磁性・非磁性エラストマを用いた磁気式触覚センサの磁場解析

抄録

Recently, several types of flexible tactile sensors have been studied as whole body skin for personal robots. However, these sensors have several problems, for example, disconnection of electrical wirings in flexible materials and difficulty of replacing flexible materials which contain electromagnetic device. In this study, we propose a new magnetic type flexible tactile sensor using a magnetorheological elastomer. The sensor has a set of flexible layers made of magnetorheological and non-magnetic elastomers, on a sensor base that holds a magnet and a magnetic sensor. Its flexible covering layers does not contain any wiring, therefore, wirings are not damaged if the flexible layers are largely deformed. Further, it is easy to replace flexible layers because its positioning is not necessary. Results of magnetic field simulations and actual pressing tests show that our sensor can measure applied depth and normal force, and that its sensitivity depends on thickness of the elastomer.