Development of hybrid robot-gripper for picking foods

• Main Author: Tee, Isaac
• Other Authors: Chen I-Ming
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: Nanyang Technological University 2020
• Subjects: Engineering::Mechanical engineering
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/139484
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

With the advent of Industry 4.0, more and more industrial processes are being automated. This is especially true for processes that involve repetitive and monotonous tasks, which can be carried out more efficiently with the use of machines. One such example is the picking and placing of food in large quantities. Several types of food gripping robots exist and the technology is still in development today. The purpose of this Final-Year Project is to design a robotic gripper for the purpose of automation in the food industry. The main objective is to pick and place various types of food with all sorts of shapes, textures, and consistencies. Current soft robotic grippers for the food industry in the market mainly focus on picking and placing of food, and only 1 degree of freedom exists in current grippers, only allowing it to actuate in 2 directions. This project will focus on the development of soft robotic grippers with additional features for food handling, such as a 2nd degree of freedom to enable more options for actuation, and different picking methods, such as scooping of food with a soft robotic gripper to cater to types of food that come in small pieces or food with sauce. The soft robotic gripper is made out of different kinds of silicone rubbers throughout the course of the project, and the grippers are actuated using compressed air flowing through internal air chambers, pumping in compressed air between 70kPa to 120kPa. This project report will cover the following in sequence: literature review, material properties and selection, in-depth review of fabrication processes, design considerations and fabrication of each of the prototypes, experimentation of each of the prototypes, conclusion and future work. Some engineering principles and programmes used in this project include 3D printing for prototyping, CAD modelling, and Finite Element Analysis (FEA) using ANSYS. Over the course of the project, 6 prototypes were developed, with the initial design taking inspiration from Rochu [1]. Towards the end of the project, a gripper with 2 degrees of freedom and a scoop was developed. It was able to have a better grip on objects as compared to the previous prototypes as it incorporated a base with a rougher texture to increase grip. Furthermore, thanks to the removable scoop, it was also able to double as a scooping gripper when used in a pair, able to scoop masses up to 170g.