Human Body Parts Proximity Measurement Using Distributed Tactile Robotic Skin

Abstract

Safety in human–machine cooperation is the current challenge in robotics. Safe human–robot interaction requires the development of sensors that detect human presence in the robot’s workspace. Detection of this presence should occur before the physical collision of the robot with the human. Human to robot proximity detection should be very fast, allowing machine elements deceleration to velocities safe for human–machine collision. The paper presents a new, low-cost design of distributed robotic skin, which allows real-time measurements of the human body parts proximity. The main advantages of the proposed solution are low cost of its implementation based on comb electrodes matrix and real-time operation due to fast and simple electronic design. The main contribution is the new idea of measuring the distance to human body parts by measuring the operating frequency of a rectangular signal generator, which depends on the capacity of the open capacitor. This capacitor is formed between the comb electrodes matrix and a reference plate located next to the matrix. The capacitance of the open capacitor changes if a human body part is in vicinity. The application of the developed device can be very wide. For example, in the field of cooperative robots, it can lead to the improvement of human–machine interfaces and increased safety of human–machine cooperation. The proposed construction can help to meet the increasing requirements for cooperative robots.

High-Performance Flexible Capacitive Proximity and Pressure Sensors with Spiral Electrodes for Continuous Human–Machine Interaction

“…The foundation of the human–machine interaction (HMI) is to empower machines with the capability to perceive and understand commands with the information on multimode sensors. − The perception sensors that assist machines to feel objects from proximity to tactile for accurate prediction are responsible for the communication between different sensory nodes in various scenarios as the most basic and important functions. − In the post-COVID-19 era, noncontacting proximity sensors for gesture recognition and facility manipulation certainly show advantages in interrupting the spread of viruses. While scientists are expending efforts to increase the functionality and diversity of perception sensors, the fragmentation between different principle-based sensors leads to the inability to achieve continuous and uninterrupted interactions, as signal loss results from incoherent sensing processes. − …”

Development of a Novel Anesthesia Airway Management Robot

“…As the early phase of the robot development, the proposed anesthetic airway management robot was verified to be valid. In future studies, the comfort and safety of the robot will be further optimized, and the scope of its clinical application will be further investigated [20][21][22].…”

Test Framework for Collaborative Robot Graphene-Based Electronic Skin

“…The e-skin consisted of two layers, presented in Fig. 1 [4,5]. The first one is a conductive layer of comb electrodes (1b-1) printed on plastic foil and connected along columns and rows.…”

“…Other solutions are power and force limiting (PFL) methods based on temporal dynamic models, and current signals from embedded torque sensors [8]. Compared with the above methods, equipping cobots with the electronic skin (e-skin) is a complementary way to increase their safety levels [4,5].…”