A novel automated system for the grape processing sector to reduce waste by 50% and provide economic benefits for users of up to £19 million per annum

在分拣和包装过程中，可以发现葡萄串存在各种缺陷；特别是葡萄孢子炎(坏死菌)、裂开、枯萎/损坏的水果、霉菌和蚯蚓，这些都会导致水果加速腐烂和货架期缩短--47%的葡萄双胞胎在当前的生命周期结束时受到腐烂和霉菌的影响。这给英国的批发商/零售商和家庭造成了每年3900万GB的经济损失和约12,900吨葡萄的浪费(AM Fresh&Ware数据)。通常情况下，当水果在包装过程中沿着传送带运输时，工人被雇来人工寻找和去除这些缺陷。然而，由于旅行禁令和对安全工作环境的需要，新冠肺炎的影响导致可用的工人数量大大减少。这种情况不太可能得到改善，这不仅是因为对进一步新冠肺炎浪潮的担忧挥之不去，也是因为英国退欧。由于欧洲工人占劳动力的很大比例，整个食品生产行业可能会受到影响。我们的解决方案是开发一个葡萄加工的自动化原型系统，该系统将在包装过程中识别有缺陷的水果和修剪--减少工人人数减少的影响，提高生产率和盈利能力。据设想，该解决方案的一些好处将是：*减少供应链浪费**-系统用户可以从增加的收入中受益，因为该技术可以延长保质期并减少葡萄损失。将保质期从5天延长到7天(通过去除有缺陷/损坏/患病的水果)将减少从包装到销售的50%的浪费。这将导致每年累计增加高达1900万GB的收入。*质量保证**--在葡萄双关语中出现腐烂的水果、蜘蛛和蛛网等，对消费者来说是高度情绪化的，并可能导致农产品行业的销售和公共关系方面的相当大的成本。因此，通过采用这种创新的自动化方法提供质量保证，可以改善公共关系和消费者信心；这可能会导致销售增加。**工人人数减少的影响**--由于旅行禁令，Covid对生鲜农产品部门的影响很大，因为大约90%的工人来自欧洲国家。随着英国退欧的临近，这种情况不太可能得到改善。通过自动化质量控制流程，我们的技术减少了Covid对行业造成的影响，并预测了英国退欧带来的未来影响。

During the sorting & packing process, grape bunches can be found to possess a variety of defects; particularly botrytis (necrotrophic fungus), splits, shrivelled/damaged fruit, moulds and maggots, which can lead to accelerated rotting of fruit and decreased shelf life - 47% of grape punnets are affected by rots and moulds at current 'end of life'. This results in economic losses of £39million per annum and waste of ~12,900tonnes per annum of grape for UK wholesalers/retailers and households (AM Fresh & WRAP data). Typically workers are employed to manually look for and remove these defects, whilst the fruit is travelling along conveyors during the packing process. However the effects of Covid-19 has led to much lower numbers of workers available due to travel bans and the need for safe working environments. This situation is unlikely to improve, due to not only the lingering concerns with further Covid-19 waves, but also Brexit. As European workers make up a large proportion of the workforce, the entire food production sector is likely to suffer. Our solution is to develop an automated prototype system for grape processing that will identify defective fruit and trim during the packing process -- reducing the impacts of lower worker numbers and improving productivity and profitability. It is envisaged that some of the benefits of the solution will be: \***Reduced supply chain waste** - System users could benefit from enhanced revenues as the technology could extend shelf life and reduce grape losses. Extending shelf life from 5 to 7 days (through removing defective/damaged/diseased fruit) would reduce waste by 50% between packing and sale. This would leading to cumulative revenue increases of up to £19million per annum. \***Quality assurance** -- The presence of rotten fruit, spiders and webs etc in grape punnets is highly emotive to consumers and can results in considerable cost in terms of sales and public relations on the produce industry. Providing quality assurance by adopting this innovative automated approach could therefore improve public relations and consumer confidence; which may lead to sales uplifts. **Reduced impact of lower worker numbers** -- The impacts of Covid in the fresh produce sector have been substantial, due to travel bans, as ~90% of workers are from European nations. With Brexit looming, this situation is unlikely to improve. By automating the quality control process, our technology reduce the impacts on the sector imposed by Covid, and anticipated future impacts resulting from Brexit.