Sensors

• A device which provides

information about the physical
world
• Conversion of energy from one
 
form to another.

• e.g. microphone and speakers

convert between acoustic and
electrical energy.

• Many transducers are

bidirectional.

• Some sensors are transducers;

almost all involve transduction.
 Sensors Characteristics
• Size:
• Cost:
• Weight:
• Types of output (AC or DC):
• Accuracy : closeness of output to
expected output
  • Sensitivity: Ration of Change in output
in response of change in input
• Resolution: Minimum step size that
can be measure
• Range: difference between smallest
and largest output
• Frequency Range: Larger range is
better
• Reliability:Ratio of no of system
operates properly to no of tried
• Repeatability:value on which system
response correctly
 Sensor Classification

 
SENSORS

EXTERNAL SENSOR
INTERNAL SENSOR
(Internal states of robot) (Learn about
i.e., Position, velocity, external
acceleration environment of
robot)
 Position Sensors
• Measures the position of each joint ,i.e, Joint angle
• This measurement can be helpful to find end-effector
  configuration through forward kinematics.

• Encoder
• Potentiometer
• LVDT(Linear variable differential transformer )
• Resolvers
 Optical Encoders
These are optical devices to
measure linear /angular
displacement and linear/angular
  velocity.
A disk of an optical encoder is
connected to the rotating shaft.
The disk has patterns (holes).
On one side of the disk there is a
light source and on the other
photo-detectors. When the disk
rotates the light is going through
the holes and the photo-detectors
generate series of pulses.
There are two types of optical
encoders:
• Incremental
• Absolute.
 Optical Encoders
The incremental encoder provides
a pulse each time the shaft has
  rotated a defined distance.
The disc of an absolute encoder
has several concentric tracks, with
each track having an independent
light source and photo detector.
With this arrangement a unique
binary or Gray coded number can
be produced for every shaft
position.
 Optical Encoders

 
 Potentiometer
It is variable resistance device.
It describes linear or angular displacement in term of
voltage
 
 LVDT(Linear variable Differential
transformer)
• It is one of the most used
displacement transducers when
high accuracy is needed.
 • It generate AC signal whose
magnitude is equal to
displacement of moving core
• In LVDT, two secondary coils and
one primary coil are connected.
When the core is in the middle
there is no output voltage.
• Moving the core from the central
position unbalances the
secondaries, developing an
output.
 Resolver

• Resolvers are used in robot

systems to measure angular
 
displacement.
• The rotor is connected with the
rotating object and contains a
primary coil supplied by an
alternating current from a source
voltage vref. The stator consists of
two windings separated by 90o,
with induced voltages
 Velocity Sensor

• It measures the velocity by taking consecutive

  position measurement at time interval.
• Compute rate of change of position values or
directly find it directly by some principles.

• All position sensors

• Tachometer
• Hall-Effect Sensor
 All Position Sensors

• All position sensors when used with certain time

  bounds can give velocity
• The number of pulses given by an incremental
position encoder divided by time consumed
• This puts computational load on controller.
 Tachometer
• It directly find the velocity at an instant
of time
 
• It calculate speed.
• It works on Fleming rule.
• The permanent magnet generates a
steady and uniform magnetic field.
• Relative motion between the field and
the rotor induces voltages, which is
proportional
• to the speed of the rotor.
 Hall –Effect Sensor
• A Hall effect sensor is a transducer

  that varies its output voltage in

response to a magnetic field. 
• It measures the Speed by measuring
the potential difference between hall
chip.
 Force Sensor
• Force sensors are used also to sense,

  sense the pressure or force applied.

• Stain Gauge
• Piezoelectric Sensor
• Current Based Sensor
 Stain Guage Sensor
When external forces are applied to a stationary
object, stress and strain are the result.
 
• Principal of sensor is that elongation of a
conductor increases its resistance.
• Strain Gauges are made of electrical
conductor.
• The strain cause changes in resistance which
is measured through white stone bridge
circuit.
 Piezoelectric Sensor
A permanently-polarized material
 such as quartz (SiO2) or barium
titanate (BaTiO3) will produce an
electric field when the material
changes dimensions as a result of
an imposed mechanical force.
These materials are piezoelectric,
and this phenomenon is known as
the piezoelectric effect.
 Current Based Sensing
The torque provided by motor is a
 function of current drawn.
Therefore torque sensing can be
done through current drawn with
motor characteristic.
 External Sensor

Used to learn about robot environment.

External Sensor

Contact Type Non –Contact type

 Contact Type
•  Limit Switch
• It is a electromechanical device
that usually has pressure
sensitive mechanical arm.
• limitation
• High failure rate
• Slow speed
 Non-Contact Type
• Proximity Sensors
  (inductive and capacitive)

• Semiconductor displacement
sensor
 Inductive Proximity Sensors

• No physical contact with the object to be detected.

 • High operating rates.
• Fast response.
• Excellent resistance to industrial environments
 Inductive Proximity Sensors
• An inductive proximity sensor consists of four
basic elements:

1. Sensor coil and ferrite

core
2. Oscillator circuit
3. Trigger/Detector circuit
4. Solid-state output circuit
 Inductive Proximity Sensor
working principle
– This results in a loading effect, or
“damping” that causes a reduction in
amplitude of the oscillator signal.
– The detector circuit detects the change in
oscillator amplitude. The detector will
switch ON at specific operate amplitude.
– This ON signal generates a signal to
turn ON the solid state output. This is
often referred to as the damped
condition.
 Inductive Proximity Sensor
working principle

• As the target leaves the sensing field, the

oscillator responds with an increase in
amplitude.
• As the amplitude increases above a specific
value, it is detected by the detector circuit,
which switches OFF, causing the output
signal to return to the normal or
OFF(undamped) state.
 Capacitive Proximity Sensors
– Capacitive sensing is based on dielectric capacitance.
– Capacitance is the property of insulators to store an
electric charge.
– A capacitor consists of two plates separated by an
insulator, usually called a dielectric.
– When the switch is closed a charge is stored on the
two plates.
– The distance between the plates determine the
ability of a capacitor to store a charge and can be
calibrated as a function of stored charge to
determine discrete ON and OFF switching status.
 Capacitive Proximity Sensors
The capacitive proximity sensor has the same four basic elements as
an inductive sensor:

1.Sensor (the dielectric

plate)
2.Oscillator circuit
3.Detector circuit
4.Solid-state output circuit
 Capacitive Proximity Sensors
– The oscillator circuit includes feedback capacitance
from the external target plate and the internal plate.
– In a capacitive switch, the oscillator starts oscillating
when sufficient feedback capacitance is detected.
– The oscillation begin with an approaching target until
the value of capacitance reaches a threshold.
– At threshold point the trigger circuit will turn on the
output switching device.
– Thus the output modules function as normally open,
normally closed, or changeover switches.
Semiconductor Displacement Sensor
It uses LED or laser as light source and position
sensitive detector (PSD).
Laser focus target through lens
Target reflects beams
Reflected beam is focused on PSD
Displacement is measure by detecting the movement
of beam spot
Semiconductor Displacement Sensor
It uses LED or laser as light source and position
sensitive detector (PSD).
Laser focus target through lens
Target reflects beams
Reflected beam is focused on PSD
Displacement is measure by detecting the movement
of beam spot
 VISION SYSTEM
• Vision sensors can be classified as external
non-contact type.
What can Computer Vision do for Robotics?

• Accurate Robot-Object Positioning

• Keeping Relative Position under Movement
• Visualization / Teaching / Telerobotics
• Performing measurements
• Object Recognition
 ELEMENTS IN VISION SENSOR
• CAMERA
• FRAME GRABBER
• VISION SOFTWARE
• CONTROLLER
 IMAGE PROCESSING STEPS
• IMAGE ACQUISTION
• IMAGE PROCESSING
 Robot Vision System
Major Phases in Robot Vision Systems:
A. Data (image) acquisition
– Illumination, i.e. lighting consideration
– Lenses, and Cameras
– Digitizers
B. Pre-processing
– Enhancement, i.e. smoothing, edge detection
– Segmentation (Binarization)
C. Recognition
– Feature extraction
– Pattern matching
D. Part Manipulation
– Choice of robot, gripper
– Orientations of gripper, camera, part w.r.t robot base

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