Arkansas researchers receive grant to study automation in poultry processing
Submitted by Patrick Massey of KDQN
Researchers in Arkansas and two other states will be using a $5 million grant to increase use of artificial intelligence and robotics in chicken processing to reduce waste in deboning and detect pathogens.
The grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture will establish the Center for Scalable and Intelligent Automation in Poultry Processing. The center, led by the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture, will join researchers from five institutions in three states in efforts to adapt robotic automation to chicken meat processing.
The recent impetus to automate chicken processing began with the COVID-19 pandemic. The illness spread quickly among workers on the processing line. Since the worst of the pandemic, the poultry industry, like many others, has been having trouble hiring enough workers.
Researchers point out that poultry processing lines began 70 to 80 years ago. Since then, there have been only incremental changes in technology. Today, they say, there’s a need for transformative change.
Robotic hands are not adept at holding a chicken. New technology is needed to prevent dropping slippery meats. Separating the carcasses into cuts of meat is also tricky. For example, human deboners leave about 13 percent of meat on the bones. Automated deboners leave 16 to 17 percent. On an industrial scale, that’s a significant loss in value.
Automation can relieve labor shortages, however. It also allows plants to locate in rural areas with a smaller labor force but nearer poultry houses and with lower property costs.
Arkansas’ research will involve scientists from at least three departments within the Center of Excellence for Poultry Science.
The primary focus of Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station researchers will be to automate food safety practices. Their hope is to develop robots that monitor processing lines for pathogens like Salmonella and maintain clean and safe spaces and equipment. Researchers also aim to develop hyperspectral imaging to detect plastics in chicken meat.
