*4.4. Meat Cutting Equipment*

To fully understand the practical issues in implementing the technical aspects of the project we first performed some meat cutting trials using the robot in the gravity compensation mode. A special holding tool was developed to accommodate a joystick which would be held by the user and the cutting tool. The project involved meat operations on chicken, pork and beef for which special cutting tools were made. The joystick was an industrial joystick which we customized for the project and it allowed a very natural and intuitive user interface. The blades are professional butcher blades customized for the project by machining in the laboratory. A customized pneumatic hanger was developed for holding the pork vertically. Specific cutting tools and holding apparatus for each meat product or carcass to cut were devised as shown in Figure 13 below.

(**a**) Horizontal cutting (**b**) Vertical cutting

(**c**) Knife (**d**) Peeler (**e**) Chicken holder (**f**) Pork **Figure 13.** Exoscarne equipment.
