Human Robot Interaction with Triboelectric Nanogenerator for Tactile Sensing

Abstract

The key success factors for Human Robot Interaction (HRI) interfaces heavily depend on the robot sensing technologies such as vision and touch sensors. In this paper we investigate the use of Nanogenerator technologies as a sensing device for robotic applications. The particular property that we explore here deals with Triboelectric Nanogenerator (TENG) sensor in which an electric signal can be generated automatically once the sensor is mechanically triggered. We propose to use TENG as a tactile sensor so robot is able to interact with human safely. The result shows that the TENG sensor is sensitive enough for a robotic safety task. The robot arm can stop when contacting the human hand and attempt to find a new way to reach a desired goal. Our experiment uncovers opportunities to use TENG sensors for real-time HRI applications.