Automated crab meat picking method

An automated method for crab meat picking, comprising:

• (a) establishing a crab meat picking system configured with:
• an imaging sub-system, and
• an image processing sub-system operatively coupled to said imaging sub-system, said image processing sub-system being configured with a predetermined processing routine selected from a group comprising a Convolution Neural Network (CNN) image processing routine, a Deep Learning image processing routine, and a combination thereof;
• (b) acquiring, by said imaging sub-system, at least one image of at least one crab to be processed;
• (c) submitting the acquired at least one image of the at least one crab from said imaging sub-system to said image processing sub-system;
• (d) applying said predetermined processing routine to said at least one image of the at least one crab, and computing, by said image processing sub-system, instructions relative to at least a cutline of the at least one crab;
• and
• (e) cutting the at least one crab in accordance with said instructions from said image processing sub-system,
• wherein said step (a) includes:
• further configuring said crab meat picking system with:
• a conveyor belt having a first end and a second end, wherein said imaging sub-system is disposed in alignment with said conveyor belt in proximity to said first end thereof,
• at least one cutting station positioned in alignment with said conveyor belt downstream said imaging sub-system, said at least one cutting station being equipped with a controllable cutting tool,
• a meat removal station disposed downstream said at least one cutting station and equipped with at least one end effector tool to remove the crab meat of said at least one crab, and
• a control sub-system operatively coupled between said image processing sub-system, said at least one cutting station, said meat removal station, and said conveyor belt;
• and
• wherein said imaging sub-system is a dual-modality imaging system including a Red-Green-Blue (RGB) color imaging sub-system and a 3-dimensional (3-D) laser imaging sub-system, further comprising:
• in said step (d), generating a 2-D crab morphology information, by said RGB color imaging sub-system, said 2-D crab morphology information including a crab size and the crab orientation on the conveyor belt,
• generating a 3-D laser information by said 3-D laser imaging sub-system, and
• generating, by said dual-modality imaging system, a 3-D crab model based on said 2-D crab morphology information and said 3-D laser information.