The vibratory bowl feeder is the oldest and still most common approach to the automated feeding (orienting) of industrial parts. In this paper we consider a class of vibratory bowl filters that can be described by removing polygonal sections from the track; we refer to this class of filters as traps. For an n-sided convex polygonal part and 7n-sided convex polygonal trap, we give an O((n + nz)log(n + m)) algorithm to decide if the part will be rejected by the trap, and an O((nm(n + m))'+') algorithm which deals with non-convex parts and traps. We then consider the problem of designing traps for a given part, and consider two rectilinear subclasses, balconies and gaps . We give linear and O(n2) algorithms for designing feeders and have tested the results with physical experiments using a commercial inline vibratory feeder. Our algorithms can be tested using online java applets: http://ford.ieor.berkeley.edu/trap-design.
Berretty et al. REF analyzed the interaction between objects and traps to automate the design of vibratory bowl feeders.
Trap design for vibratory bowl feeders
Proceedings 1999 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (Cat. No.99CH36288C)
Proceedings 1999 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (Cat. No.99CH36288C)
Engineering Computer Science