Development of a Biomimetic Vibrotactile Sensor for Dynamic Deformation With an Array of Polymer Structures

Abstract

Humans can discriminate surface roughness using fingertip’s touch. It is believed that surface roughness is perceived by static and dynamic deformation of human skin. Recent findings have shown that subcutaneous slowly adapting mechanoreceptor (SA) detect static deformation of finger skin. However, there are difficulties to infinitely increase density of SA in limited skin space. [1] So, we focused on dynamic deformation is related with rapidly adapting mechanoreceptor (RA). In the process of scanning surface of objects with fingertips, RA detects vibrations induced by skin deformation. In this study, we suggest that sensors mimicking roles of RA can detect surface roughness. We used a polymer having similar characteristics of skin surface that transduce physical vibrations into electrical signal. And an array of polymer structures discriminates surface roughness. In other researches, they were tried to use one mechanoreceptor to acquire total range of vibrations. From the point of view which RAs have different vibration sensing ranges, we divided range of vibration through polymer structures and analyzed frequency element.