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How food & beverage innovators are enhancing quality, efficiency, and customer experience
Robotics has long been used in the food industry for tasks such as cutting, dispensing, and packaging at large-scale bulk processing facilities. However, with recent advances in modern software platforms and AI technology, innovators in the food and beverage (F&B) industry are now enhancing their efficiency in both large-scale production and small-scale facilities through automation and streamlined operations.
Many of these advancements come through quality assurance (QA) at various stages of the food production process, using AI in the physical world.
Reducing inefficiencies at scale
Traditionally, people have been good at complex vision and reasoning tasks, while machines excel at repetitive, manual tasks. Therefore, even at facilities that have automated much of their food production, people are often still needed to ensure that the end product meets the required standards.
This can lead to unnecessary costs and customer complaints, as hiring someone to check every food item produced is often too expensive.
As an example, let’s consider a factory that bakes tens of thousands of cookies each day. If a human is checking the output once every half an hour, any issues that arise in-between checks can lead to a large number of irregular cookies that are packaged and sold, leading to customer complaints and loss of brand trust.
Leveraging AI for QA in food processing
A modern software platform like Viam can be leveraged to provide real-time QA:
- Sensors, such as thermal cameras, depth cameras, and time-of-flight sensors, are plug-and-play with Viam, collecting real-time data stored securely in the Viam cloud.
- Train custom machine learning (ML) models in the Viam platform leveraging the collected data, then deploy to edge devices to detect anomalies in the production line.
- Configure event management to perform custom tasks when anomalies are detected—such as integrating with production machines to temporarily stop production, sounding an alarm, or sending SMS text messages to the on-duty QA person.
Real-time computer vision (CV) can now be more quickly and inexpensively deployed and updated to meet custom requirements, aiding your QA staff to spot anomalies as they occur.
Modernizing the customer experience
AI and CV can also be deployed closer to point-of-sale to improve the quality of a product, reduce the cost of errors, and ultimately elevate the customer experience. Using the Viam platform, businesses can implement valuable checks for portion accuracy, ingredient control, and freshness assurance.
CV for consistent portion and ingredient control
Many restaurants rely on precise ingredient measurements for each portion, and robotics can now be used to dispense them, guaranteeing even measurement. The Viam platform is being leveraged to manage CV models that verify ingredients are loaded in the required order, leading to great efficiencies over time and ensuring customers consistently receive the meal they expect.
CV is being applied in diverse ways across the industry: for instance to ensure that ingredients are evenly distributed on a pizza or that their quantities are consistent.
CV for freshness and quality
At open kiosks, ML models can ensure that food dishes are rotated out in a timely manner, keeping dishes visually appealing, fresh, and safe for consumption.
Conversely, in fast-paced environments where kiosks can become empty quickly, data from existing cameras can be fed into ML workflows, creating instant alerts when items need to be replenished to promote rapid turnover and as a result, increased customer satisfaction.
Use AI to improve your production
AI and modern software platforms are revolutionizing the F&B industry by enhancing efficiency, consistency, and customer satisfaction. From streamlining production lines to ensuring ingredient accuracy at point-of-sale, solutions like Viam are reducing waste and improving quality at every stage. As these innovations become more widespread, the industry is set to deliver a new standard of reliable, high-quality experiences for customers.
How will you use AI to improve your production? Learn more about Viam and get started today.
