Abstract
Fish filleting is a high value-add processing step because it converts whole fish into premium, standardised, consumer-ready products for high-value retail and foodservice channels. However, value capture is often constrained by yield losses, labour intensity, throughput bottlenecks, and seasonal labour scarcity. The pre-filleting stage, where raw fish is introduced into the processing line, remains one of the most challenging steps because fish must still be picked manually and fed into early-stage machines such as deheaders, tail-removal units, and filleting systems. This is physically demanding due to fish weights ranging from 4.0 kg to 9.0 kg and directly creates a throughput constraint. Natural variability in fish geometry, size, and colour, combined with the slippery and deformable nature of raw fish, makes high-speed automated handling of unprocessed fish particularly difficult. FIN-GRIP addresses this gap by developing an integrated flexible robotic cell with custom end-effectors for safe, efficient, and hygienic picking of fish of varied size and geometry from high-speed conveyors, together with rapid inspection and sorting using multi-modal vision, grasp-point estimation, 3D sensing, deep-learning segmentation, and AI- and data-driven software pipelines. The system will detect, localise, inspect, orient, grasp, and transfer fish under cluttered, overlapping, wet, and reflective conditions, while enabling low-latency motion planning for continuous conveyor operation. FIN-GRIP will demonstrate TRL 6 to 7 pilots in two complementary settings: a brownfield pilot upgrading an existing semi-automated flatfish filleting line at JOSMAR in Spain to an autonomous robotic feeding solution for the pre-filleting stage, and a greenfield pilot developing a representative pelagic fish picking line at PEM Automation in Ireland based on Irish end-user needs. Validation will use industrial KPIs covering throughput, handling accuracy, yield consistency, and reduced manual intervention.
Consortium

COORDINATOR

  Irish Manufacturing Research

Keerthi Sagar Somenedi Nageswara Rao

PARTNERS

Irish Manufacturing Research

PEM Automation Ltd

Ingenieria de Proyectos Marinos, S.L

Automotive Technology Centre of Galicia

Teagasc Agriculture and Food Development Authority