Food Robotics
by Bennett Brumson, Contributing Editor
(posted 03/19/2007) - page 1 of 5.

Deploying robotics in many industries is so routine, that it is taken as a given. The presence of robotics in other industries, such as in the food market, is relatively low. The potential for robotics in the food and beverage industry is immense, for both ‘‘traditional’‘ applications such as picking, packing and palletizing, as well as for cutting-edge applications such as meat cutting and beverage dispensing.

‘‘A lot of food manufactures are limited because they do not think about robotics. If food manufacturers use standard robotic systems for the transferring and cutting of their product, they will see more flexibility,’‘ says Sylvie Algarra, Product Marketing Manager at Stäubli Robotics, Duncan, South Carolina.

P3
Robotics in the food and beverage industry are generally divided into three main categories, picking, packing and palletizing. Picking is usually the first of these processes, followed by the packing, then palletizing. Michael Crane, Consumer Goods Segment Manager at QComp Technologies, Inc., Greenville, Wisconsin, defines robotic picking to be ‘‘high-speed individual pick and loading trays. Examples are high-speed robots picking chocolates and loading them into a wrapping machine.’‘

Because picking operations tend to be early in the food manufacturing process, it is important that they be done correctly. Richard Tallian, Consumer Industry Segment Manager, Robotic Products Group at ABB, Inc., Auburn Hills, Michigan, speaks of robotic food and beverage picking. ‘‘Food robotics have more challenges at the beginning of the production line than at the end, because picking deals with food products that are irregular in shape. When going down the production line, product is more consistent in shape.’‘

Tallian adds that product orientation is something that integrators have to keep in mind with robotic food picking applications. ‘‘Generally, product is randomly oriented so some may be touching or overlapping,’‘ Tallian says. ‘‘Operators have to determine whether they are seeing bad product or overlapping product. Vision has a lot to deal with in picking applications.’‘ Tallian also says vision systems determine orientation of the product for correct placement.

Pack ’Em
Robotic packing of food is segmented in to primary and secondary packaging. Primary packaging is the placing of foods into the first wrapper or layer of packaging. Secondary packaging has the robot inserting the primary wrapped food product into the nextlayer of packaging, such as a box, case, carton or tray.

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