Human Tactile Sensing

Abstract

Future robots are expected to work closely and interact safely with real-world objects and humans alike. In this context, the sense of touch is particularly important as it helps estimate properties such as shape, texture, hardness, material type and many more; provides action related information, such as slip detection; and helps carrying out actions such as rolling an object between fingers without dropping it. Inclusion of tactile data in existing sensor based algorithms will improve the cognitive capabilities of robots. Robotic Tactile Sensing, therefore, focuses on robotic tactile sensing systems that gather, and subsequently use, the tactile information in various robotic tasks.A wide specturm of technologies, explored over last four decades or so, have resulted in to many innovative intrinsic and extrinsic touch sensors. The structures such as electronic skin that are flexible, conformable, and stretchable are being increasingly investigated nowadays. Robotic Tactile Sensing presents a comprehensive and up-to-date description of robotic tactile sensing and skin technologies. A detailed description of novel Piezo Oxide Semiconductor Field Effect Transistor (POSFET) based approach for high resolution tactile sensing has been given.Better integration of tactile sensors or sensing arrays, influenced by a number of factors (such as mechanical, electrical, and the application oriented issues), on a robot’s body is prerequisite for the effective utilization of tactile data. Robotic Tactile Sensing, therefore, presents various issues that matter while integrating artificial skin on a robot’s body. In this context, human touch sensing system too has been analyzed and the resulting lessons for robotic tactile sensing systems are presented.With its multidisciplinary scope, Robotic Tactile Sensing is suitable for graduate students and researchers coming from diverse areas such robotics, material science, humans sense of touch, electronics, microsystems, and instrumentation. To better explain the concepts the text is supported by large number of figures. The technological trends and other applications of tactile sensing are presented at the end of the book.