Unobtrusive tactile sensing based on electromechanical boundary estimation

Unobtrusive tactile sensing is an important yet challenging topic for medical and robotic fields. We proposed a novel tactile sensing technology for obtaining the force of an interaction and the position at which it makes contact with an object of arbitrary shape without any mechanical obstructions. The proposed sensing method is based on electromechanical boundary estimation from the potential distribution, which is related to the contact state of the two objects with a potential applied. To evaluate the sensing method, we investigated the error of positional estimation and the relationship between force and sensor output. The experimental results indicated that the contact position can be estimated with a correctable systematic error several mm.We also confirmed a high correlation between the interacting force and the system output.