Development of Mastication Robot for Uncovering Bolus Formation

Abstract

Understanding the detailed mechanisms of food bolus formation during chewing remains challenging due to the complexity of neuromuscular coordination. This study aims to elucidate these mechanisms by developing a mastication robot capable of replicating the movements of soft tissues, including the tongue and cheek muscles, involved in food bolus formation. The research involves analyzing the masticatory movements of a subject using 4DCT data, designing and constructing a robot to reproduce the movements of these soft tissues. Then, the experiment was conducted to validate the robot's ability to recreate tongue and cheek deformations in addition to the measurement of togue pressure. The result suggests that the mechanism and control method need to be improved, since the robot did not adequately reproduce the deformation of the tongue and cheeks.