The Robotic Human Jaw

A robotic human jaw, under collaborative development by Massey University in New Zealnd, engineers, will have applications for both medical and food technological research.

The Massey team is now engaged in the construction of the robotic jaw, which will provide comprehensive data of the forces and movements applied in the chewing of food. during chewing of food.

Masters student Jozef-Sebastian Pap has designed the robot and the six actuators which drive the bottom jaw (the top half of the human jaw remains fixed).

The jaw is designed to be fitted with a variety of teeth, such as the sharp pointy teeth of a six year old or the blunter molars of an adult..

In the future it is intended to teach the robot to adaptively chew food. It may be made to make its own decisions on how to chew a new food product. If it loses a tooth, it will adjust its motion accordingly and the data collected, of chewing force and jaw movement, will reflect the changed situation.

Massey News Article - The robotic human jaw