PUB - Publikationen an der Universität Bielefeld

We introduce a novel, fabric-based, flexible, and stretchable tactile sensor, capable of seamlessly covering natural shapes. As humans and robots have smoothly curved body parts, which move with respect to each other, the practical usage of traditional rigid tactile sensor arrays is limited. Rather, a flexible tactile skin is required. Our design allows for several tactile cells to be embedded in a single sensor patch, can have an arbitrary perimeter and can cover free-form 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, enabling to build a human-like soft tactile skin. The sensor allows pressure measurements from subtle (<1kPa) up to high pressures (>100kPa), 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, we describe the construction of a wearable tactile dataglove with 54 tactile cells and embedded data acquisition electronics. We discuss the necessary implementation details to sustain long term sensor performance also in the presence of moisture.