Analog processing electronics in intelligent sensors for advanced robotics

Modern robots need advanced and high-level sensors to recognize the external environment in which they work and provide correct feedback on the electronic drives producing their motion. One of the most important and critical class of sensing element is represented by tactile sensors. In particular piezoelectric tactile sensors for robotics show primary requirements in terms of analog processing features. Charge amplifiers designed for this purpose are examined from the theoretical and experimental point of view evidencing the performance and limits in their application. Balanced charge-amplifier circuits are presented and analyzed in order to overcome the intrinsic disadvantages of the previous version of charge amplifiers. Several considerations from the measurement accuracy and reliability point of view are included