“Numerous factors propel the emergence of collaborative robots in the supply chain industry,” said Joe Campbell, senior manager of applications development with UR. "This is a quickly evolving industry where fulfillment centers now have a need for robotic piece-picking processes that support a wide range of products and high throughput for the growing number of small-sized orders." Campbell will speaks on the topic in his presentation “Collaborative Robots: Re-Shaping Manufacturing, Packaging and Distribution” at the show Monday, March 9.
At Modex booth 1007 from March 9-12 in Atlanta, Universal Robots will showcase its collaborative robot arms in new applications.
The UR booth will be the first public display of the Quick Deployment Kit (QDK) a collaborative, accurate and scalable solution for parcel induction, case packing, and goods-to-person tasks developed by MDCI Automation, a Universal Robots Certified Systems Integrator in partnership with Plus One Robotics. Utilizing a vision engine powered by PlusOne’s PickOne Software and Universal Robots’ UR10e cobot arm, the QDK identifies the pick points for items in a pick zone and sends the points to the UR cobot that picks and places each item onto a place zone/conveyor. The QDK can keep up with fast-moving conveyor speed and is able to “earn to pick targets via human assistance through a remote alerting technology. MDCI Automation integrated a UR+ certified gripper from Soft Robotics and cell equipment from UR+ partner Vention in the QDK.
UR’s Modex booth is also the launch pad for Cross Company’s new Cross Palletron, a solution that utilizes the UR10e cobot to create a fully collaborative and mobile palletizer and de-palletizer. Cross’ software eliminates the need for robotic programming and makes redeploying the palletizer for a different production line or package size quicker. The Cross Palletron aims to keep workers from doing repetitive bending and lifting tasks that can lead to workplace injuries.
RightHand Robotics’ UR-powered solution took set a world record of piece-picks delivered at a tradeshow during Modex's 2018 iteration. The solution successfully picked and placed 131,072 items over the course of the three-day show. This year brings RightHand Robotics’ new MHI Innovation Award-winning RightPick2 platform showcased at the company’s Modex booth 9826 featuring an intelligent gripper, a vision system, control software and a UR5e cobot. The RightPick platform has successfully completed millions of picks autonomously across numerous industries, including e-commerce, retail, pharmaceuticals and grocery.