High resolution, large area vision-based tactile sensing based on a novel piezoluminescent skin

Abstract

The ability to precisely perceive external physical interactions would enable robots to interact effectively with the environment and humans. While vision-based tactile sensing has improved robotic grippers, it is challenging to realize high resolution vision-based tactile sensing in robot arms due to presence of curved surfaces, difficulty in uniform illumination, and large distance of sensing area from the cameras. In this article, we propose a novel piezoluminescent skin that transduces external applied pressures into changes in light intensity on the other side for viewing by a camera for pressure estimation. By engineering elastomer layers with specific optical properties and integrating a flexible electroluminescent panel as a light source, we develop a compact tactile sensing layer that resolves the layout issues in curved surfaces. We achieved multipoint pressure estimation over an expansive area of 502 cm ² with high spatial resolution, a two-point discrimination distance of 3 mm horizontally and 5 mm vertically which is comparable to that of human fingers as well as a high localization accuracy (RMSE of 1.92 mm). These promising attributes make this tactile sensing technique suitable for use in robot arms and other applications requiring high resolution tactile information over a large area.

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