In the experimental workshop of a date processing plant in the UAE, a silent technological revolution is taking place: the robotic arm grasps dates with icing on the surface at a speed of 0.8 seconds per piece, and the gentleness is comparable to that of a 20-year-old master - this is the application site of the third-generation bionic touch system independently developed by Ply-pack. This technology has made a breakthrough in solving the biggest pain point in the automation transformation of traditional Middle Eastern food: how to retain the unique texture of handmade products while improving efficiency.
When the robot meets icing crystals
The packaging dilemma of Middle Eastern specialty foods is often hidden in the microscopic world. Take a century-old date palm workshop in Dubai as an example. The thickness of the icing crystals covering the surface of its flagship products is only 0.3-0.5 mm. Traditional vacuum suction cup grasping will cause three kinds of damage:
- Quality degradation caused by the rupture of the crystal layer
- Equipment pollution caused by the splashing of icing particles
- The problem of missing the grasping of irregularly shaped products
Ply-pack engineers found through 2000 hours of high-speed camera recording that the essence of human grasping action lies in dynamic pressure regulation - within 30 milliseconds of the moment of fingertip contact, the force angle will be adjusted in real time according to the touch feedback. Based on this insight, the team developed a bionic silicone adsorption matrix: 132 independent sensing units are integrated on the gripping head with a diameter of 80mm, each unit is equipped with a micro pressure sensor and airflow controller to achieve dynamic force adjustment at the level of 0.01 Newton.
From desert beetles to technical inspiration
The evolutionary code of this technology actually comes from a beetle in the desert of the Middle East. Ply-pack Material Laboratory observed that the black tenem beetle can firmly adhere to the rock surface in a sandstorm environment, and its foot microstructure has unique non-uniform adsorption characteristics. Inspired by this, the R&D team used laser engraving technology to replicate the bionic corrugated structure on the surface of the silicone adsorption layer, so that the gripping head has two contradictory characteristics at the same time:
- Strong adhesion at the moment of contact
- Zero residue separation when released
In actual tests, the system's success rate in grasping irregular dates increased from 67% of traditional equipment to 98.5%, and the integrity retention rate of the frosting exceeded 99%. What is more noteworthy is its self-learning ability: through the embedded AI chip, the device can memorize the hardness and humidity data of different batches of raw materials and automatically generate the optimal grasping parameter curve.
Technology refinement in windy and sandy environment
To adapt to the special working conditions in the Middle East, Ply-pack adds triple protection to the anti-interference design:
- Particle shielding coating: The surface of the adsorption head is coated with a nano-scale dust-repellent film, which effectively blocks sand and dust particles larger than 5μm
- Self-cleaning airflow circulation: After each grab, a 0.3-second reverse pulse airflow is triggered to remove gap residues
- Fault prediction system: Through vibration frequency analysis, 4 hours in advance warning of key component loss
In the production data of Dubai customers for three consecutive months, the equipment has always maintained an operating stability of more than 99.2% in a harsh environment with an average daily temperature of 50°C and a PM2.5 value of more than 150, and the maintenance cycle is 2.8 times longer than that of similar equipment.
Redefine the boundary of flexible production
The breakthrough of this technology lies not only in hardware innovation, but also in the changes in production mode it has triggered. The production director of a date palm customer commented: "Now our high-end line retains the concept of hand-made, and the standard line is completed by a bionic system. The market believes that 'robot work' is more technologically beautiful."
Currently, Ply-pack is extending this technology to categories such as figs and puff pastry candied fruits, and has developed a tactile grading system that can simultaneously complete product hardness and maturity testing. With the wave of intelligentization of the food processing industry in the Middle East, this technology, which originated from the pain points of traditional processes and was tempered in the desert environment, is setting a new precision benchmark for fragile food packaging around the world.
