Robotics: An emerging technology in dairy and food industry: Review

Abstract

Technological advancement is gradually finding applications in the agricultural and food products, in response to one of the greatest challenges i.e. meeting the need of the growing population. Efforts are being geared up towards the replacement of human operator with automated systems. Presently, the technology is becoming more affordable and intelligent. It may be feasible to automate many of the complex and repetitive tasks that are carried out in the dairy and food industry through robotics. The field of robotics is both interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary as robots are amazingly complex systems comprising of mechanical, electrical and electronics hardware and software. Dairy and food industry has been lagging behind other industrial sectors in implementing robots, as dairy and food products by virtue of their nature differ significantly in consistency and shape. The dairy and food industry is now highly automated, from the raw material production to the processing and manufacture of products. The implementation of automation in the dairy and food sector offers great potential for improved safety, quality and profitability by optimizing process monitoring and control. However, there is a broad range of potential applications for robotics in dairy and food industries are grading of food products, pick and place operations, packaging and palletizing, meat processing, fruit and vegetable, milk and milk product, production and processing