Author Topic: Robot meal cooker (Read 8486 times)

robothehobo · « **on:** May 10, 2009, 12:54:29 PM »

Hi,
I just thought, it would be great if you could get up eat your breakfest, set your robot meal cooker to start making your meal so it could be done when you get home(warm and tasting great!). It couldn't be that hard because you would just fill each slot labeled with the food to be put in it(carrots, patatoes ect.) then you can either select a meal from the digital screen on the back or click random.
I got the idea because my mom works hard at work and I suck at cooking so I think when she comes home she deserves a good meal. Any ideas where to start? Could anyone help me?

Razor Concepts · « **Reply #1 on:** May 10, 2009, 01:31:17 PM »

Write all of your ideas down in one places. Chances are they are not do-able right now, but later on in life when you know more and have more time, you'll have your ideas.

robothehobo · « **Reply #2 on:** May 10, 2009, 03:32:16 PM »

I have tons of time, and i think it is do-able in this time and age........

dellagd · « **Reply #3 on:** May 10, 2009, 06:48:52 PM »

FYI there is no need to post this topic in 2 catagories

also if the cooking is not complicated, aka no flipping or anything, I think this could be accomplished with relays

airman00 · « **Reply #4 on:** May 11, 2009, 05:42:53 AM »

Just be careful : http://www.hulu.com/watch/43212/family-guy-breakfast-machine

SmAsH · « **Reply #5 on:** May 11, 2009, 02:31:33 PM »

Quote from: airman00 on May 11, 2009, 05:42:53 AM

Just be careful : http://www.hulu.com/watch/43212/family-guy-breakfast-machine

united states only! pssffft! although i do remember the vid...
is it the one where he had like the giant fantastic contraption to cook him a meal?

robothehobo · « **Reply #6 on:** May 11, 2009, 07:08:01 PM »

IDEA!!!!! For my prototype, I can just make a button on the side so it can just keep cutting and the wheel type thing keeps spinning. But how would I make the cutter go up and down? Any ideas?
Thanks

dellagd · « **Reply #7 on:** May 11, 2009, 07:37:34 PM »

actuator

SmAsH · « **Reply #8 on:** May 12, 2009, 12:29:38 AM »

not very efficient but you could have a guillotine type thing that has it pulled up by a servo?
or you could have a slow spinning blade that the carrot gets pushed into? how thick do you want the chunks to be?

robothehobo · « **Reply #9 on:** May 12, 2009, 04:34:16 AM »

EHH, yey wide....l l

dellagd · « **Reply #10 on:** May 12, 2009, 05:43:30 AM »

well smash that would be determined by the speed of the blade and the speed of push of the "blade feeder"

SmAsH · « **Reply #11 on:** May 12, 2009, 05:53:09 AM »

you could have a low speed high torque motor/servo spinning it...
what do you mean by wide? can you give some measurements?

Indiana_Geoff · « **Reply #12 on:** May 12, 2009, 07:33:53 AM »

Why in the world would you have a push button? Voice recognition is the way to go. Maybe a touch screen but only after you call the robot to your side.

I would also use visual recognition so the bot can get a bag of carrots out of the fridge. Now how would you remove the plastic from the bag before chopping?

dellagd · « **Reply #13 on:** May 12, 2009, 07:56:34 AM »

I dont think this robot is supposed to be that advanced

robothehobo · « **Reply #14 on:** May 12, 2009, 01:08:47 PM »

Not that advanced, remember prototype.

The mesurement for the carrot peices would be about half an inch wide like this
l   l and however round the carrot is.

And I am making a new type of knife for this project that has a shape like so.......


   l l
______l_l_______ <-- plate and motor connecter shaft attached
/   / / l   \ \   \ <-- shafts to go to the small plate
l   l   l   l   l   l   l <-- knifes

The point of that is so it can cut one whole carrot in one motion.

Where can I buy a powerful enough acuator for this project that is small enough? Couldn't I just make a piston type system?

Razor Concepts · « **Reply #15 on:** May 12, 2009, 03:10:44 PM »

Physically using a knife to cut down on a carrot takes quite an amount of force, even when doing it by hand. My reccomendation is a small circular saw instead.

Indiana_Geoff · « **Reply #16 on:** May 12, 2009, 03:16:16 PM »

How about a series of thin wires like the ones used to slice eggs. It would be easy to up the force and the slice size would be uniform.

SmAsH · « **Reply #17 on:** May 12, 2009, 03:25:36 PM »

that would still require a fair bit of force, i would say some kind of spinning blade would do it...
couldn't hurt to try it eh?

chelmi · « **Reply #18 on:** May 12, 2009, 03:42:00 PM »

Quote from: SmAsH on May 12, 2009, 03:25:36 PM

that would still require a fair bit of force, i would say some kind of spinning blade would do it...
couldn't hurt to try it eh?

Yes it could actually

robothehobo · « **Reply #19 on:** May 12, 2009, 05:38:26 PM »

Quote from: SmAsH on May 12, 2009, 03:25:36 PM

that would still require a fair bit of force, i would say some kind of spinning blade would do it...
couldn't hurt to try it eh?

Actually, It could hurt........alot........but I could make them small circular saws and have the carrots going down a conveyer belt........still seems to me like it could be dangerous $:-\$

robothehobo · « **Reply #20 on:** May 12, 2009, 05:41:12 PM »

And on the plus side, accuators are very expensive..............SICULAR SAW IT IS!!

dellagd · « **Reply #21 on:** May 12, 2009, 05:48:18 PM »

a robot that has the ability to cut ANYTHING is dangerous

robothehobo · « **Reply #22 on:** May 12, 2009, 06:27:03 PM »

indeed, but if no one can reach into where the small blades are spinning, no harm can be done.......also, i can put a servo (incase someone opens the side of it) to shut it off automaticcaly

Ro-Bot-X · « **Reply #23 on:** May 12, 2009, 07:50:58 PM »

Ok, a meal cooker, huh?

What about making fried eggs? Or steak for that matter, the procedure is the same. As with any meal cooker, it needs a bit of preparation. You need to prepare a pan with a bit of oil in it, put it on the stove, install the robot meal cooker on the stove side so it reaches above the pan. The robot should be fitted with a few apendages, like a spatula to flip the eggs or steak on the other side, something that is able to twist the stove knob to lit the flame under the pan (or turn on the resistance if you have an electric stove), some other apendage that is able to break the eggs above the pan and drop the egg shells in some garbage can. A plate should be set aside to place the fried eggs or steak after their done. So, when the cooking time comes, the robot will turn on the stove, wait until the oils is hot enough, drop the eggs or steak, wait some time, turn it over with the spatula, wait some time, turn off the stove, pick the fried eggs with the spatula and drop them on the plate. Same procedure can be used to make french toast, french fries...

Now for you carots and potatoes. The easiest is to use a food processor machine. Just drop the carots, onion, celery, etc. in the food processor, turn it on for a bit, turn it off, then pour it in the pan and cook it. Remember, allways use the kitchen machines that are allready available, modify them to be easier to use (get some cheap ones from Value Village or Good Will), build the robot around them and it will be a success!

Good luck and upload pictures!

SmAsH · « **Reply #24 on:** May 13, 2009, 12:30:29 AM »

wow, i never thought of modding ready made appliances, nice idea ro-bot-x!

Quote from: dellagd on May 12, 2009, 05:48:18 PM

a robot that has the ability to cut ANYTHING is dangerous

i believe if the robot is using safety scissors it cant?

dellagd · « **Reply #25 on:** May 13, 2009, 06:12:57 AM »

Soeren · « **Reply #26 on:** May 13, 2009, 05:37:16 PM »

Hi,

Quote from: robothehobo on May 10, 2009, 12:54:29 PM

I got the idea because my mom works hard at work and I suck at cooking so I think when she comes home she deserves a good meal. Any ideas where to start? Could anyone help me?

A noble cause!!
But... I think you'd find it easier (and in time, more rewarding), to learn to cook yourself and if you can't cook, how would you build a robot that could? You'd have to tell it exactly how to do it.

Lots of people buy food processors, few actually use them more than occasionally - Why? They don't clean themselves, so you don't get less work, you just get different (more boring) work.
That contraption you wanna make... Are you gonna clean it every single day? Are your tired mother gonna do it? Or are you gonna get sick because it is infested with bacteria after one use?
Then there's the fire hazard if something goes bad - and sooner or later, something will.
Doesn't learning to cook sounds OK, all things considered?

If you wanna do something good for your mother, give her a daily hug, buy her some flowers or chocolate every now and then and tell her she's pretty (works wonders for mothers, girlfriends and any other member of that particular species

)
If you really wanna splurge (and can afford it), get her an automatic bread baker (don't know what they're called), then you can wake up to the smell of fresh baked bread (still needs cleaning though, but not as much as your carrot ninja).
When that's taken care of, start your career in robotics with a line follower or similar and in a number of years, you might be ready to automate your meal preparation.

Anyway, why are you only talking about veggies, don't you eat real food?

robothehobo · « **Reply #27 on:** May 13, 2009, 07:46:13 PM »

Well, I know how to cook it just isn't my thing. I ain't talking about real food cause it is not time to make a advanced prototype. XD

Admin · « **Reply #28 on:** May 24, 2009, 06:36:08 PM »

I know some friends who took a class where the final project was to make a pancake making robot. The common problems were:

1) cleaning the machine afterwards
2) tons of messed up pancakes you had to eat during the prototype stage
3) occasional parts going missing in the batter
4) grease mixing with the batter

But I didn't mind, I ate many a pancake

The winning team used compressed air to flip the pancake . . . who would have thought?

Metal Slug 2 · « **Reply #29 on:** May 24, 2009, 08:49:29 PM »

what you need to cut those carrots (and what ever else you need cutting..carefull of cross contamination) is one of these:

http://www.ncscatering.com/catalog/images/MEAT%20SLICER%20300.jpg.bmp

over kill, but it would sure get the job done, and with nice clean cuts also =)...just have some actuator push the slicer back and forth....

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Author Topic: Robot meal cooker (Read 8486 times)