The Feel of MEMS Barometers: Inexpensive and Easily Customized Tactile Array Sensors

Abstract

Abstract-This paper presents a new approach to the construction of tactile array sensors based on barometric pressure sensor chips and standard printed circuit boards. The chips include tightly integrated instrumentation amplifiers, analog-todigital converters, pressure and temperature sensors, and control circuitry that provides excellent signal quality over standard digital bus interfaces. The resulting array electronics can be easily encapsulated with soft polymers to provide robust and compliant grasping surfaces for specific hand designs. The use of standard commercial-off-the-shelf technologies means that only basic electrical and mechanical skills are required to build effective tactile sensors for new applications. Performance evaluation of prototype arrays demonstrate excellent linearity (<1% typical) and low noise (<0.01 N). External addressing circuitry allows multiple sensors to communicate on the same bus at over 100 Hz per sensor element. Sensors can be mounted as close as 3x5 mm spacing, and spatial impulse response tests show that solid-mechanics based signal processing is feasible. This approach promises to make sensitive, robust, and inexpensive tactile sensing available for a wide range of robotics and humaninterface applications.

Active Learning of Probabilistic Movement Primitives

“…We tracked the resulting trajectory with a real-time Orocos [35] joint space PD controller operated at 500Hz. Grasps were performed by assuming a canonical preshape and closing the hand until contact was made (as detected by the Takk-Tile [36] pressure sensors on the ReFlex fingers). We then drove the motors a small additional amount to achieve a firm grasp, following the control approach from [37].…”

Novel Haptic Device Using Jamming Principle for Providing Kinaesthetic Feedback in Glove-Based Control Interface

“…A tactile sensor based on Takktile design [30] (with GY-68 chip used instead of MPL115A2) was used to measure pressure exerted by a human's finger on the jamming tube. Identically as in the previous experiment, immediately after the motion of the tube was detected by the laser distance sensor, the jamming procedure was started.…”

Discriminative touch from pressure sensors

“…However, such solutions typically require bespoke manufacturing for each application and are hence expensive. Recently, low-cost touch sensors based on MEMS barometers have become available [8], [9]. These sensors, coupled with an Arduino micro-controller, allow for simple, configurable touch sensing applications through a USB interface, and are ideal for building touch sensing prototypes.…”