Omnidirectional vision-based tactile sensor implementable in the middle of a link mechanism

We propose an omnidirectional vision-based tactile sensor for supporting multipoint contact interface in the link mechanism. The developed sensor can be implemented in the middle of the link mechanism, and measures four-axis forces and slippage in multipoint contact setting of robot manipulators. New normal force measurement method based on the contact surface and new normalization method of displacements of the dots that are printed on the touchpad are presented. Through the experiments, we show the proposed sensor and measurement method can be successfully applicable to the mechanism with multipoint contact interface.