Claudia's trained robots help customers innovate

Claudia Westerveld (26) is our R&D Engineer in Zwolle. Claudia 'trains' robots and systems: together with software engineers and creative students, she develops innovations for factories, logistics centers and infrastructure managers. A super talent, who was already scouted during her training, and now also for a very cool article by De makers of tomorrow!

Read the full interview below:

How did you get this job?

“I was graduating from Industrial Design Engineering at the TU Twente when four different recruiters approached me via LinkedIn. I wasn't looking for a job yet, but it was an instant match.”

What is Batenburg Beenen for a company?

“At Batenburg Beenen, engineers with different specializations work on automation in food, machine construction, water and infrastructure. A factory or system upgrade should usually last for years. This means that there is often a lot to modernize with the next upgrade. Batenburg Beenen has an R&D department for the most modern innovations, where we work on Robotics, Vision, and Data Intelligence. We help customers to innovate considerably, partly with the help of students.”

What is your role?

“As an R&D engineer I can be the link between new developments at our customers and our engineers and students. Together with our experienced engineers and students, we devise and develop a proof of concept for a customer to see whether great innovations are possible. Creative students bring a lot of fresh knowledge and that is very important to bring to your company. My coordinator started that five years ago. It was such a success that he was allowed to set up this R&D department. That has already proved important for several major new projects of Batenburg Beenen.”

Do you have an example?

“Yes, for example the Autonomous Mobile Robot, the AMR. We bought it to gain knowledge. “Ronny,” as we call him, can interact with a factory system and then know how to drive safely with his camera view. Students with us have developed a tooltop for the robot with a conveyor belt that can be raised and lowered. With this, and by looking around, the robot can now independently determine in which way it will pick up a crate at height X from rack A, and place it at height Y at rack B. There is already a lot of enthusiasm for this technology.”

Photography: Linh Kruger.

What can customers do with that?

“With an AMR and our tooltop, you can automate an entire warehouse, for example. As soon as an order from the customer enters the system, the robot can immediately pick up all relevant goods in the warehouse and deliver them to the production line. In addition, the AMR can also transport products from a production line to an assembly line or directly to the truck. If he has nothing to do in the meantime, he drives to his charging station.”

What are other projects with students?

“For example, a machine vision algorithm that we developed that can detect contamination in the paper industry. Or, for example, the software with which we learned to predict from a collected dataset when a component in a Philips robot arm will fail, so that you can replace it just-in-time. I myself have now also won a major project that could take several years, in which we will combine robotics, vision and data intelligence for the horticultural industry.”

How do colleagues view you as a young career maker?

“Because Batenburg Beenen has been around for 100 years, I was quite afraid that it would be a bit traditional. That went very well. Colleagues like to come to me with ideas. In various projects, some things are now very different from what they were used to before. Everything is bubbling and bubbling. The engineers find that super interesting and like to make time for it.”

Are you doing what you learned to do?

“I did my bachelor's degree in Creative Technology, which connects many fields. During my master I focused on Management of Product Development, in other words the path from idea to solution. I have always chosen courses with new technology, because that is where my natural interest lies, but I was never really the hardcore techie myself. I prefer to be the link between people with knowledge and ideas. That is exactly what I am doing now.”