AN automated guided vehicle is being trialed in an Australia meat processing plant for a range of jobs, ranging from monitoring equipment in dangerous settings to delivering tools and even mustering cattle.
A prototype AGV with legs, affectionately known as Spot the Dog, has been built in a program being run by the sector's research development corporation, the Australian Meat Processor Corporation.
Spot is on the job at The Casino Food Co-op in northern NSW, where technicians describe him as an incredible piece of technology with unprecedented mobility, allowing fully autonomous artificial intelligence-driven missions on plant.
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Draftsperson and project support officer at The Casino Food Co-op Brian Armstrong said while it was early days for AGV technology, it had been used successfully in other industries, including the military and mining - and Amazon uses them to deliver postage around the world.
"We are testing the technology through a number of different applications," Mr Armstrong said.
"Initially, we used Spot to map out certain areas of the plant, in an attempt to see whether it could be useful in dangerous situations, such as walking through the engine room.
"If there was a gas or refrigerant leak, for example, the only other way to do this sort of job is to send in someone with a full hazmat suit and sensors and detectors."
Spot was able to make his way through those areas and collect some of the information required.
"We haven't got absolutely everything in the technology yet for critical tasks but we believe future versions of Spot could do what is required," Mr Armstrong said.
"We even tested him as a delivery device across the plant. He certainly has the potential to do that job with more speed and efficiency than human resources.
"And we attempted to use him as a cattle dog to muster cattle into individual pens.
"The cattle obviously weren't used to him and they walked away from him, which was entirely what we were trying to do, although the economics of this would have to be weighed up as traditional mustering methods."
The operation's quality assurance team has also been looking at whether the AGV could do swab testing on surfaces.
Mr Armstrong said if a plant were to invest in an AGV, it would need to be running full-time and completing a multitude of tasks to be cost-effective.
AMPC program manager Stuart Shaw said AGV technology was progressively being successfully adopted in other industries and AMPC wanted to establish how the technology could be applied to meat processing more extensively than is used now.
"Through on-plant studies, demonstrations and trials, we will work with processors to determine potential uses by evaluating and documenting the performance of AGV technology to perform tasks such as first deployment in emergency incidents electrical thermal sensing, lairage applications, visual inspections, food safety and micro-bio swabbing in processing facility environments," he said.
Group manager sustainability and innovation at The Casino Food Co-Op Trevor Moore said it was a surreal experience watching Spot complete a simple action like opening a door.
"Most of us have never seen a robotic dog, let alone an AI-driven one," he said.
"Many restricted areas exist on plant with limited human entry without protective equipment or entry preparation. Spot could greatly aid our emergency response and inspection times in potentially dangerous situations while data collection is gathered for decisions.
"In the short weeks Spot has been on-site, initial trialing looks promising. I'm very interested to see where Spot takes us, and how we can implement this technology into our business."
- This article will feature in ACM's special Carcase Merit print publication in July.