Flexible tactile sensors capable of detecting the magnitude and direction of the applied force together are of great interest for application in human-interactive robots, prosthetics, and bionic arms/feet. Human skin contains excellent tactile sensing elements, mechanoreceptors, which detect their assigned tactile stimuli and transduce them into electrical signals. The transduced signals are tr...

This paper presents a method to control the end-effector of a redundant manipulator tracking the surface closely with the assistance of tactile sensing, which is based on the idea of hybrid impedance control method. Not only should the position and force control be implemented, but also the actual contacting between the end-effector and the object’s surface should be monitored and sensed. The f...

Tactile sensors are essential if robots are to safely interact with the external world and to dexterously manipulate objects. Current tactile sensors have limitations restricting their use, notably being too fragile or having limited performance. Magnetic field-based soft tactile sensors offer a potential improvement, being durable, low cost, accurate and high bandwidth, but they are relatively...

This study investigated the effects of fingertip tactile sensitivity on the structural variability of thumb and index finger forces during stable precision grip. Thirty right-handed healthy subjects participated in the experiment. Transient perturbation of tactile afferents was achieved by wrapping up the distal pads of the thumb or index finger with transparent polyethylene films. The time-dep...

This paper presents developments in the technology underlying the cyclotactor, a finger-based tactile I/O device for musical interaction. These include significant improvements both in the basic characteristics of tactile interaction and in the related (vibro)tactile sample rates, latencies, and timing precision. After presenting the new prototype's tactile output force landscape, some of the n...

Tactile receptors in the skin allow humans to sense multimodal tactile information such as the contact force, slippage, shape, position and orientation of a contacted object. Humans easily control their muscles by feeding back information from tactile receptors. Therefore, tactile sensing is a key factor in enabling robots to imitate skilled human behaviors. Precise control and dexterity in rob...

A surface meso-structure measurement and tactile device input vibration signal synthesis techniques are proposed. To measure the surface meso-structure, some photos are taken using a fixed camera with changing lighting incidence direction. A surface normal image is obtained from these photos. Then vibration signal as tactile device input signal is synthesized. Adding friction sound, the tactile...

Problem statement: To advance the robust object recognition of robots, we present an algorithm for object exploration based on three-axis tactile data that is necessary and sufficient for the evaluation of contact phenomena. Approach: The object surface contour is acquired by controlling the finger position so that the normal force, measured by optical three-axis tactile sensors, remains consta...

This article reports a variety of sensory and perceptual consequences of eliminating, via a rigid fingertip sheath, the spatially distributed fingertip force information that is normally available during tactile and haptic sensing. Sensory measures included tactile spatial acuity, tactile force, and vibrotactile thresholds. Suprathreshold tasks included perception of roughness, perception of 2-...