A Robotic Bin-Picking Add-on for Disengaging Parts through Vibration and Machine Vision

Robotic-based bin-picking systems are being installed worldwide in manufacturing sites, as a new automated approach for part manipulation. However, under some circumstances, the available systems in the market do not provide a robust solution. This is the case when the parts to manipulate engage each other, making difficult to pick only one part from the part container. This is a common scenario in some sectors, such as automotive. This paper proposes a new method to complement current commercial bin-picking systems, based on 1) a new robotic gripper design including a pneumatic vibration system, to force the parts to disengage, and 2) an additional specific machine vision system to check if the gripper is indeed picking one single part, and not more. This solution has been validated and will be installed in the Stellantis automotive factory in Vigo (Spain), on a real use case. The results show that the new approach allows to successfully pick one part in the 100% of the cases. This bin-picking add-on is suitable for applications in aeronautics, automotive, metal-mechanical, among others, allowing the automation of processes in these complex scenarios, where no commercial solution was available until now.