A Triboelectric Tactile Perception Ring for Continuum Robot Collision-Aware

Continuum robots have significant advantages in terms of high dexterity level and adaptability, leading to potential applications in narrow space operation and minimally invasive surgery. Endowing the tactile perception to the continuum robots will make them aware of collision. Here, we propose a self-powered triboelectric tactile perception ring (TTPR) that can sense tiny collision pressure in 4 directions. Integrating TTPR into each joint of the continuum robot enables the robot to aware collision and adjust posture. The demonstration of obstacle avoidance and adaptive crawling reveals that the proposed TTPR has the potential of being a promising solution for collision-aware of continuum robot.