AST Releases Vision Guided Robotic Filling Systems

Automated Systems of Tacoma (AST) has created a new vision guided robot for a client industry involved in life research in order to automate the filling up of their trial medications in different container formats including syringes, vials, cartridges and IV bags.

The automated filing system includes Cognex In-Sight Micro vision system for specifically identifying the stoppers and containers and communicating the same to the filling robots before instigating the process. This method enables quick switching between various containers by developing a new coding, swapping the product holders and directing the robot to alter the tooling end. This system also eradicates the possibility of cross contamination.

The biggest task in developing this vision guided filler robots lies in the incorporation of the vision system into the robot. Brian LaFave of Olympus Controls has stated that mounting the vision system on the robotic arm is possible only if the vision system is compact with simple wiring. This led to the selection of Cognex Micro In-Sight 1100 as the vision system.

The Cognex Micro In-Sight 1100 embraces pre-constructed drivers, readymade templates and sample robotic codes for giving directions to the filler robots and the industrial robot utilized for the vision enabled filling applications is the six axis Staubli TX-60 HE, since it can endure various processes for effective cleaning and can ensure contaminant free environment during filling applications.

Josh Russell, Project Engineer of the Life Sciences Group at AST has stated that their robotic filling system is the ideal solution for those companies who wish to increase their container filling efficiency without procuring several filling devices for one specific container or clinical product. He added that their filling robot can deal with the liquid filling requisites of the pharmaceutical industries, contract manufacturing companies and hospital’s compounding pharmacies. He also mentioned that the automated filling system is so compact that it can be placed in a clean room measuring 12 by 16 foot and is reasonably priced.