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This robot multitasks like a sushi chef
Meet Sashimi-Bot. A robot that sees, understands, grasps, and cuts soft and slippery objects – without damaging them.
Sashimi-Bot straightens a loin of salmon on the cutting board, changes tools, grasps, slices, and stabilize the raw fish. Finally, it arranges the sashimi slices on a plate using three robotic arms that 'talk to each other.'
This is called physical intelligence in robotics.
Teaching soft multitasking to a robot
Getting a robot to prepare sashimi might sound like a mere curiosity. In reality, it involves one of the most difficult challenges in modern robotics: teaching autonomous robot systems to understand and handle delicate objects without damaging them.
A soft, slippery, sticky, and deformable salmon loin is wonderful to eat, but it's a nightmare for robots to work with.
Sashimi-Bot combines 3D shape manipulation, tool use, precise cutting, and manipulation of thin, fragile slices.
“There are hardly any objects in nature that are more challenging to work with,” says Ekrem Misimi. He is a chief scientist at SINTEF Ocean and led the team behind this work.
What is Sashimi-Bot?
Sashimi-Bot is a new autonomous tri-manual robot system developed by researchers at SINTEF Ocean and several other research institutions.
The system uses three robotic arms. They work together to straighten a salmon loin, change tools, grasp and guide a knife, and stabilise the fish during cutting.
Finally, they pick up thin sashimi slices and arrange them on a plate.
We humans don't think of these as difficult and complicated tasks. For robots, however, they are extremely challenging.
Salmon is soft, slippery, and naturally varies in shape and size. The raw fish can deform, slip, be limp, and change behaviour during contact with the robot.
“This isn’t just a demonstration of advanced manipulation and sashimi slicing, but of autonomous physical intelligence. Quite simply, this refers to robots that need to see, feel, adapt, and act in the face of uncertainty,” says Misimi.
Bringing together the world’s leading experts
Misimi convened some of the world’s leading research groups in tactile sensing. In other words, what humans perceive through touch.
They worked on robot vision, robotic manipulation, and autonomous systems to tackle some of the most fundamental challenges in today’s robotics.
The goal was not simply to create a robot that could slice sashimi, but to demonstrate how robots can develop greater physical intelligence. This enables them to interact with the real world as it actually is: unpredictable and constantly changing.
“We’ve managed to create a robot that combines several of the most advanced robotics solutions in one robot,” says Misimi.
How the researchers taught the robot to feel
The robot first learns how to handle and shape a soft salmon loin in a simulation – much like practicing in a virtual training room.
It then transfers this knowledge directly into the real world without needing to train again. As the robot works, it uses its vision to adjust its movements along the way, ensuring the fish has the correct shape before cutting.
At the same time, a robotic hand controls the knife like a tool. It functions almost like a human hand, enabling precise and controlled cutting.
Sashimi-Bot not only 'sees' what it is doing, it also feels it.
A sensor on the knife registers how it feels when it cuts, a bit like when we feel the resistance in a knife. This allows the robot to detect when it hits the cutting board and to automatically adjust its movement.
Finally, it uses its vision to pick up the thin, fragile sashimi slices with chopsticks, even when they are stuck on the knife and difficult to grasp.
Demonstrates what is possible
The result is not just a collection of individual robotic skills. It is an entire workflow in which learning, vision, touch, and precise control work together from start to finished product.
“This has been incredibly fun to work on, perhaps the most fun project I’ve been involved with so far,” says Sverre Herland, a researcher at SINTEF Ocean.
He explains that the project also shows how a lot of the properties needed for advanced manipulation can be achieved using relatively simple tools – provided the robots can successfully combine vision, touch, learning, and control.
“The work not only shows what is possible within robotics, but also highlights the challenges. Only when the robot actually has to grasp, cut, and lift a soft and smooth object can we observe where the shoe still pinches,” says Herland.
Challenging test environment for future robotics
Salmon is not the easiest test object. It was chosen precisely because it is difficult to handle.
Salmon consists of natural biological materials and varies in its geometry. It also has poorly defined material properties and is difficult to hold without damaging it.
That is exactly why seafood is an excellent testing ground for future robotics.
“If we can develop robots that handle objects like this, it opens up possibilities for far more diverse applications. Robots can contribute to automating tasks that today still have to be done manually because the objects are too variable, deformable, or fragile for traditional robotic technology,” says Misimi.
The technology has significance far beyond handling salmon because it addresses a fundamental problem within robotics:
How can robots understand and physically interact with objects that are difficult to model?
“This is relevant across different robot types and operating environments on land, underwater, and in the air, wherever the robot has to combine the skills of perception, contact understanding, and action in real time,” says Misimi.
Many practical applications
In the seafood industry, these methods could contribute to more flexible processing, better use of raw materials, reduced food waste, and less dependence on heavy manual labour.
The food industry could apply similar methods for handling meat, fruit, vegetables, and other biological raw materials.
Agriculture, healthcare, textiles, and recycling all present similar challenges, where robots need to understand and handle objects that do not behave the same way every time.
These methods also open up new possibilities in underwater robotics.
Today’s underwater robots are largely used for perception, navigation, monitoring, and inspection. Physical interaction and manipulation, however, are still far less developed.
More advanced underwater robotic manipulation could make future systems far more interactive.
Instead of only observing and mapping, they could also perform tasks such as inspection, maintenance, and repairs more autonomously and cost-effectively for the marine industry, energy sector, aquaculture, and maritime infrastructure.
International collaboration at the highest level
“This project shows that demanding industrial problems can be an arena for basic research in robotics and artificial intelligence,” says Misimi.
The challenges are not limited to a single industry. They involve some of the most important scientific problems facing the next generation of autonomous robotic systems.
“These challenges cannot be solved by one research group alone. Collaboration across disciplines, institutions, and national borders are required if robots are to learn how to understand, feel, and act in the physical world,” says Misimi.
Reference:
Herland et al. Sashimi-Bot: autonomous tri-manual advanced manipulation and cutting of deformable objects (Abstract), npj Robotics, 2026. DOI: 10.1038/s44182-026-00098-9
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