Mother never did it this way

Citation

Loughlin, C. (1999), "Mother never did it this way", Industrial Robot, Vol. 26 No. 4. https://doi.org/10.1108/ir.1999.04926daa.001

Mother never did it this way

Mother never did it this way

The food industry (our theme for this issue) has always been a rather elusive nirvana for the robotics industry. After all there is a lot of it about and most of us spend more on food in a year than we do on cars and house mortgages.

A few years ago the number of robots used in the food industry hardly rated a mention in the statistics, especially if you ruled out those used in simple palletising operations. However times are now changing and most robot manufacturers are giving the food industry serious consideration. The new ABB FlexPicker robot featured in this issue is a good example. Designed specifically for high speed, low cost, pick and place operations it directly addresses the two stumbling blocks that have prevented robot take up in the past. Couple this with robust visual sensing of product position and orientation and you have a system that can be expected to work reliably and provide a return on investment in an industry characterised by low labour rates.

Are we therefore likely to see an explosion in the use of robots within the food industry? I consider that the answer to this question is most probably yes, and I would expect the impact of robots to be as great as it has been in the automotive industry. I would also expect that these new food applications will prove to be much less problematic than many of those on car production lines.

When you build a car the chassis progresses down the line and at each station more and more parts are fixed in place until the end of the line when someone turns on the ignition and drives the car to the parking lot. At each station parts of varying shapes and sizes need to be presented to the robot and the cost of the robot is frequently less than 20 per cent of the total cost of the station. The rest being taken up by parts feeders, guarding and specialist handling systems.

The food industry is quite different. As far as the robot is concerned the main task is to take completed products off the line and place them in packaging. This is a far simpler operation and does not carry with it the great burden of attendant peripherals. There will of course be exceptions but I would expect the average level of system complexity to be much lower than in the automotive industry. This will therefore greatly ease the introduction of robots into the food industry and help reduce the risks associated with any new application.

I see only one significant reason that could prevent a rapid and widespread introduction of robots into the food industry ­ and that is the food industry itself.

The automotive industry is a natural breeding ground for technical innovation. People expect each new model to show significant improvements and developments, and each of these is driven by an advancement in technology, whether this be more efficient engines, better rust proofing, or a compact CD and air conditioning.

By contrast the food industry is locked in tradition. We do not expect an apple pie bought this year to cook faster than last year's or be more streamlined or easier to swallow. What we want is an apple pie that tastes like mother made it. The case for robots will therefore need to be very well made and the hurdles to be overcome will not be technical but psychological.

Clive Loughlin