CONTACT FORCE AND POSITION SENSOR WITH QUARTZ RESONATORS

摘要

Because it is superior in local sensing, tactile sensing for environment recognition has been studied. In this paper, a contact force and position sensor for recognizing the environment and controlling the grasp force is proposed. The sensor incorporates four pairs of quartz resonators mounted in a robot finger and can measure two-dimensional contact force and one-dimensional contact position along the finger. The force sensor is insensitive to electrical noise since the output is a frequency which shifts in response to a change in the external force. This type of force sensor also has quick response, high sensitivity, high resolution and wide bandwidth. The performance of the sensor was examined experimentally. To demonstrate the capabilities of the sensor in recognizing an environment, two-dimensional shapes were reconstructed by tracing the surface with the sensor.