Application of Robotics In Food Processing: The future of automation.

Robotics is the science of study and design of robots to carry out the different tasks or operations assigned to it by human beings. ISO defines a robot as "an automatically controlled, re-programmable, multipurpose manipulator, programmable in three or more axes". The robots carry out three main functions - they 'sense' environmental stimuli and 'think' in terms of preset algorithms for planning and then, on the basis of these algorithms which define the reactions and overall behavior, they 'act'. Robots may be classified by their manipulative degrees of freedom, their mobility and by mechanical structure as articulated robots, SCARA robots, linear or Cartesian or gantry, cylindrical and parallel robots. In food processing sector, the use of robotics has great scope through accomplishing various tasks like picking, placing, packaging, repackaging and palletizing operations in the industries. The robots use in various food manufacturing operations have resulted in reduction of the production cost and improved the quality, flexibility and consistency of the product.