Anuga FoodTec and Industry 4.0: Smart sensors and virtual reality highlighted as key innovation areas

12 Apr 2022 --- The leading theme of the upcoming Anuga FoodTec (April 26 to 29) trade show is “Smart Solutions – Higher Flexibility”, which focuses on new innovations to systematically optimize F&B production processes. In addition to this range of technological advancements featured at the event, environmentally and climate-friendly aspects of manufacturing also play a starring role.

Against this backdrop, expert forums will address a variety of current themes of the food technology section and link scientific findings with business practice.

“Up until a few years ago, it sufficed for food producers to change their production structure several times a year on a seasonal basis. Today, the demands of the industry’s shop floors have changed significantly,” comments Christine Hackmann, communications manager, at Anuga FoodTec.

“The large number of individual consumer demands makes it necessary to be able to switch over machines, adapt recipes and introduce alternative packaging forms at all times,” she underscores.

“This new form of production control links up sensory real-time data with reliable predictions about the operating states of the machines and combines these with economic considerations.”

Digitalization begins at field-level
As highlighted by one of Innova Market Insights’ Top Ten Trends for 2022, “Tech to Table”, technological advances have created major innovation opportunities for the entire F&B industry, offering greater possibilities to change every aspect of a product’s lifecycle – from conception to consumption. 

In particular, new discoveries in AI, blockchain, machine learning, robotics and the Internet of Things (IoT) are anticipated to raise the bar for digital traceability solutions such as smart labeling and digital tracing at speed.

Robots and automation remain indispensable for the food industry. However, in the “smart food factory” of tomorrow, the machines will communicate with each other autonomously in order to complete their tasks, highlights Hackmann.

“In the scope of their Industry 4.0 strategy, the automation specialists and measurement technology providers are developing concrete solutions here, which can be seamlessly introduced at field level and which immediately offer food producers an additional benefit,” says Hackmann.

“As a first step in the direction of the digital transformation, they are integrating new sensors into the existing machines and configuring them so they can upload data to the Cloud and communicate with smartphones,” she highlights.

“Ideally, the critical process parameters – such as the sugar and nitrogen content – are directly transmitted to the tablet display in real-time via Bluetooth. This allows the efficiency of the line to be determined and also frequently enables potential bottlenecks in the process to be identified, which in turn offers further possibilities for the improvement of the overall equipment effectiveness (OEE).”

Smart sensors with microprocessors
Above all, Hackmann highlights that there is an increased demand for sensors that are capable of more than just transforming a physical measured value between 4 and 20 milliamperes. 

Smart sensors with an integrated microprocessor are called for, which in addition to purely recording measured values also additionally unite the signal preparation and processing tasks, she notes.

“The sensors are no longer merely interesting for the engineers responsible for the production,” she says. “Because as well as the classic tasks such as measuring the temperature, pressure or pH value, they also play a key role in the continual monitoring of the engines and pumps.”

“Sensors that record the position and acceleration parameters as well as oscillations, make what otherwise wouldn't be detected until it was too late visible: the wear and tear of mechanical components.’

In this way, she highlights that the operating staff can access all information at any time, make well-founded servicing decisions – and thus resolve any problems that occur within the process. 

“However, the networked sensors also demand continuous information channels down to the lowest field level regardless of the respective manufacturers. It is important that all machines communicate using standard protocols and joint data sets.”

On the basis of emerging future communication standards – such as Powerlink, Open Safety, OPC Unified Architecture or IO-Link – she notes that many of the companies exhibiting at the Anuga FoodTec fair grounds in Cologne are pushing the development of universal specifications

Assistance systems create more transparency
Industry’s tools and web services are to be enhanced by a further dimension, namely by assistance systems, Hackmann points out.

“This is one theme that will no doubt also take center stage on many forums and lecture stages of Anuga FoodTec 2022, because in spite of widespread criticism, the food production of the future certainly doesn’t want halls without people,” she says.

To this end, the Fraunhofer Institute for Process Engineering and Packaging, IVV, in Dresden, Germany, has developed SAM, a self-learning assistance system that supports the machine operators in the food industry in eliminating faults and developing experience and process knowledge. 

“SAM can learn at the same speed as a person and recognize patterns even after just a few repetitions. It supports the cognitive skills in preparing information, taking decisions and in the execution and control of machines, processes and products,” details Hackmann.

“Through the combination of industrial image recognition and an intelligent database, assistance systems accompany the employees in real-time during the production.”

IT experts are anticipating the largest growth in the implementation of Industry 4.0 technologies in the sections virtual reality and augmented reality – two visualizing processes that are already implemented in many F&B companies today for learning and training purposes. 

“Together with partners from industry and science, SAM is to continue growing in the coming years and its functions are to be enhanced through such modules. Then, different interaction tools, such as wearables, data glasses or eye trackers, can be attached via an interface,” says Hackmann.

“For example, the usage of external sensors as well as voice and gesture identification are perceivable. SAM is to be implemented for both the operation and servicing, assembly and development of machine – all aspects of which are picked up on at Anuga FoodTec in Cologne and which are the focus of the digitalization strategies for the production of food and beverages.”

By Benjamin Ferrer