Abstract: Various tactile sensors and associated methods are enabled. For instance, a sensing apparatus comprises a photosensitive sensor. A compound-eye structure is on the photosensitive sensor and an elastomer layer is on the compound-eye structure. A reflective layer is on the elastomer layer, opposite the compound-eye structure and a light source emits light between the reflective layer and the compound-eye structure.

Abstract: Modeling, constructing, and designing conformal cellular structures with spatially variable and graded microstructures that have full geometric continuity is disclosed, which includes defining a global structural domain, where the microstructures are generated for a global mesh, defining a unit structure as a base cell using a level set function, which allows for beams, trusses, shells, and solids, transforming and mapping the base cell into each element of the global mesh using an isoparametric transformation, which creates a conformal cellular structure in accordance with a set of requirements on distribution of material and/or mechanical properties, and applying a global cutting function to guarantee geometric continuity in connections on the common face of any two neighboring cells of the structure. As a result, more complex geometric shapes and features can be generated at the cell level, while maintaining the specified geometric connectivity across the cells of the structure.

Abstract: Techniques for designing and optimization of solid/cellular structures are described using a modeling process referred to as high-definition cellular level set in B-splines (HD-CLIBS). With this process, the entire design domain for the solid/cellular structure in question is subdivided into a set of connected volumetric cells in three dimensions. An implicit trivariate B-spline function is defined on each subdomain cell. With this parameterization scheme, constraints can be imposed on the relevant B-spline coefficients to naturally maintain geometric continuities at the connection faces between neighboring cells. The method offers several useful properties and powerful functionalities to build and modify a solid/cellular structure in the modeling process and to conduct topology optimization by directly adjusting the B-spline coefficients. The model construction can be carried out using a fast B-spline interpolation, and the topology optimization can involve a sequence of discrete B-spline convolutions.

Abstract: Various tactile sensors and associated methods are enabled. For instance, a sensing apparatus comprises a photosensitive sensor. A compound-eye structure is on the photosensitive sensor and an elastomer layer is on the compound-eye structure. A reflective layer is on the elastomer layer, opposite the compound-eye structure and a light source emits light between the reflective layer and the compound-eye structure.

Abstract: Modeling, constructing, and designing conformal cellular structures with spatially variable and graded microstructures that have full geometric continuity is disclosed, which includes defining a global structural domain, where the microstructures are generated for a global mesh, defining a unit structure as a base cell using a level set function, which allows for beams, trusses, shells, and solids, transforming and mapping the base cell into each element of the global mesh using an isoparametric transformation, which creates a conformal cellular structure in accordance with a set of requirements on distribution of material and/or mechanical properties, and applying a global cutting function to guarantee geometric continuity in connections on the common face of any two neighboring cells of the structure. As a result, more complex geometric shapes and features can be generated at the cell level, while maintaining the specified geometric connectivity across the cells of the structure.

Abstract: Techniques for designing and optimization of solid/cellular structures are described using a modeling process referred to as high-definition cellular level set in B-splines (HD-CUBS). With this process, the entire design domain for the solid/cellular structure in question is subdivided into a set of connected volumetric cells in three dimensions. An implicit trivariate B-spline function is defined on each subdomain cell. With this parameterization scheme, constraints can be imposed on the relevant B-spline coefficients to naturally maintain geometric continuities at the connection faces between neighboring cells. The method offers several useful properties and powerful functionalities to build and modify a solid/cellular structure in the modeling process and to conduct topology optimization by directly adjusting the B-spline coefficients. The model construction can be carried out using a fast B-spline interpolation, and the topology optimization can involve a sequence of discrete B-spline convolutions.