Conveyor and vision system set for Munich launch

A conveyor and vision tracking system, to be launched at Automatica from 16th to 19th May in Munich, is based on two robots connected to a standard industrial vision system.

TM Robotics, responsible for the sales, marketing and support of Toshiba Machine's industrial robots throughout Europe, will be launching a conveyor and vision tracking system at Automatica from 16th to 19th May in Munich.

The system, based on two of the company's TH450 Scara robots connected to a standard industrial vision system, will demonstrate not only the function of tracking items as they move along a conveyor, but also the robots' ability to determine the parts orientation and discriminate between different products.

With the conveyor tracking system, it is possible to construct an inexpensive and high speed line using existing industrial vision sensors, linked via Ethernet.

The robots' movements can be interpolated to the conveyor's direction and speed; therefore products can be picked without needing to stop the conveyor.

The vision sensor provides the part co-ordinate data, and can be positioned anywhere on the conveyor, upstream of the robots.

Parts are then picked as they enter the robots' working area.

The system automatically identifies each work piece and can perform part sharing or discriminative handling of the items between several robots on the same conveyor.

It has also been designed for multiple conveyors - for example, the conveyor tracking synchronisation can be executed on one conveyor for picking a part and then synchronised to a second conveyor for placing the part.

Examples of the Toshiba Machine TH Scara range and other Cartesian robots will also be at the show.

The TH series offers arm lengths from 250 to 1050mm and can carry payloads from 3 to 20kg, with a positional accuracy of between 0.01 and 0.03mm.

These are quick, accurate and cost effective, yet have extensive functionality.

They are suitable for the handling and assembly of components and can position these with high levels of precision.

The Automatica stand will also demonstrate the integration abilities of TM Robotics' Swiss partner company Lanco, which provides flexible turnkey assembly machines and systems.

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