Flexible and CAD-Free Object Gripping

3D Gripping Point Detection

MVTec's 3D Gripping Point Detection automatically identifies suitable gripping surfaces on any object – without the need for a CAD model or prior knowledge of the shape or properties of the parts. This technology is ideal for applications where objects vary greatly, are disordered, or are unpredictable.

Unlike traditional bin-picking approaches, which require a CAD model or complex training data, 3D Gripping Point Detection directly analyzes the 3D point cloud. This enables the reliable identification of robust gripping points, even on amorphous, shiny, unstructured, or unknown objects.

Typical Applications

Intralogistics and Warehousing
→ Gripping disordered boxes, bags, or packaging
Returns Management and E-Commerce
→ Handling highly variable, unknown items
Food Industry
→ Gripping naturally grown products
Automated Palletizing and Depalletizing

How It Works

3D Gripping Point Detection: Visualization of automatically detected gripping points on a randomly arranged mixture of various objects in a 3D point cloud.

3D Capture
The software processes 3D point clouds from common 3D sensors (e.g., time-of-flight, stripe projection, stereo systems).

Surface Geometry Analysis
The technology detects locally stable areas on the surface, such as flat or slightly convex zones.

Grippability Validation
Criteria like tilt, curvature, and local flatness are checked to identify secure gripping points.

Output of Optimal Gripping Points
The software provides robust, collision-free coordinates for the robot – completely independent of CAD data.

Advantages

No CAD data required.
Quick integration, minimal setup effort.
Robust against object variation, reflections, and disordered positions.
Ideal for flexible pick-and-place, logistics, and bin-picking applications.
Works with standard 3D sensors.
Scalable for edge, sensor, and robotics setups.

Distinction From Related Technologies

MVTec offers several technologies for gripping and picking processes. The 3D Gripping Point Detection complements these methods ideally when objects are interchangeable, varied, or unknown.

Technology	Application Area	Special Feature
Deep 3D Matching	Precise 3D localization of known objects	CAD-based or synthetically trainable, extremely robust
Shape-Based 3D Matching	3D position determination via CAD models	Subpixel accurate positioning
Surface-Based 3D Matching	Using point clouds instead of CAD	Robust with missing edges
3D Gripping Point Detection	Gripping points for suction cups on unknown objects	CAD-independent, highly flexible

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