PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a method for controlling a rice molding device capable of easily and optimumly performing various settings not only in a maker side but also in a user side, and the rice molding device.SOLUTION: To a rice molding device practicing: a step where rice is compressed by a feed-out part a step where the rice compressed by a cutting part is cut to a fixed amount and a step where the rice cut to a fixed amount by a molding part is molded to a rice molded body with a prescribed shape, corresponding to each step of a series of the rice molding process producing the rice molded body from the rice, with the quality of the rice and the rice amount of the rice molded body as indexes, a plurality control elements deciding the hardness of the rice molded body and/or the shape of the rice molded body are calculated and introduced by a fuzzy inference, and based on each control element introduced by the fuzzy inference, the respective operations of the feed-out part, the cutting part and the molding part are controlled.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 6COPYRIGHT: (C)2017,JPO&INPIT【課題】製造者側に限らず使用者側であっても簡易に且つ最適な機械制御の各種設定を行うことができるような米飯成形装置の制御方法及び米飯成形装置を提供する。【解決手段】送出部により米飯を圧縮する工程、切断部により圧縮された米飯を一定量に切断する工程、成形部により一定量に切断された米飯を所定形状の米飯成形体に成形する工程を実行する米飯成形装置に対して、米飯から米飯成形体を製造する一連の米飯成形工程の前記各工程に対応して、前記米飯の質及び前記米飯成形体の米飯量を指標として前記米飯成形体の硬さ及び/又は前記米飯成形体の形状を決定する複数の制御要素をファジー推論により演算して導き出し、当該ファジー推論で導き出した各制御要素に基づいて、前記送出部、前記切断部及び前記成形部のそれぞれの動作を制御する。【選択図】図6
