An Imaging Tactile Sensor With Magnetostrictive Transduction

The objective of this paper is to describe a novel development for an imaging tactile sensing system. At the heart of this sensor is a magnetostrictive transductor using amorphous ferromagnetic material VITROVAC4040. The principle of the sensor, the construction, performance and its prospective applications are described. An imaging tactile sensor with hundreds of force sensors fits into a space the size of a fingertip. Each magnetoelastic force sensor is constructed as a transformer-pressductor type. The sensor yields an array of 256 individual data points with a center-to-center distance of 2.5 mm. A flat elastmetric contact surface is mounted over the sensing array to protect the sites from contamination. The magnetoelastic material is potentially good for force feedback and tactile imaging sensors because of its outstanding sensitivity, wide dynamic range, good linearity, low hysteresis and low temperature error. The sensor has been successfully tested using two objects to be recognized, and the results have been illustrated.