Robotics for Poultry Processing

Project Director:
Gary McMurray
gary.mcmurray@gtri.gatech.edu

Research Focus

The goal of Georgia Tech’s robotics project is to design and develop workable systems that can be used practically and affordably in poultry processing operations. Much of the research is focused on developing human-level performance robots (so called because they are designed to perform with accuracy similar to that of a human and can adapt to changing conditions). The research team places particular emphasis on systems that can tolerate the processing plant environment; can be modified readily for a variety of processing applications; and can handle products of different sizes and textures without damaging them.

Background and Challenges

Robots have helped many manufacturers and processors increase their efficiency and protect their employees from repetitive or dangerous jobs. However, traditional robots have been most effective at tasks that require extreme precision but do not change over time (such as placing chips on a computer board). The requirements for robots in poultry processing are different from those of traditional manufacturing operations. Accuracy requirements in the poultry industry typically are lower, while product-handling (grasping) demands can be higher, given the many shapes, sizes, and degrees of firmness found among poultry products. In addition, many commercial robots are too expensive to serve the poultry industry’s needs.

Project Overview

Georgia Tech’s poultry robotics research program has been underway since 1990. Researchers are currently focusing on two systems, both of which are under development. The first is a casepacking system that places tray packs of product into shipping cases. The machine is located immediately after the weigh-price-label machine. The next system under development is an automated system for loading the front halves of birds onto a cone line.The researchers call the first system the casepacking robot. They have designed the system to address the cost and performance issues of using robotics in packing operations, with an emphasis on keeping both purchasing and operating costs low. The casepacking robot underwent on-line testing at ConAgra’s Gainesville, Georgia, facility in late 2002. It was used to pack No. 3 and No. 8 retail trays of raw poultry parts weighing between 1 and 3 pounds into shipping cases. The test was done in conjunction with Georgia Tech’s commercial partners, Cryovac, Inc. and CAMotion, Inc. (CAMotion provided the software to control the drive systems). During the test, the machine packed in excess of 36,000 trays and 1,500 cases. The casepacking robot demonstrated the ability to pack at a rate of 51 trays per minute. The team is presently working to address the performance and mechanical issues that were identified during the test. A commercial version of the system was made available during the summer of 2003.

In modern poultry-processing facilities, manual labor is required to transport the front halves of chickens that are received from the chiller onto the moving cone line for further processing. Until recently, robotic applications were ineffective due to the unreliable position of the work piece at the base of the drop chute. Recent developments in image processing have made it possible for the robots to operate in an unstructured environment. For this work, a commercial 3-D camera system was used to provide the position information needed to move the robot to the bird as well as identify the orientation of the bird. In order to implement this system, a new end-effector was developed to grasp and manipulate the irregular and non-rigid texture of the raw product. Grasping such an object is a difficult task due to the texture of the raw product as is maintaining grasp stability on the bird as it is placed on the cone. In addition, the variation of the raw product’s size, shape, weight, and orientation had to be considered in the design. Georgia Tech researchers have successfully demonstrated the placement of birds onto a cone line as well as the identification of the orientation of the bird. The implementation of all this technology lays the groundwork for placing automation in production tasks that were once considered impossible to automate, such as the rehang of birds after the chiller and placing product into trays.

Future Directions

Researchers’ current efforts on the casepacking application are focused on providing a commercially available solution to the poultry industry. The advances that have been made in the past two years in grasping and manipulation of the raw product and in image processing have been significant. These developments have application to a variety of problems in the poultry plant. The development of grasping systems that allow a robot to manipulate the raw product in a reliable manner opens the door to automating further tasks in a poultry plant. The addition of rapid, reliable vision systems to identify product and provide to a robot the exact position and orientation of the product (be it a whole bird or cut-up product) provides the missing component in developing true intelligent automation for the poultry industry. Future tasks for automation include the rehanging of birds after the chiller onto shackles and the placement of raw product into trays. This work also has the potential of helping solve similar problems in other industries such as the red meat and vegetable industries.