Rubber artificial skin layer with flexible structure for shape estimation of micro-undulation surfaces

Abstract

In this paper, we propose a wearable tactile sensor for measuring the shape of micro-undulations on a hard surface. The proposed sensor has two layers. The inner one is a thin rubber layer into which a strain gauge is embedded that is formed around a user's finger. The outer layer is a flexible structure that consists of numerous pins on a flexible sheet. The shape of micro-undulations on an object surface can be measured when a user wearing the sensor traces the surface. The results of an experiment, in which we compare the cases with and without the flexible structure of the sensor, show that our proposed sensor is sufficiently accurate to measure the shape of micro-undulations due to its flexible structure, which contributes significantly to improving its signal-to-noise ratio. Publisher's NoteSpringer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Lever Mechanism for Diaphragm-Type Vibrators to Enhance Vibrotactile Intensity

“…The mechanism is applied to developing tactile sensors, where strains on tips of the cylinders of the tactile contact lenses are measured using a strain gauge and camera [33]- [35]. For example, Ando et al installed a strain gauge between a fingertip and tips of the cylinders of a tactile contact lens to measure the strain generated on the skin during active exploration on a surface [33], [34]. They also investigated the effect of the length of cylinders on amplifications when sliding a bump whose height and width were 100 µm and 160 mm, respectively [33].…”

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“…Furthermore, a method based on spray coating conductive substances can be easily applied to objects with complex shapes for forming a touch-sensitive surface [6,7,24]. Moreover, wearable sensors, such as [25,26], are a potential approach to detect a touch on objects without sensory instruments.…”