Research On The Tactile Sensing Costume Of Intelligent Robots Based On Conductive Rubber

Sensor technology is a technology combining with multi-science such as physics, chemistry, bioengineering, microelectronics, material science, Micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS), automation, computer science and so on, and it has formed its own research field. Tactile sensing technology, which plays a crucial role in intelligent robots sensing technology, is one of the most important parts in sensor technology. Like hearing and vision, tactile sensing is a particular means by which the robots acquire information from outside environment. Meanwhile, advanced tactile sensing technology is the symbol of intelligent robots.In this paper, the development of sensor and tactile sensing technology is introduced, and the theory and sensing material in tactile sensing technology are analyzed, their advantages and disadvantages are compared. In terms of the research direction of tactile sensor array, a new tactile sensing costume model is proposed according to the piezo-resistive property of conductive rubber. The costume has large sensing area, and has good properties in sensitivity, flexibility, impulse resistance and abrasion resistance. It can be made up to clothes like common cloth, put on the robots to sensing the outsides of objects. Also the tactile resolution is alterable.In the thesis, the theory model of tactile sensor is demonstrated clearly, after that conductive rubber is decided to be the sensitive material as it is facile, low cost, easy to produce, and its resistance change greatly with the pressure pushed on it. In terms of the demand of the design and properties of sensing material, the piezo-resistive method is chosen. The signal processing circuit of piezo-resistive sensor is relative simple, and its demand to encapsulation and working environment is not so high. Based on the piezo-resistive property of the conductive rubber, a tactile senor array, which is 8×8, is designed and specified, as well as the manufacturing method and technics. The sensor array has five layers, the leads connected to tactile sensors are arranged as an array, so this structure is compact and reasonable. A tactile sensing costume consists of tactile sensor arrays is designed as well as the experimental system which includes the sample and process hardware circuits and the computer with DAQ card PCI-6259 inserted in it. The software of the system is programed by LabVIEW and VC program including data acquire block, data process block and display block. At last the whole system passed the...