High-Speed High-Precision Proximity Sensor for Detection of Tilt, Distance, and Contact

We developed a fingertip-size proximity sensor that detects the distance to and the tilt angle of the surface of an object with the peak-to-peak distance error less than 1/129th (< 31 mu m) and the measuring time less than 1/10th (< 1 ms) those of existing sensors. In addition, we realized the task of catching a fragile object (paper balloon) with a high-speed robot hand equipped with the sensor. High-speed, high-precision sensing enables contact detection independently of the contact force. We describe a robust contact detection method that does not depend on the reflectance, the tilt angle, or the shape of target objects surface. In experiments, we confirmed that the sensor could measure a distance of 2.85-20 mm (resolution: 44 mu m in < 3 mm) and a tilt angle of +/- 45 degrees (error: 1.47 degrees) for objects with reflectances of 18% and 90%. We demonstrated that the hand could catch the paper balloon when dropped from a height of about 20 cm without crushing it.