Development of Whole Self-Capacitance Proximity and Tactile Skin Sensor for Human Collaborative Robot

Abstract

Human collaborative robots (HCRs) which work in a same place with peoples have become attractive in recent society. We have proposed a self-capacitance proximity and tactile skin sensor for HCRs. A structure of the sensor is simple becausethis sensor consists of two electrodes (E1 and E2) and an elastic body. A measurement system is also simple because only self-capacitance measurement is used to detect objects both before and after contact. In this paper, we produced ten-sensor system to cover a whole robot surface. This sensor candetect objects before contact, can detect pressures and positions after contact. In addition, we propose an operating method using the sensor for safety and workability of HCRs.