1995 Volume 13 Issue 4 Pages 539-544
This paper concerns a new tactile sensor with both 3-axis force sensing and slip vibration sensing functions. The first three axis force sensing is achieved with tactile heads, each of which transmits the 3-axis contact force and is supported by three pressure transducers. The pressure transducer measures a change in the contact resistance between a specially treated polyimide film and a resistive substrate. The slip sensing function is achieved through the use of a stress-rate sensor that responds to smallscale variations in a surface profile with roughness. Detecting circuits for each of the transduction method were shown with their input stress (rate) -output voltage formulae. Static analysis of the 3-axis force sensing was made and compared with the experimental results. We show an index which gives the curvature of slip direction and enables the sensor for distinguishing rotational slip of an object on the sensor from translational slip. Further experiments were conducted to show the applicability of the index.
