Advanced Robotic Guidance Solutions
TrueLight Guidance solutions use 2D and 3D vision to improve how robots locate, align, and interact with parts in real-world production environments. Depending on the application, we combine optics, calibration, and software—sometimes including AI—to increase robustness and repeatability.
These solutions support a wide range of robotic tasks, from locating critical features and compensating for part variation to guiding placement and downstream process steps. The result is safer material handling, more consistent throughput, and less reliance on hard tooling.
In general, the more variability in part organization, orientation, and presentation, the more challenging automation becomes. The table below highlights common guidance scenarios and helps identify where small changes—like packaging or dunnage improvements—can simplify the vision task and increase system performance.
Part Presentation & Guidance Complexity
| Structured Presentation | Semi-Structured Presentation | Unstructured Presentation | Random Presentation | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| PART ORGANIZATION | Parts are placed in an organized, predictable manner, typically with regular spacing and orientation. The placement and orientation of the parts are known, which simplifies the process of locating and picking them. | Parts are partially organized, but there may be some variations in placement or orientation. Although there’s some structure, the parts may be slightly misaligned or have minor overlap, introducing variability. | Parts are randomly placed within a bin, with significant variability in orientation and position. No clear pattern or organization is present. | A specific case of unstructured presentation where items are completely unordered and have no relationship to one another. The randomness can apply not only to their position and orientation but also to their size and type. |
| PART PLACEMENT | Parts arranged in a grid or pattern on a tray. Products neatly stacked in rows and columns. | Components that are placed loosely in a designated section of a bin but generally facing a similar direction. Parts that are sorted but not perfectly arranged, such as screws in a box. | Loose parts that are piled up in a bin with varying sizes and shapes. A mix of products that have been dumped into a container without sorting. | A box filled with different types of hardware (e.g., bolts, nuts, washers) without categorization. Mixed products in a scrap or recycling bin. |
| APPLICATIONS | Common in manufacturing environments with repeatable processes that handle identical products. | Common in situations where speed and efficiency are balanced with the flexibility to handle slight irregularities. | Common in e-commerce fulfillment, automotive, or other industries where items are manually dumped into bins for processing. | Common in recycling facilities, scrap sorting, or scenarios with high variability in product type. |
Benefits of Vision Guidance to Manufacturers
Remove costly, hard-to-find operators from low-skill tasks and redeploy them to higher value work
Improve human safety in dangerous, dirty, and dull environments
Perform beyond human capabilities
Simplify fixturing and hard tooling costs using vision
Gateway to new automation philosophy for material handling
Integrated data solutions for traceability and process optimization with Proximity Smart Support
Introducing TrueLight's Robotic Bin Picking Solutions
TrueLight’s robotic bin picking solutions use 3D vision-guided robotics to extract parts from random and semi-structured bins and place them consistently to the next process step. It’s an effective way to improve throughput while reducing reliance on manual sorting and hard tooling.
From feasibility to deployment, we help you define the right cell layout, gripper strategy, and workflow for your operation. Visit our Bin Picking page to explore capabilities, system configurations, and practical setup guidance.
Case Studies
3D Vision Guided Bin Picking of Zirconium Sheaths
Our customer within the nuclear energy industry required an automation solution capable of handling zirconium sheaths for end cap welding and further assembly. There were thirteen (13) different part variants to be transferred to the next stage of the process.
TrueLight developed an automated bin-picking solution featuring a Cognex 3D Vision system integrated to a FANUC material handling robot to handle the zirconium sheaths.
The vision guided robot system was able to precisely pick sheaths from a semi-structured bin according to recipes specified by the PLC. The selected sheaths would be assembled into batches, loaded with uranium, and then placed by additional robots onto a tooled conveyor for the upcoming welding process.
The turnkey vision solution developed by TrueLight has been successfully integrated into the production line and is achieving cycle time, quality, and technical availability requirements for our customer.
It benefits the customer by increasing productivity and reducing processing times. Additionally, it allows them to optimize the utilization of skilled labour and minimize health and safety risks.
3D Vision Guided Robotic Fastening and Torquing
Our customer required rivnuts to be robotically fastened into holes on parts that were hollow rails. The incoming rails were all bent to some degree (the parts were either "smiling" or "frowning"), which caused variability in hole position between like parts. To make things a little more challenging, there were 5 rail variants in total, each with multiple holes requiring rivnuts.
TrueLight utilized FANUC 3D vision on the rivnut robot(s) to integrate a robust process that allowed for the variability in hole position to exist and accommodated for it within the required cycle time for the system.
Repeatable location of critical features (holes) to achieve the required cycle time of 29 or 34 seconds, depending on part variant. The cost of 3D vision hardware was offset by the ability to utilize a more cost-effective part fixturing design as a result of the vision guidance.
Integration Capabilities
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2D iRVision 2D |
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3D 3DL 3DA 3DV |
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3D L4000 |
| Apera Vue |
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2D CV-X/XG-X |
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3D PhoXi |
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3D Mech-Eye PRO Mech-Viz Mech-DLK |
STEP INTO THE FUTURE OF VISION GUIDED ROBOTICS
Contact us today. Let us help you redefine what is possible with advanced robotic guidance.