Stacking irregular-sized packages by a robot manipulator

To study the feasibility of stacking packages with different dimensions and weights inside a trailer, a prototype auto-loader system has been developed. Major functional modules of this prototype system are presented in this paper. It is believed that the developed auto-loader system is the first system which is specifically designed to stack rectangular packages with various dimensions and weights inside a trailer. Operation principles and some design considerations of this auto-loader system are described in the paper. Through this case study, the paper demonstrates how robotic technologies can be applied to a complicated package-handling automation system