Implementation of a Capacitive Proximity Sensor System for a Fully Maneuverable Modular Mobile Robot to Evade Humans

This paper describes an advanced approach for a dynamic collision prevention system for robots dedicated to collaborative applications in a shared human robot work environment. We developed a firmware that incorporates proximity sensor information along with a kinematic algorithm to achieve sensitive robotics for a modular mobile robot platform. The utilized sensor technology is based on capacitive sensing, capable to reliably detect humans in the vicinity of the robot platform. The kinematic algorithm is flexible in its design as it is scalable to an unlimited number of wheels and takes into account different geometric architectures such as standard and omni-directional wheels. The dynamic collision avoidance of approaching humans has been successfully demonstrated in a variety of experimental test scenarios demonstrating the capabilities of a sensitive mobile robot.