Feature

Food for thought: Robot stacks sandwiches in 800 milliseconds

Growing production demands and a major labour shortage motivated a large-scale sandwich producer to automate a high-speed sandwich stacking application.

02/11/2020 12:07:18

To resolve the challenge, TechBrew Robotics, a Kawasaki Robotics Preferred Integrator, designed a custom solution using Kawasaki’s R series robots and F60 controller.

The robots’ task may seem simple: after the sandwiches are halved in the cutting machine, the robots need to stack one half on top of the other, making it easier for human workers to package them manually. However, this application was tricky to automate. Sandwich halves vary in their position as they come out of the cutting machine, so the robot would need some sort of vision intelligence to recognise the location of each half on the conveyor. They also needed to stack the sandwiches in practically the blink of an eye.

Read the full article in the November issue of DPA

Written By Sophia Bell

Sophia Bell is the Group Editor of DPA, Connectivity, and PBSI. She joined the team in 2020 as Assistant Editor after achieving a First-Class Honours BA in English Literature and Film Studies from the University of East Anglia. In her current role, she leads the editorial strategy, driving digital growth and ensuring each title continues to deliver trusted, relevant insight for engineering and manufacturing professionals.