Manual oropharyngeal (OP) swab sampling is an intensive and risky task. In this article, a novel OP swab sampling device of low cost and high compliance is designed by combining the visuo-tactile sensor and the pneumatic actuator-based gripper. Here, a concave visuo-tactile sensor called CoTac is first proposed to address the problems of high cost and poor reliability of traditional multi-axis force sensors. Besides, by imitating the doctor's fingers, a soft pneumatic actuator with a rigid skeleton structure is designed, which is demonstrated to be reliable and safe via finite element modeling and experiments. Furthermore, we propose a sampling method that adopts a compliant control algorithm based on the adaptive virtual force to enhance the safety and compliance of the swab sampling process. The effectiveness of the device has been verified through sampling experiments as well as in vivo tests, indicating great application potential. The cost of the device is around 30 US dollars and the total weight of the functional part is less than 0.1 kg, allowing the device to be rapidly deployed on various robotic arms. Videos, hardware, and source code are available at: https://sites.google.com/view/swab-sampling/.

翻译：手动口咽拭子采样是一项高强度且高风险的任务。本文通过结合视觉触觉传感器与基于气动执行器的夹爪，设计了一种低成本、高柔性的新型口咽拭子采样装置。首先，针对传统多轴力传感器成本高、可靠性差的问题，提出了一种名为CoTac的凹面视觉触觉传感器。其次，通过模仿医生手指结构，设计了带有刚性骨架的软体气动执行器，并通过有限元建模与实验验证了其可靠性与安全性。此外，提出了一种基于自适应虚拟力柔顺控制算法的采样方法，以增强拭子采样过程的安全性与顺应性。通过采样实验及体内测试验证了该装置的有效性，显示出良好的应用潜力。该装置成本约为30美元，功能部分总重量不足0.1千克，可快速部署于各类机械臂上。相关视频、硬件及源代码详见：https://sites.google.com/view/swab-sampling/