Modeling and property estimation of japanese sweets for their manufacturing simulation

Traditional Japanese sweets have long history and intense cultural background. In order to automate the manufacture process and also hand down the skillful techniques of sweets making, it is necessary to investigate the mathematical models of such objects and estimate their physical properties. This paper introduced a five-element physical model to describe the deformation behaviors of such materials. Using finite element (FE) method, a 2D/3D FE dynamic model was formulated to simulate arbitrary shaped objects. An approach for estimating physical parameters was then proposed based on FE simulation and nonlinear optimization. To capture both forces and deformation behaviors, two sets of parameters were identified and employed to simulate real Japanese sweets. A series of experimental results validated the FE model and property estimation method.