Motoman demos robotic handling at PPMA

Motoman Robotics has demonstrated an automated system for picking tubs from a conveyor, identifying their content and stacking them in a 4 x 3 matrix tray, at the PPMA 2008 show held at the NEC.

There were four tubs of three different types of grease on a belt-type conveyor that moved forward until the first tub triggered a sensor.

This sent a signal to a camera which identified X/Y offsets of the tub position relative to a datum.

The offset values were communicated to the NX100 controller of a Motoman UP50 6-axis robot, which was then able to locate the tub, pick it up in a gripper and present it to a second camera that checked the product type from the label.

A second signal was then sent to the controller to instruct the robot to place the tub in the appropriate row of the tray.

When full, the dual-purpose gripper picked up the whole tray and placed it on a simulated unload station on the other side of the cell.

All the tubs were replaced one by one onto the conveyor, the tray was returned to its original position and the process started again.

The Xpectia twin-camera, high-resolution, 3D vision system was manufactured by Omron Electronics.

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