The DLR touch sensor I: A flexible tactile sensor for robotic hands based on a crossed-wire approach

One of the main challenges in service robotics is to equip dexterous robotic hands with sensitive tactile sensors in order to cope with the inherent problems posed by unknown and unstructured environments. As the increasing mechatronic integration of complex robotic hands leaves little additional space for proprioceptive sensors, exteroceptive tactile sensors become more and more important. We present a novel tactile sensor design, based on piezo-resistive soft material and a crossed-wire approach. We present the development of a first prototype and its evaluation in various classification tasks, showing promising results.