Design and development of a humanoid with Soft 3D-deformable sensor flesh and automatic recoverable mechanical overload protection mechanism

Yoshikai, Tomoaki; Hayashi, Mitsunori; Kadowaki, Asuka; Goto, Takefumi; Inaba, Masayuki

doi:10.1109/iros.2009.5354036

Cited by 13 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 15 publications

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“…While most child robots have partial soft coverings [29][30][31] or none, [32,33] some have whole-body coverings made with soft materials such as soft vinyl, elastomeric form, or cotton cushion. [4,10,11,34,35] Although their compressibility and flexibility are effective at absorbing shock, it is not easy to realize high-motion performance because they are not easy to stretch, and thus interfere with the joint motions. CB 2 [14] and Repliee-R1 [12] have silicone rubber, which has high elasticity, as their coverings to achieve a skin-like texture.…”

Section: Mechanical Softnessmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Design of 22-DOF pneumatically actuated upper body for child android ‘Affetto’

Ishihara¹,

Asada²

2015

Advanced Robotics

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Child robots have been used in a lot of studies on human-robot social/physical interaction because they are suitable for safe and casual experiments. However, providing many compliant joints and lifelike exteriors to enhance their interaction potential is difficult because of the limited space available inside their bodies. In this paper, we propose an upper body structure that consists of slider crank and parallel mechanisms for linear actuators and serial mechanisms for rotary actuators. Such combinations of several joint mechanisms efficiently utilize the body space; in total, 22 degrees of freedoms were realized in an upper body space equivalent to that of an 80cm tall child. A pneumatic drive system was adopted in order to fully verify the behavioral performance of the body mechanism. The proposed redundant and compact upper body mechanism can be a platform for testing the effectiveness of future exteriors for the little child android 'Affetto', which was developed in order to integrate several key characteristics for achieving advanced human-robot interaction.

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Section: Mechanical Softnessmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Some child robots have thick soft coverings for more safety and comfort, [10,11] while others have a smooth surface with a lifelike appearance to provide the visual illusion that they are real. [12,13] Some systems install tactile sensors in the exterior to enrich communications with humans.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Design of 22-DOF pneumatically actuated upper body for child android ‘Affetto’

Ishihara¹,

Asada²

2015

Advanced Robotics

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“…• Thick flesh exterior cover with distributed structure, established with large curvature in whole-body • Rotational joint protective structures which can dislocate by high load and can recover automatically • Behavior state transition for self-protection with tactile sensors and motion sensor We have considered the thick flesh exterior cover [4] enough to withstand the impact of fall down incident. Flesh cover works well not only as cushioning part to protect robot itself, but also as large space which frees sensor arrangement from restrictions by skin shape or mechanism shape.…”

Section: Self-protection With the Distributed Soft Cover And Shocmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Fig.6 shows a structure of our new torque limiter using a ratchet method [6] [4]. A torque limiter of spring clutch [7] by W.Lee has very solid structure, and suitable yield torque value(4Nm) for motor joint protection of small robot, but too large to implement to joints of small robot.…”

Section: A How To Make Rotational Joint Protection Mechanismmentioning

confidence: 99%

Development of humanoid with distributed soft flesh and shock-resistive joint mechanism for self-protective behaviors in impact from falling down

Kobayashi

Yoshikai

Inaba

2011

2011 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Biomimetics

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In order for the activity area and application range for robots to expand significantly, it is preferable that robots have a soft outer cover and absorb smaller impact from contact with humans or their surroundings. Although selfprotection is a very important function and inevitably required for robust robot architecture, simply introducing thick "flesh" to a robot tends to impede movability and task generality. In this paper, we have developed a soft and thick outer cover with multilayered and distributed softness, while considering that each part of a multijointed body structure has its own demands. We have also introduced joint protection with a dislocation and auto-recover function. Finally, with our new robot, which has a distributed soft cover and joint location abilities, we have examined various contact behaviors, including toppling while walking and falling down from a desk.

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“…Developed sensor element is constructed by molding a soft urethane foam with infrared LEDs and corresponding photo-transistors, and it detects 3D deformation of the sensor as voltage changes at each photo-transistors. Also we have evaluated this sensor exterior with a humanoid robot [14]. Although this sensor improves the softness of the sensor exterior during close interaction, following issues have to be solved.…”

Section: Multi-axis Deformation Sensing During Closementioning

confidence: 99%

Development of 4-axis soft deformable sensor for humanoid sensor flesh

Yoshikai

Kobayashi

Inaba

2011

2011 11th IEEE-RAS International Conference on Humanoid Robots

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In order to achieve tactile sensing exterior for humanoid robots expected to have close interaction with humans or environments, not only the distribution of the sensors, but also softness of the sensor element itself and detection capability for multi-axis deformation are crucial. Although there's some studies on developing tactile sensor with both softness and multi-axis deformation, few of them can be applicable to humanoid exterior from viewpoint of embedding them inside the soft thick exterior. In our previous works, 20mm-cube 3-axis soft deformable sensor is developed. However, there is enough room to improve. In this paper, 4-axis soft deformable sensor unit is proposed. Proposed sensor can detect 3-axis rotational change including twisting direction, and 1-axis normal direction force. 3D rotation of the sensor is estimated by a pair of MEMS IMU boards. Although each of the outputs of IMUs are affected by motions or vibrations of the attached link, rotational deformation of the sensor can robustly estimated by monitoring the difference between them. Also, we have developed a prototype sensor flesh embedded with this deformation sensor for a humanoid robot, and the result of implemented reactive behavior against tactile sensation shows the feasibility of the proposed tactile sensor system.

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Design and development of a humanoid with Soft 3D-deformable sensor flesh and automatic recoverable mechanical overload protection mechanism

Cited by 13 publications

References 15 publications

Design of 22-DOF pneumatically actuated upper body for child android ‘Affetto’

Design of 22-DOF pneumatically actuated upper body for child android ‘Affetto’

Development of humanoid with distributed soft flesh and shock-resistive joint mechanism for self-protective behaviors in impact from falling down

Development of 4-axis soft deformable sensor for humanoid sensor flesh

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