Automatic Breakfast

mikey

Hello im new to robotics and i was wondering if someone could help me. I wanna make a robot that can make breakfast. Something simple like maybe use a robotic arm to pour the pancake batter out. But i dont have the slightest clue on what to do. Please help

Ken Gracey

That's simple? Now I feel fairly lame. How much batter? Where do you want to pour? I have lots of questions and no answers.

I'd recommend a basic beginning robotic book. These often cover prototyping, electronics and some fabrication. Gordon McComb's Robot Builder's Bonanza is one that comes to mind. I was reading it over the weekend and found it to be pretty comprehensive, even if your robot doesn't use wheels as you have proposed.

Ken Gracey

achilles03

Ken has a good point. You should really define exactly what you want the robot to do... ie, define your exact goal. A nebulous, general statement like this doesn't tell us anything:

"Something simple like maybe use a robotic arm to pour the pancake batter out".

Half of the work (or more) of engineers is getting things clearly defined. For example, these are some questions I would ask:

1. Do you want it to mix the batter too?
2. Will it turn the stove on?
3. Will it place the pan on the stove?
4. Will it grease the pan?
5. Do you want 1 robotic arm doing all the actions? Or can there be separate "actuators"? (1 arm doing everything would be complex, as opposed to a couple specialized arms for pouring, flipping, mixing, etc)
6. Should it let the stove preheat for a predetermined time, or should it sense temperature?
7. How many pancakes per plate?
8. How many plates? How will the plates be arranged? Or will the robot retrieve them?

After you've defined the exact goal, then you can figure out how to achieve that objective.

Hope that helps,
Dave

Paul Baker

I was doing a search of our database· and because I didn't limit the field of art for the search I came across this:

http://patimg1.uspto.gov/.piw?docid=US004922435&PageNum=1&IDKey=50589AF48B76&HomeUrl=http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1%2526Sect2=HITOFF%2526d=PALL%2526p=1%2526u=/netahtml/srchnum.htm%2526r=1%2526f=G%2526l=50%2526s1=4922435.WKU.%2526OS=PN/4922435%2526RS=PN/4922435

thought you guys might find this patent interesting, let me know if you have problems viewing it, this is the first time I've tried to reference a patent on the internet (our·interface is more elegant and versatile·than the one availible to the public).

page navigation buttons are the gold ones in the lefthand frame.

Post Edited (Paul Baker) : 2/15/2005 6:59:24 PM GMT