Design and simulation of a tactile sensor for soft-tissue compliance detection

Abstract

A detailed design procedure for a tactile sensor for compliance detection is developed. The sensor principle is based on the concept of applying two springs, with considerably different stiffnesses, to soft tissue for compliance detection. The spring stiffnesses are chosen to be associated with the soft tissue properties. The sensor design parameters are optimized to give high sensitivity and linearity of the sensor output with taking into account the effect of crosstalk between two springs due to the tissue deformation. A finite element model is developed to investigate the sensor performance with the designed parameters using two types of spring end, namely cubic and spherical in shape. The results show a significant stability of reading with the cubic end rather than the spherical one during pushing the sensor against a tissue. Finally, the same finite element model is used with changing the distance between the spring ends to show the crosstalk effect due to the tissue deformation. © 2008 The Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan.