ABB is helping picking & packing go digital as it celebrates 20 years of its PickMaster software
08 September 2020
In this article, we look at how ABB’s PickMaster software helped revolutionise picking and placing, how the new digital twin version is enabling customers to deal with the latest retail and e-commerce challenges, and looking forward, how AI and data analysis will take productivity to the next level over the next two decades.
Launched in 2000, ABB’s PickMaster has helped set new standards in robot picking, packing and palletising, enabling ABB’s FlexPicker Delta robots to acquire a reputation for fast and accurate performance, picking products at a rate of over 110 items per minute. Watch one in action and it becomes almost mesmerising, as it picks, lifts and places products with perfect precision before moving to the next position to repeat the whole cycle again, time after time.
Today, this fast and accurate performance has become vital to meet the expectations of consumers for the fast delivery of an increasingly diverse range of products. A significant driver for change has been the growth of direct-to-consumer (D2C) and direct-to-store (D2S) shipping, which is dramatically changing the way that consumers order and collect products. With these new retail models, consumers have an expanding choice of methods for receiving orders in addition to home delivery, which is becoming increasingly environmentally and economically unsustainable as more people shop remotely. These methods include click and collect, in-store collection and, more recently, robotic street kiosks, where shoppers pay for and receive the product of their choice.
For manufacturers and logistics operators, this means having the right infrastructure offering the flexibility to pick and handle a wide variety of goods in the widest range of combinations and in the shortest possible time.
This is where PickMaster – and its latest incarnation, the PickMaster Twin – can help. With the ability to help speed up picking times and increase output and efficiency by up to 40 percent, PickMaster offers a tried and tested solution for any company looking to meet the challenges of today’s fast-paced consumer market.
Picking the right solution
That this performance can be achieved is all thanks to a project started more than 20 years ago by a dedicated team of ABB engineers. Their task was to solve the problem of creating a fast-moving robot that could track and pick randomly placed objects at a high speed from a moving conveyor and then position them back onto either the same or different conveyor in a non-determined position.
Headed by Henrik Knobel, currently Technology Manager Packaging Robot & Applications for ABB Robotics, the team took an innovative approach to developing the PickMaster software, using the same sort of fast prototyping and internal team structures normally employed by disruptive technology start-ups.
“We started off with a team of 12 people in an office in Stockholm, with the single aim of creating what would eventually become PickMaster,” recalls Henrik. “This focus enabled us to concentrate on creating a brand-new and revolutionary piece of software, developed by trying out a host of new and different approaches.”
One approach was the creation of a physical test demonstration of a picking line, complete with FlexPicker 340 robot, cam-eras, conveyors and other equipment to develop and refine the software, finding ways to enhance performance and test and add new functions.
Having this physical system available proved especially useful in helping to gather valuable feedback from customers, who were able to help test it and suggest improvements.
“In-depth conversations with customers enabled us to understand how products were likely to be fed to the robots and what those products were likely to be in terms of their size, variety and quantity. Using these insights, we were able to build on and refine the functional prototype of the software that we had developed in less than half a year.”
A vital component in the FlexPicker IRB340 and its descendant, the IRB360, is its Cognex vision system. Positioned over the conveyor, the vision system collects images of the positioned items as they move along the belt. These images are used by the PickMaster software to determine the position that the robot needs to move to and whether key criteria, such as the quantity of objects per pack or product quality, have been fulfilled.
Since the launch of the first version of PickMaster in 2000, its use has expanded to cover other robots in ABB’s range. As a PC-based tool, PickMaster allows users to set up their picking operation quickly and easily, including what gets picked, how it needs to be placed and where it gets picked from and placed to. Positions can be set and fine-tuned. Fully integrated with the robot and the camera, PickMaster makes it simple to set up even complicated pick and place applications.
This simplicity has proven to be a major benefit for customers across a wide range of applications. A producer of pancake products, for example, uses PickMaster to control four FlexPicker robots on its pancake packing line. The robots stack the pancakes into specific quantities, with a buffer to allow any short stacks to be filled to the correct level. For the customer, the PickMaster software has enabled greatly simplified programming, and the ability to monitor progress on the line, including the total number of picks. An additional benefit has been the ability to quickly change production from one product to another by simply switching between programs.
“The main advantage of PickMaster is its simplicity,” says Henrik. “With PickMaster, the user can get their process up and running with a very low level of programming. Functions such as drag and drop configuration enable new cameras, conveyors, robots and other equipment to be added, providing a high degree of scalability and the flexibility needed to meet changing future demands. We’ve also developed the software with options for different languages, including English, Japanese, Swedish, German, Italian and French, allowing it to be easily deployed in international markets.”
This simplicity, and the ability to get several robots working together without the time and disruption of carrying out complex programming is an advantage in the food and beverage and pharmaceutical industries, where production uptime is key to meeting product and delivery turnaround times.
Taking picking into the digital age
The many benefits of PickMaster have been taken one step further with the launch of PickMaster Twin, which uses digital twin technology to allow users to create a complete virtual model of their application in a virtual 3D environment.
With PickMaster Twin, users can create a complete digital model of their application, including robots, conveyors and other equipment, which can then be fed with real-time data from the physical application. The resulting representation can be designed to visualise everything that the physical system can do, including complicated robotic maneuvers for flow-wrapping, tray loading, case and carton packing and handling applications.
This merging of the virtual and real world provides several key benefits. Foremost is the greatly reduced time needed for commissioning. Using PickMaster Twin, commissioning times can be reduced from days to just a few hours, with all commissioning work able to be carried out digitally rather than on the factory floor. Using the digital model, users can test configuration settings, trial potential improvements and run potential problem scenarios in the digital twin version before committing them to the real installation.
As well as being useful at the proposal and specification stages of a project, this can also help both to reduce time to market for new product lines and remove the risk of any nasty surprises once the physical system is built.
Another area where having a digital twin of an application can be useful is maintenance and problem-solving. Data from the model can be analysed to help where any issues are or may be occurring, allowing operators to take any necessary remedial steps with minimal downtime, either locally or via a remote connection.
“ABB’s PickMaster software is already the market leader for easy configuration of advanced robotic actions and has set the industry benchmark for simplifying the robot integration in picking, packing, and material handling”, says Henrik. “PickMaster Twin will help our customers to take high speed picking and rapid applications to the next level, whether it’s boosting picking and packing efficiency or reducing the cost of integrating robotics into production lines.”
What could the next 20 years look like?
PickMaster Twin is just the beginning of a new era in the continuing story of PickMaster.
“In today’s fast-moving world, our customers are facing new challenges in the way that they get their products out of the factory door and into the marketplace,” says Henrik. “Consequently, we’re always looking for new ways to help them meet – and beat – these challenges, using new technologies to augment and refine the performance of our robots.”
“One area where future advances in robotic automation are likely to be driven is the use of augmented and virtual reality technologies. By allowing operators to interact with their production line in an offline environment, these technologies could help shorten commissioning times and assist in developing the right solution for an application.”
Another area is the use of artificial intelligence and the intelligent analysis of production data.
“AI and Machine Learning present exciting possibilities for optimising packaging processes and the development of picking strategies to accommodate production variations,” concludes Henrik. “For example, future versions of PickMaster could automatically recognise specific objects, including the ability to distinguish between good and bad products and what actions to take.”
In short, as long as there is the need for companies to find flexible ways to meet the demands of their customers, there will always be a solution with PickMaster.
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