Design and Characterisation of a Soft Barometric Sensing Skin for Robotic Manipulation

Soft sensorised skins are essential for improving robotic manipulation capabilities towards that of humans. Integration of sensors into existing robotic hands is challenging due to rigidity of components, low packing density or poor sensor response. We propose a sensorised skin, based-on barometric sensing, which can be molded over a skeletal robot hand. The sensors connect air chambers embedded in the soft skin to wristmounted pressure sensors, allowing sensor spacing 2-4 mm, force ranges from 23 mN to 5700 mN and bandwidth of 20 Hz. Integrating this with a skeletal hand allows us to showcase the potential of these sensors to aid robotic manipulation. We demonstrate 3-axis contact modelling, useful for in-hand manipulation and exploration. In addition, by grasping a chopstick and sensing forces transmitted from the environment, the system can remotely detect small environmental features, e.g., hole finding using tools.