サーミスタによるポリモーダル型触覚素子の提案

― 温度と変位の同時センシング ―

抄録

A temperature-displacement sensing method whereby a negative temperature coefficient (NTC) thermistor can be applied to design a polymodal tactile device is proposed. A trial sensing device with an NTC thermistor to detect simultaneously temperature and displacement was investigated. The trial sensing device consists of an NTC thermistor that is embedded in a silicone tube filled with water. The capacitance of the thermistor depends on not only temperature but also deformation of surrounding water based on displacement of the silicone tube. We formulated the function of an inverse response function to identify two tactile parameters (temperature and displacement) using two output signals (capacitance and resistance of the thermistor). The experimental results show that it is possible to detect displacement and temperature by obtaining two kinds of signals that respond to both the displacement and temperature.