Title: Deformation and dynamic response of a soft cavity facilitating robotic chewing of foods

Authors: Bangxiang Chen; Weiliang Xu; Jaspreet Dhupia

Addresses: Department of Mechanical and Mechatronics Engineering, The University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand ' Department of Mechanical and Mechatronics Engineering, The University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand ' Department of Mechanical and Mechatronics Engineering, The University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand

Abstract: Mastication plays a critical role in the food digestive process. A chewing robot was developed to simulate the food masticatory process to evaluate food properties. The artificial oral cavity of the robot failed to simulate the compliant contact between food and soft oral tissue and deserved redesign. The flourishing of soft robotics recently makes it possible to build a soft oral cavity. The design of an oral cavity made of silicone rubber is illustrated in this paper. The cavity is actuated by the inflation and deflation of an air chamber embedded on the inside of the cavity wall. The deformation of the chamber is studied through FEA simulation and experiments to validate its effectiveness. Moreover, the actuating frequencies of the chambers are tested to validate that they can perform food repositioning at the same pace as human chewing.

Keywords: oral cavity; chewing robot; soft robotics; in vitro chewing; image measurement.

DOI: 10.1504/IJBBR.2023.135609

International Journal of Biomechatronics and Biomedical Robotics, 2023 Vol.4 No.2, pp.78 - 83

Received: 25 Nov 2022
Accepted: 29 Nov 2022
Published online: 19 Dec 2023 *

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