The term food robotics is often used interchangeably with food automation in the Food and Beverage Industry. Robotics has affected every aspect of food production. Food robots are increasingly being integrated into the food supply chain to save time and space, as well as improve customer service. Robots are commonly used in the manufacturing of food for dispensing food, placing feed into containers, cutting, packaging, and sorting products/ingredients. Additionally, new developments allow for order picking, where the robot fills an order that customers or employees can place electronically.
Robotics has emerged as a highlight amongst the Food and Beverage Market Trends overshadowing the rest. It gained prominence lately due to the COVID-19 outbreak. From Food Factories to local dining restaurants, a move towards robotics automation has been observed. For an Instance - YPC Technologies develops robotic kitchens for restaurants in Canada. The startup's standalone kitchens use fresh ingredients to automatically prepare a variety of dishes.
Forbes reports that robotics in the food industry is becoming more common due to labour shortages. Various food and beverage industry reports indicate that Food robotics is becoming increasingly popular due to the increasing demand for food, an ever-evolving need for increased productivity in food processing and the growing population. Moreover, the food robotics market is getting increasingly benefited from raised investments in the food automation space.
The application of robotics in the food industry goes beyond customer-facing businesses such as restaurants and grocery stores. Robots can sort, grade, and package food more reliably and accurately than manual processes. Robots can also reduce the operational expenses associated with food production. Therefore, startups are making use of artificial intelligence and computer vision to help food producers and suppliers improve their performance.
For instance - HelloWorld Robotics, a Malaysian startup, developed an autonomous robot that can deliver food last-mile. HelloWorld uses 16-channel 3D LiDAR, stereo cameras and TARS technologies. TARS is a self-driving robot that has an inertial measurement unit (IMU) and a waterproof ultrasonic sensor. All of these above technologies are used for navigation purposes. The TARS technology uses failsafe systems such as low-latency live streaming video and alarms to make sure that the payload is safely being transported. HelloWorld Robotics' solution in a way solves the last-mile delivery problem with efficiency and affordability.
The food robotics industry is just starting to show its potential. With big players like Nestle, Tyson Foods investing in this field, it is evident that this industry will see high growth in the near future.
There is an emerging need to solve the global hunger problem & it's important to understand the magnitude of the problem. There are an estimated 842 million people in the world who are chronically hungry. This number is expected to rise to 1.5 billion by 2030 and 2 billion by 2050. Certainly, there needs to be more innovation in this space, and Food Robotics could be a part of the solution. When it comes to mass production, this will make all the difference in meeting the global demand for food production, processing and packaging.
Usage in the Food Processing industry:
Agricultural materials are transformed into food materials through food processing. Factories perform many different processes. There are still most tasks being handled by old machines. This is the perfect opportunity to replace them with robots. When a robot is programmed, it can do a set of tasks without any assistance. Many processes can be automated with robotics, such as cutting fruits, vegetables, and this can sharply minimize the turnaround times.
For robot manufacturers to be successful, they must prepare robots that can understand raw materials before they are processed in primary processes, as well as how they can do this on a large scale so that more people in the food and beverage industry can benefit from this new era of robotics automation.
Usage in the Food Packaging industry:
The food packaging industry could benefit from robots. After food is processed, it must be packaged. Once the food has been processed, the robots can identify different items and pack them properly according to their characteristics. In the past, it was difficult to add different items to a pack; robots would solve this problem by programming the machine to recognize shapes and pack them accordingly. The food packaging industry would greatly benefit from this advancement.
For instance, a startup based out of Ohio, RobotWorx incorporates industrial robots into different manufacturing processes, including the food industry. Depending on the type of application and requirements, such as payload, work envelope, speed, accuracy, it decides whether vision controls are necessary or not. RobotWorx offers robots that meet cleanroom specifications as well as checks if your process requires a clean environment.
Food robotics still has a long way to go from being able to be applied to all processes in the food supply chain. We are gradually seeing robots become part of all processes and this change will leave a massive impact on the entire ecosystem and will make it more reliable and technology-oriented. A growing number of manufacturers have started using robots for all food supply chain processes. Several startups are entering this segment and leveraging their opportunities as this relatively newer segment unfolds.
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