Avenues for non-conventional robotics technology applications in the food industry

Robots in manufacturing alleviate hazardous environmental conditions, reduce the physical/mental stress of the workers, maintain high precision for repetitive movements, reduce errors, speed up production, and minimize production costs. Although robots have pervaded many industrial sectors and domestic environments, the experiments in the food sectors are limited to pick-and-place operations and meat processing while we are assisting new attention in gastronomy. Given the great performances of the robots, there would be many other intriguing applications to explore which could usher the transition to precision food manufacturing. This review wants open thoughts and opinions on the use of robots in different food operations. First, we reviewed the recent advances in common applications - e.g. novel sensors, end-effectors, and robotic cutting. Then, we analyzed the use of robots in other operations such as cleaning, mixing/kneading, dough manipulation, precision dosing/cooking, and additive manufacturing. Finally, the most recent improvements of robotics in gastronomy with their use in restaurants/bars and domestic environments, are examined. The comprehensive analyses and the critical discussion highlighted the needs of further scientific understanding and exploitation activities aimed to fill the gap between the laboratory-scale results and the validation in the relevant environment.