Design and Development of a Robot Gripper for Food Industries using Coanda Effect

Design of the robot gripper for food industries is important as it must be able to handle foods with various shape, surface texture, size without indenting them. In this research, the coanda effect is applied to develop a Coanda ejector which could handle soft materials without damaging them. The Coanda ejector is designed with the assistance of CAD software and further assessed through CFD analysis to study the fluid flow internally in the ejector. The simulation results reveal that handling of planer object is easier than circular object. The gap between the ejector and circular object seems to be almost zero as the curved profile does not create the sufficient suction force at the secondary inlet of the ejector. The ejector is then fabricated to test for its functionality. Experiments are conducted and pressure at the secondary inlet is measured through sensor. The under-pressure is observed at the secondary inlet when the gripper moves closer to the object. Also understood that the gap between ejector and the object could even more when the input pressure is increased. The ejector is able to successfully grip aluminum plate, apple, orange and tennis ball.