RoboVis System Improves Pick'n'Place Functionality at Norgren UK
RoboVis systems installed to dramatically improve throughput and functionality of a machine tending application at a UK component manufacturer of fluid control products.
Norgren, a world leader in motion and fluid control technologies with an eighty year UK manufacturing history, runs flexible automated machining cells that produce small batches across a wide range of parts — many "handed", needing the robot to know which way each part faces. Two cells needed a vision upgrade for throughput and fast changeover, with Kawasaki Robot UK re-programming the existing robots to make full use of it.
RoboVis: Multi-Sort and Multi-Pick
- Multi-Sort counts parts in the field of view so conveyor indexing is kept to a minimum
- Multi-Pick identifies the correct part, position, orientation and hand
- Anti-collision tools ensure the robot has a clear approach before it picks
- The conveyor indexes only once every reachable part has been picked
Lighting and camera
Overhead LED lighting from a Vision & Control FALKD300x240-R area light illuminates the pick area, with a Basler GigE camera capturing the conveyor. Conveyor material was chosen to maximise part stability and minimise reflection — the only change made to the existing feed system.
Changeover, built to avoid errors
The new part type is selected from RoboVis at changeover; when the robot enters auto-cycle it requests the component type from RoboVis directly, so the wrong part can't be selected at either end. Components are named identically in RoboVis and on the robot, using Norgren's own part numbers.