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Robotics advances for the food industry

18 September 2023

Andy Macpherson discusses the latest robotic technology advances that could offer benefits for food and beverage manufacturers.

The recent government sponsored independent review into labour shortages in the food and beverage sector identified that the sector has struggled to take full advantage of automation and robotics. The report identified a diverse range of challenges for greater use of automation and set out recommendations to address many of these. 

With 97% of the manufacturers in the food sector being SMEs, many of them are without the in-depth resources to identify, finance and support the automation opportunities open to them. Across the industry sector there are now intense pressures to increase productivity against the back drop of labour shortages, rising costs and the need for increased flexibility. Increased automation could be the solution, but the cost and risks are high, with rising interest rates and uncertainty, cited as restricting factors.

Having worked for many years with both end users and OEMs I have seen the willingness to invest in the latest technologies within our sector also restrained by short-term contracts and concerns from manufacturers on their ability to support technically advanced equipment. Automation can reduce the demand for labour, but investors who do automate, run the risk of converting their labour shortage into a skills shortage. They can become highly reliant on a single or a very small team of engineers managing the automated equipment.  

A good example, which I have worked closely with, is on dairy farms where robotic milking systems have made an enormous difference. This is an industry where despite a 28% reduction in cows and farm workers between 1996 and 2021, milk production has risen. The use of robotic milking systems and automated parlours have made a massive difference. Here the ability to provide remote support is a crucial factor – where better would AI supported predictive maintenance systems have a pivotal role? Remote support for many remote farms is hampered by patchy internet access and speeds. However, the Government Project Gigabit which aims to bring high speed internet access to rural areas would make a big difference and would enable more reliable remote engineering support for technically sophisticated equipment.

Pneumatic cobots
Festo has been concentrating its robotic automation development projects in a few key areas. 
• Developing the use of controlled pneumatics to create cobot technology that makes the best use of air as a safe, compliant and light moving mass assistant.
• Simplifying the user interface for the programming of flexible robots.
• Developing an eco-system including flexible grippers for non-uniform products and safe to use on cobots.

The work being conducting in these areas has culminated in a concept cobot – the world’s first pneumatic cobot – which is now being installed and piloted in industrial applications. The 6-axis industrial cobot offers functions for safe human-robot collaboration and has been designed with simplicity in mind. The prototypes have demonstrated the benefits of air as a drive technology as well as incorporating simplified programming, teach-in modes, and more flexible end-effectors. Traditionally, pick-and-place handling tasks have been carried out either by vacuum or by mechanical grippers. When it comes to mechanical grippers there are many developments in soft and adaptive ‘fingers’ used in conjunction or instead of traditional metal slide-based grippers.  

Many aspects of automation are mature technologies, the good news is that the most recent developments are reducing the barriers to uptake. They are making equipment more intuitive to set up and use, more flexible and often, lower in cost, giving the opportunity for the food industry to increase investment in this area, helping to increase productivity and overcome the labour shortages it is facing.

Andy Macpherson is Food and Packaging Industry Sector Manager at Festo UK.


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