How Texture Analysers are helping automation in the fruit and soft tissue industries

Robots can do a lot. They build cars in factories and sort goods in warehouses. However, there are some things that seemingly appear quite basic in comparison that robots still cannot do perfectly like picking an apple from a tree. Whilst it is a simple thing for a human who can feel around, touch, pull and twist robots, unlike humans, have no sense of touch to tell them if they are squeezing too hard. Creating a robotic implement that can simply pick an apple and drop it into a bin or move a soft tissue in micro surgery without damaging it is a multimillion-dollar effort that has been decades in the making. Teams around the world are trying various approaches; whether it is to replace the labour intensity of parts of the harvesting process, increase the speed of certain fruit preparation steps or master the precise touch and hold specifications for the handling of soft tissue.

Although fruit-picking robots and highly-trained medical hands are not as good as humans at this most basic of tasks, steady progress towards automating harvesting and soft tissue handling is being made. It is a design challenge that is yet to be fully overcome but progress is underway in several research departments where the use of a Texture Analyser to quantify certain material properties and thereby the stresses and strains that can be applied to them provides a tool to push this field ahead.

At Shanghai Jiaotong University in China researchers are using their Texture Analyser for their work in Haptically Quantifying Young's Modulus of Soft Materials Using a Self-Locked Stretchable Strain Sensor

Simple and rapid Young's modulus measurements of soft materials adaptable to various scenarios are of general significance, and they require miniaturised measurement platforms with easy operation. Despite the advances made in portable and wearable approaches, acquiring and analysing multiple or complicated signals necessitate tethered bulky components and careful preparation. Here, a new methodology based on a self-locked stretchable strain sensor to haptically quantify Young's modulus of soft materials rapidly is reported. The method demonstrates a fingertip measurement platform, which endows a prosthetic finger with human-comparable haptic behaviours and skills on elasticity sensing without activity constraints. A universal strategy is offered toward ultraconvenient and high-efficient Young's modulus measurements with wide adaptability to various fields for unprecedented applications.

At Tampere University in Finland, the Faculty of Medicine & Health Technology are using their Texture Analyser in their investigation into Integrated stretchable pneumatic strain gauges for electronics-free soft robots. In soft robotics, actuators, logic and power systems can be entirely fluidic and electronics-free. However, sensors still typically rely on electric or optical principles. This adds complexity to fluidic soft robots because transducers are needed, and electrical materials have to be incorporated. They show a highly-stretchable pneumatic strain gauge based on a meandering microchannel in a soft elastomer material thus eliminating the need for an electrical signal in soft robots. Using such pneumatic sensors, they demonstrate an all-pneumatic gripper with integrated pneumatic strain gauges that is capable of autonomous closure and object recognition. Using pneumatic sensors, all four major components of robots can be pneumatic, enabling all-fluidic soft robots with proprioception and exteroception. The Texture Analyser was used for compression testing of the strain gauge using a spherical probe.

Meanwhile, at the Indian Agricultural Research Institute in Delhi, researchers are using their Texture Analyser in the Development of a Battery-operated Groundnut Decorticator for Female Workers.

Traditionally, after harvesting, the groundnut is sundried slightly before decortication. Decortication is removing kernels from pods to separate them from the outer covering. The traditional decortication practices are striking pods on stone, pressing pods with fingers and clearing pods with a sickle. This method is very cumbersome, time-consuming and uneconomical. Based on the constraints in the designs of manual groundnut decorticators, a need was felt to develop a battery-operated groundnut decorticator considering ergonomic and mechanical design features. The design value obtained for the machine’s development was done by assessing the physical properties of three different types of groundnut pods. The development of a battery-operated Groundnut Decorticator rupture force of groundnut pods was assessed on their Texture Analyser at a loading speed of 2mm/s until fracture occurred and when the initial cracking was observed, the loading was stopped.

And at the King Mongkut’s Institute of Technology in Bangkok, researchers have made progress in the Design and development of a continuous pineapple-peeling machine. Knowledge of the physical and mechanical properties of materials undergoing processing is critical for the design of equipment for harvesting, cleaning, sorting, grading, peeling, cutting and packaging agricultural products. For mechanical peeling, cutting tools are designed using the geometric characteristics of the products and the mechanical properties of their skin. The main part of the clamping mechanism was a set of V-shaped fingers set apart by 120°. Performance testing indicated that the V-shaped fingers provided stable and reliable clamping. However, it is very important that the applied forces of the gripper do not exceed the permissible damage threshold of the fruit. The Texture Analyser provided the ability to measure compression force for cutting the ends of the pineapple, compression force for peeling and the bioyield force.

See more methods that the Texture Analyser can perform for fruit testing

See more ideas of how a Texture Analyser is applied in the medical industry

There is a Texture Analysis test for virtually any physical property. Contact Stable Micro Systems today to learn more about our full range of solutions.

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The TA.XTplusC texture analyser is part of a family of texture analysis instruments and equipment from Stable Micro Systems. An extensive portfolio of specialist attachments is available to measure and analyse the textural properties of a huge range of food products. Our technical experts can also custom design instrument fixtures according to individual specifications.

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