The design, construction, and performance of a tactile sensor and a thermal sensor that can be combine into one compact device with both modalities is discussed. The tactile sensing portion is composed of an 8 x 8 array of force sensing cells with 1.8 mm center to center spacing. Heat transduction is measured by a 4 X 4 array of temperature sensors. A number of these devices will be mounted on ...

We describe a new tactile sensor for use in dexterous manipulation and telemanipulation. The sensor consists of an array of curvature-measuring elements embedded in a compliant membrane. The resulting sensor is inexpensive and robust, and can be used in robotic hands with soft fingertips for object handling and exploration. The curvature measurements provide information for manipulation plannin...

We propose a new approach for converting graphical and pictorial information into tactile patterns that can be displayed in a static or dynamic tactile device. The key components of the proposed approach are (1) an algorithm that segments a scene into perceptually uniform segments; (2) a procedure for generating perceptually distinct tactile patterns; and (3) a mapping of the visual textures of...

Slime mould P. polycephalum is a single cells visible by unaided eye. The cells shows a wide spectrum of intelligent behaviour. By interpreting the behaviour in terms of computation one can make a slime mould based computing device. The Physarum computers are capable to solve a range of tasks of computational geometry, optimisation and logic. Physarum computers designed so far lack of localised...

We have developed a finger-shaped sensor array (BioTac ) that provides simultaneous information about contact forces, microvibrations and thermal fluxes, mimicking the full cutaneous sensory capabilities of the human finger. For many tasks, such as identifying objects or maintaining stable grasp, these sensory modalities are synergistic. For example, information about the material composition o...

The performance of robotic and prosthetic hands in unstructured environments is severely limited by their having little or no tactile information compared to the rich tactile feedback of the human hand. We are developing a novel, robust tactile sensor array that mimics the mechanical properties and distributed touch receptors of the human fingertip. It consists of a rigid core surrounded by a w...

An active sensing method for multisensor fusion systems with actuators is proposed. To realize active sensing with multiple sensors, i) where to position sensors, ii) how to associate data, and iii) how to fuse data should be determined. The authors propose a new method mainly concerning i). The method utilizes estimated errors of estimated values to determine optimal sensor locations where use...

The design, fabrication and testing of a 5 5 micromachined tactile sensor array for the detection of an extremely small force (micrometer-Newton range) has been discussed. An anisotropic etching of silicon substrate of a MUMPs process chip forms a central contacting pads that are trampoline-shape suspended structures and sensor beams. A piezoresistive layer of polysilicon embedded in sensor bea...

In this extended abstract we introduce a novel fabric-based, flexible, and stretchable tactile sensor, capable of seamlessly covering natural shapes. Our developed sensor can have an arbitrary perimeter, can cover freeform surfaces and remains operational on top of soft padding such as a gel cushion, which is a prerequisite for building human-like, soft artificial palm and finger sensors. We di...

Service robots operating in unconstrained environments like our homes need to be able to grasp and manipulate all kinds of objects, even if they are not known in advance. While many common approaches for grasping rely on detailed geometric models of the objects to perform a grasp optimization process in simulated scenes, we propose a model-free approach which relies on tactile feedback and coar...