*Department of Mechanical Engineering, Government College of Engineering, Salem, Tamil Nadu, India
**Department of Mechanical Engineering, A.V.S. Engineering College, Salem, Tamil Nadu, India
Online published on 1 June, 2016.
Natural food products are recurrently variable in shape and easily bruised, making them difficult to handle for a robot. The handling of food products shows many critical aspects mainly due to their shapes, sizes and their delicate surfaces. This paper reviews the need for grippers suitable for handling food products in the automation of food industry. The properties and handling difficulties of food products are reviewed. The way of automation and robotics in the food industries are briefly discussed. Finally working principles of non-contact grippers and applications of the grippers used with actual food products are discussed.
Noncontact gripper, Food automation, Robotic grippers, Non rigid food, Suction cup
