The RoBUTCHER technologies have been successfully rolled out and the cutting pace is ramping up at the Max Rubner Institute (MRI)

By: Tomas Bolumar, MRI

Finally, the robots arrived in Germany. The last four months of the RoBUTCHER project have been very intense for all of us at the MRI. The end of November marked the starting point for the transportation of the Meat Factory Cell components from the Norwegian University of Life Sciences laboratories to the MRI´s shared-facilities at the municipality slaughterhouse of Kulmbach (Germany). We can now say that the process was a success, and the RoBUTCHER Meat Factory Cell is up and running in Kulmbach!

In between, it has been an equally challenging and satisfying process to deploy the correct installation and functionality of all the components, including electrical, mechanical and internet connectivity, to form a unique technological robotic platform for slaughtering-and-deboning of a pig carcass.

Groundbreaking technologies enable us to cut a pig carcass in Kulmbach (Germany) via artificial- intelligence-(AI)-assisted commands received from Norway and Ukraine, but even possible from every location worldwide. The RoBUTCHER technologies are now successfully rolled out in a semi-industrial scenario. Sensing knives, bespoke grippers, vision systems, AI algorithms for trajectory cutting, and the critical element, the integration of all these individual components, work together to match the virtual space and the reality of the production line.

Now, the new-born system is on a mission to ramp up the pace, and since the first pig carcass dismantling at MRI on the 25th of January, it is now routinely carrying out two processing sessions weekly, and it will continue to do so until the end of the pilot testing by mid-June 2023. We are pleased to see how much progress we have accomplished due to the enthusiastic and world-class scientists working behind the scenes on the RoButcher project.