Artificial Cutaneous Sensing of Object Slippage using Soft Robotics with Closed-Loop Feedback Process

Tactile sensing is desirable for skillful object handling in soft robotics applications. Real-time measurement and identification of dynamic shear forces are crucial for slip detection and object interaction. This study proposes a soft sensor with a closed-loop feedback system for dynamic shear force detection to address object slippage in a soft robotic gripper. The sensor is made of a ferroelectric polymer with nanocarbon materials because of the resulting improved crystallinity and good sensitivity. The sensor shows high performance and high-speed response for detecting dynamic shear forces when fragile objects (e.g., vegetables) slip from the soft gripper. The artificial cutaneous sensor shows high sensitivity for grasping such objects with the gripper. Furthermore, the feedback system provides a control system for operations and avoids the need for training for various tasks, thus demonstrating the potential of the proposed system for novel soft robotics applications such as biomimetic electronic skin.