The applications of robotics are becoming more and more common in non-traditional industries such as the medical industry including robotic surgery and sample microtoming as well as food industry that include the processing of meats, fruits and vegetables. In this paper, the influence of the blade edge-shape and its slicing angle on the cutting of biomaterials are formulated and discussed based on the stress analysis that has been presented in part I. Through modeling the cutting force, an optimal slicing angle can be formulated to maximize the feed rate while minimizing the cutting forces. Moreover, the method offers a means to predict cutting forces between the blade and the biomaterials, and a basis for design of robust force control algorithms for automating the cutting of biomaterials

Bio-material cutting, such as meat deboning, is one the most common operations in food processing. Automating this process using robotic devices with closed-loop force control has shown some promise. The control of the force trajectory directly relates to the internal stress in the material being cut, and must provide enough force to initiate the cut. The ability to model the stress distribution in the bio-materials being cut would provide a better understanding of the influencing factors and help predict the required cutting force for the design of the cutting mechanism and for automating the cutting operations. This research is presented in two parts: part I models the stress distribution when a blade acts on the bio-material and part II discusses the principles of biomaterial cutting. Starting with modeling a point force in the normal and tangential direction on the boundary of a semi-infinite body, an analytical expression for the stress tensor has been obtained and simulated using direct integral method. This paper provides the theoretical basis for explaining the cutting phenomena and predicting the cutting forces, a topic to be presented in part II