OnRobot: D:PLOY revolutionizes the commissioning of collaborative applications

Enrico Krog

Overcoming Automation Barriers and Making the Benefits of Collaborative Automation Accessible to Companies of All Sizes: This is the declared goal of the Danish robotics specialist OnRobot. Against this background, the company is now taking the next step in its corporate history and launching its highly anticipated new platform D:PLOY worldwide. It is the industry’s first automated platform for creating, operating, monitoring, and repurposing collaborative applications. D:PLOY enables the commissioning of a complete robot application as well as its repurposing for new tasks in just a few steps and without programming effort – all within hours. Currently, D:PLOY supports palletizing, CNC machine loading, packaging, and pick-and-place applications. More use cases will follow.

"The development of D:PLOY as a platform capable of truly democratizing automation has been a goal we at OnRobot have been working towards from the very beginning. The foundations for this were laid by us years ago," explains Enrico Krog Iversen, CEO of OnRobot. "Today, we offer the industry’s broadest range of tools and application solutions for every leading robot brand – all based on our philosophy 'One System, Zero Complexity'. Now that all building blocks are in place, we are ready to launch the first version of D:PLOY – a platform that will create new opportunities for the entire industry."

How D:PLOY Works

The new platform from OnRobot automates many of the manual steps currently required to create and execute a robotics application. D:PLOY automatically recognizes most of the installed hardware and generates robot movements based on obstacles and cell boundaries defined in the workspace. Additionally, elements such as program logic, signal exchange, event handling, and robot movement are created based on just a few inputs like workpiece properties and pick-up positions for the entire application.

This reduces the time and complexity involved in setting up robot cells to an unprecedented level: For example, the initial setup of a palletizing application using the platform takes only four hours instead of the usual 40 hours. This represents a 90 percent time saving. Furthermore, D:PLOY offers the necessary flexibility to quickly reconfigure an application if production conditions change. Not least, real-time monitoring improves productivity and minimizes downtime.

Simplifying Automation Barriers

D:PLOY provides a solution for one of the industry’s biggest challenges: the shortage of qualified robotics engineers and integrators who can help smaller, less experienced manufacturers overcome existing barriers to automation.

Simon Potzkai, robotics sales engineer at Alexander Bürk­le, an OnRobot system integrator and beta tester of D:PLOY, explains: "D:PLOY simplifies the setup and integration of a robot cell through its innovative approach of making programming unnecessary. Given the current shortage of engineers, this is a huge advantage for integrators. By making automation projects easier and faster to implement, we can serve more customers and help them adopt automation more quickly. A win-win situation for everyone involved."

Alan Vallis, Training and Development Manager at LG Motion Ltd, an OnRobot distributor, adds: "D:PLOY will make automation accessible to companies that may still be somewhat hesitant, whether due to cost reasons or because of a lack of internal skills and competencies. I believe D:PLOY will demystify much of it."