Slaughterhouse: First to automate the receiving of cattle by truck and rail, then herding them into
holding pens, then herding them individually into the slaughterhouse. To win this challenge (and any of the below future challenges), the invention must be installed into a major commercial slaughterhouse (processing at least 1,000 heads of cattle a day) and successfully operate without error for 100 hours of continuous work. Also, to win this challenge (and Future Challenges #1 through #22), the program must include a learning algorithm, must transmit at least once per operational day what it has learned to the company that developed the program, and download updates from that central server.
Future Challenges:
1) Rendering the cattle unconscious.
2) Hanging the cattle upside down by both of their hind legs on the processing line.
3) Severing of the carotid artery and jugular vein and draining the blood. [Death follows.]
4) Removing the head, front feet, and rear feet.
5) Removing the hide.
6) Removing the internal organs.
7) Inspecting the internal organs for parasites and signs of disease. Rejecting carcasses that fail this inspection and automatically stopping the line to re-inspect all previously-approved carcasses from the same farmer and slaughterhouse holding pen.
8) Separating the liver for inspection. Rejecting livers and their carcasses that fail this inspection and automatically stopping the line to re-inspect all previously-approved carcasses from the same farmer and slaughterhouse holding pen.
9) Removing the tongue from the head.
10) Inspecting the lymph nodes in the head for signs of systemic disease. Rejecting carcasses that fail this inspection and automatically stopping the line to re-inspect all previously-approved carcasses from the same farmer and slaughterhouse holding pen.
11) Inspecting the carcass for safety and the inspection accepted by the US Food Safety Inspection Service. Rejecting carcasses that fail this inspection and automatically stopping the line to re-inspect all previously-approved carcasses from the same farmer and slaughterhouse holding pen.
12) Electrically stimulating carcass [to improve meat tenderness].
13) Chilling the carcass.
14) Splitting chilled carcass in half and then into quarters. [Once Future Challenges #15 and #16 are automated, this step might no longer need to be done. The halving and quartering of the carcass is for easier handling by human butchers.]
15) Taking primal cuts.
16) Taking subprimal cuts.
17) Vacuum-packing meat.
18) Boxing primal and subprimal meat.
19) Loading boxed meat on refrigerator trucks to transport to distribution centers.
20) Doing advanced meat recovery.
21) Separating bone, lard, and tallow and then putting it into trucks for a rendering plant.
22) First commercial slaughterhouse (that processes at least 1,000 cattle per day) to be fully-automated.
23) First restaurant chain (1000 units or more) to only buy its meat from fully-automated meat processing plants and promote this fact to the public. [The chain promoting that its meat is safer to eat by having less human contact than their competitor's meat.]
24) First grocery store chain (500 stores or more) to only buy its meat from fully-automated meat processing plants and promote this fact to the public. [Like the restaurant chain in the future challenge above, the grocery store chain promoting that its meat is safer to eat by having less human contact than their competitor's meat.]