A Smart and Flexible Automation System for High Value Cake Manufacturing

这个项目发生的背景是食品制造业内的蛋糕生产。食品行业对英国经济的总体价值为961亿GB，其中食品和饮料制造业提供了264亿GB的附加值，雇佣了395,000人，特别是烘焙行业的GVA略低于40亿GB(环境、食品和农村事务部出版，2012年的食品统计袖珍手册)。该项目的成果将应用于该公司，该公司是英国9340个食品和饮料生产基地之一。该项目涉及蛋糕制造公司LightBody、斯特拉斯克莱德大学和自动化公司Quasar的合作伙伴关系。该项目的目标是调查、研究和开发一种用于蛋糕、糖衣和蛋糕装饰的新型智能、灵活的物料搬运自动化系统。该系统将包括各种传感器、软件算法和机电硬件，以创造更高效和一致的自主生产方法。该项目中的一个主要挑战将是创造一种新的处理和操纵系统，该系统将能够应对蛋糕糖衣和装饰材料的困难属性。这些可能是软的、粘性的、易碎的和软软的，所有这些特征对于自动机械手系统来说都是非常困难的。这个项目的最初的好处将是(A)蛋糕制造公司，因为该项目将提高它的效率，降低它的成本，并增加它的盈利能力，(B)它将扩大它在该领域的知识和专业知识，能够提供知识交流，并为两名研究人员提供就业和经验，以及(C)为另一个工业伙伴提供一个机会来增强其经验和知识，同时为任务的成功贡献其现有的专业知识。从操纵难以处理的材料的系统设计中获得的知识将进一步惠及整个英国工业。这种知识不仅应该在食品工业中普遍适用，而且在服装制造等领域也应该普遍适用。开发的系统将是模块化的，这样设计的元素，如硬件、软件和传感，将被一系列公司使用。

The context within which this project takes place is that of cake production within the food manufacturing industry. The foodindustry generally is worth £96.1bn to the UK economy with Food and Drink Manufacturing providing £26.4bn Gross ValueAdded and employing 395,000 people, and specifically the bakery industry GVA is just under £4bn (Food StatisticsPocketbook, 2012, published by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs). The company within which theresults of this project will be applied, is one of 9,340 food and drink manufacturing sites in the UK. The project involves the partnership of the cake manufacturing company Lightbody, the University of Strathclyde, and the automation companyQuasar.The aim of the project is to investigate, research, and develop a new smart and flexible material handling automationsystem for cakes, icing, and cake decorations. This system will comprise various sensors, software algorithms, andmechatronic hardware in order to create a more efficient and consistent autonomous production method. A major challengewithin the project will be the creation of a novel handling and manipulation system that will be able to cope with the difficultattributes of the cake icing and decorative materials. These can be soft, sticky, brittle, and floppy, all of thesecharacteristics are very difficult for automated manipulator systems to handle.The initial benefits of this project will be to (a) the cake manufacturing company in that the project will increase itsefficiency, reduce its costs, and increase its profitability, (b) the University in that it will expand its knowledge and expertisein this field, be able to provide knowledge exchange, and provide employment and experience for two researchers, and (c)provide the other industrial partner with an opportunity to enhance its experience and knowledge while contributing itsexisting expertise to the success of the task.Further benefits to UK industry in general will result from the knowledge gained from the design of the system tomanipulate the difficult to handle materials. This knowledge should have general applicability not only in the food industrybut also in areas such as clothing manufacture. The developed system will be modular such that elements of the design,e.g. hardware, software, and sensing, will be useable by a range of companies.