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Researchers Design Washdown-Ready Robot to Pack Fresh Meat into Trays
Although robot manufacturers have focused for years on penetrating
key areas of food processing plants, high-pressure cleaning requirements
have limited their use in fresh processing areas of meat and poultry
plants. This type of washdown typically involves the daily sanitizing
of processing equipment with high-pressure water and highly corrosive
cleaning agents. With funding from Georgia’s Traditional Industries
Program for Food Processing, Georgia Tech researchers have embarked
on an R&D initiative to build a robot that can not only withstand
high-pressure washdown but also deliver the speeds and performance
needed to meet current processing throughput requirements.
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Jonathan Holmes, research engineer and project director, is
spearheading the effort to build a robot that can not only withstand
high-pressure washdown but also deliver the speeds and performance
needed to meet current processing throughput requirements.
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“Our research is focused on an area of food processing that
has yet to benefit from robotic technology, namely the handling of
fresh meat and poultry product, particularly their placement into trays,” explains
Jonathan Holmes, research engineer and project director.
The placement of fresh meat and poultry into trays is a very labor-intensive
operation, notes Holmes. It is a unique task that requires considerable
dexterity and agility of the worker to not only correctly grasp the
product but also place it in the tray in an aesthetically pleasing
manner. In addition, the worker provides one last visual inspection
for defects, making this seemingly simple task a complicated one for
an automation device.
“The worker is usually required to work with several pieces
of fresh product that must be combined together to present the proper
appearance, and all sides of the product must be within the limits
of the tray itself. Depending on the volume of product handled and
the exact specifications of each plant, it is not uncommon to have
in excess of six people per line devoted to this single task, ” says
Holmes.
As a result, in many plants, this is a bottleneck in production.
Many believe that through the automation of this task, throughputs
could rise and costs drop, thus making companies more profitable.
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The first-generation robotic system includes a base robot capable
of executing the primary motions and an end effector capable
of grasping the raw product.
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However, according to Holmes, fresh product handling tasks have been
difficult to automate. Besides cost, other challenges include a lack
of appropriate end effectors to grasp fresh product and sensors to
identify and grade the product; the task itself is too fast for conventional
robotic devices; traditional robot components do not meet USDA and
FDA regulations; and most robotic systems cannot withstand the harsh
washdown environment.
Researchers tackled the latter challenge first. In order to design
a prototype system, researchers first needed to determine a set of
requirements for operating in a washdown environment. They reviewed
the cleaning procedures of several different processing plants and
determined that a washdown robot’s components should be able
to withstand high-pressure washing up to 600 psi and high temperature
washing up to 140°F. The robot should also be able to handle four
commonly used chemicals: a combination of nitric and phosphoric acid,
quaternary ammonium complex, sodium hydroxide solutions, and general
foaming cleaners.
With these requirements established, the team performed individual
component testing on motors, bearings, coatings, belts, and pneumatic
cylinders. Each test focused on the individual component’s ability
to function while being exposed to high-pressure washing, including
the caustic and acidic cleaning agents previously mentioned.
According to Holmes, the component testing and evaluation were the
most important steps in developing washdown robotics. By working from
the ground up, Georgia Tech researchers developed automation solutions
specifically for meat processing industries. This is an important statement
because the typical approach has been to modify commercially available
robots, which has proven to be costly and ineffective.
Working with its industrial partner CAMotion, Inc., an Atlanta-based
supplier of high-speed automation for the manufacturing and service
sectors, the research team developed a first-generation robotic system
that includes a base robot capable of executing the primary motions
and an end effector capable of grasping the fresh product. A coaxial
belt drive is used for the base robot to maximize cleaning efficiency
while minimizing space requirements. The end effector was designed
to use a unique servo pneumatic system from Enfield Technologies for
rotation and standard pneumatics elsewhere.
While the prototype will initially be tested on fresh pork products
(researchers are collaborating with personnel at Cargill Meat Solutions
in Newnan, Georgia), Holmes says it is important to note that the task
transcends a single industry group in the food industry. “The
task of placing fresh product into trays is a common task found in
the poultry, beef, and pork industries as well as the fruit and vegetable
industries.”
Preliminary tests indicate that the robot is capable of production
speeds of 1.1 products per second or 67 products per minute. Researchers
believe this cycle time can improve to 100 or more products per minute
through the addition of a planned second end effector. Cycle time includes
picking up the product, rotating around 180 degrees, dropping the product
into a tray, and returning to pick up new product again. As part of
this preliminary test, the robot was washed with high-pressure water
to test the operation of bearing surfaces, with results proving the
robot can withstand high-pressure washing.
Researchers are currently continuing tests with more focus on chemical
and high-pressure exposure. In addition, off-line field tests are planned
for the manipulation device. This test robot will incorporate three
major improvements: a vision system capable of determining product
orientation, the inclusion of a pneumatic wrist to give the end effector
more capability, and the ability to work with two conveyors as opposed
to the current static product surface. By adding these capabilities,
a fully integrated field test with the prototype is expected.
Holmes believes the successful completion of this project will potentially
have a huge impact on food processing companies. First, he notes, the
task of placing fresh product into trays could be automated in a cost-effective
manner. Second, the development of the washdown technology could then
be applied to many areas of the plant where robotic technology is being
held back by cleaning demands.
“This opportunity is much larger than the market for tray packing
robots, and it is one that represents an opportunity for revolutionizing
the way in which the entire food processing industry operates,” adds
Holmes.
Photography
by Steven Thomas, GTRI.
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