Full perimeter obstacle contact sensor based on flex sensors

摘要

This paper presents an obstacle contact sensor system that can detect both the contact state and theuddirection of contact parallel to the movement plane of a mobile system carrying the sensor. This sensorudsystem is based on a regular- or irregular-shaped ring surrounding the mobile system’s perimeter, connectedudto the mobile system’s body by a set of soft springs and also coupled mechanically to a set of fourudflex sensors measuring the relative displacement and direction of the ring when contacting an obstacle.udThe set of flex sensors is connected to a low-cost electronic module that implements a data acquisitionudblock and a fuzzy processing block, delivering a value representing the estimated contact zone of the ring.udSome experiments show how this detection system effectively reduces the sensor count needed for fulludcoverage of the mobile system’s perimeter. Despite the kind of output implemented in the experiments,udthe contact force can also be estimated.