Robo Packman

Intelligent, flexible robots for food produce packaging

December 2008 – March 2010 (part 1)

The project’s goal is to develop robot technology that can be used in food industry packaging.

Our main target, however, is to improve working conditions and strengthen competitiveness. The use of robots should make it possible to increase both food quality and flexibility.

In this research project we combine long-term robotic developments with operatational orientated research in businesses. During the term of the project, various principal full-scale processes will be tested in the packaging department of a retail butcher, in which the robots ability to evaluate, see and feel, as well as the ability to turn products will be demanding - optimal decisions and future action will be decided based on this background information.

The challenge is, of course, the long term ability to create robots that can handle natural products, and their intrinsic variation and diversity, in the same manner as humans, with the ability of sense (sight, feeling etc.) and translate these impulses into individual solutions and actions. Abilities that are of huge importance in the automation process of foodstuff packaging.

Of specific importance is the all round diversity of the robots capacity to be used in various areas of production through programming and learning processes (as with humans) rather than being built to perform only one specific task.

The above-mentioned demands make this project far more complicated than a normal project robot.

Participants

• Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Fisheries
• Danish Crown
• Danish Meat Association Research Institute
• Robot centre
• Giben Scandinavia
• TriVision
• The Danish Technological Institute

The task involves development, prototypes, initial testing at source and subsequently at a Danish Crown site. Lessons learnt from the development process will be implemented in future development processes.