WAREHOUSE AUTOMATION


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Bin picking applications require robust 3D scanning methods


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Te Infaimon InPicker 3D bin picking system uses a variety of 3D imaging techniques, such as passive stereo, active stereo or laser triangulation to recognise and determine the position of objects randomly piled up in a container. It also interfaces directly with a variety of robots. ‘Te unique thing about the InPicker,’ said


Williamson, ‘is that it is robot agnostic, so it doesn’t matter what make of robot it is. It is also camera agnostic.’ An application using InPicker, he explained, becomes bespoke without the customer having to develop everything from scratch, which would traditionally be the case when building a bin picking system.


Get a grip InPicker requires a CAD model of the gripper and a CAD model of the item that the robot will handle. Tere is also the functionality to upload the CAD model of the box the objects are housed in. Tis is important, said Williamson,


because if the robot does not know the shape of the box, it will not know how to approach the box to pick up products from it – if the box has a high sidewall, for example, the arm could try to pick an object from the wrong side. ‘Tat’s a key thing,’ said Williamson, ‘when you start to do proper bin picking, and certainly for things like warehousing, where they have these plastic boxes with a pile of bits in them.’ Warehouse robots also might use


multiple grippers, and potentially different


‘Te market for imaging to support automated warehousing will only continue to grow, particularly when it comes to bin picking’


vision techniques. In this scenario, said Williamson, the first thing is to calibrate the space of the robot into the space of the InPicker. Te InPicker tells the robot its co-ordinates and identifies what gripper is needed to pick up certain objects. Williamson explained: ‘Using the 3D


matching technology, it looks at all the shapes of the products in the box and says: “I can pick up 30 of these and I see this particular one has the minimum inclusion of other products on top of it”.’


Picking at speed 3D imaging firm Photoneo is close to launching its MotionCam-3D camera, which won the 2018 Vision Award at the Vision trade fair in Stuttgart, and which can be used for bin picking. MotionCam-3D is based on the


company’s parallel structured light technology, implemented on a custom CMOS image sensor. It is able to inspect objects moving as fast as 40m/s, and can be used for warehouse applications such as autonomous delivery systems, object sorting, as well as bin picking applications.


30 IMAGING AND MACHINE VISION EUROPE FEBRUARY/MARCH 2020


Te precision of the camera is designed to allow robots to handle smaller and sensitive objects in palletising, de-palletising, machine tending applications, quality control and metrology. Photoneo has been selling engineering


samples of the camera, but plans to release an official version before the summer, according to the firm’s CTO, Tomas Kovacovsky. Last summer, Photoneo developed an


autonomous mobile robot, which was designed for transporting materials in factories and other industrial facilities. It works thanks to two 2700 laser scanners, two ultrasonic sensors, and its vision is courtesy of two 3D cameras. It can carry up to 100kg direct weight, pull up to 300kg, supports a dual-way operation with an interchangeable back and front, and has a maximum speed of 1.125m/s in both directions. Tis year, there will be a new version of


the robot launched. Kovacovsky explained: ‘Te new one we are going to release this year will be called Phollower 200. It will have new features and is designed for transport of materials in larger factory environments.’ Looking to the future, Williamson believes


that the market for imaging technology to support automated warehousing will only continue to grow, particularly when it comes to bin picking. ‘Obviously that is very much an exploding industry,’ he explained. ‘InPicker started around three to four years ago, and we are working on second generation products, so it’s evolving all the time.’ O


@imveurope | www.imveurope.com


Photoneo


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