Replaceable Bit-based Gripper for Picking Cluttered Food Items

TL;DR

This paper introduces a replaceable bit-based gripper system designed for handling various cluttered and flexible food items in packaging, demonstrating high accuracy and quick switching capabilities.

Contribution

The paper presents a novel replaceable bit-based gripper with specialized attachments for different food types, enabling versatile and precise handling of cluttered foods.

Findings

Achieved over 80% accuracy in dropping spaghetti

Achieved over 95% accuracy in dropping ikura

Demonstrated quick switching between different food bits

Abstract

The food packaging industry goes through changes in food items and their weights quite rapidly. These items range from easy-to-pick, single-piece food items to flexible, long and cluttered ones. We propose a replaceable bit-based gripper system to tackle the challenge of weight-based handling of cluttered food items. The gripper features specialized food attachments(bits) that enhance its grasping capabilities, and a belt replacement system allows switching between different food items during packaging operations. It offers a wide range of control options, enabling it to grasp and drop specific weights of granular, cluttered, and entangled foods. We specifically designed bits for two flexible food items that differ in shape: ikura(salmon roe) and spaghetti. They represent the challenging categories of sticky, granular food and long, sticky, cluttered food, respectively. The gripper successfully picked up both spaghetti and ikura and demonstrated weight-specific dropping of these items with an accuracy over 80% and 95% respectively. The gripper system also exhibited quick switching between different bits, leading to the handling of a large range of food items.