PACK EXPO Innovations Report: Robotics

PMMI Media Group editors fanned out across the many booths at PACK EXPO Las Vegas to bring you this Innovations Report, featuring small cobots, sidebots, and small batch options for life sciences.

Matt Reynolds编辑

Feb 4th, 2022

Quick hits:

Pack Expo到处都有协作机器人或配角。趋势表示，它们正在扩展到更高的速度和更高的有效载荷能力，同时剩下的是工人安全。
New features address needs in pharmaceuticals, including B&R’s planar movers that can swirl liquids in small canisters and Wyzo’s high-torque direct drive actuators. These actuators provide high enough torque that robots can now be created without the need for a gear box, reducing machine footprints among other benefits.
The labor shortage is putting an emphasis on robotics as a strong automation solution that’s fast to commission, never has to take breaks, and doesn’t mind repetitive work.
机器人技术曾经是一个线路结束解决方案，但它们在包装线上出现，包括采摘和放置，分类，订单实现，甚至是线的脱位。

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PMMI Media Group·PACK EXPO Innovations Report: Robotics

Read the transcript below:

Hello, I’m Matt Reynolds, chief editor of包装世界,back with another edition ofTake Five.

去年秋天，PMMI Media Group的十几个编辑下降了PACK EXPO Las Vegas.It wasn’t until now, in the January issue of Packaging World, that we were able to weave together all of the coverage into a single cohesive tapestry that we call our PACK EXPO Innovations Report.

但是，尽管我很想承认，但并不是每个人甚至都有时间阅读1月460页以上的1月刊中的100页创新报告。因此，我认为这种五种格式可能是为您快速下载的好方法。本周，让我们回顾一下Pack Expo的机器人创新编辑。

Cobots, short for collaborative robots, were all over at the show. One example wasWzyo’sSidebot, named for a mashup of “sidekick” and “robot.”

The system is high-speed, delta-style pick-and-place robot capable of 90 picks/min that’s designed to work safely beside people. It relies on two laser scanners from生病的不断筛选机器周围的环境，并通知控制器的控制器，哪个区域中的三个区域都在。如果操作员位于最远的区域，则降低了三角洲机器人的速度。如果操作员位于中间区域，则速度进一步降低。如果操作员位于最接近机器人的区域，则速度再次降低。如果操作员如此近，以至于与机器人接触，所有动作都会停止。

Also featuring cobot solutions at its booth was三菱电动自动化公司，首次亮相其Assista合作机器人。Assista旨在以安全有效的方式与人类共享其工作场所，其独特的内部接线和管道可降低电缆被抓住或抢购的风险，增加正常运行时间并降低需要维修的风险。另外，可以在没有教学吊坠的情况下对辅助进行编程，以便没有事先工业机器人经验的人更容易地操作。虽然Assista仍然与教学吊坠兼容，但它也可以通过机器人主体上的按钮或将其“指导”到各个位置来操作。

And finally, In line with the trend of smaller cobots expanding into higher speed, greater capacity, and heavier payload territory,哥伦比亚/Okura LLC最近，通过增强的UR10E COBOT ARM升级了其Minipal®通用机器人. Displayed at PACK EXPO Las Vegas, the upgraded system increased its payload to 12.5 kg (27.55 lb), accommodating 2.5-kg heavier cases than its 10-kg predecessor and affording new application possibilities with heavier payloads.The new model also replaces pressure-sensitive safety mats with area safety scanners on all sides of the equipment footprint. Three area safety scanners detect human presence in the palletizing work envelope. This ensures safe operation in collaborative mode when in the presence of human workers, while allowing the miniPAL to operate at maximum rates while people are not within the palletizing work zone.

An interesting, outside the box robotic innovation at PACK EXPO was B&R Automation’s Mini-geo. With unpredictable demand and mass customization pushing manufacturers to engage less in make-to-stock and more just-in-time manufacturing, flexible conveyance systems that allow for rapid changeover and batch sizes of one have grown in popularity.B＆R自动化showcased its Mini-Geo conveyance system as well as its ACOPOS 6D planar conveyance system, both of which seek to address these trends. The Mini-Geo, by the way, is a modification of B&R’s ACOPOStrak shuttle transport system that’s synchronized with an IRB 1200 robotic arm fromABB和几个视觉传感器。

盟军技术发布了新的Performance Series系列PICPAC托盘器，该系列不需要最终用户的任何编码。新的托盘仪系列是他们目前的Cobot系列PICPAC托盘仪（具有UR10E）于2019年发布的可喜的补充，并继续满足终结包装行业对紧凑，移动和交钥匙式托盘单元的需求。

And on the front of the line instead of on the end, depalletizing is a common manufacturing operation that has attracted a lot of attention over the past few years due to a variety of industrial labor issues, ranging from a shortage of available workers to efforts to reduce risk of worker injuries. To help address these issues around depalletizing operations,Honeywellintroduced its Smart Flexible Depalletizer, which uses artificial intelligence to ease the implementation of robotic depalletizing technologies and minimize the need for manual labor to break down pallet loads.

Honeywell的视力和感知技术用于指导DePallesizer的机器人臂，从而可以从固定或移动位置的单个或混合SKU托盘中挑选箱子。该公司的计算机视觉技术确定了托盘上每个案例的位置，而其人工智能驱动的感知软件会自动识别各种包装格式。机器学习和运动计划中使用的智能灵活脱盖器优化机器人臂的运动，以确保最大的拾取速度。

That’s just the tip of the iceberg for robotics innvoations at PACK EXPO, read about all of them in the January issue of包装世界.