It’s long been felt that robots would eventually rule the world and take away jobs done by humans. In the meat packing and butchering industry, lasers are moving in and taking over the task of “harvesting” chicken fillets. The chicken breast fillets that you purchase in the grocery store today have likely been hand cut by humans who are specially trained to do that task. The challenge of making this be an automated task is a tricky one because of the inherent biological variations of the chickens and the fact that the meat is soft.
A three dimensional laser system with robotic arms and plastic grips is being developed that incorporates a 3D vision system utilizing custom optical lenses. This system can scan the chicken carcass to determine where the gripping mechanism should go. Once that is determined the laser can then slice the fillet.
The overall goal of this technology is to have the chicken breast fillets sliced in an efficient and quick manner with this adaptive robot-based technology. It is believed that the technology, once perfected, will allow food processors or farmers to harvest the meat from the livestock with minimal interference from human hands. This could cut back on contamination and potentially lower the price of some consumer products.
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