The 3D Robotic Revolution

Cost control is nothing new, but when competitiveness in today’s globally connected and credit-compromised world rests on the thinnest of margins, meeting that challenge becomes much more difficult, and packaging is in the spotlight.

As firms re-evaluate their current levels of automation and examine their existing solutions in the wake of recent developments in packing technology, the combination of state-of-the-art 3D modelling with advances in robotics has much to offer. “When you’ve got the likes of Toshiba Machines talking about a ‘robotic revolution’ in food packaging, then you know something big is going on,” explains automation systems consultant Jako Meilner. “These days it’s all driven by flexibility and precision, and that’s what robots do best.”

A developing market

The trend is clear. In 2009, for the first time ever, more robots were bought by food and drink companies in the UK than by any other sector – one in five of all of the country’s sales, according to British Automation and Robotics Association figures.

The UK market may be one of the fastest growing, but this is because it is largely underexploited. Britain’s ratio of robots to human employees is around half the average of continental Europe;
elsewhere, it seems, progress is more advanced.

Nevertheless, as Rolf Peters, MD of Bremen-based K-Robotix and one of the pioneers of robotics in Germany, has commented: “the food industry is still a new market for robots, and it’s by no means an easy one.” While the potential to speed up lines, improve production efficiency and cut the need for direct labour means that robotics offers the promise of reduced costs, the nature of the industry poses its own set of challenges.

It is not simply that equipment suppliers need to accommodate everything from sausages to cheese slices, though that, as Peters has highlighted, can be a major obstacle in itself. Contemporary packaging lines are changing, and nowhere is this more apparent than at the end of the line, where the industry has historically tended to install most of its robots. Quick and seamless changeover is the order of the day and, as throughput cedes ground to optimum utilisation as a measure of
efficacy, system integration becomes paramount.

“My job’s changing,” says Meilner. “It’s becoming more about flexible solutions, not highly specific approaches, and devising and integrating systems that’ll meet current needs and have a good slice of future-proofing built-in.”

Virtual physics

The latest generation of industrial modelling software are, quite literally, changing the way equipment manufacturers, industrial engineers, system integrators and food manufacturers view automation layouts.

Arguably the world-leader in the field, Demo3D produces simulations that may look like simple animation, but beneath the slick graphics lies the first program suite of its kind to embrace the physics necessary to model dynamic behaviour with accuracy. Gaming technology has undeniably inspired the algorithms behind the realism and the inclusion of factors such as gravity and friction have significantly improved the design process.

While traditional models have been able to address issues of machine speed and product movements, the demands of customisable performance, flexibility and optimised utilisation mean that the focus increasingly falls on system interconnections. 3D modelling now needs to show how component configuration can affect system integration with unprecedented accuracy, and that demands real-world physics. The end result is the capability to produce working virtual layouts that allow flow ideas to be understood, developed and de-bugged in
ways that have never before been possible.

All along the line

The robot revolution is gradually taking hold all along the line, as robotics moves away from its conventional end-of-line functions in case packing and palletising and begins to make inroads into primary packaging applications.

Cama, for instance, has introduced a vision-guided four-axis delta robot which can tailor its product picking and placement to meet specific multi-pack requirements, while JBT FoodTech has produced a robot that accurately cuts meat for packaging.

Behind both lie sophisticated 3D modelling that enables not only dimensional coordinates to be integrated into the robotic system, but also permits pitch, roll and yaw calculations.

Real-world applications such as the new packaging line at the Jelly Belly Candy plant in California testify to the efficacy of such systems. Here, Bosch’s Gemini 3.0 software allows 3D simulations of process improvements without disrupting pick-and-place robot operations, slashing installation and changeover times dramatically.

Combine this with state-of-the-art binary large object vision recognition to reduce calculation time, and the appeal of these technologies becomes increasingly clear.

Software simulations

As a means of delivering greater efficiency within the food and drink sector, robotics is well recognised – at least in principle – but Meilner has noted reluctance among companies to take the plunge. “It’s understandable.” he says. “For some of them they’re not worried about their market share, they’re worried about their survival. It’s hard to think about the investment against that kind of background.”

There may be help at hand, however, and once again it comes in the form of modelling software. Specialist robot integrator Barr & Paatz, for instance, has launched a fixed-price 3D robot work-cell simulation that provides a low-cost, no-risk route to allow manufacturers to see whether robotic solutions are appropriate for them. From little more than a CAD drawing of the product and a description of the proposed process, companies receive a digital video of how the system would perform, helping them decide whether the idea is practical and cost-effective. Similar support is available from the UK’s Centre for Food Robotics and Automation; its sophisticated event simulation service enables manufacturers to investigate how proposed robotic installations would integrate in reality.

With accurate virtual models of this kind, examining the up-stream and down-stream effects of new elements becomes much more straightforward, enabling obstacles, bottle-necks and potential choke-points to be readily identified and costly mistakes avoided. It is hard to imagine that this technology sector will not achieve growing importance over the coming years.

The march of the robots is truly global; China is forecast to install more than 100,000 industrial robots over the next five years and neither India nor Russia are far behind in embracing flexible automation in their drive to cut costs and increase productivity. The revolution is already underway.