Packaging
Package robots allow fully-automated unloading of standardised, loose packages from containers and transfer platforms. Autonomous unloading is achieved through a 3D laser scanner, which records the package locations in the interior of the container. This scanner data is transferred to the Schleicher XCA 1100 control; imaging software evaluates the data under Windows XP. The software assesses potential grab points and an associated trajectory (path curve of the robot arm). The target coordinates for the robot determined in this way are transferred to the CNC part of the same XCA 1100. Controlled by the CNC, the grabber picks up loose, cuboid packages - even from directly below the container ceiling - of various sizes and up to a weight of 31.5 kg, and places them on a conveyor belt.
If all of the packages are outside the robot's working range, the robot system, controlled by the PLC part of the XCA 1100, moves on a steerable chassis to the optimal location and continues to unload from there. The robot system uses a telescopic belt conveyor to position and transport away the packages. The system can unload 20ft and 40ft containers.
The kinematics of the package robot:
Definition through translatory and five rotary axes
The Tool Center Point (TCP) has six degrees of freedom
The arrangement of the main axes is comparable to a turned jointed-arm robot
Two rotation axes and the wrist axis, also designed to be rotatory, are mounted on a horizontally manoeuvrable translatory axis in a kinematic chain
