Sorting and packaging foods is labour intensive. In the EU project PicknPack researchers will collaborate in finding a solution to automating the quality inspection and packaging on the food. Erik Pekkeriet of Wageningen UR Horticulture will coordinate the project and will collaborate closely with Food & Biobased Research.
Fresh products are sorted for quality in large sorting and distribution centres and then packaged. The advantage of a robot compared to people at a conveyor belt is that the robot can keep up the monotonous labour for 24 hours a day. Besides, the robot can package food at 4 degrees Celsius with little oxygen, which benefits the shelf life of the food. An added benefit is that the estimates of the products by a robot is much more regular than that of the human eye.
Fresh products are sorted for quality in large sorting and distribution centres and then packaged. The advantage of a robot compared to people at a conveyor belt is that the robot can keep up the monotonous labour for 24 hours a day. Besides, the robot can package food at 4 degrees Celsius with little oxygen, which benefits the shelf life of the food. An added benefit is that the estimates of the products by a robot is much more regular than that of the human eye.
Other participants in the project are: Teknologisk Institut (Denmark), Fundacion Tecnalia Research & Innovation (Spain), Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (Belgium), The University of Manchester (England), Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft zur Förderung der Angewandten Forschung E.V (Germany), Lacquey Bv Lacq (The Netherlands), Instituto Tecnologico del Embalaje, Transporte Y Logistica Itene (Spain), Spectroscan Sarl (France), Marel Hf (Iceland), Fundacion Azti/Azti Fundazioa (Spain), Cam-Tech As (Denmark), Xaarjet Ab Xaar (Sweden), Marks and Spencer (England).