AN APPROACH TO AUTOMATION OF PORK GRADING

In commercial pork grading practice, a government inspector inserts an approved grading probe into a designated spot on the back of a suspen ded carcass that is moving on an overhead conveyor in an abattoir. The spot is at 7 cm from the split edge of the carcass, in the intercosta l area between the last third and the fourth ribs. The probe is insert ed once on every carcass, at the rate of 800 carcasses/hour, in a medi um sized abattoir. The work presented herein, describes an attempt to automate this labor intensive process.