Robots joined with Blessings in a Backpack for a demonstration that has a purpose beyond robotics.
Blessings in a Backpack helps kids who may not have food to eat at home. These children receive free meals at school on weekdays, but food insecurity can leave them hungry on weekends. Blessings in a Backpack sends kids home with backpacks full of food every Friday. At this year’s Pack Expo Las Vegas, cobots from Universal Robots showed their skill at random picking and packing while filling about 1200 backpacks with food ranging from pouches of dried fruit to cans of ravioli and boxes of cereal.
Robotic arms had the chance to strut their stuff thanks to a group of sponsors including Rexroth’s parent company, Bosch. The cobots demonstrated important skills in the area of packaging, including kitting and palletizing. Manufacturers had the chance to participate in hour-long workshops on conveyers, palletizing, and packing. They were able to go home from the show with new skills and a greater awareness of automation options.
Universal Robots also had a “playground” where attendees could check out the magnetic picker device and other special modification that make their cobots good at packing. Robots have trouble working with random shapes in varying configurations. Flexible items are especially hard to pack. Factories, which increasingly need flexibility in their robots even if they don’t have flexible workpieces, are always on the lookout for better robots in this area.
Precision is what Bosch Rexroth brings to the table. The combination of precision and power has always been a Rexroth watchword. Now, intelligence is also key.
The 1200 backpacks filled with food helped meet the needs of food-insecure students in Las Vegas and surrounding areas. Some 13 million children in the United States are food insecure. That means that they can’t be confident of their next meal. Child food insecurity is associated with higher unemployment and lower incomes in communities. For individual children, food insecurity is associated with poor school performance, poor overall health, and difficulty focusing in the classroom.
Robots don’t always work to solve world hunger, but automation can help with higher-paying, safer jobs in manufacturing. If your Rexroth electric industrial motion control is in need of service and support, we can help. Specialists in Rexroth electric drive and control systems, we can keep your plant running smoothly.