Toward Future Automatic Warehouses: An Autonomous Depalletizing System Based on Mobile Manipulation and 3D Perception

Abstract

This paper presents a mobile manipulation platform designed for autonomous depalletizing tasks. The proposed solution integrates machine vision, control and mechanical components to increase flexibility and ease of deployment in industrial environments such as warehouses. A collaborative robot mounted on a mobile base is proposed, equipped with a simple manipulation tool and a 3D in-hand vision system that detects parcel boxes on a pallet, and that pulls them one by one on the mobile base for transportation. The robot setup allows to avoid the cumbersome implementation of pick-and-place operations, since it does not require lifting the boxes. The 3D vision system is used to provide an initial estimation of the pose of the boxes on the top layer of the pallet, and to accurately detect the separation between the boxes for manipulation. Force measurement provided by the robot together with admittance control are exploited to verify the correct execution of the manipulation task. The proposed system was implemented and tested in a simplified laboratory scenario and the results of experimental trials are reported.

Intelligent energy management for mobile manipulators using machine learning

“…Currently, robotic technologies such as collaborative and mobile robots are considered enabling technology for deploying Industry 4.0 (I4.0) [1]. Multi-robot systems in Figure 1 composed of one or more mani-pulator arms mounted on a mobile robot can offer new employment possibilities for industry automation, gre-atly increasing the flexibility of factory layout definition [2]. Unfortunately, there are also negative fallouts.…”

Improving automated pallet handling procedures at a Saudi milk factory through overall equipment effectiveness

“…The McKinsey Global Institute analysis states that 81% of predictable physical activities are potentially automated, with associated wages of $14.6 trillion globally (Mckinsey, 2019). In the light of I4.0, automation of operations in factories is presented by several research areas (Ivanov et al , 2021), and institutions have started implementing it, precisely, the implementation of an automated system in the manufacturing industry to deliver the high-demand in a mass production environment (Aleotti et al , 2021). The first is called the conventional layer palletizer (Efthymiou and Ponis, 2019); in a layered pallet, the layers are prepared first before palletizing, and each layer is deposited on the pallet by a tray.…”