Advancements in the field of collaborative robotics have led to a closer cooperation between humans and machines. Sharing the same environment, safety and adaptive control becomes of paramount importance in human-robot interaction. Thus, tactile feedback technologies are crucial to perceive contacts. This work presents the design and development of a polymeric artificial skin, mimicking the human sense of touch in perceiving and localizing pressure over a large area, and its integration on a custom human-like robotic forearm. The sensing system consisted of a curved soft matrix embedding an optical fiber equipped with 16 distributed Fiber Bragg Gratings (FBGs). To estimate the sensitivity of the tactile sensor array, a preliminary mechanical characterization was performed by means of force-controlled indentations. Results show a high correlation between the applied load and the corresponding output of the sensors. In particular, the median value of the sensitivity resulted in 0.26 nm·N-1, with 0.08 nm·N-1 interquartile range. These promising results call for further investigation on spatial sensitivity and force range, contact localization and calibration of the presented artificial skin.
Design and Development of Large-Area FBG-Based Sensing Skin for Collaborative Robotics / D'Abbraccio, J.; Aliperta, A.; Oddo, C. M.; Zaltieri, M.; Palermo, E.; Massari, L.; Terruso, G.; Sinibaldi, E.; Kowalczyk, M.; Schena, E.. - (2019), pp. 410-413. (Intervento presentato al convegno 2nd IEEE International Workshop on Metrology for Industry 4.0 and IoT, MetroInd 4.0 and IoT 2019 tenutosi a ita) [10.1109/METROI4.2019.8792904].
Design and Development of Large-Area FBG-Based Sensing Skin for Collaborative Robotics
Palermo E.;Kowalczyk M.;
2019
Abstract
Advancements in the field of collaborative robotics have led to a closer cooperation between humans and machines. Sharing the same environment, safety and adaptive control becomes of paramount importance in human-robot interaction. Thus, tactile feedback technologies are crucial to perceive contacts. This work presents the design and development of a polymeric artificial skin, mimicking the human sense of touch in perceiving and localizing pressure over a large area, and its integration on a custom human-like robotic forearm. The sensing system consisted of a curved soft matrix embedding an optical fiber equipped with 16 distributed Fiber Bragg Gratings (FBGs). To estimate the sensitivity of the tactile sensor array, a preliminary mechanical characterization was performed by means of force-controlled indentations. Results show a high correlation between the applied load and the corresponding output of the sensors. In particular, the median value of the sensitivity resulted in 0.26 nm·N-1, with 0.08 nm·N-1 interquartile range. These promising results call for further investigation on spatial sensitivity and force range, contact localization and calibration of the presented artificial skin.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
