Best presentation award to RoBUTCHER researchers

During the 14th International Conference on Sensing Technology, The presentation delivered by Dmytr Romanov was awarded with a first place in General Category as a «Best Presentation». Dmytro is a PhD candidate working at the Norwegian University of Life Sciences and is directly funded by the RoBUTCHER project.

The work entitled «Vibration Measurement as Feedback from a Pneumatic Knife» was authored by Dmytro Romanov, Luis Eduardo Cordova-Lopez, Olga Korostynska and Alex Mason. The conference was organized by Indian Institute of Technology Madras in Chennai, India and held virtually due to travel restrictions.

Automation is a key enabling technology for efficiency improvement in the meat industry. Meat is one of the most challenging work objects for robotics today, therefore one of the possible solutions to overcome challenges related to its processing is to modify existing tools with sensors, in order to provide robots with feedback. Among those challenges are: heterogeneous meat structure, collision detection with solid bodies (bones, structures supporting the meat piece, etc.).

The work elaborates on the possible application of an air-operated EFA 805 knife, modified with sensors (contact microphones and 3-axis digital accelerometer). The modification can help in future meat processing operations and it aims to overcome challenges in robotic meat cutting that were highlighted in the RoButcher project, particularly in relation to in-process feedback. The feedback is based on vibration measurements when the knife blade is in contact with biological tissues.

The team is continuing to test the modified knife in real settings. Further achievements will be published as the project continues.