Tactile Perception for Growing Robots via Discrete Curvature Measurements

Bryant, M. B.; Watson, Connor; Morimoto, Tania K.

doi:10.1109/iros47612.2022.9981273

Cited by 1 publication

(1 citation statement)

References 33 publications

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“…Adding touch sensing would allow these robots to navigate spaces more intelligently, manipulate objects with their whole body, and sense information about the stiffness properties of their environment. Thus far, distributed orientation, temperature, and humidity sensors have been integrated onto a vine robot using flexible sensor bands [16], and tactile perception has been achieved using resistive curvature sensors to measure the robot's shape and calculate the applied force [17], but direct force sensing has not been implemented on a vine robot.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Soft Air Pocket Force Sensors for Large Scale Flexible Robots

Mitchell

McFarland

Coad

2023

2023 IEEE International Conference on Soft Robotics (RoboSoft)

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Flexible robots have advantages over rigid robots in their ability to conform physically to their environment and to form a wide variety of shapes. Sensing the force applied by or to flexible robots is useful for both navigation and manipulation tasks, but it is challenging due to the need for the sensors to withstand the robots' shape change without encumbering their functionality. Also, for robots with long or large bodies, the number of sensors required to cover the entire surface area of the robot body can be prohibitive due to high cost and complexity. We present a novel soft air pocket force sensor that is highly flexible, lightweight, relatively inexpensive, and easily scalable to various sizes. Our sensor produces a change in internal pressure that is linear with the applied force. We present results of experimental testing of how uncontrollable factors (contact location and contact area) and controllable factors (initial internal pressure, thickness, size, and number of interior seals) affect the sensitivity. We demonstrate our sensor applied to a vine robot-a soft inflatable robot that "grows" from the tip via eversion-and we show that the robot can successfully grow and steer towards an object with which it senses contact.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%