Force sensing shell using a planar sensor for miniature legged robots
Joshua D. Goldberg, Ronald S. Fearing
Abstract
Mobile robot contact sensing can be useful for navigation and manipulation with small robots. In this work, we present a low-cost, 18.7 gram force-torque sensor for a 10 cm hexapedal millirobot. A planar array of photointerrupters, rigidly attached to the structure of the robot, is used to measure the six-axis movement of a shell attached to the robot with springs. The sensors measure the intensity of infrared light reflected off of a surface on the underside of the shell, which has been specially designed to enable the resolution of the forces and moments in the x-, y-, and z-axes applied to the shell. The sensor has a force sensitivity of 17 mN and torque sensitivity of 0.72 mN-m for a sampling rate of 100 Hz. The sensor can resolve a force equivalent to 2.9% of the combined robot and sensor weight of 581 mN.
BibTeX
@inproceedings{iros2015_forcesensingshel,
title = {Force sensing shell using a planar sensor for miniature legged robots},
author = {Joshua D. Goldberg and Ronald S. Fearing},
booktitle = {IROS 2015},
year = {2015}
}