Robotic Tactile Sensor Array Fabricated from a Piezoelectric Pol Yvinylidene Fluoride Film

A robotic tactile sensor comprised of 25 discrete sensor electrodes arranged in a 5x5 grid was designed and fabricated from a piezoelectric polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) film coupled to an integrated circuit (IC). Each of the 25 sensing electrodes in the IC grid were connected to metal-oxidesemiconductor field effect transistor (MOSFET) amplifiers which provided sufficient gain to generate usable response signal levels. Sensors fabricated from varying thicknesses of PVDF film were evaluated. The sensor based on the 25 Jlm thick PVDF film was considered to be the optimal sensor configuration based on its bias-time performance and its linear response over the loading range tested (0.8 to 76 grams). There was no detectable coupling between the nearest-neighbor sensing elements in any of the sensor configurations. As a final demonstration, the optimal sensor configuration was used to recognize a toroidal-shaped load.