Pose sensing systems

1. Steiner Chain Fibre-Optics: a highly compact fibre-optic system based on light intensity modulation for multi-segment flex sensing in pliable robot arms, e.g., articulated surgical instruments. 

 

Design Featrures

  • 7.5 mm in diameter
  • No electrical current at the sensing site
  • Suitable for modular integration

Relevant Publications

Sareh, S., Noh, Y., Ranzani, T., Liu, H., Althoefer, K., (2015) A 7.5mm Steiner chain fiber-optic system for multi-segment flex sensing, IROS 2015, 2336-2341.

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Sareh, S., Noh, Y., Ranzani, T., Wudermann, H., Liu, H., Althoefer, K. (2015) Modular fiber-optic shape sensor for articulated surgical instruments, Hamlyn Symposium on Medical Robotics.

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2. Macrobend Optical Sensing:  this sensing method is capable of measuring bending, elongation and compression in soft continuum robots and is also applicable to wearable sensing technologies, e.g. pose sensing in the wrist joint of a human hand.  

Design Featrures

  • Inherently soft 
  • Suitable for modular integration
  • Immune to electrical noise

Relevant Publications

Sareh, S., Noh, Y., Li, M., Ranzani, T., Liu, H., Althoefer, K. (2015) Macro-bend optical sensing for pose measurement in soft robot arms, Smart Mater. Struct. 24 125024.

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3. Non-linear Pose Sensing Model:   a non-linear approach to predicting the robot arm posture, by training a feed-forward neural network model is proposed. 

Design Features

  • a nonlinear model has been developed that accounts for complex sensor-actuator interactions

Relevant Publications

Sklar, E., Sareh, S., Secco, E., Faragasso, A., Althoefer, K. (2016) A Non-linear Model for Predicting Tip Position of a Pliable Robot Arm Segment Using Bending Sensor Data, Sensors & Transducers, Vol. 199, Issue 4, pp. 52-61.

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4. Pose sensing based on conductive fabrics:   This work uses three sets of stretchable electro-conductive yarn sensors for measuring the length of each chamber during inflation. Having provided the length of each chamber, the pose of the soft robot arm can be calculated.

Design Features

  • Low profile
  • Low cost
  • Suitable for miniaturized instruments

Relevant Publication

Wurdemann, H., Sareh, S., Shafti, A., Noh, Y., Faragasso, F., Liu, H., Hirai, S., Althoefer, A. (2015) Embedded electro-conductive yarn for shape sensing of soft robotic manipulators, EMBC 2015.


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