I, foodbot: declining costs, faster speeds and advances in vision-guided systems are helping plant engineers justify the cost of robotics.(Tech Update)

Food Engineering, September, 2004 by Higgins, Kevin T.

WITH THE STAR WARS GENERATION SWELLING THE ranks of plant engineers and automation specialists, it should be no surprise that robotic systems are making the transition from food production wish list to commercial application.

While food and beverage applications represent a small part of industrial robotics, suppliers acknowledge they constitute one of the fastest growing segments. One of the earliest food uses occurred in 1985, when a Canadian plant of confectioner Rowntree Macintosh deployed a unit to transfer candies from molding to a wrapping line. High costs and reliability issues slowed the adoption of robotics to additional factory tasks, and many obstacles--product variability, gentle handling, equipment cleanability and sanitation--had to be addressed...

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