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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 Are you or your friends always want to keep good afraid to ruin the condition of your vulnerable nails when opening a can? The can-opening task can be 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. 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, and force such that the end effector or tip of our mechanism will consistently 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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