We Talk to Robots
Pallet optimization software integrates with real world
Industrial robots have been used in manufacturing and packaging plants since the middle of the 20th century. The most common is shaped like an arm and is capable of movement in three or more axes. Robotic palletizers were introduced in the 1980's and use the arm to carry boxes from a conveyor belt to a specific position in a shipping pallet. The ability to consistently place predictable box sizes in a repetitive movement, make this task very suitable for robots.
Unlike science fiction, industrial robots are not sentient, nor can figure out how to place the boxes on the pallets on their own. They require a minimum of programming. This includes the position of the box that will be picked up (a specific place in the conveyor belt) and where it be dropped (a specific position on the pallet). If you look at the stock image that accompanies this article (or have ever seen a pallet), you may notice that the second box will be in a different position than the first one. The third box will be in a different position than the second one, and so on. More programming variables can be added to the mix when the boxes are not in the same direction, and/or when multiple pallets are loaded at once.
That's where we come in. Our Quick Pallet Maker (app and API) software can export the coordinates and orientations of every box on the pallet, and add the specific machine considerations. In that way, for a specific box or group of boxes on pallets, there will be instructions that the machine will understand for proper placement, all nicely coded.