Robots benefit from sensory information to coordinate body movement, gain robustness against perturbations, and transition between different modes to adapt to various terrains. However, few amphibious robots can sense interactions with both terrestrial and aquatic environments. In this paper, we present a solution that uses Hall-effect sensors to sense foot contact forces and lateral hydrodynamic forces on a salamander-inspired amphibious robot. With two bus lines, the robot can simultaneously acquire this exteroceptive information at more than 500 Hz and proprioceptive information, such as joint positions and loads, at 100 Hz. The Hall-effect sensors used are compact, making them suitable for embedding in multiple positions within a robot, and exhibit high sensitivity to small forces. Moreover, because the sensor can be positioned separately from the measured object, waterproofing can be implemented with relative ease. Our tests demonstrate the robot's capabilities in traversing amphibious environments and its potential in using feedback control for more complex locomotion tasks.

翻译：机器人依赖传感信息协调身体运动、增强对抗扰动的鲁棒性，并能在不同模式间切换以适应多种地形。然而，目前能同时感知陆地与水下环境交互的两栖机器人仍较为罕见。本文提出一种解决方案：在仿蝾螈两栖机器人上采用霍尔效应传感器感知足部接触力与侧向流体动力。通过两条总线架构，该机器人能以超过500Hz的频率同步获取外部环境信息，并以100Hz频率获取关节位置、负载等本体感知信息。所采用的霍尔效应传感器体积紧凑，适合嵌入机器人多个部位，且对微小力具有高灵敏度。此外，由于传感器可与被测物体分离安装，防水设计相对易于实现。实验测试表明，该机器人具备穿越两栖环境的能力，并展现出通过反馈控制执行更复杂运动任务的潜力。