Palletizing / Depalletizing

Stacking boxes or bags onto a pallet in a set pattern, or taking them back off one by one.

Palletizing means stacking cartons, bagged goods, drums, and similar items onto a pallet in a defined pattern so a forklift can move the whole load at once; depalletizing is the reverse, taking items off a pallet one at a time and feeding them onto a conveyor. According to Wikipedia, the first mechanical palletizer appeared in 1948, and robotic palletizers emerged in the early 1980s. Palletizing a single uniform product is mature technology; the hard case is mixed-case palletizing, where boxes of different sizes need a stable stacking pattern worked out on the fly, similar to a 3D bin-packing problem. Depalletizing is also hard because boxes sit flush against each other and may be taped or wrapped in reflective film, requiring 3D vision to identify each box's position and boundaries. Vendors such as Mech-Mind offer vision-guided de/palletizing systems, and Boston Dynamics' Stretch can also stack the boxes it has unloaded onto a pallet.

ExampleAt a logistics center's inbound dock, a 3D camera photographs a pallet of mixed cartons; a robot identifies each one and unloads it onto a conveyor with a vacuum gripper. Mech-Mind states its de/palletizing solution can reach about 900 items per hour at its fastest.

Also called

Palletization / Depalletization, Mixed-Case Palletizing

Related

Industrial Robot · Tote Handling · Vacuum Suction Cup · 3D Vision-Guided Robotics · Boston Dynamics Stretch · Lights-Out Factory

Sources

Palletizer - Wikipedia
Mech-Mind: Depalletizing and Palletizing solution
Boston Dynamics Stretch