From mechanical weeders to 3D seedling sorters and robotic handling technology, the future of horticultural production increasingly and unavoidably involves machines.
At Fruit Logistica last week, Rick van de Zedde, a senior researcher in Wageningen University’s Food & Biobased Research department, gave an eye-opening account of industry attempts to prove that all manual packhouse labour can eventually be replaced by machines, a goal deemed vital if the EU is to remain competitive against countries where labour costs are much lower and more abundantly available.
The Dutch institution is just one of the bodies taking part in the EU’s PicknPack project, which aims to develop ‘flexible robotic systems for automated adaptive packaging of fresh and processed food products’.
The €14 million project’s specific aims include developing three modules, which will work closely together, to cope with the variability of food products and requirements around cost, hygiene and adaptability. These include a sensing module to assess quality, a vision-controlled robotic handling module, and an adaptive packaging module that can handle multiple types and sizes of packaging.
The big focus at Wageningen at the moment is on vision-guided robotics, with 25 computer vision researchers currently working in the department. One of the most striking developments is the PhenoBot – a robotic system for phenotyping large tomato plants in the greenhouse using a 3D light field camera.
PhenoBot consists of a robotised trolley that can move autonomously over the heating pipes in the greenhouse and has a camera for image recording. It is designed to relieve the major bottleneck in the production process that comes with genotyping.
3D shape and quality analysis is also set to become a much bigger feature in post-harvest systems in future, with van de Zedde showcasing a system that uses laser triangulation to create 3D images that can measure size, colour and defects in bell peppers.
Multi-‘fingered’ grippers might not be brand new, but expect to see many more of them appearing in packhouses, particularly as the technology evolves to be able to handle more sensitive products. One of the examples cited by van de Zedde featured the robotic decoring of lettuce.
Other new developments include a mechanical bulk sorter for carrots, a hyperspectral Near Infra Red (NIR) camera for defect detection, and a machine vision robot for advanced inspection for seedlings (the ‘Marvin’ project).
One of the key questions around robotics is always about price, but van de Zedde insists that the technology is now in the realm of affordability. “The price of the hardware is decreasing”, he points out. “It now has a much quicker return on investment.”
R&D
Researchers are close to unveiling a device that will transform the checkout experience in supermarkets.
The EasyFlow automated checkout aims to eliminate the use of barcodes in store, with the fully-automated machine capable of recognising 30,000 different products through the use of multiple sensors using computer vision, NIR technology, weight and statistics.
The technology is said to be “continuously learning” and has a 99 per cent hit rate – better than a human cashier.
The machine has been developed by manufacturer ITAB and features the company’s MatchX identification technology.
Opinion: Chris Sumner
“To meet the tight deadlines required by supermarkets and retailers, it’s critical that a fast, high-production through-rate is achieved,” says Chris Sumner, MD of Fanuc UK. “For the fresh produce sector in particular, this raises issues of quality and the need to minimise damage throughout the production process. There can be fairly hefty penalties if damaged produce hits retail shelves and the producers will be held responsible. Groceries Code Adjudicator, Christine Tacon, recently revealed how one chain fines suppliers £85 every time it receives a customer complaint relating to the product.
“Automating a line is the ideal solution but traditionally price has been the biggest hurdle to overcome. However, investing in automation means increased efficiency and reduced overheads – such as agency workers or labour. In recent years, robotic systems have become far more affordable than you may realize.
“It’s important that each product is looked at individually, without applying a broad brush solution to automating a production line.
“Efficiency isn’t merely a question of speed, it’s about selecting the right robot to suit a specific project. Robots have never been so economical and by removing the possibility of human error, the risk of damaged produce is minimised. For the fresh produce sector, this is vital when supplying goods on ever tightening deadlines.”
Optical sorting of lettuce
Product sorting specialist Tomra has introduced a cost-effective pre-sorting machine for the baby leaf lettuce and spinach industry.
The new Falcon sorter is said to offer fast and efficient detection and removal of gross defects at the earliest stage immediately after harvesting, enabling sorters and other equipment further down the line to operate at higher efficiency rates in order to deliver a final product of high quality.
The machine uses high-resolution cameras and LED lighting to detect even the slightest differences in the produce’s structure or chlorophyll level. It can spot a wide range of contaminants including droppings, rodents, bugs, plastic, wood, soil clumps and stones, creating a much more uniform product for further processing.
Case study: Proseal
A Proseal-designed solution, incorporating the company’s GT3 tray sealer, is operating at 180 packs per minute for the high-speed sealing of large imported strawberry and raspberry punnets at Berry Gardens.
To ensure quality and freshness are maintained and to give the berries the longest possible shelf life in-store, especially for imported fruit, fast packing speeds are vital. In particular, imported punnets tend to be wider and shallower than normal in order to help preserve the quality of the fruit and this brings further challenges in achieving high speeds during the sealing process. Proseal has devised and installed a bespoke feed system for the GT3 in order to maximise speed and reliability throughout the 18 hours per day that the line operates.
The sealing process includes, among other features, a checkweigher over which filled punnets are fed, with any under or over weight packs then diverted to be adjusted as required. Accurate weight punnets are moved to the GT3 via a special conveyor that provides maximum flexibility in the feeding of the punnets into the tray sealer.
The GT3 features a unique three axis servo drive tray transfer system that maximises tray throughput by automatically adjusting for different tray heights.
