Design, development, and fabrication of a vibration detecting robotic foot-pad using embedded PVDF strips
Author(s)
Abdolrahim Poorheravi, Negin![Thumbnail](/bitstream/handle/1721.1/105720/964672691-MIT.pdf.jpg?sequence=3&isAllowed=y)
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Other Contributors
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Mechanical Engineering.
Advisor
Sangbae Kim.
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This thesis shows the design, fabrication, and early characterization process of a slip-sensing foot-pad made from PVDF strips embedded in a rubber molded structure. What follows suggests a proof-of-concept for a design that can be used to detect vibrations on the edges of a teethed structure. The ability to detect localized vibrations in the embedded PVDF sensors in this foot-pad can be used in future studies to measure the contact-patch area and investigate the relationship between the change in such area and incipient slip. The future iterations of the proposed foot-pad can be used to integrate with current foot-pads worn by legged robots such as MIT Cheetah to enable them to predict slippage. An experimental procedure was used to find the effect of a localized stress on the embedded sensors' data. Three iterations of the foot-pad were designed and fabricated. Furthermore, a custom slippage tester was designed and built for future studies. The experimental results suggested that the effect of triggering on the foot-pad was highly localized since it did not affect neighboring sensors. This behavior can be used to measure changes in the contact-patch area since loss of contact between the ground and foot-pad introduces vibrations on the edges of the pad. Though further data collection and mapping should be conducted for this foot-pad to be able to predict slippage, the experimental results suggest that usage of urethane embedded PVDF sensors can be a viable and promising approach in achieving this goal by detecting the localized vibrations induced by the slip incident.
Description
Thesis: S.B., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Mechanical Engineering, 2016. Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. Includes bibliographical references (page 31).
Date issued
2016Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Mechanical EngineeringPublisher
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Keywords
Mechanical Engineering.