Universal Dense Tactile Sheet with Distributed, Wire-Saving, Independently-Readable Ultra-small Sensor Cells

Abstract

This paper proposes the Universal Dense Tactile Sheet. It is a distributed tactile sensor sheet which is wire-saving, multi-contact detectable, and dense enough to be applied to robot fingers universally. This sheet was achieved by densifying the conventional universal tactile sheet which is a flexible printed circuit able to be bent and cut according to each installation surface. The densification was accomplished by introducing the concepts of cutting between sensor cells and assembling PCB on the basis of each way of sheet installation. We confirmed the proposed sheet can be installed on two different real robot fingers without compromising its sensing functionality.