Seamless Integration of Tactile Sensors for Cobots

TL;DR

This paper presents a microcontroller-based tactile sensor readout system that seamlessly integrates with industrial robotic grippers, simplifying tactile data acquisition for robotic applications.

Contribution

The authors developed an Arduino-compatible tactile sensor readout solution that reduces integration complexity for robotic grippers, facilitating research and deployment.

Findings

Simplifies tactile sensor integration with industrial robots.

Reduces wiring and hardware complexity.

Provides open-source design files for adoption.

Abstract

The development of tactile sensing is expected to enhance robotic systems in handling complex objects like deformables or reflective materials. However, readily available industrial grippers generally lack tactile feedback, which has led researchers to develop their own tactile sensors, resulting in a wide range of sensor hardware. Reading data from these sensors poses an integration challenge: either external wires must be routed along the robotic arm, or a wireless processing unit has to be fixed to the robot, increasing its size. We have developed a microcontroller-based sensor readout solution that seamlessly integrates with Robotiq grippers. Our Arduino compatible design takes away a major part of the integration complexity of tactile sensors and can serve as a valuable accelerator of research in the field. Design files and installation instructions can be found at https://github.com/RemkoPr/airo-halberd.