Carlos Blanes

Polytechnic University of Valencia | UPV · Department of Systems Engineering and Control

The quality of okra is crucial in satisfying consumer expectations, and the tenderness of okra is an essential parameter in estimating its condition. However, the current methods for assessing okra tenderness are slow and prone to errors, necessitating the development of a better, non-destructive method. The objective of the present study is to dev...

Okra, a widely grown vegetable in many regions, often suffers from freshness loss during transportation, causing significant waste. Factors like variety, environment, maturity, and handling affect its quality. Current methods for checking okra tenderness are slow and prone to mistakes, so we need a better, non-damaging method. This study aims to us...

Robotic and vision technologies are progressively becoming ubiquitous for automating and digitizing quality control in the food industry. This paper aspires to provide a high-level technical review on the crucial role of advanced automation technologies, including versatile or dedicated robotic systems, specialized end-effectors, machine vision, an...

Although the vibration of rackets and the location of the sweet spot for players when hitting the ball is crucial, manufacturers do not specify this behavior precisely. This article analyses padel rackets, provides a solution to determine the sweet spot position (SSP), quantifies its behavior, and determines the level of vibration transmitted along...

Dragon fruit is a tropical fruit with significant potential for consumers and producers. The quality assurance of this high-value product is crucial to satisfy consumer expectations. The quality of imported dragon fruit after storage may deteriorate due to inappropriate storage conditions. The firmness of dragon fruit is an essential parameter to e...

Wooden nail-stitched crates are widely used for fruit transportation. Bad stapled nails are transformed into severe product damage that creates stains on the crate due to its juice. In consequence, the final customer depreciates the product because the quality product is in doubt. Human visual inspection of badly stapled nails is a non-effective so...

Although the moment of inertia of padel rackets is one of their fundamental properties and of particular interest to the players, hardly any manufacturer specifies the parameter for its rackets. The present paper offers a solution to determine the moment of inertia around different axes of padel rackets and makes a standardized comparison possible....

Prototype Deceleration signal Non-damaging The quality of cherimoya fruit is reduced by the rapid deterioration of firmness during ripening. Different methods have been developed for the measurement of firmness. The objective of this study was to use a developed impact prototype for the non-destructive assessment and prediction of cherimoya fruit f...

Several pneumatic grippers with accelerometers attached to their fingers have been developed and tested. The first gripper is able to classify the hardness of different cylinders, estimate the pneumatic pressure, monitor the position and speed of the gripper fingers, and study the phases of the action of grasping and the influence of the relative p...

The objective of the study was to evaluate the use of a robot gripper in the assessment of mango (cv. “Osteen”) firmness as well as to establish relationships between the non-destructive robot gripper measurements with embedded accelerometers in the fingers and the ripeness of mango fruit. Intact mango fruit was handled and manipulated by the robot...

A pneumatic robot gripper capable of sorting eggplants according to their firmness has been developed and tested. The gripper has three fingers and one suction cup. Each finger has an inertial sensor attached to it. One of the fingers adapts to and copies the shapes of eggplants when the jamming of its internal granular material changes from soft t...

Conventional pneumatic grippers are widely used in industrial pick and place robot processes for rigid objects. They are simple, robust and fast, but their design, motion and features are limited, and they do not fulfil the final purpose. Food products have a wide variety of shapes and textures and are susceptible to damaged. Robot grippers for foo...

Robotics has been introduced in industry to replace humans in arduous and repetitive tasks, to reduce labour costs and to ensure consistent quality control of the process. Nowadays robots are cheaper, can work in hostile and dirty environments and they are able to manipulate products at high speed. High speed and reliability and low robot gripper c...