ACTIVE TACTILE SENSING USING A TWO-FINGER SYSTEM

Abstract

This paper is concerned with the active tactile sensing using an artificial two-finger system together with the evaluation of human tactile sensation using the system. First, the samples such as newspaper, superfine paper, tracing paper, paper towel and toilet paper are pinched and/or stroked by the thumb and the forefinger of the volunteers, and their feelings of softness and roughness are obtained and classified with the use of the questionnaire. Next, the same samples are pressed and slid by the PVDF tactile sensor mounted on an artificial robotic two-finger system and the output signals from the sensor are collected and stored. Features on the collected data are then extracted by introducing the wavelet analysis and calculating the variance. They are compared with the evaluation of human fingers. Results of comparison show that the active tactile sensing using the artificial finger system well evaluates and describes the human tactile sensation.