Robotics has been introduced in industry to replace humans in arduous and repetitive tasks, to reduce labour costs and to ensure consistent quality control of the process. Nowadays robots are cheaper, can work in hostile and dirty environments and they are able to manipulate products at high speed. High speed and reliability and low robot gripper costs are necessary for a profitable pick and place (P&P) process. However, current grippers are not able to handle these products properly because they have uneven shapes, are flexible and irregular, have different textures and are very sensitive to being damaged. This review brings together the requirements and phases used in the process of manipulation, summarises and analyses of the existing, potential and emerging techniques and their possibilities for the manipulation of fresh horticultural products from a detailed study of their characteristics. It considers the difficulties and the lack of engineers to conceive of and implement solutions. Contact grippers with underactuated mechanism and suction cups could be a promising approach for the manipulation of fresh fruit and vegetables. Ongoing study is still necessary on the characteristics and handling requirements of fresh fruit and vegetables in order to design grippers which are suitable for correct manipulation, at high speed, in profitable P&P processes for industrial applications.Additional key words: food manipulation; horticulture grasp; postharvest science and technology; robotic product handling.
ResumenRevisión. Tecnologías en garras robotizadas para operaciones de coger y dejar productos hortofrutícolas frescos La robótica ha sido introducida en la industria para reemplazar a los humanos en tareas arduas y repetitivas, reducir mano de obra y para asegurar una calidad constante de los procesos. Actualmente los robos son más baratos, capaces de manipular productos a alta velocidad y de trabajar en ambientes hostiles. Por tanto, los robots pueden trabajar en operaciones de "coger y dejar" (pick & place, P&P) con frutas y hortalizas frescas. Para un proceso rentable de P&P, son necesarias una alta velocidad y fiabilidad, así como un bajo coste de los sistemas de agarre. Este artículo de revisión recopila las necesidades y fases empleadas en el proceso de manipulación, reuniendo y analizando las técnicas existentes, potenciales y emergentes y sus posibilidades de aplicación para la manipulación de productos hortofrutícolas frescos a partir del estudio detallado de sus características. Considera las dificultades y la falta de ingenieros para concebir e implementar soluciones. Los autores proponen las alternativas más prometedoras para acometer este difícil problema y consideran la necesidad de seguir estudiando las características de frutas y vegetales frescos y las necesidades de manipulación. Las garras de contacto con mecanismos infra-actuados y ventosas o agarrar el producto sin contacto pueden ser las alternativas más prometedoras para manipular frutas y vegetales frescos. Es necesario continuar e...
SUMMARYThis paper presents the design, kinematics, dynamics and control of a low-cost parallel rehabilitation robot developed at the Universitat Politècnica de Valencia. Several position and force controllers have been tested to ensure accurate tracking performances. An orthopedic boot, equipped with a force sensor, has been placed over the platform of the parallel robot to perform exercises for injured ankles. Passive, active-assistive and active-resistive exercises have been implemented to train dorsi/plantar flexion, inversion and eversion ankle movements. In order to implement the controllers, the component-based middleware Orocos has been used with the advantage over other solutions that the whole scheme control can be implemented modularly. These modules are independent and can be configured and reconfigured in both configuration and runtime. This means that no specific knowledge is needed by medical staff, for example, to carry out rehabilitation exercises using this low-cost parallel robot. The integration between Orocos and ROS, with a CAD model displaying the actual position of the rehabilitation robot in real time, makes it possible to develop a teleoperation application. In addition, a teleoperated rehabilitation exercise can be performed by a specialist using a Wiimote (or any other Bluetooth device).
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