Bioinspired Ciliary Force Sensor for Robotic Platforms (original) (raw)
2017, IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters
The detection of small forces is of great interest in any robotic application that involves interaction with the environment (e.g. objects manipulation, physical human-robot interaction, minimally invasive surgery), since it allows the robot to detect the contacts early on and to act accordingly. In this work, we present a sensor design inspired by the ciliary structure frequently found in nature, consisting of an array of permanently magnetized cylinders (cilia) patterned over a giant magnetoresistance sensor (GMR). When these cylinders are deformed in shape due to applied forces, the stray magnetic field variation will change the GMR sensor resistivity, thus enabling the electrical measurement of the applied force. In this paper we present two 3×3 mm 2 prototypes composed of an array of 5 cilia with 1 mm of height and 120 µm and 200 µm of diameter for each prototype. A minimum force of 333 µN was measured. A simulation model for determining the magnetized cylinders average stray magnetic field is also presented. Index Terms-Biomimetics, Force and tactile sensing, Soft Materials Robotics I. INTRODUCTION T ACTILE sensing is a pivotal part of the development of intelligent robots, allowing such machines to feel the surrounding environment, and providing crucial support for the execution of most robotic tasks. However despite the increasing interest in the development of tactile sensing solutions during the last forty years, these tecnologies remain
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