A robot sorts catheters with blue and white attachments using an Ensenso 3D camera.

Recognised. Picked. Packed.

Bin picking application with Ensenso 3D camera boosts productivity

Short cycle times, little scrap, minimal stock-keeping - the factory of the future is networked and highly economical. An important component here is industrial image processing. A specialist in this field is Pose Automation GmbH based in Germany. This system integrator develops high-tech systems for machine vision and robotics. One example is a bin picking application for gripping catheters for veterinary medicine, equipped with an Ensenso 3D camera from IDS Imaging Development Systems GmbH.

Application

High quality with increasing profitability - these are the requirements of the production environment for new manufacturing processes. An increase in performance of this kind can be achieved by, among other things, active quality assurance with traceable processes as well as reduced piece, set-up and thus also throughput times. This is exactly the approach Pose Automation pursues. Tailor-made for a customer in the veterinary medicine sector, the company developed a robotic cell in which catheters are sorted into a packaging machine.

Following production, the catheters are transported on a conveyor belt in large quantities in a random manner to the gripping area of the robot arm. The system is equipped with an Ensenso 3D camera for rapid recognition of the individual parts. The camera detects the catheters lying in random orientations and delivers a three-dimensional point cloud of them.

Ensenso N35 delivers three-dimensional point cloud of the catheters lying in random orientations

The connected image processing system uses this information to calculate the position and alignment of the objects to be gripped. The robot controls them in a targeted manner, grips 2 pieces per cycle and inserts them individually into format tubes. Both the recognition and gripping of different catheter designs and further assembly steps, such as the attachment of hose pieces, are possible.

In this way, different catheters from different production lines can be packed on the same packaging machine. The delivery of the goods can be adapted exactly to the customer's needs and the storage of the finished products can be minimized. This increases productivity, e.g. through optimal adaptation to the production capacity utilization.

Outlook

The use of robots and 3D technology enables increasingly flexible manufacturing processes. They reliably accelerate the production of products across all industries and can thus provide decisive competitive advantages in a global environment. Image processing, whether based on 2D or 3D data, plays a decisive role in this. It opens up new dimensions for digital transformation. Ever smarter cameras, more powerful sensors and applications are entering the market. That means keeping the ball rolling, according to the motto: Recognized. Tested. Accessed.

Ensenso N35 at a glance. 3D vision, fast and precise.

The Ensenso N series from IDS.
The Ensenso N series from behind.
  • "Projected texture stereo vision" process for capturing untextured surfaces
  • Capture of both stationary and moving objects
  • Free software package with driver and API for Windows and Linux
  • One software package supports USB and GigE models
  • HALCON, C, C++ and C# sample programs with source code
  • Pre-calibrated and therefore easy to set up
  • Integrated function for robot hand-eye calibration with calibration plate
  • Integration of uEye industrial cameras on the software side, for example, to capture additional color information or barcodes
  • Subsampling and binning for flexible data and frame rates
Logo of Pose Automation GmbH