An Optimal Design of Epidermal Ridges to the Tactile Sensor for Sensitivity Enhancement during Shear Force Detection

Abstract

Recently many researches have paid attention to the role of the epidermal ridges in tactile sensitivity enhancement. In our previous and current research, we investigated the optimal structure of the ridges for sensitivity enhancement while force detection, especially the shear force detection in this article. We developed a micro-scale tactile sensor mainly by mimicking the structure of human epidermal ridge, and the parameters of proposed tactile sensor were confirmed theoretically and experimentally. By conducting series of FEM simulations and experiments, we confirmed that the proposed tactile sensor is reliable and effective to achieve an enhanced sensitivity when the ridge height is 160 μm, which is 3 times of the results obtained without ridges.