Why drag&bot for flexible robots in pick & place applications?
As different as manufacturing companies and their production processes are, the handling of parts of different materials, shapes and properties is present almost everywhere. In almost every operation, parts must be removed from bins, boxes, containers, workpiece carriers or grids and placed back in a different orientation or exact positioning.
When done manually by a worker, this can quickly become very monotonous and tedious. That is why more and more smaller companies are using robots for these tasks. Pick&Place industrial robots do not get tired and make fewer mistakes. They are easy to acquire, quick to install. They often have a high cycle time, increasing throughput in production.
The processes are often simple, a standard gripper on the arm is often sufficient – special sensors and intermediate stations are not necessary. This saves investment costs and leads to a fast implementation of the projects. Robots in the pick&place area have one of the best return-on-investment (ROI) calculations compared to other robot applications. The use of robots often pays for itself in less than a year.
With drag&bot, pick&place applications are easy to operate by workers, flexible to use and maximally cost-efficient. More than every second robot sold worldwide is now used in the pick&place sector – and the trend is rising!
Loading/unloading machines
Machine loading with robots is one of the most common pick-and-place tasks. We work with many machine builders who want to offer a flexible automation solution to their machines. Typical extensions of these robot systems are cleaning, quality checks and/or marking of the workpieces. The video shows an automatic bending press machine from Placke, equipped with a Fanuc LR Mate 200iD and a vacuum gripper.
Case study
Prof. Dr.-Ing. Samuel Schabel, head of the Department of Paper Technology and Mechanical Process Engineering (TU Darmstadt) is using drag&bot for a unique project. The task is to grab recycled paper from a conveyor belt and place it in a machine for analysis. An industrial camera is used to detect the position of the papers at the end of the conveyor belt. The camera, which is connected to a The UR-5 robot is connected to a vacuum gripper with soft suction cup which enables to grip the papers in a process-safe way.
Used drag&bot modules
Pick and Place in line
In larger production lines, parts are typically transported in workpiece carriers on conveyor belts from one station to the next. Although the Denso robot with connected Schunk gripper has a fixed gripping position, it must wait for an IO signal from the conveyor belt of a higher-level Siemens PLC before it grips the part. To easily map these functions in drag&bot, we support various communication protocols and interfaces.
Used drag&bot modules
Many thanks to Roboception for this video.
Packing / Palletizing
Palletizing cartons or other rectangular boxes are common applications for robots in the packaging and consumer goods industries. There are often changing palletizing patterns to increase the stability of the stacked cartons. Different approach strategies can be used depending on the pickup/setdown position of the cartons. As the video shows, with the help of 3D cameras (e.g. from Roboception) and appropriate software, the cartons can also be picked up by a conveyor belt and placed in the next best position. In the video, this is done in combination with a UR robot and a Schmalz gripper. Additional force-torque sensors or monitoring of IO signals can make the robot system even more intelligent.
Used drag&bot modules
Bin-Picking
Picking unsorted parts from crates and other containers is called reach-in-the-box or bin picking – the supreme discipline of robotics. One or more 3D cameras first generate a 3D point cloud of the crate contents. Complex algorithms are used to calculate the position and orientation of the workpieces in the box. In addition, there are also collision avoidance algorithms that determine the best possible robot path for gripping a workpiece. More recent solutions implement neural networks and deep learning to make the aforementioned algorithms more flexible and robust.
We have integrated various 3D image processing systems so that the user is free to choose which solution is best suited for the application. As an example, the video shows a bin-picking application with a KUKA robot, a Roboception 3D camera and a Robotiq gripper system.
Used drag&bot modules
Die grafische Oberfläche für jeden Roboter – drag&bot OS
SCENARIO DESIGNER – Hier können 3D-Modelle der Roboterzelle und der Werkstücke zur Visualisierung hinzugefügt werden.
BUILDER – Anwendungen können aus vordefinierten Funktionsblöcken per Drag & Drop erstellt werden.
WIZARDS – Grafische Bedien- und Eingabehilfen: Anwender können so ohne Expertenwissen Funktionsblöcke an die spezifischen Anforderungen ihrer Anwendung anpassen.
OPERATOR COCKPIT – Hier werden die erstellten Applikationen ausgeführt. Mit einem Klick kommt man zurück in den Builder und kann die Anwendung erweitern und optimieren.
Die grafische Oberfläche für jeden Roboter – drag&bot OS
SCENARIO DESIGNER – Hier können 3D-Modelle der Roboterzelle und der Werkstücke zur Visualisierung hinzugefügt werden.
BUILDER – Anwendungen können aus vordefinierten Funktionsblöcken per Drag & Drop erstellt werden.
WIZARDS – Grafische Bedien- und Eingabehilfen: Anwender können so ohne Expertenwissen Funktionsblöcke an die spezifischen Anforderungen ihrer Anwendung anpassen.
OPERATOR COCKPIT – Hier werden die erstellten Applikationen ausgeführt. Mit einem Klick kommt man zurück in den Builder und kann die Anwendung erweitern und optimieren.
HANDLING PICK&PLACE
Be- und Entladen von Maschinen, Teile in Raster palettieren, Schüttgut kameragestützt aus Kisten entnehmen…
MECHANISCHE MONTAGE
ELEKTRONIK MONTAGE
Processing and assembly of electronic boards, insertion of connectors and cables, top-hat rail assembly…
