Tactile sensor with 3-axis force and vibration sensing functions and its application to detect rotational slip

This paper concerns a new tactile sensor with both 3-axis force sensing and slip sensing functions. The first three axis force sensing is achieved with tactile heads, each of which is supported by three pressure sensing elements. The pressure sensing function is achieved with arrays of pressure transducers that measure a change in the contact resistance between a specially treated polyimide film and a resistive substrate. The slip sensing function is achieved through the use of a stress-rate sensor that responds to small-scale variations in a surface profile with roughness. Static and dynamic analyses of the new tactile sensor were made and compared with experimental results. Further experiments were conducted with an algorithm to detect rotational slip