Soft Robotic Link with Controllable Transparency for Vision-based Tactile and Proximity Sensing

This work introduces a novel soft robotic link, named ProTac, that possesses multiple sensing modes: tactile and proximity sensing, based on computer vision and functional material. These modalities come from a layered structure of a soft transparent silicon skin, a polymer dispersed liquid crystal (PDLC) film, and reflective markers. Here, the PDLC film can switch actively between the opaque and the transparent state, from which the tactile sensing and proximity sensing can be obtained by using cameras solely built inside the ProTac link. 

Conceptual illustration for perceiving both tactile and proximity perception of ProTac sensor's skin.