Robotics is a growing force in manufacturing, and also at food and beverage trade exhibitions, if this year's Foodpro was any indication. Here are just a couple of examples.
Omron's new fleet
Chris Probst, Omron’s automation technology product manager was on hand at the show to demonstrate the company’s new fleet of LD Series Mobile Robots, which it describes as self-navigating Autonomous Intelligent Vehicles (AIV).
Designed to transform manufacturing and logistics, the robots are more independent than traditional Autonomous Guided Vehicles because they do not rely on fixed-path technology, allowing them to avoid obstacles and map their own environment.
Universal Robots brings cobots
Universal Robots was demonstrating its range of collaborative robots at FoodPro 2017, for those seeking to reduce manual labour in pick and place, palletising, packing and inspection operations.
Andrew Pether, head of the company’s regional technical support, says while many industrial robots require a safety fence to protect staff in the area, collaborative robots do not, which substantially reduces their footprint.Because they are relatively simple to reprogram, he says they can also be redeployed to a different part of the factory if necessary, making them suitable for smaller companies looking for more flexible automated solutions.
JMP Engineering reaches out to growing sectors
JMP Engineering was showing off the versatility of its palletising robot, and how it can use a gripper to palletise crates of poultry of fresh produce.
These sectors present a growing opportunity for the company, according to the company’s GM Paul Vassallo.
