we’ve just received a brand-new UR12e. It will be integrated into a new production line project this autumn, but for now it is sitting in my office because I still need to evaluate and test a few things. One of the topics is deciding whether our application can be implemented with PolyScope X or whether we should stay with PolyScope 5.
Since the robot is currently here and available for “important engineering research”, our project team came up with an idea for a small inauguration event.
The plan is simple: provide beer.
Our current concept looks like this:
Depalletize beer bottles from several beer crates.
Use a Robotiq Hand-E gripper.
Design and 3D-print a custom gripper attachment that grabs the crown cap.
Reinforce the printed part with a metal insert so that, after picking and transporting the bottle, the same tool can also be used to remove the cap.
The pickup station would constrain movement in the XY plane, for example with a pocket or fixture where the bottle is placed.
Once positioned, the robot would perform a twisting motion to lever off the crown cap.
At the moment this is somewhere between a serious engineering exercise and a team-building activity.
So my question to the community:
Has anyone built something similar before? Depalletizing beer bottles, opening crown caps with a UR robot, or creating some other beverage-serving robot?
I’d be very interested to hear about your experiences, lessons learned, design ideas, videos, photos, or any pitfalls you discovered along the way.
Looking forward to some inspiration and discussion!
I’ve never opened beer bottles before, and removing the cap will definitely be the most challenging part.
UR robots can be difficult to get to perform tasks where the exerted force is not known, since this can trigger their safety system. But since you’re using a UR12e, I don’t think this’ll be an issue for you.
I’ve only ever seen robots pour beer from either a tap or one of those sticks you stick in the bottom of the glass/cup, and then it fills from the bottom.
Wow cool video! And also a cool gesture to celebrate your friends graduation!
Thanks for sharing. I also like the two different buttons, I want to do something similiar so one can order different beers. Thoughts meanwhile went that crazy that we thought of having a Desktop PC running an application that reads RFID Scanners. So you go there with your badge, depending on which scanner you choose, the beer you get. Also we could do some live dashboard with that information. But this will be probably too much.
Yes I also thought that opening might be the biggest challenge, if the constantly changing payload is an issue, maybe we can solve it using the force mode.
Sounds great! Did you also depalettize from a beer crate?
We also thought about fixing the opener somewhere, but we also thought as we depalettize from cracte we need to grab it from the top, and if we would then bring it to an opener we would need to regrap it from the side..
Can you share a video of your implementation I’m super curious!
No crate, we had the bottles in a 3 x 4 stillage next to the robot so we could pick them in the middle of the bottle body with an onrobot RG2 and go straight to the opener then up onto the bar, also placed wine glasses and business cards to the bar too. Nothing wrong with adjusting your grip if you need to depending how you want to approach it.
Robotiq Hand-E works with both Polyscope X and Polyscope 5, but you might need to reach out to Robotiq for que .urcapx file, last time I checked I could not find it in their website
You can use either the palletizing tempate in Polyscope 5 or the Grid feature in Polyscope X, for picking up the beer bottles.
Only downpart [please UR-Product Compliance correct me if I´m wrong]: our products are only meant to be used for packed food/beverages, I think I am not allowed to give you ideas on how to handle opening a bottle and serve it, same for the wine
Thanks for taking the time to contribute, even with the compliance department looking over your shoulder.
It’s actually a bit of a shame that you’re not allowed to share more of your experience. I’d have guessed that at least a few UR employees with their home office UR3e have already “stress tested” a beer-serving application at some point.
Regarding the Robotiq Hand-E, I was able to find the URCapX on Robotiq’s support page: Support | Robotiq
For the implementation, we’re currently planning to use the Grid feature in PolyScope X to handle the bottle positions in the crate. Based on what we’ve seen so far, we don’t expect any particular difficulties with that approach.
