Category: Innovation Infrastructure
How Heineken brings rapid robotics to its production lines, supported by future of work fieldlab RoboHouse, TNO and innovation programme SMITZH
Dutch brewing company Heineken is one of the largest beer producers in the world with more than 70 production facilities globally. From small breweries to mega-plants, its logistics and production processes are increasingly complex and its machinery ever more advanced. Therefore, the global beer giant began looking for robotics solutions to make its breweries safer and more attractive for employees while enabling a more flexible organisation.
Dennis van der Plas, senior global lead packaging lines at Heineken: “We are turning into a high-tech company, and our workforce increasingly consists of technically trained staff. Repetitive tasks, such as picking up fallen bottles from the conveyor belt, will not give them job satisfaction.”
According to Shobhit Yadav of TNO, flexible manufacturing is one of the most important developments in smart industry. “Today, manufacturing companies mainly produce small series on demand. As a result, manufacturers must be able to make many different products. This can be achieved either with a large number of production lines or with a small number of adaptive lines.” For the Heineken project, the latter approach was chosen, which implied that a robot must be developed that recognises different kinds of fallen-over beer bottles on the conveyor. The robot must pick them up while the belt is still moving.
“The environment is constantly changing and the robot must respond immediately”, explains Shobhit. “This is a typical example of a flexible production line that automatically adapts to the situation.”
According to Shobhit Yadav of TNO, flexible manufacturing is one of the most important developments in smart industry. “Today, manufacturing companies mainly produce small series on demand. As a result, manufacturers must be able to make many different products. This can be achieved either with a large number of production lines or with a small number of adaptive lines.” For the Heineken project, the latter approach was chosen, which implied that a robot must be developed that recognises different kinds of fallen-over beer bottles on the conveyor. The robot must pick them up while the belt is still moving.
Robotics for a safe and enjoyable working environment
Industrial robots have obviously been around for a while. “The automotive industry deploys robots for welding car parts, whereas our sector uses them for automatically palletising products”, says Dennis.
Dennis van der Plas, senior global lead packaging lines at Heineken, has a single-minded focus: “Our first priority is to keep our people safe.”
“With this project, we took a different approach. It was not a question of which robots exist and how they could be used. Instead, we focused on the needs and wishes of the people in the breweries, the operators who control and maintain the machines and how robots could support them in their work.”
In other words, process-optimisation was not the primary objective of the project; improved safety and greater job satisfaction were more important. This should result in Heineken becoming a more attractive employer. It is why Dennis and his colleague Wessel Reurslag, global lead packaging engineering & robotics, involved the operators to share what they would need to make their work safer and more interesting. One of the use cases that emerged was picking up bottles that had fallen over on the conveyor belt: repetitive but also unsafe work as the glass bottles could break.
Experimenting without a business case
Heineken initially got in touch with fieldlab RoboHouse through a sponsorship project with X!Delft, an initiative that strengthens corporate innovation and stimulates collaboration between industry and Delft University of Technology. “The lab is the place to meet for anyone involved in robotics”, says Wessel. “It is also linked to SMITZH, in which TNO is a partner.”
The parties soon realised that their ambitions overlapped. While Heineken was seeking independent advice, both TNO and RoboHouse were looking for an applied research project that focused on flexible manufacturing.
“This kind of partnership is very valuable to all involved parties”, says Shobhit. “SMITZH allows us at TNO to work on current issues in the industry and establish valuable contacts, which makes our research more relevant. In turn, manufacturers have somewhere to go with their questions and problems regarding smart technologies.”
An accessible way to do research and experiment
The guys at Heineken have nothing but praise for the innovative collaboration with TNO and RoboHouse. Dennis says, “The great thing is that all project partners were in it to learn something. At RoboHouse, we had access to the expertise of robotics engineers and state-of-the-art technologies like robotic arms. We supplied the bottle conveyor ourselves and TNO also added knowledge to the mix. It is an accessible way to do research and experiment. This would be a lot more difficult with a business case, which must involve an operational advantage from the start.”
Shobhit Yadav, mechatronics engineer smart industries and robotics at TNO, was crucial for the controlling the robot.
A joint product by TNO and RoboHouse
“Communication between the robot and the computer is very important”, explains Bas van Mil, mechanical engineer at RoboHouse. “TNO’s knowledge is complementary to ours. For example, Shobhit’s knowledge of control technology, which is indispensable for controlling the robot, is a very valuable addition to the knowledge we have at RoboHouse. The product really is the result of co-creation”
Every millisecond counts
The biggest challenge in detecting and tracking fallen beer bottles is that they never stop moving. As Bas explains, “They do not just move in the direction of the bottle conveyor but can also roll around on the belt itself. In many existing robotic systems, the camera takes a single photo that informs the movements of the robot. The robot will do a ‘blind pick’ with no way of knowing whether anything has changed since the photo was taken. This only works if the environment stays the same – but in this case, it doesn’t.”
The solution involves a system in which the camera and the movements of the robot are constantly connected. Bas: “Every millisecond counts as the bottle will disappear out of view and the robot will still try to pick it up from the spot where it was half a second ago.” A RoboHouse programmer developed the camera software to be as fast and efficient as possible. The fieldlab even purchased a powerful computer running an advanced AI system, especially for the project.
TNO and RoboHouse collaboraively programed the robot to move with the bottle based on its calculated speed. The programme determines the speed of the robot, as a fallen bottle is detected. It is what makes this robot so different from existing ones. “The robot responds immediately to changes”, says Shobhit. “In fact, it is 30% faster than the current top speed of Heineken’s bottle conveyors. As a result, it has a wide range of applications and can be used in a variety of environments with different production speeds.”
Wessel Reurslag, global lead packaging engineering & robotics at Heineken, is already looking for the next step: “A robotic solution that is plug-and-play, flexible and easy to integrate in the brewery.”
Heineken appreciated the successful innovation, and the independent character of TNO and RoboHouse during the development process. Dennis: “We now have a much better idea of what is technically feasible, what the challenges are and what we can realistically request of our technology suppliers. This is very relevant information, especially since we operate in such an innovative field where we do not buy parts off the shelf. After all, if I ask too little, I will not get the best out of my project. But if I ask too much, it affects our relationship with the supplier.”
The project has also served as a source of inspiration for Dennis’s colleagues worldwide.
“We have been sharing videos and reports from SMITZH on the intranet, building a kind of community within Heineken. We are receiving feedback as well as requests for the new robotic systems from breweries all over the globe.” To meet the demand, Dennis and Wessel want to supply breweries with a ready-to-use version. “We are currently looking for parties that can make the technology available and provide support services.”
Meanwhile, RoboHouse and TNO continue optimising the robot. “This is only the pilot version”, says Bas. “We can still improve its flexibility, for example by installing a different vision module, thereby making the technology even more widely applicable.” Both organisations are therefore looking for use cases in which they can use the same technology to solve other problems. “We are looking at the bigger picture”, explains Shobhit. “This project could serve as a model for similar challenges in other industries.”
Platform for valuable connections
All parties emphasise the benefits of working together and sharing knowledge to achieve a successful and relevant innovation. “There are very few places like SMITZH, where manufacturing companies can turn to with these kinds of questions”, says Shobhit. “SMITZH is quite unique in that sense and is vitally important because it offers a specific platform for appropriate collaborations.” Wessel agrees: “If there is one thing this project has made clear, it is that producers like Heineken, tech companies and knowledge institutions should collaborate more intensively to substantiate these kinds of projects. You won’t find a solution in a PDF or a presentation. There can be no genuine solution until it is made real and put into practice.”
This article originates from: RoboValley
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