An automated salmonid slaughter line using machine vision

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to describe a new slaughter line for industrial slaughtering of salmonid fish. Traditionally, slaughtering of farmed salmonids – salmon and rainbow trout – was done manually by bleed cutting with knives. Using the new slaughter line that includes 3D machine vision and a bleed‐cutting robot, slaughtering is almost completely automated – nominally requiring only one person to supervise the line and manually bleed cut the fish not handled by the robot.Design/methodology/approachThe design approach of the salmonid slaughter line focuses on using 3D machine vision and a bleed‐cutting robot with four biaxial pneumatic actuators to handle the slaughtering of pre‐anesthetized salmon and rainbow trout.FindingsUnder normal operating conditions, the slaughter line is capable of automatically slaughtering 85‐95 percent of all fish at an average feed rate of 30‐80 salmon/min, and the remaining 5‐15 percent are slaughtered manually. Several issues have been discovered, that should be addressed to improve the slaughter line.Originality/valueThis paper presents a new complete salmonid slaughter line that has reduced the need for manual labor in salmonid slaughtering plants.