Depalletizer with vision system and method therefor

Abstract

A mixed case pallet depalletizer including: a base with a pallet seat; a robot arm having an end of arm tool for capturing and picking, at least one case from stacked mixed cases to depalletize a mixed case pallet on the pallet seat; a vision system with a camera orientated to image a pallet vertex of the mixed case pallet on the pallet seat and image each case vertex of each case, of the stacked mixed cases arrayed along each visible plane defining the pallet vertex; and a controller that determines, from the image data of each case vertex, corresponding edges of each case describing the case vertex that discriminate the at least one case, and the controller is operably connected to the robot arm to command the robot arm to pick and remove the at least one case and depalletize the mixed case pallet.

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