Soft Robotic Gripper with a Food Spatula: An Automated Fried Chicken Pick-and-Place Solution

A Smarter End-of-Arm Tool for Delicate Food Products

Automating fried chicken handling is more challenging than moving rigid industrial parts. Chicken cutlets are soft, flexible, coated with batter, and often moist, making them difficult to grip consistently without deformation or product damage.To solve this challenge, our solution integrates a food-grade spatula directly onto a soft robotic gripper, creating a compact robot end-of-arm tool (EOAT) capable of lifting, supporting, and stabilizing chicken cutlets in a single motion.Instead of relying on squeezing force alone, the integrated spatula provides bottom support while the soft silicone fingers gently secure the product during transport.This design delivers reliable robotic handling while preserving product appearance and coating quality.

Why Integrate the Spatula into the Soft Gripper?

Traditional robotic grippers often require separate supporting mechanisms or customized fixtures when handling soft food.By mounting the spatula directly onto the soft robotic gripper, the entire EOAT becomes simpler, more compact, and easier to integrate with robotic arms.The handling process is straightforward:

• The robot moves above the chicken cutlet.
• The integrated spatula slides underneath the product.
• The soft fingers gently close to stabilize the chicken without excessive pressure.
• The robot lifts and transfers the chicken smoothly to the fryer basket or downstream station.
• The product is released without sticking or deformation.

Because the spatula and gripper move together as one unit, positioning accuracy is improved and cycle time can be reduced.

As food manufacturers continue to automate production, end-of-arm tooling must become more adaptable to delicate products.Integrating a food spatula directly into a soft robotic gripper combines the benefits of compliant gripping and bottom support in a single compact tool. It reduces product damage, improves handling stability, simplifies robot integration, and increases production efficiency.For manufacturers seeking reliable robotic fried chicken handling, this integrated EOAT offers a practical solution for modern food automation.