Qafka

Mission

Provide a fully automatic robotic solution to twistlock handling during ship-to-shore and shore-to-ship container operations.

The challenge

During shipping, most stacked containers are secured using twistlocks (TL), objects connecting the tops of a container corner castings (CCs) to another container's bottom CCs. When a container is added or removed from a ship, these TLs have to be added or removed. Currently, this is a boring and often dangerous process which has to be done manually. We are developing a robotic solution to automate this task, which will increase the safety and productivity of a cargo port.

The solution

Our current solutions is in two parts. The "Twistbot" and the "Binbot." The Twistbot was designed and built during the Robotics Minor of 2021-2022 and moves TLs into and out CCs. It is a mobile robot which can move around in the lashing area. The Binbot is currently under development. The current solution is a pick and place robot which takes TLs in and out of their storage containers, orient them correctly, and place them in the end effector of the Twistbot.