Page 17 - Industrial Technology EXTRA 15th March 2021

longer manually. The same applies to the area of solutions, including frequency controllers, servo
labelling and quality control, which can also be drives, feeding solutions, safety blocks and the
handled by automated systems, including vision "brain" of the machine in the control cabinet.
and robotic solutions, so that the food comes into In addition, Omron’s UAS vision system and
contact with employees as little as possible. cameras have been implemented together with
In addition, innovative inspection systems can lighting and customised vision software to perform
often detect unwanted dirt or other tiny particles on several visual inspections during the process. The
products or in containers much more precisely and inspection ensures that the appearance of the fillets
better than employees can with the naked eye. meets the company's highest quality standards, so
These high-performance inspection systems provide that there are no traces of blood and that the skin
support with images in the highest resolution and and fins of the fish consistently meet customer
transfer them at a rapid rate. At the same time, a requirements. Seafood Parlevliet benefits from
single controller can take over various tasks at significant annual savings and up to five times faster
different locations and at different times, which is processes.
not possible for human employees. In conclusion, zero touch strategy strengthens
sustainability, safety and productivity. The current
Biological contamination study by the Fraunhofer Institute for Systems and
Another risk is biological contamination – for Innovations Research ISI “50 trends influencing
example, salmonella, pathogens or toxins. Here, it Europe's food sector by 2035“ concludes that
is important to avoid direct contact with the product artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML)
and instead rely on robotics to do the dirty job. In will significantly influence the food production of the
mass production lines, this can be achieved with future. According to experts, new technologies could
high-speed industrial robots, integrated automation improve the quality and freshness of food and
systems and high-performance inspection systems. reduce waste considerably.
Advanced machine control enables reliable The zero touch approach follows a similar
integrated robot safety and motion verification. thrust, as it is also about smarter and more
In specialised lines, once again cobots equipped sustainable use of important resources, AI and ML
with smart cameras, combining quality control, are also coming into play. On the one hand, such a
code and character reading in a single step, ensure strategy supports employees and teams. At the
that pick-and-place tasks are performed with the same time, the zero touch model can also help to
lowest human intervention possible. The direct optimise products, brand image and ultimately,
connection between camera and machine controller consumer experience.
reduces setup time. AI-based automated and industirial.omron.eu
scalable quality control solutions ensure increased
accuracy and timely detection as errors are no
longer overlooked or over-detected, two common
issues when humans perform these types of tasks.
Let’s look at another real world example:
Omron’s support of fish processing plant Seafood
Parlevliet with modern automation technology. The
automated assembly line comprises various Omron

March 2021 • INDUSTRIAL TECHNOLOGY EXTRA • p17