A dual axis shear force film sensor for robotic tactile applications

Sensing and delivering tactile information is of interest not only in robotic researches but in most of broad sensor technology areas since along with olfactory it is one of the most difficult sensory information to detect and transfer. Most of the tactile sensors developed are using either brittle ceramic base material or bulky electromagnetic material. Although those tactile sensors provides some advantages like a certain level of accuracy in terms of the applied force measurement and reliable fabrication methods such as MEMS, there is still a significant drawback due to its brittle material characteristics. Especially for biomimetic applications the material flexibility might be the major concern in order to achieve the application objectives. In the present work, a multi-axis force sensor using polymeric material are developed. The sensor has ability to differentiate applied force directions such as normal and tangential and it to be deployed as an massive array so that a set of tactile sensors can be easily organized. Having the material flexibility, the present work successfully demonstrates a tactile sensor array affixed on a human-hand-like robot finger tip.