SoSta

Bin picking is still one of the most challenging tasks in the field of robotics. There are more than 100.000 sheet metal manufacturers worldwide and all of them are facing the same problem: Sheet metal parts must be handled to load or unload machines or to be sorted and stacked for further processing. Automated solutions are hardly existent because of the large variety of shapes and sizes.

Together with Arnold AG and FORMHAND Automation GmbH, Trumpf Werkzeugmaschinen GmbH + Co KG has initiated a pilot project that aims for an easy-to-use multipurpose robot that is capable of grasping and manipulating sheet metal parts in various scenarios. Fraunhofer Ipa and Danish Technological Institute are ROBOTT-NET partners on the project.

The robot will be able to identify and detect the position of an object even in complex situations, such as chaotically stored in a bin. Objects of multiple shapes and dimensions will be grasped with one gripper to reduce hardware costs and mounting times.