A tactile sensor based on a suspension-shell mechanism for dexterous fingers

The design and experimental results for a suspension-shell tactile sensor are described. The sensor uses a suspension-shell mechanism to make the entire surroundings of a finger-body sensitive. The sensor detects the magnitude and the point of application of an external force operating on the shell by measuring the relative displacement of the suspension shell with regard to the finger-body. However, the force distribution is not provided since the sensor has no arrays, and the sensor records the actual force distributed over the surface area of the sensor shell as an integrated force at a single point of action. Sensing at the fingertip is excluded since the prototype sensor is designed for detecting lateral force rather than coaxial force for the first step. The sensor´s basic characteristics and how it works in practice are shown