Until recently, labeling Serrano hams, which is a must because it determines their progression through different aging and drying processes, was a laborious task. Since a robot could not detect the bones in the ham, human involvement was indispensable.
Now, a Spanish systems integrator has developed an AI-based robotic system capable of performing this task. The labels – up to 900 per hour – are injected by a Stäubli SCARA robot designed for hygiene-sensitive applications in the food industry.
It takes 10 to 18 months of drying and ripening for a delicious Spanish Serrano ham to be ready for consumption, and this process consists of several steps. A medium-sized Serrano producer can process more than 5,000 hams per day, so labeling them with the week, year, and batch number is a small but crucial step early in the process. [Read more…] about AI-powered robot automates Serrano ham labeling for the first time