Multi-functional Sensing Approach for Material Discriminating and Property Analyzing

Abstract

The aim of this study is to propose a multi-functional tactile sensor with a simple structure to imitate the human hand. It is characterized by the small sensing area and the moving measurement method. A step-by-step method is used to realize the multi-functional sensing and in each step, different material characteristics are sensed. By analyzing the output of the sensor, three material properties, i.e., metal or non-metal, hard or soft, and curved or plane surface, and the environment temperature can be obtained. A detailed analysis of the step-by-step method to the sensor is made.