Embroidered Multi-Modal Sensing Arrays for Tactual Perception

Abstract

Humans possess a peripheral nervous system that gives them the ability to sense and interpret tactile information, normal and shear force, and vibrations. This provides us with the ability to perceive changes in our surroundings and react to them, allowing us to complete complex tasks. Bestowing these sensory modalities to robotic systems would enable them to complete complex manipulation and assembly tasks that are trivial for humans. In this work, we present new types of robotic skins that give robots the ability to sense normal force, shear force, and vibration. Fabricated with a highly-automated manufacturing process, our sensing systems can be inexpensively manufactured. Furthermore, we can capture forces over a high range by employing multi-gain capturing techniques. We demonstrate our sensing systems capabilities by designing and fabricating a set of devices and utilizing them for human wearables and robotics applications.