Chef Robotics has introduced a deposit assist capability for its food assembly robots, adding a hardware attachment designed to improve the placement of scoopable ingredients into small compartments and inserts on meal trays. The capability is intended for ingredients that can be difficult to place accurately in narrow tray areas, including finer or stickier items such as shredded cheese. According to the company, these ingredients can cling to utensils after picking, increasing the risk of spillage into adjacent compartments. Such spillage can create quality issues and interfere with sealing in products including fresh ready-to-eat salads and multi-compartment ready-to-heat meals.
The deposit assist system uses a funnel attached to the base of one or more utensils. When the utensils open to deposit an ingredient, the funnel guides the ingredient toward the center of the target compartment. Chef Robotics said the attachment can be customized for different compartment sizes, utensil sizes, tray formats and stock-keeping units.
The system also includes a shaking motion after ingredient pickup and before deposit. The robot shakes the utensil over the pan to remove leftover ingredient material stuck between utensils before moving to the deposit location. Chef Robotics said it has developed a food-safe, NSF-certified air cylinder actuator that mounts to the utensil and connects to the robot’s existing pneumatic system, with manipulation parameters that can be adjusted by ingredient.
The deposit assist attachment works with Chef’s existing end effector and does not require changes to production line infrastructure, according to the company. The capability is available in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom and is included in Chef Robotics’ robotics-as-a-service pricing model.
