This sector has been particularly sluggish in incorporating robotics compared to other industries. However, robots have begun to be used at almost every stage of the food supply chain in the past few years, from the farm to the kitchen, as well as in seedling planting, identification and sorting.
Additionally, self-driving tractors are now a reality, along with robots for harvesting and weeding. Robots are also being used in the dairy, poultry and cattle production sectors of agriculture, carrying out applications including milking and feeding, egg gathering and sorting, and cleaning.
According to ReportLinker, the global food robotics market is expected to reach $4bn by 2028, rising at a 10.2% compound annual growth rate.
Food and beverage manufacturers can now keep an eye on products as well as consumer demand, then use artificial intelligence (AI) data analysis to tailor their output to this need.
Better monitoring
Companies can better monitor food quality and safety when they are better equipped to assess crucial processes such as shipping, processing and storage, as well as whether food is contaminated, and where that food was acquired from.
The British Automation and Robot Association has shown that the number of robots bought by food and beverage manufacturers went up by 35% in 2020 compared to 2019 and by a further 21% from 2020 to 2021. This made the sector the second-biggest purchaser of automation technology after the automotive sector in the UK.
One of the key areas in which robotic solutions make a big difference compared to traditional manual methods is that they are able to deliver reduced errors and boosted throughput with minimal waste.
Robots have also started to be trialled in fruit and vegetable picking as well as weeding around crops in fields, assessing crops, and checking for disease and pests.
Successful trial
The world’s first non-chemical weeding robot for cereal crops was successfully trialled in Hampshire by agri-tech start-up the Small Robot Company. The wheeled robot used low-cost, lubrication-free delta robot arms from automation company Igus to position a ‘zapper’ which deployed ‘lightning strikes’ to kill weeds.
The fact that the components used on the delta robotic arms are lubrication-free is important because lubricated moving parts would potentially clog up with soil and water in a muddy field.
Precision is also a strong feature. “The milestone we’ve hit is that we can now take action at the plant level,” said Andy Hall, head of prototyping at the Small Robot Company. “Using artificial intelligence, the robots can recognise the weeds in the camera shot and target the robotic arm onto those weeds.”
The Small Robot Company and Igus are looking to work on further applications, including spot spraying, spot fertilising and slug killing.
Automation and robotics technology has also made indoor vertical farming systems a reality. This innovative food production system is claimed to boost crop yields while increasing efficiency and bolstering sustainability.
Scottish company Intelligent Growth Solutions (IGS) has produced what it calls growth towers that give complete control over environmental elements such as lighting, irrigation, CO2 levels and nutrient delivery. Advanced power management delivers optimised energy use throughout the day and night, ensuring that energy costs are as low as possible. Each tower has its own microclimate, which enables faster, more controlled production, and allows for multiple crops or varieties to be grown.
The ultimate goal, according to IGS, is to reduce reliance on imported crops.
With the continued labour shortage in the UK’s food and beverage manufacturing industry, and the expanding variety of robotic solutions, the future is sure to include increasing numbers of robots.
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