Trajectory planning for meal assist robot considering spilling avoidance

In the near future, there will be a significant problem obtaining workers in the fields of welfare and nursing care because of a labor shortage. To solve this problem, many welfare robots, such as an upper extremity motion assistance robot and a meal assistance robot, have been studied. The purpose of this paper is to avoid spilling of the liquid when the spoon is transferred. In order to avoid spilling of the liquid, a spilling model was evaluated by using a CFD simulator. Thus, it was not necessary to build an exact model of the spilling model mechanism. The effectiveness of the proposed control is shown by CFD simulations and experiments.