肉厚触覚センサの表裏搭載を可能にしたハンド関節スキン収納構造の提案

抄録

Covering robot fingers with thick tactile sensor skin increases the adaptability of the hand for various tasks. However, covering certain parts of the hand such as the joint with sensors is challenging. This paper presents a novel structure to cover a robot finger with thick tactile sensor skin. By encircling the joint and finger phalanges with the skin, the robot finger can have a vast sensing area on both the palmar and dorsal side of the finger, including the joints at the same time. uSkin tactile sensors, which are distributed 3-axis tactile sensors for flat and curved surfaces, are implemented for evaluation. To validate the novel structure, we confirmed that continuous tactile sensing on both sides of each joint is possible. Finally, this paper also shows that tactile sensing on the palmar and dorsal sides can be useful to improve manipulation stability.