3D Vision-Guided Robotic Bin Picking

The topic that is often most important when deciding whether to install 3D vision-guided robotics is what kind of targets can be used with it. 3D vision-guided robotics is capable of highly accurate 3D recognition of various parts and products, including shapes with curved surfaces, soft objects, and parts with complicated structures. Similarly, it can detect a range of size in parts from screws and bolts, to automotive gears and connecting rods, and even larger items such as automotive components like mufflers. The system can also detect different materials such as metal, plastic, and rubber. The diversity of parts and products that can be supported such as cylinders, thin boards, as well as parts with glossy and shiny finishes.

Stable picking is possible for targets having various shapes and materials. For details, see the following videos.

Bin picking of shaft holders

The system’s four cameras image the bin of parts from different angles to generate reliable 3D images with minimal blind spots.

Bin picking of glossy metal targets

The newly developed LED projector and high-sensitivity CMOS sensors allow for an unprecedented wide dynamic range, so even highly reflective parts can be detected.

Bin picking of screws

The built-in high-speed processor enables quick execution of 3D search algorithms to dramatically shorten takt time compared to standard 3D vision for robots.

Bin picking of thin metal sheets

By combining high-resolution cameras and a high-resolution light projector, even slight height differences can be identified, enabling highly accurate detection of small part features.

Bin picking of metal cylinders

The LED projector casts multiple striped-light patterns at 90-degree angles, reducing the impact of reflections from glossy surfaces.

One-click 3D auto-calibration

* Playback speed: 4×

Calibration can be easily performed at the click of a button, ensuring a highly accurate and repeatable calibration method.

Installing 3D vision-guided robotics and performing bin picking provides various advantages. This section introduces the advantages of using a robot to automate bin picking.

Advantage 1Solving the labor shortage problem

Labor shortage is a serious problem at production sites, but this problem can be solved by switching to robots for picking work.

Advantage 2Reduced labor costs

With robots performing bin picking, there is no need to pay the overtime that is required by human workers when they perform the same picking, which reduces costs. Also, robots provide stable operation for 24 hours a day.

Advantage 3Automating the part supply

At conventional production sites, parts feeders and fixtures were used to align parts so they were easy for robots to pick. With bin picking using 3D vision-guided robotics, there is no need to align parts in this manner, which decreases the man-hours spent by operators on manual work and increases overall productivity.

Advantage 4Preventing defective products

Bin picking via 3D vision-guided robotics eliminates the human errors of forgetting to place targets where they should be or placing targets in a backwards orientation, leading to problems that can occur when aligning targets. Defective products stemming from these errors can be prevented.

Advantage 5Effective use of space

As the number of work processes and manufactured product types increases, so too do the number of parts feeders and jigs, which makes it difficult to find space to install everything. However, with bin picking via 3D vision-guided robotics, the number of parts feeders and other pieces of peripheral equipment can be minimized, allowing for production lines to be established in limited space.

Advantage 6Stable work speed

The work speed varies depending on operator experience when operators have to align the targets and insert them into robots. However, using robots for everything including bin picking minimizes these variations in work speed, allowing for shortened takt time.

Advantage 7Supports large targets

Handling large or heavy targets manually during picking subjects operators to heavy stress. There are also situations where two, three, or more operators have to handle a single target. Robots can safely and reliably pick targets even if they are large or heavy.