Fig. 5: Soft robot-sensor integration.
a Photograph of a soft robot integrated with a sensor array consisting of eight sensors. b Left: SEM image showing the robot-sensor interface and the interfaces in the sensor. Right: schematic illustration of the integrated robot-sensor configuration. c Photograph of soft-robot grippers grasping a netted melon. d Magnified image showing the contact between the melon and one gripper. The sensors are numbered from 1–8 from bottom to top, and corresponding pressure mapping on the surface of the gripper surface. e Photograph of the grippers grasping a stuffed doll and corresponding pressure mapping. f Photograph of the grippers grasping a stuffed doll with a weight to have a total mass of 1250 g, and corresponding pressure mapping. g Capacitance change evolution of sensor 1 [as marked in panel d] as the soft-robot grippers grasp the melon on a table, lift it up to 10 cm, hold it at this height for 1 s, return it to the table, and release it. The photographs illustrate each stage of the manipulation process. The evolutions of the height of the melon and the change in force throughout the process are also plotted. h Capacitance change measurement over 1000 cycles of the manipulation stages indicated in panel g. i Capacitance change measurement of a control sample with a bonded but non-interlinked interface. The sensor fails at the 137th cycle. Inset: schematic illustration of delamination in the control sample and optical image of the delaminated electrode in the control sample. j Photographs of soft-robot grippers grasping, lifting, holding, and releasing of a doll. k Corresponding capacitance signal for pressure sensing (upper panel) and resistance signal for strain sensing (lower panel) during three cycles of the manipulation shown in j. All measured from sensor 1 [as marked in panel d]. Upper and lower insets: schematic illustrations of the measuring circuits for the capacitance and resistance signals, respectively.
