Capacitive Proximity Sensor - General Discussion

RE: Capacitive Proximity Sensor

Rakesh — Mon, 21 Jul 2025 19:35:17 +0000

Hello, I am currently working on a problem which is to detect human collision with a robotic arm. The sensor you made is helpful to solve it. May I know which tutorial you followed to make this sensor? What are the problems you are facing while using it?

RE: Capacitive Proximity Sensor

Chris Annin — Mon, 21 Jul 2025 19:34:01 +0000

This is awesome, thanks for sharing.

RE: Capacitive Proximity Sensor

Kstan Simit — Mon, 21 Jul 2025 19:33:44 +0000

oh, this post is useful. I watch your youtube video before come to forum. I'd got my answer. Well done and thanks sharing Dexter!

Capacitive Proximity Sensor

Dexter Ong — Mon, 21 Jul 2025 19:32:06 +0000

Thought I'd share one of my recent experiments - a capacitive proximity sensor built into the arm. I've been wanting to try this out for a while and it works pretty well as a proof-of-concept. There have been small projects on proximity sensing here and there but I haven't seen it actually used in an arm. It makes for a simple and cheap alternative to actual torque or force sensing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YmMPwBerU8E

https://anninrobotics.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/Capacitive-Proximity-Sensor.avif

The concept itself is pretty simple and can be easily implemented with https://playground.arduino.cc/Main/CapacitiveSensor/. For the capacitive plate, I used alternating layers of copper tape and aluminium foil, about 3 to 4 layers of each, along with a 40MOhm resistor.

Unfortunately, I wasn't to get much working beyond this due to the EMI from the motor cables (this is with only J1 powered). I'm not really up for re-wiring the arm so I'm putting this idea aside for now. Still, I think it's a really cool concept. If anyone else gets to properly shielding their wiring and takes this further, I'll be interested to see the results!

Cheers,

Dexter