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PLB is a versatile platform designed to adapt to your application needs. At its core, PLB provides essential functionality for robotic guidance and vision-based tasks, and it allows you to extend its capabilities through plugins.
PLB includes two localization tools as standard components: the 3D Edge Matcher and the CAD Matcher called "Surface".
The 3D Edge Matcher is ideal for structured applications that require precise edge-based recognition in three-dimensional environments.
For random bin-picking applications where a CAD file is available, the CAD Matcher is an appropriate choice. It requires an additional license but can be tested without one. The video above demonstrates an example of a CAD matching application.
Extending PLB with Plugins
The real power of PLB lies in its plugin architecture. Depending on your application, you can add specialized localization plugins suitable for your application. These algorithms are in most cases model-less, meaning they do not rely on fixed object models. Instead, there parameters can be updated through robot commands, allowing a single job to handle a wide variety of objects. For example, if your process requires packages of different sizes, you can use the same job and simply adjust the size parameter from the robot - no need to create separate models or jobs for each variation. Following are some plugin that already exists and can be used:
Flat Region Plugin: Detects flat or convex surfaces.
Circular Shape Plugin: Optimized for detecting circular geometries, with preconfigured settings for rings and cylinders.
dLocate: Uses a pretrained deep learning network object localization where color or 2D information matters.
Tire Plugin: Tailored for tire detection.
Hardware compatibility
The PLB software runs on an IPC connected to a 3D camera. PLB supports a variety of cameras to cover different volumes of view and performance requirements. To read more about each camera family, see the following knowledge articles:
PLB‑510 and PLB‑540 Compact snapshot cameras for fast acquisition in structured picking tasks. PLB‑510 offers stereo vision with integrated color, while PLB‑540 uses time‑of‑flight technology for quick depth capture at close range. Both are optimized for speed and robot‑mounted applications.
PLB‑515, PLB‑520, PLB‑521, PLB‑522 and PLB523 High‑end stereo 3D cameras with integrated structured‑light projection for dense point clouds. These models vary in field of view and capabilities, some include aligned RGB color for combined 2D/3D point clouds. Ideal for bin picking and depalletizing where precision and robustness matter.
PLB‑536 and PLB537 A temporal structured‑light 3D camera with integrated color, designed for robot‑mounted bin/tote picking. Offers flexible engine profiles to balance speed and point cloud quality. Handles glossy and transparent surfaces better than most alternatives and is the go to option for order commissioning applications.
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