Feasibility Study Using New Technology for Meat Boning

A new concept for the automatic boning of loins was developed at the Fraunhofer-Institut für Produktionstechnik und Automatisierung (IPA) in Stuttgart in co-operation with the Swedish Meat Research Institute (SMRI) in Kävlinge and Scan HB, Sweden. The main topic was the generation of a cutting path through the loin. On the basis of the analysis of grey-scale-images cutting paths are roughly calculated. An industrial robot leads a robot-suitable oscillating knife along these cutting paths through the loin. Sensors which are integrated in the cutting tool control the cutting path while cutting. The generated cutting paths guarantee that the robot can separate meat from bones in the optimal way for each loin. A virtual prototype was designed to examine the interplay of all functions and the evaluation and optimisation of the solution concept. This three dimensional simulation gives the opportunity to examine functionality and suitability of the system before it is actually realised.