J Shanghai Jiaotong Univ Sci

Journal of Shanghai Jiaotong University(Science) >

2026 , Vol. 31 >Issue 1: 71 - 81

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12204-024-2779-z

Intelligent Robots

Planning and Control for Robot-Assisted Feeding System Towards the Disabled

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  • 1. Institute of Medical Robotics; Department of Automation, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China; 2. The Seventh Affiliated Hospital, Sun Yat-sen University, Shenzhen 518107, Guangdong, China

Received date: 2024-03-19

  Accepted date: 2024-06-21

  Online published: 2026-02-12

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Abstract

Eating is an essential activity for the disabled with upper limb impairments, and therefore numerous feeding robots are born. However, safety and reliability are two basic elements to build trust in assistive robots. Thus, planning and control methods for a safe and reliable robot-assisted feeding system are developed. Firstly, the feeding task is expanded to include both pre-meal preparation and eating. The feeding task is then divided into five subtasks including door opening, bowl grasping and transferring, utensil fetching, food skewering, and food transferring. Meanwhile, the system is built from five levels, i.e., user interface, task planning, motion planning, control, and perception. Secondly, the feeding task is decomposed into a series of motion primitives based on a motion-centric taxonomy. Then a set of states utilizing those primitives is constructed and then a finite state machine is employed as the task manager which can regulate the workflow during the feeding task. Thirdly, a safety-oriented motion planner, a food item selector, an admittance controller, and a collision detector are depicted. Finally, experiments in the laboratory and further in a rehabilitation hospital with stroke patients are conducted. The experimental results indicate that the system is safe and reliable.

Cite this article

Dai Feifan, Pei Zijun, Wang Pu, Chen Weidong . Planning and Control for Robot-Assisted Feeding System Towards the Disabled[J]. Journal of Shanghai Jiaotong University(Science), 2026 , 31(1) : 71 -81 . DOI: 10.1007/s12204-024-2779-z

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