Preparing Snow Cones Using a Robot Arm

Using a UR5e 6DOF manipulator, we used open-loop posiition control (i.e moving the manipulator through waypoints) to make snowcones – this includes turning on the ice machine, placing the empty cup under the ice machine, waiting for the cone to be filled, then pumping w/ syrup and presenting to the customer. We made snow cones for about 50 people.

Here are some photos of the cell I cadded in Solidworks for visualization/animation:

Back side view

Front side view

Isometric View

Here is the ordering unit I made. You can ask for blue snow cones, red snow cones, and press “GO” to begin the cycle. There is a keyboard underneath, so pressing buttons on the interface corresponds to pressing keys on the keyboards. The keys pressed are read in a ROS2 script that are scanning for input. If the correct sequence is pressed (i.e “Red”, then “Go” & the robot isn’t busy preparing a snow cone), then the robot begins making a snow cone.

PC View