Robotic Automation and the Future of Fish and Seafood Retailers
Overview
Automating processes in the fish and seafood retail industry using robotics can bring about significant changes and benefits. These include bolstering operational efficiency, minimizing human involvement in risky tasks, and potentially increasing turnover.
Automation and Operational Efficiency
The implementation of robotics and automation is expected to open new avenues in the fish and seafood retail industry. A report from Mckinsey & Company projects that by 2025, robots will have taken over 50% of food preparation tasks, given their ability to carry out repetitive tasks more efficiently than humans. Automating seemingly mundane tasks such as cleaning, filleting, and packing of fish can potentially lead to 60% increase in speed while also reducing the error rate.
Robotics in Unsafe Environments
Automation can significantly decrease human involvement in high-risk activities in the seafood industry such as deep-sea fishing, thus minimizing injury and fatality rates. A study by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) shows that the seafood industry has an occupational fatality rate that is 35 times higher than the average for all US workers. Robotic systems can be beneficial in executing such risky operations, providing safer working conditions and ultimately reducing the fatality rates by up to 20%.
Increased Profitability through Automation
Increasing operational efficiency and safety of workers equates to reduced costs for fish and seafood retailers. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations projects that automating processes can increase net profits by nearly 30 to 40 percent. Moreover, with a higher processing speed, businesses can quickly meet the increasing demands, thereby increasing their turnovers by an estimated 15%.
Key Takeaways
- Robot automation could lead to 50% of food preparation tasks being automated by 2025.
- Automating mundane tasks can increase speed by 60% and reduce error rates.
- Use of robotics could possibly reduce fatality rates in the seafood industry by 20%.
- Automation can increase net profits by 30 to 40 percent and turnovers by an estimated 15%.
Introducing 3Laws Robotics
3Laws Robotics specializes in developing innovative software to optimize safety and operational efficiency for robotic systems. Designed to address significant issues such as certification, the company’s software, 3Laws Supervisor, provides robust safety features and evidence of system reliability, potentially simplifying the process of attaining certification.
The software, built on Control Barrier Functions, a technology developed at Caltech, guarantees mathematically provable safety. This technology has several versatile applications ranging from warehouse automation — where it has helped to improve efficiency by 40% — to safe human-robot interaction, and effective navigation in dynamic environments. Notably, this acclaimed system significantly reduces downtime and facilitates safe and efficient operation of robots even in close proximity to humans, thereby improving overall operational performance.
Moreover, 3Laws' software is highly flexible and compatible with a vast array of platforms, such as mobile robots, cars, drones, and manipulators, and can work with popular robotics middleware such as ROS and ROS2. It is the next-generation safety solution which delivers a proactive, dynamic, and predictive approach to safety, and is certified for ISO 3691-4 and ISO 26262 safety standards.