A new industrial robot capable of sorting returned glass bottles has been developed by Recop of Germany, using several inventions from Festo. One of the aims of this robot is to free workers from dangerous and tediously repetitive tasks so they can focus on more challenging duties.
When returned bottles reach factories, not only are some of them broken, but the crates also contain other matter including rubbish. Using an image recognition system consisting of a digital camera and an ultrasound sensor, bottles are identified according to size, colour and shape. The intelligent image recognition system is able to not only identify a producer's own bottles, but also those from other sources. The results are compared against the findings of the ultrasound measurement to ensure accuracy. Working with the detection data produced by the machine's electronics, the robot removes incorrect bottles and sorts these into the appropriate crates. The machine can handle around 850 crates an hour with 24 bottles each.
The sorting system is a mechatronic combination that draws heavily on Festo pneumatic components. The factors in favour of pneumatics in the design of this device were size, speed and price, as a solution of this nature would not have been viable with electrical linear drives. Recop chose to work with Festo on account of a long-standing relationship, the fact that Festo also offers ancillary equipment and the company's proven ability to deliver on time.
Festo components such as DNC standard profile cylinders and fast-switching valves support Recorob, as the robot was named, in bottle-handling operations. The DNC is installed as a special variant with a diameter of 32 mm and a piston stroke of 480 mm, while an MH2 fast-switching valve regulates the vertical motion and a further valve of this type controls the suction grippers. Recop uses a PC-based control system that controls these valves via a high-speed, realtime Profibus DP system, eliminating the need for a PLC.
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