DESIGNING A ROBOT BASED ON PARALLEL MECHANISM TO REPRODUCE HUMAN CHEWING BEHAVIOUR

摘要

To quantitatively assess food texture changes and/or masticatory efficiency during chewing, the jaw forces and movements applied to the food during human chewing need to be reproduced. We have proposed a robotic solution where a parallel mechanism with six degrees of freedom (DOF) is developed, based on the anatomical model of the human mastication system. This paper presents the updated version of a kinematically focused mathematical model of the robotic jaw system and outlines the design requirements of its actuation system. Six double-acting actuators replace the main muscles of mastication, each orientated according to the anatomical attachment points of the masseter, temporalis, and lateral pterygoid muscle groups. The model allows validation that the proposed design could achieve the required jaw trajectories, and the identification of required actuator properties (i.e., displacement change, velocity and acceleration). The required actuator forces, for reproducing human-like chewing forces, were also estimated.