Beef scriber
Description
The Beef Scriber is a robotic system being developed that will engage a vision system to detect the ribs of the carcase and accurately scribe it with a specifically designed saw on the end of the robot whilst incorporating a fully automatic material handling system for carcase movement, orientation and stabilisation to match processing speeds.
Benefits
The benefits of the Beef Scriber include:
- Occupational health and safety
- Productivity
- Increased yield
- Improved food safety
Availability
The Beef Scriber is currently being trialled at a processor with further modifications underway to address some of the issues identified during this phase.
More information
MLA has identified the manual scribing task (pre cut through the bone) of beef carcasses as a very high priority for automation.
This has been identified as one of the most dangerous and physically difficult of all meat processing tasks. It is also where a significant amount of processing yield can be lost. Consequently, in the current manual operation, the task is undertaken by very skilled and experienced operational staff. Processors are reporting increasing difficulty in finding suitable replacements for their ageing operators.
In recent years, the processing industry (via AMPC Technology Committee) and MLA undertook a detailed risk assessment of the manual scribing task and determined that it was a very high priority for automation.
Preliminary assessment of the task and early concept development was undertaken by Food Science Australia and co-funded by AMPC and MLA. The early concept work identified that the aim of the final technology solution should be to scribe (pre cut through the bone) the side of beef as follows:
- with a robotic system (robot)
- engaging a vision system to detect the ribs of the carcase (vision & sensing)
- accurately scribe the carcase with a specifically design saw on the end of a robot (cutting)
- whilst incorporating a fully automatic material handling system for carcase movement, orientation and stabilisation to match processing speeds (material handling)
A brochure outlining the benefits of the system is available from Machinery Automation & Robotics.