Scalable fabric tactile sensor arrays for soft bodies
Scalable fabric tactile sensor arrays for soft bodies
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DOI：
10.1088/1361-6439/aab221
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发表时间：
2018-06-01
影响因子：
2.3
通讯作者：
Killpack, Marc D.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Day, Nathan;Penaloza, Jimmy;Killpack, Marc D.
软体机器人有可能改变机器人与环境相互作用的方式。这是因为它们惯性低，并且具有在不伤害自身或周围人员的情况下更安全地与外界交互的固有能力。然而，现有的软体机器人传感技术至少在一定程度上限制了它们控制与环境交互的能力。触觉传感器可以使软体机器人感知交互，但大多数触觉传感器由刚性基底制成，不太适合可变形的软体机器人应用。此外，如果覆盖软体机器人的触觉传感器价格昂贵，且其分辨率在制造性方面扩展性不佳，那么能够低成本制造软体机器人的优势可能就会丧失。本文讨论了一种制造价格合理、高分辨率的触觉传感器阵列（按行和列制造）的方法的开发，该阵列可用于为软体机器人和其他软体物体配备传感器。然而，这种构造导致当同一行中的两个触觉元件被压缩时，传感器阵列会出现大量的串扰。利用相同的基于织物的触觉传感器阵列构造设计，提出了两种不同的串扰补偿方法。第一种方法使用数学模型直接计算每个触觉元件的电阻变化。第二种方法引入了额外的简单电路元件，使我们能够对每个触觉元件进行电气隔离，并将电压直接与力相关联。织物传感器阵列在两种不同的软体应用中得到了演示：一个充气单连杆机器人和一个人类手腕。
Soft robots have the potential to transform the way robots interact with their environment. This is due to their low inertia and inherent ability to more safely interact with the world without damaging themselves or the people around them. However, existing sensing for soft robots has at least partially limited their ability to control interactions with their environment. Tactile sensors could enable soft robots to sense interaction, but most tactile sensors are made from rigid substrates and are not well suited to applications for soft robots which can deform. In addition, the benefit of being able to cheaply manufacture soft robots may be lost if the tactile sensors that cover them are expensive and their resolution does not scale well for manufacturability. This paper discusses the development of a method to make affordable, high-resolution, tactile sensor arrays (manufactured in rows and columns) that can be used for sensorizing soft robots and other soft bodies. However, the construction results in a sensor array that exhibits significant amounts of cross-talk when two taxels in the same row are compressed. Using the same fabric-based tactile sensor array construction design, two different methods for cross-talk compensation are presented. The first uses a mathematical model to calculate a change in resistance of each taxel directly. The second method introduces additional simple circuit components that enable us to isolate each taxel electrically and relate voltage to force directly. Fabric sensor arrays are demonstrated for two different soft-bodied applications: an inflatable single link robot and a human wrist.