An All-Flexible Sensing Sole For Legged Robots

Recently, major efforts are made to employ robotic devices and especially also legged robots in industrial environments. Such robots can take over dull, dreary and dangerous tasks from humans. Development of legged robots suitable for industrial operation will be a major driver of industry 5.0.In this work, we present the fabrication and evaluation of the concept of an all-flexible sole for legged robots. The sole is made from a variant of Polysiloxane with integrated liquid electrodes. The electrodes are produced by dispensing Carbonloaded Poly(dimethylsiloxane) into cavities at certain areas of the sole. Through the employed capacitive sensing principle, it is possible to retrieve proximity (and also pressure) information from the environment, in this case, especially the ground or pavement structure. Through the employed materials and their composition, the sole is robust to mechanical and thermal stresses and wear. At the same time it still conforms to uneven and unstructured terrain.