Patent ID: 11944105
Assignee: TYSON FOODS, INC.
Field: Handling (Mechanical engineering)
Classification: CPC A  B  G | IPC A  B  G

Claim 8:
9. An automated computer controlled method for performing a meat cut comprising:
controlling a conveyor system drive with a programmable logic controller, thereby controlling conveying a carriage assembly along a debone processing line with a conveyor system to a tender removal debone cutting station where the carriage assembly including a poultry cone mount having a poultry item mounted on the poultry cone mount, where the poultry item has a breast meat portion removed thereby exposing a tender meat portion, where the tender removal debone cutting station includes a robotic arm assembly having a powered knife implement attached to the robotic arm, where the power knife implement has a circular ring shaped annular blade implement attached to and powered by the power knife implement;
capturing a three dimensional image of the poultry item with a three dimensional vision system coupled to the computer that derives a three dimensional data set from the three dimensional image with an image processing engine processing at a computer and electronically storing said data set on an electronic memory of the computer, where the data set is representative of a surface contour, shape, size, geometry, volume, and distinctive local features and structures of the captured three dimensional image of the poultry item;
categorizing parts of the data set based on the distinctive local features and structures, thereby determining structures and corresponding locations including the keel structure and keel location, the tender meat portion and a tender meat portion location, and the entry point location adjacent the keel location;
determining a cut path based on the data set and the distinctive local features and structures and the locations of the distinctive local features and structures; and
controlling and articulating the robotic arm and the attached power knife implement thereby causing the circular ring shaped annular blade implement of the power knife implement to traverse the cut path thereby severing the tender meat portion away from the keel bone and the boney sheath behind the tender meat portion.