Project
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What is MOZART?
A 4-year Horizon Europe project that brought together robotics, engineering and social science experts to solve one shared challenge: making the handling of soft, fragile food products safer, smarter and more sustainable.
The challenge
When MOZART began in 2022, the food processing industry had already automated its most repetitive operations. What remained unresolved was handling soft, delicate products like fish and poultry – a task rigid automation could not perform, and that called for progress not only in technology, but in human-robot collaboration and shared standards too.
MOZART responded with a surface-based robotic manipulation system, built around a clear set of objectives. In its four years of endeavours, it has:
delivered a working AUTOMAT prototype, validated through real demonstrations in industrial and commercial settings
supported the green transition of the food processing industry through soft tactile robotics for handling fresh, fragile products
extended the state of the art in robotic perception, interaction and manipulation, with a focus on modular, composable solutions
studied human-robot collaboration and the changing nature of work to keep automation socially and environmentally sustainable
laid the groundwork for AUTOMAT’s product development, culminating in the CWA 18409:2026 standard for grasp-free robotic manipulation
THE SOLUTION
AUTOMAT (Autonomous Manipulation using Morphing Modular Mats) is built on the principles of soft robotics. Instead of rigid tools that grip products at a few points, it uses reconfigurable surfaces that adapt to shape and weight in real time.
This is surface-based manipulation: contact spread across the whole surface, guided by AI to adjust to each object as it moves. AUTOMAT is made of three integrated layers – sensing, movement and control – working together to reshape it and move objects gently.
- COPESS (Compliant Poro-Elastic Smart Skin) – the top layer: a soft, sensor-embedded skin that feels pressure, contact and shape as it touches an object
Find out more about COPESS - ORA (Origami Robotics Actuator) – the middle layer: origami-inspired modules that reshape the surface to move and reposition objects, without ever grasping them
Find out more about ORA - Electronics layer – the base layer: powers, connects and coordinates every sensor and actuator across the surface
Find out more about the electronics
In practice
MOZART chose to test AUTOMAT where the challenge is felt most: in the everyday handling of poultry and fish, two of the food industry’s largest and most delicate product categories. Across these sectors, the new technology is at work in three concrete tasks:
Fish Descaling - AUTOMAT can rotate the fish gently and precisely as it is descaled by the operator
Sorting Chicken Fillets - The robot can sort chicken portions by type and weight, for accurate, consistent results
Drumsticks Packaging - AUTOMAT can arrange chicken drumsticks neatly, skin-side up, ready for presentation packaging
Consortium
IT Universitetet i København
Coordinator, IT research
Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia
Research in poro-elastic materials and sensors
Trinity College Dublin
SSH research
Cabinplant AS
Providing machines for food processing and packaging
Ente Italiano di Normazione
Standardization
Fondazione ICONS
Communication and dissemination
Association of Poultry Processors and Poultry Trade in the EU Countries
Networking with the food processing industry
Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne
Research in poro-elastic materials, sensors and origami robotics
Brno University of Technology
User interfaces
University of Southern Denmark
SSH and Human-robot interaction research
