Bio-Inspired Ciliary Force Sensor for Robotic Platforms

Pedro Ribeiro1, Mohammed Asadullah Khan2, Ahmed Alfadhel2, Jurgen Kosel2, Fernando Franco3, Susana Cardoso4, Alexandre Bernardino5, Alexander Schmitz6, José Santos-Victor7, Lorenzo Jamone8

  • 1Instituto Superior Tecnico
  • 2KAUST
  • 3INESC-MN, IST
  • 4INESC-Microsistemas e Nanotecnologias and IN
  • 5Ist - Instituto Superior Técnico
  • 6Waseda University
  • 7Instituto Superior Técnico - Lisbon
  • 8Queen Mary University London

Details

11:55 - 12:00 | Tue 30 May | Room 4711/4712 | TUB7.6

Session: Force and Tactile Sensing 2

Abstract

The detection of small forces is of great interest in any robotic application that involves interaction with the environment (e.g. objects manipulation, physical human-robot interaction, minimally invasive surgery), since it allows the robot to detect the contacts early on and to act accordingly. In this work, we present a sensor design inspired by the ciliary structure frequently found in nature, consisting of an array of permanently magnetized cylinders (cilia) patterned over a giant magnetoresistance sensor (GMR). When these cylinders are deformed in shape due to applied forces, the stray magnetic field variation will change the GMR sensor resistivity, thus enabling the electrical measurement of the applied force. In this paper we present two 3×3 mm2 prototypes composed of an array of 5 cilia with 1 mm of height and 120 μm and 200 μm of diameter for each prototype. A minimum force of 333 μN was measured. A simulation model for determining the magnetized cylinders average stray magnetic field is also presented.