January 28, 2023

Agriculture researchers in Arkansas, US, to study robot aided poultry processing

Researchers from the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station, University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture in the US, have been awarded a US$1 million grant to research and develop robots to assist in poultry processing, the Northwest Arkansas Democrat Gazette reported.

Dongyi Wang, an assistant professor of biological and agricultural engineering, is the project's principal investigator. Wan Shou, an assistant professor of engineering at the institution, and Yu She, a professor of industrial engineering at Perdue University, will assist Wang.

Funding for the project is provided by the US National Science Foundation's National Robotics Initiative 3.0 and the United States Department of Agriculture's National Institute of Food and Agriculture.

Wang said they are trying to explore how automation can help the agriculture industry and the food industry.

The four-year project aims to create a robotic system to hang raw chicken, one of the few tasks in contemporary poultry processing that is still done by humans and requires manual labour.

Casey Owens, Novus International professor of poultry science, and Philip Crandall, professor of food science, will support the research at the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station.

-      Northwest Arkansas Democrat Gazette