SUMMARYThis report describes a new touch sensing concept in which active, exploratory touching resembles the manner in which humans use their fingertips. The concept utilizes the vibrations produced during sliding motion of the sensor to provide information for characterizing objects and features. The sensing system consists of a textured compliant artificial “skin”, a transduction element, and means for recognizing items of interest.A relatively simple prototype was fabricated and tested for a range of potentially useful tactile tasks. Results from these experiments demonstrate the promise of the concept. The prototype sensor is shown to be effective at recognizing feature size and shape, patterns of features, feature orientation, feature position, and surface texture.

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