Pose estimation with capacitive sensors experiencing non-linear response to tilt

Capacitive sensors are commonly employed for linear displacement measurement in many applications for micro and nano scale manipulation. However, the introduction of angular motion causes the capacitance to change non-linearly, resulting in erroneous measurements. With capacitive sensors being ubiquitous in the implementation of micro/nano positioners, and with an increasing number of mechanism designs providing angular motion, it is desirable to adapt these sensors for this purpose. This paper presents the development of a model of a multi degree of freedom capacitance sensing and measurement system. An algorithm is proposed to invert this functional model, allowing for the estimation of mechanism pose given capacitance measurements.