Meat Cutting Apparatus with Adaptive Swing Cutter Mechanism
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Solution Overview
Problem
The automation of incision making along the surface of bones in meat de-boning processes is challenging due to complex bone profiles and size variations, leading to inefficiencies and manual labor requirements.
Innovation Solution
A meat cutting apparatus equipped with a cutter mechanism that includes a multi-axis robot arm, a swing mechanism, and a slide mechanism with elastic force compensation, allowing the cutter to track a predefined trajectory while adjusting for actual bone surface profiles, ensuring accurate incision without biting into the bones.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If a cutter is used to make incisions along bone surfaces, then de-boning efficiency is improved, but the complexity of bone profiles causes the cutter to bite into bones or fail to follow the surface accurately
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements a dynamic cutter mechanism with multiple degrees of freedom that can adapt its position and orientation in real-time. The cutter is mounted on a robotic arm with adjustable joints and includes a sliding mechanism that allows the cutter to move dynamically along the bone surface, following complex 3D profiles while maintaining consistent cutting depth and angle.
Solution Approach 2:
The system incorporates sensors that detect bone surface topology and provide real-time feedback to the control system. This feedback loop allows the cutter to automatically adjust its position and trajectory to follow the actual bone surface profile, compensating for variations in bone shape and size while maintaining precise incision accuracy.
2Manufacturing precision
If manual incision making is performed, then incision accuracy can be maintained, but labor intensity increases and automation level remains low
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs self-positioning and self-adjustment through automated robotic control. The robotic arm with multiple degrees of freedom automatically navigates to the correct incision positions, and the sliding mechanism automatically adjusts the cutter depth and angle based on real-time bone surface detection, eliminating the need for manual intervention while maintaining high precision.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces manual mechanical cutting operations with an automated robotic system. The robotic arm, equipped with force sensors and position control, substitutes human operators to perform incision making, while the sliding mechanism and sensor feedback systems replace manual depth control and trajectory adjustment.
3Extent of automation
If the cutter follows a predefined trajectory, then automation is achieved, but individual bone size and shape variations cause inaccurate cutting
Solution Approach 1:
The system transitions from static predefined trajectories to dynamic adaptive trajectories. The robotic arm continuously adjusts its motion path based on real-time sensor feedback that detects actual bone surface topology, allowing the cutter to follow the true bone profile regardless of size or shape variations while maintaining full automation.
Solution Approach 2:
The system dynamically changes cutting parameters including cutter depth, angle, speed, and trajectory based on detected bone characteristics. The control system modifies these parameters in real-time according to sensor feedback about bone surface geometry, enabling adaptation to individual bone variations while maintaining automated operation.
Data Source
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AI summary
A meat cutting apparatus comprises a slide mechanism 17 mounted on a supporting arm, a drive means 13 for driving the supporting arm, a slide mechanism 17 on which a swing mechanism mounted slidable in a direction crossing cutter traveling direction 'a', a cutter 15 attached to a swing shaft 14 of the swing mechanism swingablly in a plane perpendicular to the sliding direction of the swing mechanism for making incision to bone laden meat M along the surface of the bones in the bone laden meat, an elastic force urging means 18 for keeping the swing mechanism at a position when reaction force does not exert from the bone laden meat to the cutter, a discriminating means for detecting kind and size of the bone laden meat to be de-boned in a hanged state, a plurality of cutter operation programs, and a selecting means for selecting a program in which the most appropriate cutter movement trajectory is selected from the plural programs based on the detected kind and size.