Role of Cobots in the Future of the Food Industry

Nine out of ten food manufacturing companies depend on AI and other technologies to enhance food safety, decrease employee injuries, and increase efficiency. Food manufacturing companies have invested money in AI technologies for the last few years. According to PMMI Business Intelligence, there has been a drastic change in the development of AI and cobots compared to the last five years.

Bureau of Labor Statistics(U.S. ) reported that packing meat is a dangerous job. The meat industry and the entire food industry have faced repetitive tasks, tiring, and strenuous movements. Cobots can help food manufacturers in manufacturing and packaging. It becomes a helping hand for humans, making the work easier. Swedish Sugar producer automates repetitive tasks in the food industry using three cooperating robots. The cobots used in the task contain a gripper that lifts 45,000 containers in a single shot. Cobots also perform scanning, stacking the eggs, and spraying bedrolls. 2.5 million eggs have been packed daily using cobots grippers at the Italian Cascina. The grippers are used to stack the eggs in boxes, which aids them in packing 15,000 eggs in an hour. Cobots can be carried anyplace at ease without any disassembly. Hence, the robots have been used in multiple tasks at stock-keeping units.

Six-axis-robot arm cobot has been inserted into the food industry to ease the package-related hurdles. In the food products manufacture, humans and machines integrate. During the integration, accidental mishaps are bound to occur. The robots have been programmed with complex safety techniques using AI and ML programs to avoid such consequences. Due to the safety sensors, the cobots identify obstacles in the environment.

The active sensors, along with a capacitive sensor, optical sensor, and tactical sensors, help identify the presence of nearby humans. Cobots with grippers give many advantages in the manufacturing and packaging food products. As cobots prove to provide huge benefits, it has become the fastest-growing segment of industrial automation.