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 before technology developed for discreet manufacturing could be transferred to food. Those issues are being resolved, and high-speed robotic arms and vision-guided systems are beginning to work alongside and-in many cases-instead of humans in food factories.