PUB - Publikationen an der Universität Bielefeld

This paper introduces a novel, fabric-based, flexible, and stretchable tactile sensor, capable of seamlessly covering natural shapes. Humans and most visually appealing robots have curved body parts which limit the practical usage of traditional rigid tactile sensors. Our design allows for several tactile cells to be embedded in a single sensor patch, can have an arbitrary perimeter and can cover freeform surfaces. We discuss the construction of the sensor and evaluate its performance. Our flexible tactile sensor remains operational on top of soft padding such as a gel cushion, making building human-like soft artificial palm and finger sensors possible. The sensor allows force measurements from subtle (<0.1N) up to high forces (>30N), which easily covers the common range for everyday human manual interactions. Due to a layered construction, the sensor is very robust and can withstand normal forces multiple magnitudes higher than what could be achieved by a human without sustaining damage. As an exciting application for the sensor, in the paper we also describe the construction of a wearable tactile dataglove with 54 tactile cells.