Honeycomb-Inspired Metamaterial for Tactile Sensors with Variable Stiffness
Chibar R. Kostyukova V. Khajikhanov S. Kenzhebek D. Zhakatayev A. Orazbayev B. Kappassov Z.
2025Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.
IEEE Sensors Journal
2025#25Issue 1577 - 586 pp.
The materials stiffness plays a crucial role in tactile sensors and stiffness controllers of robot joints, facilitating safe and effective robot-environment interactions. Conventional controllers or sensors require a priori information about stiffness modulation to efficiently control environmental collisions and reduce their detrimental effects. Therefore, such inflexibility of real-time stiffness variation may cause instability if the dynamic mechanical system (a mass-spring-damper) changes during execution. In this article, we tackle the problem using a honeycomb metamaterial with a tunable stiffness to design a tactile sensor capable of detecting physical contact with low- and high-impact forces. We experimentally demonstrate that dynamic modification of the honeycomb structure reduces the maximum impact force by ≈ 30%, mitigating the rapid collision with the environment during contact detection. The results show that the honeycomb attachment allows for a more precise and controlled impact with varying degrees of energy and momentum transfer. The honeycomb attachment can be a valuable tool for grasping, explosive motion generation, and tactile sensing, requiring low-or-high-impact and controllable contact. Our study highlights the potential of using negative stiffness honeycomb (NSH) structures to improve the functionality of tactile sensors.
Collision detection , compliance and impedance control , force and tactile sensing , honeycombs , nonlinear stiffness , physical interactions , potential energy storage , tactile sensors , variable stiffness
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Nazarbayev University, Institute of Smart Systems and Artificial Intelligence, Astana, 010000, Kazakhstan
Nazarbayev University, School of Engineering and Digital Sciences, Robotics Department, Astana, 010000, Kazakhstan
Nazarbayev University, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Department, Astana, 010000, Kazakhstan
Nazarbayev University, Physics Department, Astana, 010000, Kazakhstan
Nazarbayev University
Nazarbayev University
Nazarbayev University
Nazarbayev University
10 лет помогаем публиковать статьи Международный издатель
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