DAC Robotics has selected OSARO’s depall system for inclusion in its new three-step robotics system that handles depalletization, box opening, and decanting. The system uses OSARO’s SightWorks Perception software to run the depall robot, which then hands off boxes to DAC’s latest automatic box-opening ABOT and its decant robot. The system therefore handles everything from pallet to tote — from receiving to replenishment.

CONTEXT

• While many other tasks downstream from the loading dock have been automated, the hazardous manual tasks of unstacking, sorting, scanning, opening, and transferring (decanting) master pack box contents into standard totes are often still performed by humans. 
• To automate the entire process, DAC Robotics needed a high-performance depalletizing system capable of unloading a wide variety of box sizes and shapes from a pallet and then handing off each box to an automated box-opening robot in preparation for decant.
• The OSARO Robotic Depalletization System is equipped with OSARO SightWorks™ Perception Software, which enables the robot to recognize, select and successfully grasp the varied sizes and materials of unevenly stacked packages commonly found on mixed-case pallets that arrive at a loading dock. 
• The system can depalletize the most technically challenging mixed-case pallets at rates that provide cost-effective automation of replenishment and reverse logistics.

“Today’s technology announcement is the culmination of more than three years of development, engineering, and testing to integrate all automated work cells in the receiving and decanting process for warehouse intralogistics automation,” said Mark Ganninger, president of DAC Robotics. “With OSARO’s SightWorks Perception Software, we were able to design and deploy a system that met our exacting specifications.” 

WHAT WE’RE ANNOUNCING

The fully integrated system being demonstrated at MODEX includes:

1. A DAC Robotics mixed-case depalletizing system, powered by OSARO SightWorks™ Perception. The system can rapidly depalletize the most technically challenging mixed-case pallets.
2. A DAC Robotics ABOT (automated box opening technology), which features the most advanced box metrology and dimensional capture to ensure precision opening of the widest range of box sizes and types before decanting.
3. A DAC Robotics Precision Decanting System. DAC offers the widest, most advanced solutions in decant — from fully automated precision handling of the most delicate glassware and foil packs to semi-automated designs that allow for necessary operator re-pack and consolidation functions or additional process work to optimize and utilize the highest percentage of a re-packed tote’s capacity.

“In today’s busy e-commerce and fulfillment warehouses, thousands of different SKUs arrive on mixed or homogenous pallet loads every day. The variance and multiplicity of pallet stacks, mixed pallet stacks, box construction, and box conditions can easily exceed millions of possibilities,” said OSARO CEO Derik Pridmore. “OSARO’s robotic depal system is the perfect teammate for DAC’s robotic box opener and decant system because it can maintain a high rate of inbound merchandise, 24×7.”

Here’s a video that shows how it all works.