CushSense: Soft, Stretchable, and Comfortable Tactile Sensing Skin for Physical Human-Robot Interaction
Abstract: Whole-arm tactile feedback is crucial for robots to ensure safe physical interactions with their surroundings and the humans therein. In this paper, we introduce CushSense, a fabric-based tactile sensing skin designed for physical human-robot interaction (pHRI) tasks such as robotic caregiving. Utilizing a combination of stretchable fabric and hyper-elastic polymer, CushSense identifies contacts by monitoring capacitive changes due to skin deformation. Designed for comprehensive robot coverage, it fosters both safe and comfortable interactions. CushSense is cost-effective ($387 USD) and easily fabricated. We detail the sensor design and fabrication processes, provide characterization results showcasing its sensing proficiency, and present a user study underscoring its perceived safety and comfort for the assistive task of limb manipulation. All sensor-related resources are open source on this website.