Robotization of production lines raises certain concerns and doubts among some entrepreneurs regarding the capabilities of production machines and their autonomy. What will happen if a robot has to pick a part from a container where it is mixed with other components? Is there a risk that the robot will install the wrong component? The solution to this problem is innovative bin picking. In the article below, we explain what distinguishes this process.
How Does Bin Picking Work?
Bin picking is a process in which specially designed industrial robots automatically sort and pick components from containers. This is where the name of the process directly comes from: bin = container, picking = selecting/retrieving.
What distinguishes bin picking robots? Machines designed for this process are equipped with advanced vision systems. It is thanks to them that the machine „sees” what is in the container. But how does it know which part it should pick? The robot can operate based on geometric algorithms. It picks elements based on matching their shapes. Newer models, on the other hand, use AI, or artificial intelligence. It processes and analyzes the image registered by 3D vision systems. The process supported by artificial intelligence is called smart bin picking, or intelligent picking. In addition to vision systems, robot grippers also affect the effectiveness of the robot’s work. Elements can have different shapes and require different ways of grasping the part. Modern robotic stations enable automatic gripper changes. This means that one robot can pick bulk material using a vacuum gripper, delicate items using an adaptive gripper, and heavy components using a jaw gripper. Properly matching the type of gripper and the method of grasping the desired element is necessary to prevent material damage. The construction and design of machines responsible for bin picking must therefore be tailored to the business profile of a given company and the specifics of the products that the robot will pick from containers.
Benefits of Bin Picking Implementation
Robotization in industry brings many benefits, primarily financial ones. The use of modern technologies allows for significant improvement in efficiency on the production floor. Machines successfully work around the clock, and the quality of their work is constant. Thanks to numerous sensors and safety systems, machines catch every error and deviation from the norm, which allows for identifying low-quality semi-finished products or raw materials as quickly as possible. Implementing bin picking is an effective form of replacing humans in monotonous, manual selection of elements from a container. Humans are no longer forced to perform tedious activities, bend over, or strain their spine. The machine can successfully replace them in difficult conditions such as cold storage facilities or halls with high noise levels. It is worth remembering that robotization and automation of production processes is beneficial not only for the company’s wallet, but also for the team’s work comfort.
Bin Picking – Where Is It Applied?
Bin picking is widely used in e-commerce warehousing. It is also used in the food industry, for example, to arrange loosely scattered fruits in designated trays. Vision systems in robotics that allow for recognizing elements in containers have also found application in the automotive industry. There, robotic stations responsible for assembly pick necessary components from containers. The use of robots allows for minimizing the degree to which humans physically participate in the process, which directly translates into work safety. Sorting robotization in the form of bin picking is an excellent solution wherever the process requires tedious segregation or order fulfillment of various elements.
If you are wondering how bin picking could improve intralogistics processes in your company, contact us. At Taskoprojekt, we have been building robotic stations for leading players in the industrial sector for years. Trust experience, choose the highest quality and professional consulting.