Ex-Post CBA for Automated lamb primal cutting (MAR - ROC450)

Summary

​Background
Machinery Automation and Robotics (MAR) in conjunction with Meat & Livestock Australia (MLA) have been developing automated lamb processing equipment. This includes the ROC450 lamb primal cutting system which automates the primal carcase breakdown previously done manually with bandsaw operators, and is a competitor product to the LEAP III primal cutter from Scott Technology.
Research
Robotic cutting of lamb was first achieved at Midfield in 2005 using a single robot operating at 200 carcasses an hour. The system used a multi-finger gripper and a hook attachment mechanism to grasp and manipulate, using a standard industrial robot, a whole lamb carcass against a cutting knife blade making two cuts: the shoulder and the leg cuts. The operation of the robot was guided by a vision system analysing the side profile of the carcass and the robot producing cuts anatomically adjusted for optimum position to better accuracy and consistency than achievable manually with a bandsaw.
In 2009, MLA and Midfield Meat undertook a collaborative project (P.PSH.0510) to provide a solution that performs the same cuts at improved accuracy and at 400 carcasses per hour. With input from partners involved with the first installation, BMC, E+V and Freund, Midfield reached the upgrade using two robots, one grasping and positioning each carcass after determination of cut positions by the vision system and a second robot performing the cuts. The project achieved improved accuracies as expected at the target speed in the summer of 2010.
Following the installation of a ROC system at Midfield Meats in Victoria project P.PIP.0275 was initiated with the aim of increasing the output from the system to 450 carcasses per hour for 2 cuts and installing this improved system at GM Scott. The ROC system increases the accuracy of cut and reduces bone dust when compared to a band saw and hence results in increased yield. This coupled with the reduction in OH&S risked due to decreased bandsaw operations and increased output has allowed GM Scott to begin to stream line this boning room operations
Project P.PIP.0313 was an ex-post review of the commercial operation of MAR’s ROC450 lamb primal cutting system.
Outcomes
While the ROC450 did not achieve the same yield benefits as the competing LEAP III system (primarily because of less sophisticated visioning capabilities), it is a lower cost system suitable for smaller plants, and especially suitable for mutton and goat applications where precise cutting is less critical.
It is commercially available from MAR and is operating in one plant as at mid 2015.