End-to-End automation of a maple syrup boiling center through the integration of industry 4.0 technologies

The maple syrup industry faces significant challenges, including an increase in the volume of sap to be processed and a growing labor shortage. Given the high costs of equipment and stricter food safety standards, "boiling centers" have emerged, centralizing the sap processing for multiple producers, thus offering economies of scale while maintaining high-quality finished products.

Current automated systems often focus on individual operations without complete process integration. The adoption of Industry 4.0 technologies aims to fill this gap by creating interconnectivity between each step of the process, thus increasing the level of automation. This will mitigate issues related to labor shortages and errors while improving energy efficiency.

Building on the first phase of implementation and data collection, the goal of this project is to implement an advanced automation system to manage the entire maple syrup transformation chain at the boiling center. This involves three main components:

• Automated management of primary and secondary materials in silos;
• Autonomous feeding of the evaporator;
• Labeling, characterization, and tracking of syrup barrels.

The technical feasibility of each of these three components directly arises from a complete 4.0 coverage of the boiling center's facilities, as it requires transparent data sharing between all stages of the maple syrup transformation chain. This level of interoperability has never been seen in maple syrup production, making it the scientific contribution of this project.