Image recognition and augmented reality systems have enormous potential in the supply chain. Warehouse automation specialist, KNAPP, is making this technology a reality with its innovative VISION systems.
Investing more than 20 million Euros in research and development in the year 2011/2012, KNAPP has leading-edge solutions for the supply chain. The group’s latest developments focus around the use of its VISION technology, which the company is applying to both its existing and new solutions to optimise picking accuracy.
The first installation of VISION technology went live in September this year at the logistics centre of the leading eyewear designer and manufacturer, Michael Pachleitner Group, in Nuremberg, Germany. Six KiSoft VISION mobile sets featuring augmented reality are being used, with pickers receiving complete information via head-mounted, see-through displays. A micro camera over the display detects what the operator is looking at and KiSoft VISION enhances this picture with additional information to guide the picker from one storage location to the next, as well as directing which items and how many to pick. The system also registers and checks serial numbers and lot IDs in barcodes.
VISION technology can also be combined with KNAPP’s market-leading shuttle storage system, the OSR Shuttle™. With KiSoft VISION OSR, four cameras above the workstation read product barcodes while order picking is taking place – rather than this being a separate process, as in RF picking – to check that the right item has been selected, with a light curtain verifying that it is then placed in the correct target tote.
KNAPP’s fully automatic, central belt picking solution (A-frame) can also be equipped with the technology. With KiSoft VISION Autopicker, the drop position of the A-frame is equipped with eight cameras that verify that the correct items have been picked, identifying both missing articles and any additional items. The system also enables lot and serial number tracking.
Brand-new solutions featuring VISION technology include Pick-it-Easy Robot and KiSoft VISION Desk. Combining a robot with a multi-axis picking head with a sophisticated image recognition system, Pick-it-Easy Robot detects the easiest item to pick among randomly oriented articles in a tote, based on the amount of accessible surface area. This data is captured in the VISION-enabled screening chamber immediately adjacent to the robot. Then the robot selects the most appropriate gripper for the item to be picked, which is attached magnetically to the head during an extremely rapid gripper change.
KiSoft VISION Desk features a series of cameras fitted below a glass table, with a coloured lighting system positioned about a metre above. This system can be used to sort batch-picked items into individual orders, or as a manual check station. As soon as a group of articles is tipped from a tote onto the glass plate, the cameras identify them and compare them to the order details. Immediately, the various items are lit up with differently coloured lights to indicate which items should be grouped together, with up to 3000 checks per hour possible.
KNAPP UK Ltd
Tel: 01844 202149
email: sales.uk@knapp.com
twitter: @KNAPPAG
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