CakeBot

Project

• CakeBot is an automated cake decorating machine that can frost the exterior of a cake, smooth the outside with a blade, and decorate the cake with border patterns and dollops.
• Users can select border patterns for the top and bottom, a finish for the cake (flat or boxed), and can use 4 different nozzles to further vary the appearance of dollops and bottom and top border decorations.

System

Methods

• CakeBot approaches cake decoration like 3D printing. There are six stepper motors controlled with a microcontroller. The system uses these stepper motors to control cake rotation, blade height, nozzle height, nozzle angle, and cake x-axis movement.
• Frosting is extruded using a linear actuator. The linear actuator is controlled via Pulse Width Modulation (PWM). This allows for accurate flow control of the frosting.
• An automatic calibration process uses switches to find the positions of the carriages being controlled. The User can then use buttons to define the radius and height of the cake.
• Software turns the stored radius and height of the cake into instructions for the stepper motors.

Conclusion

• CakeBot can decorate any sized cake using a calibration process performed by the user without having to reload the frosting canister.
• Users are able to change the appearance of cake decorations by swapping out nozzles and changing the orientation of the blade.
• The system requires a lot of force to push the frosting through the nozzle. This could be improved by shortening the tube from the linear actuator to the nozzle and by using a tube with a wider inner diameter.