UniSQ research fellow Basem Adel Aly develops cutting knife robot

A regional Qld university has developed a knife-wielding robot, which acts like a butcher’s arm and knife with razor sharp precision in sensing density and textures in meat. Find out how it works:

UniSQ Centre for Agricultural Engineering Research Fellow Dr Basem Adel Aly.

While a knife wielding AI bot might sound like a synopsis for a blockbuster sci-fi movie, this robotic arm and blade developed by a regional Queensland university may well revolutionise the food processing industry, before it makes its debut on the big screen.

Fear not, the War of the Worlds is not yet upon us, and this assistive blade technology, developed by the University of Southern Queensland’s Agricultural Engineering research fellow Dr Basem Adel Aly and his team, is fully controllable.

Analysing the data from the blade and force sensor, Dr Aly has been able to automate the arm to detect intricate texture and density of meat.

UniSQ Centre for Agricultural Engineering Research Fellow Dr Basem Adel Aly, and the automated robotic arm cutting red meat. Picture: UniSQ

“Automation needs to either see or feel, so this technology allows us to sense beneath the blind spots of the meat,” Dr Aly said.

“The different tissues in the meat – such as meat, fat, and bone – all feel different, and so it’s similar to what we do as humans while we’re cutting.

”We feel for that difference and then we translate that into actions based on our experience and knowledge about how we need to cut meat.

“The robot uses a very similar concept; it’s basically a manipulator that can imitate the moving arm of a human butcher by measuring the force exerted on the knife and using those different forces to understand where to cut.”

UniSQ Centre for Agricultural Engineering Research Fellow Dr Basem Adel Aly, and the automated robotic arm cutting red meat. Picture: UniSQ

With a fellowship from the Food and Beverage Accelerator, a federal government initiative aimed at building an innovative and food industry, Dr Aly said this robotic butcher can make jobs in the food processing industry safer and more manageable, as well as create

future jobs.

“The next few years will likely see a real collaboration between people and robots, or smart assistive tools,” he said.

The technology the knife wielding robot uses won’t stop at meat, but can extend to a variety of organic products, he said.

For now Dr Aly and his team are working on an industry partnership, where they can test the blade in an experimental setting before commercialising the technology.

He estimates the technology will be industry-ready in three years.

Originally published as UniSQ research fellow Basem Adel Aly develops cutting knife robot