Packaging ¦ IDM
Perfect for food: thanks to its stainless steel housing,
the KR DELTA can be used in the food industry.
is outside the specified settings, the robot ignores that bucket and
grabs another. "This allows us to further increase the cycle time of
the robot," Singh explains.
Spoon filtering made easy
The system also masters overlapping trays. One of the most important
aspects of the application is therefore the filter setting. An
example of this function is the radius filter, which detects and ignores
overlapping buckets within an area. Jia Ming explains, "You
can think of it as the first robot picking up the top bucket, but
then the bottom one is misaligned. With this filter function, the
affected bucket is ignored by the second robot." To avoid this scenario
in advance and simplify the robot's work, there is an elevator
in front of the assembly line. It is followed by a vibration unit that
separates the trays from each other in the best possible way.
Whether blue, green or orange: the spoon
color does not matter
Although the shape of the dosing spoons is always the same, they
differ in color: the customer uses blue, green or even orange ones.
The different colors initially posed another challenge: "For example,
if the customer uses a blue bucket, the best light for the vision
system to detect the position is red. With a combination of different
lighting colors, we were able to shorten the processing time
of the image," Singh says. That's why RGB lighting was chosen,
he says. A final inspection camera monitors the entire process.
"The customer has great confidence in the solution developed by
KUKA and MODU System," Singh explains. "We ourselves are very
impressed with the stainless steel design of the KR DELTA and believe
that the application is best suited for the food industry, which
places a lot of emphasis on hygiene."
September/October 2022 ¦ international-dairy.com · 41
A question of the right position
Thanks to the combination of KUKA.VisionTech software, which is
a powerful tool for 2D object recognition, and KUKA.PickControl,
the KR DELTA can grab objects from one moving conveyor belt and
place them on another. "One camera detects the position of the
buckets on the belt, and a second detects the bags on the other
conveyor. The system then calculates the distance traveled and exact
position where it is," explains Jia Ming of KUKA. Thanks to
KUKA.PickControl, multiple robots can also be easily coordinated
and controlled. The software also ensures a smooth and energyefficient
production flow.
Program offline, test in real time
"In addition, KUKA.PickControl supports flexible patterns. This
means that customers can pre-define placement patterns and easily
switch by selecting different scenarios based on their current
requirements," says Jia Ming. MODU System also used KUKA.Sim
to match and test the customer's specifications. The 3D simulation
created with this can later be transferred to the real controller.
Behind KUKA.Sim is a smart simulation software that enables efficient
offline programming of KUKA robots. With functions such
as reachability checking and collision detection, the customer was
able to ensure in advance that the robot programs and workcell
layouts used were really feasible.
The robot is picky
Another challenge is the shape of the spoon including the handle.
It determines where the robot can grip it. "One solution is to use a
dark detection area to figure out which orientation of the bucket is
best," says Rajinderjit Singh of MODU System. It is determined that
only a few alignments are acceptable for picking. If the orientation
The KR DELTA places the spoons
next to the bag with the baby food.
The next process step places both
parts in their packaging.
/international-dairy.com
