A Flexible Multimodal Sole Sensor for Legged Robot Sensing Complex Ground Information during Locomotion.

Publisher: MDPI Country of Publication: Switzerland NLM ID: 101204366 Publication Model: Electronic Cited Medium: Internet ISSN: 1424-8220 (Electronic) Linking ISSN: 14248220 NLM ISO Abbreviation: Sensors (Basel) Subsets: MEDLINE

Original Publication: Basel, Switzerland : MDPI, c2000-

Robotics* ; Touch Perception*; Biomimetics ; Humans ; Locomotion

Recent achievements in the field of computer vision, reinforcement learning, and locomotion control have largely extended legged robots' maneuverability in complex natural environments. However, little research focuses on sensing and analyzing the physical properties of the ground, which is crucial to robots' locomotion during their interaction with highly irregular profiles, deformable terrains, and slippery surfaces. A biomimetic, flexible, multimodal sole sensor (FMSS) designed for legged robots to identify the ontological status and ground information, such as reaction force mapping, contact situation, terrain, and texture information, to achieve agile maneuvers was innovatively presented in this paper. The FMSS is flexible and large-loaded (20 Pa-800 kPa), designed by integrating a triboelectric sensing coat, embedded piezoelectric sensor, and piezoresistive sensor array. To evaluate the effectiveness and adaptability in different environments, the multimodal sensor was mounted on one of the quadruped robot's feet and one of the human feet then traversed through different environments in real-world tests. The experiment's results demonstrated that the FMSS could recognize terrain, texture, hardness, and contact conditions during locomotion effectively and retrain its sensitivity (0.66 kPa ^-1 ), robustness, and compliance. The presented work indicates the FMSS's potential to extend the feasibility and dexterity of tactile perception for state estimation and complex scenario detection.

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61903317 National Natural Science Foundation of China; 2019YFB1310403 National Key R&D Program of China; AC01202101011 Shenzhen Institute of Artificial Intelligence and Robotics for Society

Keywords: flexible sensor; legged robot; multimodal haptic perception

Date Created: 20210828 Date Completed: 20210831 Latest Revision: 20240403

20240403

PMC8399010

10.3390/s21165359

34450801