Gary McMurray is the division chief for the Food Processing Technology Division at the Georgia Tech Research Institute. He oversees the division’s research in sensing, robotics, energy and environmental areas, as well as the technology transfer and technical assistance and outreach activities in food processing. In addition to his management responsibilities, McMurray’s specific research has been in the area of robotics and automation for the food-processing industry. He is a member of The National Provisioner’s Editorial Board.
To design a truly successful system, processors must expand their thinking beyond viewing robotics and vision systems simply as labor-replacement tools.
Every food-processing plant today is looking for new ways to automate their process. It seems the most common method of justifying any robotic or automation project (including inspection) is labor replacement.
The term “process control” has a lot of different meanings depending on an individual’s background and experience. The definition from Wikipedia, for example, is “a statistics and engineering discipline that
