Felt Wyatt, Remy C David, Telleria Maria J, Allen Thomas F, Hein Gabriel, Pompa Jonathan B, Albert Kevin
Robotics and Motion Laboratory (RAMlab), University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI,
Pneubotics, an Otherlab Company, San Francisco, CA.
Auton Robots. 2019 Feb;43(2):435-448. doi: 10.1007/s10514-018-9769-7. Epub 2018 Jun 11.
In this work we present a novel, inductance-based system to measure and control the motion of bellows-driven continuum joints in soft robots. The sensing system relies on coils of wire wrapped around the minor diameters of each bellows on the joint. As the bellows extend, these coils of wire become more distant, decreasing their mutual inductance. Measuring this change in mutual inductance allows us to measure the motion of the joint. By dividing the sensing of the joint into two sections and measuring the motion of each section independently, we are able to measure the overall deformation of the joint with a piece-wise constant-curvature approximation. This technique allows us to measure lateral displacements that would be otherwise unobservable. When measuring bending, the inductance sensors measured the joint orientation with an RMS error of 1.1 °. The inductance sensors were also successfully used as feedback to control the orientation of the joint. The sensors proposed and tested in this work provided accurate motion feedback that would be difficult to achieve robustly with other sensors. This sensing system enables the creation of robust, self-sensing soft robots based on bellows-driven continuum joints.
在这项工作中，我们提出了一种新颖的基于电感的系统，用于测量和控制软机器人中波纹管驱动的连续体关节的运动。该传感系统依赖于缠绕在关节上每个波纹管小直径周围的线圈。随着波纹管的伸展，这些线圈之间的距离会变大，从而降低它们的互感。测量互感的这种变化使我们能够测量关节的运动。通过将关节的传感分为两个部分并独立测量每个部分的运动，我们能够用分段恒定曲率近似法测量关节的整体变形。这种技术使我们能够测量那些原本无法观测到的横向位移。在测量弯曲时，电感传感器测量关节方向的均方根误差为1.1°。电感传感器还成功地用作反馈来控制关节的方向。在这项工作中提出并测试的传感器提供了准确的运动反馈，而使用其他传感器很难稳健地实现这一点。这种传感系统能够制造出基于波纹管驱动连续体关节的坚固、自感知软机器人。
