Collaborative robots evaluation and deployment strategy development – stage 2 (1)

AMPC partnered with the University of Adelaide (UoA) to investigate how collaborative robots may be deployed within the Australian red meat processing industry. 

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.