What’s New in Robotics? 28.10.2022

News briefs for the week check out the return of PACK EXPO International after its 4-year COVID-caused hiatus from the tradeshow circuit. The producers promised a big-bang reentry, and so they delivered, calling it One Powerful Show. From the attitude of robots and cobots, nonetheless, it was a dominating efficiency. From what was in proof on the present ground, evermore dominance in robot-driven automation is coming within the very close to future.

One present, two takeaways!

Upon hitting the present ground, the jump-out realizations to seize onto at Pack Expo 2022 are two: More cobots doing extra issues higher and extra flexibly than ever; after which, upon nearer inspection of those self same cobots, the truth that integration of cobot programs is the subsequent nice advance in robotics. If that’s all you took away from the present, you’d have, in a nutshell, seen the way forward for packaging and packing.

The editors for the present’s producer PMMI (The Association for Packaging and Processing Technologies (previously Packaging Machinery Manufacturers Institute)), seen the cobot inhabitants enhance proper off, as they walked the ground to report on their first impressions.

“Collaborative robots, or cobots, are increasing their impact on packaging systems. It used to be that robots on the show floor had to be given a wide berth. It is still a little surprising to see these cobots free of any enclosure, where attendees are free to interact with them.”

Within these two realizations exists a world of selection, flexibility, and built-in “intelligence.” Amazing is the seepage of robotics into practically each side of packaging, packing, and manufacturing.

KUKA, ABB & Beckhoff

KUKA’s Chad Dukart, confirmed off one such integration with KUKA’s Pick Control system that makes use of “smart” imaginative and prescient software program to concurrently management the actions of a 6-axis cobot, two Delta robots and a SCARA robotic all working the identical conveyor line selecting and packing product in what he known as, “robot-based software for conveyor tracking with integrated image processing.”

With product cycles getting shorter and shorter, whereas useful resource and vitality effectivity are receiving ever larger consideration, versatile, built-in manufacturing options are in demand. He stated that he may, for instance, with the contact of a button, have one or the opposite Delta robots work quicker or slower, and nonetheless the conveyors stuffed with product to be packed would stay in sync.

ABB showcased an ordinary IRB 360 FlexPicker that displayed one other new cobot talent in selecting integration: synthetic intelligence “that allows the robot to learn and adapt to a wide variety of items including cuboids, cylinders, pouches, blisters, and random shapes, as found in electronics, pharma, healthcare, cosmetics and other consumer product industries.”

ABB claims that the FlexPicker’s internally developed AI answer supplies unprecedented accuracy with a “first-time, right-pick rate of 98.5%, and picking efficiency of >99.5 %,” in selecting gadgets from unstructured surroundings; and due to diminished computing time, “peak pick rates of up to 1,500 items per hour.”  

In what was harking back to snap-together toys, Beckhoff confirmed up with ATRO, a modular industrial “snap-together” cobot system “that can be used to assemble the optimal cobot structures for different applications on an individual and flexible basis.”

Need a 4-axis cobot as we speak, a 6-axis cobot tomorrow, and perhaps a seventh axis thrown in simply in case? Well, the ATRO (Automation Technology for Robotics) system is comprised of standardized motor modules with built-in drive performance, and hyperlink modules of varied designs and lengths.

Beckhoff says that each one ATRO modules “feature an internal media feed for data, power, and fluids (vacuum, air, and water). This allows ATRO to use a variety of tools, such as mechanical, pneumatic, or electric grippers. Because these media feeds are internal, it allows for endless rotation of ATRO axes and end effector tools, as there are no external cables to hinder the robot’s range of motion.”

Epson companions with itself!

If you’re Epson and recognized for shade printers, you’re additionally recognized for cobots. Out of a novel partnering between Epson’s cobots and printers sprang a novel, new approach to print labels after which affix them to packages as they journey alongside a conveyor.

That’s the concept behind Epson showcasing its VT6L All-in-One 6-Axis robotic with built-in controller paired with the Epson ColourWorks C6000 Series shade inkjet label printer.

It’s additionally an awesome instance of the flexibility in design and functionality that cobots are bringing to automation, particularly at Pack Expo the place all the flexibility will be seen and skilled inside strolling distance from one to the opposite on the expo ground.

Epson can be credited with one other distinctive, world’s first, with its adaptation of 6-axis design cobot with a “folding” arm kinematic configuration (see picture).

Great for working in tight areas, the compact arm of the Flexion has the power to fold by itself, versus shifting round itself. Epson claims that it makes use of 40% much less area than an ordinary 6-axis arm and may simply work inside an envelope of 1 sq. meter, which is right for space-constrained medical and pharma labs.

Cobots tackle the mighty transport pallet

The humble however mighty wood transport pallet (48 in × 40 in or 1,219 mm × 1,016 mm), with over 2 billion in use worldwide, has been the worldwide transport normal for close to one-hundred years. The modest pallet is so highly effective a transport medium that it’s been elevated to verb standing: therefore, to palletize; and its reverse, to depalletize.

All method of human and software program calculations have been devised on how finest to pack pallets after which to stabilize their hundreds for secure, environment friendly, and least expensive transport. Humans charged with loading pallets is pure, brain-numbing drudgery…and costly, however, as a rule, people get the job, if, that’s, sufficient people will be discovered to rent.

Automating palletizing and depalletizing could be an business dream come true. Caged-off robots do it most frequently, however in out-of-the-way transport areas distant from individuals and remoted from the stream of manufacturing.

Cobots are the most recent to tackle the problem of automating the packing of the mighty transport pallet. Pack Expo even had a Logistics Pavilion with 25 aspiring packing/packaging corporations, with some seeking to tackle the problem.

To win the palletizing/depalletizing problem is to have a extremely cellular, go-anywhere-in-factory-or-warehouse cobot that would work amid people and regular manufacturing flows, work lengthy hours at close to most payload, shortly pack out a pallet, after which be nimble sufficient to maneuver on to the following pallet in a rush.

Two partnered as much as tackle the world championship of palletizing: World chief in cobot gross sales, Denmark’s Universal Robots (UR), toting alongside its latest 6-axis cobot, the UR20, with its 20kg payload capability and longest attain, along with its companion, Canada’s Robotiq, a specialist palletizing functions and options.

It all went down in sales space N-4925.

And wouldn’t , they pulled it off in grand type!

Packaging World reported: “The extended reach capability of the UR20 is demonstrated in the Robotiq palletizing system, as it shows how the UR20 can be used to stack items to a height of 1800mm (5.9 feet). With its extended reach, the UR20 can be used to stack across two standard U.S. pallets. With Euro pallets, the UR20 can stack up to 2m in height.”

At lengthy final, the mighty transport pallet has met its match, and it’s a cobot! A cobot vendor’s machine built-in with Robotiq’s utility proved decisive.

The UR/Robotiq partnership typified the 2 distinctive takeaways of Pack Expo: Cobots married to integration is the following large factor.

Be certain to search for it at a tradeshow or occasion close to you.