The Krones Robobox is a fully automated system that turns, positions, and groups packs of bottled beverages for palletization. Krones recently redesigned the system to increase its output and flexibility and to reduce maintenance requirements. The Robobox T-GS, which incorporates a tripod robot with a parallel kinematic design, is capable of grouping packs into predefined layer patterns at a rate of 500 layers per hour.
Krones engineers used Simulink® and Simscape Multibody™ to develop a digital twin of the tripod robot. They used this digital twin to run simulations that helped inform design decisions. Now that the redesigned system is in production, they use the digital twin to support predictive maintenance and diagnose operational issues.
“The digital twin we created in Simulink and Simscape Multibody enabled us to optimize our hardware design and shorten development and testing times,” says Thomas Albrecht, head of Analytics and Simulations at Krones. Benedikt Böttcher, Research and Development engineer at Krones, adds, “Today, we are using this model in the test phase of Robobox T-GS systems—for example, by running simulations using logged data to quickly optimize the system behavior or to identify wear-related system changes.”
