Bite Acquisition

In robot-assisted feeding, the stage in which a robot uses a utensil to pick up a piece of food from a plate or bowl. Bite acquisition is a core technical challenge in assistive feeding robotics because foods vary enormously in compliance, friction, and geometry (e.g., spearing broccoli vs scooping rice vs skewering tofu) and because the robot must select an appropriate motion given the user's preferences and the social context. Reliable, low-effort bite acquisition is a precondition for meal-duration autonomy for users with severe upper-limb motor disabilities.