Figure 3. End-effector with the individual sucking cups, with ply shapes on the belt (left) and ply recognition by vision with suction cup pattern overlay (right) the distance between suction cups, or the edge of the ply and the suction cups cannot be too large, to avoid that the ply is folded during placement. All these calculations are done within a small timeframe as the plies in the AK system keep moving constantly as shown in Figure 3. Based on the cal- w w w. s a m p e . o r g culation of the picking algorithm, the system determines how to position the end-effector. For example, even if the ply is entered straight on the conveyor belt, it might decide to rotate the end-effector to ensure the suction cups are close enough to the edge of the ply. N OV E M B E R / D E C E M B E R 2 0 2 0 | SAMPE JOURNAL | 19https://frenchoil.com/ https://www.sampe.org/