Robot Tactile Sensing: Gold Nanocomposites As Highly Sensitive Real-Time Optical Pressure Sensors

Author

Massaro, Alessandro ; Spano, F. ; Cazzato, P. ; La Tegola, C. ; Cingolani, R. ; Athanassiou, A.

Author_Institution

Center for Biomol. Nanotechnol., Italian Inst. of Technol., Arnesano, Italy

Volume

20

Issue

2

fYear

2013

fDate

Jun-13

Firstpage

82

Lastpage

90

Abstract

In this article, we propose a new class of optical pressure sensors suitable for robot tactile sensing. These sensors are based on a tapered optical fiber (where optical signals travel) embedded onto a polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS)- gold nanocomposite material (GNM). By applying different pressure forces to the PDMS-based nanocomposite, we measure in real time the change of optical transmittivity due to the coupling between the GNM and tapered fiber region. The intensity reduction of the transmitted light intensity is correlated with the magnitude of the pressure force.

Keywords

mobile robots; nanocomposites; pressure sensors; GNM; PDMS-based nanocomposite; gold nanocomposites; intensity reduction; light intensity; polydimethylsiloxane gold nanocomposite material; pressure force; real-time optical pressure sensors; robot tactile sensing; Couplings; Gold; Nanoparticles; Optical fiber sensors; Optical fibers; Robot sensing systems;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Robotics & Automation Magazine, IEEE

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

1070-9932

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/MRA.2012.2184198

Filename

6161711