Circular Shell Gripper for Handling Food Products

Wang, Zhongkui; Kanegae, Ryo; Hirai, Shinichi

doi:10.1089/soro.2019.0140

Cited by 69 publications

(33 citation statements)

References 31 publications

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“…Silicone elastomers and other polymers used in soft robotics literature, as well as the corresponding number of citations. For this graph, 45 articles were examined: Ecoflex [198][199][200][201][202][203][204][205], Dragon Skin 10/20/30/FX-Pro [206][207][208][209][210][211][212][213][214][215][216][217][218][219][220][221][222][223][224][225], Elastosil M4601 [199,202,218,[226][227][228][229], PDMS [198,208,[230][231][232][232][233][234], Smooth-Sil [200,207,209,218,222,…”

Section: Figurementioning

confidence: 99%

“…FEA [206,220,224,225,230,236,[246][247][248][249][250][251]: This type of actuator technology is emerging as a potential winner for fruit handling. This is due to the use of affordable materials, the simplicity of their manufacture and control, and the grip strength obtained.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Hypothetical harvest scenarios with several soft grippers. (a) Soft continuum gripper based on [256], (b) endeffector based on [257], (c) bellow-type soft gripper based on [224], (d) multi-choice gripper based on[258], (e) circular soft gripper based on[220,230], and (f) tendon-driven soft gripper based on[254].…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Soft Grippers for Automatic Crop Harvesting: A Review

Navas

Fernández

Sepúlveda

et al. 2021

Sensors

138

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Agriculture 4.0 is transforming farming livelihoods thanks to the development and adoption of technologies such as artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things and robotics, traditionally used in other productive sectors. Soft robotics and soft grippers in particular are promising approaches to lead to new solutions in this field due to the need to meet hygiene and manipulation requirements in unstructured environments and in operation with delicate products. This review aims to provide an in-depth look at soft end-effectors for agricultural applications, with a special emphasis on robotic harvesting. To that end, the current state of automatic picking tasks for several crops is analysed, identifying which of them lack automatic solutions, and which methods are commonly used based on the botanical characteristics of the fruits. The latest advances in the design and implementation of soft grippers are also presented and discussed, studying the properties of their materials, their manufacturing processes, the gripping technologies and the proposed control methods. Finally, the challenges that have to be overcome to boost its definitive implementation in the real world are highlighted. Therefore, this review intends to serve as a guide for those researchers working in the field of soft robotics for Agriculture 4.0, and more specifically, in the design of soft grippers for fruit harvesting robots.

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Section: Figurementioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Soft Grippers for Automatic Crop Harvesting: A Review

Navas

Fernández

Sepúlveda

et al. 2021

Sensors

138

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show abstract

“…Content may change prior to final publication. Abaqus, for example, is used to model laminar jamming structures [109], 3D locomotion of soft robots with electrostatic actuators [110], deflection of a soft robot produced by thermal conduction [111] and a soft robotic grippers [112]. Abaqus models non-linear behaviour well, and support a large range of material properties with a material model library.…”

Section: Soft Roboticsmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Review of Physics Simulators for Robotic Applications

Collins

Chand²,

Vanderkop³

et al. 2021

IEEE Access

162

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The use of simulators in robotics research is widespread, underpinning the majority of recent advances in the field. There are now more options available to researchers than ever before, however navigating through the plethora of choices in search of the right simulator is often non-trivial. Depending on the field of research and the scenario to be simulated there will often be a range of suitable physics simulators from which it is difficult to ascertain the most relevant one. We have compiled a broad review of physics simulators for use within the major fields of robotics research. More specifically, we navigate through key sub-domains and discuss the features, benefits, applications and use-cases of the different simulators categorised by the respective research communities. Our review provides an extensive index of the leading physics simulators applicable to robotics researchers and aims to assist them in choosing the best simulator for their use case.

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“…A soft robotic gripper with enhanced object adaptation and grasping reliability was also proposed in ( Zhou et al, 2017 ), and it was experimentally tested by grasping various objects including fruits and foot materials. Wang et al proposed a series of grippers for handling food and agricultural products, such as a 3D printable soft gripper and a pre-stressed gripper for packaging lunch boxes ( Wang et al, 2016 ; Wang et al, 2017 ), a wrapping gripper for handling granular foods ( Kuriyama et al, 2019 ), a circular shell gripper for grasping and twisting ( Wang et al, 2020a ), a soft gripper equipped with suction cups to realize both grasping and suction modes ( Wang et al, 2020b ), a needle gripper for grasping chopped food material, such as salads, and eliminating defective products by piercing ( Makiyama et al, 2020 ), and a parallel shell gripper for packaging multiple cucumbers simultaneously ( Kanegae et al, 2020 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Scooping-Binding Robotic Gripper for Handling Various Food Products

et al. 2021

Self Cite

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Food products are usually difficult to handle for robots because of their large variations in shape, size, softness, and surface conditions. It is ideal to use one robotic gripper to handle as many food products as possible. In this study, a scooping-binding robotic gripper is proposed to achieve this goal. The gripper was constructed using a pneumatic parallel actuator and two identical scooping-binding mechanisms. The mechanism consists of a thin scooping plate and multiple rubber strings for binding. When grasping an object, the mechanisms actively makes contact with the environment for scooping, and the object weight is mainly supported by the scooping plate. The binding strings are responsible for stabilizing the grasping by wrapping around the object. Therefore, the gripper can perform high-speed pick-and-place operations. Contact analysis was conducted using a simple beam model and a finite element model that were experimentally validated. Tension property of the binding string was characterized and an analytical model was established to predict binding force based on object geometry and binding displacement. Finally, handling tests on 20 food items, including products with thin profiles and slippery surfaces, were performed. The scooping-binding gripper succeeded in handling all items with a takt time of approximately 4 s. The gripper showed potential for actual applications in the food industry.

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Circular Shell Gripper for Handling Food Products

Cited by 69 publications

References 31 publications

Soft Grippers for Automatic Crop Harvesting: A Review

Soft Grippers for Automatic Crop Harvesting: A Review

A Review of Physics Simulators for Robotic Applications

A Scooping-Binding Robotic Gripper for Handling Various Food Products

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