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Robotic Pick-and-Place Systems for Food Packaging
Rockwell Automation and CWM Automation deploy an autonox Delta robot for Cranswick's packaging line.
www.rockwellautomation.com
Industry Sector: Food processing and industrial automation.
Application Area: Pick-and-place systems and packaging robotics.
Food processing company Cranswick Plc has automated its end-of-line packaging process with the integration of a new robotic pick-and-place system. Designed by CWM Automation, the equipment integrates autonox Robotics mechanics and Rockwell Automation control architecture to process high volumes of meat products.
Control Architecture and Delta Kinematics
The system can pick, align, and place products into their packaging at a rate of 240 units per minute. The high-speed movements of the autonox Delta robot are powered by Allen-Bradley Kinetix VP low-inertia servomotors. The entire kinematics and machine safety protocols are managed by an Allen-Bradley GuardLogix 5380 Programmable Logic Controller (PLC), which unifies standard control and safety functions on a single hardware platform.
Conveyor Tracking and Product Handling
To ensure the precise handling of irregularly shaped products, the system detects the real-time presence and geometric orientation of each unit on the conveyor belt. Automating this repetitive task eliminates the bottlenecks inherent in manual end-of-line operations, thereby stabilizing the production flow during peak activity.
Additional Context: This section details technical specifications not included in the original announcement.
In the food industry, parallel kinematic robots (Delta robots) are the standard for ultra-high-speed pick-and-place applications. Unlike traditional 6-axis articulated arms, the heavy motors of a Delta robot are fixed to a static upper dome, while only the lightweight arms are set in motion. This architecture significantly reduces the inertia of the kinematic system, allowing for extreme accelerations (often exceeding 10G). To handle products randomly placed on a moving conveyor, the GuardLogix controller utilizes a conveyor tracking algorithm. This process synchronizes the pulses from a rotary encoder located on the conveyor's drive shaft with the coordinates (X, Y, and theta angle) sent by a machine vision system. The robot then calculates a dynamic interception vector to pick the product on the fly without requiring a line stoppage.
Edited by Lekshman Ramdas, Induportals editor – adapted by AI.
www.rockwellautomation.com
Control Architecture and Delta Kinematics
The system can pick, align, and place products into their packaging at a rate of 240 units per minute. The high-speed movements of the autonox Delta robot are powered by Allen-Bradley Kinetix VP low-inertia servomotors. The entire kinematics and machine safety protocols are managed by an Allen-Bradley GuardLogix 5380 Programmable Logic Controller (PLC), which unifies standard control and safety functions on a single hardware platform.
Conveyor Tracking and Product Handling
To ensure the precise handling of irregularly shaped products, the system detects the real-time presence and geometric orientation of each unit on the conveyor belt. Automating this repetitive task eliminates the bottlenecks inherent in manual end-of-line operations, thereby stabilizing the production flow during peak activity.
Additional Context: This section details technical specifications not included in the original announcement.
In the food industry, parallel kinematic robots (Delta robots) are the standard for ultra-high-speed pick-and-place applications. Unlike traditional 6-axis articulated arms, the heavy motors of a Delta robot are fixed to a static upper dome, while only the lightweight arms are set in motion. This architecture significantly reduces the inertia of the kinematic system, allowing for extreme accelerations (often exceeding 10G). To handle products randomly placed on a moving conveyor, the GuardLogix controller utilizes a conveyor tracking algorithm. This process synchronizes the pulses from a rotary encoder located on the conveyor's drive shaft with the coordinates (X, Y, and theta angle) sent by a machine vision system. The robot then calculates a dynamic interception vector to pick the product on the fly without requiring a line stoppage.
Edited by Lekshman Ramdas, Induportals editor – adapted by AI.
www.rockwellautomation.com
