With D:Ploy, OnRobot Automates Robot Programming

D:PLOY is both a hardware and software solution developed by robotic company OnRobot. It aims at making robot programming not only easier but automatic and quicker. This solution can for example ease palletizing.

D:PLOY is presented as the industry’s first automated, application-centered software platform for robotic deployment. D:PLOY can indeed automatically configure the components in a robotic machine tending cell.

During IMTS, the manufacturing fair that took place in Chicago a couple of weeks ago, we met with Enrico Krog Iversen, CEO of OnRobot to talk about the solution.

According to Enrico Krog Iversen:

“Today people spend a lot of time getting a solution like this operational. With our new solution, you only have to give a little bit of information to the system and then we can automatically calculate the rest. So instead of working a week setting this, you work an hour. You need to tell it what type of pallets you are using, the size, the weight of your boxes and where you pick them.”

Then the system calculates the trajectory and the pattern of the pallet. So when a box arrives on a conveyor, a sensor tells the robot that it has to pick it up and put it on the precalculated area on the pallet.

Enrico showed us how the software works with this other cobot.

“There is the hardware. This is a base module with different ad-on modules for communication with CNC tending machines for example. You install it into the robot cell, you scan this QR code with any device. That gives you automatically a secure connection to our cloud service. Once you are in the cloud, we will automatically detect the equipment that is in the cell. So we know which robot is in the cell, which gripper it has.”

On the dashboard, the workspace of the robot can be visualized in 3D. This is where the user fills in all the information, the dimensions and weight of the parts, where to pick them, and where they need to go.

“Once I have done that, I have nothing more to do as a user. I just click “calculate” on the screen and then within five to 15 seconds the software will actually calculate how the robot should move. You do all that in an hour.”

The company says their automatic robot configuration system cuts times by 80%.

D:PLOY is expected to integrate new abilities including CNC machine tending, screwdriving and depalletizing.

The company should also announce in a few weeks a collaboration with machine tools manufacturers to integrate their solution directly into machining centers.