Development and validation of robotic cleaning system for fish processing plants

Summary

This paper presents the development of a robotic cleaning solution for a fish processing plant. The project is currently at the stage of a first prototype consisting of a serial manipulator, a vertical linear axis and a rotational axis for the vertical axis. The purpose of the prototype is to validate the cleaning quality of a robotic cleaning solution. A cleaning solution will have to spray the equipment and machines in the processing plant with chemicals and water to remove fish residue and bacteria, and special design considerations have to be taken with regards to water proofing and corrosion resistance. In order to validate such a system, a cleaning test was performed on an electric stunner, a machine typically found in salmon slaughterhouses. Results from the cleaning test show that robotic cleaning of fish processing equipment gives promising results. However, several issues related to making a system that can clean a whole plant are not resolved. Further work will require the development of a custom serial manipulator and a custom linear axis for navigating the manipulator. The main purpose of this paper is to present design considerations and investigate the validity of a robotic cleaning solution aimed at fish processing plants. This research is at TRL 5, with validation of technology in relevant environment.