Technology development for the flexible automation of fish processing

The seed activity of the research described in this paper has been the development of appropriate technology for flexible automation of the fish processing industry. Under the general theme of integrating advanced control techniques, high-level machine vision, and robotic devices, research is being conducted in all three areas, and a fish processing workcell is being developed. The problem of flexible automation of fish processing is introduced, and the appropriate use of control, machine vision, and robotics in this application is discussed. A workcell has been developed for the head removal operation of salmon. Particular emphasis is given to the problem of actuator selection, workcell integration, and the development of a hierarchical system for performance evaluation and control of the fish processing workcell