Praline digital

Problem definition: Systems for the production of chocolate products are durable and are operated for many years and decades. As technology advances, systems become outdated. Simple and cost effective ways to modernize existing systems are therefore of great interest. An approach in this direction was investigated in the IVLV imageSAM project. It was shown that cameras can be retrofitted relatively easily into existing systems without interrupting production and without interfering with the machine control. Shift supervisors often report that experienced personnel need to be positioned at various points in the system to monitor the process and intervene when discrepancies occur. When it comes to image classification, computers are no longer inferior to humans in many areas. This can be used to assist production personnel in monitoring the system.

Solution: The existing chocolate line at the Fraunhofer IVV in Freising for the production of chocolates using the cold stamping or one-shot process is to be equipped with simple and inexpensive means such as webcams or microphones. Based on the IVLV imageSAM project, data will be recorded and evaluated using training data sets. If the feasibility of the approach can be demonstrated in principle in the project using real examples, this approach should be pursued after the project so that the results benefit many users. Production processes can become more stable, which has a positive financial impact due to fewer rejects and longer production times.