Incredipack - robotic packing for delicate produce II

包装新鲜农产品是一个持续的挑战，商业番茄种植者和包装业务一样。卫生是一个主要问题。除了新型冠状病毒带来的新挑战外，人类携带的若干病毒及疾病如未被发现，可能导致产品变质，甚至将疾病传染给消费者。保持包装环境清洁（食品卫生标准）有如此多的人为干预是该行业持续的主要担忧。由于Covid-19和英国退出欧盟，大多数市场的劳动力流动问题日益增加，这导致了不可预测的劳动力供应和增加的包装成本。Xihelm已经获得了IUK的资金来应对这些挑战，并旨在为客户带来新的机器人解决方案。机器人将在其收获系统中重复使用和扩展Xihelm开发的核心技术，该系统使用最先进的3D视觉人工智能技术。这项技术可以让机器人在挑选和包装货物之前学习和“看到”要包装的货物。这是一个令人兴奋的项目，预计将在2年内将机器人运送到英国和欧洲的包装地点。预计这项技术可以进一步发展，以提高其他市场的生产力和食品安全标准，并在人类不适宜的环境中应用。

Packing fresh produce is a continued challenge for commercial tomato growers and packing operations alike.Hygiene is a major concern. In addition to the new challenges brought about by Covid-19 there are several viruses and diseases which are carried by humans which if undetected, can lead to spoiling of product and even disease transmission to consumers. Keeping the packing environments clean (to food hygiene standards) with so much human intervention is an ongoing and major concern for the industry.Due to Covid-19 and the UKs exit from the EU there are increasing labour mobility concerns in most markets, which are leading to unpredictable labour availability and increased packing costs.Xihelm have secured IUK funds to combat these challenges and aim to bring a new robotic solution to enable packing to be automated.The robots will re-use & extend core technology developed by Xihelm in their harvesting systems, which uses state-of-the-art 3D vision Artificial Intelligence technology. This technology allows the robots to learn and "see" the goods to pack, before picking and packing them in containers.It is an exciting project which is expected to deliver robots to packing locations in the UK and Europe in 2 years' time.It is expected the technology can be further developed to improve productivity and food safety standards in other markets and have application in environments which are inhospitable to humans.