A Whisker-Like 2-D Contact Sensor for Environmental Perception of Mobile Robots

Exploring the surrounding environment plays a critical role in robotic systems. This article introduces a compact whisker-like sensor for planar contact point estimation based on the continuum mechanics of slender elastic beams. The proposed sensor achieves perception of contact point in the intermediate location of the beam by measuring several local deformations through a small number of strain gauges. An explicit model characterizing the force-deflection behavior of the sensor is developed, establishing the relationship between local bending and position of contact point under frictional and large-deformation conditions. A series of experiments are conducted to validate the accuracy of the sensor in detecting 2-D contact points. Furthermore, the proposed sensors are integrated into a mobile robot, demonstrating the potential application in robotic environmental perception through width sensing, contour following, and reconstruction.