Posted to News on 16th Jan 2026, 09:30
Automation and robotics in food manufacturing
At Food Manufacturing Live, Jake Norman, managing director at OAL, discusses applications for robotics in food factories to automate the likes of pick and place operations, palletising, case packing and other areas.
He highlights the picking of fresh fruit, with a particular demonstration on the stand showing a robot picking up oranges. "We work with a lot of fresh produce, and one of the challenges is that it's organic - different shapes and forms the whole time," he says.
The technology combines 3D vision technology with AI to adapt and react to those changing forms. "We've got some clever deep learning that can decide if it's an orange we do want to pick or don't want to pick," he adds.
OAL helps food manufacturers on their automation journey with cutting-edge solutions including autocoding, label verification and bespoke robotic systems. OAL's strong experience in the food industry has helped it to spot trends and stay ahead of the curve, with automation technology that can radically improve productivity, food safety and traceability in food processing.
OAL's desire to transform the food manufacturing industry is supported by forward-thinking companies across the globe and the UK government, which has funded projects valued at 4.5 million.
