Manipulation and packaging in fresh fruit and vegetables

Distributed by K.L.A.IN.robotics, Veltru AG parallel kinematic robots and application supports simplify complex manipulation tasks, even for packaging bell peppers.

While automatic manipulation has now become a widespread and well-established practice in general industry, there are still wide margins for intervention and improvement in the fresh fruit and vegetables sector. This is not only because these are “troublesome” products in and of themselves, but also because pick&place operations are largely conducted by a flexible, low-cost workforce.
The seasonal nature of fresh fruit and vegetables, then, is another deterrent for investing in automated lines, whose real amortization is difficult to assess.
And yet… there is a specially designed robotized packaging line that is capable of fully meeting the challenges of even the fresh fruit and vegetables sector.

A dedicated line. Such is the case of the solution proposed by Veltru (distributed by K.L.A.IN.robotics), with a bell pepper packaging line on which the concern implemented parallel kinematic technology and a control platform with extensive functionality, creating a highly integrated, flexible and at the same time simple to manage automation system. The solution is thus suitable for processing highly seasonal products (6 months).
In practice, after being harvested, the peppers must be washed, classified and selected. Their positioning and orientation is then determined by an artificial vision system that enables the robot to build a presentable pattern within the wholesale crates.
Alternatively, typical assortments of flow wrapped peppers are created by placing the peppers directly into the flow wrapper chain.
The packages are then put into boxes which are transported to the palletizing unit when filled.

Functionality and efficiency. The Veltru robots normally reach 100-130 cpm, depending on conditions.
In this particular case, the manufacturer chose as a control platform the CoDeSys environment by 3S-Smart Software Solutions in order to better focus on its own specific competencies.
The VELTRU C10 Motion Controller is the core of the handling unit. The entire path planning process including conveyor tracking is executed under CoDeSys RTE V3.
EtherCAT provides a powerful fieldbus to attach the robot and application-specific peripherals for specific applications.
But the VELTRU controller offers far more than just robot motion.
The machine’s vision system can be used to determine the location, orientation and quality of the products (color, size, etc.) which are managed and sorted in the logistics module. The application programmer is supported in many ways: sophisticated alarm handling, a recipe manager with integrated language translation and various visualization elements facilitate the programming process. A sample application in source code shows how the modules are to be used and how they interact. This saves time and gives the plant manufacturer a significant time-to-market advantage.