Computer Simulation of the Deformation of Dough-Like Materials in a Parallel Plate Gripper

Abstract

Flexible automation for the handling of rigid materials has been available for many years, but similar systems are not as yet available for the handling of non-rigid materials such as doughs. The properties of this type of material require careful control of gripping and manipulation forces to prevent the product from deforming out of tolerance during handling. This paper describes a computationally efficient model that has been developed for use in the planning and control of gripping and manipulation strategies for dough-like materials. In addition to describing the model and the way in which it would be used in an automated handling environment, experimental results demonstrating the accuracy of the model in predicting the behaviour of three doughs are presented.

Keywords

flexible automation deformation of dough-like materials parallel plate gripper computer simulation

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