[Jeremy]

Hi RoboDK community,

As you all know, RoboDK's team is hard at work to bring you new and improved features each year. Until now, we always tested new features internally and added them to the official release.


This time we want you to get involved in the process, we want to get your feedback on the future of the software.

The next feature we intend to release is aPalletizing feature.



A feature that lets you create apalletizing,depalletizing, orprocessingrobotic station in a very visual and intuitive way.



OnWednesday, June 23rd, we will add a post to this thread with thePlugin, how to install it, and a quick tutorial on how to use it.

We will compile all your comments up to the end ofJuly.
We are open to any comments, ranging from the workflow to the way it looks.

Leave a comment below if you are interested in testing this new feature.
(You can also subscribe to this thread to be kept updated.)

Have a great day guys.

Jeremy

[phil19]

Hi Jeremy,

I am just exploring RoboDK as an option for our context for the first time. We have two FANUC M410iB-700 Robots used as depalletizers. We have a custom EoaT with vacuum pump that is able to accommodate different layer lengths, widths, and heights (within set limits of course).

This new feature would be very interesting for us, but being unfamiliar as I am with your product, its hard to say whether it would meet our needs. Could you give me more information on how your system would work for a depalletizing application like ours where each new pallet has multiple fields of information loaded from a PLC? And indeed each layer deposit includes a handshake with another PLC. I'm not sure how the software would simulate those values being written / read.

Thanks,
Phil

DRL Systems

[Jeremy]

Hi Phil,

Thanks for your comment!

If I understand correctly you are picking up one layer at a time on the pallet, right?


EOAT: You can create pretty much any type of custom EOAT with RoboDK.

PLC: I'm currently working with a customer to finalize the details of that handshake. It's a relatively custom process for each customer, I'm still figuring out the most fluidand灵活的工作流。它将真正取决于brand and PLC setup. We can use different types of communication, the one I'm currently working on uses a mix of physical DO and Modbus. Can you tell us more about your setup?
Some post-processor modification might be required, but we are happy to help with that for our professional customers.

Jeremy

[Jeremy]

OK Guys, today is the day. (Updated August, 24)
You can now test abetaversion of thePalletizing Plugin.

To give you a bit more context, our goal was to create a flexible palletizing feature that lets you create any type of pallet layout using an intuitive 2D environment.
We this new feature, I was able to reduce the time it takes me to create a palletizing project by about80-85%. As aRoboDKuser first and foremost, I can tell you that I'm very excited about this one. I really hope you guys will share my excitement!

To help you get started I recorded 2 videos, a first one showing you how to install thepluginand a second one showing you how to useit.
More videos will be added to showcase more features and ways you can use theplugin.

Install thePalletizing Plugin:
Video:Palletizing Plugin - Beta - Install

Steps:
1 - Download the.dllof thePalletizing Plugin.
2 - Open C:/RoboDK/bin/plugins, delete any "PluginPalletizing.dll" file you would find there.
3 - Paste the.dllof thePalletizing Pluginyou just downloaded.
4 - OpenRoboDK.
5 - Go toTools -> Pluginsand activate thePalletizing Plugin.


Basic tutorialPalletizing Plugin:
Video:Palletizing Plugin - Beta - Basic Tutorial

Steps:
1 - Create a palletizing station with a robot, a tool, a box, a pallet, a picking program, and a pallet reference frame.
2 - Open thePalletizing Plugin.
3 - SelectPalletize.
4 - Select the rightR eference frameand the rightRobot configuration.
5 - Import theobject(box) and thepallet.
6 - Define yourlayoutsand yourlayers.
7 - AddProgram callsto initiate specific actions during the palletizing process (ei: Init station, pick object, drop object).
8 - Generate thepalletizing program.

Known bugs:
1 -Leaving a layer empty may cause unstable behavior. (Fixed)


List of improvements:
1 -Adding a more flexible approach and retract movements (X,Y,Z relative to the palletizing position). (DONE)
2 -Adding control over the robot speed at different steps of the palletizing process (approach, transition, retract). (DONE)
3 -Adding control over the robot rounding (continuous motion) at different steps of the palletizing process (approach, transition, retract). (DONE)

The.dllto install the newPalletizing Pluginis attached to this post as a .zip file.
I attached the example stations used in thedemo video.

We are waiting for your comments on any aspect of this new feature!

Jeremy

[SPinard]

Hi Jeremy,

the plugin is great,
Is there a way to make the approach keep the z-axis of the robot tool towards the ground (or to fix it), the only way to do it currently was to change every moveJ to moveL. That way it prevent the object from doing a flip in the air

[Jeremy]

Hi
This problem is related to the approach point configuration.
Did you properly set the configuration reference in the first tab of the plugin? You should pick a target right over the pallet to help the algorithm figure out which conf to use.
If you did so, you can also limit the range of motion of certain joints (double click the joint limits in the robot panel).
I would target J1 so that it can't allow the configurations you see there.

Let me know if it helps.
Jeremy

[Axel20]

Hello,

I am currently testing the depalletizing function, and for some reason the generated program always starts at the lowest layer. This would be correct for palletizing, but not for depalletizing.

Is there some way to choose the order of the layers? Or is this a bug?

[Phillip]

Pretty sure it's a bug, I'll try and fix in the next few days, thanks for the feedback.