Title: Tableware tidying-up robot for self-service restaurant – robot system design

Authors: Deheng Zhu; Hiroaki Seki; Tokuo Tsuji; Tatsuhiro Hiramitsu

Addresses: Division of Mechanical Science and Engineering, Kanazawa University, Kakuma, Kanazawa, Japan ' Institute of Science and Engineering, Kanazawa University, Kakuma, Kanazawa, Japan ' Institute of Science and Engineering, Kanazawa University, Kakuma, Kanazawa, Japan ' Institute of Science and Engineering, Kanazawa University, Kakuma, Kanazawa, Japan

Abstract: This study developed an automated tableware tidying-up robot mechanism to tidy up the tableware in a self-service restaurant with a large number of tableware. This study focused on the process of sorting and collecting tableware that were placed on trays by the guest and flowed to robot with belts conveyor. The separated tableware was placed in a washing machine. Garbage and leftover food were also treated with this robot mechanism. The parallel arm and robot hand mechanism were designed to realise the advantages of low cost, high processing speed, and space saving. It was proved that the prototype robot can move and grab tableware smoothly with the high-speed position control. The finger and hand rotation mechanism can throw away leftover food by the leftover food throwing experiment. Additionally, the system can sort the tableware by multiple robots was verified using the tableware sorting experiment.

Keywords: parallel arm; leftover food treatment; tableware; tidying-up robot; air drive; self-service restaurant; robot design; air cylinder; high speed position control; encoder.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMA.2022.122319

International Journal of Mechatronics and Automation, 2022 Vol.9 No.2, pp.90 - 98

Received: 16 Sep 2021
Accepted: 29 Nov 2021
Published online: 19 Apr 2022 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article