Underactuated Humanoid Peeling Approach for Pickled Mustard Tuber Based on Metamorphic Constraints

Abstract

Pickled mustard tuber (PMT), also known as Brassica juncea var. tumida, is a conical tuberous vegetable with a scaly upper part and a coarse fiber skin covering the lower part. Due to its highly distorted and complex heterogeneous fiber network structure, traditional manual labor is still used for peeling and removing fibers from pickled mustard tuber, as there is currently no effective, fully automated method or equipment available. In this study, we designed an underactuated humanoid pickled mustard tuber peeling robot based on variable configuration constraints that emulate the human “insert-clamp-tear” process via probabilistic statistical design. Based on actual pickled mustard tuber morphological cluster analysis and statistical features, we constructed three different types of pickled mustard tuber peeling tool spectral profiles and analyzed the modular mechanical properties of three different tool configurations to optimize the variable configuration constraint effect and improve the robot’s end effector trajectory. Finally, an ADAMS virtual prototype model of the pickled mustard tuber peeling robot was established, and simulation analysis of the “insert-clamp-tear” process was performed based on the three pickled mustard tuber statistical classification selection. The results showed that the pickled mustard tuber peeling robot had a meat loss rate of no more than 15% for each corresponding category of pickled mustard tuber, a theoretical peeling rate of up to 15 pieces per minute, and an average residual rate of only about 2% for old fibers. Based on reasonable meat loss, the efficiency of peeling was greatly improved, which laid the theoretical foundation for fully automated pickled mustard tuber peeling.