## 1 Introduction and Motivation  
The agri-food industry, and particularly the meat industry, is one of the most dangerous industries when it comes to employee safety. Among the various occupations, slaughtering, cutting and meat processing operations require specific dexterity to handle sharp tools or dangerous machines. However, they also require physical strength to carry heavy loads such as pallets or carcasses, quarters or muscles of meat, or to perform deboning work tasks and cutting quarters into pieces of meat. Similarly, they require performing repetitive movements or working in a cold refrigerated room and humid environment. In fact, accidents at work are common and can occur at any time. Thus, the rate of these accidents and their frequency are among the highest, among all professions combined. In addition to work-related accidents, musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) accounted for almost 91% of occupational illness cases in 2019 [1], with 842,490 days of temporary interruption of work for all sectors. A study carried out in the Brittany region of France showed that the agri-food industries are the most risky sectors in terms of MSDs [1]. For instance, at the French level, 30% of the declared MSDs are recorded in the meat sector. Not only is this a major problem for employees, it is also a big problem for companies and society at large. In 2019, compensation for MSDs generated two billion euros in fees (social security estimate) in France, with an average of more than 21,000 euros for each MSD stoppage, not counting the daily allowances [2]. In some companies with 10 to 20% absenteeism, MSDs disrupt production and generate additional costs. In the meat sector, MSDs involve personnel at all stages. Thus, operators involved in meat cutting, represented by bomers, parers and slicers, as well as those located at manufacturing and packaging stations are affected [3]. MSDs affecting the wrist, hand and fingers represent approximately 50% of all MSDs in the meat industry. The arduousness of tasks related to physical effort, the repeatability of movements and the agri-food environment (cold, humidity and hygiene) encountered in the meat sector deters the recruitment of young people, and ultimately few people, trained initially for this sector, remain there. This difficulty in recruiting or retaining young people leads to a significant shortage of manpower in these sectors. Technological evolution of certain workstations which would allow on the one hand a reduction of the arduousness, opening to the women certain activities which were until now reserved for the men, and on the other hand a revaluation of the trades, could change the outlook of the individuals in this sector of activity, give a positive image and promote its attractiveness. Faced with these findings, the meat sector could soon integrate assistive and robotic equipments to encourage companies to improve the quality of life at work of their employees. Cobotics, also known as collaborative robotics, is a technology that uses robotics, mechanics, electronics, and cognitive science to assist humans in their tasks. For the meat sector, the advantages of having cobotics are numerous:  
1. Reduction of occupational risks by reducing the arduousness of the operators' tasks and improving their working conditions. 2. Overcome a major shortage of skilled labour by reducing the lack of image and attractiveness, particularly among young people (hardship in low-value jobs, etc. ), which will help maintain or even develop jobs in the sector. 3. Improve the competitiveness of companies by reducing the direct and indirect costs of work stoppages and by increasing productivity. 4. Improve the safety of products by reducing the direct handling of products by operators or by integrating cleaning systems (e.g., sterilization of tools online between each operation).