A new sensing scheme for 3D active antenna

This paper discusses a new sensing scheme for 3D active antenna that can detect not only the contact location between an insensitive flexible beam and an object but also the normal direction of the object´s surface where the beam makes contact. The active antenna is simply composed of an insensitive flexible beam, actuators to move the beam, position sensors to measure the rotational angle of the beam, and a moment sensor. In our former work (Kaneko and Kanayama, 1995), we have shown that both the normal direction and the contact distance can be obtained by more than three times pushing motions. Through the mathematical formulation between the pushing geometry and the contact force, we newly find that both the normal direction and the contact distance can be determined by just one time pushing motion, even though a lateral slip between the beam and an object appears during the pushing motion. We further verify the working principle by experiments