Flexible feeders are great at helping manufacturers accommodate product variants on the assembly line. After the feeder presents parts to a vision-guided robot, one or more cameras take images of the parts, and vision software tells the robot which parts are pickable and which are not. The robot then retrieves the parts for kitting or assembly.

Last year, Epson Robots brought the IntelliFlex system to market after using other internal feeding solutions in-house on assembly lines for everything from printers to robots. The system was sold first in North America and Mexico, and then throughout Europe. This summer it will be introduced to the Southeast Asia market.