If you’ve ever tried teaching a six-year-old how to tie a shoe, you know how complicated the task can be. Try teaching a robot how to do it. Mechatronics expert Dave Whelan, founding partner of aXatronics, has done something similar. Whelan and his team developed a robotic bow-tying system for Dayton, Ohio-based Esther Price Fine Chocolates Candy Co. that ties ribbon around the popular chocolatier’s boxes.
Until purchasing the automated bow-tying system from aXatronics, Esther Price Candies relied on a cadre of long-tenured seasonal workers to tie the ribbons on each candy box by hand. The workers accomplished the job at the rate of three to four boxes per minute, with some occasionally reaching a rate of five boxes per minute. But no single worker could tie boxes all day long. And even with breaking up the workers’ tying-time into shorter chunks through shiftwork, the workers risked injury from carpal tunnel syndrome.