As my editor puts it, "It doesn't seem very Earth-shattering, but I do love the phrase 'meat gripper'." So without further ado, here it is -- the Meat Gripper.

Applied Robotics, a maker of "robotic end-of-arm tooling and connectivity solutions" based in Glenville, N.Y., has just announced that its Meat Gripper has been approved and certified by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Designed to "handle all types of meat, fish, and cheese in various forms," this pneumatic meat-loving robot is fast: the gripper opens and closes in less than 65 milliseconds -- in the blink of an eye. And connected to an Adept Quattro s650 manipulator arm, it can handle over 100 pieces of meat per minute.

Now, after making their way into car assembly lines, semiconductor fabs, and Staples's warehouses, robots can take over meat-processing plants as well.