ATRP’s Robotic Prototype Explores Applications in Poultry Further Processing

Georgia Tech’s robotics program remains at the forefront of research and development efforts focused on bringing viable automation alternatives to the poultry industry. Its innovative robotic prototype, the Intelligent Integrated Belt Manipulator (IIBM)/case packer, has already proven successful as a case-packing system. Previous trials at ConAgra Poultry’s Gainesville, Ga., poultry plant confirmed the IIBM’s ability to accurately grasp tray-packed poultry products from a moving conveyor belt and place them in packaging cartons for shipping. Researchers are now focused on using the IIBM for automation tasks in the further processing areas of a poultry slaughter plant.

Top view of the prototype weigh/price/label line.

Wiley Holcombe, project director, explains that current research and development efforts center on integrating the IIBM case-packing system with a commercially available weigh/price/label line to be installed at Gold Kist’s Live Oak, Fla., poultry plant. “The case packer is going to take tray packs off a conveyor after they have been weighed and labeled and pack them in a shipping case,” continues Holcombe.

Nominal throughput of the lines is 35 trays per minute. During the ConAgra field tests, the IIBM packed trays at about 20 trays per minute, while lab trials were at 30 trays per minute. Holcombe says that the team has since estimated the average throughput over a month to be about 45 trays per minute (based on a month of production data). However, the team has measured rates around 60 trays per minute for short periods on small tray sizes.

Still, the team believes the performance of the case packer can be further improved. “The first steps that we took on performance improvement were focused on the IIBM’s gripper,” explains Holcombe. He believes the reason the IIBM was only able to run at 20 trays per minute during the ConAgra trials was because of grasping reliability. To address this challenge, the team has designed and built a centrifuge to test the IIBM’s suction-cup gripper.

“The centrifuge allows us to test the grippers at much higher accelerations than we can generate on the case packer. Based on the results of recent tests, we are confident that we have a revised gripper design that can grasp reliably at higher packing rates,” notes Holcombe.

The team is also conducting tests to establish what the best achievable performance is with the IIBM’s existing hardware. Holcombe says the team is considering hardware changes such as replacing the motors and motor amplifiers to increase case-packing performance.

Centrifuge built to test suction-cup grippers.

For the upcoming Gold Kist trial, the team will install a new weigh/price/label line. Holcombe explains that this will allow the team to run the trial without hurting production throughput.

As for the trial setup, the team will position the case packer adjacent to the weigh/price/label line. Cases will flow down the conveyor to the packing location. Trays flow across a scale conveyor, under a label applicator, and down a second conveyor to the pick location. The tray conveyor surface is two feet above the case conveyor. The case packer picks up the tray with a vacuum gripper, moves horizontally in the direction of the conveyor flow, then moves down into the case and releases the tray. It has an offset motion and a rotation to allow it to pack a variety of packing patterns.

The team plans to install the new weigh/price/label line and case packer in Gold Kist’s plant in June. “We expect to have a month or more of operational experience by the end of the year,” says Holcombe. “After the prototype has been running in the plant for several months, we will hold a performance review at the plant. At that time, we will identify problems that need to be corrected on the machine. We will then address those problems and push the product toward commercialization.”

Holcombe says commercialization of the case packer is very promising. A number of manufacturers expressed interest in the prototype during a demonstration at the International Poultry Exposition held this past January in Atlanta. It is also interesting to note that approximately 25 percent of the more than 250 poultry slaughter plants in the United States use some sort of tray packing. And pre-packs represent 16.8 percent of the 27 billion pounds of total poultry production.

“We estimate the total potential case packer sales to be 160 to 170 units in the poultry industry alone. There are also potential applications in the red meat industry for case packing product in vacuum-sealed plastic bags or in styrofoam trays,” comments Holcombe.

In addition to the work on the weigh/price/label line and case packer, the team is working with Elrad Computer & Control Systems, Inc. of Tucker, Ga., to develop an automated system for packing marinated breast fillets into trays.

Elrad develops, manufactures, markets, and services vision-based automation, robotics, and control systems for industrial applications. The company has extensive experience in the field of food processing automation with over 120 successful installations worldwide. The majority of Elrad’s development and marketing efforts are currently focused on the Auto-Pack 100, a unique two-axis “pick and place” system for the handling of food products on a production line. A four-axis system, the Auto-Pack 200 is also available and doubles the capacity to 120

Figure 1 Figure 2

pieces per minute.

Elrad Computer and Control Systems, Inc. Auto-Pack 100.

The smaller-scale Auto-Pack 50 robot being developed as part of this project has a single axis, low profile, and is modular in design, meaning several single-axis units can be combined to form a multiple robot pick and place system. The low-cost Auto-Pack 50 is flexible and can be easily adapted to work with existing manual tray-pack lines.

Elrad’s first-generation system can pick poultry and meat fillets and place them accurately on trays in an “overlap” mode (see Figure 1). The system can load and pack 30 pieces of product per minute from a moving conveyor into a retail tray. Elrad is also working on a second engineering design that enhances the system’s special gripper with a side-by-side tray presentation (see Figure 2). The ultimate goal here is to place the product with folded edges, side-by-side without overlapping.

Holcombe says the team plans to complete the installation and testing of the Elrad prototype by the end of FY 2001.