineer your eyes are looking for repetition, which is good for automation, and irregularity, which is not. One of the most common examples of irregularity we see comes from the use of bins, cartons, trays and bags to hold components, fasteners and other items; convenient storage and acceptable presentation to human hands but potential show-stoppers for automation.” All about automated bin-picking... Factories of all sizes and in all industries, receive, store and process at least some of their products components in bulk; these could be mouldings used in the assembly of a product, plastic vessels to be filled, or fasteners to be robotically screwed; anything that is consumed as products are made. Where there is bulk usage there is almost always sufficient volumes for automated production to make sense, which of course requires automated solutions for feeding bulk product into the system. Here is where things can get difficult. Often, solving the separation and placement of bulk consumables into an automated machine can be the most challenging aspect of the system and is frequently a deal breaker when it cannot be achieved at an acceptable rate and reliability. Today’s automation is finding new markets in SME’s and enterprises with lower volume and wider product ranges, significantly due to the levels of flexibility than can be achieved with robotics. However, a truly flexible production machine must have flexibility throughout the entire system, including the parts feeding systems, ruling out traditional vibratory and other commonly used mechanical sorting devices as they must be constructed and tuned to process a specific and very narrow range of part types. The strongest contenders for flexible bin picking systems are 3D cameras, which map the surface of a binned stack of parts and then direct the positioning of a robots’ gripper to pick the next available part. Partner the camera system with a gripper unit which can automatically configure itself for different sized and shaped parts and you have a truly flexible bin picking system that will pick random parts, process parts that eluded vibratory feeders and be adaptable to new parts with ease. Design Energy believes these bin-picking technologies, alongside robotics, are the next big enabler in automation and so naturally the company represents some of the leading brands in robotics (Nachi Robotics, Universal Robots), adaptive grippers (Robotiq) and vision systems for parts picking (Pickit3D). If you want to find out for yourself why Design Energy is considered one of New Zealand’s leading robotics specialists, get in touch with its team to discuss your needs and to give you some advice, no strings attached. R O B O T I C S 28 August 2017
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