Robotics

"Gribbot" is designed to robotically pull off chicken breasts

"Gribbot" is designed to robotically pull off chicken breasts
SINTEF researchers Elling Ruud Øye, Ekrem Misimi and Aleksander Eilertsen (left to right) with Gribbot
SINTEF researchers Elling Ruud Øye, Ekrem Misimi and Aleksander Eilertsen (left to right) with Gribbot
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SINTEF researchers Elling Ruud Øye, Ekrem Misimi and Aleksander Eilertsen (left to right) with Gribbot
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SINTEF researchers Elling Ruud Øye, Ekrem Misimi and Aleksander Eilertsen (left to right) with Gribbot

Pulling chicken breasts off the bone can be a fiddly process, and often results in flesh being wasted by getting left behind. In a factory setting, that means slower processing times, and less meat to sell. That's why the Norwegian CYCLE project is developing an industrial robot to do the job.

The current version of the robot was developed by the SINTEF research group, and is named Gribbot – "gribb" is Norwegian for vulture, and the machine is said to resemble a vulture's beak.

It utilizes a Kinect camera for 3D vision, along with a flexible-fingered grasping hand, and an algorithm that guides that hand's movements based on what the camera sees. Challenges lie in the fact that the meat is slippery and hard to hold onto, plus reflections on its shiny surface can make 3D imaging difficult.

Nevertheless, Gribbot is apparently quite adept at grasping chicken carcasses, identifying the breast meat, and then simultaneously scraping and pulling it off the bone. It is hoped that once perfected, the robot "will make Norwegian food production more sustainable, both in terms of profitability and utilization of raw materials."

Impressive as that may be, a team at Georgia Tech has already developed a robot that can debone an entire chicken. For its part, SINTEF has previously created a fish-filleting robot.

Source: SINTEF

2 comments
2 comments
Mark A
Where's the video?
Nelson Hyde Chick
There goes the jobs of the people that now process chickens. It is a horrible job, but none will come along to replace it for those that loose that job. Technology gives one man the ability to do the work of a thousand men while it burdens the Earth with the thousand men it just made obsolete.