Team 3 - Introduction and Background

What is a Pick and Place Mechanism?

A pick-and-place mechanism is a robotic system designed to pick up and move objects from one location to another. It typically consists of a robotic arm with an end effector (gripper) that can grasp objects and a control system that guides the arm's movements. Pick and place mechanisms are commonly used in manufacturing and assembly processes to automate repetitive tasks such as transferring parts from one conveyor belt to another, placing components onto circuit boards, or packaging finished products. They can significantly increase efficiency and productivity while reducing labor costs and minimizing errors.

Need

Currently, in the industry, pick and place tasks are typically performed by robotic arms that use multiple motors, resulting in high costs. Additionally, when motors are mounted as direct drive actuators at the joints, it introduces instability, inertia, and errors in repetitive tasks. However, implementing a specialized, well-built mechanism for this task is generally less expensive, more accurate, and has a predictable motion.

Objective

Our objective was to create a pick and place mechanism for a non-planar 3-stage manufacturing process. In our case, we considered the manufacturing process of a dice. The first stage of dice manufacturing involves plastic injection molding, followed by stamping, to imprint numbers on each face of the dice. Both the molding and stamping processes are carried out on the same plane. The third and final stage involves packaging the dice, which typically occurs out-of-plane.

Challenge

The main challenge was to create a non-planar, 3D pick and place mechanism operated using just one motor. We also had to find an appropriate way to transmit motion intermittently to the pick and place mechanism arm, as there were only some specific regions in space where the arm had to move to pick up/drop the object. Finally, integrating the mechanisms together and syncing them was an exciting hurdle too.