Valero Maria, Hale Nick, Tang Jing, Jiang Liudi, McGrath Mike, Gao Jianliang, Laszczak Piotr, Moser David
Engineering Sciences, Faculty of Engineering and the Environment , University of Southampton , Southampton SO17 1BJ , UK.
Healthc Technol Lett. 2016 Dec 13;3(4):280-283. doi: 10.1049/htl.2016.0062. eCollection 2016 Dec.
This Letter presents a capacitive-based sensor system for fingertip contact applications. It is capable of simultaneously measuring normal (pressure) and tangential (shear) stresses at the interface between a fingertip and external objects. This could be potentially exploitable for applications in the fields of upper limb prosthetics, robotics, hand rehabilitation and so on. The system was calibrated and its performance was tested using a test machine. To do so, specific test protocols reproducing typical stress profiles in fingertip contact interactions were designed. Results show the system's capability to measure the applied pressure and stresses, respectively, with high linearity between the measured and applied stresses. Subsequently, as a case study, a 'press-drag-lift' based fingertip contact test was conducted by using a finger of a healthy subject. This was to provide an initial evaluation for real-life applications. The case study results indicate that both interface pressure and shear were indeed measured simultaneously, which aligns well with the designed finger test protocols. The potential applications for the sensor system and corresponding future works are also discussed.
本文介绍了一种用于指尖接触应用的基于电容的传感器系统。它能够同时测量指尖与外部物体界面处的法向（压力）和切向（剪切）应力。这在假肢上肢、机器人技术、手部康复等领域的应用中具有潜在的开发价值。该系统使用测试机器进行了校准并测试了其性能。为此，设计了重现指尖接触相互作用中典型应力分布的特定测试协议。结果表明，该系统能够分别测量施加的压力和应力，测量应力与施加应力之间具有高度线性关系。随后，作为一个案例研究，使用健康受试者的手指进行了基于“按压 - 拖动 - 提起”的指尖接触测试。这是为实际应用提供初步评估。案例研究结果表明，界面压力和剪切力确实同时被测量到，这与设计的手指测试协议非常吻合。还讨论了该传感器系统的潜在应用和相应的未来工作。
