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From Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine - Fall 2001 |
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Robotic fingers grasp food packages and place them in shipping containers,
grapefruit whiz by high-speed inspection cameras and an automated visual inspection
system examines chicken parts for traces of bone missed during deboning.
Tech researchers bring innovation to the food industry. |
It isn't the production floor of a major food processor, but the research lab of
the Food Processing Technology Division at Georgia Tech.
This is where Tech scientists and researchers work daily to develop and test technology
to advance the operating capabilities of the food processing industry through two
programs, the Agricultural Technology Research Program (ATRP) and Georgia's Traditional
Industries Program for Food Processing, which is managed through the Food Processing
Advisory Council (FoodPAC).
"The food processing industry relies heavily on third-party equipment manufacturers
to develop and introduce new processing technologies. This tack reduces industry
risk, but also limits innovation," says Craig Wyvill, director of the Food Processing
Technology Division, part of GTRI.
Founded in 1973, Tech's ATRP is one of the oldest and largest agricultural technology
research and development programs in the nation. Its poultry industry focus is directed
at innovations ranging from biosensors to test poultry for salmonella and other harmful
bacteria to a portable computer system for screening the risk of worker injury on
the job.
ATRP is also developing information technology systems for the food industry. Voice-operated
wearable computers have been used in Claxton Poultry's processing plant in Claxton,
Ga. The system is used to record data gathered during processing, says Jennifer Stavriotis,
hazard analysis critical control point coordinator at the plant.
"The computer data creates less paperwork and allows the plant to be monitored
via the computer. The system is fairly easy to use and it ties in directly to the
other monitoring we are required to do," Stavriotis says.
Work on wearable computers began at ATRP around 1994.
Test runs using the wearable computers have also been done at Cagle/Keystone Foods
in Camilla, Ga.
Bill Leverett, vice president of manufacturing for agricultural equipment maker Durand-Wayland
Inc., says his company contacted Tech about three years ago after citrus producers
requested a machine to automate the fruit inspection process.
"They needed a better way to do the defect sorting. In the fruit industry, there
is a shortage of labor and the grading of fruit is the most labor-intensive part
of the business. Because they are doing it manually now, another problem is getting
everyone to do the same thing the same way," Leverett says. "When you have
25 to 30 people doing the job and you tell them what you want, you still can't get
any two of them to agree on the same fruit having the same defects. Consistency is
a big problem and we thought that is this was something we could automate, it would
solve that problem."
The first-generation prototype developed through FoodPAC is a high-speed, camera-imaging
system that could inspect 600 grapefruit per minute on a one-by-one basis using low-cost
Universal Serial Bus cameras that photograph the fruit in four quadrants from the
top and bottom for a three-dimensional scan. "Achieving these speeds has been
a real challenge for our team," says GTRI research engineer and project director
Wayne Daley. "But the end result has been a unique and potentially groundbreaking
system."
Researchers are developing a prototype that could be ready for field testing within
a year, Leverett says.
To help house its expanding range of research activities, a new, 45,000-square-foot
food research center is planned for the North Avenue Area in 2002. It will help bring
all of the depart-ment's far-flung units together. ATRP and FoodPAC scientists and
researchers now are working in labs and offices spread throughout campus. "We
are building an interdisciplinary research center that will allow GTRI and academic
faculty to work together with synergy under one roof," Wyvill says.
The facility will include office space and laboratories for automation technology,
information technology, human factors, food safety, environmental and bio-processing.
In addition, the facility will contain electronic interactive exhibits in the lobby
and will house a 50-seat auditorium and a conference room for industry seminars,
symposiums, workshops and meetings.
©2001 Georgia Tech Alumni Association |
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