Food industry automation as imperative of the times

The Russian Association of Robotics (RAR), working together with EXPOCENTRE, has held a Workshop on Robots in the Food Industry during Agroprodmash 2021.

The debate format proposed by Alisa Konyukhovskaya, seminar moderator and chair at the RAR Board, had a positive effect. 

Mikhail Prokopyev, sales director of Yaskawa Europe Holding AB, told the audience about the latest components and software for group packing, palletizing and de-palletizing projects.

New models of highly effective food industry robots were presented by Andrey Danilov, business development head of FANUC Russia. The speech of Alexey Korablyov, executive director of the Creonomics Cluster, addressed innovative offline programming of robots and control of automated food industry production. Meanwhile, Alexey Yershov, food industry division head of ABB Robotics, told the audience about robot-based processing in the food industry. Reports of other speakers also evoked keen interest of the professional audience.

It was noted at the seminar that major agro-industrial holdings seek to create effective technological complexes that allow shifting from strictly mechanical operations to more precise food processing, the speakers said. The automation of agro-industrial enterprises has lately grown by over 15%.

Robots are working at farms and food enterprises, loading products on palettes and in refrigerators, and packing and moving cargo. Robots are intensively used during the initial processing of food raw materials and the secondary processing of foods.

Experts from RAR-affiliated companies believe that robots significantly raise the efficiency of business processes at food industry enterprises, reduce the labor intensity of personnel, and create conditions for stricter quality control and better workforce management. 

What do you need to know to start implementing robotic solutions in a food enterprise? Can Russia gain a competitive edge on the global market by using robots in the food industry? What are the impediments to automation and how to avoid them? These and many other subjects were raised by experts at the seminar.