The Design and Characterization of a Flexible Tactile Sensing Array for Robot Skin.

Journal: Sensors (Basel, Switzerland)
Published Date: Nov 25, 2016

Abstract

In this study, a flexible tactile sensing array based on a capacitive mechanism was designed, fabricated, and characterized for sensitive robot skin. A device with 8 × 8 sensing units was composed of top and bottom flexible polyethyleneterephthalate (PET) substrates with copper (Cu) electrodes, a polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) dielectric layer, and a bump contact layer. Four types of microstructures (i.e., pyramids and V-shape grooves) atop a PDMS dielectric layer were well-designed and fabricated to enhance tactile sensitivity. The optimal sensing unit achieved a high sensitivity of 35.9%/N in a force range of 0-1 N. By incorporating a tactile feedback control system, the flexible sensing array as the sensitive skin of a robotic manipulator demonstrated a potential capability of robotic obstacle avoidance.

Authors

  • Zhangping Ji
    School of Mechanical and Electric Engineering, Collaborative Innovation Center of Suzhou Nano Science and Technology, Jiangsu Provincial Key Laboratory of Advanced Robotics, Soochow University, Suzhou 215000, China. jizhangping@foxmail.com.
  • Hui Zhu
  • Huicong Liu
    School of Mechanical and Electric Engineering, Collaborative Innovation Center of Suzhou Nano Science and Technology, Jiangsu Provincial Key Laboratory of Advanced Robotics, Soochow University, Suzhou 215000, China. hcliu078@suda.edu.cn.
  • Nan Liu
    Duke-NUS Medical School Centre for Quantitative Medicine Singapore Singapore.
  • Tao Chen
    School of Automation, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi'an, 710072, Shaanxi, China.
  • Zhan Yang
    School of Mechanical and Electric Engineering, Collaborative Innovation Center of Suzhou Nano Science and Technology, Jiangsu Provincial Key Laboratory of Advanced Robotics, Soochow University, Suzhou 215000, China. yangzhan@suda.edu.cn.
  • Lining Sun
    School of Mechanical and Electronic Engineering, Soochow University, Suzhou, Jiangsu, China.

Keywords

External Resources

Popular Topics
Recent Journals