Peeling robot

[Anvith]

I want to build a robot which can peel arecanut. using robotic arm can anyone guide me which kind of arm should be used.

[Soeren]

Hi,

I want to build a robot which can peel arecanut. using robotic arm can anyone guide me which kind of arm should be used.

Is this a school project or a serious commercial project (and how large is your budget)?

When tying to replace manual labour with automation, very often you have to think in completely different directions from what you know about the manual process.
Although I have never held an arecanut and thus haven't got a feel for the characteristics of neither the peel nor the kernel, I can assure you, that trying to replicate a human arm will be a poor solution,.

You need to completely rethink the concept of how to remove the peel; how to scar/cut the peel, how to separate the peel from the kernal without trashing the latter and finally how to sort the kernals alone into whatever containers are used (and probably the peels into others).

Since feed through volume probably is an important parameter, consider how much damage (if any) to the kernals can be tolerated, as the most efficient methods will be somewhat brutal. Think of eg. large routers marring the peel - efficient but will cut into some of the largest specimens.

How tough/"leathery" is the peel? How hard is the kernal? How much force is required to separate the two? How are the peel opened when done manually (think step by step)?

Grab a couple to play with - it often helps jump-starting the brain when you have the subject right in front of you.

[Anvith]

Thanks for reply but to peel the arecanut only hands are used so i thought of replacing it with arms which will hold arecanut and using blades to peel that.
manually people hold arecanut they hit it to a blade with some force then it is rotated so dat outer layer comes to hand.
if possible i will send one video.

[Soeren]

Hi,

Thanks for reply but to peel the arecanut only hands are used so i thought of replacing it with arms which will hold arecanut and using blades to peel that.

What is most important in the finished build - that it have arms like a human or that it is as efficient as possible peeling the nuts?

manually people hold arecanut they hit it to a blade with some force then it is rotated so dat outer layer comes to hand.

You're not building a human with the brain and the dexterity of a human. You're building a robot, or rather an automatic machine, that will newer have brains and dexterity like a human.
The strength of automation is the stamina and speed in repeated tasks they're designed for and it shouldn't be that hard to make it turn out 10 times (or more) of what a human is able to do in a given time.

How many nuts (on average) do the best human peelers turn out in an hour?

It's up to you of course, but it sounds like you have never really studied any automation process, so perhaps it wouldn't be that bad taking a couple of hints from someone living in a heavily industrialized country, one that has done it for probably longer than you have lived (just guessing) and who has had a keen interest in automation processes since being able to understand their ramifications.
And the best hint I can give you is: "Robots are not human, nor should you try to make them appear so, unless you work in a movie makers SFX department - Robots and automation should be build to best solve a given task and the less you know/think of how humans do that particular job the better".

if possible i will send one video.

Thanks, but there's no reason to, as I found one when I tried to find out exactly what an arecanut is and the video didn't give the faintest idea of the consistency etc. of the nut/peel, but a minute description of the nut, the peel, the hardness of both etc. might give more input.

Like:
How heavy is a nut with and without the peel
What should the angle of the blade be?
How much force is needed to slice it with a blade of a given angle?
How often do the peelers touch up their knives?
How great size variance are there between the nuts (minimum/maximum size)?
how much force is needed to separate nut from peel?
If put under pressure, would the peel crack before the nut was damaged?
Such sort of info is what you need to collect and note down - no matter how you're going to make it, as it's important parameters when you need to select actuators and power source.

But... If you wanna make it with arms, I can't help you, it's simply too inefficient to be worth the while.