Acquire Image Tool Properties Instances Robot will attempt to skip instances to achieve the specified rate of instances for downstream robots. The system calculates the instantaneous instances/minute on the belt and set the allocation % based on desired skip rate. Skip Rate Relative Belt Position The instances are spaced out based on the minimum distance between instances in the direction of the conveyor travel. This can be used if you have a much larger number of instances that can be processed by the robot. Pick/Skip Pallets The robot will be allocated ‘m’ pallets then skip ‘n’ pallets. This is interpreted as a strict requirement. For many applications, these parameters are not needed.
However, for applications that have a large number of instances or have multiple robots, these settings may be useful. For example, in a multi-robot applications, you may want to configure the first robot to use a Skip Rate allocation so the downstream robots are supplied a constant rate of product. This may allow the system to smooth out the flow of instances and achieve higher throughputs and more even distribution of work. Instance Allocation After the Belt Instance Filtering has been applied, a collection of instances will have been identified for the robot to process. The Instance Allocation parameters identify when those instances will be sent to the robot.
Identifies how many instances a robot can actively process and track. If there are more instances available than can fit in the queue, those instances will be sent as instances are process by the robot. If unsent instances pass out of the belt window of the robot, they will automatically be moved for processing by the next downstream robot. Allocation Distance Queue Size The distance from the upstream belt window an instance must be before allocating to the robot. The distance from the belt window pick limit an instance must be before allocating to the robot. This can be used to push the allocation further upstream of the pick limit.
It is most often Allocation Limit ACE Reference Guide, 18317-000 Rev A Page 716