Design and implementation of a robot system for rice bowl with salmon roe in conveyor belt applications

Automation and robotic systems in the food industry have advanced significantly, particularly in handling various food items. In Japan, preparing rice bowl sets is repetitive and time-consuming, making it ideal for automation. To address this, we have developed a robotic system for assembling salmon roe rice bowls, integrating a dual-arm robot, a conveyor belt, and a ROS 2-based task planning framework. The primary task of the robot is to assemble the ingredients for a set of rice bowls with salmon roe. An automatic rice dispenser delivers bowls of rice to the robot via the conveyor belt. The robot then scoops the required amount of salmon roe and picks ginger from designated containers. A vision system detects the position of the rice bowl using a camera and sends control signals to the conveyor belt. All movements are pre-configured to achieve accuracy during the process. This system participated in the Food Topping Challenge at ICRA 2024, successfully assembling 9 out of 10 sets of rice bowls in 10 min and 26 s, achieving a success rate of 90%. We believe that this robotic system lays the groundwork for further advancements in automating the preparation of rice bowls and similar dishes in food service applications.