Mitsubishi Electric’s new collaborative robot, the MELFA ASSISTA, has been developed to work alongside human operators without the need for guards or safety fences, while meeting requirements for adequate distancing of workers in manufacturing sites.
Robotic dairies are on the rise, and GNE Farm Equipment has taken the trend one step further by developing an application that uses Universal Robots’ (UR) collaborative robots (cobots) to further reduce the labor costs of milking cows.
High health care costs, a lack of interest in repetitive manual labour and rising worker wages has led to an explosion of automated machinery, according to Intelligrated.
Greater hygiene, improved consistency of operation and greater productivity are all key advantages to be realised from using robotics in meat processing and packaging, said the German Institute of Food Technologies (DIL).
In the third part of our special edition on robotics in the food industry we explore how robots are becoming a more common sight in the dairy and beverage sectors.
Robot-based product packaging and palletizing remain the areas for quick wins in the confectionery sector but robots, albeit in the leading EU based confectioners, are gradually taking on more tasks a step earlier at the processing stage.
Sales of robots to UK food manufacturers beat those to every other sector in 2009 for the first time, according to British Automation and Robotics Association (BARA) records.
Adept Technology said yesterday it has shipped the first of what it
is calling the world's fastest light payload packaging and handling
robot targeted at the food industry.
A "tasting" robot that can identify foods, drinks and their
ingredients through the packaging provides a glimpse into the
future direction of safety and quality control in manufacturing
plants.
Researchers in the UK have developed a new robotic arm that is
fully mobile, has accuracy that rivals industrial fixed robot arms
and could cost significantly less.
