Welcome

Robotics in food processing

Post-Graduate seminar

on

MOHAN NAIK. GM. Tech ( FPT)College of FPT & BE,AAU, Anand.

OUTLINE Introduction Reason for automating process History Component of robot Types of robots used in food industry Application of robotics in food processing sector

Meat industry

Fruit and vegetable industry

Dairy industry

Packagingconclusion

Introduction The use of robotics in the food industry has increased over recent

years, particularly in the field of processing and packaging systems

However, the industry has not taken to the technology with the same enthusiasm as the automotive and other industries

Now that the technology is becoming more affordable and the systems more intelligent, it may be feasible to automate many of the complex and repetitive tasks that are carried out in the food industry

The opportunity still exists to deliver significant benefits in terms of increased food shelf life, cost reductions and flexibility (Wallin, P. J. 1997)

Reasons for Automating Processes Need to reduce direct labour Can’t get people to do the job Need to increase quality Difficult to do the job manually Need to increase production Difficult to meet specifications consistently Need to provide flexibility in processes Hazardous to personnel Eliminates a contamination source

What is Robotics ? Robotics is the branch of mechanical engineering, electrical

engineering and computer science that deals with the design, construction, operation, and application of robots, as well as computer systems for their control, sensory feedback, and information processing (Robot institute of America)

What is Robot ?

An automatically controlled, reprogrammable, multipurpose manipulator programmable in three or more axes, which may be either fixed in place or mobile for use in industrial automation applications (ISO)

The term robot comes from Czech and means ‘forced labour’ - coined by the Czech writer Karel Capek in 1921 and titled “Rossum’s Universal Robots”

Robotics = Flexible Automation

Manual Fast product change Breaks Monotonous tasks Health claims Labour issues Training

Flexible Automation Quick product change Programmable Repeatable Changeable cell

configuration Responds to part

changes

History of Robots• 1956 - George Devol applied for a patent for the first programmable robot, later named

'Unimate'

• 1961 - First Unimate robot installed at General Motors, used for die casting and spot welding

• 1986 - Honda starts work on its first humanoid, robot named 'E0' (later to become ASIMO)

• 1988 - SCAMP designed as the first robot pet with emotions

• 1995- Robot used in packaging and palletisation line

• 1997- Industrial Research Ltd. New Zealand, develop robot for sheep de-fleecing and cutting

• 1999- GTRI develop a robot for deboning of meat

• 1991 - First Helpmate mobile autonomous robot used in hospitals

• 1992 - Development of robot for picking of citrus fruit in spain

• 2002 - iRobot introduces Roomba, a personal robotic vacuum cleaner.

• 2004 - Reed develop robot for harvesting of mushrooms

• 2006 - The world's first robotic rotary dairy was developed by Delaval

• 2010 - NASA and General Motors join forces to develop Robonaut-2, the new version of NASA's humanoid robot astronaut

Components of Robot

Processor: The brain of the robot. It calculates the motions and the velocity of the robot’s joints, etc.

Sensors: To collect information about the internal state of the robot or to communicate with the outside environment

Software: Operating system, robotic software and the collection of routines.

Rover or Manipulator : Main body of robot (Links, Joints, other structural element of the robot)

Actuators: Muscles of the manipulators (servomotor, stepper motor, pneumatic and hydraulic cylinder)

End Effecter: The part that is connected to the last joint hand of a manipulator

Controller: Similar to cerebellum. it controls and coordinates the motion of the actuators (Massy et al., 2010)

The Food Industry

Traditional Applications – Mostly Packaging Areas • Palletizing • Secondary Packaging : Case packing / carton loading • Primary Packaging : Dependent upon the products

Current and New Applications• Handling raw or unpackaged food products :Primary Packaging • Ready-meal construction• Cake and pie handling• Meat processing• Cake decoration• Pizza assembly• Grading of fruit and vegetables• Cooking

Warehouse

Source: Rudall, B. H. (1994) Reports and surveys. Robotica 12, l-6

Requirements of food robot system

Any Robotic Automation System Specifications : Reach / Payload / Speed

Protection from Water and Humidity

* Sealed Design with Smooth Finish for Drainage

* Protected from water with sealed covers

* Motors and ‘electronics’

* Corrosion resistant coating

* Purged to prevent water entry and damage

* Cabling protected from water

* Locate Controls away from water damage Covers

Condensation inside creates corrosion

Leaks when damaged or installed incorrectly

Types of Robots used in food industry

The main types of robots used in the food industry are

Portal robots: Portal robots are mounted robotic systems that span a cubic

handling area by means of three linear axes The actual robotic kinematics (the moving axes) are located

above the mounting

Articulated robots: Articulated robots are industrial robots with multiple

interacting jointed arms that can be fitted with grippers or tools Articulated robots offer a high degree of flexibility

SCARAs:• Selective Compliance Assembly robot Arms, or SCARAs, are a

particular form of articulated robots • They have a single articulated arm that can only move

horizontally. They work in a similar way to human arms and are often called ‘horizontal articulated arm robots’

Delta robots:• Spider-like delta robots a special form of parallel robot

typically have three to four articulated axes with stationary actuators. Because their actuators are located in the base, these kinds of robots have only a small inertia. This allows for very high speeds and acceleration (Khodabandehloo, 1996)

Robotics in Meat Processing Tasks in the meat processing sector are physically challenging, repetitive

and prone to worker scarcity

Butchery tasks are unpleasant, physically arduous and carry a high risk of worker injury. This suggests them as prime targets for the benefits of robotisation; how- ever, the skilled nature of the butchery task, combined with the biological variation of the raw material, poses substantial challenges

Applications of robotics and automation in primary meat production processes in the abattoir and cutting plant for beef, sheep/lamb and pork meat ( Purnell et al., 2013 )

Yield control, legislation, difficulties in staff availability will increase commercial pressures and encourage more meat processor organisations to automate, simply to maintain throughput (Balkcom et al., 2008)

Initially many meat automation research projects developed spoke robots for their particular task (Ranger et al ., 2004 )

The main aim of using an industrial robot is to reduce production costs and occupational injuries while improving process efficiency and hygiene

Application in Meat Industry• Removal of hair or hide of pig , cattle/ cow (KUKA robot)

• De-fleecing sheep or pelting (Robertson)

• Evisceration and dressing

• Splitting

• Primal cutting (ARTEPP)

• Automated inspection and grading (AUTO-FOM )

• Deboning

Robotic trends in Meat Industry• Automation and robot systems have been successful because

they perform tasks currently not possible for a human operative.

• A human butcher could not perform the multi-armed cutting and

handling operations achieved by evisceration automation.

• Even the strongest, most skilled butcher cannot match the consistency and high-force cut accuracy achieved with robotic primal cutting.

Robotics in fruit and vegetable processing

• The first automated grading facilities for fruit and vegetables became available more than 10 years ago

• Recently, machine vision and near infrared (NIR) technologies as well as mechatronics and computer technologies have been employed to make these facilities more sophisticated and have led to their use for many kinds of agricultural products

• Robot technology has proved able to handle agricultural products delicately and with a high degree of precision, and to gather information to create a database of products every season

• Since about ten years ago, packing robots and palletizing robots have been a frequent feature in fruit grading facilities (Njoroge et al ., 2002), while grading robots (Kondo, 2003 ), which collect round-shaped fruits and inspect them using a machine vision system, are now being introduced in some East Asian countries.

• Automatic systems and robots used in agriculture then play another important role, as they are able to keep a precise record of their operations in databases. They then utilize that information for the next operation or store the data either for future use by the producer in decision-making or to provide traceability information for quality assured foods (Kawano, 2003)

Application in fruit and vegetable processingHarvesting of food products :• Industrial Robot (1999) reports that, in the last 15 years,

mechanisation in farming has increased massively and the labour force has shrunk proportionately

• Kondo et al. (1996) developed a fruit harvesting robot for use in Japanese agriculture systems which commonly produce crops in greenhouses and in small fields

• Reed et al. (2001) developed an end-effector for the delicate harvesting of mushrooms

• Ceres et al. (1998) designed and implemented a human aided fruit-harvesting robot (Agribot)

• The Agribot approaches the problem of fruit picking by combining human and machine operations

Grading of fruit and vegetables

• A grading system using robots has been developed for use with deciduous fruits such as peaches, pears, and apples. system automatically picks fruit from containers and inspects all sides of the fruit (Kondo, 2003)

• Grading robot’s maximum speed is 1 m/s and its stroke is about 1.2 m. It takes the robot 2.7 s to transfer 12 fruits to trays, 0.4 s to move down to the conveyor line, and 1 s to return once fruits have been released. 0.15 s are spent waiting for the next batch of fruit The total time to complete the operation is 4.25 s. This means that one set of robots can process approximately 10,000 fruits per hour

Robotics in Dairy Industry

• Dairy farming and processing is one of most important economic activity

Robotic or automatic milking• Robotic or automatic milking systems (AMS) are becoming increasingly

important in dairy farming

• Automatic Milking Systems (AMS) milk cows any time without the need for a human worker to be present

• Cows choose when to be milked and detailed data is recorded by the robot which can be accessed remotely by computer or mobile device

• Relatively small base, robotic milking has been predicted to become increasingly common

• DeKoning and Rodenburg (2014) estimated that Internationally there were around 5,200 machines in operation in 2014

• The world's first robotic rotary dairy was developed by Delaval

• The first commercial installation has been operating at Gala, the Dornauf farm in northern Tasmania since early 2012

• Robotic rotary milking system include: Activating washing system Changing filter sokc’s and rubber ware Attending to alarms Managing a separate herd of cows whose milk is not intended

for the factory (eg: antibiotic and colostrum cows) Monitoring individual cow performance

• It is most useful for herds of more than 300 cows

Advantages• The adoption of AMS has been shown to change the nature of

stockmanship in dairy farming

• Creates freedom and flexibility for the farmer

• Robotic milking improves the working conditions and lifestyle of the dairy farmer

• It has economic advantages and benefits for cow health and welfare

Disadvantage• Capital requirement is relatively high

• Need more electricity to operate system

ROBOTICS IN PACKAGING• Robot-based automation ensures the kind of flexibility

• Robots are usually associated with handling repetitive tasks in a process either in high volume production roles or where flexible hand ling systems are needed for frequent changes

• In the packaging industry, robots generally fall into three main arenas: pick and place applications , feed placement and palletizing

Picking

This is an area in which a multitude of products, applications and packaging line set-ups. Frozen food, bakery and confectionary, ice cream, meat and fish, cheese, pet food, medical products, shampoo and perfume bottles

Delta robot is more commonly used

Packing• In the packing stage of the packaging process, robot automation

offers easy integration, increased flexibility and high reliability

• Top loading of boxes, unloading and mixing, and feeding of products to end loaders or film wrappers is easily handled by robot

• A ABB robot, designed and optimized for packing applications with a payload of up to 30 kg. With a comprehensive range of robots, controller equipment, vision technology and software

• Robot can help to optimize all kinds of packing applications, including race track packing and tracking of moving conveyors.

Primary packaging

Secondary packaging Robot

Palletizing• Robots are mostly been used for

palletizing of bottles and crates

• Robot can transport about 30000 bottles per hour (about 1500 crates) (Karabegović et al., 2003)

Challenges in Robotics in India

Among the many challenges that plague the Robotics field in India, the primary ones among them have to do with

• The high cost of adoption

• Availability of skilled talent and

• Procurement of hardware components

(Abheek, 2015)

Potential benefits from Robotic system

The requirement for reduced floor space

Improved efficiency

Improved quality

The ability to work in cold or hostile environments

Increased yields and reduced wastage

Increased consistency

Increased flexibility for some operations (Anon. 1996)

Conclusion• Robotics has the potential to become next frontier in the food industries

• Manual handling of foods is not going to end soon, but still the acceptance of automation and robotics in the industry is increasing

• Robots are populating the food industry in increasing numbers as processors intensify their continuing, relentless search for faster, more economic methods of production that will enable them to satisfy the insatiable demands of modern retailers and the rapidly changing lifestyles of consumers

• Robots increase the safety process and decrease the chances of downtimes or production shortfall, thanks to their reliability and availability

Reference• Anon. (1996) Robotics in Sweet Production. Lebensmiffelwirtrch. 7(4): 42-43.

• BRA (1996) Robot facts 1995, British Robot Association, Aston Science Park, Birmingham, UK.7:234-327.

• Balkcom, D. J. and Mason, M. T. ( 2008 ) Introducing robotic origami folding, International Journal of Robotics Research. 27 (5): 613 –627.

• Buckenhüskes, H. J. and Oppenhäuser, G. (2014) DLG trend report: ‘Robots in the food and beverage industry’; DLG Lebensmittel. 9(6):16-17.

• Erzincanli, F. (1995) A non-contact end effector for robotic handling of non-rigid materials. Ph.D. Thesis, University of Salford, Salford.

• Khodabandehloo, K. (1996) Robotics in food manufacturing. Advanced robotics and intelligent machines. 2:220-256.

• Karabegovic, I. and Dolecek, V. (2003) Applied Intelligent System, 2:34-47.

• Kawano, S. 2003. Handbook for Food Non-destruction Measurement, Science Forum Inc, 2:37-83.

• Kondo, N. 2006. Machine vision based on optical properties of biomaterials for fruit grading system. Environment Control in Biology, 44(3):3 –11.

• Massey, R., Gray, J., Dodd, T. and Caldwell, D. (2010) Guidelines for the design of low cost robots for the food industry.37 (6):509 –517.

• Purnell, G., Maddock, A. and Khodabandehloo, K. (2013) Robot Deboning for Beef Forequarters. Robotica.8:303-310.

• Rudall, B. H. (1994) Reports and surveys. Robotica. 12: l-6.

• Wallin, P. J. (1997). Robotics in the food industry, Trends in Food Science & Technology. 8(5):193-233.

Thanks…