Robotic cases in lighting factory

Overview

Autonomous Mobile Handling Robot in a lighting factory

After 25 years dedicated to the manufacture of light fixtures, our client made the strategic decision to automate part of the tasks carried out in its production plant.

The lamp production process is carried out entirely in the facilities of this European company. They have a large plant and the warehouse area is at a certain distance from the production line.

In order to prevent the operators from wasting time every day going back and forth to transport missing materials, they decided to incorporate a RB-KAIROS+ mobile manipulator into their processes.

The missing material can be either heavy loads or small parts or components, so the RB-KAIROS+ is the ideal robot, as it provides the necessary mobility and the ability to handle small parts by integrating an end tool into the robotic arm.

Robotnik’s robotics solution

RB-KAIROS+ is able to pick and place materials of different sizes located in the warehouse and transport them to the various production stations as appropriate.

It is a powerful and easy-to-use collaborative mobile manipulator, specifically designed to operate in indoor industrial and logistics environments. The software is integrated with Polyscope for easy programming.

RB-KAIROS+ is officially aproved by UR+, making it compatible with a wide range of sensors and components belonging to the UR+ ecosystem.

The robot is collaborative, which means it can work safely in different environments, sharing the workspace with operators.

Challenges

This production plant operates 24/7 and the RB-KAIROS+ is also required to work full shifts. One of the advantages of the robot is the automatic loading station with which it is equipped.

RB-KAIROS+ can connect to the charging station autonomously or it is possible to command the robot to perform a charging action via a terminal, via the Polyscope UR interface, via Robotnik’s HMI or via industrial protocols such as REST or OPCUA.

When charging is complete, RB-KAIROS+ will resume the mission.

Another advantage in this case is that it is a mobile manipulator equipped with omnidirectional mecanum wheels: the robot is able to move linearly in any direction. This is a great advantage when integrating collaborative robots into existing installations, because of the flexibility of being able to move in small environments that are not suitable for large vehicles.