Fishy problem: Dunedin robotics company to bone salmon automatically

Scott Technology has teamed up with Mt Cook Alpine Salmon and Seafood Innovations. Photo / 123RF

A solution to the age-old and finicky problem of removing fine bones from salmon fillets is being sought by a specialist Dunedin engineering and robotics company.

Scott Technology, whose specialties include robotic meat processing, has teamed up with Mt Cook Alpine Salmon and Seafood Innovations to find a solution to the time-consuming problem of manually plucking 30 bones from each fillet.

Mt Cook manager of processing operations Brent Keelty said about 500,000 fish were processed annually and a growing number of customers were looking for "bone-out" fillets and portions.

"Pin boning is a tedious and costly task and we have to rotate our staff on the pin bone line to avoid repetitive strain injuries," he said.

Unlike Atlantic salmon grown elsewhere in the world, king salmon or Chinook have finer bone structure and existing technologies for Atlantic bone removal could not be adapted for king salmon, he said.

Scott Technology's chief executive Chris Hopkins said that to start with, Scott was initially developing an assistive hand-held device for Mt Cook Alpine Salmon.

Advanced concepts aim to develop a high-resolution 3-D view of every fillet, then use algorithms to determine the precise bone locations then have robotic automation remove them, Mr Hopkins said.

He expects the project will take about 18 months to complete.

Because of the pioneering nature of the project, Mt Cook Alpine Salmon approached Seafood Innovations for financial assistance and received backing of more than $500,000.