Sashimi-Bot is a trimanual robotic framework capable of autonomously preparing sashimi. Credit: npj Robotics (2026). DOI: 10.1038/s44182-026-00098-9
If you ever need help in the kitchen cutting fish into appetizing bites, a new three-armed robot may be able to help. And that's no easy feat for robots. While they are generally good at picking up rigid objects, something slippery that can change shape when touched, such as a fish, poses a range of challenges. Then, if you add slicing into the mix, it becomes even more difficult because the robot has to cope with the fish changing shape as it is handled and cut.
Sverre Herland at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim, Norway, and colleagues set about developing a robot capable of overcoming these issues. Details of their work are published in a paper in the journal npj Robotics.
A cut above other bots
Their solution is the Sashimi-Bot, a three-armed robotic system, with each arm dedicated to a different task. One arm straightens the fish by gently pushing it into place, another holds a knife and slices it, and a third picks up the slices with chopsticks and places them on a tray.
