A robust, sensitive and economical tactile sensor for a robotic manipulator

This paper presents the progress of a project to create a robotic gripper specialised to gather haptic information. The lack of suitable ready made tactile sensors has meant that the initial stages of the project have concentrated on developing a sensitive, robust and economical tactile sensory skin. This sensor array utilizes the properties of optical dispersion and mechanical compliance of urethane foam in conjunction with an array of optical transmitters and detectors. The complete array forms a compact tactile sensory skin. Results are presented showing the output generated by the sensor array for different object shapes as well as sensitivity and linearity plots.. A proposed gripper design for use with the tactile sensor array is also presented.