Service robots play an increasingly vital role in society, from transportation and warehouse logistics to home entertainment and security. Regardless of their application, they need to sense changes in their surroundings in real-time to ensure safety while providing a positive user experience. To illustrate how various sensor technologies from TDK’s SmartSensor family can be applied in service robots, this article focuses on a robotic vacuum cleaner (RVC).
Early versions of robotic vacuums had very little intelligence, randomly bumping their way around the home and sometimes missing areas as they did not know where they had been. Often, they would unwittingly become trapped or run out of charge mid-sweep. And, as their dust box is comparatively small to a regular vacuum cleaner, if full, they could be sweeping but not collecting anything up. Over the years, with the innovative use of sensors and motor controllers, vacuum cleaning robots have become much smarter, overcoming these issues.

Service robots are widely used in various situations such as logistics / transport, security, cleaning, housework, hobbies / entertainment and care / assistance. Since service robots are used in a wide variety of situations, it is necessary to fulfil many requirements such as smooth communication with humans (HMI), ensuring safety and responding to changes in the real time. In service robots, the role of a sensor is very important. In this article, we will take a vacuum cleaner robots as an example.

TDK Corporation (TSE: 6762) presents a new range of highly accurate differential pressure sensors (part number B58621V*), designed as printed circuit boards. The sensors are designed for measurement ranges of 16 mbar full-scale (FS), 100 mbar FS and 7 bar FS, with absolute accuracy of up to ±1 percent FS at temperatures from -20 °C to +70 °C.

The high precision of piezoresistive sensors and their ability to measure absolute, gauge and differential pressure allow their versatile use in a wide range of applications.
For industrial equipment and machineries the information provided by the pressure sensors can be used to operate hydraulic or pneumatic equipment in the most effective way but furthermore connect to the new Industry 4.0 standards.
The increasing requirements in automotive for fuel efficiency and reduction of harmful emission demand for long-term stable and highly accurate sensors. Besides the media resistance, some of the application require the pressure sensors to be freeze resistant but most important the sensors need to provide a reliable signal over lifetime.
All applications place increasingly demanding requirements on the distinctive characteristics of the pressure dies and call for specific design features already on the die level. The TDK pressure sensors portfolio has been developed with a strong focus on increased sensitivity and high performance with a smaller die size. In addition, particular attention is paid to specific features for media resistance and easy process ability.

NTC sensor elements are the functional basis for all kinds of temperature measurements in all major applications. TDK develops and manufactures high accuracy temperature sensors with excellent media resistance and long-term stability for the automotive, industrial, home and heating appliances markets. TDK offers standard portfolio epoxy resin and glass-encapsulated elements for temperature ranges up to 300°C, complimented by NTC chip thermistors.

The evolution of sensing technology and communication network contribute to the realization of Autonomous driving society and its growth. In association with full-scale expansion of the "5G service" next-generation wireless communication standard, great attention is being placed on wireless technology intended for "vehicle-to-vehicle and infrastructure-to-vehicle communication" (V2X) to communicate data between automobiles and their surroundings. While the TDK Group can offer a lineup of various electronic components for V2X, this article introduces a selection of IMU (Inertial Measurement Unit) and high-frequency products for Telematics Control Units (TCUs).

Motion- and gesture-based devices from InvenSense are rapidly becoming a key function in many consumer electronic devices, including mobile, wearable, Smart Home, and automotive and industrial devices. Our motion solutions, including gyroscopes, accelerometers, compasses, and pressure sensors, detect and track an object's motion in three-dimensional space, allowing consumers to interact with their electronic devices by tracking motion in free space and delivering these motions as input commands. InvenSense devices across the board have industry leading relative accuracy, sensor throughput, and temperature stability.

TDK Corporation is expanding its portfolio of TMR angle sensors with the TAD2140 type in a TO-6 package for automotive and industrial applications. The new sensor provides an innovative system-in-package solution for PCB-less applications