A robotic depalletizer has been developed to handle complex depalletizing tasks in the logistics, e-commerce, healthcare and consumer packaged goods industries. Using machine vision software, this new solution can quickly assess a wide variety of box types, enabling customers to efficiently process assorted loads with very little engineering effort and short set-up time. The robotic depalletizer software uses the information gathered by the vision sensor to provide the robot with a suitable grasping point for each box. The robot then picks up the box, weighing up to 30 kg, and places it on either another pallet or an outfeed conveyor.
The speed and accuracy of the system enables it to work at a peak rate of up to 650 cycles per hour, 24 hours a day. The vision sensor enables the robot to detect specific carton boxes on pallets, allowing reliable depalletizing of several different load types. These include pallets comprised of a single type of box in defined layers; “rainbow” pallets containing a number of different box types; and mixed pallets, which have a wide range of boxes with varying weights, shapes and materials.