Artificial Intelligence Enters Meat Product Manufacturing

In collaboration with the Department of Computer Science at the University of Tartu, we have begun testing new artificial intelligence and robotics solutions that will help optimize the manufacturing process and improve product quality control in meat production.

The AIRE Artificial Intelligence and Robotics Center selected our company’s collaborative project with the University of Tartu’s Department of Computer Science in its idea competition. Together, we will explore how to implement quality control on the production line with the aid of artificial intelligence. Participation in the solution testing project, before making a decision to invest in the new solution, helps manufacturing companies evaluate AI and robotics solutions and thus encourages further investment in technology.

“Digitalization of production in the food industry is inevitable if we want to expand into foreign markets, optimize our costs, and make production more efficient,” explains Ragnar Loova, CEO of Nõo Meat Factory. The results of the project are expected by the end of the year.

According to Loova, Nõo Meat Factory has been increasingly investing in innovations and automation of work processes in recent years, allowing the market to offer innovative products and packaging that are more environmentally friendly than before. This need has been driven by economic conditions, environmental requirements, and consumer needs.

According to Ardi Tampuu, an artificial intelligence lecturer at the University of Tartu’s Department of Computer Science, machine vision technologies are sufficiently mature to be used in industry for process monitoring and error identification. “I believe that thanks to open-source models, machine vision solutions will soon be as easily accessible as web pages. It only requires a bit of adaptation of existing tools for specific use cases and proper packaging for the user,” says Tampuu. In his opinion, the AIRE demo project is a good way to showcase the availability of these technologies.

The AI & Robotics Estonia (AIRE) centre is co-funded by the European Union’s Digital Europe Programme (European Digital Innovation Hubs or EDIH programme) and the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications.

Attached is a photo of Ragnar Loova, CEO of Nõo Meat Factory. Photo by Vallo Kruuser.