Soft and flexible sensing approaches for providing tactile cues in biorobotics
Event details
| Date | 24.03.2014 |
| Hour | 15:00 |
| Speaker | Dr. Lucia Beccai,Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia |
| Location | |
| Category | Conferences - Seminars |
The emulation of natural touch requires tactile sensors that mechanically comply with the environment – in order to gain relevant information from physical interactions – and that, at the same time, are able to perform when smoothly adapted to host three-dimensional structures. However, to shape deformable materials while developing high precision, yet robust, systems is complex, and it reveals interesting scientific questions. In addressing artificial touch investigation, in our group, soft skin-like tactile sensors are pursued by designing devices using materials with features like flexibility and compliance, but also robustness, and with low cost processes. In particular we aim at developing tactile systems for a robotic root. When a plant root comes into contact with obstacles to its growth, it adopts efficient strategies to circumnavigate the barriers and to direct its growth towards low impedance pathways. The root apex senses the mechanical impedance related to constraints provided by the soil or soil compaction. In a robotic implementation, the artificial root apex must be equipped with a sensing system able to detect barriers to growth and to discriminate between different mechanical impedances of the soil, and I will show how soft tactile sensing can be a suitable technological approach.
We also aim at merging biomimetic mechanical characteristics with an advanced sensing functionality that goes beyond contact and pressure detection. In this context I will describe investigation on a highly sensitive tactile sensor that can detect both normal and shear forces. The technological approach is based on capacitive transduction and it combines soft elastomers and conductive textiles.
Finally, I will also introduce how a new concept is created by introducing soft materials in known sensing strategies, like the transmission of optical signals in a waveguide that is not rigid but is a soft and transparent elastomeric substrate. I will show the potentiality of this approach for the future development of artificial skins that can provide different tactile cues - like pressure distribution and shape of contact - as well as perform with multiple tactile stimuli.
Bio: Lucia Beccai from Nov. 2009 is a Team Leader researcher at the Center for Micro-BioRobotics of the Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia (IIT), in Pontedera (Pisa), Italy. Dr. Beccai obtained her Ph.D. in Microsystem Engineering from the University of Rome Tor Vergata in 2003. Dr. Beccai has matured expertise in biorobotics and microsystem engineering. Some specific fields in which she addressed and led investigations are related to biomedical microsystems for in-vivo applications, MEMS, bionic hand tactile feedback systems, the understanding of human tactile encoding mechanisms and the development of artificial systems that can mimic touch. She was project manager of Cyberhand (EU-IST-FET-2001-35094) and Nanobiotact (FP6-NMP-033287).
We also aim at merging biomimetic mechanical characteristics with an advanced sensing functionality that goes beyond contact and pressure detection. In this context I will describe investigation on a highly sensitive tactile sensor that can detect both normal and shear forces. The technological approach is based on capacitive transduction and it combines soft elastomers and conductive textiles.
Finally, I will also introduce how a new concept is created by introducing soft materials in known sensing strategies, like the transmission of optical signals in a waveguide that is not rigid but is a soft and transparent elastomeric substrate. I will show the potentiality of this approach for the future development of artificial skins that can provide different tactile cues - like pressure distribution and shape of contact - as well as perform with multiple tactile stimuli.
Bio: Lucia Beccai from Nov. 2009 is a Team Leader researcher at the Center for Micro-BioRobotics of the Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia (IIT), in Pontedera (Pisa), Italy. Dr. Beccai obtained her Ph.D. in Microsystem Engineering from the University of Rome Tor Vergata in 2003. Dr. Beccai has matured expertise in biorobotics and microsystem engineering. Some specific fields in which she addressed and led investigations are related to biomedical microsystems for in-vivo applications, MEMS, bionic hand tactile feedback systems, the understanding of human tactile encoding mechanisms and the development of artificial systems that can mimic touch. She was project manager of Cyberhand (EU-IST-FET-2001-35094) and Nanobiotact (FP6-NMP-033287).
Practical information
- General public
- Free
Organizer
- Prof. Dario Floreano
Contact
- Lirot Mayra <[email protected]>