An Experimental Optical Three-axis Tactile Sensor Featured with Hemispherical Surface

An Experimental Optical Three-axis Tactile Sensor for Micro-Robots

This paper describes a micro-optical three-axis tactile sensor capable of sensing not only normal force, but also shearing force. The normal force was detected from the integrated gray-scale values of bright pixels emitted from the contact area of conical feelers. The conical feelers were formed on a rubber sheet surface that maintains contact with an optical waveguide plate. The shearing force...

Three-axis Tactile Sensor

Optical Three-axis Tactile Sensor for Robotic Fingers

Tactile sensors capable of sensing normal and shearing force produced on a robotic finger and an object are useful for fitting a dextrose hand that can be applied to tasks that require human-like handling. Examples include such manufacturing tasks as assembly, disassembly, inspection, and materials handing. Especially in the case of humanoid robots, grasping slippery or flexible objects is requ...

Development of Finger-Shaped Tactile Sensor Using Hemispherical Optical Waveguide

A finger-shaped tactile sensor that uses an optical waveguide to detect the contact location and the surface normal of the contacted object has been developed. The hemispherical optical waveguide is covered with an elastic cover, and LEDs are installed for the light source on the edge of the waveguide. A fiber optics plate (FOP), consisting of high-density bundled optical fibers and a position ...

Sensing characteristics of an optical three-axis tactile sensor under combined loading

This paper describes precision enhancement of an optical three-axis tactile sensor capable of detecting both normal force and tangential force. The sensor’s single cell consists of a columnar feeler and 2-by-2 conical feelers. We have derived equations to precisely estimate the three-axis force from the area-sum and area-difference of the conical feelers’ contact areas by taking into account wr...