Teaching from examples in assembly and manipulation of snack food ingredients by robot

Abstract

We report the results of a programme of work that allows us to specify and execute robotic assembly of snack food products such as sandwiches and pizzas simply by presenting to the system hand-prepared examples of the desired results of the robot operations. We summarise a detailed experimental evaluation of our pick and place work, in which placement location and orientation are taught by example. We also describe and evaluate our recent work on automated spreading of ingredients so as to form specific surface profiles. Our methods facilitate rapid reconfiguration to accommodate new product variants without the need for reprogramming.