Adaptive feeding machines

[iainsherriff]

Has anyone any experience with feeding "robot" arms or other feeding devices ?

[Burgerman]

I didnt think you needed to feed robots?

Yes not helpful...

Get yourself a little blonde about 20. Get that to feed you. Much more pleasant experience?
By which I really mean that the local authorities in UK will pay for carers (here at least). So you employ one for these duties. Maybe you can get the same thing or similar? Direct payments. Much more useful generally as they are not limited to feeding but many other essential daily living things. I couldnt manage without mine. I employ 2. Sometimes 3.

[martin007]

Human arms are responsible for feeding...

[biscuit]

On the other hand, there is no requirement to treat them like a person/be polite/wear your makeup/wear anything at all when they are robot arms.

[Burgerman]

True. But try getting one to get you the cheese out of the fridge.

[iainsherriff]

Human arms are responsible for feeding...

............ but Matt now has arms that no longer work and wants to maintain the independence of NOT relying on carers where possible.

[iainsherriff]

By which I really mean that the local authorities in UK will pay for carers (here at least). So you employ one for these duties.

Matt has two funded carers twice a day, and soon three times but he wants to eat main meals with the rest of the family and be able to feed himself.

[iainsherriff]

I assume the answer is no then ?

[martin007]

I didnt think you needed to feed robots?

Yes not helpful...

Get yourself a little blonde about 20. Get that to feed you. Much more pleasant experience?
By which I really mean that the local authorities in UK will pay for carers (here at least). So you employ one for these duties. Maybe you can get the same thing or similar? Direct payments. Much more useful generally as they are not limited to feeding but many other essential daily living things. I couldnt manage without mine. I employ 2. Sometimes 3.

What percentage of the salary is paid by the local authorities?

[Burgerman]

All of it. Will be the same for iainsherriff (matt) too I would expect.

They assess you. You describe the problems you have and what you require. They then give you x number of hours. And put enough into your account to cover:
Wages
Insurance public liability
Payroll company to calculate wage tax pensions etc and do the payslips
holiday
employment insurance cover
employer pension contribution
sickness cover etc.
adverising for empoyees
and other incidentals.

Then they send an accountant to look at the figures and claw back any money unsed in employment yearly. Or I send in some bank statements and reciepts.

Works for me for 26 years.

[Burgerman]

I assume the answer is no then ?

Yes the answer is no. So far.

[martin007]

Do the authorities pay 100%?

[Burgerman]

Yes. Almost. I pay a little. But one of the gov hand outs is called the "care component" and some of that is intended for care payments. So really yes all of it if government funded. Or taxpayer LA funded. It amounts to over 2k every 28 days. Or almost 3k in euros??

[Burgerman]

On the other hand, there is no requirement to treat them like a person/be polite/wear your makeup/wear anything at all when they are robot arms.

Well if you look good theres still no requirement! But if not you might scare someone. How do you know that a robot arm does not have consiousness?

[slomobile]

A quick search found https://meetobi.com/
I know there are others.
There are also robotic utensils that dampen the transmission of motion from tremors if he has gross motor, but not fine.

[Burgerman]

I searched that site high and low. The ONE THING that was important was to see it in action. To understand its capabilities, how it works etc. But no... Not a video anywhere to be seen.

Obviously they dont want to sell any of them. How rediculously stupid.

The only vid I did find was a setup video. I wanted to see it feed a real disabled person and see it its an annoying toy or a useful device.

I did notice one thing. I would need to have much bigger portions than you could fit in its dish! Where would my steak go? It seems that it isnt intelligent it just scoops up spoonfulls of random stuff like peas or finely broken up stuff. It cant deal with stuff like steak, a burger, or cut anything at all. I would normally want to eat things like meat (anything with a face) cake, ice cream, or just now T bone lamb cutlets and mushrooms and a lum of chees. And then a pear (only 1). But you would then special foods for it to work.

[martin007]

I searched that site high and low. The ONE THING that was important was to see it in action. To understand its capabilities, how it works etc. But no... Not a video anywhere to be seen.

Obviously they dont want to sell any of them. How rediculously stupid.

The only vid I did find was a setup video. I wanted to see it feed a real disabled person and see it its an annoying toy or a useful device.

I did notice one thing. I would need to have much bigger portions than you could fit in its dish! Where would my steak go? It seems that it isnt intelligent it just scoops up spoonfulls of random stuff like peas or finely broken up stuff. It cant deal with stuff like steak, a burger, or cut anything at all. I would normally want to eat things like meat (anything with a face) cake, ice cream, or just now T bone lamb cutlets and mushrooms and a lum of chees. And then a pear (only 1). But you would then special foods for it to work.

Another one of those idiot robots that are sold as intelligent.

[Burgerman]

The only intelligent bit is that you train it where your mouth is (3d locate in space) by showing it and saving that position. Then it has a couple of buttons that scoop food and take it to the 3d position. Its not intelligent in any way. Thats marketing. Its an automated small shovel.

Or is it?

Maybe it does more but theres no actual example of this thing working on that site. Just how to configure it.
1 chop up and choose certain food that it can scoop.
2 show it where mouth is. Save.

Press button.
That seems to be it.

Maybe theres better systems out there. Or maybe this does more but we cant know.

Maybe thats all thats required and I expected more. Because it isnt for me.

[Burgerman]

Theres more. They all seem to work the same way. This one seems less developed. Or less slick. But at least they have vids of people using them.

https://www.neater.co.uk/user-experience-videos

I am a lot underwhelmed really. I was expecting an industrial robot type arm with way more capability. Yes I wasnt expecting it to go to the fridge but to be able to cut up food, be voice controlled etc and have a lot better capability. Cost I suppose is the issue.

[iainsherriff]

yes, the Neater thing is around £7k, the Obi around £10k ............ stupid for what they are/do.

The Neater "anti tremor" arm is £1.7K ............ maybe an option

but for what the robot arm feeders do related the cost of a 5DOF arm kit
https://uk.robotshop.com/products/lynxmotion-al5df-kt-robotic-arm-flowbotics-studio (and they will knock VAT and a bit more off that)

I reckon DIY can do the same a LOT cheaper

[Burgerman]

Well considering how bog basic the 7 and 10k options are then I would agree. And I think you need 2. And then learn to program the things. But I think it needs some ACTUAL intelligent programming so that it can do a lot more than shovel a spoon in straight lines.

So yes, DIY or better still a great chance to start a profitable business as the competition appears to be almost non existant and bog basic at silly £££.

Or better. https://automationswitch.com/robot-arm/
Many such things are available.
When you consider that it could use a camera and assess the food and make intelligent choices a batter system can be made.

My nikon Z8 for e.g instantly assesses an image and can and does focus to 1mm accuracy on the closest eye in an image. Or the eye you tell it to follow.
It does the same with priorities of human, animal, bird eyes. Or Cars, Planes, or intelligently identifies subjects etc and decides on the exact position, exposure of a face, or focus position. 240 times per second. It can do this while someone runs or turns or is in a group of people.

So identifying meat or a pea, or a berry, or ice creme should be simple. And the right tool selected and targeted. Not just a straight line guess with a spoon... Which was what I was expecting.

[slomobile]

Maybe you can program a robot arm to drop a steak into one of these https://www.amazon.com/VEVOR-Commercial ... 09GJL88RH/

[Burgerman]

Well everything is possible with adequate willpower and development time. And ££$$. Robots in musks factories really do build cars at least 90% of it. People are mostly there to tell the robots what to do. One day the AI robot brain will tell itself what to do. But we are not there yet. If ever.

[slomobile]

At Ruth's Chris Steakhouse, just 2 prime ribey can cost more than that meat shredder. I think you've identified a key problem, that even without a person to hold the spoon you need a person to cut the food in a way the feeding machine can use it. Since that equipment is available at a fraction of the cost of the feeding machine, it ought to be included in the plan. I think you can set the blades any width between the minimum of 3.5mm and the width of the machine. I'm thinking drop a burrito in there and have bite sized cross sections. The camera could ID the whole burrito, or steak, or carrot, tell the arm to drop it in the slot, then pick up a spoonful of the right sized bite and serve it up. The arm joints need to be compliant enough to give way under human weight. We don't want anyone cracking a tooth if chest strap is loose.

Even if you have carers cut your meat, they might all do it differently, perhaps leaving large chunks of gristle. With very thin slices, even tough meat can be swallowed. I've been working through a restaurant sized box of frozen thin sliced sandwich steak recently and just now figured out I could make that myself fresh and local. Heck, just remembered, I already have a small 6" rotary deli slicer, I could have been doing that already, just one slice at a time.

[Burgerman]

I order my monthly food all at once in bulk cheap...

Buying meat in small amounts costs a fortune. Buying in bulk much more reasonable.

This isnt the cheapest place. But the service and quality is great. And still cheap. Once a month I order about £150 worth of meats. I only eat stuff with a face. I literally live on meat. And have lost around 4 stone over the last 12 months while eating as much as I want.

I dont do weeds, carbs, sugars, or any of that woke lefty nonsense! I am a man. Men eat things with a face.

All my food shopping then arrives in a chilled box monthly...

Fridgefreezer is completely full. This and I get 20x 24 cans packs of Diet drinks delivered as and when needed at 6 to 10p per can.

[Burgerman]

A robot wouldnt be able to deal with any of this stuff as it is today.

[slomobile]

Last month I spent $250 on a box of hardwood smoked pepperoni shipped in from Wisconsin. Next month considering a similar order of wagu salami and head cheese from Chicago. In theory, its supposed to last the whole year. In reality I end up ordering 2 or 3 times a year.
https://www.paulinamarket.com/
https://www.trinkosausage.net/

[LROBBINS]

Worda sometimes have different meanings in different places. "Pepperoni" is obviously an Italian word, but in the U.S. it is "salsiccia piccante" (spicy sausage) while here it means "Bell Pepper" which is a vegetable!

[Burgerman]

I see his all the time - especially with the american language. They think they speak english!

Even had an argument on quora with an american who thought we had copied all their place names. Why didnt we use our own. And the same with language. I had to explain that there were ENGLISH cottagas across the road hundreds of years older than the United States. And a stone built church in the town centre adapted from an existing religius building, from 11th century. And they were speaking english then. And that that wales was part of britain not england... And that the ENGLISH language was where their US English came from. Theres a lot of brainwashing going on in american society where they are told so often that they are the land of the free and that america is the best country in the world that they believe it. A bit scary really.

He also thought that his american laws applied to him or should, regardless of where he was in the world.

And another many years ago in my dads shop. (bathrooms/kitchens) who thought his dollars and his laws should apply in the UK. He really couldnt understand that the dollar wasnt the "best" currency and should apply everywhere. I took them anyway, looked in the paper for exchange rates. This was pre internet.

When I was in the US I had a guy showing me his mobile phone. He was telling me that in a few years we would have them in the UK. Honestly I dont know what some of them think. I know an australian who was astounded when he was asked if he had drove down to the US. Some of them really dont get out a lot. A land of extreme variation in technology, knowledge about the world and strange beliefs and also quite the opposite. Quite facinating really.

[slomobile]

Some of them really dont get out a lot.

It comes down to that. Plain ignorance more than brainwashing. But we got that too.
Separated from the bulk of human history by 2 oceans has an affect on a people. We don't see some of the context clues you get from overland visitors or your own easy visits over continent. Our visitors fly in and dont bring their furniture or food or churches and ancient buildings for us to ask about. So we assume the world is something like what we see around us.
Foreign visitors to the US get annoyed by our inept questions, so we call them snooty and leave them alone. When we travel, we ask the same inept questions and dont understand the responses because we listen in American.

I think I just learned salumi 2 or 3 years ago while looking for someone local able to recreate the wisconsin pepperoni. Just learned salsiccia piccante today. Papa John's puts pepperoncini in the pizza boxes. Little spicy pickled light green peppers. Is that a real thing or a made up corporate food word like Chalupa or Gordita. I just got 6 boxes of shelf stable alfredo sauce and pasta they call Maccheroni, made in Italy with the green white and red, just like my Motto Guzzi seat. People in the US ridicule a person fiercely if you pronounce Guzzi like Pizza with the tz sound.

Oh yeah, came back to this thread because I found this https://imgur.com/gallery/meat-slicer-HKZbTXz