Pick & Place

Cobots are increasingly used in industrial automation, especially for repetitive operations. In robotics, pick and place means that a product is moved from one position to another. Pick and place cobots offer many application possibilities. They can be used, for example, for a single path movement, which is repeated every cycle, such as filling boxes or palletizing. But also applications where the product has to be moved to multiple locations, where each time an operation must be performed by an operator, for example for testing products.

Advantages of a Pick & Place Cobot

Pick and place cobots relieve operators of monotonous or burdensome work. Through the integration of a cobot and the good cooperation between humans and cobots, the human workforce can be spent more usefully and costs can be saved.

Cobots are very accurate, so they can place products in the right position with high consistency. Also, cobots can move at a high speed, which can increase the production capacity.

Vision based

A cobot can easily be used for moving products, but also advanced where a product based on sight must be picked. By equipping a cobot with vision systems, the cobot gets as if it were ‘eyes’ to perform tasks. This allows the cobot to perform a series of tasks that are never exactly the same. It has the ability to identify and locate products, after which the product can be picked up, properly oriented and placed at the new position.

A 2D vision system can be used to recognize flat products. It is important that there is sufficient contrast with the background and that products do not touch each other. Another option is a 3D vision system. It can be used in situations where objects are mixed up and when products differ from each other in shape, size or material.