A. M. Packaging Limited

Retail chains are placing orders on shorter notice, which increases the need for packaging lines to run at higher speed on a 24/7 basis; However, requests for customised packaging, and variety packs means that if a breakdown occurs then the individual items in multi-packs must be manually packaged using expensive teams of workers kept on standby. It is not possible to divert production to other lines because each line is specific to the product and packaging in question. Several low-cost collaborative robots termed “cobots” are now available and have the potential to provide a highly flexible packing capability if a problem develops with the packing process. Our proposal is to develop a mobile cobot that will be inserted into a line and its vision system will enable the robot to identify its position on the line. Having been taught previously the robot will select the most appropriate wrist and gripper combination, adjust the pick and place parameters to its actual location and within seconds begin the task in hand. The vision system will double as a safety system and slow the robot speed to human pace or stop it if a human gets too close. In this way production line speeds will be maintained in case of breakdown and standby workers can be re-deployed.