Abstract
This paper reports on the design, fabrication, and evaluation of a novel 3D printed vacuum based soft sensor and its application as hand motion sensor. Soft sensors are an integral part of soft robotics as an emerging field of science that enables safe and easy human to machine interaction. The conventional sensors used to interface with humans in robotic systems are mechanically incompliant. Because of this mechanical compliance mismatch, these sensors cause unsafe interactions with humans. Recent advancements in 3D printing technology have allowed fabrication of complex geometries with soft polymers, perfect for more delicate and user-friendly sensors. While the existing soft pneumatic sensors work based on the positive pressure due to deformation, the proposed sensor in this work works based on vacuum due to deformation. In comparison with the similar positive pressure sensor, our vacuum-based sensor is much softer and has minimum interference with hand motion. Finite element analysis (FEA) is used to analyze the design. Also, a kinematic model of the hand is developed using Matlab to visualize the hand motion based on the sensor data. This could show the potential application of the soft hand motion sensor in virtual reality and telehealth.
