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Design of an Ultrasonic Concentrator for Vibro-Tactile Sensors Using Electro-Mechanical Analogy

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Abstract

Vibro-tactile sensors have been utilized to measure the mechanical properties of soft materials based on the shift of resonant frequency. However, their low signal to noise ratio (SNR) has impeded them from critical applications where accurate measurements are required. One of the ways to improve the SNR is to add an ultrasonic concentrator as a mechanical filter to the vibro-tactile sensor. In order to maximize the SNR, the concentrator should be optimally designed; however, systematic design approach of the concentrator has rarely been considered so far. In this paper, a hybrid design approach employing both analytical analysis and numerical simulation is presented. For analytical analysis, impedance analogy was used to facilitate the designing process, and the numerical simulation using FEA was conducted to carry out the parametric refinement of the design. The performance of the final design was verified by mechanical and electrical characteristics tests. Tests results indicate that the longitudinal resonance mode of the sensor was significantly enhanced and the increase in its mechanical quality factor was achieved by the ultrasonic concentrator. The tactile sensing experiments on the silicone rubber samples showed the high potential of the vibro-tactile sensor in estimating the elastic moduli of soft materials in the range of 5–100 kPa, which is not readily available with conventional testing methods.

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Abbreviations

\(F_{i}\) :

Force

\(u\) :

Velocity

\(M\) :

Mass

\(C_{m}\) :

Damping

\(K_{m}\) :

Stiffness

\(x\) :

Longitudinal dimension

\(l\) :

Length of the structure

\(D\) :

Diameter

\(\upalpha\) :

Measure of the cone opening

\(\xi \left( x \right)\) :

Longitudinal displacement distribution

\(S\left( x \right)\) :

Shape function in the longitudinal direction

\(k\) :

Wave number

\(K\) :

Generalized wave number

\(\omega\) :

Angular velocity

\(c\) :

Sound speed

\(\rho\) :

Density

\(U\) :

Equivalent voltage

\(i\) :

Equivalent current

\(R\) :

Resistance in equivalent circuit

\(C\) :

Capacitance in equivalent circuit

\(L\) :

Inductance in equivalent circuit

\(Z\) :

Electrical impedance

\(\varPhi\) :

Phase angle

SNR:

Signal to noise ratio

FEA:

Finite element analysis

SIMP:

Solid isotropic material with penalization

ESO:

Evolutionary structural optimization

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Acknowledgement

The work was supported by Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC).

Funding

Funding was provided by Discovery Grant, Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (RGPIN-2015-04118).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Mechanical and Mechatronics Engineering, University of Waterloo, 200 University Avenue West, Waterloo, ON, N2L 3G1, Canada

    Yanjun Qian & Hyock-Ju Kwon

  2. Department of Automotive Engineering, Shinhan University, 95 Hoam-ro, Uijeongbu, Gyeonggi-do, 480-701, Republic of Korea

    Sang-Wook Han

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  1. Yanjun Qian
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Correspondence to Yanjun Qian.

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Qian, Y., Han, SW. & Kwon, HJ. Design of an Ultrasonic Concentrator for Vibro-Tactile Sensors Using Electro-Mechanical Analogy. Int. J. Precis. Eng. Manuf. 20, 1787–1800 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12541-019-00190-1

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