Flipping food during grilling tasks, a dataset of utensils kinematics and dynamics, food pose and subject gaze.

This paper presents a multivariate dataset of 2866 food flipping movements, performed by 4 chefs and 5 home cooks, with different grilled food and two utensils (spatula and tweezers). The 3D trajectories of strategic points in the utensils were tracked using optoelectronic motion capture. The pinching force of the tweezers, the bending force and torsion torque of the spatula were also recorded, as well as videos and the subject gaze. These data were collected using a custom experimental setup that allowed the execution of flipping movements with freshly cooked food, without having the sensors near the dangerous cooking area. Complementary, the 2D position of food was computed from the videos. The action of flipping food is, indeed, gaining the attention of both researchers and manufacturers of foodservice technology. The reported dataset contains valuable measurements (1) to characterize and model flipping movements as performed by humans, (2) to develop bio-inspired methods to control a cooking robot, or (3) to study new algorithms for human actions recognition.

An Open-Source Robotic Tool for the Simulation of Quasi-Static Finger Pressing on Stationary and Vibrating Surfaces.

The Bogus Finger is a remote-controllable tool for simulating vertical pressing forces of various magnitude as exerted by a human finger. Its main application is the characterization of haptic devices under realistic active touch conditions. The device is released as an open-source hardware and software DIY project that can be easily built using off-the-shelf components. We report the characterization of the quasi-static properties of the device, and validate its dynamic response to pressing on a vibrating surface by comparison with human fingers. The present prototype configuration accurately reproduces the mechanical impedance of the human finger in the frequency range 200-400 Hz.