Host: The Japan Society of Mechanical Engineers
Name : [in Japanese]
Date : June 01, 2022 - June 04, 2022
We are developing a four-legged robot with two active joins in both forelegs and two active and one driven joint in both hind legs. In this report, we present a new soft sensor for detecting the ground contact. Previously we used a film-shaped pressure sensor, and a method a mechanical switch with a small ball, which were installed in the leg’s toes to detect the toe’s contact timing with the ground. However, they did not work sufficiently. Therefore, we designed and fabricated a new sensor, which is balloon-shaped silicone rubber and has a pressure sensor to detect the change of air pressure inside the balloon caused by the toe’s ground contact. As a result of the preliminary experiment, we confirmed that the new soft sensor can detect the ground contact.
