A Flexible Dual-mode Proximity Sensor With Integrated Resistive And Capacitive Sensing Units For Robot Application

Proximity sensor has important application field in the robot, and the robot can accurately perceive the external information and realize the good interaction with the external environment. A resistive-capacitive dual-mode proximity sensor based on steady heat transfer and the edge effect of electric field is proposed in this paper to solve the poor wearable and scalability, difficult maintenance and poor flexibility in the existing robotics bionic skin and research on related proximity sensor. The resistive-capacitive dual-mode proximity sensing unit is constituted by the graphene used as temperature sensitive material and flexible circuit board used for flexible plates, and also it is designed as the array structure. The structural design and working principle of resistance-capacitance dual-mode proximity sensor is analyzed.Based on the structural characteristics of the resistive-capacitive dual-mode proximity sensor unit, the sensing array is designed used for robotics sensitive skin. Meanwhile, the sensing array information acquisition and processing system was proposed which was based on the STM32 MCU low-power microprocessors, LTC2495 ADC and capacitive digital converter AD7147-1. Using characteristics of the detections of resistive and capacitive proximity sensor, the research route of resistive-capacitive dual-mode proximity to realize cooperative detection approach is formed. Theory, simulation and result show that the full flexible resistance-capacitance dual-mode proximity sensing array can overcome the limitation of proximity sensing in a single mode and realize the sensitive and stable proximity sensing of large range. At the same time, it overcomes the low flexibility, low integration and poor robustness of the traditional proximity sensor, can be used as intelligent robots electronic bionic skin to achieve tactile perception.