RoBUTCHER presented at The IFAN Conference
RoBUTCHER was represented with several presentations at The International Food Automation Conference Networking (IFAN) that was hosted in Atlanta at the start of April.
Social Life Cycle Assessment
Clara Valente from NORSUS presented Social Aspects of the Pig Meat Processing Sector: The Way Towards Automation. The presentation starts started with an introduction to the concept of social sustainability, and it explains explained how the S-LCA methodology has been applied in the project. The study answers answered to three main objectives:
- to define appropriate key performance indicators feasible to the European pig meat processing sector.
- to map the social impacts of current slaughtering practices.
- to benchmark the current practices against the RoBUTCHER system when it will be deployed.
In the conclusion of the talk, the potential social risks (negative impacts) and opportunities (positive impacts) implied in the pig meat processing sectors were identified. Furthermore, it was shown how the autonomous robotic system would affect society, especially the butchers and the surrounding communities.
Carcass Grading
Lars Erik Gangsei from Animalia was presenting Carcass Grading: Interactions Between Carcass Monetary Value and Classification Effort, Bias, and Precision? The presentation reviewed experiences with manual, semi-automatic and fully automatic systems for carcass grading from a Norwegian perspective.
Length measurement for beef carcass grading was presented in some more detail. Practical experiences were merged into a theoretical framework, where the benefits of new technology (hardware/instruments and software /AI) might be identified and assessed. Finally, certain pitfalls one should be aware of when including new technology for carcass grading were addressed.