Force analysis and experiment of a redundantly actuated chewing robot

Abstract

In this paper, a redundantly actuated chewing robot with two higher kinematic pairs (HKPs) is presented, which can be used in performance test and evaluation of denture material. The robot has six actuators, but only has four degrees of freedom, due to constraints of two HKPs which mimic two temporomandibular joints (TMJs) of human. Quasi-static force analysis in occlusion status is performed to calculate the actuation forces, showing that a group of optimized actuation forces and internal forces of the TMJs can always be found which is more efficient in generating occlusal force. Experiments are carried out to examine the chewing movement and force output. The results show that the chewing robot not only can reproduce the trajectory of mandible, but also can imitate forces in mastication system faithfully.