Searching method for holding points during robotic food cutting

Food cutting is an essential skill of housekeeping robots. The cutting motion requires the stable holding of food items. In this study, we propose a search method for finding a stable holding point set during the cutting process. The fracture and friction forces generated by the knife were computationally estimate at a certain pose. Additionally, we discuss the calculation of the holding force corresponding to the holding point set to counteract the knife wrench. Then, an evaluation function is used to score potential holding point sets based on the magnitude and direction of the holding force. Finally, we search for the holding point set with the highest score as the final output. The proposed method was evaluated on our dual-arm robot system equipped with a two-finger hand. The results indicate that the identified holding point sets enable stable grasping during the cutting situation.