Robotic hand with integrated weighing function for automated food toppings
摘要
The automation of food topping in manufacturing has lagged due to the challenge of balancing weight accuracy with operational speed. Conventional robots often operate slowly, repeatedly regrasping food items to adjust the weight. To address this limitation, we propose a high-accuracy, high-speed topping robot that grasps a larger quantity of food and dispense it while simultaneously measuring its weight. A novel robotic hand has been developed that integrates fingers for grasping food and a conveyor for dispensing it. This hand eliminates the need for regrasping prior to topping and allows for repeated topping actions after a single grasp. Dynamic conveyor control including adjustments to rotation speed, direction, and target weight enhances topping precision. Experiments conducted with a prototype robot after carefully determining the control parameters demonstrate that the proposed system effectively improves both topping accuracy and processing speed.