Pally General - Smart Exit
Smart exit area defines a rectangular area, relative to the actual pick position, where the path planning algorithm can search for an intermediate waypoint between pickup and approach position, to perform linear movements without collision to the robot base, conveyor, or other boxes in the current layer.
The left and the right pallet can have individual smart exit settings.
How it works
The path planning algorithm starts with finding a collision-free waypoint between the pick and drop positions. The waypoint must be within the rectangle defined by the smart exit search range parameters.
When the algorithm cannot find a waypoint that meets all criteria, it will use the smart exit minimum X and minimum Y values as defaults, and the box will be moved on an elevated path above all other boxes to avoid collisions. It is the TCP that moves through the smart exit, so if you have a big gripper, please take this into consideration.
How to customize
The smart exit search area can be customized by setting minimum and maximum X and Y offsets, measured from the center point of the box where the box has been picked.
The Y and X coordinates follow the direction of the conveyor, so when the conveyor turns from front to left or right, the coordinates turn equally.
To understand the X and Y offsets, follow the rules below:
Y value defines an offset in the traveling direction on the conveyor.
X value defines an offset perpendicular to the conveyor direction
The distance you set will define a rectangle a certain distance from the box defined in X and Y coordinates.
The positive or negative value of X is defined by the distance between the smart exit and the target position. The rectangle closest to the target position will have positive values. The rectangle with the same distance but with negative values will be the rectangle furthest away from the target position.
In some cases, where you have a 45-degree angle on the incoming conveyor, this can cause an unwanted issue. For some target positions, the positive smart exit will be on the left side, but for other target positions on the same pallet, the positive smart exit will be on the right side. For this reason, we do not recommend using a 45-degree angle on the pickup position.
Negative Y offsets are common in the following setups:
boxes arriving from the left and moving towards the left pallet (moving the box above other boxes on the conveyor), and
boxes arriving from the right and moving towards the right pallet (moving the box above other boxes on the conveyor)
Negative X offsets are not used normally.
The smart exit X and Y parameters are set relative to the conveyor direction, and the origin is the point from where the gripper picks the box in the center.
For multi-pick cases, the zero point is the center point of the bounding rectangle around the boxes being picked together.
Robot movement when placing a box:
Pickup position → Box free height → Smart Exit → Extra waypoint → Approach Position → Target Position
The following examples show smart exit settings for conveyors in Front, Left, and Right.
You can see that the X-axis and Y-axis are rotating with the conveyor position.
Conveyor coming from the front, Left pallet
Conveyor coming from the front, Right pallet
Conveyor coming from the Right
Conveyor coming from the Left
Tip: Before adjusting the Smart Exit values manually, you can try to select the Easy path planning option. This will generate default values according to the current calibration. From the given values, you can press “Get path planning suggestions” and fine-tune the values until you achieve a collision-free or desired path.