Viscoelasticity and friction of solid foods measurement by simulating meal-assisting robot

Abstract

The operation object of the meal-assisting robot is a non-rigid food individual with complex and differentiated physical characteristics, and the contact force between the spoon and the food is very complicated, which brings difficulties to the fetching of the food and has a large impact on the fetching rate and force of the foods. In this paper, the finite element simulation of the display algorithm is used to reproduce the scenario of the meal-assisting robot fetching food and verify the measurement method of viscoelasticity and friction coefficient of solid foods. A standard linear solid model in Maxwell form is characterized using moment relaxation and the model parameters are estimated. The tangential and normal forces obtained by the induced slippage method are used to estimate the friction coefficient of the contact surface of the food and the spoon. Simulation results show that the viscoelastic properties of solid foods can be characterized by moment relaxation, the parameters of the model can be estimated, and the friction coefficient can be measured by the induced slippage method. Finally, the effects of food traits and predetermined angular displacement on food fetching rates were verified by fetching a mixture of block and diced foods, and comparing the effects of different velocities on the moments and forces of action.

Keywords

• Meal-assisting robot
• Solid foods
• Food fetching rate
• Food viscoelasticity
• Food friction coefficient