At UMDIS Mushroom Agency, we are on the look-out for practical products for the mushroom industry. AI, robotics, and automation is making a fast entry into agriculture, and the mushroom industry.
VITEC Robotics is a Spanish company providing robotic and automation solutions for mushroom production and processing companies. One of their products is the System for Sliced Mushrooms designed to automate the packaging of sliced mushrooms into trays. The robots arrange the slices in the top layers to ensure a uniform and presentable appearance.
Video provided by VITEC shows the robot’s ability to neatly place slices into trays.
The System for Sliced Mushrooms integrates several machines which works together to create an efficient production line. These include:
1)A slicing machine for precise and uniform mushroom cuts
2)A weigher and filler to ensure accurate portions.
3)The Robot Delta Placement System, designed to arrange slices neatly in trays.
4)A tray placement robot that completes the packaging process.
One of the most interesting parts is the Robot Delta Placement System. It uses Artificial intelligence(AI) to place mushroom slices in a neat pattern, and it can even be adjusted for other types of packaging tasks. In particular it uses computer vision models.
While manual packaging can still work well, VITEC says their robot system provides some benefits in packaging sliced mushrooms:
- Faster Production: The system can process up to 375 trays per hour, which is hard to match by hand.
- Labor Savings: Some companies using this system have been able to cut their packaging teams in half- “freeing up workers for other jobs.”
- Consistent Quality: AI ensures trays are always neatly arranged, which can reduce waste by up to 20% and ensure a compact and presentable look on the complete product.
According to VITEC Robotics the system have a modular design. Businesses can start with one or two machines, like the slicing machine or the Robot Delta Placement System, and add more as needed.
To see how this system performs in practice we reach out Elias Olmeda from Sanchez Olmeda farm, a member of Champinter.
Champinter is one of Spain’s largest mushroom cooperatives that operates around 20 farms and is a major compost producer in Europe
“VITEC Sliced Mushrooms System has improved their operations. In my company, we do the same number of trays with 50% of the employees. We went from 7-8 workers to just 3-4 when we started using the system,” – Elias Olmeda.
This reduction in packaging workforce not only cut costs and allowed them to redirect labor to other areas of their operations. Additionally, the system ensured consistent tray presentation and reduced mushroom waste.
“Packaging sliced mushrooms is a delicate process and how they look in the tray can make a big difference to customers”-Elias.
Watch VITEC Sliced Mushroom Packaging Robots in action on this Youtube video. Leave us a comment or contact us with your thoughts.
