Compliant capacitive wrist sensor for use in industrial robots

Abstract

Abstract-A sensor which is designed to measure the bending moments in the x and y directions, the force in the z direction and the torsion moment around the : direction is described. The sensor consists of two opposite electrode patterns with an elastomeric material in between, and electrical contacts to only the arm-side electrode pattern. Upon applying a force, the compliant intermediate will deform, causing a change in the separation and overlap between the electrodes, which results in a change in the capacitance. There are four sensitive capacitance patterns between the two electrodes. By combining the information from these four patterns it is possible to unambiguously distinguish between the three moments. Such a sensor can be used to improve the assembling performance of an industrial robot as the vision system might be obscured by the object to be manipulated at the moment the gripper establishes mechanical contact. The versatility of the sensor is demonstrated using an experiment, where a contour is tracked with constant contact force.

Learning patterns in ambient intelligence environments: a survey

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Instrumented Compliant Wrist with Proximity and Contact Sensing for Close Robot Interaction Control

“…The compliant wrist was instrumented to provide position information to the robot controller as small positional deviations in the wrist. Another compliant wrist sensor [ 20 , 21 ] made use of capacitive sensing properties to measure bending moments in 3D, as well as force in the direction perpendicular to the interaction surface. The capacitive sensors were implemented as circuit boards with 6 mm thick natural rubber material to provide compliance.…”