to quickly pick it with the necessary dexterity to grip and hold very small, non-uniform items. On the new conveyor line, each SCARA
robot pair connects to a camera vision system that plots precise coordinates to sub-millimetre accuracy. The vision system identifies defective nuts, and the SCARA pair then guides their gripper to pick and remove the unwanted produce. A SCARA robot is ideal for this process thanks
to its compact footprint, enabling the integration of multiple ‘pickers’ along the conveyor line. Rigid in their vertical axis but with freedom on the horizontal plane, SCARAs are designed for operation over a controlled path and can optimise productivity thanks to their speed and precision. Crucial to the intricacy of picking a small nut at speed is the robot’s end effector, which features a three-pronged gripper.
A single Trio Flex-X Nano motion controller is responsible for coordinating both SCARA pair, as well as the camera vision system. The Trio Flex-X Nano also controls the motion of the grippers. XYZ-Theta axis control of the grippers gives three-dimensional motion, plus rotation, and also controls their opening/closing movement. The Trio controller features deterministic,
real-time EtherCAT communications down to 125µsec, with an execution benchmark of 125 lines/ms. This gives high speed commands
to the robots, while Trio’s SCARAs achieve repeatability down to ±0.1mm and ±0.01˚. This combination of speed and precision ensures high speed identification and picking, while optimising quality through consistency. The 50 robot pairs cover a conveyor system
around 50m long. This extended length and high concentration of robots ensures a refined level of sorting, giving the highest quality end produce. A single controller for each robot pair, instead of a typical approach of one controller for each robot, has also reduced the total cost in hardware, including cabling.
While the controllers coordinate the motion of each tandem of SCARAs, they also need to coordinate with the motion of the conveyor. Integration with the plant’s existing control architecture means that the Trio controllers connect to the hierarchy via Modbus. The automated line is also enabling IoT efficiency gains through real-time data management, combined with remote monitoring. Trio developed the motion profiles and
automation programming in IEC languages, and the company’s U.S. team is supporting the plant’s automation engineers. The plant is now planning to introduce further automated SCARA processing lines.
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