Harvard College

Radhika Nagpal

Carmel Majidi

Conor James Walsh

Robert J Wood

Yong-Lae Park

Yigit Menguc

Bor-rong Chen

Leia Stirling

Diana Young

Zivthan Dubrovsky

Kathleen Elizabeth O'Donnell

Hani Sallum

Raphael Gerard Cherney

Julian U Da Silva Gillig

Justin Keith Werfel

Michael Mogenson

Nils Napp

Raphael Cherney

Justin Werfel

Conner James Walsch

Carmel S Majidi

Leila Stirling

An elastic strain sensor can be incorporated into an artificial skin that can sense flexing by the underlying support structure of the skin to detect and track motion of the support structure. The unidirectional elastic strain sensor can be formed by filling two or more channels in an elastic substrate material with a conductive liquid. At the ends of the channels, a loop port connects the channels to form a serpentine channel. The channels extend along the direction of strain and the loop portions have sufficiently large cross-sectional area in the direction transverse to the direction of strain that the sensor is unidirectional. The resistance is measured at the ends of the serpentine channel and can be used to determine the strain on the sensor. Additional channels can be added to increase the sensitivity of the sensor. The sensors can be stacked on top of each other to increase the sensitivity of the sensor. In other embodiments, two sensors oriented in different directions can be stacked on top of each other and bonded together to form a bidirectional sensor. A third sensor formed by in the shape of a spiral or concentric rings can be stacked on top and used to sense contact or pressure, forming a three dimensional sensor. The three dimensional sensor can be incorporated into an artificial skin to provide advanced sensing.

Artificial skin and elastic strain sensor

In a method for interactive marking by a mobile robot on a vertical surface, a mobile robot that includes a sensor and an actuated marker is displaced across a vertical surface. Features on, in or behind the vertical surface are detected with the sensor. Displacement of the mobile robot and actuation of the actuated marker is controlled in response to the detection of these features.

Color- or grayscale-sensing, magnetic, mobile, marking robot

An elastic strain sensor can be incorporated into an artificial skin that can sense flexing by the underlying support structure of the skin to detect and track motion of the support structure. The uni-directional elastic strain sensor can be formed by filling two or more channels in an elastic substrate material with a conductive liquid. At the ends of the channels, a loop port connects the channels to form a serpentine channel. The channels extend along the direction of strain and the loop portions have sufficiently large cross-sectional area in the direction transverse to the direction of strain that the sensor is unidirectional. The resistance is measured at the ends of the serpentine channel and can be used to determine the strain on the sensor. Additional channels can be added to increase the sensitivity of the sensor. The sensors can be stacked on top of each other to increase the sensitivity of the sensor. In other embodiments, two sensors oriented in different directions can be stacked on top of each other and bonded together to form a bidirectional sensor. A third sensor formed by in the shape of a spiral or concentric rings can be stacked on top and used to sense contact or pressure, forming a three dimensional sensor. The three dimensional sensor can be incorporated into an artificial skin to provide advanced sensing.

Growing community of inventors

Cambridge, MA, United States of America

Radhika Nagpal