Control of a Meal Assistance Robot Capable of Using Chopsticks

Konferenz: ISR/ROBOTIK 2010 - ISR 2010 (41st International Symposium on Robotics) and ROBOTIK 2010 (6th German Conference on Robotics)
07.06.2010 - 09.06.2010 in Munich, Germany

Tagungsband: ISR/ROBOTIK 2010

Seiten: 6Sprache: EnglischTyp: PDF

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Autoren:
Koshizaki, Tomoki; Masuda, Ryosuke (Tokai University, School of Information Science and Technology, 4-1-1 Kitakaname Hiratsuka-shi Kanagawa, 259-1292, Japan)

Inhalt:
We have developed a meal-assistance robot for use by disabled or elderly persons who cannot consume food unassisted. This robot is capable of using chopsticks. In this paper, a control system for our chopstick-equipped meal-assistance robot is introduced. The control system and the chopsticks operating mechanism of the robot utilize both a visual and a tactile control system. The force sensor is used to control the grasping force of the chopsticks, which can adapt to a wide variety of physical food characteristics. The control system of the meal-assistance robot was then fabricated and dining experiments using chopsticks were carried out. The results of the experiments confirmed the effectiveness of the control system.