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Careful Pick & Place Handling

3D recognition for pick & place solutions

The challenge:
Careful handling

For a packing station of brake disc and friction ring blanks in the automotive industry, it was necessary to develop a removal system that is particularly careful to the components.

The solution:
Reliable 3D recognition

An embedded vision system detects the parts that are stacked irregularly, arranged randomly and not sorted by type, and ensures that they are deposited carefully and in the correct position.

3D recognition system SKG500 – Wente/Thiedig GmbH

The Pick & Place system removes brake discs from a heavy goods container using a robot arm.

Robot-assisted parts handling for the automotive industry

Automated processes have long dominated component handling in the automotive industry. Wente/Thiedig GmbH, which specializes in industrial image processing solutions, has already developed several 3D recognition systems in this area for a well-known automobile manufacturer. In the case described here, irregularly stacked, randomly arranged and possibly not sorted brake discs or friction ring blanks were to be reliably detected and carefully processed by a robot.

Stationary system with smart camera

Together with Bertram Automation GmbH & Co. KG, Wente/Thiedig GmbH has designed a robot-guided scanning system specifically for determining the position and orientation of brake discs in heavy goods containers. For their customer in the automotive industry, the companies have now developed this system further and transferred the detection technology from the robot arm to a stationary system. In the new SKG500 scanning system, the embedded camera is installed in a fixed location and no longer in the gripper. This design significantly reduces mechanical stress.

Key Facts

Technology

3D recognition system for pick & place

Challenge

Image processing in minimum space

VC Camera

VCSBC Board Camera

High processing power in an ultra-compact design: VCSBC nano-RH

An intelligent camera based on the VCSBC6211nano-RH from Vision Components is used for 3D recognition. With a processing power of 5600 MIPS and extremely compact dimensions of only 40 mm x 60 mm, the board camera is particularly suitable for applications where installation space is very limited. The open design and the remote sensor head allow maximum flexibility for integration into various machine vision systems and other applications.

The tiny camera head measures only 18 mm x 24 mm and is connected to the CPU board via an optional 30 mm or 80 mm long cable. The image is captured by a global shutter CMOS sensor and delivers razor-sharp images even in extremely fast applications. The camera has a processor clocked at 700 MHz, a 32 MB Flash EPROM and 128 MB SDRAM RAM for processing the image data. Live image output can be done via the 100 MBit Ethernet interface, which supports free programming.

About the VC-Z camera series

"As we did for the previous system, we again relied on smart cameras from Vision Components for the SKG500 3D detection system. VC cameras are very powerful, act as independent image processing systems and can be freely programmed. This allowed us to implement a fast and reliable 3D detection system."

Dr. Bernd KösterManaging Director of Wente/Thiedig GmbH

About Wente/Thiedig GmbH

Wente/Thiedig GmbH, founded in Braunschweig in 1987, implements customer-specific image processing solutions for industrial applications. If required, these can be modified or supplemented by in-house developments. Machine vision systems from Wente/Thiedig GmbH are primarily used in shape and pattern recognition, for example in quality control, in the automatic control and regulation of machine processes and in the automation of measurement and control processes.