JP4026773B2 - Method and apparatus for gripping and moving food - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention makes it possible to grip any kind of food that can be elastically deformed and has a restoring force when pressed by a pressing plate without controlling the gripping force with a simple structure gripping mechanism. The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for gripping and moving foods that can be accurately moved to a desired place such as a lunch box or tray placed thereon.

Recently, the work of packing various foods in desired positions such as lunch boxes and trays has been automated and unmanned from the viewpoint of hygiene and cost reduction, eliminating manual work.
However, as the control for automation and unmanned operation has become more sophisticated and precise, the apparatus has become more complex and expensive. In other words, it is difficult to reliably hold non-standard items other than fixed-shaped items such as frozen foods, or soft items with the food-gripping mobile robot hand. There is a problem that the structure becomes complicated and there is a problem that a dedicated hand must be prepared for each food, and the robot system becomes expensive accordingly.

  For example, Patent Document 1 (Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2003-128002) discloses a food composition robot as a basic configuration suitable as a food placement robot suitable for placing soft foods having a non-constant shape on a serving container such as a lunch box or a dish. A means for gripping the food transport container supplied to the robot in a state where the food is contained by the robot hand, a means for transporting the gripped food transport container above the serving container, and a food transport container. There has been disclosed a food arranging robot provided with a means for arranging stored food from a food transport container to a serving container.

JP 2003-128002 A

However, in the food placement robot disclosed in Patent Document 1, the food contained in the food transport container is not directly gripped by the hand, but the food stored in the food transport container is taken out of the food transport container, so that In this case, as a specific means of serving, a notch is provided in the food transport container, and the food transport container is tilted to drop the food into the serving container, or the food transport container. An opening / closing port is provided in the door and the food is dropped by opening the opening / closing port, or the food is pushed out or scraped and dropped by an auxiliary member such as a spatula attached to the hand.
Since such a complicated operation is performed, there is still a problem that the control device becomes complicated and expensive.

  In view of the problems of the prior art, the present invention is not a method of placing food in a food container as described in Patent Document 1, but by placing the food in a food container. Adopting a direct gripping method using a robot hand, in which case the food is securely gripped and moved to a desired position such as a lunch box, tray, etc., and control is not complicated and expensive. An object of the present invention is to provide a method and apparatus for grasping and moving foods that can be achieved with a simple apparatus.

The present invention achieves such an object. As shown in FIG. 2, the pressing plate 13 elastically deforms and presses the food so as to have a restoring force, and the restoration is performed simultaneously with or after the pressing step. A method for grasping and moving a food, comprising a step of grasping the food with the grasping mechanisms 14 and 15 using force, and a step 4 of moving the food to a predetermined position while grasping the food,
The pressing plate 13 is connected to an actuator 5 having an air energy source 6 that moves up and down in the vertical direction, and has a lifting stroke that can be elastically deformed to a stroke position having a restoring force, and the actuator 5 and the pressing plate 13 , The air cylinders 14 and 14 are attached to the connecting portions between the two cylinders by being inclined downwardly at the respective arm tips extending symmetrically in the left-right direction, and attached to the piston rods 14a and 14a located at the tips of the air cylinders 14 and 14. The left and right sides of the pressing plate 13 are formed on the food plate elastically deformed by the pressing plate 13 so that the needle pins 15 and 15 can enter the food material side along the direction inclined to the horizontal side with respect to the vertical direction. A needle pin is injected along the inclined direction, and the food is grasped using the inclined needle pins 15 and 15 and the restoring force of the food. Characterized by being adapted to move while.
Claim 2 is an apparatus invention for carrying out the invention according to Claim 1 and, as shown in FIG. 2, pressing means for elastically deforming the food by the pressing plate 13 so as to have a restoring force, and pressing of the pressing means A food holding and moving device comprising: holding means for holding the food by the gripping mechanisms 14 and 15 using the restoring force due to elastic deformation by; and means 4 for moving the food to a predetermined position while holding the food. ,
The pressing plate 13 is connected to an actuator 5 having an air energy source 6 that moves up and down in the vertical direction, and has a lifting stroke that can be elastically deformed to a stroke position having a restoring force, and the actuator 5 and the pressing plate 13 , Are attached to the piston rods 14a and 14a located at the tips of the air cylinders 14 and 14, respectively. The pins 15 and 15 are configured to be able to enter the food material along a direction inclined to the horizontal side with respect to the vertical direction, and the needle-like pins are formed on the food material elastically deformed by the pressing plate from both the left and right sides of the pressing plate 13. Is moved along the inclined direction and transferred while gripping the inclined needle-like pins 15 and 15 and the food using the restoring force of the food. Is that in the as to grip the mobile device ingredients characterized by.

In the method of the present invention, the food material is first pressed by a pressing plate to be elastically deformed, and then the food material is securely gripped by a gripping mechanism using a restoring force generated in the food material, thereby reliably moving the food material to a predetermined position. .
Moreover, in this invention apparatus, a foodstuff is reliably hold | gripped and moved to a predetermined position by the holding | grip mechanism using the restoring force of the foodstuff which acts on a pressing board by the said pressing board and pressing of the said pressing board.
A specific aspect of the gripping mechanism is an inclined needle pin member that is inserted into the food material while the pressing plate is pressing the food material.
Alternatively, by inserting the inclined needle pin in a state where the food is pressed with the pressing plate, using the restoring force of the food, generating a frictional force between the needle pin and the food that is inclined, This ensures that the food is gripped.

Further preferably, the gripping mechanism is an inclined needle pin member inserted into the food material in a state where the pressing plate is pressing the food material, and is lowered again after the moving step of the food material, and the food material is moved by the pressing plate. A restraint releasing step of pulling out the inclined needle pin member from the food while pressing can be provided.
By using the pressing plate in this way, the position and posture of the food material at the time of restraint and release can be stabilized.
Preferably, the pressing plate and the gripping mechanism are integrally attached to a tip of an arm whose operation is controlled by a control device, and the arm is moved to move the gripping and moving device of the present invention to food. Operation and control are facilitated, and the features of the present invention can be exhibited more effectively.

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  As described above, according to the present invention, it is possible to achieve reliable gripping of food and accurate movement to a predetermined place without requiring a simple structure and complicated control. In other words, because it is a gripping mechanism that utilizes the restoring force of the food that is generated against pressing by the pressing plate, regardless of the difficulty due to the variety of foods and the degree of softness that is different from rigid fixed objects. Therefore, the apparatus can be reliably gripped with a simple apparatus without increasing the complexity and cost of the apparatus.

Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the embodiments shown in the drawings. However, the dimensions, materials, shapes, relative arrangements, and the like of the component parts described in this example are not intended to limit the scope of the present invention only to specific examples unless otherwise specified. Only.
FIG. 1 is an overall elevation view of a food-gripping mobile robot according to a first embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is an enlarged elevation view of a hand portion of the first embodiment, and FIG. 3 is the first embodiment. 2 is a bottom view of the pressing plate 13 viewed from the direction A in FIG. 2, FIG. 4 is an enlarged elevation view of the hand portion of the comparative example of the present invention, and FIG. 5 is a left side view of the comparative example .

  In FIG. 1, which is an overall elevation view of a food-gripping mobile robot according to a first embodiment of the present invention, reference numeral 1 denotes a robot stand erected on a base, with an axis “a” at the top of the stand 1. A multi-joint arm 4 composed of a first joint 2 that rotates and a second joint 3 that rotates about an axis b is mounted, and an axis of a hand portion 11 (described later) is attached to the tip of the arm 4. A one-axis, two-degree-of-freedom actuator 5 that provides reciprocal motion and rotational motion in the c direction is mounted. Reference numeral 8 denotes a pipe accommodating various cables connected to a power source for driving the robot of this embodiment, and 9 denotes a food material conveyer for conveying the food material h to the robot mount 1.

In FIGS. 2 to 3 showing the hand portion of the first embodiment, reference numerals 6 and 7 denote an air supply port and an air exhaust port for supplying or discharging the driving pressurized air to the actuator 5. A hand body 12 is connected to a drive shaft (not shown) of the actuator 5, and reciprocates and rotates by the actuator 5. Reference numeral 13 denotes a pressing plate attached to the tip of the hand main body 12, which has four grooves 13a as shown in FIG. 3, and pins 15 described later are inserted into the respective grooves 13a. The pressing plate 13 is given a stroke by the actuator 5 until the pressing plate 13 is pressed against the food h and the food h is elastically deformed.
Air cylinders 14 are attached to the ends of the arms 12a and 12b extending to the left and right of the hand main body 12, and a total of four pins 15 are attached to the piston rods 14a of the air cylinders 14, two each.

In the first embodiment, the pressing plate 13 having a stroke of a predetermined length predetermined by the actuator 5 approaches the food h (for example, a hamburger) by a predetermined length and presses the food h to cause elastic deformation. The food h is lowered to a position to be pressed, the food h is pressed, and the food h is elastically deformed.
At the same time or after that, the air cylinder 14 is actuated to project the pin 15 from between the grooves 13a of the pressing plate 13 and insert it into the food material h.
A restoring force is generated in the food material h by being pressed by the pressing plate 13, and the restoring force acts on the pressing plate 13 and the pin 15 by inserting the pin 15 into the food material h, so that the pin 15 and the food material h are interposed. And the frictional force generate | occur | produces between the pressing board 13 and the foodstuff h, and, thereby, the hand part 11 can hold | grip reliably, without dropping the foodstuff h.

Thereafter, the articulated arm 4 is rotated to move the grasped food material h into a predetermined place, for example, into a lunch box being carried on a food arranging belt conveyor (not shown).
After the moving step of the food h, the food 15 descends again, and the pin 15 is pulled out of the food h while pressing the food h with the pressing plate 13.
By using the pressing plate 13 in this way, the position and posture of the food material at the time of restraint and release can be stabilized.

As described above, according to the first embodiment, the food h can be reliably gripped by using the restoring force of the food h by pressing the food h with the pressing plate 13, and the pressing plate 13 has a predetermined stroke. Since there is no need to adjust the stroke depending on the type of food, there is an advantage that a complicated control device is not required.
In addition, it is possible to reliably hold and move the food with a very simple device such as the pressing plate 13 and the pin 15.

4 to 5 relate to a comparative example of the present invention, in which the hand portion 11 connected to the lower side of the actuator 5 in FIG. 2 is replaced with a hand having a different structure, as in the first embodiment. The hand unit 21 is connected to an actuator 5 having one axis and two degrees of freedom attached to the food holding and moving robot shown in FIG. 1, and is driven to reciprocate and rotate.
4 to 5, 22 a and 22 b are a pair of pressing plates, which are connected to a pair of drive pieces 23 a and 23 b of the air cylinder 24, and move toward or away from each other by the action of the air cylinder 24. This is the position when 22a 'and 22b' are separated. The pressing plates 22a and 22b are driven with a constant stroke by the air cylinder 24. That is, when approaching each other, it is a position where the food is pressed and elastically deformed, and the pressing plate is made of an elastic material, or a spring member with respect to a drive piston (not shown) of the air cylinder 24 is provided. By being connected through, elasticity is imparted. Therefore, the pressing plate has a certain allowable range even if the type of food is changed.

Reference numerals 25 and 26 denote an air supply port and an air discharge port which are connected to the air supply port 6 or the air exhaust port 7 for supplying or discharging the drive pressurized air to or from the actuator 5 to supply or discharge the drive air to the air cylinder 24. is there.
As shown in FIG. 5, the pressing plates 22a and 22b are provided with a plurality of holes 27 as gripping mechanisms. When the pressing plates 22a and 22b press the food from both sides, the restoring force due to the elastic deformation of the food is obtained. Acting on the hole 27, the food material enters the hole 27, and a frictional force is generated between the food material and the hole 27, so that a sufficient gripping force is generated.

In the comparative example , as described above, the restoring force of the food material is generated by the pressing force of the pressing plates 22a and 22b, thereby generating a frictional force between the food material and the hole 27 and generating a sufficient gripping force. Therefore, the food can be reliably gripped.
That is, since the food material has a certain degree of softness, when it is sandwiched from both sides by the pressing plates 22a and 22b, a part of the food material protrudes into the hole 27 and can be caught appropriately. For this reason, it is possible to grip a soft food without controlling the gripping force.
Moreover, it can respond to various foodstuffs by changing the thickness (spring constant) of a pressing board, and the number and size of a hole or a recessed part.

Also, by making the strokes of the pressing plates 22a and 22b constant and applying an elastic force to the pressing plates, it is not necessary to adjust the stroke, the control is simple, the cost is not increased, and different types of foods are used. Can be used as is.
In the first embodiment, since the pressing plate and the gripping function are integrally attached to the tip of the articulated arm 4 controlled by the robot mount 1, there is an advantage that the gripping and moving device can be easily operated and controlled.

  According to the present invention, any kind of food that is elastically deformable and has a restoring force when pressed by a pressing plate can be gripped and accurately placed in a desired place such as a lunch box or a tray placed on a food stacking conveyor. In moving, it is possible to provide a method and apparatus for gripping and moving a food that has a simple structure and a sufficient gripping function, and that can accurately move the food to a desired position.

1 is an overall elevation view of a food-gripping mobile robot according to a first embodiment of the present invention. It is an expanded elevational view of the hand part of the first embodiment. It is the bottom view which looked at the pressing board 13 of the said 1st Example from the A direction of FIG. It is an expansion elevation view of the hand part of the comparative example of the present invention. It is a left view of the said comparative example .

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Robot mount 2 1st joint 3 2nd joint 4 Articulated arm 5 1 axis 2 degrees of freedom actuator 6, 25 Air supply port 7, 26 Air exhaust port 8 Various cable piping 9 Food conveyance conveyor 11, 21 Hand part 12 Hand Main body 12a, 12b Arm 13, 22a, 22b Pressing plate 13a Groove 14, 24 Air cylinder 14a Piston rod 15 Pin (needle member)
23a Drive piece 27 Hole or recess h Food

Claims (2)

A process of elastically deforming and pressing the food material with a pressing plate so as to have a restoring force, a step of gripping the food material with a gripping mechanism using the restoring force simultaneously with or after the pressing step, and a predetermined while gripping the food material A method of gripping and moving the food, comprising the step of moving the food to the position of
The pressing plate is connected to an actuator having an air energy source that moves up and down in the vertical direction, and has a lifting stroke that can be elastically deformed to a stroke position having a restoring force, and a connecting portion between the actuator and the pressing plate. In addition, the air cylinder is attached to each end of the arm extending symmetrically in the left-right direction by inclining downward, and the needle pin attached to the piston rod located at the end of the air cylinder is inclined horizontally with respect to the vertical direction. The needle which is configured to be able to enter the food material side along the direction made and is elastically deformed by the pressing plate is injected into the food material along the inclined direction from both the left and right sides of the pressing plate , and is inclined. A method for gripping and moving a food material, wherein the food material is moved while gripping the food material by using a restoring force of the pin and the food material. A pressing means for elastically deforming the food with a pressing plate so as to have a restoring force, a holding means for gripping the food with a gripping mechanism using the restoring force due to the elastic deformation caused by the pressing of the pressing means, and a predetermined while gripping the food A device for gripping and moving the food, comprising means for moving the food to the position of
The pressing plate is connected to an actuator having an air energy source that moves up and down in the vertical direction, and has a lifting stroke that can be elastically deformed to a stroke position having a restoring force, and a connecting portion between the actuator and the pressing plate. In addition, the air cylinder is attached to each end of the arm extending symmetrically in the left-right direction by inclining downward, and the needle pin attached to the piston rod located at the end of the air cylinder is inclined horizontally with respect to the vertical direction. The food is elastically deformed by the pressing plate and is inserted into the food material elastically deformed by the pressing plate, and the needle pins are stabbed and inclined along the inclined direction from the left and right sides of the pressing plate. A food-gripping / moving device, wherein the food-gripping material is moved while gripping the food using a restoring force of the needle-shaped pin and the food-stuff.

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