{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,4,25]],"date-time":"2026-04-25T13:17:07Z","timestamp":1777123027647,"version":"3.51.4"},"reference-count":28,"publisher":"Fuji Technology Press Ltd.","issue":"4","funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100000234","name":"Ontario Arts Council","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100000234","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100001863","name":"New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100001863","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100001691","name":"Japan Society for the Promotion of Science","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["20K04406"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["20K04406"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100001691","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["JRM","J. Robot. Mechatron."],"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2021,8,20]]},"abstract":"<jats:p>Automation in the food industry is not as developed as in the automotive industry because of difficulties in handling food products with large variations in shape, size, and mechanical properties. In this paper, a pneumatic-driven soft needle gripper is proposed for handling food materials. It was constructed using a soft membrane and multiple rigid needle-like fingers. It can work under two operational modes: grasping and piercing. The grasping mode can be used to grasp shredded and chopped food materials. The piercing mode is for handling food products when only the top surface of the food product is available for handling. The needle gripper is fabricated using a multi-material 3D printer. Experimental tests on various food materials are conducted to validate grasping and piercing operations. The results of grasping tests suggest that the needle gripper can successfully grasp shredded and chopped food materials. A quantitative analysis shows that the relative standard deviation of the grasped food weight was within 20%. Although the results of piercing tests validate that the needle gripper can successfully handle various food materials, releasing the food materials involves certain difficulties.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.20965\/jrm.2021.p0935","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2021,8,19]],"date-time":"2021-08-19T16:03:00Z","timestamp":1629388980000},"page":"935-943","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":38,"title":["A Soft Needle Gripper Capable of Grasping and Piercing for Handling Food Materials"],"prefix":"10.20965","volume":"33","author":[{"given":"Zhongkui","family":"Wang","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"name":"Ritsumeikan University 1-1-1 Noji-higashi, Kusatsu, Shiga 525-8577, Japan","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Yui","family":"Makiyama","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Shinichi","family":"Hirai","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"8550","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2021,8,20]]},"reference":[{"key":"key-10.20965\/jrm.2021.p0935-1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"P. Y. Chua, T. Ilschner, and D. G. Caldwell, \u201cRobotic manipulation of food products \u2013 a review,\u201d Industrial Robot, Vol.30, No.4, pp. 345-354, 2003.","DOI":"10.1108\/01439910310479612"},{"key":"key-10.20965\/jrm.2021.p0935-2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"D. G. Caldwell, S. Caldwell, R. J. Moreno Masey, and J. O. Gray, \u201cAutomation in Food Processing,\u201d S. Nof (Ed.), \u201cSpringer Handbook of Automation,\u201d Springer, pp. 1041-1059, 2009.","DOI":"10.1007\/978-3-540-78831-7_60"},{"key":"key-10.20965\/jrm.2021.p0935-3","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"F. Chen, K. Sekiyama, B. Sun, P. Di, J. Huang, H. Sasaki, and T. Fukuda, \u201cDesign and application of an intelligent robotic gripper for accurate and tolerant electronic connector mating,\u201d J. Robot. Mechatron., Vol.24, No.3, pp. 441-451, 2012.","DOI":"10.20965\/jrm.2012.p0441"},{"key":"key-10.20965\/jrm.2021.p0935-4","unstructured":"G. A. Nayik, K. Muzaffar, and A. Gull, \u201cRobotics and food technology: a mini review,\u201d J. of Nutrition and Food Sciences, Vol.5, No.4, 1000384, 2015."},{"key":"key-10.20965\/jrm.2021.p0935-5","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"M. Hamazawa, \u201cRobot applications in the Japanese food industry,\u201d Industrial Robot, Vol.26, No.4, pp. 274-277, 1999.","DOI":"10.1108\/01439919910277530"},{"key":"key-10.20965\/jrm.2021.p0935-6","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"A. Pettersson, T. Ohlsson, S. Davis, J. O. Gray, and T. J. Dodd, \u201cA hygienically designed force gripper for flexible handling of variable and easily damaged natural food products,\u201d Innovative Food Science and Emerging Technologies, Vol.12, No.3, pp. 344-351, 2011.","DOI":"10.1016\/j.ifset.2011.03.002"},{"key":"key-10.20965\/jrm.2021.p0935-7","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"S. Davis, J. O. Gray, and D. G. Caldwell, \u201cAn end effector based on the Bernoulli principle for handling sliced fruit and vegetables,\u201d Robotics and Computer-Integrated Manufacturing, Vol.24, Issue 2, pp. 249-257, 2008.","DOI":"10.1016\/j.rcim.2006.11.002"},{"key":"key-10.20965\/jrm.2021.p0935-8","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"R. Sam and S. Nefti, \u201cDesign and feasibility tests of flexible gripper for handling variable shape of food products,\u201d Proc. of 9th WSEAS Int. Conf. on Signal Processing, Robotics, and Automation, pp. 329-335, 2010.","DOI":"10.1109\/ICSMC.2010.5642431"},{"key":"key-10.20965\/jrm.2021.p0935-9","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"G. Endo and N. Otomo, \u201cDevelopment of a food handling gripper considering an appetizing presentation,\u201d Proc. of 2016 IEEE Int. Conf. on Robotics and Automation, pp. 4901-4906, 2016.","DOI":"10.1109\/ICRA.2016.7487695"},{"key":"key-10.20965\/jrm.2021.p0935-10","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"S. Bachche and K. Oka, \u201cDesign, modeling and performance testing of end-effector for sweet pepper harvesting robot hand,\u201d J. Robot. Mechatron., Vol.25, No.4, pp. 705-717, 2013.","DOI":"10.20965\/jrm.2013.p0705"},{"key":"key-10.20965\/jrm.2021.p0935-11","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"T. Tamamoto, K. Takeuchi, and K. Koganezawa, \u201cDevelopment of gripper to achieve envelope grasping with underactuated mechanism using differential gear,\u201d J. Robot. Mechatron., Vol.30, No.6, pp. 855-862, 2018.","DOI":"10.20965\/jrm.2018.p0855"},{"key":"key-10.20965\/jrm.2021.p0935-12","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"A. Pettersson, S. Davis, J. O. Gray, T. J. Dodd, and T. Ohlsson, \u201cDesign of a magnetorheological robot gripper for handling of delicate food products with varying shapes,\u201d J. of Food Engineering, Vol.98, Issue 3, pp. 332-338, 2010.","DOI":"10.1016\/j.jfoodeng.2009.11.020"},{"key":"key-10.20965\/jrm.2021.p0935-13","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"S. Li, J. J. Stampfli, H. J. Xu, E. Malkin, E. V. Diaz, D. Rus, and R. J. Wood, \u201cA vacuum-driven origami \u201cmagic-ball\u201d soft gripper,\u201d Proc. of 2019 Int. Conf. on Robotics and Automation, pp. 7401-7408, 2019.","DOI":"10.1109\/ICRA.2019.8794068"},{"key":"key-10.20965\/jrm.2021.p0935-14","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"S. Ma, L. Du, E. Tsuchiya, and M. Fuchimi, \u201cPaper-made grippers for soft food grasping,\u201d Proc. of 17th Int. Conf. on Ubiquitous Robots, pp. 362-367, 2020.","DOI":"10.1109\/UR49135.2020.9144853"},{"key":"key-10.20965\/jrm.2021.p0935-15","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"T. Nishimura, Y. Suzuki, T. Tsuji, and T. Watanabe, \u201cFluid pressure monitoring-based strategy for delicate grasping of fragile objects by a robotic hand with fluid fingertips,\u201d Sensor, Vol.19, No.4, 782, 2019.","DOI":"10.3390\/s19040782"},{"key":"key-10.20965\/jrm.2021.p0935-16","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"A. Gafer, D. Heymans, D. Prattichizzo, and G. Salvietti, \u201cThe quad-spatula gripper: a novel soft-rigid gripper for food handling,\u201d Proc. of 3rd IEEE Int. Conf. on Soft Robotics, pp. 39-45, 2020.","DOI":"10.1109\/RoboSoft48309.2020.9115968"},{"key":"key-10.20965\/jrm.2021.p0935-17","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"J. Zhou, S. Chen, and Z. Wang, \u201cA soft-robotic gripper with enhanced object adaptation and grasping reliability,\u201d IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters, Vol.2, No.4, pp. 2287-2293, 2017.","DOI":"10.1109\/LRA.2017.2716445"},{"key":"key-10.20965\/jrm.2021.p0935-18","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Y. Yamanaka, S. Katagiri, H. Nabae, K. Suzumori, and G. Endo, \u201cDevelopment of a food handling soft robot hand considering a high-speed pick-and-place task,\u201d Proc. of IEEE\/SICE Int. Symp. on System Integration, pp. 87-92, 2020.","DOI":"10.1109\/SII46433.2020.9026282"},{"key":"key-10.20965\/jrm.2021.p0935-19","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Z. Wang, D. S. Chathuranga, and S. Hirai, \u201c3D printed soft gripper for automatic lunch box packing,\u201d Proc. of IEEE Int. Conf. on Robotics and Biomimetics, pp. 503-508, 2016.","DOI":"10.1109\/ROBIO.2016.7866372"},{"key":"key-10.20965\/jrm.2021.p0935-20","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Z. Wang, Y. Torigoe, and S. Hirai, \u201cA prestressed soft gripper: design, modeling, fabrication, and tests for food handling,\u201d IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters, Vol.2, No.4, pp. 1909-1916, 2017.","DOI":"10.1109\/LRA.2017.2714141"},{"key":"key-10.20965\/jrm.2021.p0935-21","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Z. Wang, K. Or, and S. Hirai, \u201cA dual-mode soft gripper for food packaging,\u201d Robotics and Autonomous Systems, Vol.125, 103427, 2020.","DOI":"10.1016\/j.robot.2020.103427"},{"key":"key-10.20965\/jrm.2021.p0935-22","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Y. Kuriyama, Y. Okino, Z. Wang, and S. Hirai, \u201cA wrapping gripper for packaging chopped and granular food materials,\u201d Proc. of 2nd IEEE Int. Conf. on Soft Robotics, pp. 114-119, 2019.","DOI":"10.1109\/ROBOSOFT.2019.8722745"},{"key":"key-10.20965\/jrm.2021.p0935-23","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Z. Wang, R. Kanegae, and S. Hirai, \u201cCircular shell gripper for handling food products,\u201d Soft Robotics, doi: 10.1089\/soro.2019.0140, 2020.","DOI":"10.1089\/soro.2019.0140"},{"key":"key-10.20965\/jrm.2021.p0935-24","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"R. Kanegae, Z. Wang, and S. Hirai, \u201cEasily Fabricatable Shell Gripper for Packaging Multiple Cucumbers Simultaneously,\u201d Proc. of 2020 IEEE Int. Conf. on Real-time Computing and Robotics (RCAR 2020), pp. 188-192, 2020.","DOI":"10.1109\/RCAR49640.2020.9303297"},{"key":"key-10.20965\/jrm.2021.p0935-25","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Z. Wang, H. Furuta, S. Hirai, and S. Kawamura, \u201cA scooping-binding robotic gripper for handling various food products,\u201d Frontiers in Robotics and AI, Vol.8, 43, doi: 10.3389\/frobt.2021.640805, 2021.","DOI":"10.3389\/frobt.2021.640805"},{"key":"key-10.20965\/jrm.2021.p0935-26","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Y. Makiyama, Z. Wang, and S. Hirai, \u201cA pneumatic needle gripper for handling shredded food products,\u201d Proc. of 2020 IEEE Int. Conf. on Real-time Computing and Robotics (RCAR 2020), pp. 183-187, 2020.","DOI":"10.1109\/RCAR49640.2020.9303279"},{"key":"key-10.20965\/jrm.2021.p0935-27","unstructured":"Design Principles, \u201cHygienic design principles,\u201d European Hygienic Engineering and Design Group (EHEDG), 2018."},{"key":"key-10.20965\/jrm.2021.p0935-28","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"R. Nishino, S. Aoyagi, M. Suzuki, A. Ueda, Y. Okumura, T. Takahashi, R. Hosomi, K. Fukunaga, D. Uta, T. Takazawa, and T. Fujii, \u201cDevelopment of artificial skin using keratin film for evaluation of puncture performance of microneedle,\u201d J. Robot. Mechatron., Vol.32, No.2, pp. 351-361, 2020.","DOI":"10.20965\/jrm.2020.p0351"}],"container-title":["Journal of Robotics and Mechatronics"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/www.fujipress.jp\/main\/wp-content\/themes\/Fujipress\/phyosetsu.php?ppno=ROBOT003300040025","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2021,8,19]],"date-time":"2021-08-19T16:14:41Z","timestamp":1629389681000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/www.fujipress.jp\/jrm\/rb\/robot003300040935"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2021,8,20]]},"references-count":28,"journal-issue":{"issue":"4","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2021,8,20]]},"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2021,8,20]]}},"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.20965\/jrm.2021.p0935","relation":{},"ISSN":["1883-8049","0915-3942"],"issn-type":[{"value":"1883-8049","type":"electronic"},{"value":"0915-3942","type":"print"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2021,8,20]]}}}