Overview
Autonomous mobile handling robot in a gear manufacturing plant
Hankamp Gears BV is a company in the Netherlands that manufactures high quality gears. The entire production process is carried out in-house at their plant, so the decision was taken to automate part of this process by incorporating an RB-KAIROS+ mobile manipulator robot to perform the Pick & Place tasks.
Their objective was to minimise the rate of breakdowns, errors and risks in order to reduce order delivery times. Hankamp has also succeeded in lowering the selling price of the parts they manufacture.
RB-KAIROS+ was selected because it is a fully autonomous manipulator with a design that enables operations at any point in their factory, including aisles or certain points in the production line that are smaller in terms of space.
Robotnik’s robotics solution
It is a powerful and easy-to-use collaborative mobile manipulator, specifically designed to operate in indoor industrial and logistic environments. The robot’s software is integrated into Polyscope, allowing easy programming by an end user without specialised knowledge.
RB-KAIROS+ is a collaborative robot, which means that it can work safely in different environments, sharing the workspace with the operators.
At Hankamp Gears BV, the mobile manipulator selects and picks up parts from point A on the production line, transports them to point B and deposits them at a pre-determined location.
Challenges
The challenge was to integrate the RB-KAIROS+ into the environment in a safe and reliable way. The robot must navigate and manipulate the production line with no previous relevant modifications to the production line. To this end, it must move through narrow aisles and be able to position itself with high precision. The mecanum wheels and the perception and localisation algorithms developed by Robotnik for the RB-KAIROS+ are the key to making this positioning accuracy possible.
The RB-KAIROS+ mobile manipulator is suited for this application, as its multiple sensors and the complete integration of the UR16e arm provide safe navigation and robust handling.