Siemens provides an extensive sample application for this purpose, which contains the robot program and the HMI images. This significantly simplifies the robot engineering, since the engineer only has to be familiar with the TIA Portal. A Simatic S7-1500 controller controls the Kuka robot using the TIA Portal library. The MindConnect hardware component collects the data from sensors and actuators and transmits it to the MindSphere cloud. “We used MindSphere, the open cloud ecosystem from Siemens, on which our proprietary Autexis apps can run,” says Philippe Ramseier, the owner of Autexis. Even our professors did some of the programming, which doesn’t happen very often.” The partners relied primarily on products and solutions from Siemens. “Producing the system was quite a feat,” Krack said. The flexible pick system was financed by the university.
![siemens simatic kuka hmi siemens simatic kuka hmi](https://www.kuka.com/-/media/kuka-corporate/images/products/software/kuka-cncsinumerik_01.jpg)
The process is currently very expensive because Chocolat Frey is orientated to mass production and individual orders are packaged by hand. “We therefore chose a product and a problem that everyone knows: chocolate!” “The system is intended to provide an experience,” Krack explains. “As a university, it’s our job to identify new possibilities and point out where the journey could take us,” says Markus Krack, Head of Technology Transfer FITT at the School of Engineering at the university. The company has collaborated with a leading university, the University for Applied Sciences Northwestern Switzerland (FHNW), packaging specialist Pacvois, automation partner Autexis Holding AG and Siemens using its MindSphere open cloud ecosystem. The flexible pick system is an “innovation kit” for Chocolat Frey in Germany and part of experimenting with the fourth industrial revolution, or Industry 4.0 as it is being dubbed.
![siemens simatic kuka hmi siemens simatic kuka hmi](https://plc-planet.de/media/image/product/1498/md/siemens-mobile-panel-ktp900f-6av2125-2jb23-0xa0.jpg)
The container is labelled, provided with the necessary product declaration, sealed and shipped to the consumer. You can order, for example, three mini bars of dark chocolate and several with nuts and fill the rest of the package with milk chocolate. The production line’s robot enables consumers to order its chocolates any time from any where via Twitter. It’s not available commercially but to demonstrate what the future might hold, a chocolate manufacturer in Switzerland (where else) has experimented by offering a bespoke box of chocolates that Forrest Gump would be happy with.