Report of the SMALABO Smart Factory Lab

1.Box picking robot
The first one is a box picking robot that uses a strong suction gripper to pick cardboard boxes. The position of the box is determined by the laser range sensor. This robotic arm is a product of the Yaskawa company specially designed for lifting heavyweights.

2. Box arranging robot
This automation is for arranging small box-shaped objects with a robotic arm. Objects are moving on a conveyor belt and the position of the object is detected by two photoelectric sensors. This arm can pick objects with different heights with the same width and length. The arm was developed by EPSON that uses a suction gripper to pick objects.

3. Assembler
Two robotic arms are working together to assemble two pieces of metal parts by matching the shape. A usual camera was used to capture an image of two pieces moving on the conveyor belt. Red light is used to reduces the shininess of objects and enhance the quality of the image. Both robotic arms are manufactured by EPSON and used a suction gripper to pick objects.

4. Object picking robot
This robotic arm is designed to pick up objects from a container and place that on a conveyor belt in a specific orientation. A 2D laser scanner placed on top of the container was used to capture the position and orientation of the object. This heavy-duty arm was developed by the FANUC robotics company for factory automation. A magnetic gripper is used in this case since objects are metal.

5. Stationary pick-and-place robot
This robot can place small objects in specific places depending on the shape. A 2D laser scanner is used to identify the positions and shape of the objects in the containers. After the identification, the robotic arm places the object in the designated place of the tray comes through the conveyor belt. This robotic arm with a two-finger gripper was developed by the DENSO robotics company.

6. Mobile pick-and-place robot
This is a mobile robot with a robotic arm that can move from one place to another. This robot can pick up fixed-size objects with the attached two-finger gripper and place them on the tray attached to the body. After picking up a specified amount of objects, the robot moves to another place to unload them in a designated place. This system including software is developed by Office FA.com.

7. Pick-and-place robot for food processing
The specialty of this automation is the gripper of the arm can be changed depending on the task. A 2D laser scanner is used to identify the food items in the container. After placing the food items in the bento box using the attached gripper, the arm changes the gripper by itself without any human interaction. This robotic arm is also developed by ESPON company.

8. Object arranging process
This cell contains three inter-connected robotics arms that are working together to arrange “Onigiri” in a basket. One robotic arm is picking up food items moving on the conveyor belt and after filling up the specified amount the second arm places the whole set in the basket. The third robot is doing the task of replacing the basket with a new one after filling up the basket. Special grippers designated for the given task were used in each arm. All the robotic arms in this cell are developed by EPSON.

9. Item arranging robots
Two robotic arms that are developed by the Mitsubishi company are working together to arrange thin items in a box. Items in the box are identified by a 2D laser scanner. One robotic arm picking up items from a box and places them on a conveyor belt with a suction gripper. The other robot picks items that reaching to the end of the belt by tray attached to the arm and place them in another box.