3D color vision technology for food picking robots

01 Overview

Based in the Netherlands, SIXPAK is an experienced supplier of food packaging solutions and provides a flexible assembly of ready meals, meal components, salads and convenience food. SHEFF Foodpicker, the newest robot offering by SIXPAK enables faster and more accurate food handling to lower costs. The Zivid One+ 3D camera is used for SHEFF Foodpicker to reliably detect, select, classify, and pick food components in a short time.

02 Challenges 

For any food picking robot, it is imperative to increase the number of correct picks per minute. The operation is not always easy, especially when some items are mixed up with other similar objects. In some cases, robots need to separate the same shape of a food container only by color. E.g., red chili sauce vs. black soya sauce in the same container. It means that manufacturers might need to separate the products before the automated picking operation, which is a time-consuming process.

SHEFF Foodpicker aims to deliver a mobile and compact robot that can be used at any packaging line. It requires a robot vision camera to be versatile and lightweight so that it works in any location with the food picking robot.