ABB Robots and Pet Care: Pet Food Lines to Dog Sitters

A home robot cut one dog's barking by 75% and Purina opened a robot-equipped plant. How ABB packing robots handle pet food, and where home pet robots go next.

INDUSTRIAL ROBOTICS

Chat With Robot

9/25/20261 min read

Spratt's, the London firm that sold some of the first commercial dog biscuits in the 1860s, later ran a big works in Poplar, east London. At home, though, feeding and minding the dog stayed a person's job, and a dog left alone all day just waited by the window.

Red brick Victorian factory buildings with a Spratt's Patent Limited sign on the gable
Red brick Victorian factory buildings with a Spratt's Patent Limited sign on the gable

The old Spratt's Patent dog biscuit works in Poplar, east London. Photo: Simon / London Less Travelled via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0)

Pet food became an industry and pet care filled up with gadgets. Automatic feeders now open only for the right cat's microchip, and cameras let owners check in from work. None of that helps much when a dog spends the afternoon barking at the door.

Two beagles looking out through a window behind white curtains
Two beagles looking out through a window behind white curtains

Two dogs watching the street from a window. Photo: Bert76 / Wikimedia Commons (CC0)

This month WIM-Z, a small tracked robot for the home, published its first field results. In seven trials from May to September, mostly in New York area homes, it watched dogs with on-device AI and rewarded quiet behavior with treats. In one home barking fell from 161 barks an hour to 40, a 75 percent drop.

Tabby cat eating from a white automatic pet feeder with a clear lid
Tabby cat eating from a white automatic pet feeder with a clear lid

An automatic feeder that opens only for the cat's microchip. Photo: Giraldillo / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

At the factory end, Nestlé Purina opened a $550 million plant in Batavia, Ohio, on August 31. It is Purina's first factory built from the ground up since 1975, with robotics, an automated storage system and a Spot robot dog that inspects machines, and it is meant to feed about eight million pets a year.

Several ABB delta robots above a stainless steel food conveyor
Several ABB delta robots above a stainless steel food conveyor

ABB IRB 360 FlexPicker delta robots picking items on a moving line. Photo: ABB

ABB lists pet food among the products its packing robots handle. On lines like these, IRB 360 FlexPicker delta robots can pick pouches and cans into cases, and palletizers such as the IRB 660 stack heavy bags of kibble at the end. On smaller lines, ABB's GoFa cobot can work beside people without a fence.

White ABB palletizing robot stacking brown and red cases onto pallets
White ABB palletizing robot stacking brown and red cases onto pallets

An ABB IRB 660 stacking packed cases onto pallets. Photo: ABB

I expect the two ends to meet. A home robot that already watches the dog could also refill the bowl, reorder food and show a vet how the dog has been eating. I'd still want a person to take the dog for its walk.

White ABB GoFa cobot arm holding a black cylinder on a wooden table in an office
White ABB GoFa cobot arm holding a black cylinder on a wooden table in an office

ABB's GoFa cobot, which senses contact through its joints. Photo: ABB

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