Technical Field

The invention relates to automatic cooking devices and systems, in particular, robotic systems for preparing meals, more particular, to an end of arm tool for robotic cooking system.

B acker ound Art

Ready-made meal manufacturers, fast-food restaurants and catering services providers are facing tightening margins and increased demand for flexibility and food safety. Robotic cooking systems become a solution for such growing demands.

There is known a robotic cooking system (US 7174830 Bl), comprising one or more robots having means to move food containers between multiple positions and means to stir food within a cooking pan, a food storage and selection area, a cooking area within a range of motion of the robot, at least one food container containing food ingredients and a loading conveyor to move the food container to the cooking area; the robot is configured to move food ingredients from the loading conveyor into a cooking pan, held by the robot in a position over a cooking element in the cooking area. The robot uses the means to move food containers to unload food into a serving dish, which is moved by a conveyor to a serving area.

There is known a conception of a food preparation system (US 8276505 B2), comprising a housing comprising a wall; a control subsystem configured to control a plurality of food preparation processes capable of preparing a meal comprising a variety of foods based on user selection of the foods; plurality of ingredient storage containers comprising dry ingredient storage containers and liquid ingredient storage containers; a storage module configured to store the ingredient storage containers and a variety of ingredients contained within the ingredient storage containers for an extended period; an ingredient manipulator configured to access and remove a plurality of ingredients from the ingredient storage containers, as commanded by the control subsystem; a cooking receptacle disposed within the housing, the cooking receptacle being configured to cook ingredients placed therein by the ingredient manipulator; a dish and food transfer area; and a cleaning subsystem configured to clean the cooking receptacle and the surface of the wall of the housing.

There is known a conception of a food preparation system (US 8820219 B2), comprising i.a. an automated primary manipulator configured to move and manipulate food ingredients and dishware, the automated primary manipulator is further configured to place food on dishes and to move dishware that has been returned by a user from the user access area to the dish washing area.

Although the prior art solutions partially solve the problem, their effectiveness is still relatively insufficient. Also, some of the cited document do not contain sufficient enabling disclosure.

Summary of Invention

The invention provides an end of arm tool for robotic cooking system as disclosed in PCT/LV2020/050002, comprising: a rotary actuator, a flexible coupling, a linear actuator, a gripper operably connected with the linear actuator and designed to releasably grip an object, such as a tray, a container, a dish, or a plate. The flexible coupling is operably connected with the rotary actuator and is adapted to be releasably engaged with an engagement means of a plurality of the containers for holding a supply of an ingredient, so that at the engaged position the rotation of the flexible coupling causes rotation of a corresponding engagement means of such elements of the robotic cooking system as the plurality of the containers and/or washing nozzle of a washing subsystem. The flexible coupling is designed to compensate misalignment and/or ensure easy entering of the engaging part of the flexible coupling to the corresponding engagement means of the plurality of the containers. The gripper comprises two rods, directly or indirectly associated with load cells, adapted to provide a representation of a load on the gripper. Each rod is further provided with a ledge having one or more recesses, designed to accommodate an object gripped by the gripper. The rods are further provided with heads, designed to be engaged with cavities of the respective shape on a container for holding a supply of an ingredient.

The end of arm tool is further provided with one or more air nozzles directed so to create air flow paths along the inner surface of a tray (to be releasably gripped and held by the rods of the gripper) towards a discharge edge of the tray and thus, to facilitate discharging food ingredients from the tray.

The end of arm tool may further comprise a male or female part of a pneumatic channel coupling, configured to supply pressurized air, comprising a plurality of pneumatic supply lines. The pneumatic coupling configured to couple and uncouple the plurality of pneumatic receiving lines on a female part from the plurality of pneumatic supply lines on the male part, the pneumatic coupling including a housing, a plurality of supply line fittings configured to receive the plurality of pneumatic supply lines, a plurality of receiving line fittings configured to receive the plurality of pneumatic receiving lines. The male or female part of the pneumatic channel coupling may further comprise a spring system, adapted to compensate some misalignment in the male and female parts of the pneumatic channel coupling during their coupling.

The male or female part of the pneumatic channel coupling may further comprise one or more guiding rods adapted to be accommodated in the respective recesses in the other part of the coupling.

Brief Description of Drawings

Fig. 1 shows one embodiment of the end of arm tool; Fig. 2 - is a frontal view of the plurality of containers for holding a supply of ingredients;

Fig. 3 -is a perspective view of one embodiment of the end part of the flexible coupling, which is adapted to be engaged with an engagement means of a plurality of containers;

Fig. 4 - a perspective view of the robotic arm with end of arm tool, holding a tray;

Fig. 5 - a perspective view of a female part of the pneumatic channel coupling;

Fig. 6 - a perspective view of an embodiment of a container containing a set of sealed cartridges with food products, adapted to be supplied by compressed air using the pneumatic channel coupling;

Fig. 7 - a perspective view of another embodiment of a container with liquid or semi-liquid food products, adapted to be supplied by compressed air using the pneumatic channel coupling. Detailed Description of Invention

The proposed robotic end of arm tool (Fig. 1) for robotic cooking system, comprising: a rotary actuator 1, operably connected with a first motor 2; a flexible coupling 3; a linear actuator 4, operably connected with a second motor 5; a gripper 6, operably connected with the linear actuator 4 and designed to releasably grip and hold an object, such as a tray, a container (e.g. holding a supply of an ingredient), a dish, or a plate. The flexible coupling 3 is operably connected with the rotary actuator 1 and is adapted to be releasably engaged with an engagement means 3' of a plurality of the containers for holding a supply of an ingredient (Fig. 2), so that at the engaged position the rotation of the flexible coupling 3 causes rotation of a corresponding engagement means of such elements of the robotic cooking system as the plurality of the containers and/or washing nozzle of a washing subsystem. The flexible coupling 3 is designed to compensate misalignment and/or ensure easy entering of the engaging part of the flexible coupling 3 to the corresponding engagement means of the plurality of the containers. The flexible coupling 3 can be in the form of bellow coupling, beam coupling, jaw coupling, Oldham coupling and other type.

According to the preferred embodiment, the end part 12 of the flexible coupling 3 (Fig. 3), which is adapted to be engaged with an engagement means 3' of a plurality of containers is provided with cogs or equivalent means to facilitate engagement with respective engaging surfaces of the engagement means 3' of a plurality of containers. The end part 12 of the flexible coupling 3 preferably has a tip 13, which is substantially of truncated cone shape. However, the tip 13 can be also of a truncated pyramid or other shape having slant surface. The preferred angle between the imaginary longitudinal axis of symmetry of the flexible coupling 3 and the slant surface of the tip 13 is from 30 to 60 degrees.

The gripper 6 comprises two rods 7, which are directly or indirectly associated with load cells 8, adapted to provide a representation (e.g. digital) of a load on the gripper 6. Each rod 7 is further provided with a ledge 9 having one or more recesses, designed to accommodate an object gripped and held by the gripper 6 (i.e. having the shape, corresponding to the segment of an external part of an object to be gripped). The rods 7 are further provided with heads 10, designed to be engaged with cavities of the respective shape on a container for holding a supply of an ingredient. According to the preferred embodiment the heads 10 may have a conical shape or a shape of a truncated cone. According to yet another embodiment the end of arm tool is further provided with one or more air nozzles 11 (Fig. 1) directed towards the inner part of a tray 30 (the tray 30 to be releasably gripped and held by the rods 7 of the gripper 6 - Fig. 4), so to create air flow along the surface of the tray 30 towards a discharge edge of the tray 30 to facilitate discharging food ingredients from the tray 30. The tray 30 is described in more details in the international patent application No.: PCT/LV2020/050002.

The end of arm tool may further comprise a male part 20 of a pneumatic channel coupling (Fig. 1), configured to supply pressurized air, comprising a plurality of pneumatic supply lines 21. The pneumatic coupling configured to couple and uncouple the plurality of pneumatic receiving lines 23 on a female part 22 (Fig. 5) from the plurality of pneumatic supply lines 21 on the male part 20. The female part 22 comprising a plurality of pneumatic receiving lines configured to receive pressurized air from the plurality of pneumatic supply lines 21. The pneumatic coupling including a housing, a plurality of supply line fittings configured to receive the plurality of pneumatic supply lines 21, a plurality of receiving line fittings configured to receive the plurality of pneumatic receiving lines 23. The pneumatic receiving lines 23 are designed to be able to supply compressed air independently one from another.

According to the preferred embodiment the male part 20 and/or the female part 22 of the pneumatic channel coupling further comprises a spring system 24, adapted to compensate some misalignment in the male 20 and female 22 parts of the pneumatic channel coupling during their docking. The spring system 24 may comprise a base support (which can be a housing or a frame of the end of arm tool or a housing or a frame of a container or a dispenser) and a head, wherein the head is pivotably mounted on the base support; a spring system provided between the base support and the head; wherein the head is pivotable about the base support and has six degrees of freedom, which however are limited by springs used. The ends of pneumatic supply lines 21 and/or pneumatic receiving lines 23 are mounted in or on the head, where flexible hoses are used for the pneumatic channels at least between the base support and the head to ensure the required degrees of freedoms of the head. Also, the male part 20 or the female part 22 of the pneumatic channel coupling may comprise one or more guiding rods 25 adapted to be accommodated in the respective recesses 26 of the other half of the pneumatic channel coupling.

The pneumatic channel coupling is thus designed to perform different types of propulsion depending on the specific parameters of auxiliary equipment and containers (for instance, for operation of a pneumatic motor, for supplying air into inflatable tanks, for dosing or transportation of food products). For this purpose, the female parts of the pneumatic channel coupling may be located on the plurality of the containers to enable use of the compressed air for e.g. transportation of food products within the containers, mixing food products within the containers, or for dispensing food products from the containers.

Fig. 6 shows one possible embodiment of a container containing a set of sealed cartridges 26 with food products, where the male part 20 of a pneumatic channel coupling on the end of arm tool couples the plurality of pneumatic receiving lines 23 on the female part 22 of a pneumatic channel coupling, performing one or more of the following functions by suppling compressed air: (a) pneumatic connection to a pneumatic cylinder 40 which ensures movement of a rachet wheel 41, which in turn causes movement of food cartridge belt; (b) pneumatic connection to a pneumatic cylinder 42, which locks the position of a star wheel 43; (c) pneumatic connection to a pneumatic cylinder 44 which performs function of closing a lid 45; (d) pneumatic connection to the cartridges 46, consecutively emptying their contents, or pushing out the cartridge 46.

Fig. 7 shows another possible use of the pneumatic channel coupling, where the male part 20 of the pneumatic channel coupling on the end of arm tool couples the plurality of pneumatic receiving lines 23 on the female part of the pneumatic channel coupling, by suppling compressed air performing function of draining the residue of the supply channel 53 of the liquid or semi-liquid product dispenser 50 through nozzles 31 provided therefor, thus, dispensing an amount of the ingredient.