A flexible tactile sensing array based on novel capacitance mechanism

In this work, we present the development of a reliable capacitive tactile sensing array by using simple fabrication processes. The sensing array, which consists of a micromachined PDMS structure and a flexible printed circuit board with sensing electrodes, will be mainly used as the artificial skin for robot applications. The proposed design can effectively reduce the complexity of the capacitor structure of each sensing element without compromise in sensitivity. The electrical properties of different size of tactile sensing elements are measured. The corresponding scanning circuit is also implemented. The tactile images induced by the PMMA stamps of different shapes have been successfully captured.