Warsaw University of Technology, Faculty of Mechatronics, Institute of Automatic Control and Robotics, A. Boboli 8 St., 02-525 Warsaw, Poland.
Warsaw University of Technology, Faculty of Mechatronics, Institute of Metrology and Biomedical Engineering, A. Boboli 8 St., 02-525 Warsaw, Poland.
Sensors (Basel). 2021 Mar 18;21(6):2138. doi: 10.3390/s21062138.
Safety in human-machine cooperation is the current challenge in robotics. Safe human-robot interaction requires the development of sensors that detect human presence in the robot's workspace. Detection of this presence should occur before the physical collision of the robot with the human. Human to robot proximity detection should be very fast, allowing machine elements deceleration to velocities safe for human-machine collision. The paper presents a new, low-cost design of distributed robotic skin, which allows real-time measurements of the human body parts proximity. The main advantages of the proposed solution are low cost of its implementation based on comb electrodes matrix and real-time operation due to fast and simple electronic design. The main contribution is the new idea of measuring the distance to human body parts by measuring the operating frequency of a rectangular signal generator, which depends on the capacity of the open capacitor. This capacitor is formed between the comb electrodes matrix and a reference plate located next to the matrix. The capacitance of the open capacitor changes if a human body part is in vicinity. The application of the developed device can be very wide. For example, in the field of cooperative robots, it can lead to the improvement of human-machine interfaces and increased safety of human-machine cooperation. The proposed construction can help to meet the increasing requirements for cooperative robots.
人机协作中的安全性是当前机器人领域的挑战。安全的人机交互需要开发能够检测机器人工作空间中人体存在的传感器。这种存在的检测应该在机器人与人体发生物理碰撞之前进行。人体与机器人的接近检测应该非常快速，以便机器元件能够减速到安全的人机碰撞速度。本文提出了一种新型的低成本分布式机器人皮肤设计，可实时测量人体部位的接近度。该解决方案的主要优点是基于梳状电极矩阵的低成本实现和实时操作，这得益于快速而简单的电子设计。主要贡献是通过测量矩形信号发生器的工作频率来测量人体部位距离的新想法，该频率取决于开路电容器的容量。这个电容器是在梳状电极矩阵和位于矩阵旁边的参考板之间形成的。如果人体部位在附近，开路电容器的电容会发生变化。所开发设备的应用非常广泛。例如，在协作机器人领域，它可以提高人机界面的性能并提高人机协作的安全性。所提出的结构有助于满足对协作机器人日益增长的需求。
