RAF-FF: Design and Evaluation of a Robot-Assisted Feeding System for Finger Foods

RAF-FF: Design and Evaluation of a Robot-Assisted Feeding System for Finger Foods | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Research Article RAF-FF: Design and Evaluation of a Robot-Assisted Feeding System for Finger Foods Jacob Miller, Mahanthesh Ramchandra, Claire Foley, Gina Kubec, and 3 more This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-9247051/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Under Review Version 1 posted 5 You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract People with physical disabilities who rely on others to complete essential activities of daily living (ADLs) live with constant uncertainty due to the growing scarcity of quality direct care providers. Assistive robotic arms can support people with disabilities in various activities to offset the negative effects of the direct care worker crisis. In this paper, we demonstrate a semi-autonomous robot-assisted feeding system (RAF-FF), directly supporting a critical ADL. The system processes visual and auditory inputs in real-time to deliver finger foods and a drink to the user. We evaluated this system with a laboratory study of seven able-bodied participants and one participant with a spinal cord injury (SCI). The robot successfully delivered a food item or drink on 94% of feeding cycles with cycles lasting from 28 to 96 seconds. Users generally rated the RAF-FF high on the System Usability Scale (score of 97.5 for the participant with SCI and mean 79.3 for able-bodied participants). Participants stated in post-trial interviews that they would use the robot at home but would like to have more control over the pause between feeding cycles and to have more feedback on the robot's decision-making process while it paused to identify and choose a food item. This study is the first known demonstration of a robot semi-autonomously perceiving, acquiring, and delivering finger foods to human users. Assistive Robotics Human-Robot Interaction Multimodal AI Spinal Cord Injury Activities of Daily Living Vision-Language Models Full Text Additional Declarations No competing interests reported. Cite Share Download PDF Status: Under Review Version 1 posted Reviewers agreed at journal 03 May, 2026 Reviewers invited by journal 20 Apr, 2026 Editor assigned by journal 31 Mar, 2026 Submission checks completed at journal 29 Mar, 2026 First submitted to journal 27 Mar, 2026 You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-9247051","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Research Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":629308997,"identity":"8cf9f512-4e5a-4996-b9ee-ad0e1c56ea9e","order_by":0,"name":"Jacob 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