In collaboration with Robomotion and Intrinsic, Sotec has configured and successfully deployed a machine tending application, which uses a KUKA KR6 robot in a space constrained cell, in an industrial set-up at Esslingen University of Applied Sciences. Our developers were able to plan and configure all processes using Intrinsic Flowstate’s graphical interface. Flowstate is a web-based developer environment to build robotic solutions that can be run both in the cloud and locally. Programs created in the cloud can be transferred directly to the machine on site. In addition to the intuitive creation of work steps in a kind of flow chart, the complete movement of the robot can be programmed in one place. A digital twin of the system and the workpieces enable automated motion planning with collision avoidance, which is particularly relevant in hyper-constrained working environments. As an additional advantage, Flowstate allows for seamless integration of automated quality control, e.g. adding a visual inspection service. Thus, we at SOTEC can fully utilize our extensive expertise in the field of machine learning and cloud computing and add significant value to the overall application.
In this specific application, an injection molded part is transferred for further processing after demolding, such as for separating the sprue, and finally sorted into reject and good parts by the robot. In addition to automated quality control, quality-based sorting can also be carried out using additional sensors. We at Sotec plan to use other AI-enabled capabilities, like pose and object detection, to add more value to applications like these.
In summary, the special features of the project are the intuitive programming and control of the robot via Flowstate, minimal advance planning and automated path planning in a very confined space. Another major advantage of the digital twin used is that it can be set up and planned, and then allows us to rapidly iterate between the simulated and real workcell.
As an early solution builder for Intrinsic, SOTEC is excited to validate Flowstate, a developer tooling with automated motion planning capabilities, for an industrial application.
