For bolt inventory management systems

Developer
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1

Hi all,

We are currently trying to build a system in TULIP to manage our bolt inventory.
We are trying to solve this problem using a scale.
However, in order to install and monitor the scales under the buckets, we need more than 200 buckets.
This makes the number of Edge IO’s huge and we are confused about selecting the right instrument for our requirements.
Has anyone built a similar system or have a good idea?

2

Hey @da-noguchi this is a fun challenge. I certainly would not want to manage the integration of 200 scales. I think it would be cheaper to hire a full time bin watcher :rofl:

I have a few ideas, but you need to think through your level of tolerance and what the problem is.

  1. (Manual) Could label the bins 1-200 and have operators submit a flag when a bin is low. Over time you will have data to forecast demand for different bolts.
  2. (Manual) Could have a simple tulip app requiring someone to review the bin levels twice a day and estimate their level. Over time you will have data to forecast demand for different bolts.
  3. (Camera) If you can get a camera or scanner above the bins, you could put a QR code at the bottom of the bins to fire once the bin is empty. However, this is a large amount of overhead (literally) too.
  4. (Camera) I wonder if you could get clear buckets and use image detection to see how full each bin is? This one might allow you to have much less devices but is the most complex.
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Awesome answer and agreed with @danielpomeranz here! These alternatives may not be complete solutions, but better than nothing, and less complex than 200 scales

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Hi @da-noguchi
I want to suggest an alternative method based on Tulip Vision’s capabilities.
It will be less precise than scales but will allow you to scale (the other scale) faster and manage your inventory.

You can use a colour detector to identify the colour within a region of interest. if the color of the bolts and the background are different the detected value will indicate if there are bolts in the ROI. This of course requires transparent boxes.
Stacking several ROI along the box horizontally will measure the bolts’ level in the box. While this will not give an accurate number it will give an indication of inventory level and allow triggering a replenishment request.

Few things to keep in mind.
a. Boxes should be transparent.
b. Color detector is sensitive to light changes. The area lighting should be constant and uniform.

Cheers, Reshef

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Sorry for the late reply.
Thanks for the suggestion.
Although vision’s suggestion sounds good, I am aware that color detection is a very serious, as @Reshef.Gadot is talking about.
Therefore, the manual proposal suggested by @danielpomeranz is realistic, but I would still like to be able to detect it automatically.
We will consider this issue further.

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