Peng Yulian, Wu Houping, Wang Zhengyan, Wang Yufeng, Wang Hongbo
Department of Precision Machinery and Precision Instrumentation, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, China.
Soft Robot. 2024 Dec;11(6):1055-1067. doi: 10.1089/soro.2023.0249. Epub 2024 Jun 13.
The somatosensory system is crucial for living beings to survive and thrive in complex environments and to interact with their surroundings. Similarly, rapidly developed soft robots need to be aware of their own posture and detect external stimuli. Bending and force sensing are key for soft machines to achieve embodied intelligence. Here, we present a soft inductive bimodal sensor (SIBS) that uses the strain modulation of magnetic permeability and the eddy-current effect for simultaneous bidirectional bending and force sensing with only two wires. The SIBS is made of a flexible planar coil, a porous ferrite film, and a soft conductive film. By measuring the inductance at two different frequencies, the bending angle and force can be obtained and decoupled. Rigorous experiments revealed that the SIBS can achieve high resolution (0.44° bending and 1.09 mN force), rapid response, excellent repeatability, and high durability. A soft crawling robot embedded with one SIBS can sense its own shape and interact with and respond to external stimuli. Moreover, the SIBS is demonstrated as a wearable human-machine interaction to control a crawling robot via wrist bending and touching. This highlights that the SIBS can be readily implemented in diverse applications for reliable bimodal sensing.
体感系统对于生物在复杂环境中生存和繁衍以及与周围环境互动至关重要。同样，快速发展的软体机器人需要了解自身姿态并检测外部刺激。弯曲和力传感是软机器实现具身智能的关键。在此，我们展示了一种软感应双峰传感器（SIBS），它利用磁导率的应变调制和涡流效应，仅通过两根线就能同时进行双向弯曲和力传感。SIBS由柔性平面线圈、多孔铁氧体薄膜和软导电薄膜制成。通过测量两个不同频率下的电感，可以获得并解耦弯曲角度和力。严格的实验表明，SIBS可以实现高分辨率（0.44°弯曲和1.09 mN力）、快速响应、出色的重复性和高耐久性。嵌入一个SIBS的软爬行机器人能够感知自身形状，并与外部刺激相互作用并做出响应。此外，SIBS被证明是一种可穿戴人机交互设备，通过手腕弯曲和触摸来控制爬行机器人。这突出表明SIBS可以很容易地应用于各种可靠的双峰传感应用中。
