Inner Organ Manipulation During Automated Pig Slaughtering—Smart Gripping Approaches

Soft tissue interaction and grasping is a widely researched field, nevertheless, autonomous robotics is a relatively new domain in delicate meat processing. The inner organs of animals are complex soft tissues with fuzzy boundaries and slippery surfaces, yet their precise manipulation might still be required for certain robotic processes. This paper presents a gripper development for pig inner organ gripping and manipulation. The customized mechanical design and the force measuring feature allow safe grasping, holding, stretching and moving of the slippery and easily torn tissues. The paper describes how a sensor-enabled, smart version of the gripper was engineered. The capabilities of the tool were primarily tested through laboratory dry tests and on pig-carcasses in a local slaughterhouse. Advanced features for in-device force, position and slip sensing are being developed for future use.