# Food Processing with UHP Waterjets
## 3 Waterjet Food Systems
### System Manipulators, Support Tables, Sensors, and Software
In a rotary-linear manipulator, as shown in Figure 14a, the nozzle is held stationary while the cake is traversed in both linear and rotary motions to cut any shape or pattern that is programmed on the machine controller. In SCARA-type systems, as shown in Figure 14b, the nozzle and a point catcher are linked to move together using the same drive motor and thus there is no need for a slot or tank catcher. This system can cut a cake at a speed of about 0.5 m/s using medium waterjet pressures of around 200 MPa. Figure 11: Example of dual bridge with jet tilting. Figure 12: Example of delta robot arms used for fish portioning. Software technology is important in food processing facilities and can operate at different levels: the food processing software level and the ERP level. Food processing software addresses the flow of the food through the processing line starting with receiving the food and ending with packaging and labeling. This software will obviously depend on the food being cut. For cake cutting, for example, simple shape cutting software may be used to select the shape to be cut. Figure 15 shows a graphical user interface (GUI) to simplify the cutting process. Figure 14: Examples of cake cutting manipulators. (**a**) Courtesy Metronics (**b**) Courtesy Xilix. Figure 13: Robotic cake cutting. Figure 10.0 Example graphical user interface (GUI) for cake cutting. [PERSON] et al. [8] described a robot fish-cutting system which incorporates complex sensing with knowledge-based control. The system is used to remove the lateral pin bones from fish fillets by means of a robot-manipulated waterjet cutter. A sensing system is used to obtain geometric and positional information about each file. A knowledge-based control system uses a priori knowledge of the fish species and information from the sensing system to generate the appropriate robot commands. The successful deboning of fish fillets demonstrated the viability of this approach which is now in practice in many fish processing facilities. In these facilities, complex software is used to interface the sensor data with the machine software. In this case, a vision module is used to scan the characteristics of the food traveling on a feed belt. For example, high-speed X-Ray cameras (such as Inspirex R40 LF-800, by Mettler Toledo, Columbus, OH USA) may be used to accurately locate the bones [9]. A 3D vision camera is used to measure fish or chicken weight distribution. Analysis of X-ray and 3D images of fish traveling through the machine on a conveyor belt allows data on the precise position of the fillets to be fed to two robots deploying water jets. They trim away the areas containing pin bones and cut the fillets into predetermined portion sizes with exceptionally high accuracy. Figure 16 shows different portioning patterns that the software will facilitate programming. [PERSON] and [PERSON] [10] proposed an expert system for meat cutting applications with waterjets. An interactive acquisition methodology was addressed in the design and structure of the food processing knowledgebase. The acquired knowledge is then to be formalized into an acceptable format for the system. It is believed that the field of artificial intelligence will play a significant role in food processing in the future. Today, digital manufacturing execution systems (MESs) are implemented in many food processing facilities not only to manage requirements of safety regulations but also to maximize production performance. The food processing software is a layer in the MES that unites machines and production planning. With food processing software in an MES, orders are automatically transferred to the production equipment, as well as material consumption,  
Figure 10.1 Examples of chicken, fish, and meat portioning patterns. and the number of produced items are reported back and can be accessed by the company's ERP system.