Modular electronic skin suitable for large-area coverage of robots and its application method

Abstract

The present invention relates to a modular electronic skin suitable for large-area coverage of robots and an application method thereof, which comprises: several groups of basic unit modules, each having several interfaces for detecting and collecting various information; a node unit module, which is set corresponding to the number of groups of the basic unit modules and is used for processing data detected and collected by the basic unit modules; a bottom flexible circuit connection layer, which is made of a flexible circuit board and has several module mounting positions, each module mounting position is connected by a cuttable structure, the module mounting positions can be used to install basic unit modules or node unit modules, and each module mounting position is connected by a bus to form a grid bus structure, the bus is connected to the interfaces of each module mounting position, the edge of the bottom flexible circuit connection layer is provided with a bus interface that can be used for area expansion, and the cuttable bottom flexible circuit connection layer design is adopted to realize the flexible and convenient deployment of electronic skin on various complex robot surfaces.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The present invention relates to a modular electronic skin suitable for large-area coverage of robots and an application method thereof, and is mainly aimed at collecting and processing tactile information of electronic skin parts of new human-machine collaborative robots that need large-area coverage. Background Art

[0002] Collaborative robots are a key area of ​​future robotics development. They are a crucial technology for achieving human-robot integration, promoting the integration of robots into people's lives and production, and benefiting human society. The core issues that collaborative robots must address include safety, functionality, and efficiency. The acquisition and processing of tactile information by collaborative robots is crucial for their development. Electronic skin, a tactile sensor developed to mimic the functions of human skin, has long been a subject of significant research and development worldwide. The past decade has seen rapid development, with new types of electronic skin appearing continuously. However, to date, no single electronic skin has achieved commercial application.

[0003] The main reasons are as follows:

[0004] (1) In terms of structure and function, the electronic skin currently under development mainly focuses on imitating certain local functions and characteristics of human skin, but ignores the overall complexity of the skin. For example, in actual applications, the types and distribution requirements of tactile sensors in different parts of the robot are different;

[0005] (2) In terms of system integration, the electronic skin currently under development often does not consider its integration with the robot system. For example, a series of issues such as sensor performance parameters, signal interface, data expression, shape and size, network architecture, layout and wiring, fixing method, power consumption and sensor calibration have not been fully considered. Therefore, the developed electronic skin is not compatible with the existing robot system in actual application.

[0006] (3) In terms of modular design, most existing electronic skins are made in an integral form. The lack of modular design makes the preparation cost of electronic skin high. Different systems need to be customized and developed. If the numerous sensor units on the electronic skin are damaged, the entire electronic skin may be scrapped. At the same time, the coverage area of ​​the integral electronic skin is difficult to be made large, and there are great problems in testing, calibration, repair and maintenance.

[0007] (4) In the intelligent processing of tactile data, most existing electronic skins do not consider data processing issues, or concentrate the entire electronic skin data into one circuit module for processing, resulting in a series of problems such as a significant increase in the amount of transmitted data and the number of leads, insufficient information processing speed of the core processor, and slow response speed.

[0008] Therefore, only by properly solving the above problems can electronic skin be truly and effectively applied in human-machine collaborative robots. Summary of the Invention

[0009] In view of the shortcomings of the existing technology, the purpose of the present invention is to provide a modular electronic skin suitable for large-area coverage of robots and an application method thereof.

[0010] To achieve the above object, the present invention provides the following technical solutions:

[0011] A modular electronic skin suitable for large-area coverage of robots, comprising:

[0012] Several groups of basic unit modules, with several interfaces, for detecting and collecting various information;

[0013] The node unit module corresponds to the number of groups of the basic unit module and has several interfaces for processing the data detected and collected by the basic unit module;

[0014] The bottom flexible circuit connection layer is made of a flexible circuit board and has several module mounting positions. The module mounting positions are connected by a cuttable structure. The module mounting positions can be used to install basic unit modules or node unit modules. The module mounting positions are connected by a bus to form a grid bus structure. The bus is connected to the interface of each module mounting position. The edge of the bottom flexible circuit connection layer is provided with a bus interface that can be used for area expansion.

[0015] The basic unit module includes:

[0016] A flexible thin film pressure sensing layer for detecting contact pressure on the skin surface;

[0017] Flexible buffer layer, used for buffering between the flexible film pressure sensing layer and the underlying main circuit layer;

[0018] The bottom main circuit layer is made of a flexible circuit board and is used for detecting and collecting various information.

[0019] The node unit module is a hard circuit board, on which is provided a processor for receiving and processing the data detected and collected by the basic unit module.

[0020] The node unit module is provided with a power conversion module.

[0021] A cuttable structure is provided around the module installation position, and a bus is provided inside the cuttable structure, and the bus is connected to the interface of the module installation position.

[0022] The bottom flexible circuit connection layer is provided with a plurality of mesh holes.

[0023] An application method of the modular electronic skin suitable for large-area coverage of robots as described above, according to the functional requirements of different parts of the robot, sets basic unit modules with corresponding functions and node unit modules paired with the basic unit modules at the module installation positions, and cuts the underlying flexible circuit connection layer according to different parts of the robot. As long as the connection between each module installation position is ensured to be unbroken, the area can be expanded through several bus interfaces at the edge of the underlying flexible circuit connection layer to achieve full coverage of the electronic skin of different parts of the robot.

[0024] The module installation positions at the corresponding locations can be left vacant or directly cut out according to the space requirements of the installation location.

[0025] Beneficial effects of the present invention:

[0026] The innovative flexible modular design of electronic skin greatly enhances the flexibility of electronic skin deployment, improves the redundancy of the system, realizes distributed parallel processing of tactile information, improves the processing speed and response time of tactile information, reduces the computational load of a single microprocessor, simplifies the difficulty of electronic skin debugging, calibration, repair and maintenance, and reduces the manufacturing and use costs of electronic skin.

[0027] The use of a tailorable bottom flexible circuit connection layer design enables the flexible and convenient deployment of electronic skin on various complex robot surfaces. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0028] Figure 1 It is a structural schematic diagram of the basic unit module of the present invention.

[0029] Figure 2 It is a schematic diagram of the appearance structure of the basic unit module of the present invention.

[0030] Figure 3 This is a schematic diagram of the appearance structure of the node unit module of the present invention.

[0031] Figure 4 Schematic diagram of the structure of the bottom flexible circuit connection layer of the present invention.

[0032] Figure 5 Schematic diagram of the electronic skin deployment method.

[0033] Figure 6 Schematic diagram of the deployment of the electronic skin system on the human-machine collaborative robotic arm.

[0034] Figure 7 Schematic diagram of the deployment of the electronic skin system on a mobile robot.

[0035] Figure 8 This is the hardware circuit structure block diagram of the basic unit module.

[0036] Figure 9 This is the hardware circuit structure block diagram of the node unit module.

[0037] Figure 10 This is the network topology diagram of the electronic skin system. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0038] The following will clearly and completely describe the technical solutions in the embodiments of the present invention in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. Obviously, the described embodiments are only part of the embodiments of the present invention, not all of the embodiments. All other embodiments obtained by ordinary technicians in this field based on the embodiments of the present invention without making any creative efforts shall fall within the scope of protection of the present invention.

[0039] The present invention provides a modular electronic skin suitable for large-area coverage of robots, comprising:

[0040] Several groups of basic unit modules, with several interfaces, for detecting and collecting various information;

[0041] The basic unit module is divided into the following from top to bottom: a flexible thin film pressure sensing layer 1, which uses a wide-range piezoresistive thin film pressure sensor as a sensitive element to detect the contact pressure on the skin surface; a flexible buffer layer 2, which is made of silicone and serves to buffer pressure shocks, improve the sensitivity of the pressure sensor and protect the underlying circuit; and a bottom main circuit layer 3, which is made of a flexible circuit board and is mainly responsible for the detection and collection of various tactile information, signal processing and preliminary analysis of tactile information.

[0042] The basic unit module includes: a communication interface 4, a temperature and humidity sensor 5, a proximity sensor 6, a flexible buffer layer 3, a flexible film pressure sensing layer 1, a single-chip microcomputer 7, an acceleration sensor 8, a working indicator light 9, a debugging interface 10, etc.

[0043] Except for the temperature and humidity sensor, proximity sensor and thin film pressure sensor exposed on the outside, the rest are covered by a flexible buffer layer.

[0044] The sensors in the basic unit module can be increased or decreased as needed, that is, basic unit modules with different functions can be selected according to the different functions required by the robot parts.

[0045] The basic unit module uses a piezoresistive thin film pressure sensor to detect contact pressure. Piezoresistive pressure sensors are flexible, have a large range ratio, and are low-cost. The present invention achieves adaptive sensitivity contact force acquisition by collecting high-sensitivity transmitter circuit signals when the contact force is small, and collecting large-range transmitter circuit signals when the contact force is large. An integrated infrared laser ranging sensor is used to achieve proximity measurement. An integrated temperature and humidity sensor is used to detect temperature and humidity. An integrated MEMS acceleration sensor is used to detect the vibration and posture of the robotic arm. The single-chip microcomputer collects tactile data for preliminary information analysis and uses I2C to transmit the information through the grid bus. 2 C communication protocol and node unit module.

[0046] Adaptive sensitivity switching technology is used to achieve contact force measurement that improves sensitivity when the contact force is light and increases the range when the contact force is heavy.

[0047] The node unit module corresponds to the number of groups of the basic unit module and has several interfaces for processing the data detected and collected by the basic unit module;

[0048] The node unit module consists of a rigid circuit board and includes a communication interface 11 for connecting to the base unit module, a communication interface 12 for connecting to the tactile information processing central computer, a power module 13, a high-performance single-chip microcontroller 14, an operating indicator light 9, a debugging interface 10, and other components. The node unit module is primarily responsible for collecting tactile event information from subordinate base unit modules, analyzing and processing it, extracting the meaning of the tactile information from the data, encoding it, and transmitting it to the tactile information processing central computer. Furthermore, the node unit module is responsible for stepping down the high-voltage power supply to power the base unit module and managing and monitoring the operating status of the base unit module.

[0049] The node unit module adopts I through the grid bus 2 C communication protocol with the subordinate basic unit module group. The node unit module analyzes and processes the data uploaded by the subordinate basic unit module, performs pattern recognition and data abstraction, and then uploads the abstracted data to the tactile information processing central computer through the RS485 bus.

[0050] The bottom flexible circuit connection layer is made of a flexible circuit board and has several module mounting positions. The module mounting positions are connected by a cuttable structure. The module mounting positions can be used to install basic unit modules or node unit modules. The module mounting positions are connected by a bus to form a grid bus structure. The bus is connected to the interface of each module mounting position. The edge of the bottom flexible circuit connection layer is provided with a bus interface that can be used for area expansion.

[0051] The bottom flexible circuit connection layer is made of a flexible circuit board and consists of multiple square module mounting positions of the same size. Each module mounting position can be deployed on a basic unit module or a node unit module. Each module mounting position includes: a module interface 15, a module mounting position 16, a mesh 17, a mesh bus 18, a bus interface 19, and a mounting hole 20. Adjacent module positions are connected by a bus consisting of power and communication lines, forming a mesh bus structure. The mesh bus is connected to the module interface on each module position. Therefore, when the unit communication interface on the basic unit module or node unit module is connected to the module interface, it is connected to the bus network and also receives power supply. Each module mounting position can be cut as needed. As long as the entire bottom flexible circuit connection layer is not completely disconnected, the modules on each module mounting position on the bottom flexible circuit connection layer can operate normally.

[0052] Two separate bottom flexible circuit layers can also be joined together using the bus interface at the edge to form a larger bottom flexible circuit layer. The mesh holes in the bottom flexible circuit layer ensure that the skin and robot do not fit unevenly due to air resistance during deployment, and also serve as mounting holes.

[0053] The mounting holes can be used as screw holes for screw mounting or as elastic mounting holes. The elastic hook mounting position makes it easy for the electronic skin to be flexibly and conveniently deployed on the robot.

[0054] The present invention also provides an application method of the above-mentioned modular electronic skin suitable for large-area coverage of robots. According to the functional requirements of different parts of the robot, a basic unit module 21 with corresponding functions and a node unit module 24 paired with the basic unit module are set at the module installation position, and the underlying flexible circuit connection layer is cut according to different parts of the robot. As long as the connection between each module installation position is not disconnected, the area can be expanded through several bus interfaces at the edge of the underlying flexible circuit connection layer to achieve full coverage of the electronic skin of different parts of the robot.

[0055] Positions where modules do not need to be deployed can be left empty, such as position 22, or can even be trimmed, such as position 23.

[0056] By utilizing a three-pole network consisting of basic unit modules, node unit modules, and a tactile information processing central computer, and adopting a three-level networking and processing mode for tactile information, the system reduces the amount of data transmission, ensures rapid response of tactile information, and improves system redundancy and reliability. At the same time, it performs deep information processing and abstract extraction on tactile information, greatly improving the intelligence level of the electronic skin and reducing the data processing burden of the robot's main controller.

[0057] By adopting an intelligent event-driven information processing mode, while reducing the amount of transmitted information and accelerating the response speed of tactile information, it greatly reduces the interference of invalid information on tactile processing information and reduces the overall energy consumption of the electronic skin.

[0058] Example 1

[0059] The electronic skin system is deployed on a human-machine collaborative robotic arm, and the electronic skin module 26 is deployed on the robotic arm part 24 and the outer part 25 of the robotic claw. The electronic skin module of the present invention has a certain degree of flexibility and can be conveniently deployed on the outside of various cylindrical objects. The robotic arm is usually a cylindrical structure, which can facilitate the deployment of the electronic skin system of the present invention. After deployment, the robotic arm can detect the approach of surrounding objects without blind spots, detect and avoid obstacles in the motion path, predict and avoid collisions with obstacles, detect collision contact forces, and perform behavior control based on tactile feedback.

[0060] Example 2

[0061] The electronic skin system is deployed on a mobile robot. After the electronic skin module 26 of the present invention is deployed on the body part of the mobile robot 27, it can detect whether there are obstacles 28 around the mobile robot without blind spots, as well as collision detection with surrounding objects, thereby realizing the tactile-based SLAM navigation algorithm of the mobile robot.

[0062] The embodiments should not be regarded as limiting the present invention, but any improvements based on the spirit of the present invention should be within the scope of protection of the present invention.

Claims

1. A modular electronic skin suitable for large-area coverage of robots, characterized by: It includes: Several groups of basic unit modules, with several interfaces, for detecting and collecting various information; The node unit module corresponds to the number of groups of the basic unit module and has several interfaces for processing the data detected and collected by the basic unit module; The bottom flexible circuit connection layer is made of a flexible circuit board and has several module mounting positions. The module mounting positions are connected by a cuttable structure. The module mounting positions can be used to install basic unit modules or node unit modules, and the module mounting positions are connected by a bus to form a grid bus structure. The bus is connected to the interface of each module mounting position. The edge of the bottom flexible circuit connection layer is provided with a bus interface that can be used for area expansion. The node unit module is a rigid circuit board, which is provided with a processor for receiving and processing data detected and collected by the basic unit module. A cuttable structure is provided around the module mounting position, and a bus is provided inside the cuttable structure, and the bus is connected to the interface of the module mounting position.

2. The modular electronic skin suitable for large-area coverage of robots according to claim 1, characterized in that: The basic unit module includes: A flexible thin film pressure sensing layer for detecting contact pressure on the skin surface; Flexible buffer layer, used for buffering between the flexible film pressure sensing layer and the underlying main circuit layer; The bottom main circuit layer is made of a flexible circuit board and is used for detecting and collecting various information.

3. The modular electronic skin suitable for large-area coverage of robots according to claim 1, characterized in that: The node unit module is provided with a power conversion module.

4. The modular electronic skin suitable for large-area coverage of robots according to claim 1, characterized in that: The bottom flexible circuit connection layer is provided with a plurality of mesh holes.

5. A method for applying the modular electronic skin suitable for large-area coverage of a robot according to any one of claims 1 to 4, characterized in that: According to the functional requirements of different parts of the robot, basic unit modules with corresponding functions and node unit modules paired with the basic unit modules are set at the module installation positions, and the underlying flexible circuit connection layer is cut according to different parts of the robot. As long as the connection between each module installation position is not disconnected, the area can be expanded through several bus interfaces at the edge of the underlying flexible circuit connection layer to achieve full coverage of the electronic skin of different parts of the robot.

6. The application method according to claim 5, characterized in that: The module installation positions at the corresponding locations can be left vacant or directly cut out according to the space requirements of the installation location.

Images