SOFT SENSORISED MICROTUBULAR GRIPPER

Abstract

One of the key challenges in soft robotics today is to provide sensory feedback of an object during gripping. Currently, most solutions developed involve the use of off-the-shelf sensors placed on the surface of the gripper and do not conform well to the whole range of actuating motion. Here, we report a soft sensorised microtubular actuator where the sensor is enclosed within the same structure as the actuator. As the sensor is now able to conform well to the whole range of motion of the actuator, it is able to provide accurate sensor readings. The sensorised microtubular actuator was deployed as a microgripper and was able to perform contact detection and strain sensing in addition to gripping. As the sensorised grippers produced in this work demonstrate a ten time reduction in size over the state of the art, we believe that this device holds tremendous potential especially in the field of surgical robotics.