Braintech releases Random Bin Picking(tm) software

Citation

(2008), "Braintech releases Random Bin Picking(tm) software", Industrial Robot, Vol. 35 No. 5. https://doi.org/10.1108/ir.2008.04935ead.003

Braintech releases Random Bin Picking(tm) software

Article Type: New products From: Industrial Robot: An International Journal, Volume 35, Issue 5

Braintech Inc. has developed and integrated Random Bin Picking(tm) (RBP(tm)), the much sought after “Holy Grail” of vision-guided robotic (VGR) technology, into its latest release of eVisionFactory (eVF(tm) Version 5.1), a software platform and vision library for the development of VGR applications with greater efficiency and scalability than custom programming.

Braintech’s Random Bin Picking uses the Company’s unique VGR technology to locate and grasp randomly situated materials from generic bins, allowing them to be moved through assembly and manufacturing lines without high-annual costs associated with manual labor, dedicated sorting machines, custom bins and trays. Braintech’s technology solves the bin-picking problem in a highly unstructured environment where parts are completely jumbled within a bin and are under various degrees of occlusion.

“We believe this is a major advancement,” Braintech Chief Executive Officer Rick Weidinger said. “Our team has made Random Bin Picking a priority in the last several months and they have done a tremendous job solving the problem of handling components which arrive at facilities in containers, including those jumbled together during shipping and throughout the entire material movement process. It streamlines the process along assembly lines by removing the need for purpose-built mechanisms, expensive custom crates and human interaction, which represents a significant return on investment for our customers.

“Our research indicates that there are approximately ten times as many random bin picking opportunities for any type of material movement application than current automation practices allow. We will target these opportunities.”

Braintech’s technology team, led by Chief Technology Officer Babak Habibi, has developed RBP to effectively deal with extreme part overlap and occlusion, significant lighting variability, few distinct part features and robot collision avoidance with other parts.

“Those were all very demanding challenges and we’ve overcome them. I feel we have the highest caliber and most cost effective research and development staff focused on solutions. While solutions exist for specific examples of structured problems, there are no widely applicable solutions that exist for unstructured problems. Not until today. Most companies talk about developing RBP – we have accomplished it,” Weidinger said.

Through its integration with eVF 5.1, RBP takes advantage of Braintech’s other VGR technologies including the award-winning Single Camera 3D. For the automotive industry, eVF is packaged as TrueView(tm) and sold exclusively by ABB.

“Braintech’s new development is the next big stepping stone in Vision Guided Robotics,” ABB Robot Automation Vice President and General Manager Jerry Osborn said. “Bin Picking has been a major point of discussion for intelligent material handling for some time. Several companies already claim to have random bin picking capability, but in reality, what has been offered to date is what we would consider “semi-structured” bin picking. No one has managed to build a product that can successfully handle truly randomly jumbled parts like this, until now.”

For more information about Braintech, visit: www.braintech.com