Based on the investigation, four main areas were identified that would benefit from collaborative robots to improve safety, cost, and productivity of the current process.
These include:
- Sorting, packing, and palletising of vacuum-packed meat parts
- Picking, cutting, and weighing lamb shanks
- Meat quality inspection and processing performance monitoring
- Human-robot collaborative beef fat trimming.
To further demonstrate the concept of using collaborative robots within the industry, UoA developed a collaborative robot for sharpening knives. As part of the project, an electric wheel knife sharpener attached to the end of a robot was trialed.