Automated Materials Handling System (AMHS) Operation

Описание: This video shows the operation of the complete Automated Materials Handling System (AMHS).

The AMHS was made as part of a final year engineering thesis project at Edith Cowan Univerity (ECU) in 2022.

Within this system, there are the major stations: Robot 1 Station and Robot 2 Station.

If there is a part in the gravity feeder, Robot 1 (the robot to the left) grabs the part from the feeder and places it on the rotary carousel. The rotary carousel then rotates by 45 degrees clockwise. It continues picking and placing parts from the feeder to the carousel, until the microswitch on the carousel is triggered by the presence of a part. At this point, the camera scans the part colour. The robot picks up the part from the carousel. If it is a yellow part, the robot places the part in the yellow magazine module. If it is a red part, the robot places the part in the red magazine module. If it is neither a yellow nor red part (i.e., an unwanted part), the robot places it in the bin (tin can). If a part is not available at the feeder or carousel, the robot waits in the home position.

If there is a tote (storage box) available in the feeder, Robot 2 (the robot to the right) grabs the tote from the feeder and places it at the start of the conveyer belt. The conveyer belt then moves the tote along to the barcode scanner station. Here, the barcode attached to the tote is scanned. The barcode contains the information of which parts should go into the tote. This information is sent to the controller. The tote continues along the conveyer to the yellow and red magazine modules. Depending on the parts required (and in the required order), the tote will move back and forth to the modules, and the modules will dispense the part into the tote. After collecting the parts, the tote continues along the conveyer where it reaches the end and triggers a microswitch. The robot picks up the tote and places it in the lowest unoccupied storage slot in the Automated Storage/Retrieval System (AS/RS). This process repeats when there is a tote available in the feeder.