Classification of Robot Applications in the Food and Beverage Industry

At present, robot operations in the food and beverage packaging industry are mainly in the form of workstations. From sorting to packaging, palletizing, and even handling, all tasks are completed by robots, which not only tests the technical layout of automated production lines, but also has high cost pressure. Moreover, some product parts are still difficult to complete with robots. Therefore, how to maximize the efficiency of robots is a topic worthy of long-term exploration.

sorting

Picking operation is carried out by robots for variety picking. If there are many varieties with different shapes, the robot needs to be equipped with an image recognition system and a multifunctional robotic arm. The robot can use the corresponding robotic arm to grab each item tray according to the shape "seen" by the image recognition system, and then place it on the matching tray.

At present, the application of grabbing and sorting robots in the food and beverage industry is gradually increasing, mainly concentrated in the later stage of packaging, such as quickly grabbing and placing small particles of chocolate, candy, or boxed or bagged food and beverages into designated sorting conveyor belts or packaging boxes. This type of robot is not only as agile as human hands, but also has sufficient judgment ability. In the future, in deserted warehouses, robots will transport shelves to packaging stations, accurately identify goods, sort out the required items, pack them, and place them on conveyor belts. Sorting robots have already formed prototypes, and once these intelligent sorting robots are applied in the packaging industry, they will greatly improve the efficiency of warehouse management and compress labor costs. Sorting robots will still need some time to enter the market, and in the short term, packaging picking will inevitably exist in the form of automation and manual assistance.

Currently, sorting robots are mainly parallel robots, also known as spider hands, which are usually four axis or six axis parallel robots.

packaging

In the food and beverage industry, efficiency is generally the top priority for sorting operations, while packaging is equally difficult. Accurately placing scattered items in packaging bags or boxes not only tests the flexibility and accuracy of robots, but also requires robots to have visual and computational functions.

There are generally various forms of product packaging, and the packaging process is relatively complex depending on the shape, material, weight, and cleanliness requirements of the object. At present, there are several types of robots used in the packaging process. Bagging robot: The bagging robot is a fixed rotary machine with a body that can rotate 360 degrees. It is operated by a robotic arm to transport, open, measure, fill, sew, and stack packaging bags. This is a highly intelligent packaging robot. Packing robot: Similar to bagging robots, rigid packaging box robots are generally used to pack metal and glass containers. There are two types of grasping for packaging (items): mechanical and air suction. It can move as a whole. Grab or attach the packaging, and then deliver it to the designated location in the packaging box or pallet. It has directional and position automatic adjustment functions, which can achieve no unloading and directional adjustment without boxes (pallets). This type of robot is a relatively mature robot with a wide range of applications. Such as beverages, beer, etc. Filling robot: This is a robot that fills packaging containers with liquid materials and performs measurement, capping, capping (screwing), and identification. It has functions such as no bottle feeding, no lid feeding, bottle breakage alarm, and automatic removal. In the past, many of our liquid materials were mainly filled using the local function of this robot - the robotic arm installed on the production line. Nowadays, this robot is directly configured at the rear of the material production host to achieve automatic filling. Filling robots can be divided into soft packaging and hard packaging. The analysis here is about the hard packaging (bottling) filling robot. Packaging and conveying robot: This type of robot mainly refers to the robot used for plastic bottle packaging and conveying in the packaging industry. It uses power and special components to transport the bottle body (empty bottle), quickly outputting and arranging the packaging bottles in the bottle barrel, and then giving a specific (direction, size) force. Make the bottle accurately pass through a parabolic path in the air to reach the filling workpiece. This type of robot has changed the traditional bottle conveying mechanism. Accelerate the conveying speed and reduce the conveying space. It is a new concept of packaging robot. It achieves its conveying operation through aerodynamics and special mechanical components.

palletizing

随着技术的进步和市场的需要，近年来，机器人码垛取代传统机械码垛已是发展趋势。并且由于国内企业的努力，国外码垛机器人在我国市场一统天下的局面已经打破。机器人码垛机是一种仿真人操作、自动操作、重复编程、在三维空间完成规定作业的设备,包括抓起和放置系统,能从一个或多个地点抓起一个或多个面袋,然后将它们放置到预先设置好的货盘上。码垛机器人具有很强的操作灵活性,一般位于生产线的后端,用来处理生产线上的物料,替代人工搬运码垛,不仅大大提高生产效率和产量,同时也节省了费用。

码垛机器人主要有直角坐标式机器人、关节式机器人和极坐标式机器人，码垛机器人能适应于纸箱、袋装、罐装、箱体、瓶装等各种形状的包装成品码垛作业。

目前欧、美、日的码垛机器人在码垛市场的占有率超过了90%，绝大数码垛作业由码垛机器人完成。从效率上说，码垛机器人不仅能承担高负重，而且速度和质量远远高于人工。以发那科目前四轴搬运机器人为例，根据负重的不同，分为160Kg、300Kg、450Kg、700Kg等型号。其在直线运动时可达到2500mm/s的最大运动速度；搬运能力最高能达到1500次/小时。从精度上看，每一台码垛机器人都有独立的控制系统，极大地保证了作业精度，且重复精度可达±0.5mm，完全可以满足物流码垛作业的定位要求；从稳定性上讲，目前最先进的码垛机器人已经达到5轴和6轴，通过相应的科学、合理的刚性机械本体设计，使得机器人本体不仅适应高负重、高频率的码垛作业，还能适应食品快餐行业分拣繁琐，灵活性高的作业要求。

搬运

搬运就是将包装好的产品运输到制定位置，通常这个位置离包装地点有一定距离，因此移动搬运机器人成为运输的好帮手。

AGV机器人是一种柔性化和智能化物流搬运机器人，在国外从50年代在仓储业开始使用，目前已经食品饮料企业得到普遍应用，尤其是乳品和饮料行业。通常，搬运作为包装的最后一个环节，主要连接成品和出货的环节，因此，搬运机器人的具有灵活性的特点。对于包装完成后的产品，搬运机器人完成了最后一公里的工作。

餐饮机器人

餐饮机器人作为AGV机器人的衍生与发展，正在开辟着全新的市场。2014年餐饮机器人成为行业发展的亮点，在各大城市屡上新闻报道。目前国内做餐饮机器人的企业约有十余家左右，具有代表性的企业有，上海惊鸿、深圳欧铠、沈阳新松、穿山甲机器人、昊海、中科诺晟、瓦瑞、普华灵动等。目前，餐饮机器人的售价不等，但均价在五万元及以内左右。

除了常见的在酒店或餐馆的送餐机器人，还有一些特殊应用的餐饮机器人，如刀削面机器人、炒菜机器人以及迎宾机器人等。

作为食品饮料行业一个在最终端表现的机器人形式，餐饮机器人近年来毁誉参半，部分机器人在全国各地的餐厅得到良好使用，也在吸引客源方面起到一定作用，但是也有部分机器人因为本身的性能和硬件原因得不到很好利用，甚至出现这样那样的问题，最终北市场淘汰。总体来说，餐饮机器人的未来发展不能仅仅依靠噱头，而是需要提高实实在在的功能和安全等级、智能化水平等，使得餐饮机器人在实际工作中有更多有效应用。

  信息来源：新战略机器人