Insects use their antennae (feelers) as near range sensors for orientation, object localization and communication. This paper presents an approach for an active tactile sensor system. This includes a new type of hardware construction as well as a software implementation for interpreting the sensor readings. The discussed tactile sensor is able to detect an obstacle and its location in 3D space....

Problem statement: Sensitization of robot hand is still remaining as crucial issue since most of robot hand systems nowadays are only capable to grasp a predefined specific object. It is still difficult for robot hand system to realize human-like tactile sensation. Some common problems in robot hand system are low accuracy sensing device, sensors are not robust enough for long time work and hea...

A capacitive tactile sensor and a thermal sensor that can be combined into one compact device with both modalities are illustrated. The tactile sensing portion is composed of an 8 8 array of capacitive cells. By using as thermoresistors the rows’ traces of the matrix of the capacitive tactile array sensor thermal sensing is obtained. This allows the detection of the gradient of the temperature....

In this paper, we propose a tactile sensing element that communicates through two dimensional conductive skin layers without individual wires. Each tactile element has sensors and signal processors, and it broadcasts coded tactile signals through a couple of conductive layers. Since the conductive layers can be used for both the electrical power supply and the communication, simply sandwiching ...

For robots to perform advanced manipulation in a world of unknowns, touch is a critical source of information, and a high-quality tactile sensor is essential. However, existing tactile sensors generally are low-resolution and/or non-compliant, making it difficult to capture detailed contact information for manipulation that humans are very good at. GelSight was first developed a few years ago t...

The tactile array sensor is a key component of the multi-sensory integration work at the General Robotics and Active Sensory Perception Laboratory (GRASP Lab) at the University of Pennsylvania. In our work, tactile sensors provide information about the nature of the contact between an actuated tool, such as a robotic gripper, and its physical domain. This information is used for feedback contro...

We study the responses of two tactile sensors, the fingertip sensor from the iCub and the BioTac under different external stimuli. The question of interest is to which degree both sensors i) allow the estimation of force exerted on the sensor and ii) enable the recognition of differing degrees of curvature. Making use of a force controlled linear motor affecting the tactile sensors we acquire s...

In this paper we investigated a novel tactile sensation imaging method using a flexible, transparent waveguide and the total internal reflection principle. The developed sensor is used to detect and identify inclusions within tissues. To test the performance of the proposed sensor, a realistic tissue phantom with hard inclusions (tumor models) is developed. The proposed tactile imaging sensor e...

This paper presents a learning model that enables a robot to acquire body representation for its face which is invisible to itself while the robot touches it. Two processes are simultaneously carried out: self-organization of tactile sensor unit configuration though the visuo-tactile sensations by self-induced motor behaviors, and facial part detection based on the discontinuity of sensor values.

Recently the idea of covering a robot's surface with a ‘skin’ of soft tactile sensors has attracted the attention of researchers, and some human-interactive robots covered with such sensors have actually been made (Tajima et al., 2002; Kanda et al., 2002). However, most conventional tactile sensors need a large number of sensing elements and wires because every detection point needs one sensing...