Configuration system for simulation based design of vibratory bowl feeders

Vibratory bowl feeders are still among the most commonly used production equipment for automated part feeding, where parts are correctly oriented for further manipulation by being conveyed through a set of orienting devices. Designing vibratory bowl feeders involves selecting and sequencing a number of these devices that either reorients or rejects the part until a desirable orientation is achieved. To aid the designer in this task, this work presents a configuration system where knowledge of the behaviour for each device is acquired through dynamic simulation, and used to solve the configuration task. To test the approach, the configuration system is used to find three device sequences for feeding three parts in specific orientations. The sequences are validated through simulation and real world experiments, showing good consistency.