Soft deformation sensor with high spatial resolution through impedance spectroscopy

Soft robots are a new class of robots that are constructed from soft materials. In contrast to traditional robots, which are made of stiff materials, such as metals, these robots have several advantages, such as the ability to safely handle fragile objects, safety in the vicinity of humans, and the ability to adapt and conform to their environment. In contrast to a traditional robot, whose state is defined by a finite number of degrees of freedom, soft robots deform continuously along their structure. As a result, measuring, predicting, and controlling their shape is challenging. This project aims to develop a capacitive deformation sensor for soft robots that provides high spatial resolution. We use impedance spectroscopy to resolve deformations along the sensor in multiple directions. Calculating the deformations from the impedance data is numerically expensive when physical models are used. We will, thus, construct a surrogate model that enables real-time calculation of the deformations based on electromechanical simulations of the sensor.