Smart Glove: A Novel Robotic-Assisted Active Sensing Method for Detection of Cup-Lock Joint Looseness in Scaffolding

Regarding the inevitable self-destruction of the Earth, we may expect the potential of the Moon to work as an alternative for future survival. To achieve life on the Moon, we first need to establish permeant residence bases. While severe plans have attempted to construct infrastructure on the Moon, a severe problem that we face is how to accurately detect and ensure the integrity of the temporary structural connections (e.g., scaffolds), whose failures can induce terrible catastrophe that lead to severe impairment. Current structural health monitoring (SHM) methods for scaffolds on the Earth depend on constant sensor-deployment, which requires a continuous power supply and good durability, and thus they may be impractical in terms of harsh environments on the Moon. Therefore, in this paper, we attempt to propose a novel robotic-assisted active sensing method to detect the integrity of the cup-lock joint of scaffolding. Particularly, a pair of PZT-enabled smart gloves (SGs) is designed and worn on a robotic manipulator that can grasp the scaffolding, and integrity can be judged by analyzing signals via our new proposed damage index (DI) based on entropy. Compared to current SHM methods, the proposed method can avoid constant interaction between structures and transducers, thus improving maneuverability and survivability. Moreover, the proposed entropy-based DI can mitigate the saturation problem of current DI (i.e., signal energy) of active sensing method effectively, which dramatically enhances the practicability in future applications.