Robotisation and intelligent systems in abattoirs

摘要

Meat has been an important protein source for human nu-trition for thousands of years and will continue to be. According to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development and Food and Agriculture Organisation's (OECD-FAO)outlook report 2018–2027, the meat consumption increased around 20% in the last ten years, and it is expected to grow another 15% for the next ten years. The harsh working environ-ment in abattoirs and meat factories, such as cold and wet operating rooms and long difficult handling of heavy loads, contributing to the shortage of a skilled labour forces. This, coupled with a considerable increase in the meat consumption, paved the way for novel approaches in the meat industry to ad-dress this challenge, with robotisation and automation of the meat factories being a necessary change. In this work, we review the current state of robotisa-tion for the meat industry and its adaptability to a new production concept called the meat factory cell (MFC). The reviewed systems are: (a) Frontmatec AiRA Robots for pork slaugh-terlines (b) Mayekawa Hamdas-RX for deboning pork ham; (c) SCOTT Au- tomated Boning Room for lamb slaughterlines; (d) SRDViand (Systemes Robotis'es de D'ecoupe de Viande) Z-cut robotic system to do the separation of the hindquarter and the forequarter; (e) SRDViand ham deboning system; (f) SRDViand ECHORD-DEXDEB, a robotic butcher left hand; (g) SINTEF GRIBBOT, a chicken fillet harvesting robot. The slaughterhouse processes can be highly automated, with products available at the market, while the meat processing plants are mainly manual; deboning and fine cuts require a higher level of dexterity comparing to primary slaughter cuts, this leads to more researches of intelligent systems. In the other hand, a new way to process the slaughter products can lead to innovation and smarter systems on slaughterhouses, with the benefits to open new opportunities for smaller producers.