A Smart and Flexible Automation System for High Value Cake Manufacturing

The context within which this project takes place is that of cake production within the food manufacturing industry. The food
industry generally is worth £96.1bn to the UK economy with Food and Drink Manufacturing providing £26.4bn Gross Value
Added and employing 395,000 people, and specifically the bakery industry GVA is just under £4bn (Food Statistics
Pocketbook, 2012, published by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs). The company within which the
results of this project will be applied, is one of 9,340 food and drink manufacturing sites in the UK. The project involves the partnership of the cake manufacturing company Lightbody, the University of Strathclyde, and the automation company
Quasar.
The aim of the project is to investigate, research, and develop a new smart and flexible material handling automation
system for cakes, icing, and cake decorations. This system will comprise various sensors, software algorithms, and
mechatronic hardware in order to create a more efficient and consistent autonomous production method. A major challenge
within the project will be the creation of a novel handling and manipulation system that will be able to cope with the difficult
attributes of the cake icing and decorative materials. These can be soft, sticky, brittle, and floppy, all of these
characteristics are very difficult for automated manipulator systems to handle.
The initial benefits of this project will be to (a) the cake manufacturing company in that the project will increase its
efficiency, reduce its costs, and increase its profitability, (b) the University in that it will expand its knowledge and expertise
in this field, be able to provide knowledge exchange, and provide employment and experience for two researchers, and (c)
provide the other industrial partner with an opportunity to enhance its experience and knowledge while contributing its
existing expertise to the success of the task.
Further benefits to UK industry in general will result from the knowledge gained from the design of the system to
manipulate the difficult to handle materials. This knowledge should have general applicability not only in the food industry
but also in areas such as clothing manufacture. The developed system will be modular such that elements of the design,
e.g. hardware, software, and sensing, will be useable by a range of companies.

As well as the immediate project beneficiary of the specific UK cake manufacturer there will be a more general impact. The
knowledge gained from the project will be directly applicable to other companies within the UK food and drink
manufacturing sector that have similar or analogous processes. This will improve their economic competiveness through
greater efficiency, improved quality, and reduced costs. The smart, flexible, and modular nature of the physical system will
allow elements of it to be adopted by food manufacturers and other industries with analogous production problems.
In the food manufacturing industry manufacturers are faced with increasing raw material costs coupled with constant
demands from retailers such as supermarkets to minimise the manufacturer's finished product price. The retailers and
consumers of the product will benefit from the processing advantages gained by the manufacturer. This should be reflected
in a more competitive selling price and more consistent product quality.
Third party suppliers of automation and mechatronic equipment will benefit from this as the results of the project find
practical application in other manufacturing sectors.
The impact on the food and drink industry, automation equipment and robotics suppliers, and other industry sectors, will be
maximised by a structured dissemination of the project results. This will involve the use of academic publications, trade
magazines, and the general media. Professional Institutions will be informed and their facilities will be used to facilitate
dissemination. The project results will be used as case study material for undergraduate and postgraduate students. On the
successful conclusion of the project the media will be invited for a demonstration to allow greater public awareness of the
importance of the UK manufacturing industry and in particular the need for research and the use of state of the art
techniques to increase competitiveness in a global market.