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The food and beverage industry revolves around food safety, regulations and higher throughput. Food producers are adopting cobot and robot technology and finding applications in the plant: product handling, case packing and palletizing. Industry adoption keeps growing, so what's been driving this growth?

According to the Association for Advancing Automation (A3), North American companies ordered 31,311 robots in 2024, representing growth of 0.5% units compared to 2023. The sentiment is different in the food and consumer goods market, with 65% year-over-year growth and 77% growth in the fourth quarter of 2024.

Cobot and robot applications and overall automation investments in food plants have been vital to stemming ubiquitous workforce retention issues, overcoming limited space in food plants and increasing throughput. That's why the next five years will see more innovation and expansion with cobot and robot applications, including delta pick-and-place product stations, mobile work cells and even autonomous mobile robot (AMR) technology at larger plants.

Uncertain Business Conditions and Technology Roadmaps

The beginning of 2025 has been topsy-turvy for business. However, the robust trend of food companies eliminating plants, reorganizing and investing in automation and smart manufacturing plants isn't going away.

In late 2023, Tyson opened a $300 million fully-cooked food production facility in Danville, Va., to accelerate long-term growth. The new plant features high-speed automated case packing lines and high-speed robotic case palletizing units.

"When you talk about palletizing applications or pick-and-place movement of different items in a process, robots are being used at a heavier clip than any other applications," says Alex Shikany, EVP at Association for Advancing Automation at the recent Collaborate 2025 conference in January.

Many robot and cobot technology suppliers point to future-proofing. "A company buys a cobot or robot cell for specific needs and dimensions for now, but the more future-proof a technology can be, the less of a risk the investment will be," says Fredrik Rydén, CEO at Olis Robotics.

For food companies, return on investment (ROI) decisions are evolving. With food packaging and palletizing, cobot and robot technology are getting a closer look due to employee retention challenges, higher throughput outcomes, safety concerns and the increasing number of stock-keeping units (SKUs).

"I've seen some plants implement ROI based on safety," says Chad Dukart, KUKA technology manager at KUKA Robotics. "One company had no problem justifying (a purchase) due to an insert that had to go inside a case since somebody had been hurt. In this example, it was an easy ROI justification for management."

"Employee retention is one of the most significant factors driving the adoption of cobots in secondary packaging," adds Chris Savoia, head of ecosystems for Americas at Universal Robots. "The high turnover rates and difficulty recruiting and training staff for repetitive, labor-intensive jobs have forced many companies to reconsider their approach."

"Another challenge at older facilities is floor space," notes Kendra Patton, palletizing sales expert at Robotiq. "The building is not new, and with the company's rapid growth, they are outgrowing it. Cobots offer a smaller footprint to maximize the existing space."

Low/No Code Programming and 'Handling Tea Cakes'

With purchasing decisions coming in many shapes and colors, small and large food producers want remote monitoring capabilities and easier programming. Traditional industrial robot manufacturers are evolving by offering application-specific, no-code software packages, such as pallet building.

"Our software is targeted at common robot applications and removes most of the guesswork necessary to deploy a robot in that type of area," says Chris Caldwell, product manager, material handling at Yaskawa America, Inc. "The software program was initially created to support collaborative robots, but is also compatible with industrial robots, allowing an ease-of-use initiative to benefit all forms of robotic automation."

"Many companies want to go further with robots now, developing more complex applications," adds Rydén, whose company offers video-based monitoring, diagnostics and error recovery of robotic cells. "This creates a greater need for tools to monitor and diagnose robotic cells to prevent downtime."

As industry reporting shows, companies are going further into the plant. Contract packagers and food packers are accelerating product handling applications in the pre-made sandwich and irregularly shaped food segments. For irregularly shaped food, this can entail advanced imaging and flexible grippers to automate product picking while increasing line speeds and removing labor complexities. Recently, a food exporter used Assatec Robotics, a system integrator based in Israel, to pick-and-place sweet potatoes into cases at a 1.2-second cycle time. The project included an Nvidia graphics processing unit (GPU), Soft Robotics' mGrip, a Fanuc M-3i/6S delta robot, cameras and imaging software.

In the product handling area, two CVK5 3D cameras capture the produce arrangement, and the software analyzes the images and decides where to put the next potato in the case. The IP-69-rated application relies on elastomeric plastic grippers with flexible, low-pressure holds via pneumatic controls. The system offloads the potatoes into the cases in 1.2 seconds. "With this gripper, we could handle tea cakes without breaking them; without this solution, the application would not have been possible," says Or Levy, CEO of Assatec.

"Vision technology is also becoming standard, particularly in case packing and palletizing operations, improving accuracy, reducing errors and increasing flexibility when handling mixed products or varying packaging configurations," Savoia adds.

And more robot and cobot innovation is coming as plant managers understand the potential. "We're seeing companies want less rigid and fixed installations and more of a mobile solution," Rydén says. "Whether it's fixing the automation (machine) or automation itself that needs to be mobile and the arm needs to be on wheels."

"One of the areas of specific growth and development has been highly flexible, portable and modular cells that can be redeployed from production line to production line based upon need," Caldwell adds. "This allows for a high degree of precision and consistency, reducing waste and improving operational performance." Moreover, Caldwell notes, "larger food facilities have been deploying small and modular collaborative systems to provide 'surge' capacity for seasonality or highly variable production."

In addition to the flexibility, remote monitoring and servicing are maturing. "Bigger companies want to have every bell and whistle," Dukart says. "They want to track all their robots and assets and move more towards Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) in the factory."

Currently, secondary packaging is heavily integrated in plants and connected to production planning systems as companies search for increased product visibility and production volumes. "Ranging from robotic case erectors to packing cells, robotic case packers frequently tie into upstream processing systems to ensure centralized production control," Caldwell says. Plus, more food producers are customizing products to specific customers and including point-of-purchase displays with products arranged in a visually appealing manner.

"Our customers are requesting remote monitoring to ensure uptime," Patton says. "There are typically one or two experts in the facility for a given machine, and they may not always be accessible."

"We're getting outreach from end users on remote monitoring with multiple plants, and their robotics team might be centralized, so they're looking for a way to manage that without having to be on the road 24/7," Rydén adds.

As can be seen, food companies are finding success with robot and cobot technologies and also finding emerging options. One option could be AI-based programming tools for robots and cobots, to help kickstart system integration. "AI could be more like a tool when it comes to programming," Dukart says. "For example, if I had to repeat ‘until’ or ‘if/then’ statement, the AI tool could insert an ‘if’ and ‘if loop’ to accelerate coding.”

With macro industry tailwinds, food companies seem focused on finding new ways to add automation via cobots and robots. The only impediment appears to be the number of hours in the day.