Research on Shape Perception of the Soft Gripper Based on Triboelectric Nanogenerator

Abstract

Soft robotics is an exciting novel research field and has great potentiality in human-machine cooperation. This kind of robot can undergo large deformations to execute complex motions, which leads to the difficulty to apply traditional sensors and the lack of necessary feedback. Therefore, we want to create a sensory finger that is able to grasp and hold heavy objects. This work explores the potential of triboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs) and presents the demonstration of TENG based on tactile sensors integrated into the structure of a soft finger with variable stiffness. For displaying the sensing result, three soft fingers were assembled to form a soft gripper. Our result shows that the tactile sensor with strip electrodes can detect the contact position when comparing the output difference in different electrodes. In order to describe the shape of the grab target, in this paper, we theoretically analyze the relative position relationship of the end before and after the finger bending deformation, and obtain the finger-bending mode. In the demonstration, the gripper integrating with the sensor can roughly distinguish the scale of the object by combining tactile perception capability. The proposed highly pliable fingers can help the robot handle the fragile and soft objects and appropriately recognize their shapes in complex environment.