Robotic Pick/Place from Over/Under Shuttle

The purpose of the station below was to feed full & empty trays of parts to a 4-axis robot that can pick and place parts to and from the trays. The solution provided involves an over/under shuttle that can convey two trays simultaneously (faster cycle times) while the other two empty trays can be replaced by another 6-axis robot (not shown). The shuttle mechanism utilizes a servo motor, gearbox, bearings, and pulleys/belts to synchronize the motion of trays using one actuator only. Through beam & diffuse beam sensors are designed to detect the presence of each of the four trays and the location of the upper and lower shuttles as well. An end-of-arm tool was designed for the 4-axis robot to pick up multiple parts with high accuracy along with all the sensing and pneumatic requirements. This was done using built-in pneumatic manifolds and input blocks with appropriate pass-through cable management.