Autonomous Transport in Medtech Manufacturing

Initial Situation & Goals

The international company Thermo Fisher Scientific manufactures life science products for numerous research fields and clinical laboratories. Part of the manufacturing is located at the Swiss site in Allschwil. There, five machines produce components for the Thermo Scientific product line.

Previously, these systems were manually equipped with RAKO boxes. In the future, these boxes should be automatically picked up and transported to a central station. Depending on the height of the boxes, they also needed to be delivered to the appropriate conveyor system.

The Solution

With our solution – based on the autonomous mobile robot system LD-90 from OMRON and a built conveyor belt system from Robotec – we implemented these specifications. At each of the five machines, we installed a transfer station.

Now, when a box is on one of these stations, the IO box sends a transport order to the mobile robot. It picks up the box and measures its height. Then it brings it to the appropriate drop-off conveyor (roller conveyor).

Particular challenges were the narrowing of the travel route and unevenness of the ground. The robot handles both effortlessly – just like the employees working in the same area.

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