Abstract
A novel tactile sensor based on electromagnetic induction which can detect slippage in addtion to three-axis force is proposed. This sensor structure is simple, and in essence a displacement gauge, consists of two-dimentional array of inductor and elastic body in which a permanent magnet is inserted. Formulas to transform output voltage of proposed sensor into force vector are derived, and analyses on both deformation of the proposed structure and magnetic field generated by a cylindrical permanent magnet are carried out to extract transformation parameteres. A unit-cell of tactile sensor is prototyped with four chip inductors, silicon gel as a elastic body and a neodymium magnet, and experiments are undertaken with a 6-axis force/torque sensor as a reference. The contributions of inductors to sensor output is observed experimentally in agreement with analytical prediction and the reference sensor. Experimental results show that the proposed tactile sensor is useful for 3-axis force measurement and slip detection.
