16 décembre 2025 à 14h
In rigid robotic manipulators, force measurement relies on joint torque or end-effector sensors, which are often expensive or bulky. In the opposite, soft robots can leverage their inherent deformability to estimate external forces using cheap displacement and/or pressure measurements combined with a model of their structural stiffness. This presentation addresses the design of sensing system of external forces on soft robot without co-locating the sensors and forces measurement but exploiting the deformability of the structure. We investigate a method that evaluates the force estimation precision by coupling robot configurations with real-time simulations based on the finite element method (FEM). These simulations integrate the boundary conditions and mechanical properties of the soft robot. Our contribution is to propose a mathematical framework to assess force estimation accuracy based on sensor placement, deriving a criterion to predict achievable measurement quality. The approach is experimentally validated on two distinct prototypes: a soft cavity structure with a pressure sensor and a four-branch continuous parallel robot equipped with bending sensors.
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English