Mechanism, design and motion control of a linkage chewing device for food evaluation

1、mechanism, design and motion control of a linkage chewing device for food evaluationw.l. xu a,*, d. lewis a, j.e. bronlund a, m.p. morgenstern ba institute of technology and engineering, college of sciences, massey university, new zealand b new zealand institute for crop and food research ltd., new

2、zealandabstracta linkage-based chewing device is proposed to perform standardised chewing for use in food evaluation. the linkage for chewing is firstly specified in terms of the trajectory of the first molar and the chewing force, according to the in vivo measurements of the human chewing ranging f

3、rom grinding (or lateral chewing) to crunching (or vertical chewing). a four-bar linkage is synthesized to achieve the lateral chewing trajectory of the molar, and by adjusting the ground link length to achieve any trajectory between the lateral and vertical chewing. a six-bar crank-slider linkage i

4、s then designed to guide the molar teeth moving in a set orientation while still following the chewing trajectory produced by the four-bar linkage. the chewing device based on the six-bar linkage is constructed with inclusion of anatomically correct teeth for reducing the food particle size, a food

5、retention device for collecting the food particles being chewed and a shock absorber for preventing excessive chewing force. the linkage chewing device is evaluated by simulations of kinematics and dynamics and actual measurements of the trajectory and chewing force. for the motion control of the ac

6、tuator, the chewing velocity along the trajectory is also profiled for occlusal phase and opening/closing phase of the chewing, and the variations of the chewing for different foods are set in a gui (graphical user interface) in labview. the device is finally validated by chewing on a cereal bar and

7、 comparing the resulting particle size of the bolus with those by human subjects. keywords: human chewing; food evaluation; chewing device; adjustable linkage; motion control1. introductionthe human masticatory system is a complex system that comprises of an upper and lower jaw that have teeth locat

8、ed on them. it also includes a tongue, cheek and saliva production capability. when mastication is performed, the lower jaw (mandible) is moved by muscles that are attached between it and the upper jaw 1. the chewing movement begins with the mandible opening thereby creating a space between the teet

9、h located on skull and the mandible. the tongue then places food particles that need chewing on to the molars.on one side of the mouth. the mandible then closes and breaks up these food particles and then the particles fall off the teeth back on to the tongue for repositioning during the next cycle

10、2. the opening of the mouth of the chewing cycle is approximately vertical 3. the speed of the mandible in the opening phase initially starts slowly and increases as the mouth opens. when the mouth starts to close, the mandible moves laterally outward and initially closes quickly coming back towards

11、 the teeth and then slows for occlusion.the trajectories of the teeth during chewing vary substantially for different foods in the frontal plane, but, they are very close to a straight line in the sagittal plane 4. this line may vary from a vertical line where the teeth come together at a 0 angle an

12、d a line where the teeth come together at a 30 angle. the trajectories used to chew different food particles differ depending on both the shape and the texture of the food particles, thus generating a different chewing action for different foods. if a vertical chewing motion is used, the teeth use t

13、heir cusps to fracture the food particles. where as if a more lateral chewing motion is used, the teeth use their sharp edges to function as blades and cut up the food particles 5.as food properties affect the chewing trajectories, a considerable amount of work has been done to determine chewing mov

14、ements in food sciences 4,6,7. measurements were made continuously over the masticatory process and included some of the following: frequency, length of chewing, tracking of jaw movement, force distribution, application of compression and shear forces on the food and particle size and structure of t

15、he bolus just prior to swallowing. these quantities vary between subjects (e.g. due to differences in jaw geometry, teeth shape, sensitivity to pain) and food texture (e.g. elasticity, hardness, adhesion especially to dentures, etc.).there are a variety of instruments or devices available for evalua

16、ting food properties. however, such devices usually use a simple straight motion (mostly food compression) and are not able to simulate the entire suite of complex functions and movements involved during mastication. since the early 1990s there have been attempts in developing masticatory robots for

17、 food texture assessment 8-11. while robotic chewing devices that possess multiple degrees of freedom (dof) of motion are able to reproduce chewing behaviour in three-dimensional space, a single dof linkage device for chewing is pursued in this study. a linkage device is much simpler in structure an

18、d motion control and more reliable in operation. the presence of a straight line trajectory in the sagittal plane presents the opportunity to reproduce the chewing motion in 2d using a simple linkage.in this paper, the chewing linkage is specified to meet basic human chewing behaviours in terms of k

19、inematic requirements and forces. mechanism design is carried out using an atlas for the generation of trajectory, and the design also takes into account the set teeth orientation. to produce a range of chewing trajectories, the linkage is made with an adjustable ground link. the motion of the actua

20、tor is planned according to different velocity requirement in occlusal phase and opening/closing phase of the chewing, and the gui (graphical user interface) in labview facilitates the various chewing operations of the device. the validation of the device is performed by chewing on a real food.2. de

21、sign specifications of a linkage chewing deviceeach mandibular tooth has its own trajectory while chewing, and a typical trajectory can be defined by vertical and lateral displacements and opening (exit) and closing (entry) angles, as illustrated in fig. 1, as well as the time to complete them 2. th

22、e trajectory of the first molar is simply a vertically compressed version of the incisor trajectories, while the entry and exit angles to and from occlusion are not greatly different 12. the incisor trajectory can be measured but vary between lateral chewing (grinding) and vertical chewing (crunchin

23、g), depending on the type of food being chewed. due to the fact that chewing is performed on the molar teeth, the chewing device must follow the trajectories of the molar teeth. as no actual data is available, the trajectories of the molar teeth during chewing can be estimated by simulation from the

24、 trajectories of the incisor 12,13, as given in table 1.to evaluate different foods the chewing device to be developed should be able to achieve any trajectory between lateral and vertical trajectories. the device should also meet cycle time and occlusal time. therefore, the linkage for chewing can

25、be specified by the set of parameters in table 1. furthermore, the forces applied on the teeth vary with the type of food being chewed. the force applied to a single tooth is also different to that of total force between all the contacting teeth during chewing. on foods such as biscuits, carrots and

26、 cooked meats forces range between 70 and 150 n on a single tooth 14. thus, the chewing force that the linkage can apply on food samples is specified as 150 n at maximum.3. basic linkage mechanism for the chewing devicea four-bar linkage (fig. 2) is a relatively simple mechanical mechanism and a poi

27、nt p on the coupler can trace a 2d trajectory. the kinematic parameters for the linkage include crank link a, coupler link b, follower link c and ground link d, as well as angle of c and distance bp for the coupler point p. a four-bar. linkage in its standard form can only perform one set trajectory

28、, and in the case where a range of trajectories are required to be reproduced, the ground link can be made adjustable manually.the cedarville engineering atlas 15 was used to find a number of suitable trajectories that have entry and exit angles that closely match a lateral chewing cycle as specifie

29、d in the above section. when a trajectory was found that matches the desired occlusal angles of a lateral chewing motion it was marked down as a possible solution. as vertical chewing motions are also required, this can be achieved by further changing the ground link length. fig. 3 shows the final c

30、hoice of the lateral chewing trajectory where the link parameters are shown at the top with varying bp length.after the occlusal angles were examined, the final design chosen was crank (link a) = 1, follower (link c) = 3, ground (link i) = 3.8-5 to achieve horizontal and vertical chewing motions, co

31、upler (link b) = 3.5, coupler (distance bp) = 3, coupler (angle y) = 60. these values are only ratios of the link lengths, relative to the crank (a), and the actual links can be of any length as long as the ratios are obeyed. to make the actual linkage chewing device to be as compact as possible, a

32、smallest feasible physical crank chosen is 10 mm long when its pivotal and joint bearings are taken into account.the chewing trajectories by the linkages were compared with those from real measurements of human chewing in table 2. it can be found that in terms of the occlusal angles, the linkage can

33、 achieve a close match with the lateral chewing trajectory while still having reasonable trajectories for the vertical chewing; however, the linkage has larger vertical opening and lateral displacements. this should be acceptable as these aspects of the chewing trajectory do not impact on the food b

34、reakdown process as long as they are sufficient to clear the food between chewing cycles. the motor can be sped up during this part of the cycle to ensure representative masticatory behaviour is simulated. fig. 4 depicts three trajectories by the linkage at the ground length of 38 mm, 44 mm and 50 m

35、m, respectively. it can be seen that the occlusal position shifts, the vertical opening displacement increases and the lateral displacement decreases as the length of the ground link gets smaller. this confirms that the linkage is able to reproduce various chewing trajectories. the chewing device to

36、 be constructed can adjust the occlusal position of the teeth by varying the distance between upper and lower teeth.once the link lengths of the four-bar linkage were determined, the design of the mechanical device could commence. the basic designs of the crank, coupler and follower are straightforw

37、ard only with the joint points of the links matching the lengths determined. the ground link needs to have a 12 mm adjustment that effectively changes the link length between 38 mm and 50 mm. fig. 5 shows the final four-bar linkage constructed where the adjustable ground link was achieved using a th

38、readed rod to move a block when the rod is turned.4. six-bar linkage mechanism for the chewing device4.1. the six-bar linkageas discussed before, the adjustable four-bar linkage can produce the required trajectories. however, it cannot keep the mandible or teeth in same proper orientation over the e

39、ntire trajectory. a simple way to resolve this is to add another two links (links 5 and 6 in fig. 6) to the four-bar linkage, thus making it a six-bar linkage. the two links are connected by a sliding joint between them, and link 5 is attached onto the coupler by a revolute joint and link 6 onto the

40、 ground by another sliding joint. the set of teeth is mounted atop link 5, which is forced to move in a plane constrained by the two sliding joints. to produce the chewing trajectories in the sagittal plane of an angle ranging between 0 and 30 to the horizontal plane, the base of the six-bar linkage

41、 can be tilted manually.to have balanced dynamics to reduce the forces and impact, the chewing device was constructed symmetrically by placing two identical four-bar linkages on each side of the device (fig. 6). the cranks of the two linkages were mounted on a single shaft driven by a single motor v

42、ia a spur-gear train. while being constructed, the six-bar linkage was extended to include anatomical teeth with a quick attachment mechanism, a molar teeth repositioning table, a shock absorber that prevents excessive impact force and a simple food retention mechanism that collects chewed food part

43、icles. food repositioning may be performed by the operator between chewing cycles. fig. 7 shows a photograph of the built chewing device where the linkage is inverted with mandible teeth up and the maxilla teeth down for convenience of collecting chewed food particles.4.2. motion planningwhile the l

44、inkage can trace a desired chewing trajectory, the velocity along the trajectory still needs to be profiled. with respect to a chewing trajectory (fig. 8), the molar teeth moves at constant velocity during the occlusion phase, and then speeds up from occlusal velocity to a maximum velocity and back

45、down to occlusal velocity in a specified time.the occlusion starting and ending positions can be found by a horizontal line of 0.5 mm down from the maximum intercuspal position 13. the linkage constructed was simulated for a lateral chewing trajectory in solidworks (fig. 8). each point on the trajec

46、tory corresponds to the crank shaft rotating 4.5 and the occlusal phase of 36 turn of crank shaft is found. as the time to complete this phase is specified as 0.12 s (table 1), the occlusal velocity of the crank is 300/s.the start angle and final angle of crank are found 18 and 342 (fig. 8a). consid

47、ering a 1:42 gear reduction between the motor and the crank, the occlusal velocity, start angle and final angle of the motor shaft are 12,600/s, 756 and 14,364, respectively. the time taken to open and close the mouth is specified of 0.65 s (table 1). based on these values, a cubic trajectory of the

48、 motor shaft is found as 16. the above planned trajectory is for the lateral chewing. as the chewing device is intended for performing a variety of trajectories between the lateral and vertical chewing, the trajectory other than the lateral chewing will be different. an actual planned trajectory is

49、decided by occlusal angle, occlusal time and opening/closing time (fig. 8b), which can be set up in the motion control gui (see section 6).4.3. motor selectionafter the materials of the parts are specified for the linkage and a constant force of 150 n is applied vertically at the coupler point p, th

50、e linkage can be simulated in solidworks to find the driving torque required at crank shaft. fig. 9 shows a crank torque versus time plot when the crank runs at 300/s which is the occlusal speed of the crank. the maximum torque the crank requires to run the chewing device is 2.6 n m. consequently, t

51、he output of the geared motor must be able to produce a minimum torque of 2.6 n m at 300/s (or 78 rpm) to achieve the desired chewing force of 150 n. in addition, the required acceleration is estimated at 190/s 12.a brushless dc motor finally chosen could deliver 6.0 n m of torque continuously and 7

52、.5 n m of torque for short periods. with the gear ratio of 1.57, the torque, speed and acceleration at the crank can be 3.82 n m, 190 rpm and 414/s2, respectively, which meets the required performance of the crank (table 3).5. analysis of the linkage chewing device5.1. trajectory and force evaluatio

53、na simple way to compare the trajectories that the device can produce and the desired chewing trajectories is to use a pen to trace the trajectories achieved and overlay them. the pen used to trace the trajectories was modified so that the spring was used to push the nib out rather than retracting i

54、t. the pen was securely attached to the slider of the six-bar linkage and the card was setup in a vertical fashion so that the nib was in contact with the card. it was found from numerous measurements that the trajectories produced by the chewing device are close to the desired ones during the occlu

55、sion but slightly different in the opening/closing phases, as illustrated in fig. 10. this minor difference is due to the play in the joints of the linkage, and insignificant to the entire chewing as it occurs only in the opening/closing free motion.the force testing was performed by the use of a lo

56、ad cell. this idea involves having the teeth attaching point (link 5) pressing down on the load cell to measure the force applied. the chewing device was set to run continuously and the force that the linkage can apply was measured. the results show that the chewing device could comfortably apply th

57、e desired 150 n chewing force and would stall at approximately 260 n.5.2. stress and deformation analysisthe six-bar linkage can be simulated in cosmos/works to test if the device can withstand the forces that will be applied. when a force of 150 n was applied at the teeth attaching point, the stres

58、s analysis was performed at the occlusal position. results show that there is no excessively large stress on the device, with the largest stress being concentrated where the linear bush of the link 5 of the four-bar linkage is (fig. 11). this is due to the fact that the linear bush makes a relativel

59、y sharp edge in the structure. this stress concentration was expected when the structure was designed, and hence needs not to be avoided as the link 5 is strong enough to withstand that level of stress. in contact with the card. it was found from numerous measurements that the trajectories produced by the chewing device are close to the desired ones during the occlusion but slightly different in the opening/closing phase