Composite force sensing foot utilizing volumetric displacement of a hyperelastic polymer
Name
Footpad_Chuah_Estrada_IROS_2012_FinalSubmission.pdf
Description
Main article
Size
855.72 KB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
78bffcca2021872d3d77c632f3b1515e
Author(s)
Chuah, Meng Yee
Estrada, Matthew
Kim, Sangbae
Date Issued
October 2012
Journal
Proceedings of the 2012 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems
Publisher
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)
Citation
Chuah, Meng Yee, Matthew Estrada, and Sangbae Kim. “Composite Force Sensing Foot Utilizing Volumetric Displacement of a Hyperelastic Polymer.” 2012 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (October 2012).
Version
Author's final manuscript
Abstract
This paper illustrates the fabrication and characterization of a footpad based on an original principle of volumetric displacement sensing. It is intended for use in detecting ground contact forces in a running quadrupedal robot. The footpad is manufactured as a monolithic, composite structure composed of multi-graded polymers which are reinforced by glass fiber to increase durability and traction. The volumetric displacement sensing principle utilizes a hyperelastic gel-like pad with embedded magnets that are tracked with Hall-effect sensors. Normal and shear forces can be detected as contact with the ground which causes the gel-like pad to deform into rigid wells. This is all done without the need to expose the sensor. A one-time training process using an artificial neural network was used to relate the normal and shear forces with the volumetric displacement sensor output. The sensor was shown to predict normal forces in the Z-axis up to 80N with a root mean squared error of 6.04% as well as the onset of shear in the X and Y-axis. This demonstrates a proof-of-concept for a more robust footpad sensor suitable for use in all outdoor conditions.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Mechanical Engineering
Terms of Use
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike
Persistent DSpace Link
DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1109/IROS.2012.6386239
