Active Electric Perception-Based Haptic Modality with Applications to Robotics

This paper describes the hardware implementation and characterization of a capacitive sensor designed to support detection and localization of nearby objects. The sensor can be mounted on the exterior of any given robotic system. The technology is particularly well-suited to detection of capacitive material, such as living tissue. As such, it offers perspectives of facilitating human-robot interactions (cobotics). We exploit experimental data to implement a digital model of the sensor and illustrate its accuracy by emulating experimental results in simulation. The sensor is used in a number of interaction scenarii (following and avoidance), providing examples of the manner in which it can be used to support human-robot interactions.