Vision Guided Robots Using AI To Pick Bins From A Conveyor And Place It Inside The Cartons

By August 13, 2021November 14th, 2021Industry Use Cases
Pick and place of bins VGR

CLIENT/INDUSTRY BACKGROUND

The client has an impactful presence in the market from the past 70 years. The company originated in New York and contributes massive market share in its domain. It is a leading manufacturer of food storage boxes and other plastic containers. In the year 2020, the total revenue of the company was more than 8 billion U. S. dollars.

CLIENT’S PROBLEMS

  1. Manual picking of bins and stacking – It is a tedious process causing inconsistency in production.
  2. Stamps are misaligned during the printing process due to the disorientation of manually placed bins.

Vision Guided Robots Using AI To Pick Bins From A Conveyor And Place It Inside The Cartons

PROBLEM IMPLICATIONS

  1. Pick and place for stacking bins is a tedious job causing labor fatigue. Therefore, shipping delays are observed.
  2. The consequences of inconsistent pick and place involve low production volume and low revenues.
  3. Subpar hot-stamping results in an aesthetically inferior product, negatively impacting its sales.

CLIENT REQUIREMENTS

Vision Guided Robots Using AI To Pick Bins From A Conveyor And Place It Inside The Cartons

Requirement 1 (Hot stamping station) –

To ensure consistent bin orientation during the hot stamping process. The orientation of bins may change from molding to stamping station. Incorporating a vision system with robotics, corrects the orientation of the bins and enhances stamp quality.

Requirement 2 (Finished good stacking) – 

An integrated machine vision system is required to determine the coordinates of bins for stacking. 

CURRENT PROCESS

Bins undergo processes like molding and stamping. The pick and place of the finished bins at the packaging station is carried out manually. Two operators are assigned to pick bins from the moving conveyor line and stack them into cartons. The cycle time of manual pick and place is 15-17 seconds. Errors in lifting and stacking cause scratches and other surface defects.

BUSINESS IMPACT

  1. The required volume of bins is not shipped to the customer at the stipulated time leading to a shortage in supply.
  2. Increased manpower cost – Since picking and placing a large volume of bins requires large manpower.

SOLUTION USING MACHINE VISION

A Qualitas EagleEye® camera is going to be installed on a robot (end-of-arm). A vision system communicates signals to the robotic arm through PLC (Programmable Logic Controller).  In this case, an integrated vision system would identify the bins coordinates and transmit them to the PLC. This approach allows the robotic system to see the object that needs to be picked and placed. 

SETUP

Vision Guided Robots Using AI To Pick Bins From A Conveyor And Place It Inside The Cartons

The Image shows a vision-guided robotic system setup 

Vision Guided Robots Using AI To Pick Bins From A Conveyor And Place It Inside The Cartons

 The Image shows a vision-guided robotic system setup for hot stamping 

IMAGES 

OBJECT DETECTION IN QEP (QUALITAS EAGLE-EYE® PLATFORM)

Vision Guided Robots Using AI To Pick Bins From A Conveyor And Place It Inside The Cartons

CONCLUSION

Followings are the potential benefits of a machine vision system deployed on a robot cell – 

  1. Consistency in pick and place can be improved. The cycle time of pick and place can be reduced to 4 seconds.
  2. Correct orientation of the bins can be maintained throughout stacking.
  3. 100 percent accuracy can be achieved in detecting bins for pick and place.
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