Thanusan Thurairajah | Jasmijn Horsthuis | Tommi Touru | Ben Turnhout
Before the harvested Cymbidium can be delivered to the customer, it must be packaged in plastic wrap. This process needs to be automated.
For this project, a group of four Smart Manufacturing and Robotics students worked on automating the packing process of Cymbidium flowers, which were previously packed manually. To automate this process, the students used a Cobolt robot with a vision camera.
The first problem the greenhouse faces is a shortage of staff. Nowadays, it is difficult both to recruit and to retain employees. The second problem is that the work is very repetitive, which makes it neither challenging nor exciting for staff. The third problem is that labor can be expensive. By automating the process, the investment in automation can pay for itself over time.
The automated process reduces the need for manual labor in the greenhouse.The task is repetitive and monotonous, which makes it unpleasant for employees to perform. The robot arm, however, can carry out this work continuously without fatigue or loss of accuracy. In addition, the robot is an investment that can eventually pay for itself by lowering labor costs.
Every morning, an employee needs to start the process. To do this, they simply turn on the computer and press the green start button. Before starting, it is important to check that there are enough plastic sleeves available for packing the Cymbidiums. Once the process has been started, the conveyor belt can be activated, and employees can manually place the Cymbidiums onto the belt. From that point, the automated system takes over detecting, picking, and packing each Cymbidium efficiently and consistently.