Photo: Morten Larsen

From minesweeping to lobster-tailing 

Erik Andersen has patented shrimp-peeling machines, helped restructure the fishing industry in South Africa, and most recently developed a robot that beheads lobsters. With over 25 years experience in the food technology sector, his extensive knowledge is much in demand around the world.
Erik Andersen was standing in his back garden, gently shaking a lobster in an open-ended trough he had made himself when he noticed that the vibration caused the animal to always exit head first. From that important observation, he continued developing his lobster-tailing robot, which, now perfected, is being used by the Irish Sea Fisheries Authority.

Andersen believes in a simple approach to developing his machines. "If a machine does not work in a simple form, it certainly won't work in a complicated form." The home-built prototypes for his lobster-tailing machine are evidence of this.
Photo: Morten Larsen


An unexpected task

Following his National Service aboard a Royal Danish Navy minesweeper, the first working day of Erik Andersen's career saw him given an unexpected task – to design his own office.

"I joined a firm of consulting engineers for the food industry in 1963. My boss gave me tools and materials and left me to it. I designed and built the room in a week. There was only green paint available to decorate my new office. My colleagues called it Greenland."

Off with their heads

Leaving Greenland, his office, and going to Greenland, the place, Andersen found himself in a Sisimiut fish factory, where he designed a filleting production line. Machines cut the heads off fish, filleted them, then passed them to a manual workforce for trimming. It was the beginning of a long association with the food industry, culminating in his current position as a Senior Consultant for industry and energy at COWI.

Andersen has been responsible for countless inventions, including a silent sausage-skinning machine, an intelligent robotic gripper for the automatic handling of fish, and equipment to catch and suspend chickens for slaughter.

Waiting for the market

The only downside to Andersen's job is waiting for the market to meet his imagination. There is not always a demand for his ideas. "I would like to make a robot that can adjust its own height. It would be ideal for cleaning food factories. Perhaps one day someone will need one."

By Martyn Glanville
Published: 24.08.2006



About Erik Andersen 

Erik Andersen was born in 1937 and graduated from Odense Engineering College, Denmark.

From 1963 to 1975 he worked for EH Matthiesen Ltd, consulting engineers for the food industry, after which he co-founded his own engineering consultancy, Matcon, which was subsequently acquired by COWI.