Development of Arrayed Sole Sensor for Legged Robot and Contact Force Detection Using Neural Networks

Performance Verification of Developed Tactile Sensor

Abstract

Recently multi legged walking robots are widely developed. For these robots to walk safely, a sole sensor with high performance is desired. In the present paper, an arrayed type tactile sensor made of flexible silicone rubber such as PDMS (poly-dimethyl-siloxane) is practically developed based on micro-electro-mechanical-systems (MEMS) technology. By processing the force data from many sensing elements using neural networks, information of contact force, i.e., three dimensional x, y, and z components of force vector, can be detected, which is confirmed by both simulation and experiment.