Motivations
Think about how one would chop a vegetable…
One hand curled around a knife, the other pressing down on the vegetable. Simple and repetitive motions — nothing much to see here, right?
Now imagine intense, throbbing pain in your hands as you are carrying out these repetitive motions, and yet you have no choice but to continue, because you need to chop your vegetables to prepare it for cooking. This is the reality for those with arthritis, where seemingly basic and daily motions can lead to pain and a drop in their quality of life.
And yet, they still have to push through it, because chopping vegetables is such an important part of ingredient preparation and cooking. The thickness of the vegetable can affect the texture and overall taste of the final dish. This could potentially lead to serious injuries, when we consider the repetitive motions required, the tight grip required on both of the knife and vegetable, as well as the strain on the wrists during this process.
Taking all of the above into consideration, as well as looking at current solutions on the market, our team has identified potential problems that still exist, and as such, have came up with a machine that automates the gripping and slicing process.
Vision
The goal of this project is to come up with a machine that can automate the slicing process whilst ensuring safety of users. We aim to create an automated chopping machine that can chop round, cylindrical vegetables (e.g. cucumbers, carrots) into varying thicknesses with a user-friendly design that can be used by anyone. By automating the chopping motion, the stress on the joints will be eliminated. This makes the preparation of ingredients both easy and safe!