If you’re anything like me, you’ve no doubt been on the edge of your seat for years, waiting for the latest innovation in the exciting field of ham de-boning technology. Well, you don’t need to wait any longer; the future is now. HAMDAS-R is a ham de-boning robot developed by Mayekawa Electric and the winner of the Small Business and Venture category at the Fourth Robot Awards.
Due to the fact that variations in meat provide challenges to robots, often utilized for more repetitive and standardized tasks, ham de-boning has until now been a task assigned to humans. HAMDAS-R is able to detect these variations and work around them, effectively cutting tender meat away from solid bone. In addition, since human hands would not be touching the raw meat, sanitation is improved.
HAMDAS-R may not be the most friendly looking robot, the blade-wielding shanking machine appearing more as if it wishes to separate you from your wallet (or your bones), but it provides an incredibly useful service with its ability to de-bone 500 hams per hour. Normally a task and rate like this would require 20 human workers, but with HAMDAS-R on the job the number of necessary human workers drops to 10. Taking another look at the robot, I can only imagine what happens to the other half of the workforce.
As of this writing, however, reports have shown HAMDAS-R’s skilled bladework only being put to use on pig thighs, and Mayekawa Electric plans on introducing the robot to factories in Europe and Japan. Those of us on American shores can rest assured that robots designed to deftly cut flesh from bone will not be making an appearance here anytime soon. To those of you in Europe and Japan, however, I wish you the best of luck with your new robot overlords. For more frightening robots, check out this Miniature Flamethrower and the Spybot Snake.
Via: Botropolis
