Sausages

Challenge

The customer was using a competitor's vision system with 6 FlexPicker robots on 3 conveyors to pick sausages, but the system was not meeting their satisfaction. There were problems with accuracy, speed, and rotation of picks, and sausages were sometimes being destroyed. The system also struggled when there were many sausages on the conveyor belt.

Solution

We replaced the cameras with Nano 2020 cameras and trained an AI model to detect and identify different types of sausages. The AI model also provided the correct rotation of the picks in 360 degrees, resulting in more accurate and efficient sausage picking.

We further enhanced the solution by designing a custom gripper specifically tailored to the shape of sausages. This gripper makes use of the correct rotation provided by the Vision System for each pick. As a result, we were able to achieve a significant increase in speed, accuracy, and successful picks, meeting the customer's expectations.

Results

• Replaced a failing competitor system across 6 ABB IRB 360 FlexPicker robots — issues with accuracy, speed, and sausage destruction fully resolved
• Significant increase in picks per minute achieved through 360-degree rotation detection and a custom-designed gripper matched to the product shape
• Near-zero product waste — sausage destruction during picking eliminated after deployment