Development of a Flexible Electronic Skin for Collaborative Robot Collision Detection

With the rapid development of industry 4.0 and intelligent factory, the safe cooperation between collaborative robot and workers is a challenge for robot development. The use of sensitive electronic skin to realize collision detection and actively control is a more practical and reliable solution. In this work, we propose an easily fabricated highly flexible, sensitive and adaptable electronic skin based on triboelectric nanogenerators, which is constructed from a BTO/Silicone nanocomposite with a fully embedded conductive sponge, which significantly enhances the dielectric permittivity and leads to a higher output performance and sensitivity. The experimental results demonstrated the capability of the electronic skin in detecting the collision velocities, forces and difference external object materials. It have provided an alternative solution for improving the safety, cooperativeness and intelligence of the robots in near future.