RoBUTCHER presented at the European Robotics Forum
The European Robotics Forum 2021 (ERF 2021), the most influential meeting of the robotics community in Europe, was held as a virtual event 13-15 April 2021. The ERF2021 covers all aspects and current themes related to the field of robotics. Researchers, engineers, managers, and a growing number of entrepreneurs, businesspeople, and public funding officers from all over Europe come together to discuss technology push and market pull and how innovation in robotics and robotics-related AI can be accelerated.
After its start in San Sebastian in 2010, The ERF has grown into a major annual event with hundreds of attendees every year. The European Robotics Forum 2021 is organised by euRobotics.
The RoBUTCHER presentation had approximately 40-50 viewers and the presenters were contacted after the workshop by attendees who wanted to learn more about the project.
The workshop: Challenges in Automated Food Processing
The topical focus of the workshop is how the spread of robotics in the food industry has become necessary to keep up with the challenges and demands of the 21st century. The goal was to present the latest trends and developments related to food and food processing robotics and to discuss the roadmap for future enhancements to these fields.
The workshop consisted of three parts a keynote talk, poster presentations and a roundtable discussion beginning with the keynote talk from Professor Alex Mason titled: Standardized red meat processing in the 21st century. His address consisted of the RoBUTCHER research project overview, which focuses on building the first completely automated cell-based slaughterhouse by an international consortium, funded by the European Commission Horizon 2020 and coordinated by NMBU.
The keynote preceded nine teaser poster presentations from members of the RoBUTCHER consortium. The prize for best poster presentation, voted by the audience via an online poll, went to Olga Korostynska and Anna Mathew for Feasibility of Using NIR Spectroscopy in Automated Meat Cutting.
Download the report: Proceedings of the Challenges in Automated Food Processing Workshop at European Robotics Forum, 2021
The complete list of posters includes:
- Oleh Smolkin, Deep Learning and Computer Vision Engineer from Ciklum, a digital solutions company from Ukraine, titled: Computer Vision for Robot Butcher
- Olga Korostynska, Professor at Olso Metropolitan University and Associate professor at The Norwegian University of Life Sciences presenting on behalf of Anna Mathew, MSc Student, Oslo Metropolitan University, Norway, titled: Feasibility of Using NIR Spectroscopy in Automated Meat Cutting
- Dmytro Romanov, PhD candidate at The Norwegian University of Life Sciences, As, titled: Human Robot Collaboration in the Meat Industry
- Ian de Medeiros, PhD candidate, at The Norwegian University of Life Sciences, As, titled: Intelligent Cutting System for an Innovative Meat Factory Cell
- Jeppe Bo Andersen, Consultant from the Danish Technological Institute – DMRI, titled: Key Point detection in automated meat processing
- Tamás Haidegger, Associate Professor at Obuda University in Budapest, Hungary, EKIK Director, Co-Founder of HandlnScan and Research Manager at ACMIT, titled: The role of Digital Innovation Hubs in promoting new technologies
- Tamas Haidegger / Kristóf Takács, PhD Candidate, Obuda University in Budapest, Hungary, titled: Open Issues in Agri-food Robot Standardization—the Red Meat Sector
- Kristóf Takács / Bence Takács, PhD candidate, Obuda University in Budapest, Hungary, titled: Feasibility Test of Limb Gripping
- Kristóf Takács / Sándor Tarsoly, Software Engineer, Obuda University in Budapest, Hungary, titled: Optimized Physical Layout Design for Improved Robotic Pig Processing Workflow
Kristóf Takács, PhD-candidate at Obuda University, was one of the presenters and has this to say about the virtual conference: The platform was nice and easy to use. During the workshop we could easily change between presenters and share the presented posters as PDFs, and presenters were also able to receive and answer questions right after their presentation. However, in my opinion, a physical conference would have been better because it provides easier communication with the presenters after the workshop to further discuss their topic.
The ERF was a great opportunity to show and advertise the RoBUTCHER project to the robotics community of Europe – both researchers and representatives of the robot-industry. Automation and robotization in the food industry nowadays typically focus on agriculture, hopefully we could show the experts that meat-industry automation deserves more attention too.