Development of a vision controlled system for picking unorganized products : An application of bin picking in plastic pipe production

This bachelor’s thesis has been carried through at the company Mabema AB in Linköping which offers complete vision based systems for multiple applications. With camera technology and advanced image processing, the company is working mainly in four different business areas; RobotVision, Vision, Nuclear and Wood. Mabema AB has been assigned to develop a vision system for robot guidance for the company Pipelife Sverige AB which is a big supplier of plastic pipes. The vision system is supposed to identify plastic pipes which are transported by a conveyor belt in random order. The pipes are then to be picked by two robots and placed in fixtures for further processing. Through studies of existing similar systems and analysis of suitable hardware, a system that satisfies the customer’s needs was made and alternative systems was presented. The result of the thesis ended with vision controlled system built of two robots and a 3D-scanner that accomplishes the assigned task with high robustness and an analysis of alternative systems was presented