Generic Technologies and Technical Challenges in Food Automation

Robotics

Generic Technologies and
Technical Challenges in Food
Automation

Darwin G. Caldwell

Centre for Robotics and Automation


University of Salford.


Robotics

Centre for Robotics and
Automation


Founded in late 1980’s


15 researchers

End
-
effectors, haptics, biomedical robotics, industrial
robotics, control eng.


20+ Postgraduate students


25% in food related activities

Recent Industry based R & D


ASAP


Food Factory in a Pipe


CASPAR


ERDF
–

NW Industry Support




Robotics

Robotics and Automation


Robotics

Robotics and Automation


Robotics

Food Automation

The Need for Change








Improve Yields


Reduce Waste/Rework


Cope with Short Lead Times


Increase Profitability


Cope with Product Customisation

Meet Hygiene Standards

Improve Quality and Consistency

Comply with Legislation

Provide Traceability

Powerful Retail Customers

Rapid Response To Customer Demand

(Skilled) Labour Shortages

Expanding EU/International Competition

Robotics


Food Automation Barriers

Real and Perceived








Human

•
Payback on replacing unskilled labour is low

•
Operators have high dexterity, accuracy and flexibility

•
Lack of Technical Expertise in the Industry

•
Actions of the human operators have to be mimicked



Product

•
Variable Packaging Combinations / Promotions

•
Short Production Runs

•
Short Term Focus

•
Supply and demand are seasonal and regional

•
Natural variability of Product v Consistency


Industry

•
Inherent Conservatism

•
Low margins


low investment


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Food Sector Automation Issues

Technical


lack of equipment suitable for the production cycle time


the modularity and the flexibility needed with respect to:

robots, sensors, grippers and systems layouts.


products that can withstand the "wash down" standards


cold areas


Reliability!!!

Skills and competences compared to automotive

Typically less competence (compared to automotive)


installation


specification


maintenance


running of highly automated production.


Robotics

Why Use Robots?


Quality improvements



High positioning precision


High repeatability


No deviation due to fatigue/ high concentration


Highly accurate inspection and measurement using sensors.



Improves

visual appearance

Perceived quality of the product

Fault detection


Reduced materials costs, rework and wastage



Robotics

Why Use Robots?


Improved Working Environment


Short term fatigue or long term injury or disability.


Fewer Health and safety legislation issues


Issues


Heavy lifting

> 20 tons per shift



Repetitive work

> 4000 single actions per shift


Contaminated environments (solvents, noise, heat, dust)


Jobs requiring continuously high levels of concentration.



Robotics

Why Use Robots?


Flexibility to Change

Robots/Automation can be extremely flexible.


Robots/Automation can cope with short life cycles.


Robot arms have higher/better capabilities than
humans

Robotics


Robot Utilisation

Financial

Social

Technical

Can the robot perform the task
-

speed, accuracy,
payload, repeatability?

Is Positioning and Orientation required?

Is the task simple and repetitive?

Is the cycle times acceptable?

Is this an established application?

Are there quality control issues?

Is inspection part of the job?

Task does not require Intelligence (Commonsense)?


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Factory Robots


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Industrial Robots

Robotics

Robots

Are they right for this sector?

Degrees of Freedom


5 or 6 dof typical


Food requirements
–
typically x, y, z and perhaps rotate

Payload


1kg
-
500kg


Most food products are under 0.5kg

Accuracy/Repeatability


Operators typically place to mm


Robots are accurate to 0.02
-
0.05mm

Reliability


>50,000hrs


Robotics

Industry Response to Automation


“
The scourge of introducing mechanisation and
automation in product assembly and packaging
operations in much of the food industry is the
reduced intrinsic reliability of the resulting
system
”


C. A. Pearson Consultant, ‘Food Factory of the Future’ Conference, June 2001,
Gothenburg.

Robotics

Current Robots

Are they right for this sector?

Speed


7.5
–

10m/s


Humans 1 cycle/s maximum 1
-
2m/s

Envelope


1m
-
2.5m


Humans 0.75
-
1m
–

movement is possible!

Programming/Interface


Automotive
–

high experience base


Food industry ….

Gripper/ End
-
effector

Sensor

Cost



Robotics

Over
-
specification?




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Position and Orientation

Essential part of design process

Humans are highly tolerant of imprecision

Humans are imprecise

Sensory systems permit realignment


Vision


Expensive

Not important in current layout and operation


Conveyor transfers


Lack of machine training and operation skill


Acceptance of poor machine reliability


Use of Low cost and poorer materials

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Positioning and Orientation


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ERDF

3 year project


Available to SME


Objective 2 Fully legible and transitional areas


Technology reviews


Short term research studies


Robotics

Robotics in the Food Industry

Conclusions
-

Observations

Training


Companies that use robots well often develop their
own robots


Commitment


Many/most failures in the UK have been caused by

operators not buying into the project

Quality improvements are possible

Improved Working environment



Robotics

Robotics in the Food Industry

Conclusions
-

Observations

Robots have equal/better performance to
human arms

Robots are designed for some sectors but not
generally the food sector

Positioning and Orientation is costly to regain
–

keep it.

Flexibility


Robots only need to be trained once