Estimation of the State of Folding Structures using a Novel Sensor

In this paper, a folding sensor based on capacitance is proposed. The sensor was developed to sense the length and angle data for the milli-scale actuators without causing any interference to the actuating joints. For the sensing and testing the robotic joint with reducing the cost and complexity aspects of manufacturing, a simple composition was adopted. The sensor comprises a pair of copper tapes, papers, and wires. The complete sensing unit is constructed by bonding the tapes with the papers and soldering the wire to the copper parts. For accuracy, a teensy 4.0 board, which has a 12-bit ADC resolution, is employed. Furthermore, the sensed analog data is not translated into the unit of capacitance for accuracy; however, it is filtered using a low-pass filter and subsequently, a Butter-worth filter. The data obtained demonstrate a periodic waveform, which implies that the data are in good agreement with the hypothesis set prior to the experiments. Compared to other milli-scale sensors, this could be a better option for sensing the length and angle data for milliscale actuators.