Development of a Humanoid with Distributed Multi-axis Deformation Sense with Full-Body Soft Plastic Foam Cover as Flesh of a Robot

In this paper, the development of a robot which has a prototype of“sensor flesh”made of soft polyurethane foam and disributed three-axis force/torque sensors is presented. In order for robots to be working around human, it is important to enable them to be touched by humans, and to sense its contact states throughout the body. Several humanoids have“skin”with tactile sensors, but they cannot sense the distribution of force vectors. Their thin“skin”are not sufficiently soft to emurate the contact states as humans. In this paper, we took an approach of thick force vectors sensing exterior, which enables the emulation of contact states involving deformation of thick “flesh”. A comparative discussion about possible materials for the soft cover is described, and problem about movability of joints and thermal design are explored. Then, implementation of tactile sensing system is described. In the last part of this paper, the ability of sensors which react to force vectors and local deformation is shown.