Abstract
This paper presents a robotic anchoring module, a sensorized mechanism for attachment to the environment that can be integrated into robots to enable or enhance various functions such as robot mobility, remaining on location or its ability to manipulate objects. The body of the anchoring module consists of two portions with a mechanical stiffness transition from hard to soft. The hard portion is capable of containing vacuum pressure used for actuation while the soft portion is highly conformable to create a seal to contact surfaces. The module is integrated with a single sensory unit which exploits a fibre-optic sensing principle to seamlessly measure proximity and tactile information for use in robot motion planning as well as measuring the state of firmness of its anchor. In an experiment, a variable set of physical loads representing the weights of potential robot bodies were attached to the module and its ability to maintain the anchor was quantified under constant and variable vacuum pressure signals. The experiment shows the effectiveness of the module in quantifying the state of firmness of the anchor and discriminating between different amounts of physical loads attached to it. The proposed anchoring module can enable many industrial and medical applications where attachment to environment is of crucial importance for robot control.
Highlights
A sensory–physical system is the integration of a physical process with sensors and computation enabling monitoring or the control of the process
In order to evaluate the actuation capabilities of the anchoring module, its maximum loading capacity under different values of vacuum pressure inputs ranging from 20.1 bar to 20.5 bar was quantified
Experimental results shown in figure 6 indicate that the larger loads on the sucker require higher levels of applied vacuum pressure to maintain a stable attachment; this can be seen in that having known values of the sensing signal and the input vacuum signal, the anchoring module is able to discriminate between different values of physical load
Summary
A sensory–physical system is the integration of a physical process with sensors and computation enabling monitoring or the control of the process. A robotic anchoring module is a sensory–physical mechanism for attachment to the environment. Often degradation and failure of attachment mechanisms cause unwanted detachment from the contact surface indicating the need for continuous monitoring of the firmness of the anchor during the robot mission. Precise control of the robot requires information about the contact surfaces located within the proximity of the robot anchoring module(s). One of the most common strategies in nature to obtain reversible attachment is using a specialized organ known as a sucker. Such an organ allows fish, annelids, helminths and cephalod molluscs to anchor onto a variety of substrates including rough, flexible and dirty surfaces
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