Design of robotic soft fingertip for contact sensing

Abstract

To solve the force distribution of robotic finger, this paper designed the practical sensor to measure the contact force with spline curve algorithm. The structure was composed of a finger-like cylinder with a hemisphere and a round table with four strain sensors attached to. The finger sensor was mainly for the measurement of horizontal force. To calculate the contact position and force, the relationship between the contact position and the stress with elastic mechanics theory was analyzed and the corresponding spline curve algorithm was proposed. Finite element simulation suggested this algorithm can describe the force distribution of robotic finger effectively. After the fingertip has been made, the accuracy of sensor was further demonstrated through experiments. Results showed that the finger sensor had good performance. And the structure and algorithm of the finger sensor could be used in robot fingertip in the future.