A dual-mode proximity sensor with integrated capacitive and temperature sensing units

Abstract

The proximity sensor is one of the most important devices in the field of robot application. It can accurately provide the proximity information to assistant robots to interact with human beings and the external environment safely. In this paper, we have proposed and demonstrated a dual-mode proximity sensor composed of capacitive and resistive sensing units. We defined the capacitive type proximity sensor perceiving the proximity information as C-mode and the resistive type proximity sensor detecting as R-mode. Graphene nanoplatelets (GNPs) were chosen as the R-mode sensing material because of its high performance. The dual-mode proximity sensor presents the following features: (1) the sensing distance of the dual-mode proximity sensor has been enlarged compared with the single capacitive proximity sensor in the same geometrical pattern; (2) experiments have verified that the proposed sensor can sense the proximity information of different materials; (3) the proximity sensing capability of the sensor has been improved by two modes perceive collaboratively, for a plastic block at a temperature of 60 °C: the R-mode will perceive the proximity information when the distance d between the sensor and object is 6.0–17.0 mm and the C-mode will do that when their interval is 0–2.0 mm; additionally two modes will work together when the distance is 2.0–6.0 mm. These features indicate our transducer is very valuable in skin-like sensing applications.

A Compact Low-Power Shunt Proximity Touch Sensor and Readout for Haptic Function

“…3(c) shows the layout of the proposed proximity touch sensor readout integrated circuit. While design of a simple capacitance proximity type sensor, we recognized that a simulation result is significantly related to the original relaxation oscillator design [8]. The capacitance to be sensed forms a portion of the oscillator's RC or LC circuit.…”

A Review on Applications of Capacitive Displacement Sensing for Capacitive Proximity Sensor

“…Robot tactile and proximity sensors, the successful applications of capacitive sensing, are the devices to acquire proximity information of objects or obstacles for preventing from any possible accidental collisions or achieving a series of grasping actions [63]- [66]. In general, a dual-mode capacitive sensor consisted of two electrode layers is employed to implement the tactile and proximity capability: the top layer is utilized as proximity sensor while the top and bottom layers…”

“…In addition, others [66], [71]- [73] realized a multi-sensor fusion scheme to make up for each sensor's disadvantages. Capacitive sensors are sensitive to both metallic and dielectric (non-metallic) objects and lack of detection distance.…”

“…Thus, they combined with some different sensor techniques (e.g. camera video sensor [71], temperature sensor [66], inductive sensor [72], [73], ultrasonic sensor [74], and so on), that is capable of optimizing the probability of discrimination between metallic and dielectric objects (combined with camera video sensor and inductive sensor), and improving the detection range (combined with temperature sensor and ultrasonic sensor).…”

Research on the Parallelism Detection Between Nozzle and Floating Plate

“…Six-axis force measuring method and six-axis force sensor have become a hot research topic in the field of multidimensional force measurement in recent years [1][2][3]. The precision of the six-axis force measurement is restricted by the coupling phenomenon.…”