Biologically-inspired swallowing robot for investigation of texture modified foods

Abstract

Textural and rheological characteristics of foods are known to profoundly affect the swallowing process. Food technologists continue to exploit this notion in the management of symptomatic swallowing disorders (dysphagia) where novel foods are designed to elicit more reliable transport characteristics. Currently, little is understood about the relationship between food bolus formulation and its flow-induced interactions with the swallowing tract. Experimentation of a medical nature in this field is extremely challenging, and may put patients at risk. In the rheological domain the deformation fields are dissimilar to that of the biological system. In response to these limitations, quantitative assessment of bolus transport by a novel rheometric testing device is proposed. This paper describes the inspiration for a biologically-inspired robotic swallowing device to be applied to address these issues. This will allow for an improved understanding of swallowing mechanics and food design in the engineering, medical, and food technology fields.Keywords: swallow; swallowing robot; peristalsis; biological inspiration; texture modified food; TMF; bolus; food technology. 164 S. Dirven et al.Reference to this paper should be made as follows: Dirven, S., Xu, W., Cheng, L.K., Allen, J. and Bronlund, J. (2013) Biographical notes: Steven Dirven is a PhD candidate in the field of mechatronics engineering at the University of Auckland, New Zealand. He graduated from Massey University, New Zealand, with a BE (Mechatronics) with first class honours in 2010. He is a student member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). His current research surrounds soft-robotic actuation and sensation for peristaltic pumping arising from inspiration of esophageal swallowing in man.Weiliang Xu received his BE in Manufacturing Engineering and ME in Mechanical Engineering from Southeast University, China, 1982 and 1985, respectively, and This paper is a revised and expanded version of a paper entitled 'Strategic alignment of swallowing robotic research with the demands of the medical and food technology fields' presented at

Early career scientists converse on the future of soft robotics

“…There are already a few systems, but these lack simplicity, are not electronic free and prone to failure. Some systems like the soft total artificial heart (Cohrs et al, 2017), the SoGut-artificial stomach peristalsis simulator (Dang et al, 2020), the artificial oesophagus system RoSE (Dirven et al, 2013;Dirven et al 2015;Dirven et al 2017) and the silicon-based peristaltic pump (utilizable as an artificial intestine and oesophagus) (Esser et al, 2019a;Esser et al, 2019b;Tauber and Fitzgerald, 2021) are completely soft but necessitate an external pressure supply (Menciassi and Iacovacci, 2020;Tauber and Fitzgerald, 2021;Hashem et al, 2022). There are a few commercially available artificial hearts, such as the temporary Total Artificial heart (TAH-t) (SynCardia Systems, Inc., Tucson, AZ, United States) and the AESON CARMAT TAH (Carmat, Vélizy-Villacoublay, France).…”

Silent Pumpers: A Comparative Topical Overview of the Peristaltic Pumping Principle in Living Nature, Engineering, and Biomimetics

“…Some biomimetic pumps closely mimic the natural role models in terms of length, diameter, and transport parameters. These artificial esophagi are produced for bolus rheometry, food development for patients with oesophageal disorders, or sensor development . Other examples for biomimetic peristaltic pumping systems are highlighted in this part of the chapter and in Table .…”

“…Three flexible soft robotic biomimetic macroscopic pumping peristaltic systems which incorporate self‐actuating pneumatic conduit walls were identified to be of interest for the comparison with technical peristaltic pumps: a peristaltic conveyor for transporting powders (see Figure a), a bioinspired soft‐bodied peristaltic esophageal‐swallowing robot (see Figure b), and a flexible biomimetic soft robotic peristaltic pumping system (see Figure c) . All three systems can sufficiently transport fluid peristaltically through pneumatic expansion.…”

“…The working principle by which fluid motion is generated in biomimetic peristaltic pumps (Figure d) is similar to that of common pumps in engineering. However, not only the used materials differ but also the actuators are differing from technical pumps (e.g., electroactive polymers, shape memory alloys, and/or polymers), pneumatic chambers (e.g., flexible silicone actuators, flexible foam actuators or flexible rubber actuators) (see Figure d), flexible elastomers or magnetic elastomers, polymers or fluids are used to generate the peristaltic motion in a tube. Most biomimetic developments try to integrate the actuators directly into the tube or to make the tube self‐actuating as in most biological models (e.g., the esophagus) .…”

Bio-Inspired Robots Imitating Human Organs with Embodied Intelligence Behaviour

“…Ferrua et al advised that a dynamic soft robot can be a practical method for experimenting and validating the conduct theories [7]. For example, the swallowing robot was constructed from compliant materials and actuated by a pneumatic system to emulate a human esophagus [9]. Recent soft robots present inspiration and a step forward toward embodied intelligent robots that are adaptive to the unknown or variant environment, such as the swallowing robot [10], stomach robot [11,12], and heart actuator [6].…”