Abb Schweiz Ag

Roy Fraser

Ling Wang

Yan Xu

Shaojie Cheng

Yanlai Wu

Henrik Knobel

Wenqi Yeo

A method for picking and placing items includes the steps of: providing a picking conveyor transporting items to be picked; providing a placing conveyor to which the items are to be placed; and providing a plurality of robots configured to move the items from pick positions on the picking conveyor to place positions on the placing conveyor. For at least one of the plurality of robots there is defined an actual work area Athat fulfils the condition A<A−(A+A), wherein Ais a theoretical work area, Ais an overlapping work area and Ais an excessive work area of the respective robot. By limiting the actual work area Aof the robots more than what is done conventionally, the total workload between the robots in pick and place systems may be balanced.

Method and a device for picking and placing items

A method and an apparatus for optimizing a target working line are disclosed. The target working line includes at least one robot manipulator, at least one conveyor and at least one item on the conveyor to be displaced by the robot manipulator. The method includes: obtaining an evaluation model for the target working line, the evaluation model yielding an overall success rate of moving the item from one conveyor to another conveyor based on at least one measuring parameter, the measuring parameter being a physical attribute of the target working line; yielding the overall success rate for the target working line as a function of a value for the measuring parameter for the target working line; and in case that the yielded overall success rate is lower than a predetermined threshold rate, updating a value for a configuring parameter based on the overall success rate, the configuring parameter corresponding to the measuring parameter, and the configuring parameter being states of the working line. The optimization of the evaluation model does not require an implementation of an on-site process or an involvement of an experienced engineer or worker. Instead, simulation software can be used to obtain customized parameters used for the target working line, resulting in an increased success rate within a short period of time.

Method and apparatus for optimizing a target working line

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Cheshire, United Kingdom

Roy Fraser