A Vibrating String-Type Multifunctional Tactile Sensor for Material Property Analysis

The main objective of this study is to propose a vibrating string-type multifunctional tactile sensor with a simple structure to analyze some properties of an object imitating an animal antenna. It is characterized by a small sensing area and moving measurement method. Three sensing functions are involved in the entire multifunctional sensing, and in each sensing function, a single property of a test object is obtained. By analyzing the output of the sensor, three material properties, that is, hard or soft, smooth or rough, and flat or curved surface can be obtained. Here, we discuss the design guideline for and the structure of the sensor, with deep inquiries into three measuring methods and experimental results.