Robotic sampling of meat quality on slaughterhouse production lines could be commercially available next year, as a result of a £1M research project.
A cutting-edge robot has been installed at meat processing plant Scotbeef, as part of an ongoing research project into measuring meat quality.
The research, which was funded by Quality Meat Scotland and the Scottish Government, forms part of the Integrated Measurement of Eating Quality (IMEQ) project. Now in its second year, it is being led by the Scottish Agricultural College (SAC) and other partners.
After a series of off-line trials, the robotic system has been installed in the meat processing plant in order to test the machine’s technical robustness and how it can be developed for integration into the processing line.
The cutting-edge technology is being used to determine carcase pH, temperature and surface-based ultrasound probes at certain positions on the carcase. It uses a robotic manipulator with novel camera technology and special end-of-arm tools. The camera scans the carcase and generates an automatic three-dimensional contour map, which allows the robot to guide the pH/temperature probe to the target muscle in the half-carcase online.
FoodWorld 