Pick & Place with Suction Cup and Gripper End Effectors

Overview

• Pallet to pallet transfer of plastic cubes with both of the arm's interchangeable end effectors, quantified rather than eyeballed: cycle times recorded per trial for a direct comparison.
• Ten taught waypoints per run: home, clearance, and eight pallet corners, reused identically across both tools.

Design & Build

• Teaching: Waypoints captured by jogging the arm and reading poses back through pydobot, with z heights tuned for reliable contact.
• Control: Python routines drive MOVJ motions with suction and gripper commands, with settle delays matched to each tool's response.
• Measurement: Cycle time logged from first pickup to final placement across repeated four cube transfers.

Challenges

• Vacuum seal loss from small z height miscalibrations.
• Gripper alignment drift on irregular grasps.
• Intermittent serial communication mid sequence.

Result

• Suction proved faster on smooth cubes thanks to instant engagement; the gripper handled geometry variations more robustly. Trade offs documented per object type.

Skills & Tools