Resistance-based self-sensing system of active self-melting bolt towards autonomous healing structure

Bio-inspired self-healing and self-sensing capability makes current robots more fault tolerant. On the other hand, conventional self-healing components lack self-sensing capability of their fault states and progress of healing due to system complexity. For achieving this challenge, we devised active self-melting bolt with self-sensing system of its fracture and temperature. The system utilizes electric resistance values of the bolt module itself for minimizing additional components and wiring. The system is composed of two subsystems: fracture detecting system and strength feedback system. We describe its principle and manufacturing process for the proposed system. Its feasibility was partially validated by preliminary tensile test using motor-driven tendon unit previously developed by our research group.