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Have you ever observed a busy bar counter where the bartenders not only need to interact with customers while preparing various cocktails but also have to open a bunch of cans manually in a short time? Have you ever experienced the inconvenience of a hand or finger injury/trauma that made the can-opening task suddenly hard? Do you or your friends always want to keep good condition of your vulnerable nails? The can-opening task can be bothering bothersome or inconvenient in many cases. To solve this, the automated robotic can-opener of our project aims to eliminate manpower and make our lives much easier!
Problem Statement
Many currently used automated can openers require user input to open a can. We need Due to the inconvenience that opening a can presents, the issue that our team is targeting focuses on the eliminating the user input of the task. We plan to develop a can-opener mechanism that will autonomously locate the tab of a can and open it with adequate force. The complexity of our design stems from determining the correct link lengths, angles, and force such that the ' end - effector ' or tip of our mechanism will consistently translate and rotate to pull the tab of the can open. Incorrect parameters may result in poor placement of the end effector and inadequate motion to complete the task. Furthermore, another complexity is that the mechanism must achieve an orientation at a certain angle to be under the tab. The use of simple joints is not suitable to accomplish this task because we need linkages that have enough compliance to achieve desired angles while maintaining structural integrity to lift the tab and open the can.
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We have utilized MotionGen to mock up a few potential 8-bar geometries that could generate the position profile that would scoop under the tab and push it upward. These linkages are shown below. The video shows the first mechanism in motion. In addition to this 8-bar, the end effector link would have a tip that can be pushed back when the link meets the top of the can, and as the link meets the tab the interaction locks the tip into place. This effective variation in compliance of the tip would allow for more flexibility for getting under the tab, but also ensures that the link is rigid enough to impart maximum torque. This mechanism is not able to fully push the tab upwards. This is to show that we are able to achieve the circular motion pattern and consider more design for improvement.
Geometry 2 Linkage Lengths:
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