A modular expandable tactile sensor using flexible polymer

In this paper, we have proposed and demonstrated a modular expandable tactile sensor using PDMS elastomer. A sensor module consists of 16 × 16 tactile cells with 1 mm spatial resolution, similar to that of human skin, and interconnection lines for expandability. Tactile response of a cell has been measured with a force gauge. Initial capacitance of each cell is about 180 fF. The fabricated cell shows a sensitivity of 3%/mN within the full scale range of 40 mN (250 kPa). Four tactile modules have been successfully attached by using ACP to demonstrate expandability. Various tactile images have been successfully captured by one sensor module as well as the expanded 32 × 32 modular array sensors.