Robotic Engineering: A Tool for Quality and Safety of Foods

Abstract

Robots as quality and safety tools in food processing are basically reprogrammable devices intended for manipulating or moving parts, tools, or itemized industrial kits via adaptable-programed signals for performing commanded engineering tasks. Advances in food-robots since last few decades have open up numerous avenues for automation and process control in the food industry, which includes unit operations, such as sorting, chilling, freezing, packaging, labeling, serving, palletization, de-palletization, etc. The challenges in the widespread solicitation of food-robots are initial cost, need of sophisticated intelligent sensing elements to deal with varied size, shape, weight, and appearance of food materials, well-programmed end effecter to handle delicate food materials with safe lifting without zipping. The striking features in advances of food-robots could be no fatiguing, ease to work in tough and extreme physical situations (such as vacuum, life-threatening heat/cold/chemicals) and no emotional constraints (bored or drained by replicative work). The present chapter reviews the up-to-date interventions in food-robot as a tool for the quality and safety of foods.