This robot follows in the footsteps of its brethren peopling (if that’s the right word) factories and assembly lines. It’s a precision device with a sharp, sharp knife on the end, and its job is to take a big chunk of ham and separate the meat from the bone. It’s a good thing they’re fixed to the ground. A free-roaming flesh-stripping bot would be just a little too much.
The spokesman for Mayekawa, the Japanese company that designed the robot, noted that the use of robots in food preparation and service lags severely behind the use in other industries. I’d say that’s because we just don’t trust the things to fillet our chicken yet, but there have also been technical concerns. The HAMDAS-R is able to “feel” where it needs to stop cutting and won’t accidentally chop through bones or leave fragments in the meat. That’s the theory, anyway.
I’m sure these guys have been tested a lot and will be backed up by quality assurance people sorting through the meat and looking for obvious problems. Look at that assembly line, though. With teamwork, anything is possible! Actually, that’s what I’m afraid of.